Chapter 455: Old Friends as Before

Li Dongling didn't stay in Hong Kong for a short time. By the time he returned to Hanxi, it was already the end of the year. Passing through towns on the way from the provincial capital to Pingyang, everything he saw was decorated with lanterns and colored streamers.

On the second day after Li Dongling returned, a heavy snow fell in Hanxi, but Dongling High-Tech was full of heat. Today was the day Dongling High-Tech held its annual meeting. After today, except for some R&D projects in the technical department that needed overtime due to R&D time issues and required rotation after the New Year,

the rest of the departments, as well as departments like Feiyan Technology, Dongxin Semiconductor, Oriental Optoelectronics, and Shenzhou Storage under Dongling High-Tech, including companies closely related to Dongling High-Tech like Torch Group, Focus Media, and Oriental Express, would also start their holidays today.

The entire Pingyang was covered in a layer of silver, but early in the morning, road administration personnel began to clear the heavy snow. Famous retail malls in Pingyang now, such as Pingyang Department Store and Yellow River Clothing Wholesale Market, had long queues in front of their doors early in the morning.

By this year, if the Oriental Times Mall could be completed and renovated and start operations, then it is estimated that the retail situation in the entire Pingyang, and even Hanxi, would be even more explosive.

In the few days approaching the New Year, shopping malls across the country were basically crowded with people, but this scene was especially true in Pingyang, because Pingyang now had sufficient employment positions and guaranteed salaries. With money, it naturally gave birth to Pingyang's consumer market, and Pingyang's purchasing power was even stronger than that of the provincial capital!

This year, with the continuous expansion of the Dongling High-Tech Industrial Park, the recruitment of Feiyan Technology, the start of the Torch Group, the recruitment of sales and customer service personnel for Focus Media, and the logistics and courier personnel for Oriental Express,

including projects like the Pingyang Freight Airport, Pingyang Animal Park, Pingyang town roads, Hanxi Software Park, and New Oriental Pingyang Campus that were in full swing, the job demand in the entire Pingyang was pushed to the extreme!

Now in Pingyang, it was no longer a question of whether you could find work, but that there simply weren't enough people. So much so that now in Pingyang Department Store and shops on the street, you could see recruitment notices every few steps.

If you went to the area dominated by the Dongling High-Tech Industrial Park, even though it was about to be the New Year, there were companies setting up recruitment stalls in the cold weather. A considerable portion of these stalls were set up by Dongling High-Tech industrial chain parts companies that had settled in Pingyang, and they also needed manpower.

Especially fearing a shortage of manpower after the New Year, as long as you signed up, you could go to work directly after the New Year. If you were willing to sign a contract in advance, you could even get some small gifts. It shows how much they were lacking manpower.

The truth was, just as the various companies in the Dongling Gao Ke industrial chain were preparing for the New Year holiday, they received an announcement from the Dongling Gao Ke logistics department, requiring all companies in the industrial chain to reserve sufficient production capacity for next year!

The Dongling High-Tech parts industrial chain companies were too familiar with this rhetoric. It was obvious that Dongling High-Tech might launch new products after the New Year!

This made all kinds of parts manufacturers both happy and worried. Happy that they probably wouldn't lack orders next year, and worried that orders might be "exploded" again. At that time, they might not be able to satisfy Dongling High-Tech's orders at all and could only expand manpower as much as possible.

Now, it wasn't just people from Hanxi province and surrounding provinces running to Pingyang to work, even people from areas outside the Shanhai Pass had run over to look for work.

"Supervisor Song!"

"Engineer Song!"

Like previous years, this year's Dongling High-Tech annual meeting could also bring family members. Song Yajun also brought his wife and children to the auditorium of the Dongling High-Tech Industrial Park where the annual meeting was held.

Song Yajun greeted people he was familiar with. Seeing that the scale of this year's annual meeting in the auditorium was more than double that of last year, the entire auditorium was even packed, which shows how much Dongling High-Tech's scale had expanded last year.

Song Yajun found the table for the production department. Tao Zhiliang, who was also in the production department, also brought his wife Zhu Jing and two children here.

"Old Tao, your daughter should be going to university next year, right? Which university is she preparing to go to?"

After sitting down, Song Yajun began to talk with Tao Zhiliang. His wife also started chatting about family matters with the wives of other production department supervisors of Dongling High-Tech, such as Zhu Jing.

In this kind of occasion, the most common topic is children. Tao Zhiliang boasted the most about his "little cotton-padded jacket" in front of Song Yajun and the others. As for the "dog son" who was fiddling with his mobile phone and waiting for a meal, he was ignored by Tao Zhiliang.

"Pingyang University?"

Hearing Tao Zhiliang's words, Song Yajun was also surprised. Most of the supervisors of Dongling High-Tech he talked to about children wanted them to get into Hanxi University and be alumni with Li Dongling. It was rare to hear someone say they were going to Pingyang University directly.

"The child is grown up, has her own ideas, can't force it, let nature take its course!"

Tao Zhiliang had the air of "a daughter grown up is not one's own." His "little cotton-padded jacket" on the side rolled her eyes. That day, she had talked to Tao Zhiliang and his wife and told them the reason she chose Pingyang University—betting that Pingyang University would have greater employment and postgraduate opportunities in the future. Both of them had agreed, but now Old Tao was saying one thing while meaning another.

Song Yajun looked at the Tao family. He felt there seemed to be something tricky here. He knew how much Tao Zhiliang had suffered for his family, but he didn't see him being discouraged about his daughter's university.

Not getting involved in these, Song Yajun brought up another matter and said to Tao Zhiliang, "Old Tao, I heard that the company plans to implement a new production management next year, implementing modern electronic information management for production, sales, and cooperation with suppliers."

"Yeah," Tao Zhiliang was also slightly worried. "I also heard that supervisor positions will have to undergo assessments and upgrades in the future. I don't know what will happen!"

Computerized offices and the emergence of the Internet actually changed companies first, slowly changing the original production and sales models.

Dongling High-Tech would also start implementing electronic management after the New Year, gradually connecting production, sales, inventory, industrial chain suppliers, and retailers to minimize costs and improve efficiency with maximum efficiency.

This aspect in the country was just starting, but Dongling High-Tech's opponents were not just domestic opponents, but also a group of overseas giants.

Those overseas giant companies were constantly improving production capacity, quality, and efficiency, transforming inventory rates, constantly improving their control over supply chains and sales channels, and desperately reducing costs to improve product competitiveness.

Originally, Dongling High-Tech's brand influence and foundation couldn't compare to those overseas giants. If the products didn't have advantages, they would almost be completely defeated.

In his past life, the unknown Shein company in the country was killing it overseas, with a valuation once exceeding 90 billion USD, second only to the unlisted ByteDance, Musk's SpaceX, and OpenAI, becoming the fourth-largest unlisted company with the highest valuation in the world.

The reason Shein could defeat a group of fast-fashion clothing brands like Zara, Uniqlo, and Amazon overseas was because of its super-strong supply chain control.

Unlike traditional clothing that requires designers to guide trends, Shein first finds designers to design based on user big data feedback, then places orders with production factories. The samples come out the next day, and then they are handed over to Shein for production. The whole process only takes seven days...

Although the designers and suppliers of Shein were miserable, this model was a digitized supply chain system that Shein spent a lot of money to transform. Every day, Shein and its suppliers could see various data through a big screen.

Launching a new product every seven days, then putting 100 pieces on the platform, and then making additional orders or cutting the project based on sales volume and user evaluation, repeating the cycle, constantly creating fast-fashion "explosive" products.

This model of course puts huge pressure on designers and suppliers. And Shein, which is both praised and criticized, has its main battlefield overseas, which is using the money of overseas users to place orders with 5,400 supply chain companies in the country, with an annual revenue of 45 billion USD. Right or wrong, only time can prove it.

Dongling High-Tech's control over the supply chain doesn't seek to reach the harsh level of Shein in his past life, but it must definitely be improved. Sales and production departments cannot be completely unaware of each other, and the control over parts suppliers must definitely be improved, at least to the level of Nokia, Apple, and Dell!

The annual meeting was about to begin, and dishes began to be served to the tables. Dongling High-Tech's annual meeting was still the same as the first one—not letting people sit and drink the northwest wind, then listening to people on stage blabbering. They were all sitting at tables with their family members, eating a big meal.

Of course, a few years ago, the roast lamb, roast chicken, and braised pork elbows eaten at Dongling High-Tech's annual meeting were definitely big meals for those attending. But now, the salaries of Dongling High-Tech staff had started to increase, especially for the salaries of supervisors like Song Yajun and Tao Zhiliang, eating meat was not a problem at all.

"So, Digital Port wants to acquire the controlling stake of Hong Kong Telecom, and it will cost a huge sum, right?"

Inside the auditorium, Li Dongling also sat with a group of Dongling High-Tech executives such as Ren Yuefeng, Hu Zixian, Chen Tao, Zhang Ao, and Gao Peng.

After listening to Li Dongling's movements in Hong Kong, Hu Zixian asked Li Dongling with a headache.

Although through Li Dongling's operation, Digital Port company had no direct connection with Dongling High-Tech, to say that there was no connection at all between the two sides—if this was blabbered out, no one would believe it.

"The Beijing Posts and Telecommunications department, the Telecommunications company, and the BOC Hong Kong company will all help Digital Port. After acquiring Hong Kong Telecom, Hong Kong will become Dongling High-Tech's bridgehead overseas!" Li Dongling said.

Ren Yuefeng, Hu Zixian, and others looked at each other. They also knew that Li Dongling had already made up his mind about this matter, and there was no turning back. At this time, saying anything more was useless. They could only help Li Dongling continue to carry out this order.

"Everyone has worked hard during this time!" Li Dongling laughed. "How is Dongling High-Tech?" ===== CHAPTER 456 =====