The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Three years after the onset of the illness, the consumer market remained sluggish.

The reason seems to be due to the illness, but the main reason is the major impact of the real estate market.

The real estate economy has too much capital tied up, and once houses can no longer be quickly converted into cash, they naturally become just steel and concrete.

As a result of this series of effects, a large number of former middle-class people have to tighten their belts to make ends meet.

In the post-real estate era, in addition to developing the technology industry to upgrade industry and participate in global high-end market competition,

The most important thing is to increase the income of ordinary people. Only when their incomes rise and they have money to spend can the economy circulate normally.

Since retiring, Chen Pingsheng has been dedicated to developing grassroots service industries, attempting to extend better benefits and compensation to these sectors.

But in reality, it's incredibly difficult.

Take the hairdressing industry as an example. If he wants to increase the average wage in that industry, the prerequisite is to raise the fees.

Only when fees are increased can practitioners enjoy normal salary standards.

In his view, he only gets four days off a month, works more than twelve hours a day, and has to complete his apprenticeship for more than three years.

With an average monthly salary of around four thousand, what other parents would let their children study this, except for rural parents who have no background or resources at all?

This applies not only to hair salons but also to the food delivery industry.

To earn 8,000 yuan a month, you have to work at least 10 hours a day, rain or shine.

Cheap labor is everywhere. Young people exchange their bodies and youth for such meager compensation, and in the end, they are burdened for life by issues such as dowry, children's education, and buying a house.

This is by no means a standard that a developed country should have.

Anti-involution, increasing income, and improving welfare have long been major trends.

He spent ten years, but only managed to change the status quo of these grassroots industries on a small scale.

"Dean Chen, if I may be frank, the most important thing to change the current state of these low-level service industries is to fundamentally solve the problems of severe involution within the industry and oversupply of talent."

A retired vice president said, "If we don't fundamentally address the issue of an overabundance of workers in these industries, we can't completely solve the problem of low per capita income in sectors like hairdressing and catering."

“That’s right. We should invest more in technical colleges and start talent guidance after rural students complete nine years of compulsory education, so as to avoid over-concentration in one or two industries.”

“In the past, if you wanted to become an internet celebrity, you only needed to spend money or have good luck. Now, if you want to become an internet celebrity, you need to train and study for at least two or three years in advance. I think the expansion of technical colleges is inevitable. It’s just that relying on our Tencent Group to do this alone would be too much of a financial investment.”

They have already opened more than a dozen technical colleges in Guangdong, mainly to cooperate with the country's talent diversion plan.

If we don't divert students to different majors, graduating from university will be equivalent to unemployment.

College students delivering food can be seen as inspiring and hardworking, but it's also a tragedy of our times.

The investment cost for each technical college is no less than 60 million to 100 million yuan.

Add to that the subsequent operating funds, and such industrial investment is something that no single company can support independently.

Aside from directly distributing money, Tencent Group's charitable work must at least maintain a break-even point.

To avoid dragging down the group's finances due to excessive investment.

Chen Pingsheng tapped the table and said, "The technical college diversion plan can indeed be put on the agenda. The investment is tentatively set at 5 billion yuan this year, and Li Xiaoman will be in full charge."

Everyone on the advisory board has been a senior executive in a large corporation.

With more talented people, there's more work to be done.

After a pause, Chen Pingsheng continued, "The diversion plan is only one aspect. The most crucial thing is that we need to give rural students more choices, whether it's becoming a live streamer or a chef. Only with more choices can they truly engage with what they like."

Unlike An'an and Chen Lu, most rural students are passive in their choices.

As for those who have accomplished nothing for most of their lives, it's not that they lack ability, but mainly that they haven't found what they truly enjoy doing.

This leads to a lifetime of poverty. Technical colleges, in conjunction with streaming programs, aim to increase these individuals' choices, enabling them to find work they enjoy.

The responsibilities on his shoulders are still very heavy, which is why Chen Lu is unable to do large-scale charity work.

Doing a good job in philanthropy is at least ten times more difficult than running a large corporation.

Most of the intellectuals on the Economic Research Island joined because of the current management philosophy of the Tengying Group, including their sense of mission.

Over the years, Chen Pingsheng has indeed been doing charity work in a down-to-earth manner.

This will enable most grassroots workers to enjoy life while also working happily.

This was also his biggest goal in his later years.

As for making money, whether it's building the largest casino at sea or using 300 billion to reclaim land in Hong Kong, it's all just to cover the daily expenses of charity.

His money can't increase any further; doing so would be pointless.

Their family fortune has long since reached trillions, but it's just a string of numbers.

It's far less interesting than what he's doing now, something meaningful.

The plan to divert talent from rural areas through technical colleges has been personally put on his agenda, which means this project is quite significant.

It is very likely that tens of billions more will need to be invested in the future.

Li Xiaoman is the former vice president of the Dream Foundation, and she has a wealth of industry resources. She is definitely the best candidate to be in charge of executing this plan.

As for industries such as hairdressing and catering.

If the number of practitioners cannot be controlled, consumption will not pick up, and even giant corporations like theirs cannot increase industry revenue.

Unless they personally pay for it out of their own pockets, it would completely contradict the long-term philanthropic goals of the Tencent Group.

He can allow a project to go ten years without making a profit, but he will never allow a project to have no hope of making a profit at all.

Next, everyone discussed some other things, mainly focusing on the talent relocation plan.

During the initial expansion phase, platforms typically provide subsidies for ride-hailing and food delivery services.

As they developed, most of them became exploitative companies, a truly tragic situation.

To prevent such a situation from developing, Chen Pingsheng also set strict standards for the group, namely, that it was absolutely forbidden to make too much money in the grassroots service industry.

Even so, he can only change a very small part of it.

In the next decade, Tengying Group will definitely enter more grassroots industries, not for profit, but for matters of conscience.

As a result, everyone is actively discussing and looking for solutions every day.

After the meeting ended, Li Xiaoman came to see him alone.

"Uncle Chen, I just stepped down from the Dream Realization Fund, and you're already asking me to take charge of such a big project? Isn't that a bit much?"

"What's wrong with that? As you know, what outsiders see of Tengying Group today is just the tip of the iceberg. Our real major industries, including the group's focus, have long been concentrated on the large-scale philanthropic sector. This is also why the group needs to continuously cultivate and discover new talents."

"I'm just a little surprised."

People like Li Xiaoman are already financially independent. The things they still strive to do must be things they genuinely like and want to do.

This is how to manage high-level talent: by fostering a sense of mission within the group, we can motivate them to genuinely want to do things well.

This power is also called faith. Once a person has a good faith, they will be invincible and victorious.

The same applies to group operations.

(End of this chapter)