The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

The dazzling lights of Shanghai bear witness to the joys and sorrows of countless ordinary people.

The prosperity of a city requires the foundation laid by countless ordinary people.

The era of large-scale real estate development was previously accomplished by their parents.

Now, the world has evolved to the point where technology changes destiny, and the founders of these cities are now the sons of these farmers.

No matter how far society progresses, there will always be a group of people who stand on high places, looking down on everyone with indifferent eyes.

Chen Jiye is currently in the second year of junior high school. The high expectations and elite upbringing he received from his family have allowed him to display extraordinary talent from a young age. Whether in terms of character development or moral conduct, he far surpasses his peers.

He maintained a low profile on campus, but still received daily observation reports from hundreds of people.

Despite the less-than-ideal results, he persisted in recording the trajectory of each sample.

September, a sunny day.

Downstairs, a pretty girl exudes a lively and fiery enthusiasm.

She is as vibrant and energetic as the summer sun.

"Chen Jiye... I want to be your friend."

Making friends is not the same as dating; it's just that this little girl shouted it out loud with a megaphone in her hand.

This still surprised the teachers and students at the school. Xiao Jiye didn't know what had happened, he only knew that a girl downstairs was trying to disturb his studies.

He wanted to draw his sword and cut it off again.

Any behavior that hinders learning is inappropriate for his current age.

The girl comes from a good family; she's a local from Shanghai and has liked Chen Jiye for a long time.

It's just a pity that he never wastes his time on things that are a waste of time.

At least not now.

When something like this happens at school, the teachers usually have to call the parents. When Chen Pingsheng came over, he just laughed a couple of times and didn't say anything.

He even had Jiye add that girl on WeChat.

If the two are destined to be together, they will naturally have opportunities in the future; if not, it will just be a small memory on the road of life.

Ji Ye, including Chen Youcai and others, could only consider their romantic relationships after they had completed university.

Getting involved in relationships too early is not only irresponsible to the girl, but also to yourself.

The No. 8 Pawnshop reopened under a new name: No. 8 Investment Company.

The purpose of the first phase of Pawnshop No. 8 was simply to make Xiao Jiye understand that wealth requires a similar mindset to manage.

Ordinary people who suddenly become rich will only lose their minds because of the sudden increase in wealth.

This situation also occurred repeatedly in the former short video influencer industry.

To control wealth effectively, one must first cultivate one's character.

Ordinary people can only learn how to make money, but no one teaches them how to manage their finances.

In the second phase, Pawnshop No. 8 selected one hundred college graduates as investors.

One hundred ordinary yet hardworking ordinary workers, regardless of their dreams or the great things they want to do.

They can receive a total of 50 million yuan in three stages.

The initial funding is two million, the second phase is twenty million, and the third phase is 2800 million.

When starting a business, it's impossible to raise all the money at once; it requires a gradual process.

This is the process that Xiao Jiye and three generations of the Chen family have to learn.

They want to learn from the failures of others to understand the pitfalls of entrepreneurship.

Learning from books is ultimately superficial; only by participating in the process yourself can you truly understand the truth of entrepreneurship.

Chen Pingsheng also learned some lessons from his son's failures. When it comes to raising three generations, he pays more attention to character and the lessons learned from failures.

To learn about the pitfalls of entrepreneurship through the failures of 200 people with 10 billion yuan in funding is an extremely luxurious experience for anyone.

It is something that ordinary people simply cannot access.

This shows just how difficult it is for a child from a poor family to become a successful one.

The wealthy not only control social resources, but also control most of the upward mobility channels.

People like Xiao Jiye receive unlimited resources from research institutes and top educators from a young age.

As we grow up, our bottom line becomes the ceiling for ordinary people.

Even though Chen Lu has already declared failure, he can't achieve great things now, but he can still easily make money from small businesses.

This is already a dream that ordinary people cannot achieve.

The subsequent tracing process took three years.

Three years later, only one person did a decent job, and that was all.

The other 199 people failed due to various entrepreneurial pitfalls.

Many people who are starting a business think most about what will happen after they succeed.

Only a very small number of people think about failure.

Those who can understand their failures are often the ones who succeed.

Time flies so fast; three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Chen Jiye is already in his second year of high school, while Chen Pingsheng is already 65 years old.

He'll be turning seventy in a few years.

Even his wife, Michelle Song, is already sixty years old. Time cannot be turned back, and the years cannot be changed.

On September 1, 2049, Zhang Wanyi topped the list of the world's most successful working women.

She's really amazing; she always strives to be number one in everything she does.

After retiring from Tencent Media, a company with a market value of trillions, it took him a full eight years to rise from deputy dean to dean of the Economic Research Institute.

What is the significance of this position?
It controls nearly a hundred industries in China and manages over a thousand listed companies worldwide.

It possesses three trillion yuan in readily available cash.

Before her, the position of dean had always been held by Chen Pingsheng, and only he was capable of fulfilling it.

After Zhang Wanyi arrived on the island, she became the world's most successful working woman in just eight years.

The four most important units under the Economic Research Institute include an advisory team composed of executives from Fortune Global 500 companies.

They all started as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

In addition, there is the world's top internal academic institution, the Institute of Economics and Management.

Every three years, 3,000 top talents are recruited from around the world and trained on the island for three years.

Three years later, they will be reassigned to various companies under the group.

Over the years, most of the group's senior executives have become these people.

Because of the three-year internal academy training, both the group's culture and beliefs have achieved unprecedented unity.

This is the group's most elite talent pool, and also the Global Industrial Economics Research Center.

It is also the core of the group's think tank.

These three parts are the core driving forces propelling the group forward.

The fourth part is a supervisory system that operates independently of the group and enjoys supreme power.

It possesses the highest audit authority within the group.

Their responsibility is to supervise and inspect all senior executives and projects across the group.

It has the right to review all unreasonable investments and projects.

With Zhang Wanyi's promotion to dean, she gained initial control over these four core departments.

She has nine vice deans under her, including Chu Qiuyan, as well as Chen An'an, chairman of Tengfei New Energy, chairman of Tengfei AI, and chairman of Tengfei Mobile. To become a vice dean, one must first be the president or chairman of a trillion-dollar company.

This shows just how much power Zhang Wanyi has amassed.

It's no exaggeration to say that if she were to leave the island now, she would be seated at the head of any meeting.

For someone like her, hard work alone is not enough.

One must also possess exceptional talent and unprecedented opportunities.

When Zhang Wanyi was appointed dean, the entire group, including the companies they invested in, received an internal letter.

This means she became the top person in the group, possessing the highest level of supervision and control over the entire group.

Not only did they receive the news internally, but they also received it from the outside world.

Countless media outlets have even recounted Zhang Wanyi's past career experiences, which can be considered as her fulfilling of her lifelong wish.

Compared to her previous position at Tencent Media, this new position truly marks her as a global leader.

A position like this cannot be attained without being at least fifty years old.

Now, Zhang Wanyi is almost sixty years old.

The position of dean is elected every five years, with a maximum of two terms.

In other words, her best outcome would be to stay in that position for a full ten years.

When her ten-year term is up, she will retire completely and become one of the seven elders of the Economic Research Island.

Although it is a sinecure, it grants the person the right to recommend and elect the next person to the post.

Chen Pingsheng is now one of the Seven Elders, and the others are the seven chief executives who started cooperating with him the earliest and have been growing together with Tengying Group.

These people are now so powerful that their mere presence can shake the business world.

Reaching Zhang Wanyi's position also means that her family will be secure for ten generations. As long as Tengying Group exists, it will ensure that her Zhang family will be wealthy and prosperous for ten generations.

The position of dean will be selected from among the nine vice deans, and to become a vice dean, one must have at least eight years of experience as the president and chairman of a trillion-dollar group.

Even Chen An'an is still in this place, and An'an is still far from being qualified to become the dean.

This shows just how high the bar is for the position of dean.

The development of the Tengying Group is no longer limited by any country; it has become one of the world's top 20 giant conglomerates.

Those stronger than it are all century-old conglomerates.

For example, the Rothschild family, which influenced global finance in the early 19th century, and the Morgan financial group, which once dominated the American economy.

Or perhaps the Rockefeller Group, America's largest oil monopoly.

The oldest of these is the Mitsui Group, which dates back to the Meiji Restoration era.

Mitsui once held the title of Asia's number one conglomerate.

Other notable conglomerates include Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate.

A conglomerate is not the same as personal wealth; it is a vast power accumulated over a century by a family or several families working together.

Among them, Tengying Group is the youngest.

Its current industry relies on technology, extending its reach to major industries around the world.

It took them 37 years to barely reach the threshold of becoming a global mega-corporation.

The development of conglomerates is not actually allowed in China, but Tengying Group has always been highly praised for what it does.

In particular, it uses the money it earns in the global market to support domestic agriculture, including basic industries.

Furthermore, by vigorously developing its own science and technology sector, it can independently develop its own research and development island.

Outsiders are unaware of the strength of Jingyan Island, but those inside are very familiar with it.

It's no exaggeration to say that it could easily buy ten giant unicorn companies.

It can change the underlying ecological rules of countless industries with a single word, and even influence millions of ordinary people.

This also means that Chen Pingsheng, who is approaching seventy, has officially entered his retirement era.

He even relinquished the position of dean, which also signifies the end of an era in which he personally served as the dean and head of the Economic Research Island.

It's all in the past now.

Now it has become a fair election, held every five years.

If An'an is able to successfully ascend to the position of dean within the next twenty years, it means that the second generation of the Chen family has perfectly taken over the baton of power.

Er Ya Chen Xin Yi has absolutely no chance; she has completely separated herself from the group and is now engaged in financial investment on her own.

She is certainly wealthy, but in terms of status, she is far inferior to her elder sister Chen An'an, and even less so to the other eight vice deans.

Social status is not just about having money; it requires many other factors to complement it.

Such as industry contributions, driving national industrial upgrading, and impacting the employment of millions of people.

Er Ya and Chen Xinyi didn't have any of these things.

As for her younger brother Chen Lu, there's even less to say. Ever since he had an affair with Zhang Qian and fathered an illegitimate child...

His small company is exactly the same as it was five years ago.

Chen Lu is definitely not short of money; he can easily earn one or two hundred million a year. It's just that his family doesn't acknowledge him as an illegitimate child.

The Chen family will not have any inheritance rights in the future.

As for his wife, Su Xiaoxi, the two did not divorce, and Su Xiaoxi tacitly acknowledged that he had other women outside.

She devoted more of her energy to her career.

Money alone could no longer satisfy her; she pursued three stages in life, and in the end, no one could avoid power.

The pinnacle of business power in the country is on the Economic Research Island. Once you can become the vice president of the institute on the island, your social status after graduation will be completely different.

Needless to say, the position of dean, like Zhang Wanyi's, is even more undesirable.

Su Xiaoxi plans to integrate and package her Tenghui Capital to create a trillion-yuan investment and financial conglomerate.

Based on the group's achievements and results, the next vice president will be nominated.

Even if she is not qualified, with the help of Er Ya and Chen Xinyi, it would be more than enough.

If the two of them were to combine their qualifications for a vice dean position, they would be qualified for that position.

Later, through his position as vice president, he gained access to and involvement in the highest-level operations of the group's four core departments.

Only then will there be hope of reaching the summit in the future.

The best business model is no longer about methods or approaches, but rather about balancing all parties through mechanisms, much like governing a country.

Then, through the fairest and most impartial selection process, we will develop the giant merchant ship that is Tengying Group.

Lower-level employees cannot see changes at the top, but changes at the top should not be forgotten by lower-level employees.

Only by combining both can a merchant ship be built for a century.

The development to this point also means that Tengying Group has completely completed its superstructure.

It allows everyone to clearly see their path to promotion and provides opportunities for advancement.

What the future holds is still unknown, but at least the current Tengying Group, including Jingyan Island, has fully improved its corporate development mechanism, including talent cultivation and senior management succession, and has formed the best automated operation model.

This model has only been in place for a short time, and Chen Pingsheng will need to observe it for another twenty years.

We'll have to wait until it can truly function properly on its own.

He's only sixty-six, and he has twenty years to wait and see how it develops.

Both An'an and Su Xiaoxi have done very well now.

If two more such talents emerge within the third generation, the Chen family's century-old legacy will truly be a success.

Even if he has already left by then, he will have lived up to his youth and his passionate young life.

(End of this chapter)