Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 354 Effortless
The two software companies' involvement in game development is merely a side project; their primary job remains developing various software programs.

"What is the current progress of the database system development?"

With the main operating system business relocated to Tokyo, Shanghai naturally needed to develop other core businesses.

Database-related software was the new direction that Masato Takeshita found for them.

Once successfully launched, it can capture at least most of the markets in China and Japan.

"The software is still being debugged, and there is a significant gap between our database software and Oracle's."

After listening to the employee's report, the young man rested his chin on his left hand and gently tapped the table with his right index finger.

"If the gap is obvious, we will hire people and find technical experts in the field to cooperate with. The company is not short of money, but cares more about product quality."

"However, we can't expect too much. As long as there isn't a significant difference between it and Oracle's database system, we can choose to go live."

It's not important that there's a gap between our database system and Oracle's; what's important is that the gap isn't too large. At worst, we can lower the price and seize the market first.

Furthermore, only by obtaining sufficient data after the software goes live can we better improve it.

Simply working in isolation will hardly allow you to surpass Oracle.

"Yes, Chairman, we understand."

"Ah That's good."

Besides database services, software companies in Shanghai also have many industrial software projects.

Some of these industrial software programs are used in Xinghai Group's factories in China, but most are sold to Chinese giant companies.

For example, Sinopec, or the relevant companies of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications that have not yet been separated.

However, since it is in the initial promotion stage, it can only make a little money at present.

After learning about the activities of software companies in Shanghai, the young man went to a construction site in Shanghai.

Because it was the rainy season, only a few people were working.

"Great, the construction site cabin doesn't leak and is quite warm."

Masato Takeshita inspected more than 100 rooms and found that the floors in each room were relatively dry.

It seems that Nobutaka Kurashige and others really put a lot of thought into their accommodations.

"You flatter me, Chairman. It's our duty."

"There's no need to be modest, I'm just telling the truth."

Although the workers live in temporary model rooms with bunk beds, the living conditions at Xinghai Group are indeed quite good.

At least everyone has a place to put their things besides their bed, which is no different from a university dormitory for 16 people.

The accommodations were nice, and the food had improved significantly.

There were huge pots of sauerkraut, and a quarter of them were filled with large, white, fatty pork.

"This is how the food should be. How can workers have the strength to work if they don't eat meat?"

Although Masato Takeshita couldn't stomach the fatty meat in the pot, he knew that for workers in the 1990s, fatty meat was far more delicious than lean meat.

Unfortunately, most ordinary people probably only eat meat once or twice a month, so they don't have much oil in their bodies.

"Yes, the chairman is right. We will definitely make sure the construction workers eat well from now on."

"Yes, that's good. It's excellent to be able to admit your mistakes and correct them."

Besides the construction site, his third concern in Shanghai was naturally the branch company, Shencheng Xinghai Food, and the Shencheng Luggage Factory.

The former currently mainly produces energy drinks, instant noodles, and tea beverages.

Instant noodles are the company's most important product.

Xinghai Foods' beverage business has relied entirely on the power of instant noodles to conquer new territories.

"Could we produce a dry-eaten instant noodle? We could shrink the packaging, lower the price to 5 cents, and sprinkle the seasoning directly on the noodles, targeting the student market."

"As for the oil and vegetable packets, there's no need to put them in. We're eating instant noodles dry, which is basically crispy noodles."

Crispy noodles were an indispensable snack for Chinese students born in the 1980s and 90s during their childhood.

Many students buy them by the box in order to find the Water Margin cards or Three Kingdoms cards they want.

The only minor drawback might be that it could lead to waste.

Some individuals, in order to obtain a certain foil card or rare card, choose to dismantle instant noodles to find the card, discarding the noodles themselves.

However, such people should be a very small minority, and if they don't want to eat it themselves, they can simply give it to their classmates.

Unlike later idol-related incidents where fans bought milk to win idol merchandise and then poured the milk away.

Of course, putting cards in instant noodles is a killer move.

The young man didn't plan to use it right away; he intended to wait until other manufacturers followed suit before employing this tactic.

"No problem, we'll start developing the relevant products tomorrow."

Yoshihiko Yoshimura, president of Xinghai Foods China, also felt that developing crispy noodles and targeting the student market was very promising, and his admiration for his president grew even stronger.

No wonder he's a national-level tycoon who built his fortune on innovation; even his casual ideas are brilliant.

Since we already have instant noodles, we naturally can't miss out on another favorite among elementary school students: spicy strips.

He recalled the ingredients of the spicy strips and then recommended them again.

"Besides instant noodles, can we also make spicy strips?"

"Spicy strips?"

Yoshihiko Yoshimura was puzzled and hoped that the president, whose ideas were somewhat unconventional, could describe it in detail.

"The principle behind spicy strips is very simple. They are thin, chewy strips made from flour, deep-fried until fragrant, and then sprinkled with chili peppers, sugar, and other seasonings."

Since words alone are not very intuitive, Masato Takeshita simply asked his secretary for a piece of paper and a pen, and then he drew the shape of the spicy strip himself.

Aesthetic design is also an important aspect of product quality.

Given products with the same cost and price, most people will choose the one that looks more attractive.

And even if the cost is the same, the more beautiful one is more expensive, and many people are willing to pay a higher price for something that looks good.

Therefore, the young man specifically sought out a specialist to learn art sketching and coloring.

This way, he could bring out the beautiful phone designs in his mind, as well as many other designs that would be commonplace in later generations but would be astonishing 5 to 10 years in advance.

"Oh, so they're made one piece at a time. But would elementary school students be willing to eat them?"

"Don't worry, there will be absolutely no problem."

Masato Takeshita was very certain, because later generations have proven that Chinese children, as well as some adults, are extremely obsessed with spicy strips.

But then he thought of the differences between regions and made the suggestion again.

"However, different regions in China have different tolerance levels for spiciness. Those who can handle spice should add more chili powder, while those who cannot should add less."

"Develop according to local conditions and find the most suitable flavor."

Takeshita Masato became more and more excited as he spoke.
"Furthermore, we can also sell spicy strips in different spiciness levels. For example, extra spicy, super spicy, medium spicy... We can also sell spicy strips in different flavors such as barbecue and braised."

"If it is promoted in China, it can even be sold in Japan."

Spicy strips, as a delicacy, have become acceptable not only to Chinese people but also to a small number of foreigners in later generations.

The young man wanted to give it a try and see if it could be developed into a snack that Japanese children would also like.

"Yes, I'll have the R&D team research and develop it tomorrow."

"No rush, take your time."

Spicy strips seemed to have emerged around the turn of the century, giving Xinghai Foods ample time for research and development. "By the way, food safety must be taken seriously. I don't want our spicy strips to have serious hygiene problems."

Before the 21st century, most food companies in China lacked hygiene awareness, but Xinghai Foods was different.

If you don't pay attention to hygiene habits now, it will be very difficult to correct them in the future. And if you can't correct them, the cost will be damage to your brand.

His goal is to build a century-old enterprise, and the food requirements must not only meet Chinese standards, but also the import standards of developed countries such as Japan.

The reason it's an import standard, rather than the domestic standards of developed countries like those in Europe and America, is because many European and American countries have very relaxed food safety regulations, which are not as strict as China's.

"Don't worry, Chairman, we will deal with spicy strips as if we were producing instant noodles."

"Yes, but we still need to be careful, especially with downstream suppliers, as they are the most likely to have problems."

Spicy snacks are unsafe, and even seemingly safe instant noodles could face similar problems in the future. Only with effective regulation can food safety be guaranteed to the greatest extent possible.

"Please rest assured, Chairman, we only work with large companies, and we directly invest in their companies for key aspects."

"Big companies should also be careful, because many people will do anything to make money."

We must not harbor any illusions about any company, and we must always be wary of them taking risks.

Many companies are healthy because the price of unhealthy approaches is too high.

The most typical example is Google. The company's motto is "Don't be evil," but it has become notorious for its evil deeds.

In its early days, it was like Baidu, selling medical advertisements everywhere.

As a result, they were fined hundreds of millions of dollars for counterfeit drugs and fake hospitals, and only then did they honestly change their ways.

They later claimed to be protecting privacy, but then they turned around and leaked user data to the bald eagle intelligence system.

As for news articles that slander countries outside the United States, they receive covert support from Google-affiliated websites.

It's fair to say that Google is a hypocrite who presents itself as a benevolent person. On the surface, it appears virtuous and sophisticated, but underneath, it harbors a bellyful of malicious thoughts.

Of course, Google's marketing is still very effective, packaging itself as a beacon of technological excellence.

But if you look at the kernel, it's essentially no different from Baidu. Especially before the rise of cloud computing, over 90% of its revenue came from advertising.

Even if it develops, advertising revenue will still account for the majority.

Cloud computing and Google's suite of services account for less than 30% of the market; the rest are all advertising-related industries.

"Yes, the chairman is right."

Yoshihiko Yoshimura immediately realized he had made a foolish mistake when he thought of the company he used to work for.

No matter the size of the company, problems can arise.

It could be the whole system, or it could be an individual within it; we definitely need to strengthen oversight.

After concluding his inspection of Xinghai Foods, Masato Takeshita made a point of having a meal at the cafeteria.

Overall, the food from the factory tastes better than what's made on the construction site.

While at the construction site, the young man only ate some tofu, cabbage, or pickled cabbage.

As for the fatty meat, he really couldn't eat it.

The factory is different; the canteen has a wide variety of dishes.

There are four or five kinds of meat dishes alone.

After dinner, the young man went home for a short rest. The next morning, he arrived at the Shanghai Luggage Factory early.

The workers here are treated similarly to those in food factories, and there haven't been any particularly noticeable problems.

However, unlike food factories, the scale here is relatively stable, and there will be no more large-scale expansion. Even if employees' children want to work here, they can only look for opportunities in food factories.

The young people also visited the remaining garment factories and clothing factories one by one.

Point out any problems directly, and then share your simple plan.

After Shanghai, Masato Takeshita immediately headed to Guangzhou in Lingnan.

It’s still the familiar recipe, and it’s still the familiar taste.

However, compared to Shanghai and Beijing, he was a little less familiar with Guangzhou.

The main reason is that Xinghai Group didn't invest much in Guangzhou before 94, and everyone had only met them once or twice.

After the networking session, Masato Takeshita, as usual, inspected Xinghai Group's various factories in Guangzhou.

The result was pretty good; apart from a few minor flaws, it was no different from the one in Shanghai.

"It's very hot. The company should cook more mung bean soup and herbal tea to prevent workers from getting heatstroke."

In some workshops of the factory, even with fans, the heat couldn't be sustained, and workers had to be constantly cooled down.

As for air conditioning, the small ones are ineffective, and the large ones are unaffordable, so this is the only way to maintain the current system.

"Yes, we'll put a freezer here tomorrow."

Lin Yongjian, the factory manager, wiped the sweat from his brow and decided to increase support for ice production in the area.

"Yeah, good to know. It's so hot outside, you can imagine how hot it is inside."

Masato Takeshita wiped away his sweat; there was no way around it, it was just too hot here.

Luckily, he was wearing short sleeves. If he had worn a long-sleeved shirt like Director Lin, he probably would have been sweltering.

"Alright, it's enough to understand how hard the workers work. There's no need for us to suffer here without experiencing hardship."

"Let's go, let's cool off first, and then we'll go inspect other departments."

Seeing that Director Lin was getting a little overwhelmed, the young man stopped reminiscing about the past and prepared to lead everyone back to the office.

"Yes, President!"

Hearing the young man say this, Director Lin and the others perked up.

The heat was so intense you could feel the heatwave in the air; it was unbearable.

After inspecting the factory, Shigeo Nagashima also concluded his trip to Hong Kong Island.

Takeshita Masato handed him over to a small conference room at the hotel, intending to ask him about the situation.

"How's it going? Is everything alright?"

"It went very smoothly. Both Hong Kong Island and Guangzhou agreed to our cooperation plan."

Shigeo Nagashima was not originally the first choice to acquire the Wanglaoji brand.

However, due to the unforeseen circumstances of Nobutaka Kurashige and the need for Yoshihiko Yoshimura to stay with the young man, the task ultimately fell to Yoshihiko Yoshimura, who was in charge of Xinghai Life.

However, these are minor matters; the most important thing is to complete the task smoothly.

“Great, we’ll add a Wanglaoji herbal tea production line right next to the food factory. From now on, the company will focus on herbal tea, as well as iced black tea and iced green tea, in Lingnan.”

People in Guangdong love drinking tea, so tea drinks are bound to become a huge hit.

"Understood, this is also President Zang Zhong's strategic guidance."

Shigeo Nagashima is adept at handling people and never forgets to mention his superiors' achievements.

"Okay, I know."

The young man understood what was going on, but understanding didn't mean he had to say it; he just kept it to himself.

After making a trip around Guangzhou, the young man returned to Shanghai.

He needs to spend time with his lover; he has a lot to do next and won't be able to come back for a while.

(End of this chapter)