Rebirth of the Rich Second Generation's Growth Diary

Chapter 194 So-called Professionalism

Manager Pan couldn't quite figure out what Li Xu was trying to do for the time being.

Since he took this position, he has rarely had this experience: you can't guess what the people above want to do or what they are thinking.

For example, the task Li Xu assigned him right now was to rank the people in the entire department according to their importance.

Does this mean their salaries are determined by the order in which they are ranked?
The less important a person is, the lower their salary is, thus maintaining the salaries of the top-performing sales staff.

If Li Xu really thought that way, Manager Pan would feel somewhat disappointed, because doing so essentially shifted the blame onto him, the department manager.

What frustrates Manager Pan is that he can't think of any other possibilities at the moment.

But since Li Xu has given the order, he has to do it. No matter how we guess now, it might not be accurate.

Once the order is finalized and handed over to Li Xu, we'll know exactly what he wants to do. We can offer our opinions then.

With that in mind, Manager Pan listed out the names of everyone in his department and carefully marked each name.

Whatever Li Xu decides to do, this ranking will inevitably affect the vital interests of those being ranked. Ability is certainly important, but loyalty is equally crucial.

What seemed like a simple sorting process took Manager Pan several revisions before he finally settled on a list after much deliberation.

He then sighed slightly and sent the message to Li Xu via internal email.

At this moment, he felt uneasy.

Li Xu didn't keep everyone who was paying attention to these three reports waiting for long.

The day after Manager Pan handed him the list, Li Xu instructed Huang Lingling to arrange a meeting for all middle-level managers.

Xu Liang, as the vice president, also had his own secretary. When his secretary informed him that Li Xu would be organizing a meeting at 10 o'clock, he chuckled and said, "This is the first important meeting the president has organized here. Inform everyone that unless there is something else, please try not to ask for leave."

The secretary nodded and went down to make arrangements.

Xu Liang leaned back in his chair, roughly knowing that Li Xu was going to make some arrangements and deployments regarding the salary plan.

But has he figured out how to make a decision?

Undoubtedly, siding with either the marketing department or the human resources and finance department would harm the other party's interests.

The workplace is not a game, and one person's orders are not inviolable. The essence of politics is to find a community of shared interests, and this will be a choice to be made.

So how should Li Xu handle this situation so that he can see Li Xu more clearly?

Xu Liang tidied up his notebook on the table, checked the time, and left.

After all, it was the president's first meeting. No matter what he was thinking, he couldn't possibly be late for such an important occasion; that would be incredibly inconsiderate.

Before Li Xu arrived, several middle managers had already come to the office.

Xu Liang ran into Manager Cai from the finance department when he arrived at the door.

Manager Cai nodded slightly and greeted Xu Liang: "Good morning, Mr. Xu."

Xu Liang did not respond, but asked with interest, "Did General Manager Li approve the report you submitted?"

Manager Cai shook his head. His long hair and stubble made him look somewhat haggard, but his eyes were exceptionally shrewd.

Manager Cai said, "Not yet."

Xu Liang patted Manager Cai on the shoulder and said, "You are the most professional in our company when it comes to finance, so you must be more meticulous."

Manager Cai quickly replied, "Of course."

Seeing that Manager Cai accepted his words without the slightest shame, Xu Liang found it somewhat amusing.

The key point of his statement wasn't actually the latter part, "be more rigorous," but rather the first part, "you are the most professional in our company."

Was Manager Cai truly the most professional finance person in the company? Xu Liang didn't point it out.

But in his eyes, Manager Cai's financial skills were merely adequate.

What does "sufficient" mean? It means that within the framework of the head office's top-level design, it can ensure the normal operation of the finances, nothing more.

If you ask him to design some models independently, he won't even be able to find the north and south directions.

Therefore, Manager Cai's maximum potential is limited to being a finance manager in this branch company.

What's laughable is that Manager Cai has an inflated sense of self-importance, always considering himself an expert. He nitpicks at the new college graduates, often criticizing them in a professional tone, when in reality he just has a little more experience.

However, even at this level, Liu Guoqing couldn't understand it.

Xu Liang knew very well that Li Xu was not a professional idiot like Liu Guoqing; after all, he was a top student from the School of Management at Tsinghua and Peking Universities.

If Manager Cai still holds the same attitude he had towards Liu Guoqing, he will most likely suffer a great loss.

Xu Liang is also very professional in finance. The report that Manager Cai gave him, although not many problems were found at first glance, definitely had bugs; it just depended on whether you were willing to look carefully.

For Li Xu, the only problem was that he received the report too soon.

If it were Xu Liang himself, given a week to carefully study that report, he would definitely be able to find many problems.

However, Li Xu has only had three days since he started reading that report, and he also needs to review the human resources compensation plan and provide some suggestions for revision from a professional perspective, which is quite difficult.

Therefore, Xu Liang felt that Li Xu's starting point was probably from a macro perspective, so let's see. The meeting officially started at 10:00.

Huang Lingling put away the documents and materials that Li Xu needed, then turned around and pulled out a chair for Li Xu.

Just then, Li Xu walked over and sat down.

After glancing at everyone present, he said in a deep voice, "Everyone's here, so let's begin."

The cover of the salary report appeared on the PPT behind him. Without wasting any words, Li Xu said directly, "I called everyone here today to discuss the salary plan."

"This matter is a legacy issue. As far as I know, the new salary plan has been under discussion for more than a month, but it has not yet been finalized. This quarter is about to end, and we must get the new salary system running in the next quarter. Time is of the essence, and today our main agenda revolves around this salary plan."

At this moment, both Manager Meng from the Human Resources Department and Manager Cai from the Finance Department became visibly excited.

Li Xu's gaze swept over the two of them, then he lowered his head, pulled out a document, looked up again, and paused for a moment.

When all eyes were on him, he slowly began to speak: "First, let me talk about this report. If there is anything wrong with what I have said, please feel free to point it out."

The next moment, Li Xu's tone suddenly turned cold, and he lightly tapped the table: "I believe that the prerequisite for discussing a report is professionalism, but this report is, in my opinion, extremely unprofessional."

These words immediately caused Manager Meng and Manager Cai, who were sitting in the corner, to show surprised expressions.

Manager Meng, unable to contain himself any longer, couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Li, what do you mean by that?"

Li Xu looked over and asked, "Manager Meng, are you a little dissatisfied?" He took a deep breath and said, "Well, I'll just present the reports from the Finance Department and the Human Resources Department together."

Li Xu said, "The underlying logic of this compensation plan is clearly disconnected from the company's financial health."

“Look at the balance sheet. Employee compensation payable accounts for 42% of current liabilities, while your plan sets the total compensation growth rate at 15%, which is completely inconsistent with the trend of continuous decline in EBITDA profit margin in the profit statement.”

"More importantly, the cash flow statement shows that the net cash flow from operating activities has been lower than expected for three consecutive quarters, but you have not set up a cash security adjustment mechanism for the total compensation in the plan."

Most of the people present didn't have a financial background, and they were bewildered by Li Xu's use of technical jargon. However, it was quite obvious that Li Xu...

So professional, so incredibly professional!
They were all secretly watching as Manager Meng and Manager Cai, who always prided themselves on their professionalism, were angrily rebuked for being unprofessional by the new president. This scene was rather darkly humorous.

Manager Meng was stunned. He and Manager Cai had always been known for their professionalism. How could they possibly accept being criticized so harshly by Li Xu in their area of ​​expertise?
He frowned and thought for a moment, then said with a forced smile, "Mr. Li, I admit I hadn't considered the correlation between these financial indicators you mentioned before. I've been thinking about aligning salaries with market levels, but I haven't taken into account the current pressure on our company's cash flow and profit margins."

Li Xu shook his head: "From the perspective of cost structure, the fixed salary accounts for 68% in the plan, which will lead to excessively high unit marginal labor costs, directly squeezing R&D investment and market expansion budget in the management expense item."

"You did not establish a sensitivity analysis model for salary costs with core financial indicators such as ROIC and EVA, nor did you consider the dilution effect on earnings per share after the implementation of the plan. Moreover, the rules for accruing performance-based pay in the plan conflict with the accrual basis of accounting."

These words left Manager Meng speechless for a moment. He lowered his head, then suddenly remembered something, smiled, and said, "I'm really sorry, my grasp of these financial analysis tools and professional concepts isn't solid enough. I still need to study the relationship between accrual accounting and performance-based accrual, as you mentioned. Which direction can I start improving from?"

Li Xu sneered. It was obvious that Manager Meng was using a feigned retreat to advance, but he had a think tank team and naturally already had a solution.

He began in a deep voice, "Take the revised plan, along with a projected balance sheet that includes changes in salary costs, and start by recalculating using DuPont analysis to understand the correlation between salary costs and various financial indicators..."

Manager Cai, who remained silent at the side, was the most surprised.

Because he was in charge of finance, listening to Li Xu's words, it was clear that Li Xu had not only reviewed their compensation plan, but also carefully studied and compared the financial statements one by one, which was why he was able to point out the problems so incisively.

Moreover, Manager Cai was well aware that Li Xu had not seen the salary report beforehand.

So, in just two or three days, he has already found so many loopholes. He is incredibly professional, a level of expertise based on a deeper understanding of financial and payroll management.

At this moment, Manager Meng's face turned red, and he couldn't say a word. Manager Cai, who wasn't called out, wisely kept quiet.

Li Xu leaned back slightly in his chair and said in a stiff and serious tone, "So my opinion on this salary system is that the Human Resources Department and the Finance Department should carefully readjust it by comparing it with the key elements in the financial statements. I think we should give them three days. After three days, submit the revised report to my office and we will discuss it further."

Li Xu looked at the others: "Does anyone have any objections?"

The meeting room was completely silent.

Xu Liang spoke first, saying, "I have no objections. Anyone who has an opinion can raise their hand." Of course, no one would be foolish enough to raise their hand at that moment.

Li Xu gently patted the table and stood up: "If there are no objections, then this meeting is adjourned. I don't like long meetings. If there's something to discuss, then let's get down to business. If there's nothing else, then the meeting is adjourned for today."

After saying that, Huang Lingling quickly came over, packed up Li Xu's materials, and followed Li Xu out.

Huang Lingling stared at Li Xu's retreating figure with a silly grin on her face. She thought the scene of Li Xu angrily rebuking the two managers for being unprofessional was so cool, and she loved watching it.

After Li Xu left the office, the others present looked at each other, began to discuss, and gradually got up and left.

The most embarrassed people at this moment were naturally Manager Cai and Manager Meng. They both knew very well that the reason why Li Xu pointed out so many problems with the salary system was because Liu Guoqing was too unprofessional. This made them feel a bit lucky, thinking that even if there were some problems, non-professionals wouldn't understand them anyway, and it wouldn't matter if they just brushed them off. But they didn't expect Li Xu to be so capable. In three days, they would probably have to work overtime for the next two days.

After Manager Pan got up, he watched Li Xu's departing figure and fell into deep thought.

The meeting today naturally resulted in the rejection of the salary proposal, but this rejection was incomplete because Li Xu did not express any stance. He only pointed out the flaws in the salary system from a professional perspective, but did not touch upon the basic direction of the salary system. Therefore, he still couldn't figure out what Li Xu was thinking.

This seems more like a postponement...

Yes, it's like a postponement!

It seemed like he had grasped a bit of inspiration, but Manager Pan had a new question: what could be done in just three days?

However, Li Xu didn't keep Manager Pan waiting for long. He had just returned to his office when he received a call from Huang Lingling.

Huang Lingling said, "Manager Pan, if you're free right now, come to General Manager Li's office. He needs to speak with you."

Manager Pan's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly said, "Okay, I'll be right there."

(End of this chapter)