Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 624 Chinese-Style Business Wisdom (First of Four Updates)
Cheng Yi did not go to Li Chengxuan, but instead had Huang Wenrong make an appointment with Zhao Lei, the president of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's Handong branch.

In the well-decorated conference room of the provincial branch, without exchanging pleasantries, Cheng Yi directly instructed Huang Wenrong to hand a document to Zhao Lei.

"President Zhao, this is the total cash flow, deposit balance, and forecast for the coming year for Momo Group and its core subsidiaries and affiliated companies in the previous year."

Zhao Lei could tell from Cheng Yi's words that Cheng Yi definitely wanted something. He pretended to flip through the documents and smiled, "Your group has always been a very important partner of ours. May I ask what specific business you have to discuss today, Mr. Cheng?"

He guessed it might be related to loans.

It's now common knowledge that Momo Group and Lianxiang Group are fiercely competing in the computer industry, so laptops are practically being given away for free.

However, this was merely speculation on his part.

After all, Momo Group's cash flow is so good that it doesn't look like it needs a loan at all.

“There is indeed a business opportunity I would like to discuss,” Cheng Yi said with a smile. “I know that major banks have deposit and cash flow targets for their corporate banking business. We can do an integration, prioritizing the opening of corporate accounts, employee payroll accounts, and even subsequent housing provident fund and social security accounts of my Momo group companies at your bank. Furthermore, I can require all of my subsidiaries to place their main fund settlements and deposits at your bank as well.”

Zhao Lei's eyes lit up; this was a huge temptation.

With numerous companies and a vast business portfolio, the deposits, transaction volume, and intermediary business revenue generated by this integrated business will be extremely substantial.

"What are the conditions?" Zhao Lei was an old hand; he knew there was no such thing as a free lunch.

“The conditions are simple.” Cheng Yi looked directly at Zhao Lei and said, “I hope that, under the premise of compliance and controllable risk, your bank can send a positive signal to real estate companies that cooperate with our Momo Group, especially those that use our Moc-os system and solutions. Your bank would like to see them adopt efficient and transparent information management methods. When approving their development loans, if other conditions are equal, you can give due consideration to their improved management efficiency. Of course, all of this is based on the premise that their projects themselves are of high quality and reliable.”

Cheng Yi paused, then added, "I'm not asking your bank to lower its risk control standards. I just hope that the improved management efficiency brought about by our system can be a positive factor. At the same time, I hope your bank can become the strategic partner bank for our Momo Group's government and enterprise procurement project, providing us with the necessary financial support and credit endorsement."

Zhao Lei nodded slowly; he understood what Cheng Yi meant.

This is not a risky, unrealistic collaboration, but a resource exchange based on huge commercial interests.

The bank gained tangible deposits, transaction volume, and business volume, while Momo Group secured an extremely powerful and persuasive ally for its products.

Recognition by the banking system.

This requires a high level of skill and must be carried out within a fully compliant framework, such as using the level of information management as a non-mandatory reference indicator for assessing the overall strength of an enterprise.

But the enormous profits involved made it impossible for him to refuse.

“President Cheng,” Zhao Lei finally smiled and said, “Your group is one of our bank’s most important clients, and supporting the development of outstanding local enterprises is also our bank’s responsibility. I personally welcome your proposal to strengthen cooperation and integrate financial services. Regarding your point about paying attention to the level of enterprise information technology construction in credit approval, this itself is in line with the trend of modern bank risk management.”

Zhao Lei paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "We will conduct internal research on how to integrate this concept into our customer evaluation system while ensuring compliance. As for strategic cooperation, I believe we can find a win-win model."

"It's a pleasure to cooperate with you." Cheng Yi stood up, a smile spreading across his face.

"It's a pleasure working with you." Zhao Lei gripped Cheng Yi's hand tightly.

In the following days, Cheng Yi and Huang Wenrong followed the same approach and conducted similar negotiations with several major partner banks, including China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank.

Based on the massive business scale of the Momo Group and the huge potential for financial business it brings, the negotiations have made positive progress.

This is Momo Group's advantage.

This advantage is unmatched by Microsoft China United Group.

Microsoft China United Group is indeed very wealthy, but almost all of their money is not in China.

After the negotiations concluded, Cheng Yi and Huang Wenrong returned to the company. Although they looked tired, their eyes held a sense of relief and joy.

"Weiwei, immediately have the public relations and legal departments work together to draft a press release about our comprehensive strategic cooperation with ICBC, CCB, and CMB." Cheng Yi walked into the office and immediately instructed Li Weiwei: "The wording must be precise, highlighting keywords such as deepening cooperation, promoting common development, and empowering the real economy. Don't overemphasize it, but make sure the impact is accurately conveyed to the real estate industry."

"Yes!"

At the same time, Huang Wenrong returned to the finance department and immediately gathered key personnel to launch an internal plan called fund collection.

Currently, Momo's funds are very dispersed. The funds of Momo Internet Cafe in the Handong Province market are all deposited in Handong Commercial Bank, while the funds in other provinces are scattered in banks in various places.

Other subsidiaries and Momo's partner companies are diverse and not uniformly categorized.

This time, Huang Wenrong will gradually migrate the main settlement accounts of all core subsidiaries and holding companies under the group to the designated bank within the next week, prioritize the use of designated bank channels for new businesses, and collect the deposited funds as required.

This is a reorganization, a massive collection of nearly tens of billions of yuan in cash flow.

The flow of funds in and out is enough to make even major banks tremble with fear.

Despite the long-standing battle between Lianxiang Group and Microsoft, Momo Group still possesses an astonishingly high cash flow.

On the banking side, the major banks acted just as swiftly.

Inside the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Handong Branch, Zhao Lei convened a closed-door meeting with the heads of the Credit Approval Department, Corporate Business Department, and Risk Management Department.

At the beginning of the meeting, he got straight to the point: "Ladies and gentlemen, with the arrival of the digital economy era, the level of information management of enterprises, especially the standardization of their internal processes, the transparency and traceability of their data, has become an important indicator for measuring their modern governance capabilities and risk resistance capabilities."

"The head office has also mentioned in its recent guidelines that it encourages us to give appropriate preference to companies with sound governance structures and advanced management methods in terms of risk pricing and approval efficiency."

He surveyed the crowd and said calmly, "Remember, this isn't about lowering standards, but rather about implementing risk control with greater precision and foresight. Going forward, in credit assessments of real estate companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, whether a company uses an efficient and transparent digital management system can be included as a non-mandatory supplementary factor in the evaluation of its overall strength and future development potential. Note that everything must be within the compliance framework; core risk control indicators must not be compromised." Zhao Lei had risen step by step from the bottom to his current position, and when it came to persuasive communication, he was truly exceptional. His words both conveyed the intention of cooperating with Momo Group and completely avoided any policy risks.

Senior executives across the bank understood the unspoken message and began subtly conveying this new trend through internal processes and communications with customers.

A few days later, news of Momo Group's strategic cooperation with several major banks appeared discreetly but prominently in the financial sections of various media outlets and on the official websites of major banks.

With news of Momo Group reaching comprehensive and in-depth strategic cooperation with major banks, and the banks' potentially positive view on the efficiency of enterprise information management in credit review, this has become a hot topic.

The wind direction suddenly became subtle.

The attitude of banks has supreme influence on the real estate industry, which is highly dependent on capital.

If using the Momo system can gain some positive impression with banks, even just a little bit, it would be a very attractive and tangible benefit for real estate companies.

This is far more powerful than empty slogans like "domestic" and "safe."

We're just building a house; we need something safe and convenient.

As for why the designers are used to Microsoft's system and not used to Momo's system...

Get used to my ass! If you can't do it, get out of here. I'll find someone who's used to the Momo system.

Around the same time, some real estate company owners and CFOs received well-intentioned reminders from bank account managers.

"Mr. Li, I heard you've been considering IT upgrades lately? Choosing the right system for this definitely requires careful consideration. However, there are some new trends, like digital management tools. If they can improve internal efficiency and make project processes more transparent, banks will consider them a plus during their evaluations of a company's sound operations. Our leader recently visited the Momo Technology Industrial Park..."

"Chairman Wang, regarding the loan application you mentioned last time, we are actively working on it. By the way, our bank is now paying more attention to the level of modern governance of our partner companies, such as whether they have implemented good ERP or project management systems. This helps to improve the approval process, like the integrated workbench launched by Momo Group..."

These words, seemingly casual, resonated deeply with real estate company owners.

They may not understand technology, but they definitely understand banking.

The attitude of banks is a barometer of their survival and development.

"Quick! Go check out that integrated work platform from Momo Group. Didn't they say you can try it for free? Apply now!" The boss of a mid-sized real estate company yelled at the CIO on the other end of the phone.

"Damn it, so there was this connection? If I had known that Momo salesperson came over a couple of days ago, I shouldn't have sent him away." A regretful and anxious voice came from the conference room of another real estate company.

Real estate companies that were initially skeptical and hesitant about free services, especially small and medium-sized enterprises that had been struggling to secure loans for years, have now completely changed their attitude.

Traffic to the trial application portal on Momo Group's official website surged again, and customer service hotlines were overwhelmed with calls.

This time, what drove them to act was no longer curiosity or greed for cheap deals, but the strongest desire for survival and development.

Gain favor with banks.

Inside the Microsoft Asia United Group headquarters, Waters frowned deeply as he looked at the news on the screen about Momo's strategic cooperation with banks, as well as the report compiled by his subordinates on the drastic change in the attitude of real estate companies.

He held the coffee cup in his hand for a long time, and the coffee in the cup had gone completely cold.

“The bank…” he muttered to himself, a hint of disbelief in his voice, “He actually played the bank card…”

He originally thought this was a battle revolving around technology, price, and policy relationships, and all his plans were aimed at these aspects.

He never expected that Cheng Yi would bypass all these frontal battles and directly strike at the root of the problem, exploiting the lifeblood of all enterprises: capital.

This move completely broke away from the competitive paradigm of the IT industry that he was familiar with, and was full of Chinese business wisdom.

“Mr. Waters, the situation has changed somewhat.” Li Mingyuan strode into the office, his face grave. “The major real estate companies we contacted were initially very enthusiastic, but now they’ve become vague, saying they need to conduct a more comprehensive evaluation. Some partners who previously promised to help us lobby the management center have also reported that the resistance has increased.”

Waters took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and said, "How exactly did they transmit the information? Has the bank explicitly stated its support for Momo's system?"

“No.” Li Mingyuan shook his head and said, “The bank has not issued any official documents or statements supporting the Momo system. All the information is transmitted in a very vague way. We can’t find any evidence against it, but those real estate bosses seem to have understood it.”

“Damn it!” Waters couldn’t help but mutter under his breath.

This offensive, based on personal relationships and resource exchange, proved incredibly difficult for him, a Western elite accustomed to standardized competition.

They can offer technology, services, and discounts, but they can't leverage their massive commercial ecosystem traffic like Momo has to directly and deeply integrate with local financial institutions.

“Mr. Waters, we are now…” Li Mingyuan asked tentatively, “This tender also requires real estate companies to vote comprehensively. If the real estate companies have a strong demand for the Momo system, even the management center can’t suppress it. Moreover, there is Fang Ping there who is extremely resistant to us.”

“Adjust strategy.” Waters made a quick decision. He knew he couldn’t panic at this moment, even though the other side was completely unpredictable.

“Our government relations team must immediately change its rhetoric and stop attacking Momo’s system. Instead, we should strengthen our own advantages and emphasize the seamless integration of Microsoft’s system with global capital markets, international accounting firms, and top consulting firms. For large real estate companies with ambitions to go global or that need to align with international standards, this remains an absolute advantage that Momo cannot match.”

"Focus on conquering those top-tier real estate giants. Many real estate companies rely on them for their livelihood. Winning over one is equivalent to gaining the support of dozens or even hundreds of real estate companies."

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)