I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 834 The Selection of the Branch Manager for the Soon-to-Be-Established Pengcheng Branch

The next morning, Fang Qingye took Yue Kai to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. In addition to meeting Director Wang, they also met Liu Dongsheng, chairman of Guofeng Investment Fund, and his assistant.

A preliminary agreement was reached: Guofeng Investment Fund will invest 2 million yuan to acquire a 12% stake in Galaxy Loom Co., Ltd., and will send a non-executive director to the board of directors.

Of course, this is a preliminary agreement, which will then be submitted to the respective company's board of directors for approval. However, everyone knows that it is basically a done deal.

"Chairman Fang, from now on we're comrades-in-arms." Liu Dongsheng smiled and shook hands with Fang Qingye at the end.

"Yes, let's work together to get this done!" Fang Qingye said with a smile.

Liu Dongsheng nodded, then turned to Director Wang: "I hope Director Wang and all the leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will continue to provide support in the future."

"Chairman Liu and Chairman Fang, please rest assured. The Galaxy Loom Project will soon be included in our ministry's key support projects. Not only the ministry, but also the national level attaches great importance to it."

That afternoon, Fang Qingye took the high-speed train back to Shanghai.

Although the national-level hurdles have been overcome, the follow-up work is even more arduous. The preparation of the new company and the application for the Galaxy Loom project are just some of the matters that have arisen one after another, keeping the newly appointed CEO, Wang Yang, extremely busy, while Tuofang Technology, led by Bai Ou, provides full support.

At the same time, Topway Technology and Yunfeng Capital, founded by Ma Yun, announced that they would each invest RMB 1 billion in their subsidiaries, OKMicro Aerospace and LandSpace, for product research and development, base expansion, and the introduction of technical talents.

Everything is proceeding at a rapid pace. Fang Qingye returned to Nanxin, his wife took over the affairs in Shanghai, while there were also important matters to be dealt with in Nanxin.

The morning after Fang Qingye returned to Nanxin, he convened a meeting of the bank presidents in his office in the Jinghai Bank Building. The main purpose of the meeting was to hear a report from Vice President Chen Danlu on the preparatory work for the establishment of the Jinghai Bank Shanghai Operations Center.

The project, which began at the start of the year, is now largely complete. The operations center will be located in the Tuofang Building in Pudong—a building that was completed last November and whose interior decoration was finished in April. It is expected to officially begin operations at the end of July. At that time, Tuofang Technology and several of its subsidiaries will move in.

"Fang Xing, we previously consulted you regarding the appointment of key leaders in the operations center, as well as the reassignment plan for relevant departments and branch leaders. After being chaired by President Deng, we discussed and approved it again, and sent it to your email last week. Do you have any further comments?" Chen Danlu inquired.

"I have no objection. Just issue the document according to the procedure," Fang Qingye responded.

Jinghai Bank's Shanghai Operations Center adopts a leadership structure of one director and two deputy directors: the director is concurrently held by Vice President Chen Danlu, and the two deputy directors are Zhang Rong, the former president of the Huangpu branch, and Song Minghua, the former president of the Nanxin Changle Street branch. Other department heads and staff are recruited through head office allocation, branch selection, and external recruitment.

Generally speaking, the level of the operations center is lower than that of the head office but half a level higher than that of the branch office.

"In addition, there are matters concerning the establishment of the Pengcheng branch," Chen Danlu continued in his report.

According to the plan at the beginning of the year, branches in Xuzhou, Yancheng, Hangzhou, and Huacheng have been established this year, with the only remaining branch in Pengcheng still under preparation.

"The main issue is who should be in charge; who should be put in charge of this preparatory work?"

Located in the Special Economic Zone, Pengcheng Branch, like Pudong Branch, has greater authority than other branches. It has more power in areas such as credit approval, financial product launch, and risk management than other branch managers. Therefore, the selection of the branch manager is quite important.

Upon hearing Chen Danlu's words, Fang Qingye turned her gaze to Zhao Wenjun: "Zhao Xing, you're in charge of personnel, do you have any recommendations?"

"Yes, this is the list of recommendations that I and the Human Resources Department have evaluated." As she spoke, Zhao Wenjun handed a document to Fang Qingye.

Fang Qingye took it and examined it carefully, slowly frowning.

The list includes three people, all of whom are mid-level managers at the bank. Their basic information, resumes, and evaluations are attached.

Fang Qingye took the resumes and looked them over carefully, his brows slowly furrowing. All three were middle managers, and their resumes were quite impressive, but something just didn't feel right to him.

“Dai Jie, 48 years old, deputy branch manager of Dongping branch, has worked in banking for 28 years... He has a wealth of experience, but isn’t he a bit too old to go to Shenzhen?”

“Yuan Xiaoli, deputy director of the headquarters credit department, is serious about her work, but…” Fang Qingye pictured the female subordinate who always wore black-rimmed glasses and spoke in a soft voice.

The situation in Pengcheng is complicated; I'm afraid she wouldn't be able to handle it.

Fang Qingye looked at the three people on the list and wasn't very satisfied with any of them, so she looked up and asked the other two, "Have you looked at the list?" "Yes," Deng Rong nodded. "Frankly speaking, none of these three are ideal candidates. But Jinghai Bank has expanded rapidly in the past two years, and its talent pool is indeed tight."

Yes
A good leader needs to hone their skills in different positions; it's not enough to simply have a high degree to be competent. Developing talent takes time and cannot be rushed.

It seems we need to pause our expansion.

Fang Qingye thought to herself, "Of course, this is a plan for next year. We need to solve this problem first."

He picked up his teacup and took a sip, names flashing through his mind, when suddenly one name stopped.

"What do you think of the Wuyang branch's overreaching ambitions?" he asked.

“I think Gao Pan is a good fit. Although he made a mistake at the Huangpu branch, he has worked diligently since being transferred to Wuyang as acting branch manager, and the Wuyang branch has made rapid progress in all aspects of its business last year,” Chen Danlu quickly said. “I had suggested Gao Pan before, but Deng Xing and Zhao Xing were not in favor.”

oh.
It seems they had discussed it beforehand.

"What are your reasons for disagreeing?" Fang Qingye asked the other two.

“Gao Pan recently removed the ‘acting’ title from his position as acting bank president, and now he’s suddenly been transferred to Pengcheng. I think this is a bit inappropriate, after all, he’s someone who has made serious mistakes,” Zhao Wenjun said, expressing her thoughts.

Deng Rong also voiced her objections: "Gao Pan did a good job in Wuyang this year, but I'm worried that Pengcheng's financial environment is complex and it's a remote place. I'm concerned that he might repeat his mistakes and should spend another two years getting to know himself better."

“Your concerns are valid, but I think we should learn from this experience. Gao Pan has suffered such a big setback, so we should draw lessons from it. I’ll talk to him first,” Fang Qingye said.

Deng Rong and Zhao Wenjun looked at each other, but they both knew what was going on in their hearts.

Gao Pan is in charge of the preparatory work for the Pengcheng branch, and it's almost certain that the plan has been finalized.

After discussing other matters, the meeting adjourned.

Fang Qingye stood by the window again, looking at the bustling traffic outside. After a moment of contemplation, she spoke to Zhou Yu, the temporary secretary who had just finished taking meeting minutes.

Now, all bank president meetings are recorded by the secretary.

It turns out that his former secretary, Hu Lingling, was eight months pregnant. A few days ago, he heard that she had accidentally fallen while walking and was showing signs of bleeding and premature labor. Her family was so frightened that they rushed her to the hospital to be admitted for treatment to save the pregnancy.

There was no way she could continue working there, so Fang Qingye readily approved her leave, allowing her to take all the leave from pregnancy preservation to childbirth and breastfeeding before returning to work.

Fang Qingye temporarily assigned Zhou Yu to fill the position of secretary.

Zhou Yu is young and beautiful. I heard she works diligently in the general office. More importantly, she has a high alcohol tolerance and can be taken out for social occasions.

Fang Qingye did not have high requirements for her secretary.

All four leaders in the bank have secretaries. Deng Rong and Chen Danlu are grooming their secretaries to be assistants and advisors, so their requirements are relatively high. He, on the other hand, doesn't care; a mere pretty face is fine—he has no intention of grooming them. On this point, he shares a similar view with Zhao Wenjun.

He looked at Zhou Yu, who was organizing documents, and said, "Zhou Yu, call Director Gao of the Wuyang branch and ask him to come to headquarters tomorrow morning. I need to talk to him."

"Okay." Zhou Yu immediately put down her notebook, picked up the phone on her desk, and dialed a number.

"Is this President Gao? Hello, this is Zhou Yu. President Fang wants you to come to headquarters tomorrow. He wants to talk to you."

"Yes, eight o'clock in the morning."

"Okay, bye."

(End of this chapter)