Tech startup: I really do make mobile phones!

Chapter 181 Zhao Tiezhu, who fell behind
Orange Technology Conference Room 2
In early July, Shenzhen was scorching hot, but the air conditioning in Conference Room 2 of Orange Technology was blasting, and the cool air seemed to suppress all the restlessness.

Around the long conference table, senior executives from various departments of the company sat upright, in a serious atmosphere.

This was the first comprehensive review meeting a month after the release of the Orange 2 phone. Before heading to Yingtian to handle the final matters concerning Nietzsche's equity, Chen Mo needed to have a clear understanding of the company's current situation.

At the start of the meeting, the pressure was first placed on Zhao Tiezhu, the head of the marketing department.

In the past, he would have the capable Lin Xiaoxia by his side in such situations, who would prepare a beautiful report in advance with clear data. He only needed to read it aloud and use his street smarts to easily get through it.

But now that Lin Xiaoxia has gone to the west to develop the market, Zhao Tiezhu has no choice but to bite the bullet and do it himself.

To put it simply, Zhao Tiezhu, sitting in the position of head of the marketing department, is finding it difficult to keep up with the company's pace of development in terms of ability and knowledge.

A junior high school dropout, whose only skill is dealing with the ways of the common people, is barely competent enough to be a supply chain team leader.

But the marketing manager has clearly gone beyond the scope of their responsibilities!
Once Zhao Tiezhu was away from Lin Xiaoxia, the report pages in front of him were scattered and clearly lacked logic and organization.

"cough!"

Zhao Tiezhu cleared his throat, trying to appear calm, giving the impression that he was reading from a script.

"Brother Chen, colleagues, let me report on June's situation. Our Orange 2's total sales... well, for the first time, have exceeded 220 million units, which is a very good result!"

The data was indeed impressive, but then he changed the subject and frowned: "However, trouble is also on its way!"

"Now that the market has seen that we and wheat have made money, everyone, whether human or ghost, is rushing in to make smartphones, it's like they've gone crazy!"
Due to tight parts supply, our production ramp-up speed has slowed down significantly.

The most disgusting thing is the contract manufacturers, who take the opportunity to raise prices!

Damn, the cost of assembling a single phone has jumped from 12.7 yuan to 14.2 yuan, an increase of a full 1.5 yuan, or over 12%!

Zhao Tiezhu couldn't help but curse again, then tried to find some optimism in the serious meeting.

"Of course, every disadvantage has its advantage. This is bad for our Orange phones because it increases costs, but it's a huge boon for our 'Far Orange' batteries and 'Orange Technology' precision components. We're getting so many orders we can't keep up!"

Chen Mo sat in the main seat, listening quietly, his fingers unconsciously tapping lightly on the smooth tabletop.

After Zhao Tiezhu finished speaking, he asked directly, "Tiezhu, besides serving ourselves, how much have the orders from external sources increased in the past month? Do you have that data?"

"Smart Orange Centralized Procurement - External Orders"

Zhao Tiezhu was taken aback by the question, clearly unprepared for it. He quickly looked down and frantically rummaged through the pile of documents, the papers rustling as he searched frantically, the more anxious he became, the less he could find anything.

The meeting room fell silent, save for the hum of the air conditioner and the sound of him flipping through documents.

After a long while, Zhao Tiezhu finally raised his head, a forced smile plastered on his face.

He said sheepishly, "Brother Chen, um... I... I forgot to prepare the separate documents for the external orders from Zhicheng's centralized procurement!"

Chen Mo looked at him, pursed his lips, flared his nostrils, and let out a soft breath, seemingly somewhat helpless, but he didn't say anything more.

"Let's have Zeng, the person in charge of Zhicheng's centralized procurement, attend the next monthly meeting!"

"Okay, okay!" Zhao Tiezhu nodded hurriedly, feeling like he had been granted a pardon. He was eager to get rid of these tedious data tasks as soon as possible.

Actually, you can't blame Zhao Tiezhu for not being ambitious; it's just that his learning speed can't keep up with the company's development.
This is a common problem for rapidly developing startups: the abilities and knowledge reserves of veteran employees cannot keep up with the company's growth rate.

Why.
Zhao Tiezhu, who had spent years mingling in the streets, had long been able to see through the subtle expressions on Chen Mo's face.

But what can he do?

From frugality to luxury is easy, from luxury to frugality.

Zhao Tiezhu has worked hard to climb to his current position. He achieved success at a young age. Is he really going to step down and give way to a more capable person so soon?

So, since Chen Mo didn't speak up, Zhao Tiezhu could only pretend to be confused even though he knew the truth!

Chen Mo stopped dwelling on the one-sided report from the marketing department and turned his gaze to Gong Yun, the head of the logistics department, who was standing to the side.

"Sister Gong, tell me about your logistics and finances!"

Gong Yun looked at Zhao Tiezhu, who had "revealed his true colors" and looked somewhat disheveled today, and gently nodded to him, indicating that he should relax!
Chen Mo sometimes acts impulsively, but this precisely shows that he is a person who cherishes old friendships.

Gong Yun and Zhao Tiezhu were both well aware of this aspect of her personality.

After Gong Yun's words of comfort, Zhao Tiezhu's tense nerves finally relaxed a little.

Despite his usual carefree attitude, he couldn't help but be nervous when it came to his future position in the company.

Ultimately, Chen Mo holds 100% of Orange Technology's equity, and he himself has no confidence that he could do better than he does now if he went out on his own.

Seeing that the awkward atmosphere of Zhao Tiezhu's lack of knowledge had dissipated, Gong Yun finally opened the notebook in front of her, having already memorized all kinds of financial data.

"Mr. Chen, the company's overall financial health is currently very good, in an ideal state of 'income slightly exceeding expenditure,' with a stable daily net inflow of around 1200 million."

"We have always strictly controlled the rate of compound interest growth to avoid blind expansion."

Her voice was clear and steady: "As of now, the company's total revenue is approximately 43.2 billion!"

"Of these, approximately 26.8 billion yuan is used for pledging and working capital in our supply chain cycle with Nietzsche. After deducting this amount, the company's readily available cash pool is 16.4 billion yuan!"

Upon hearing the figure of "16.4 billion", Chen Mo nodded slightly.

The company's account was full again, which reminded him of something else.

Last July, in order to strategically invest in Nietzsche, he urgently borrowed US$1 million from Lu Qingyue in Shanghai, agreeing to pay interest at the Federal Reserve rate. Now that the one-year term is up, he has to repay the principal and interest.

After a moment's thought, he asked Gong Yun directly, "Sister Gong, if I need to use around 7 million yuan immediately, will it affect the company's normal operations and expansion plans?"

Gong Yun was not annoyed by the interruption. She quickly calculated in her mind and then gave a professional and affirmative answer.

"After withdrawing 7 million yuan in cash, the fund pool still has 9.4 million yuan in idle funds. As long as we maintain the current ramp-up speed of orange and Nietzsche production capacity and do not make any unexpectedly aggressive investments, we can fully cover all operating costs and safety margins without causing any financial risks!"

“Okay!” Chen Mo nodded: “Then you make the arrangements for the follow-up, prepare 7 million yuan, and pay back the money you borrowed from Lu Qingyue of Morgan Stanley last year!”

According to Chen Mo's calculations, the principal and interest amount to approximately 6.48 million yuan, but handling fees still need to be reserved.

After dealing with the important financial matters, Gong Yun took the initiative to steer the conversation to another pressing issue—administration and logistics.

"Mr. Chen, there is another matter I need to report to you."

According to the original design, our current office area can accommodate a maximum of 260 employees.

However, the company currently has 280 employees on staff, making space extremely limited.

Some newly hired employees had to be temporarily assigned to workstations in the corridor between the warehouse and the elevator, which not only affected work efficiency but also posed certain safety hazards.

Chen Mo was somewhat surprised to hear this: "280 people already! So fast?" He remembered that at the end of last year, the company only had more than 120 people.

So he immediately reassured him, "I've already made arrangements for the office space. I've asked Xu Mingyuan of Yuancheng to start acquiring the last two Grade A office buildings in Guohong Industrial Park. We should be able to move there next year as a temporary measure!"

Gong Yun nodded gently.

"President Chen, considering the company's current growth rate and the trend of personnel expansion, I think it's time to put the 'Guanlan Orange Town Headquarters Plan' proposed by District Chief Zhang of Longhua on the agenda and start preliminary research and planning."

"Leasing office space piecemeal like this isn't a long-term solution!" Chen Mo raised an eyebrow and leaned forward slightly. "How come the company has so many extra people? Sister Gong, could you tell me the company's current detailed organizational structure and personnel distribution? I want to understand the situation!"

Gong Yun, unhurried and unhurried, eloquently described the detailed personnel composition and functional division of each department.

Technology Department: It consists of a software group, a hardware group, and a design group, which are responsible for system development, equipment research and development, and appearance design, respectively.

Marketing Department: Covers e-commerce, channel, supply chain, and centralized procurement teams, from online operations to offline channel expansion, and then to supply chain management and centralized procurement of the Orange Group, each link is interconnected.

The Logistics Department is responsible for administration, human resources, finance, customer service, logistics, and security, handling all matters related to the company's internal operations.

Legal Department: Divided into the Patent Group and the Legal Group. The former focuses on intellectual property strategy, while the latter handles various legal matters.

Market Research Department: Comprising the Market Research Team and the Care Team, it is responsible for both researching market dynamics and maintaining employee well-being.

The company's organizational structure is clear and well-organized, with well-defined responsibilities and authority.

After listening, Chen Mo blinked, genuinely surprised.

In the past six months, the number of employees has more than doubled!
He carefully examined the company's organizational chart and began asking questions of each employee one by one.

Chen Mo felt that the technical department had 50 people, which was fine. He even thought that in the rapidly iterating technology industry, the team was quite capable, and instructed Jiang Yu to lead the team well.

His gaze fell on the "e-commerce group of 13 people" out of the 125 people in the marketing department, and he frowned.

"Tiezhu, your e-commerce team's online sales are a mess... not particularly outstanding. Do you really need 13 people?"

Zhao Tiezhu chuckled, finally showing a hint of relief.

“Brother Chen, this is mainly a scheme that Xia set up beforehand. She said that the future belongs to the internet and public opinion. We can’t just bury ourselves in our work; we also need to know how to promote ourselves. Once we lose ground, it will be difficult to take it back.”

"These people, well, they might as well help maintain the online reputation of our product!"

He was practically implying that most of the "e-commerce group" were Orange's professional "online trolls".

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Tiezhu decided to try to salvage his image in Brother Chen's eyes, so he took the initiative to make the suggestion.

"Brother Chen, if you think there are too many people and it's a waste of resources, I think we can cut the 'TV Shopping BD' team, those 10 people who do advertising production. Anyway, Nietzsche's TV shopping channel is barely surviving!"

Chen Mo rejected it outright.

"The advertising production team cannot be moved; in the future short video era, they will be the main force for publicity!"

Not only will we not lay off workers, we'll strengthen our workforce!
"Reorganize them from the marketing department, establishing an 'advertising production team' within the marketing department, to work closely with the e-commerce team and explore online video promotion methods in advance."

Although Zhao Tiezhu's understanding of the "short video era" was still vague, he still earnestly stated that he would carry out Brother Chen's orders without hesitation!
The 25-person customer service team in the logistics department: Chen Mo frowned again when he saw this number. Wasn't there only 3 customer service representatives half a year ago?

Why so many?
"Sister Gong! Do we need so many customer service representatives? Do we really have that many user issues?"

Gong Yun was prepared and immediately used data to support her points.

The document details the customer service team's average daily processing volume (telephone and online), cost savings compared to outsourcing, industry benchmarks, and risks such as excessive hotline wait times and soaring negative review rates that could result from staff reductions.

Simply put, 120,000 mobile phones would require at least one customer service representative.

These mere 25 customer service representatives are far from the maximum capacity for Orange!

Based on current orange sales, the demand for customer service staff is rapidly increasing, at a rate of 16 per month.
Outsource customer service.
Chen Mo thought about it and realized that outsourcing customer service to several companies at once was unprofessional, so he decided not to bother Orange users.

No wonder people say that Dong Ge's relocation of the customer service center has solved the employment problem in Sucheng. The customer service needs of Jingdong alone are basically over 20,000 people!
A little-known fact: The Ministry of Information Industry stipulates that there is a 30-second limit to the customer service connection time in the "Telecommunications Service Standards". If this limit is exceeded, you can file a complaint directly!
Chen Mo was stunned. He then realized that the seemingly insignificant customer service work involved such a huge workload and high level of professionalism. Cutting staff would inevitably have a direct impact on user experience and brand reputation.

No wonder later giant companies introduced AI-powered customer service to save on customer service costs. I got connected within 30 seconds, and it was compliant anyway!

Given Orange's current user base of approximately 800 million, 25 professional customer service representatives are not the maximum; at least 73 are needed to reach a satisfactory level!
With the surge in sales of Orange 2, the number of customer service staff also needs to be increased.

Hmm! Chen Mo thought about it again and realized that this might be a good thing. At least the number of jobs the company provides can be truly supported by customer service positions.

Job opportunities are sometimes a bargaining chip for businesses in the district.

"Well, looks like we can't move any of them!" He gave a wry smile, and could only compromise: "Having new employees work in the corridor isn't a solution either."

"Okay, Xiaomeng, after the meeting, immediately contact He Jian from Chengbao upstairs. They should have spare workstations. Discuss with them and ask if they can lend them to us temporarily. We can also relocate the entire customer service team that is not closely related to the main business there!"

Zhou Yumeng immediately nodded and wrote it down, and Chen Mo even made a joke.

"Perfect timing! Let's move those young ladies from the customer service team up there, and give those programmers at Orange Studio who're buried in code a little 'balance' and improve the working environment in their office!"

Jiang Yu from the Technology Department then pointed out that hardware testing had been occupying Meeting Room 3, which was extremely inconvenient and unprofessional, and formally applied to build a professional testing laboratory.

Lin Chun-feng from the Ministry of Justice reported on the progress of the lawsuit against Fang Chuanzi:
He has won the case and has now become a defaulter; the application for a travel restriction order is pending.
The report also provided a systematic overview of the Orange Group's patent portfolio and suggested that the company take advantage of the internal strife at Jinli Group to acquire some of its fundamental patents at low prices to enrich its patent portfolio.

Chen Mo agreed to the patent acquisition proposal and specifically asked him to accompany him to Yingtian the next day to handle the Nietzsche equity contract.

In his concluding report, Wang Kai from the market research department vividly described the "grand occasion" of various companies flocking to the smartphone field after wheat and oranges ignited the market.

Luo Yonghao's high-profile interaction with Lei Jun suggests he intends to enter the fray.
Chen Mo smiled and asked Zhao Tiezhu to send Zeng, the head of Zhicheng Procurement, to promote Yuancheng Battery and Chengke Motion Control.

Then, Ali partnered with Haier to launch the Haier W718, which runs Ali Cloud OS.
After hearing the specifications, Chen Mo felt that apart from the LCD screen of Jingdongfang, it was almost a copy of Orange 1. That's all?

Also, DOOV released its new D2 phone.
Wang Kai commented that its positioning strategy was poor, and that it had abandoned the male market.

Chen Mo, however, quite agreed with the appearance of the Duowei, and instructed Wang Kai, a former subordinate of Duowei, to try to poach its exterior design team.

Finally, even more outrageous crossover entrepreneurs flocked in:

Zhou Hongyi of Qihoo 361, who is involved in two separate collaborations with Alcatel and Chrysanthemum (brands of mobile phones).
Japanese home appliance giant Kangjia, the E8 mobile phone with strong OEM branding in North China!

The P1 phone from Baishi Cola, the U1 phone from Jay Chou, and even BoYin, which makes airplanes, have all come to test the waters with their own branding!
Wang Kai conservatively estimates that this wave of "gold rush" fueled by the government has attracted 800 to 1200 billion yuan of hot money.

Meanwhile, Yuancheng New Energy and Chengke Micro Motor, the "shovel sellers" under the Orange Group, are becoming some of the beneficiaries of this wave of frenzy in the hidden supply chain.

After listening to all the reports, Chen Mo rubbed his temples and sighed to Gong Yun.

“Every department is asking for space and resources. The ‘Orange Town’ project really can’t be delayed any longer and must be put on the agenda.”

That's settled! Before the new headquarters is completed, the office building at Yuancheng must prioritize and fully guarantee laboratory space for Jiang Gong's technical department during renovations!

Gong Yun calmly replied, "Understood, President Chen! I will personally liaise with President Xu to ensure that the technical department's needs are met with the highest priority!"

The meeting lasted for nearly two hours before it ended.

Without lingering, Chen Mo handed the company over to Gong Yun for temporary supervision, and then, under Zhao Tiezhu's somewhat "pitiful" gaze, immediately set off for the airport with Zhou Yumeng and Lin Junfeng.

They were heading to Yingtian to deal with Nietzsche's outstanding shares.

Like a fast boat, Orange cannot stop in the turbulent market where hundreds of boats are competing; it can only continue to forge ahead.
Chen Mo still had no clear idea in his mind how to deal with Zhao Tiezhu, this "senior executive" who was clearly not keeping up with the company's development pace.

After all, Zhao Tiezhu was a brother who had been with him through thick and thin from the beginning, starting from a small workshop.

Given their past relationship, he couldn't bring himself to ask him to give up his position. He could only let things cool down for now, find a suitable way to settle things, and then confront him directly.

(End of this chapter)