Twenty years of cold chain

Once the news spread, not only Tongxing was alarmed, but many of its partners were also thrown into a panic. It was clear to everyone that once Tiansheng Industry got involved, what people were seeing now was the most glorious moment in Tongxing's entire cold chain career.

From this point on, Tongxing's ambition to forge its own path became a pipe dream; all its previous actions would have benefited others. Many condemned Tiansheng's methods as unethical, even despicable. A true eagle should spread its wings and soar, not stoop to such petty acts of coveting another's nest—a truly contemptible act.

But these private expressions of anger and condemnation are of no use. Many people want to exert their efforts, but they are aimless because this matter has risen to the level of "what Tong Hsing should become".

With the hearing imminent, Zeng Zhaoda urgently organized industry experts to discuss the hearing topic. Meanwhile, Tiansheng assembled a high-quality team of experts throughout Qingning Province.

Essentially, this is a discussion that works backward from the outcome. Both sides are clearly aware of their own objectives, and the competition is about who can be more self-consistent. Just like debate topics such as "Which contributes more to society, mental labor or physical labor?" or "Should the Foolish Old Man move the mountain or move house?", there are no perfect answers, but at times, it is necessary to determine who is superior.

When the issue is placed on Tongxing, it becomes whether it should become an "independent industrial base" or a "clustered entrepreneurial park".

These two approaches are worth discussing in detail. The difference lies not only in how the land is used, but also in which model should be used for different locations in the current cold chain era. Although the latter is called clustering, the former is, to some extent, a more centralized model, using a single standard to guide a mature system, connecting the entire process from source, processing to transportation.

The latter approach makes it easier to diversify the products and outputs within a single industrial park, and to achieve resource integration and sharing. Theoretically, a larger customer base and more channels allow for rapid brand recognition through aggregation advantages, and greater access to policy support.

It must be said that the term "cluster-type entrepreneurial park" is somewhat misleading. The 11th Five-Year Plan, released at the beginning of the year, clearly stated that "every effort should be made to expand employment, and expanding employment should be placed in a more prominent position in economic and social development," and emphasized the active development of labor-intensive industries and service industries with large employment capacity.

This is undoubtedly a huge accusation that Tiansheng has put on himself. He first took advantage of the situation to acquire the land, but whether he will start a business or just create a few puppets is another matter entirely.

In the past few days, the lights in Hu Shutong's office have often been on from nightfall until dawn. After this incident, his phone has been ringing off the hook. Fearing that people would worry too much, he eventually handed his phone over to his subordinates, who would then inform them that everything was alright whenever a call came in.

Zeng Zhaoda sent Hu Shutong emails every day, and a series of expert discussion logs appeared before Hu Shutong. They continuously strengthened the advantages of the self-reliant industrial base, and there were many divergent ideas. Zeng Zhaoda also used his connections at universities such as Qingdao University to constantly analyze the opponent's movements for Hu Shutong, listing some of the areas they were most likely to target, striving to provide Hu Shutong with more reference value.

Because the expert panel cannot present at the hearing, they can only provide a report at most. Both sides will provide this report, and both teams are highly qualified, making it easy for it to become a bargaining chip, which has little significance for the outcome.

People are increasingly aware that once Tongxing becomes a supporting player in the industrial park, many things come to an abrupt halt. Following the self-discipline declaration, we also have training on efficient assembly line operations, cost-reducing pre-cooling operation standards, the application of new technologies for low-temperature meat products, and HACCP work guidelines. But how could Tiansheng possibly care about any of that?

Therefore, the Qingyan Meat Products Association formed a "support team" for Tongxing. They wrote extensively on the topic from the perspective of the meat products industry, and gathered the strength of experts and industry professionals to draft a "2007 Qingyan Meat Products Industry Cooperation Outlook".

The name "Tongxing" appears no less than a hundred times in the twenty-four articles of this outlook document. Simply put, they have set out a series of time points to announce what the industry will do step by step under Tongxing's leadership.

When Hu Shutong saw this prospectus, he was deeply moved, feeling a sense of accomplishment that his hard work had finally paid off. Tongxing and Tiansheng were not comparable, but Tongxing was by no means alone, which gave Hu Shutong a sense of grandeur.

After knocking on the door, Su Mu walked in, carrying a thick stack of materials in a folder.

"Mr. Hu, I've prepared all the data you requested. What's next?"

"Take a break, I'll take care of the rest."

"Mr. Hu, I'm fine." Su Mu stood there for a moment, then asked again after some hesitation, "We're sure we'll win, aren't we?"

During this period, Hu Shutong clearly saw the emotions of everyone at Tongxing; they were all very uneasy. Especially those who had invested as much as he had, their anxiety was palpable yet they couldn't show it, casting a pall of gloom over Tongxing.

"Uncle Su, go back and get some sleep." Everyone called him that, and Hu Shutong got used to it after a while. Su Mu wanted to ask, but hesitated. He could tell that Hu Shutong didn't have a solid foundation, but he believed that the extensive preparations Tongxing had made recently would definitely break the deadlock.

Little did he know that the other party's preparations for Tongxing could be traced back three or four months.

Tiansheng Industrial never underestimated Tongxing from the beginning, and did a lot of research on its strengths and weaknesses. Tiansheng had witnessed Tongxing's growth and expansion; it was no ordinary opponent, or more accurately, its leader was no ordinary person.

To win this battle against Tongxing, we only need to focus on one key point: defeating Hu Shutong.

Three or four months ago, when the idea of ​​Tongxing was first conceived, Tiansheng's dedicated working group began researching and understanding Hu Shutong. Through this inquiry, Tiansheng gained a deeper understanding of Hu Shutong's resume: he was a member of the first class of the National University of Minnesota's Cold Chain Transportation program, even earlier than the oldest university, Qingdao University.

Moreover, Hu Shutong had another circle in Mingjiang, and there were many things that Qingyan couldn't fully understand. During the repeated discussions, one day, someone from Tiansheng asked this question—

Besides Hu Shutong, who else was in the first cohort of the Mingda Cold Chain program?

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.