Rebirth in 1985

Chapter 836: Prelude to a Clash with a Retail Giant

Lu Shaohua summoned Xu Jiarui to his office, he was the only one there, but seeing Xu Jiarui's tired look, Lu Shaohua felt something was strange. After asking, he found out that Xu Jiarui had just returned from a business trip and had just got off the plane and came to Phoenix Building. He had also held a short internal meeting in the middle. He had been thinking of going home to have a good rest, but he was unexpectedly called by Lu Shaohua.

Phoenix Sales is the only subsidiary of Phoenix Group that has overseas branches. As the general manager of Phoenix Sales, Xu Jiarui naturally travels overseas very often. It is normal for him to be on business trips frequently. It is for this reason that Lu Shaohua gave Xu Jiarui a privilege, allowing him to arrange his work at will. Well, even if he does not come to work in the group, it is okay. As long as the work is done well, it does not matter whether he takes a vacation or goes out for a trip.

Xu Jiarui did not disappoint Lu Shaohua. Although he sometimes stayed at home and did not come to work in the group, as long as he was not tired, he insisted on coming to the company and going into the office to work.

But today was different. Xu Jiarui had just got off the plane and had a meeting. Even if he was an iron man, he couldn't hold on. He could only go home early to rest. Unexpectedly, he was called by Lu Shaohua and his wish was dashed.

Maybe it was because he worked too hard. Xu Jiarui was also a heavy smoker. So when Lu Shaohua saw Xu Jiarui looking tired, he understood and didn't say anything. He smiled lightly, took out a cigarette from his pocket and threw it to Xu Jiarui, letting him take it himself.

In front of Lu Shaohua, Xu Jiarui never smoked. Who told him that Lu Shaohua himself didn't smoke? As a subordinate, he could only bear it. But now the situation was different. Lu Shaohua took the initiative to throw a cigarette to him. As he was exhausted, he naturally didn't hesitate and took one and lit it.

Xu Jiarui had already lit up his cigarette, and Lu Shaohua was not far behind. He took the cigarette that Xu Jiarui handed over and lit one as well. He sat down on the sofa facing Xu Jiarui, and then asked, "Why is this cigarette?"

Cigarettes are something Lu Shaohua should be proud of, because he is the only one in the world who can smoke such cigarettes. If others want to smoke them, they have to take them from his hands. There is nothing they can do about it, because those cigarettes are made in Lu Shaohua’s own factory and are exclusively supplied to him and not sold to others.

Xu Jiarui hadn't paid attention to it at first, but after Lu Shaohua asked, he looked at Lu Shaohua with some curiosity, then took a deep puff, savored it carefully, closed his eyes, opened his eyes again, and uttered two words. "Good cigarette."

What Xu Jiarui said was true. It was indeed a good cigarette, soft in the mouth and very mellow. It was not like the cigarettes out there that would choke you if you took a deep puff. More importantly, the tar content. Xu Jiarui knew as soon as he took a puff that it was a cigarette with very little tar content.

"Ha ha……"

Lu Shaohua laughed and, without being stingy, threw the pack of cigarettes to Xu Jiarui. The meaning was obvious: it was a reward for him.

Xu Jiarui would not refuse a good cigarette. He also laughed and put the cigarette directly into his breath. Then he frowned and became serious again.

Yes, Xu Jiarui suddenly became serious, not for any other reason, but because he knew that Lu Shaohua should get to the point next and would not allow him to be frivolous. Well, this was Xu Jiarui's reaction to his understanding of Lu Shaohua.

Indeed, if Xu Jiarui did not set an example first, Lu Shaohua would interrupt Xu Jiarui, become serious, and get into the topic of why Xu Jiarui came. Now, Xu Jiaduan was ready without Lu Shaohua saying anything, so how could Lu Shaohua disappoint Xu Jiarui?

"I called you here about the agency's business." Lu Shaohua went straight to the point and spoke the core.

Of course, what Lu Shaohua said is just a starting point and not the core content. It can only be regarded as a prelude to the beginning.

"Yeah." Xu Jiarui nodded, sat up straight, and looked serious. His intention was simply to let Lu Shaohua continue speaking.

Lu Shaohua was straightforward and told Qin Sichen all the plans he had discussed, and also gave a rough outline of his grand plan. It took Lu Shaohua nearly twenty minutes to finish his speech, and then he looked at Xu Jiarui, waiting for his response.

"In fact, if you hadn't mentioned this, I would have asked you for instructions soon, because our group has reached a bottleneck. If we don't relax the agency rights, we can only maintain the status quo. Well, maybe there will be accidents in this status quo, and competitors will find out and attack us by surprise. Then we will be in trouble." Xu Jiarui analyzed the situation first, and finally, he didn't forget to add one more sentence. "Of course, if the agency rights are relaxed, it will have a great impact on Phoenix's sales."

What is an agent? It is nothing more than an intermediary. An agent company is like an intermediary company. What they do is nothing more than acting as an agent for a certain brand, purchasing goods at low prices, selling them at high prices, and making a profit from the difference.

But Phoenix Sales is different. Phoenix Sales is its own company. The cost is the factory price, and it is sold at a high price. The profit in between can be much greater than that from an agent.

Lu Shaohua knew the problem very well, but he intended to expand his market share, so it would be worth it even if it meant losing a little profit. As long as he increased his market share and sold more products at a lower profit margin, he could make up for the losses in the middle.

"I know about this, but we can't lose the big picture for the sake of small gains. Moving forward is the key. We can't just stand still." Lu Shaohua said with some emotion.

"Yeah." Xu Jiarui nodded in agreement.

It's over. Yes, the moment Xu Jiarui nodded, it meant that the topic was over. Since it was over, Lu Shaohua seemed to have no need to keep Xu Jiarui. After all, Xu Jiarui's tired look was obvious and he couldn't endure it any longer.

"Go home and have a good rest. Tomorrow you can discuss it with President Qin and come up with a plan as soon as possible." After saying this, Lu Shaohua drove Xu Jiarui away.

……

After Xu Jiarui left, Lu Shaohua fell into deep thought. He was thinking about nothing else but what his next step should be.

Seeing that the first step of the plan had been taken, the next thing was to call Chu Lei to discuss the issues of Phoenix Computer and Phoenix operating system.

Lu Shaohua could foresee that if the agency rights were relaxed, many businesses would flock to Phoenix Group to be their agents, because Phoenix Group's reputation and products were too reassuring and were absolutely the best of the best. If one could be the agent for the products of such a group, it would definitely be profitable.

Since you have become an agent, you will definitely purchase goods and place orders.

It is conceivable that if there are too many orders at once, and there is no preparation, the Phoenix base will probably be short of supply. What will happen when there is an urgent shortage of goods? There will be no goods to ship.

Lu Shaohua always acted after planning. Moreover, Lu Shaohua did not want to face a shortage of goods, so no matter what, Lu Shaohua had to make preparations in advance, adjust the production line and store a large amount of goods.

Adjusting the production line and storage is not difficult. Lu Shaohua can solve it by just making a phone call to Chu Lei. The problem is that Lu Shaohua is not only moving for the Phoenix computer and Phoenix operating system. Lu Shaohua wants to mobilize all the products produced at the Phoenix base.

How many products does Phoenix Group have? It’s quite a lot. Phoenix Electronics alone has several products. Add in Phoenix Computers, Phoenix Automobiles, Phoenix Beverages, etc., there are no less than ten products in total.

This is not a large-scale increase in production. If Lu Shaohua just made a phone call, Chu Lei might become suspicious and think that Lu Shaohua was joking or had doubts.

Chu Lei is in charge of the entire Phoenix Base by himself, which already means he has a lot of things to do. If he has too many concerns in his mind, he probably won't be able to concentrate on managing the Phoenix Base.

In order to avoid this problem, Lu Shaohua had to summon Chu Lei to Hong Kong. Of course, Lu Shaohua could also rush to Shenzhen, but because Lu Shaohua was too lazy to run, he had to inconvenience Chu Lei and ask him to come to Hong Kong for a meeting.

At the same time, Lu Shaohua also wanted to gather Chu Lei, Qin Sichen, Xu Jiarui and others to hold a meeting to discuss important matters. If the meeting was held in Shenzhen, it would mean that everyone in Hong Kong would have to go there as well, which would be a bit of a fuss.

Is it better to make one person suffer or to make a whole group of people suffer?

Even a three-year-old child knows the choice, so Lu Shaohua finally decided to call Chu Lei to Hong Kong.

With a plan in mind, Lu Shaohua did not hesitate and immediately called Chu Lei and asked him to come to Hong Kong the next day.

Chu Lei did not hesitate or ask any further questions in response to Lu Shaohua's call, and agreed immediately.

It’s not that Chu Lei didn’t want to ask first, but Chu Lei knew that even if he asked, he wouldn’t get anything out of it, because he knew Lu Shaohua too well. If it was something that could be said on the phone, Lu Shaohua would never let him come to Hong Kong.

Indeed, this is Lu Shaohua's style of doing things. Even if Chu Lei asked, he would not say much.

Well, Lu Shaohua does things in a very unique style, which is a little different from ordinary people.

Well then, after making the call to Chu Lei, did Lu Shaohua take any other actions?

It turned out that Lu Shaohua did have other moves. After hanging up the call with Chu Lei, Lu Shaohua thought about it again, and suddenly remembered something, a very important thing.

This matter is nothing else but Phoenix Supermarket and the plan to impact the retail giant.

Originally, Lu Shaohua could have bought some time, but Lu Shaohua, who always planned before taking action, thought that time was very tight. If the country was not prepared, it would be too late to start planning.

So Lu Shaohua picked up the phone and made another call.

……