April 25th, Monday.
In his office, after long consideration, Pei Qian finally settled his gaze on the OTTO Technology department.
Yesterday, Pei Qian readily accepted Guo Licheng’s suggestion and decided to create a reservation-specific app for Custody Fitness.
This way, Custody Fitness would not only have prices much higher than other gyms but also many more customer-unfriendly rules:
Mandatory bundled consumption of fitness meals from Slackin’ Takeout;
Mandatory use of Custody Fitness’s app, otherwise unable to book gym time;
Strict adherence to pre-established fitness plans—though some flexibility was allowed, it was still overly rigid and inflexible compared to other gyms.
This was already extremely, extremely discouraging.
Pei Qian figured that if anyone said such a gym could still make money, he would suggest they open one themselves.
Just take the app requirement—who has ever heard of a gym requiring app reservations?
Adding this extra step would discourage many customers.
However, deciding which department should make this app was a problem.
Currently, many departments under Pei Qian have the ability to develop and maintain apps. The gaming departments went without saying, and Finish Line Literature Website, TPDb website, and Slackin’ Takeout all had mobile apps.
Although some mobile apps had few users and simple functions, at least they existed.
Scholar Express went without saying—they developed apps at the highest level.
Besides these, OTTO Technology obviously also had the capability to develop this app, though it might be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Pei Qian pondered: Who should he assign it to?
Whichever department it was, the developed app would reach a “usable” level.
But given the previous multiple instances of being backstabbed by coordinated departments, Pei Qian felt he must fully consider the relationships between various departments to prevent any two departments from creating unexpected chemical reactions that might drive things in unpredictable directions.
His gaze swept over these departments one by one.
“The gaming department is out. They’re all a bunch of over-imaginative weirdos who are good at applying game development thinking to other projects. Who knows what terrifying consequences might result if they get involved.”
“Finish Line Literature Website and TPDb website are run by the same group of people, so they don’t seem suitable either. What if the TPDb website gives Custody Fitness a special recommendation? Wouldn’t that be extremely unfortunate?”
“Scholar Express? Even more impossible. Scholar Express has such high popularity, especially with so many users in Jing Prefecture. If they naturally come up with some ‘having a better body helps you study better’ type of activity, wouldn’t that be disastrous?”
“Slackin’ Takeout… not good either. These two departments already have very close connections. If they become even more closely connected, even integrating their apps, the consequences would be unimaginable…”
“It’s frustrating how, without realizing it, everything has become so fraught with danger…”
Pei Qian considered all these departments thoroughly, only to discover that having Custody Fitness connect with any department seemed to bring unpredictable risks.
Landmines everywhere!
Finally, Pei Qian turned his attention back to OTTO Technology.
Choosing Chang You’s department to develop Custody Fitness’s app, though it seemed like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, wasn’t this exactly what Pei Qian wanted?
Using the mobile department, which posed a significant threat to him, as an outsourced company to develop an unimportant app would keep them from doing more threatening things, thus invisibly weakening OTTO Technology’s combat effectiveness.
Of course, considering the potential synergy between OTTO Technology and the Custody Fitness app, Pei Qian would need to instruct Chang You not to preinstall the Custody Fitness app on OTTO phones and not to promote it in any app store or elsewhere.
In short, just develop the app; don’t get involved with any app promotion. Let the app just be an accessory, a tool for Custody Fitness.
This should work, right?
After consideration, Pei Qian felt this seemed to be the most reliable choice.
Having arranged all these matters, he prepared to find time to notify Chang You.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
There was a knocking sound outside the office.
Pei Qian looked up to see Xiao Peng, the current head of Slackin’ Internet Café and ROF PC Assembly.
Xiao Peng was originally the manager of Slackin’ Internet Café in Lin City, but since he took over Zhang Yuan’s position, he had moved to Jing Prefecture.
Pei Qian frowned slightly.
What does he want?
Just seeing the head of a profit-making department come to his door gave Pei Qian a headache.
It definitely wasn’t good news; most likely they had made money again and were coming to ask how to spend it!
“What’s the matter?” Pei Qian tried to stay calm.
It was Xiao Peng’s first time in Mr. Pei’s office, and he was a bit nervous. He said quietly, “Mr. Pei, ROF PC Assembly has accumulated quite a lot of funds, and I was thinking we should probably upgrade our business. So I came to ask for your guidance on where ROF PC Assembly should go next…”
Pei Qian: “…”
Look, look! What did I just say?
I knew these profit-making department heads coming to my door meant no good—always making me burn brain cells to help you spend money!
Pei Qian sighed lightly: “You all should have some initiative. Can’t you figure out how to spend the money you’ve earned? Don’t always come for instructions on such small matters. Make some effort, will you? It’s just spending money, right? What’s so difficult about that? Spend more, it’s fine, I won’t blame you.”
Xiao Peng quickly nodded: “Ah, alright, Mr. Pei. Then I’ll… proceed according to my plan?”
Pei Qian was silent for a moment: “Well, since you’re already here, tell me about your plan.”
He had initially thought to let Xiao Peng spend all this money himself, without his involvement.
Surely his employees couldn’t all be business geniuses who only made money and never lost it?
But on second thought, considering past situations, this possibility couldn’t be completely ruled out.
Better to ask a question. As long as it wasn’t too outrageous, he’d let them do their thing.
Xiao Peng said, “Mr. Pei, I feel that ROF PC Assembly has already become a popular PC assembly brand, but our appearance seems inadequate and fails to highlight our brand’s added value.”
“I think we could spend some money to find PC case manufacturers to produce a batch of cool-looking cases specifically for us, and customize some attractive fans or water cooling systems to enhance the aesthetics.”
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian nodded: “Alright.”
Spending this money would improve the ROF brand somewhat; it couldn’t have any effect at all.
Compared to advertising or burning money on promotions, which could have endless repercussions, improving the appearance seemed to be the least bad option.
Moreover, Pei Qian didn’t have and didn’t dare to come up with a less profitable approach, fearing that a stroke of genius might lead to another wave of big profits for ROF PC Assembly.
Having received Mr. Pei’s approval, Xiao Peng was very happy: “Mr. Pei, there’s one more thing. Slackin’ Internet Café’s business is also booming, with very abundant funds. Can we… continue opening more branches?”
Pei Qian: “…”
Why are you speaking with such dramatic pauses?
Can’t you say everything at once!
You’re delivering two pieces of bad news separately—are you trying to give me a breather?
Pei Qian wanted to say no, but he couldn’t find a suitable reason to refuse Xiao Peng’s request.
All these Slackin’ Internet Cafés in Jing Prefecture and Lin City were booming, often packed full. Why not open more branches? It didn’t make sense to refuse.
If he were to be forcibly delayed, the employees at these cafés would become suspicious.
But the problem was, this was already a proven success model twice. Opening more branches would continue to be profitable.
Wasn’t he just creating more burdens for himself?
Last time, Pei Qian didn’t believe it and thought Slackin’ Internet Café’s success in Jing Prefecture was just a fluke. He decided to try opening a branch in the poorer area of Lin City, but accidentally created a “expansion into lower-tier markets” success.
What about trying the Capital or Magic City?
Absolutely not!
Slackin’ Internet Café was positioned as a high-end internet café, and these super first-tier big cities had higher consumption levels. Opening it would be like sending someone to their death!
Since none of these approaches would work, there was only one last option.
After considering for a while, Pei Qian said somewhat helplessly: “Go ahead. Choose the location yourself, but it can only be in Jing Prefecture or places with lower economic development than Jing Prefecture.”
“And this time, we need to create Slackin’ Internet Café 3.0 model: fewer seats, more space, higher prices, better location.”
Pei Qian figured that an affordable internet café definitely wouldn’t work. The system limited the price, and an affordable internet café with the Slackin’ brand would take off immediately!
They could only keep targeting the high-end market.
Just keep finding ways to raise prices—eventually, customer spending power would fall behind, right? There couldn’t be that many wealthy people in the world.
“Understood.” Xiao Peng didn’t ask further. Since Mr. Pei had given instructions, he would carefully consider, seriously implement, and not ask too many questions.
This was the self-discipline every Tenda person should have.
Pei Qian thought for a moment and added: “If this store makes money again…”
“Then find ways to spend all the money earned. Open branches, renovate, buy computers—in short, spend it all, leaving nothing!”
Pei Qian felt he had to prepare for both scenarios.
What if Slackin’ Internet Café made money again?
Then, strategic abandonment was.
Let Xiao Peng open branches whenever he has money. No matter how many branches he opened, how many computers he bought, or how many employees he hired, as long as there was no money left on the books and he didn’t come bothering Pei Qian about it again, it would be fine.
Mr. Pei’s definition of a good employee had already started to slide.
Previously, Mr. Pei believed that only employees who could help him lose money were good.
But now he found this standard seemed too high; no one could meet it.
So the standard had to be lowered.
Now, Mr. Pei’s definition of a good employee had become: as long as they could spend all the money they earned, without affecting settlement, that was a good employee!
As for what they spent this money on…
Whatever they wanted.
Xiao Peng nodded vigorously: “Yes, Mr. Pei! I will accomplish this task perfectly!”