Qiu Hong was very resentful about his failure experience. At the beginning, he could maintain a calm attitude, but soon, his tone gradually changed from stating facts to complaining.

Pei Qian could hear the frustration in Qiu Hong’s voice.

As a game producer with successful projects, Qiu Hong’s game design ability was not a problem.

Of course, his game design ability specifically referred to designing domestic pay-to-win games, with basically no ability in other types of games.

But the issue was that Qiu Hong had never thought about making other types of games. His goal had always been very clear: to earnestly make pay-to-win online games and make money.

His entrepreneurial failure had nothing to do with his design ability; it could only be said that he hadn’t been a good boss.

The “project management” problem that Qiu Hong repeatedly emphasized was the most critical issue in his entrepreneurial failure, and on this point, he had a lot to say.

Qiu Hong also shared with “Ma Yang” a series of measures he had taken to strengthen project management.

For example, forcing employees to clock in and out, arriving early and leaving late himself to supervise employees, deciding to distribute 10% of the game’s profits to employees as bonuses, and so on.

These measures did improve the company’s situation and increase efficiency, but still couldn’t save it from the fate of failure.

Pei Qian felt a bit uncomfortable listening to this.

It sounded like this was indeed a failure factor.

But it seemed useless for himself…

His employees were already a group of eager strivers. He had deliberately decoupled project bonuses from project profits and linked them to reviews, precisely to prevent them from focusing solely on making money.

If he distributed bonuses based on game profits, wouldn’t that cause an immediate explosion?

The key was that Qiu Hong said the reason for failure was that employees were lazy.

And Pei Qian’s dilemma was that he had been trying everything to encourage employees to be lazy, but they just wouldn’t be lazy!

What could be done about this?

Although he knew the correct answer, he had no feasible approach or steps to solve the problem!

Qiu Hong became more emotional and energetic as he continued, and Pei Qian didn’t feel it was appropriate to interrupt him.

Finally, Qiu Hong seemed to get tired of talking and paused to take a sip of coffee.

Pei Qian tentatively asked, “May I ask, do you know what kind of rules might cause employees to be lazy and project progress to spiral out of control?”

Qiu Hong was stunned: “Huh? Isn’t laziness innate? If you do nothing at all, they’ll naturally be lazy.”

Pei Qian: “…”

That doesn’t match my experience at all.

There was a period when I truly didn’t manage anything, spending only two or three hours in the office each day, but my game projects were still completed on schedule!

Pei Qian asked again, “What if I let all employees completely ignore clock-in requirements, provide unlimited snacks and drinks, strictly prohibit overtime, make project bonuses completely unrelated to project profits, and never inquire about project development progress… yet the game is still completed on schedule and even makes money? Is that possible?”

The expression on Qiu Hong’s face was quite remarkable—an expression that said, “Are you joking?”

“Impossible!”

“Mr. Ma, if you want to daydream, I suggest dreaming about winning the lottery. The possibility of that happening is relatively greater.”

Pei Qian clapped his hands, feeling he had found a kindred spirit: “Right! That’s what I think too! It should be impossible!”

“But from what I know, our company’s game department seems to… operate exactly like that.”

Qiu Hong didn’t answer immediately, but slightly shook his head and took a sip of coffee.

Then, with a hint of bitterness in his voice, he said, “Mr. Ma, that’s just the surface appearance you’re seeing.”

“It means that Tenda’s game department leader’s project management ability has reached the pinnacle of mastery, transcending the level you can understand, achieving a kind of return to simplicity.”

“This kind of top-tier project management ability isn’t something just anyone can learn.”

“It’s like in some martial arts novels, where the protagonist says no technique surpasses all techniques, but if you also forget all techniques, you’ll immediately be beaten black and blue.”

“Mr. Ma, take my advice, forget about Tenda’s game department. This kind of ability, you can’t learn it.”

“Of course, I’m not targeting you specifically. I can’t learn it either. The vast majority of people in this world can’t learn it.”

“Mr. Pei is that kind of business prodigy, one in ten thousand. The experience of such a person cannot be used as a reference.”

Pei Qian: “…”

Forget about Tenda’s game department?

That won’t work! I’m now trying to solve the game department’s problem, how can you advise me to give up?!

And what’s this about returning to simplicity and reaching the pinnacle? What are you even talking about?!

Pei Qian was speechless. What happened to sharing failure experiences?

How did it turn into flogging a corpse again?

Qiu Hong looked at his watch: “Ah, time’s up.”

“Mr. Ma, chatting with you has been very pleasant. I haven’t had such a candid conversation with someone for a long time. The frustration in my heart has been completely swept away!”

Pei Qian: “…”

The frustration in your heart has been swept away?

But the frustration in my heart hasn’t improved at all, it’s gotten worse…

Pei Qian asked, “So, when you come next time, you’ll talk about new failure factors, right?”

Qiu Hong nodded: “Of course. I vaguely feel that Mr. Ma and I could become kindred spirits. We both have a certain quality.”

“What quality is that…”

“It seems we both have ambitions but no way to fulfill them; we both have goals, but no one to cooperate with us.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Ma, we will overcome these difficulties!”

“In short, I will tell you everything I know! Let’s progress together!”

Having ambitions but no one to cooperate with?

You’re right!

Pei Qian thought silently, although his and Qiu Hong’s goals were different, they were both striving to break free from the quagmire of failure, moving forward towards a brighter tomorrow!

From this perspective, they really could become kindred spirits!

Pei Qian was also moved and firmly shook Qiu Hong’s outstretched hand: “Good, let’s work hard together!”

…

…

May 3rd, Tuesday.

Outu Technology.

Just after the holiday, Outu Technology’s employees quickly got into work mode on their first day back, starting work with a sense of urgency.

Chang You walked from the office area into his own office, his gaze casually sweeping over, taking in the state of the employees.

“Could it be that the influence of the Tenda spirit is really this obvious?”

Chang You was somewhat puzzled.

He could feel a subtle change in Outu Technology.

Since its official establishment in November last year, half a year has passed for Outu Technology.

The core employees, including Chang You, had all come from Hongcheng Technology. Mr. Pei had never interfered with the company’s daily affairs, and Director Lin, who had been parachuted in, had never dictated how the company should be managed.

So, Outu Technology’s working style at its inception was completely consistent with that of Hongcheng Technology.

But now, the people were the same, but everyone’s working style seemed to be continuously shifting towards Tenda’s working style.

One of the most significant manifestations was that everyone’s working hours had shortened, but the workload hadn’t changed.

This meant that overall work efficiency had improved!

Chang You remembered that when he was at Hongcheng Technology, walking past the employees’ office area, he could always spot people slacking off.

Of course, he wouldn’t point it out, because at that time he thought it was human nature to not be able to maintain high efficiency all the time, and occasional slacking was understandable.

However, now, employees seemed to be efficiently completing their work, with very little slacking off!

The difference between these two states was immediately apparent.

Take today for example, if this were Hongcheng Technology, everyone would definitely spend the morning organizing their weekly work plans, replying to emails accumulated over the weekend, and then playing a bit with their phones, and the whole morning would pass by.

But now, everyone has completed organizing work plans and replying to emails in just over half an hour, and all the other time was devoted to work, with everyone more eager than the next.

The most critical thing was, Mr. Pei rarely came here and had never required everyone to study the Tenda spirit!

So, how did this subtle influence permeate and achieve the effect of “moistening things silently”?

The more Chang You pondered, the more he felt that Mr. Pei had a unique approach to project management!

In the past, Chang You always had to check attendance, set goals, and constantly follow up with reminders.

Now there was no need at all. The entire company was practically an extension of his arm, striking wherever he pointed, with everyone working together very cohesively.

With such an excellent project management method, Chang You felt incredibly comfortable, no longer needing to waste energy haggling with employees, but instead could concentrate on thinking about the company’s future business development direction.

“I must find time to consult with Mr. Pei, this management studies master, about how exactly he achieves this ‘silent moistening’ effect. Does he have his philosophical concept for project management?”

After completing his daily mental supplementation about Mr. Pei, Chang You continued with this week’s work.

Today, he wanted to solve a puzzle left by Mr. Pei.

When Mr. Pei had previously assigned tasks to OTTO Technology, he had outlined future plans: don’t make new phones anymore, extend the timeline to about 10 months, establish a software laboratory, make some useful apps, improve the phone system, and optimize the imaging algorithm.

Chang You had already interpreted this point.

After serious reflection, he felt that Mr. Pei’s strategy was very correct!

The OTTO E1 phone was a high-priced, premium phone, but also a phone full of flaws.

If they immediately developed a new phone, what would the customers who had already bought the E1 phone think?

I treat this phone like a treasure, but you treat me like a leaf to be harvested?

OTTO’s pricing strategy was never to reduce prices, but if new phones were released too frequently, where would that leave the customers of the old models?

Although they would provide trade-in services, such frequent releases of new phones would inevitably dilute the brand value that the phone had just begun to establish.

Therefore, Mr. Pei wanted to spend a year polishing the software, including the operating system, imaging algorithms, various commonly used apps, etc. This had at least three layers of meaning:

Fulfilling promises to consumers;

Extending the cycle of releasing new phones to a year, ensuring that by then they could use more advanced and mature technologies, giving the next phone more selling points, while also better preserving the value of the E1 phone.

Investing a lot of time in software development to enhance the phone’s added value, make up for shortcomings, and make consumers feel they’re getting their money’s worth.

After deciphering the profound meaning of Mr. Pei’s next-stage policy, Chang You immediately made a decision to invest heavily in establishing an imaging laboratory, specifically for adjusting phone lenses and optimizing imaging algorithms, focusing on photography and software!

But just a couple of days after interpreting Mr. Pei’s intentions, new instructions from Mr. Pei arrived.

This time, Chang You was confused.

Mr. Pei required OTTO Technology to develop an app for fitness center registration.

The functional requirements of this app were very simple, proposed by someone called Guo Licheng. After logging in to the app, customers could check their fitness data, book fitness times, and so on, but nothing more.

Chang You was very perplexed. For such simple functions, was it necessary to assign OTTO Technology to do it?

Our software team is responsible for developing more complex apps. For this simple fitness center registration app, couldn’t any team do it? Why did Mr. Pei specifically name us to handle it?

Moreover, this app didn’t align at all with the major direction Mr. Pei had previously established!

Most peculiarly, Mr. Pei specifically emphasized not to pre-install this software on phones.

Why?

Although Chang You had arranged for someone to work on it as soon as he received the request, after so many days, he still couldn’t fathom the deep meaning behind it.

If someone had no ambition, they would simply complete the functional requirements of the fitness software and be done with it.

But after the success of the OTTO E1 phone, Chang You clearly understood that tasks personally assigned by Mr. Pei, no matter how simple they seemed, definitely had deeper meaning.

Otherwise, why would Mr. Pei personally assign it?