September 27th, Tuesday.
Pei Qian came to the company on a whim today and checked the recent results of the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test on his computer.
Since Tenda’s recruitment had changed from free recruitment by each department to a unified examination, there had been two large-scale recruitment drives so far, in November and May, respectively.
The employees from the most recent recruitment had already joined and become official employees of Tenda Group.
Of course, related arrangements such as expanding office space, arranging workstations, purchasing office supplies, paying salaries and various benefits, were all handled by the administration and human resources departments. Besides asking whether it was possible to increase spending when money was being spent, Pei Qian basically didn’t inquire about these matters at other times.
Because he truly didn’t have the energy to manage these things anymore, nor was there any necessity to manage them.
However, today, Pei Qian suddenly thought of a question.
Why hadn’t the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test eliminated any employees so far?
This test didn’t seem to be working very well.
Pei Qian flipped through the records and indeed, only the earliest batch of employees had been held up by the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test. At the beginning, the pass rate was very low, but they still narrowly passed the test in the end and weren’t eliminated.
And the recent batch of new employees who took the exam in May and joined the company had all passed the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test on their first attempt!
This was absurd!
Pei Qian had racked his brains to create this set of questions, burying countless traps.
As long as the test-taker had even a slight workplace conventional mindset, it would be difficult to pass the test.
Moreover, the question bank was constantly being changed, and only Pei Qian had the standard answers. After completing the test, even if they passed, the test-takers couldn’t possibly know which specific questions they got right and which they got wrong.
Under these circumstances, how had these new people all managed to pass on their first attempt?
In a situation where leaking the test questions was impossible, Pei Qian felt there were only two possibilities:
The first possibility was that the people recruited all happened to be slackers.
This was too optimistic, with a probability of almost zero. Pei Qian wouldn’t deceive himself.
The second possibility was that these people weren’t originally slackers but had been influenced and trained to become slackers by their respective departments.
This possibility was greater.
So the question arose: if all departments had already turned into slacker departments, and new employees had all been trained to be slackers, then why was Tenda Group still thriving and flourishing?
Could it be that Tenda Group had become a magical company where everyone slacked off together, yet the company could survive and develop just by working casually?
This idea was a bit outlandish, but it wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
After all, that’s what the “Matthew Effect” described.
This required further consideration.
Pei Qian spent two hours updating the entire question bank, including some of the questions where changing a few keywords would completely alter the answers.
After changing everything, Pei Qian resubmitted the question bank.
Although it now seemed that the hope of dissuading employees with the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test wasn’t great, he couldn’t give up hope.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
A knocking sound came from outside the office, and Assistant Xin pushed the door open.
“Mr. Pei, CCTV’s Financial Observation program wants to do a special episode about our company.”
“The production team wants to use Tenda Group’s slogan as the title, so they asked me about it. But our company doesn’t seem to have a slogan yet.”
“Why don’t you come up with one?”
Pei Qian, who had just finished uploading the spiritual test questions, turned to look at Assistant Xin with a question mark slowly floating above his head.
Financial Observation program?
Why are television stations again?
The Jingzhou Television Station was one thing, but now even CCTV had come?
Are they eager to see me dead?!
Pei Qian’s face darkened: “Refuse!”
“Uh…” Assistant Xin hesitated for a moment, “Mr. Pei, you may not have understood. Financial Observation is an analysis program, not an interview. It doesn’t require you or any Tenda employee to appear. Even if we don’t provide this slogan as a title, the production team will set their title and broadcast it anyway.”
Pei Qian was confused.
They could play it like this?
This was executed first and reported afterward!
In other words, whether I cooperate or not, the program will still be broadcast?
Pei Qian was silent for a moment before asking, “Then… can we negotiate with them not to broadcast this episode?”
Assistant Xin smiled: “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
Pei Qian leaned back in his executive chair, feeling melancholic.
It seemed this wasn’t a negotiation, but a notification.
Fine, you want a slogan? I’ll give you one.
I’ll give you an absurd slogan on behalf of Tenda Group, and if you dare to use it, I’ll respect your production team as real men.
Pei Qian thought for a moment and said, “Tenda Group’s slogan is: Always believe that inexplicable things are about to happen.”
Even the well-experienced Assistant Xin was momentarily stunned.
What’s called a “slogan” can be translated as a tagline or catchphrase, but the translated meaning doesn’t fully convey the original intention of the word.
Specifically, it’s about conveying the company’s philosophy through concise and condensed text, emphasizing the most prominent features of the company and its products, establishing brand characteristics, and thereby attracting users.
To make a social media analogy, the brand logo is the profile picture, the brand name is the username, and the slogan is the personal signature.
A good slogan must be closely related to company characteristics or product features, and must be simple, easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to remember, allowing customers to see the core value of the brand at first glance.
It’s not just a promotional phrase, but also a motto that embodies the core spirit of the entire company.
For example, “JUST DO IT” is a very good slogan.
Up to now, although Tenda Group had many industries, and different industries had their characteristics, the entire Tenda Group didn’t have a clear slogan.
But Mr. Pei’s slogan…
Always believe that inexplicable things are about to happen?
The feeling this sentence gave people was as inexplicable as the content it described.
“Mr. Pei, are you sure you want to use this?”
Because this slogan was a bit too outlandish, it triggered Assistant Xin’s rarely used secondary confirmation mechanism.
Pei Qian nodded: “That’s right, that’s the one!”
Assistant Xin didn’t ask further, but nodded and withdrew.
She could anticipate that the people at the Financial Observation program would be as shocked as she was when they heard this slogan.
……
Zhongdian Chinese Website.
Ma Yiqun welcomed Wu Bin, Cui Geng, and Lü Mingliang, then hurriedly closed his office door.
Afterward, he took out several books from a locked drawer and distributed them to everyone.
On the cover of the book were several large characters: “Preliminary Exploration of the Tenda Spirit”!
The so-called “preliminary exploration” meant initial exploration, generally used as the title of a thesis to express modesty.
And using “preliminary exploration” here was obviously emphasizing that the Tenda Spirit was profound and extensive. These were just preliminary explorations of the Tenda Spirit, and besides the content in the book, it could be further explored.
It reminded readers that they should only take this book as a form of inspiration, rather than a dogma.
Wu Bin reached out to receive it, his face showing delight: “It’s already printed? So fast!”
He happily stroked the cover. This was the fruit of several months of his hard work! Finally seeing the physical book!
Ma Yiqun nodded: “Yes, because it’s not being distributed, it saved a lot of time. As previously agreed, only a small number of 200 copies were printed, first given to internal core employees, and people like Mr. Li, who are Mr. Pei’s good friends.”
“If they aren’t all distributed, keep them locked up and stored well; they can’t be distributed indiscriminately.”
Although this book wasn’t lengthy and didn’t contain any prohibited content, according to relevant regulations, if one wanted to print in bulk, it was necessary to get a printing permit, otherwise, it would violate management regulations.
Many people secretly printed books without approval, even if just for personal reading, which strictly speaking was against regulations.
Therefore, Ma Yiqun discussed with Wu Bin and felt that rather than getting a printing permit, it would be better to self-publish through official channels.
Self-publishing had three links: writing, publishing, and distribution. The so-called distribution meant entering the sales terminal market through distribution channels, facing customers directly, requiring money for promotion and stocking.
But “Preliminary Exploration of the Tenda Spirit” wasn’t expected to make money, or even to be widely spread. It was merely for core members to communicate and learn from, so it was only published, not distributed.
There were three noteworthy points about this book:
On the first page of the book, it clearly stated that this was just a preliminary interpretation of the Tenda Spirit, which could only serve as a form of inspiration. One should not fall into dogmatic thinking, but rather continuously appreciate, expand, and deeply explore in their work.
Mr. Pei’s three “world-famous paintings,” namely “The Silhouette Against the Current,” “Mr. Pei’s Lunch,” and “Mr. Pei in Contemplation,” were all printed in the book as illustrations.
On the last page of the book, Mr. Pei’s long string of titles was written in small text, easily overlooked if not paying attention.
Ma Yiqun said, “Most of the printed books are in Lü Mingliang’s warehouse. Everyone can take them according to their needs, but the destination of each book must be recorded.”
Wu Bin added: “Also, I want to emphasize one point.”
“The reason for limiting the number of this book is not for fear of leaking secrets, but to cultivate everyone’s independent thinking spirit.”
“One of the Tenda Spirit principles is ‘independent thinking, not following blindly.’ If everyone stops thinking deeply about the Tenda Spirit after getting this book, that’s another form of blind following, which we must be vigilant about.”
“The more valuable content of this book lies in Mr. Pei’s actions and specific examples.”
“As for these contents of the Tenda Spirit, they don’t need to be deliberately kept secret.”
Wu Bin’s meaning was simple. If the “Tenda Spirit” was a secret manual, then those few sentences after high-level summarization would at most count as the names of techniques.
Knowing only the names of techniques without knowing the specific mental methods was meaningless.
On the contrary, letting these highly summarized contents spread in private in an unofficial way would actually be helpful, forming an important part of Tenda’s corporate culture dissemination.
Everyone nodded: “Understood!”