Chapter 130: Chapter 116 Further Develop Full Product Categories

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The development of Tengying was completely within expectations.

After touring the company, Chen Pingsheng invited Jiang Peiyao to have a meal together.

She had just turned eighteen a few days ago, and now was considered nineteen. The monthly allowance of one hundred thousand she received had never been touched.

She was still as vibrant and sprightly as ever.

On a whim, he also called over Gao Hu. The last time these brothers from his hometown had sat down together was at his daughter’s full-month celebration.

Gao Hu had enrolled in an advanced EMBI management course in Capital City, with tuition fees at 280,000 a year.

Chang Fu had teased him that it was like he had just finished middle school and plunged straight into a postdoctoral program.

Spending several hundred thousand for just a few days of classes each month.

“You understand jack shit.”

Gao Hu retorted, “The courses are actually quite good. I never knew how much I was lacking until I started. Half of the thirty-some people in our class are middle school graduates, and each of them is a big boss now. I’m the worst off in the class.”

Chen Pingsheng himself wanted to enroll in one too, but hadn’t yet decided on which school to choose.

Among the top business management courses in the country, the most renowned would undoubtedly be Mr. Ma’s Lakeside University.

Followed by the Yangtze River School of Business in Shantou.

All of those were too far from home, and besides, to enroll in Mr. Ma’s courses, you’d need a founder’s recommendation to get in.

To put it plainly, it wasn’t just about the money; they weren’t short of it. What they really wanted was a group of students with top-tier resources of their own.

Gathering all these people together was quite a terrifying prospect.

Gao Hu said, “Old Chen, I feel it’s best for you to enroll in our top-tier class that costs 680,000 a year. It has certain registration restrictions, too – the applicant’s company assets must be a minimum of a billion, but there’s no industry requirement. You could enroll successfully using any of your companies.”

Such courses are actually the best means to expand one’s network.

It’s not just any old class reunion we’re talking about here, not your middle school or high school classmates.

But rather, president-class classmates like these that are selected through screening, willing to spend six to seven hundred thousand a year on their education and still subject to company data verification.

They’re hardly strapped for cash themselves.

“Sure, our educational background could do with some improvement, and a little more learning is always beneficial.”

Being a student again in your thirties is also a novel experience.

Chen Pingsheng went online and submitted his details; these classes were opened only twice a year.

The next session would be at the beginning of August, and him applying now was just in time.

With his investment, Chang Fu spent five hundred thousand to rent over seven hundred square meters of office space in Shijingshan.

Not the entire building, but just a small floor.

Then, with around two hundred thousand, he transformed it into a dozen or so livestreaming rooms.

The most popular livestreaming platforms nowadays were mainly two: Douyu and Huya.

Most of them attracted users with beautiful women. Chen Pingsheng felt that the market was still too small, took a 49% share in the investment of five million, watched for a day, and then lost interest.

The hottest entrepreneurial trend in the market used to be mobile phones a few years ago.

Xiaomi single-handedly took down that market.

Along the way, it also knocked out all the knockoff manufacturers, making a significant contribution to the field.

The era of mobile phones is over, and the mobile internet has officially arrived. Now the focus is on niche markets.

Like Vancl, which specializes in selling shirts.

And the currently popular “I am my own brand,” which specializes in cosmetics.

After excelling in a niche market, the strategy is to venture into multiple fields.

Chang Fu was still focusing on the livestreaming business he knew best. Yang Qian seemed to have no particular occupation yet, so Chen Pingsheng sent her to Tengying Entertainment.

Someone like her, who had experience within the system, was very well-suited for dealing with people.

Tengying also just happened to need someone like that. He would arrange her formal duties only after she had become familiar with the business of Tengying.

With that out of the way, Chen Pingsheng then dedicated his time with Zhang Tao to studying comprehensive fresh food operations.

In plain terms, he wanted to move the traditional market into his Tengsheng Fresh Supermarket.

The best-selling items in the market every day were undoubtedly pork.

Followed by various seasonal vegetables, whose prices fluctuated greatly on a daily basis.

Take a string bean, for instance. It was one price at one at night, another price for purchases at two, and by three, the wholesalers knew that most who would buy had done so.

They might just drop the prices dramatically.

Something that wholesold for fifty cents could suddenly be slashed to twenty-five cents.

This significantly increased the difficulty of managing the business.

To put it bluntly, it was hard to control the cost of goods, and the person responsible for this had a lot of leeway to operate.

And this was just one example; dozens of types of vegetables and meats were equally affected.

“Taozi, we should manage the vegetables and meats as a separate entity.”

A manager in charge of fruits certainly couldn’t handle vegetables well.

Likewise, someone managing vegetables might not be up to the task with meats.

Just consider pork – in traditional markets, it’s hung up and cut on the spot.

In a supermarket, however, it’s pre-cut before customers choose. This involves two significant issues.

The traditional method of hanging up a side of pork and cutting it to order might be best, but it severely detracts from the overall aesthetic of the supermarket.

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To put it bluntly, it’s about downgrading the class.

It’s not about the price; it’s about customer psychology.

So, all they can do is to offer pre-cut meat.

Butchering is a skilled job, and if not done properly, it can lead to significant waste.

They want to offer a full range of fresh products without the dirty, messy, and inferior environment of a traditional market.

The best way to achieve that is through continuous research and evolution.

Luckily, Tengsheng Fruits is already wealthy and can plan everything well in advance.

At the Tengsheng headquarters in the suburban Shijingshan, Chen Pingsheng announced the establishment of the Vegetable Fresh Food and Meat Fresh Food departments.

Then they used a 500 square meter space to create a mock-up of Tengsheng Fresh Supermarket.

How to display fruit, where to place vegetables, and how to arrange meat—these issues had to be thoroughly researched and clarified in the mock-up room first.

Only then would they actually open the first store.

Old Guo also introduced him to two people who had spent over a decade wholesaling in vegetable markets.

Initially, their job was to lay out the entire range of fresh products that Tengsheng planned to offer.

They weren’t worried about the cost initially; the immediate goal was to come up with a clear plan for the placement and management of vegetables.

Chen Pingsheng spent about ten days on this endeavor.

The layout of the mock-up room could be finalized in just one day, from the arrangement of incoming vegetables to customer weighing.

Then they would identify and improve on problems one by one, and finally move on to meat freezing and cutting.

Almost everything was in constant improvement.

Chen Pingsheng said, “The people who buy vegetables in the morning tend to come very early. After the vegetables arrive, it takes another two hours to sort them out before they can be presented to the customers in a presentable and clean manner. The vegetable and meat departments need to work in three shifts, from three in the morning to ten, from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, and from four in the afternoon to ten at night.”

“The morning shift wages will be set at 8500, the afternoon shift at 6500, and the evening shift, which is the easiest, at 6000.”

“The year-end bonus will still depend on the store’s operating performance.”

After more than ten days of research,

Chen Pingsheng not only set specific standards for the placement of small vegetables and meats but also detailed the daily routines for employees.

What three people could have done in two hours, he had four people do.

Exceeding the budget on staff helped ensure that the employees weren’t too tired and also enhanced the customer experience.

During this time, at least seven or eight executives were constantly by his side, continuously researching and improving.

Only after everything was ready did they begin recruiting and training staff.

Then they invested ten million to open five large Tengsheng Fresh Supermarkets simultaneously around the third ring road.

This officially marked Tengsheng’s entry into the full-category fresh market.

The reason for training staff in advance was to spend more before the opening and avoid chaos and confusion after the stores launched.

He wanted to standardize everything from fish weighing to cutting into specific standard procedures.

There was no need to fear employee grievances during the training, as their wages would be paid as usual.

Every day vegetables and fruits would still be brought in.

According to the standard opening procedures, they were to undergo a full month of comprehensive simulation training.

It was during this training process that they kept identifying and solving problems.

Of course, training without customers was ineffective.

That’s why Chen Pingsheng also sent notices to the surrounding residents and small factories, allowing them to come and pick up fresh products for free every day.

There was no need for fruit since it had already been covered in training.

Seeing his attitude, the headquarters could guess that he was determined to excel in vegetables and meats, aiming for the full range of products.

Otherwise, why would such a big boss bother to study vegetable placement and crucian carp cutting techniques daily?

Which big boss does that?

Those who have made big money just sit in their offices and remote-control the work.

They let others do the groundwork.

At best, they occasionally come to take a look, but Chen Pingsheng’s meticulous engagement in research is different.

It was rare, if not utterly singular, for a high-ranking executive to be fully involved like him.

If this big boss was willing to butcher fish and cut meat, which other executive would dare to sit in their office, only looking forward to reports?

Being exclusively office-bound and hands-off without getting involved in the dirty, hard work of handling a full range of fresh products like vegetables, chicken, duck, fish, and meat wouldn’t lead to success.

It’s essential for all executives to be fully involved to develop a concrete and profound understanding of the full category.

Frankly, despite his limited education, Chen Pingsheng was certainly willing to endure hardship and personally get his hands dirty.

He knew that without his direct involvement, the likelihood of achieving mediocre results was high.

It goes back to the same point — once people become wealthy, they no longer want to deal with what they used to handle.

Once they occupy an office, the idea of butchering fish and arranging vegetables daily becomes even more remote.

If they failed to reach this level of commitment, their supermarket would not be very different from any other.

With his busy schedule, he still insisted on researching every day here, so what about others?

If someone damned wants to just sit in the office, he would definitely send them to the grassroots level.