Chapter 385: Changing the Man is Like Changing the Blade

Ruijing Commerce Headquarters

The COO sat down in his office that morning. After his secretary prepared him a cup of chrysanthemum tea, he turned on his computer, his mind already turning to which regions had operational issues that needed his attention.

His thoughts inevitably drifted to the Qingjiang Region. Since Yang Hui had become the regional general manager, Xinyue Group had resumed its operational support for Ruijing Commerce. This, coupled with the recent salary adjustments Yang Hui had implemented, had fired up employee morale. In the first ten days of this month, business was up 35% from the previous month and 13% year-over-year. To date, these figures were among the best in the entire country.

‘A change in leadership is like swapping a dull blade for a sharp one. The effect is immediate,’ the COO mused.

Every morning, if there were no urgent meetings, he would first review the submissions in the system. He opened it up. ‘Hm?’ A submission from the Qingjiang Region. He took a closer look, and his gaze instantly sharpened—[Regarding the Renewal Conditions for Xinyue Group Stores in the Qingjiang Region].

He clicked on it, but it didn’t open. He clicked again; still nothing. On his final try, it opened to a screen full of garbled text. He flew into a rage, slamming his hand on the desk. “You bastards! How the hell does your IT department maintain this system? It’s malfunctioning first thing in the morning!”

He dialed the IT department and gave them a severe tongue-lashing, demanding they fix it and restore the system within twenty minutes.

He was extremely concerned about this renewal. At the national regional general managers’ meeting over a month ago, that bastard Fang Zheng had boasted to him that this year’s renewal with Xinyue Group would be no problem—in fact, it would be a flat renewal. The news had made him ecstatic at the time. He knew that the Xinyue Group project was the Qingjiang Region’s cash cow; more than half of the branch’s profits came from them.

He also knew that the terms Xinyue Group offered were very favorable; they hadn’t raised the rent in years. In the current market, that was incredibly generous. He approved renewal submissions every day where even third-rate commercial areas were demanding annual increases, let alone a powerhouse like Xinyue Group, the top commercial management group in the country.

That was why he placed extreme importance on this project in Qingjiang Province. A successful renewal with a minor rent increase would secure both the profits and scale of the Qingjiang branch. If they renewed but with a major rent increase, the scale would be preserved, but profits would plummet. But if the stores were pulled, both scale and profit would suffer massive losses, and the entire regional division would collapse.

He had praised Fang Zheng at the conference and called on all the regional branches nationwide to learn from the Qingjiang Region and from Fang Zheng himself, precisely because Fang Zheng had promised the first outcome. And the result? He had delivered the last one.

‘That bastard! It’s not just that he made me look like a fool; he was about to destroy the entire branch.’ When the COO found out, he wanted to kill the man. Yang Hui’s most important task upon taking the position was to solve this problem. The CEO and COO’s expectation was to retain at least 80% of the stores with a renewal increase of no more than 8%.

They knew that after dragging things out for so long, Xinyue Group had likely already found replacement tenants for many of the stores; contracts might have even been signed. Therefore, retaining one hundred percent of them was impossible. At the same time, the rent for these stores hadn’t increased in two years. To be honest, they didn’t even dare dream of another year with no increase at all.

The system was finally fixed. The COO impatiently clicked open the submission, silently chanting in his head, ‘Please, Bodhisattva, an 8% increase, just an 8% increase.’

His “chant” ended. He opened his eyes, and the moment he saw the contents of the submission, he instinctively rubbed them. After a long moment, he said with a sigh, “Well, I’ll be. Forget praying to a Bodhisattva; I should have just put my faith in Yang Hui.”

The content of the submission was simple: all twenty-one Xinyue Group stores were to have a flat renewal.

Below that was a list of all the stores’ performance, profits, and current rent. He didn’t even need to look at it. He’d been so focused on the Qingjiang Region’s renewal over the past month that he had already reviewed these numbers countless times.

‘Yang Hui is the real deal, while that Fang Zheng is just full of hot air. The results speak for themselves.’ The COO felt his spine straighten. The last time he had called for all regional branches to learn from the Qingjiang Branch, many had privately mocked him. ‘They’ll have to shut their mouths now. From now on, I can always use the Qingjiang Branch as the benchmark to push the other branches.’

The COO was in a fantastic mood, feeling more invigorated than ever. He quickly approved the submission. Just then, his phone rang. The call was from another regional general manager, someone who had been his employee back when the COO was a branch GM himself. He was considered a direct subordinate.

He answered the phone. “Xiaocao, what is it?”

“Boss, I heard the Qingjiang Branch got salary adjustments, and pretty significant ones at that. I’d like to apply for adjustments for our region too. The cost of living is going up, education and healthcare costs are rising, work pressure is increasing, but wages are stagnant. The employees are full of complaints.”

He originally wouldn’t have dared to bring it up, but since the Qingjiang Branch got raises, he naturally had to call and fight for it.

“No. There’s a fixed annual budget for salary adjustments, and it’s not time for a review.”

Because he had been with the COO for a long time, President Cao mustered up the courage to ask, “Then why was the Qingjiang Branch able to, but we can’t? When the employees ask about it later, I won’t have an explanation.”

The COO let out a cold laugh. “Ah, Xiaocao, you’re not wrong. You want to make comparisons? Fine. Your region has a dozen or so Xinyue Group stores, doesn’t it? I won’t even ask you to get a rental rate below the market standard. You get me flat renewals on all of them this year, and I’ll fight to get you some spots for raises.”