"After three days of competition, the top four contestants of the 1st Renren.com Campus Image Ambassador Contest have been determined."
"Let's welcome them!"
"They are Su Manli from Dongjiang University of Technology, Leng Na from Dongjiang University of Finance and Economics, Ding Yuhan from Dongjiang Institute of Media Arts, and Qin Peiwen from Wujiang College."
"The grand finale and awards ceremony will be held three days later at the basketball gym of Dongjiang University of Finance and Economics."
Finally, all top four contestants of the image ambassador contest have been determined.
Whether it's Su Manli, Ding Yuhan, or Qin Peiwen, they all reached the finals based on their own strength.
Leng Na from the University of Finance and Economics was guaranteed a spot by Chen Pingjiang; otherwise, it would be difficult to explain.
With such strong support from the University of Finance and Economics, the event being held on its campus, and most of the live audience being students from the university, if there were no contestants from their own school, wouldn't that be a blatant slap in the face?
The closer the event got to its end, the greater its influence.
As it continued to grow, countless new registered users came by word of mouth every day.
Topic discussion popularity, post and reply counts all reached new highs.
As soon as the top four were selected, Hao Shaoping took them away for a second round of rehearsals.
After all, unlike talent shows like Super Girl, it's impossible to count votes live for the ambassador finals; it would be too troublesome.
Therefore, it was changed to judge scoring.
Since a campus image ambassador for Renren.com was being selected, Renren.com's opinion naturally took precedence.
In addition, there was an expert judging panel consisting of one hundred student representatives from various schools and leaders from each school.
Each of the top four contestants needed to perform one act; they couldn't come up with more.
Hao Shaoping also arranged other performances for the remaining time.
At the same time, many enterprises under Chen Pingjiang's name were undergoing a vigorous restructuring.
This restructuring involved organizational structure restructuring, debt restructuring, equity restructuring, personnel restructuring, and management system restructuring.
This is an inevitable path for companies like Renren.com once they reach a certain stage of development.
Bloated staff, multiple lines of authority, unclear responsibilities, and ambiguous management rights—more and more problems were gradually surfacing.
"Currently, our management levels show a clear trend of increasing. People constantly talk about cross-departmental work, too many people attending too many meetings, and too many miscellaneous tasks – these are all problems."
Chen Pingjiang said.
"Under Zhizhen Catering, while Xiao Chen BBQ currently has Zhu Yuanlan in charge, Miaochao has consistently lacked a person in charge and other operational staff. More critically, Shu Mang and Wan Yuqian are still concurrently handling the financial and HR aspects of the catering company. As Renren.com grows larger, both of them clearly feel overwhelmed. It's time to fill all the necessary positions as soon as possible."
"Renren Waimai needs to be spun off from Renren.com, established as an independent company for operation, fully staffed, and for now, I will concurrently serve as its head."
"All departments of Renren.com need to be re-planned. Based on different functional roles, two major business units, Renren.com and Social Games, will be added. A database business group will be established to specifically serve Renren.com and Renren Waimai."
"Each company will take a portion of my shares to establish a stock option pool."
"A board of directors will be established in each company, elected, and thus decided, by the sole shareholder Chen Pingjiang."
"..."
Chen Pingjiang successively dropped one bomb after another.
Many of these decisions had been communicated with various management levels beforehand, but some middle managers who were unaware of the matter were directly stunned by the news.
As a result, companies like Renren.com gradually shed their workshop-style operations and became more formalized.
The establishment of the stock option pool seemingly divided profits that originally belonged to Chen Pingjiang.
However, the calculation is not that simple.
In the early stages of a startup, when high salaries cannot be offered, using a stock option pool is an excellent way to attract senior talent.
Furthermore, compensating management and key personnel for their entrepreneurial risks also appears highly necessary.
To say nothing else, Miao Bingwei has been pushed so hard by Chen Pingjiang lately that he's almost bald, which shows that Old Miao has truly put in a lot of effort.
Reward when due.
Additionally, it can give employees a sense of belonging, aligning their interests with those of the sole shareholder Chen Pingjiang, so everyone works towards a common goal.
Solve long-term incentive problems and retain talent.
The establishment of the stock option pool made various technical personnel joining the company exceptionally excited.
They felt that Renren.com immediately set itself apart from other small businesses.
Renren.com signed contracts with a total of 20 people, including Miao Bingwei, Wan Yuqian, Shu Mang, Li Xi, Gao Songbin, and Zhuo Ling.
The contracts specified the number of shares corresponding to the options, the exercise price, the start date for option calculation, the authorization period, the minimum effective period, and the validity period.
In other words, stock options are not given away for free; they come with layers of restrictions and various conditions.
Currently, Renren.com's valuation is not high, so the exercise price is very low.
Only by everyone managing the company well can the exercise price continue to rise.
The exercise period is divided into four years, with monthly distributions.
This means that starting from the calculation start date specified in the contract, for every full month worked, 1/48 of the options are received.
There is also a lock-up period: employees cannot exercise options within one year of joining.
If they leave within one year, they receive no options.
After one full year, they receive 1/4 of the promised options in a lump sum, and thereafter, 1/48 is received for every full month worked.
As for the board of directors, this is a mandatory requirement of the "Company Law."
Chen Pingjiang also did not intend to treat the board of directors as the company's tonsils, i.e., something optional.
Everyone working together to grow the pie, with him clearly being the biggest beneficiary, makes it quite necessary to motivate senior management.
With diverse professional backgrounds, complementary knowledge and skill sets, and analyses, discussions, debates, and even inquiries from different perspectives, the quality of decision-making can be greatly improved.
There is no perfect individual, but there can be a perfect team.
Of course, Chen Pingjiang also reserved a veto right for himself.
Whether it was the establishment of the board of directors and the stock option pool, or the adjustment of the company's organizational structure, all demonstrated Chen Pingjiang's determination and confidence, and also injected a booster shot of confidence into all the middle and senior management present.
Making them increasingly optimistic about the company's future.
From then on, everyone became "masters" of the company, rather than merely employees.
The vast majority of those present were university students, or, like Miao Bingwei, came from small companies.
They actually had very vague concepts of boards of directors and stock option pools, having only seen them on TV or read about them in novels, never experienced them firsthand, and indeed, they were completely alien to them.
While excited, everyone also couldn't help but feel a touch of inferiority.
They were actually well aware of their own capabilities; there were many people in society with stronger abilities, higher education, and richer experience than them.
They felt that they and others were just lucky to have caught a good time and gotten on board with Renren.com early.
However, as more and more people boarded, the pressure on each of them also increased, and there would always be people with richer experience, higher education, and stronger abilities than them.
While enjoying rights, one must also bear obligations.
The establishment of the board of directors and stock option pool, in turn, brought pressure to everyone present, spurring them to continuously learn, improve, and work hard.
Chen Pingjiang specifically went to the School of Industrial Management to find Kuang Minghong, asking him to introduce two senior professors to participate in Renren.com's series of decisions.
After consolidating their opinions, improvements were made, and it was finally implemented.
Renren.com's series of actions were utterly astonishing in Kuang Minghong's eyes.
The head of a typical enterprise is often too high up to keenly perceive the company's problems.
He had not expected Chen Pingjiang, at such a young age, to be so experienced.
His reforms were sweeping, and even more remarkably, he proactively established a board of directors to "restrain" his own power, effectively utilizing collective strength and listening to opinions from all levels.
The same applied to the stock option pool.
Without financing, Chen Pingjiang could have completely played dumb, yet he proactively offered 10% of the equity to establish the stock option pool.
This generosity and ambition were also beyond what typical enterprises could compare to.
After completing all of this, Chen Pingjiang finally breathed a sigh of relief, preparing to welcome the upcoming Renren.com Campus Image Ambassador Contest.
After pruning the branches, he hoped that Renren.com, Renren Waimai, and the catering company could embark on a fast track of development, and he also prepared internal responses in advance for subsequent financing.
This chapter might be a bit dry, but what needs to be explained has to be explained.
(End of chapter)
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