On December 7, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) announced the list of products and enterprises that obtained inspection-free product qualification for 2006.
Among nearly 2,000 electric vehicle brands and enterprises, a total of 26 enterprises received this title, six of which were from Zhejiang Province.
Shanchi Group and its two brands, Shanchi and Fengchi, as expected, received this honor.
"Ha, Feilipu made the inspection-free product list too? This really slaps Old Ni in the face on purpose."
Tan Jincheng saw the news at the airport.
Speaking of which, the Bicycle Association's lawsuit against Old Ni included infringement on the reputation rights of peer enterprises and unfair competition; the enterprise in question was Feilipu Vehicle.
"No wonder you often say, Boss, that it's fine to be a bit sneaky in competition, but you shouldn't publicly slander your competitors,"
Zhao Xinyi said with a smile.
Zeng Jixiang had been sent by Tan Jincheng to Shenzhen to assist Zhang Xuhui with the acquisition of Dexian Electronics.
Zhao Xinyi, who was now the Manager of the Purchasing Department, returned to her original post to temporarily serve as Tan Jincheng's assistant for business trips.
"Yeah, look, isn't this backlash?"
Tan Jincheng sighed as well.
The cause was back in June or July of this year during the competition between Luyuan and Feilipu. Luyuan publicly posted a commentary about Feilipu on its official website, claiming Feilipu's brand was a case of "clinging to famous brand rights" and false advertising.
Having offended the industry association, the old score was dredged up again at this time, listing this item as one of the reasons to sue him for unfair competition.
Actually, Luyuan wasn't wrong. The name Feilipu itself was somewhat suspicious of riding on coattails—even more direct than something like Jack & Jones—but saying it in private was fine; even complaining about it in a speech would have been okay.
But posting it directly on your official website was going a bit too far.
Underhanded tactics in business these days were common—for example, a competitor buying Iveco or Jinbei vans at high prices and selling them cheap to funeral homes just to damage the competitor's image.
There were even plenty who played dirty behind the scenes, but you couldn't directly bash rival companies in public like in later eras; doing so would be legally recognized as unfair competition.
Times were different, and values differed as well. Ni Jie was a major figure in the industry, yet even he couldn't avoid being backlashed when trouble struck. Someone small-time like Tan Jincheng was better off keeping a low profile.
Economic Figure of the Year—this title was far more prestigious than his "Zhejiang Entrepreneur of the Year." With this accolade, investing anywhere would be much easier.
If not for being sued this time, Luyuan's development probably wouldn't have turned out the way it did in his past life, right?
After Tan Jincheng left for the airport, Zhang Suzhi could hardly contain her excitement and couldn't wait to call Tan Lihua. This was different from the Olympic press conference; this was a true honor.
On the other end of the line, Tan Lihua was startled and couldn't control himself either:
"What? Economic Figure of the Year? Him?"
People of his generation cared immensely about honor.
What did men in their 40s usually talk about? Nothing more than bragging, international affairs, major national events, and economic trends.
What did "Economic Figure of the Year" mean? How could Tan Lihua not know?
His son had indeed been impressive over the past two years, building up a huge business, but how could he be selected for something like this?
There hadn't been any word of it beforehand.
Sitting across the desk from Tan Lihua, Li Shiqi raised an eyebrow, sensing he had overheard something extraordinary.
Ever since Tan Jincheng's Wangjiang Industrial Park project was finalized, Tan Lihua's position was swiftly promoted by one level, moving him out of the shared office to share a workspace with Li Shiqi as the deputy department head.
Sharing an office with Li Shiqi was actually requested by Li Shiqi himself, effectively treating him as an equal.
The work was easy, with little to do day-to-day—mostly just reading the newspaper and drinking tea. After being busy for half his life, Tan Lihua was finally enjoying himself.
As Zhang Suzhi explained over the phone, Tan Lihua finally understood why his son had been chosen without any prior rumors.
From an honest and fair perspective, although Shanchi Group had a certain degree of strength, Tan Lihua still felt it didn't quite deserve this title.
All the other nominees were famous heavyweights. But since it was his own son, who cared if it was a stroke of luck? It was still a tremendous honor.
Incredible! The Tan family was going to make a real name for itself. Now this was truly incredible, haha.
"What's that? What Economic Figure of the Year?"
As soon as Tan Lihua hung up, Li Shiqi asked curiously.
"Heh, Little Tan made it into this year's Economic Figures of the Year—the one organized by the Financial Channel. He went to Beijing today to record the show, and it will air on the 14th."
Tan Lihua boasted with a gloating smile.
"Holy shit! Really?"
Li Shiqi stood up in shock.
The figures selected this year were all powerhouse names—not to mention government figures like the CSRC Chairman amidst the stock market boom, or the heads of Air China and ICBC, but also industry titans like the President of Gree.
"Haha, it's real, but there's a reason behind it. It normally wouldn't have been his turn."
"How so? Is there inside story?"
Tan Lihua thought for a moment. It wasn't a secret anyway. The Bicycle Association had sued Ni Jie, and with Ni Jie's flamboyant personality, he wouldn't let it go easily and would definitely settle the score in the future.
So Tan Lihua explained the whole background of the matter.
Actually, Jiangsu Province recommended the head of Suning.
Otherwise, if it were about representing the electric vehicle industry, Zhejiang Province wouldn't have gotten to make the recommendation; if Jiangsu were to recommend an EV representative, it would have been either Zhang Congxun or Dong Jinggui.
"Haha, why care about all that? This is a great thing! Come to my house for dinner tonight to celebrate."
Li Shiqi was amazed as well.
There was actually a turn of events like this? It seemed the saying that successful people have great luck was indeed true; he could even stumble into a windfall like this.
"Nah, let's hold off. The show hasn't aired yet. If something unexpected happens, it'd be quite embarrassing."
"It's fine. We'll invite Guolong and his wife, just a small celebration among ourselves. We won't spread the word. Besides, it saves you from cooking alone,"
Li Shiqi said casually.
Previously, Tan Jincheng had helped solve the problem of opening a store for his nephew. Truth be told, Li Shiqi had long wanted to return the favor, but had lacked an opportunity.
Usually, even if Tan Lihua was alone at home, getting him to dine at someone else's house was rare.
At most, he might visit Zhang Guolong's place, and he never accepted gifts.
This left anyone who wanted to befriend Tan Lihua with no way in; even someone like Li Shiqi, who wanted to repay a favor, didn't know what to do.
Perhaps because he was happy, Tan Lihua thought for a moment and agreed:
"Alright then. Let's invite Guolong and ask him how Pengya is doing lately."
He hadn't seen Zhang Xupeng come back for a long time and didn't know how his garment factory and shop were coming along.
—
Beicang.
Although Big Boss Tan had left, the cooperation negotiations between Orange Technology and Tencent were still ongoing.
Zhang Yunsong could understand. Tan Jincheng was, after all, the head of a physical enterprise group, and Orange Technology was not his primary business.
It was impossible for him to spend time accompanying them every day; otherwise, what would be the point of having these employees?
Tencent didn't need Pony Ma to show up for everything either. Having him show up on the first day to dine and drink with them was already giving them plenty of face.
Since they requested to receive a portion of QQ user data, this involved the interests of the QQ project team. Huang Xitong and Zhang Yunsong could not make a direct decision, so early this morning, both reported yesterday's negotiation content to their superiors.
When it came to user data, it was a matter of utmost importance for any internet company, let alone the fact that this was equivalent to sacrificing another project team's interests to fulfill QQ Zone.
Currently, QQ was Tencent's most crucial asset and the core of all its strategies.
Soon, Orange Technology's request was forwarded to Pony Ma.
"This company has no small ambition,"
Pony Ma said with a smile.
If you wanted someone's data, you had to bring convincing arguments.
Orange Technology's current public positioning was a social networking site + mini-games. The three mini-games currently launched were all well-received.
During the negotiations with Tencent, Orange Technology had also presented some of its future plans.
These included the ongoing Happy Farm + Agricultural Assistance initiative as well as subsequent game plans.
In terms of positioning, Orange Technology looked more like a small game company in the eyes of outsiders, which aligned fairly well with Tencent's strategy of monetizing QQ users through gaming.
Starting today, Tencent's major strategy was traffic monetization, and to that end, it chose gaming as its breakthrough point.
Having established several game studios and licensing/acquiring various games abroad, it was only natural for Happy Farm to enter Tencent's sights.
"This method of combining Happy Farm with agricultural assistance is quite good. It can bring considerable word-of-mouth reputation to the company, though the marketing costs are somewhat high."
"Marketing costs are easy to control too. Didn't they start an agritourism business? Partnering with farmers won't actually cost much."
"Speaking of which, their agritourism business even uses the 'QQ Farm' trademark. Should we issue them a warning?"
Pony Ma smiled:
"Everyone in the electric vehicle industry says this kid is sneaky and shameless, and it really is true. He's practically itching for us to sue him."
This cheeky kid was formidable at marketing; if they really sued him, he would definitely hype it up to be known nationwide.
By then, whether he won or lost the lawsuit, he would win big regardless.
How could there be someone so shameless?
Mm, this was very Pony Ma, but he actually quite appreciated Tan Jincheng's shameless style.
In business, using a few tricks was normal. As long as it didn't touch core interests, most bosses didn't care.
Oftentimes, the founder's character could determine whether the enterprise would succeed. Someone too honest couldn't do business.
"Giving them data isn't out of the question either; it's another way to monetize QQ traffic. But partnering solely on Happy Farm—that foundation is still a bit too thin."
Wanting QQ user data with just a single project was clearly below Pony Ma's expectations.
"Convey my thoughts to Wang Wensong."
(End of Chapter)