Chapter 365: A Three-p.r.o.nged Approach
To save money.
The adjustments made by Xing Hai Technologies in terms of salaries and benefits were mainly to save money. Moreover, the free policy in the Technology City was, in fact, inconsistent with so-called “socialism.” It was not a system that rewarded everyone equally, regardless of merit. Absolute egalitarianism was clearly the road to certain death. It was absolutely unaffordable, even if the company was sitting on a gold mine.
While designing the welfare system, Chen Jin had answered the key questions raised by some senior company executives.
“President Chen, is it true that all goods are free?” a senior executive asked. “Including expensive luxury goods? Does the company have sufficient ability to supply unlimited luxury goods? You must know that the price of some bags and brand-name clothes cost tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. Can we afford to supply these things for free?”
“Of course not.” Chen Jin shook his head. “It’s like a buffet restaurant,” he said. “You pay an entrance fee of $200 to $300. It is impossible for the restaurant to only provide foods such as top-grade steaks and expensive seafood for consumption. Most of the foods are common home-cooked dishes. Fruits are also mainly cheap fruits. The most expensive types of foods are only available in very small quant.i.ties.”
“Our Technology City is operating in the ‘buffet restaurant’ model. The most common cereals, vegetables, pork, beef, mutton, bananas, apples, oranges, and other common fruits are available in unlimited quant.i.ties. Even if you eat 50 kilograms of such foodstuffs a day, it will only cost a few hundred dollars. It won’t bankrupt the company.”
“Xing Hai Technologies will still provide seafood that costs a few hundred dollars for half a kilogram, tropical fruits, expensive cosmetics and clothes, high-end cars and other highly-priced products, but in small quant.i.ties. You need to card the time to grab it before others.”
“Of course, if the employee is of a high rank or position, he could get a quota for high-quality ingredients, or selection cards for other luxury goods. He could choose all the luxury goods he wants. The higher the rank of the employee, the more quotas he can get for high-quality ingredients and the more card choices for luxury goods. This is also a mechanism to encourage progress.”
“But in any case, a technology city with a staff of about 100,000, together with their families, will not spend more than $150 billion a year. The company’s artificial intelligence will be precisely controlled. If the budget is sufficient, it will provide a better quality of life; if expenses are high, it will reduce the proportion of luxury products supplied and shrink the quotas. It will regulate things dynamically, and there will be no loss of control.”
That also meant that, if one budgeted carefully, he could have fish and meat for every meal and still be able to dress nicely.
But if he stuffed himself with food and lived extravagantly for the first half of the month, he will be eating vegetables and radishes every day and wearing $10 clothes from a poor street stall.
The total expenses were the same.
“But President Chen, we are just a company. We will be bearing all the employees’ burdens, and we even have to support the elderly and take care of them for their entire lives. Can we afford to bear this burden?” another senior executive asked. “It seems like we are saving money now. But in 20 or 30 years, the employees will be retiring one after another. When that time comes, the company’s burden will increase, and we will not be saving money.”
“Of course, Xing Hai Technologies will not take care of the employees for the rest of their lives. The company will only care for them for a maximum of 50 years. After 50 years, the employees will not be able to work anymore. When they retire, they have to leave the Technology City and move to an immigration city or another city to live. Xing Hai Technologies will provide them with a new house and allow them to drive away in their cars. In addition, they will be paid a monthly pension based on their job position and rank. The higher the position, the higher the pension payment. The maximum number of consecutive pension payments is 50 years. The sum of two 50 year period is 100 years. Xing Hai Technologies will care for the company’s employees for a maximum of 100 years.”
All the senior executives were taken aback.
100 years? What was the difference between this and caring for them for the rest of their lives? Why didn’t the boss directly say that the company would be caring for the employees for the rest of their lives? Who could live for such a long time?
In short, the company would be faced with a very huge burden in later years. A big mine had been buried.
There were also senior executives frowning. One of them anxiously said, “President Chen, the company will now be taking care of everything. The employees will have no worries. Naturally, they will have no motivation to work hard. Will they work hard to get higher salaries and achievements as they did before? This will greatly weaken the compet.i.tiveness of the company, and the seeds of weakness will be buried. Mr. Chen, this model of rewarding everyone for free is really not desirable! We will be saving money, but where will the motivation come from when there is no pressure? Life in a big city is their motivation.”
“Rest a.s.sured, I have also considered this point.” Chen Jin smiled. “Technology City is not purely a welfare organization,” he said. “Employees must create value for the city. The performance scoring system will calculate and add up the work done by each person and record in detail the value created by him or her. The elimination-of-the-worst-employee system will eliminate all those employees who are inactive or slacking off. The company will not keep even one slacker here. Xing Hai Technologies is neither a charity nor a nursing home like some people think. Those who have their minds fixed on this idea and start to think in this manner will leave the city.”
After an employee was dismissed, his whole family, including any elderly or young children would be chased away. This would not be, however, without a penny to their name. Xing Hai Technologies would provide a certain amount of compensation according to their performance points. Of course, compared to the loss incurred from leaving the city, that little bit of compensation was just like a sesame seed next to a watermelon.
Employees who chose to resign would also face similar treatment, in addition to the performance scoring and the elimination of the worst employee system.
Chen Jin said, “I also intend to introduce a new system of reward points to the company. Its name is ‘gold coin.’ It’s not difficult to get a gold coin. If you put in your full effort for the entire year, you will get 1 gold coin as a reward.”
“If your performance score reaches 100%, you will also be rewarded with 1 gold coin. If you work hard and increase your performance scores to 150%, you will be rewarded with 2 gold coins; if you give your all and more to create a performance score that is the stipulated 200% and above, you will get 3 gold coins.”
“In addition, a model employee with a serious work att.i.tude, who upholds the company system, make outstanding contributions to the company’s interests, has high moral values, and is a good Samaritan will be rewarded with gold coins.”
“When the employees have acc.u.mulated 100 gold coins, they can spend their points to redeem a special medical service.”
“If the acc.u.mulated gold coins are more than 200, 300, or in multiples of 100, they can exchange them for special medical services for their family or donate the points to a designated person in addition to redeeming their own medical services.”
“But unfortunately, if you voluntarily resign and leave Xing Hai Technologies, or be fired from the company, the gold coins in their accounts will be automatically cleared. They will not be able to enjoy special medical services. This is equivalent to giving up completely.” Naturally, this would be a huge loss for the employees.
Chen Jin also believed that in order to get more gold coins which allowed them to enjoy special medical services, the majority of Xing Hai employees would work hard. They were unlikely to become inactive or slack off. After all, they all had new hopes. That hope was the motivation for their struggle.
So, with this three-p.r.o.nged approach, Xing Hai Technologies not only saved money, but its compet.i.tiveness remained unchanged.
In short, everything was under Chen Jin’s control.
…
More and more media and financial experts could make out the sagacity and true intentions of Xing Hai Technologies.
“Xing Hai Technologies’ idea of saving money has taken aim at the government.”
“With this move, everything in the Technology City is free. Most employees’ wages are set below the tax threshold. The business tax is zero, the consumption tax is zero, the property tax is zero, and the tax an individual has to pay is now reduced by half. The government can hardly collect any taxes from the Technology City even though its residents number in the hundreds of thousands. The company saves more than $100 billion every year.”
“In theory, this is completely legal. It is a type of tax avoidance method that is brilliant and reasonable. No loopholes can be found. The money saved is fully invested in the desert transformation and becomes a deficit.”
“The problem is this: can the government tolerate this sort of behavior? It will be a mess if all the companies do this.”
“How daring! Xing Hai Technologies is too gutsy!”
“I can’t understand the moves or overall strategy of Xing Hai Technologies anymore, but my instinct tells me that the company will be in trouble if it goes on like this.”
The speculation by the media was correct.
After only a few days, Xing Hai Technologies became the target of an anti-monopoly investigation for the first time.