Chapter 324 - 162: Selection, Part 2

Chapter 324: Chapter 162: Selection, Part 2

Apparently, these online shopping platforms thought they could afford to disregard Hailufeng Company, still viewing it through the lens of a typical internet business.

However, they ignored Jiang Miao’s determination, the immense financial resources of Hailufeng Company, and the monopolistic nature of its products.

Perhaps after Hailufeng Company launched its own dedicated app, other online shopping platforms would jointly boycott it. This would very likely affect the retail sales of Ginseng Fruit, strawberries, tomatoes, and fish products.

But other products wouldn’t be affected, because their monopolistic nature was too strong, and there were simply no substitutes.

For example, White Truffles, eel fry, specialty feeds, and Vanilla Strawberry Powder had virtually no alternatives. This segment of the customer base would have no choice but to migrate to the Hailufeng Specialty Store.

Moreover, those distributors would also move onto the platform, which was something many of them were eager for. This was because the quality of the sales staff from the marketing department varied wildly by region, and incidents of extortion and kickbacks were inevitable.

Jiang Miao could only occasionally take action to clean house, but there was no way to completely eradicate the problem. ’Greed is in the nature of most people.’

Therefore, the company hoped to use the Hailufeng Specialty Store channel to directly break the sales department’s control over regional distributors, thereby reducing incidents of extortion and kickbacks.

The procurement department, which had similar issues with graft, would also undergo corresponding reforms.

For instance, they would launch a Hailufeng procurement website. In the future, whenever the company needed to purchase something, it could just issue a public tender notice and let relevant companies bid directly.

Previously, Hailufeng Company’s reputation wasn’t big enough. Now, within the domestic agricultural sector, while its name wasn’t exactly a household word, it was at least widely recognized.

Especially after the upcoming harvest of Monan Immortal Soybeans in October, Hailufeng Company’s reputation would rapidly spread across all industries nationwide.

At that point, the procurement department wouldn’t even need to go out to source suppliers. It could simply post a tender notice, and a slew of companies would proactively come knocking, seeking cooperation.

Therefore, it was time to weaken the procurement department.

This was also a good thing for the veterans of the sales department. Jiang Miao hoped they could have a good end to their careers, rather than ending up in prison.

Although many people in the company were currently in great awe of Jiang Miao and didn’t dare pull any major stunts, they might still occasionally use their positions to get free meals and drinks from suppliers. However, that sense of awe tends to diminish over time, especially after they’ve been around for a while.

Cutting off their temptations directly was a good thing for everyone, lest Jiang Miao have to "invite them for tea."

As for whether bidding companies would try to find ways to bribe the procurement department, Jiang Miao knew such things would definitely happen, but it would be useless. This was because the Inspection Department had been greatly expanded, now with a staff of 87, and would be constantly monitoring every other department.

The Inspection Department’s performance evaluation method was also different. Their performance was mainly determined by the various problems they uncovered. For example, in cases of financial misconduct, 30% of the amount involved typically became the Inspection Department’s performance bonus.

When their interests were different, or even diametrically opposed, the Inspection Department would not show any mercy to other departments.

’After all, the Inspection Department makes its money by investigating the financial problems of other departments. It’s their revenue stream.’

Furthermore, Jiang Miao had required the Legal Department to issue a regulation making all procurement personnel responsible for the items they purchased. This meant that if a problem arose with a purchased item within its warranty period, the procurement officer had to bear the corresponding liability.

Every purchase made by the procurement department would be classified into five tiers based on its value. Each tier would require an increased number of personnel and higher-ranking procurement staff.

For example, an S-class procurement project valued in the hundreds of millions would require a review team of 15 people, including the procurement department manager, deputy manager, a product evaluator, the legal department’s deputy manager, the market research department’s deputy manager, a technician from the technology division, and others. Finally, it would still require Jiang Miao’s signature for confirmation.

Trying to line one’s pockets in a project like this would be extremely difficult.

After all, every person who signed the contract had to bear corresponding responsibility. ’If the procurement department wants to line its pockets, it would also have to bribe the Legal Department, the Market Research Department, and the Technology Division.’ This further increased the difficulty of such an operation.

And it wasn’t as if they could relax once the procurement was complete. If the various production departments discovered problems with the purchased items and equipment during use, they wouldn’t take the fall for the procurement department. Taking the fall would mean damaging their own interests to cover for procurement’s mistakes, and it was unlikely any department manager would be so selfless.

Even if a department manager colluded with the procurement department, the employees under them wouldn’t necessarily cooperate.

Jiang Miao intentionally created this conflict of interest, making it impossible for the production departments to collude with the procurement department.

’Departments should never get too chummy with each other. It’s a necessary tool in corporate management.’

’If no conflict exists, you must create it.’

’Otherwise, if the management is all one big happy family, it’ll become a situation of "you cover for me, I’ll cover for you," and even the most profitable company would be ruined.’

Besides, it wasn’t as if Jiang Miao was mistreating his employees. Whether it was salaries, performance bonuses, virtual stocks, social insurance and housing fund contributions, or various other benefits, everything was already excellent.

Although the salaries and performance bonuses for the company’s senior executives were lower than those at major internet companies, for mid- to low-level employees, they were nearly the same.

In any case, the senior executives didn’t really rely on their base salaries. They were mainly focused on the dividends from their virtual stocks, which was equivalent to investing in the company’s future.