Chapter 360 - 232: System Data Updated

He had been enduring constant frustration lately. He was powerless against Li Yang and Yang Hui, and now some rookie dared to disrespect him. He was already prejudiced against Airex, and he immediately redirected all the resentment he felt for Yang Hui onto Yang Wei.

He shot him a vicious glare, and the hatred in it sent a chill down Yang Wei’s spine. Yang Wei quickly turned his head away. Such was his character—cowering before the strong and bullying the weak.

"In second-to-last place is the ’Erke’ team, down 22% year-over-year and 19% month-over-month. Zhang Li, you really need to pay attention. You’ve managed to lock down the bottom two spots. And on top of that, we’re about to open another large ’Erke’ store on Qingzhou Pedestrian Street, which will require transferring our best employees. Your team is already severely understaffed. What are you going to do then? You need to come up with a plan, and fast."

Yang Wei couldn’t help but laugh, but he didn’t dare to look at Zhang Li. He had no idea that Zhang Li had been watching him the entire time. Seeing Yang Wei mock him again, Zhang Li swore to himself, ’Just you wait. I’ll make you pay.’

At Yanghe Commerce, Yang Na was also gathering her department heads for a summary of June. For Yanghe Commerce, June had been a month of glorious success, single-handedly solving the company’s cash flow issues and laying the groundwork for accelerated development.

NLB Brand: Offline Sales - 2.4 million

Zen Brand: Offline Sales - 2.1 million

And these results were from less than a full month of operation. Everyone was anticipating an even more impressive performance in July.

The online sales figures, however, were even more astounding:

Company Livestream Sales: 230,000 (both brands combined)

Xinyue Go Online Mall: 560,000 (both brands combined)

In-Store Livestream Sales: 10.4 million (both brands combined)

In other words, in June, with only two stores and operating for less than a full month, Yanghe Commerce’s total combined online and offline sales performance reached 15.69 million.

Yang Na was a bit dazed. Back when she was at Ruijing Commerce, the entire company, with its more than one hundred stores, had never achieved such numbers. Then again, Ruijing Commerce had many small stores with limited floor space and very low output.

Moreover, the data from finance showed that Yanghe Commerce’s consolidated gross profit margin for June had reached 63%, with a gross profit of around 10 million. The figure was terrifying.

Reality had proven that Yang Hui’s investments in store decor, staff salaries, and high service standards had been worthwhile.

Despite such high staff salaries, labor costs accounted for less than 8% of revenue. This in itself was a miracle, possible only because the sales base was so large. She remembered her time at Ruijing Commerce, where labor costs were over 15%. The disparity in operational efficiency was stark.

It was a case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Profitable companies held celebratory meetings every day, making everyone more motivated and more effective, which in turn made the company even more successful. Unprofitable companies held daily criticism meetings, where everyone’s energy was wasted on infighting. No one had the will to work, their fighting spirit was gone, and the company’s condition deteriorated day by day.

It was Zhu Jing’s first day on the job, and she was attending this very morning meeting. She knew Yanghe Commerce was well-managed and profitable, but she had never imagined it would be this successful. It was almost frightening.

’From a financial perspective, a typical company’s rent should account for about 20-25% of revenue,’ she thought. ’For high-output stores, a slightly higher percentage is sustainable. Personnel costs are considered healthy at around 15%. The other major line item is logistics; miscellaneous expenses are usually negligible.’

’But Yanghe Commerce’s rent is only 6% of revenue, and its labor costs are 7.2%. That means their cost structure on these items is about 25 percentage points lower than other companies. That extra margin is all net profit! The implications are terrifying when you really think about it.’

’It feels like the profitability of these two Yanghe Commerce stores is fast approaching that of Futong Commerce in its entirety. That’s just an absurd thought.’

What she didn’t know was that this was precisely why Li Yang resented Yang Hui so much. From Yanghe Commerce’s sales figures, he could roughly calculate their net profit margin. He was green with envy.

The meetings at Yanghe Commerce were concise. They got straight to the point, then held a discussion where anyone could freely voice their opinions on the company’s current management. The approach was to be democratic first, then centralized.

Yang Na said it was something the boss had proposed: "criticism and self-criticism."

During discussions, there were no forbidden topics, but once a decision was made, it had to be strictly implemented, with no deviation tolerated.

At the Xinyue Group regional office, President Tian was no longer handling any regional matters as of today; he had already handed everything over to Zong Lan. He would remain in Qingzhou for a few days, waiting for the official appointment notice from headquarters, after which he would go to HQ for training and then assume his new role as the General Manager of Xinyue Group’s Second Theater Command.

On her first day in her new position, Zong Lan summoned all the provincial project general managers to the regional office for a meeting, a way for everyone to get acquainted. That evening, Zhang Chun would personally attend a grand welcome banquet in her honor.

The conference hall was completely silent. With Zong Lan presiding for the first time, none of the general managers below dared to let their attention drift. From her speech, they all concluded that she was an extremely domineering female leader. They exchanged glances, noticing that even the GMs of veteran, benchmark-setting projects wore solemn expressions.

The regional VP of Business stood to one side, thinking about the favor Li Yang had asked of him a couple of days ago. ’Just before the meeting, I had a chance to report to President Zong,’ he mused. ’I relayed that the general manager of Futong Commerce wanted her contact information to discuss work, but she shot me down on the spot.’

’President Zong said he should go through me first. If there’s an issue I can’t resolve, then I can take the lead in bringing it to her. She clearly knows what these suppliers are after. Having just arrived, she obviously doesn’t want to get bogged down in networking. Looks like I’ll have to let Li Yang down.’

Then he recalled another matter he had reported to President Zong. ’Actually,’ he thought, ’judging by her attitude on that issue, it would have been pointless for Li Yang to approach her anyway.’