Chapter 25: Feichi Auto Investment (Part 7)

Chapter 25: Feichi Auto Investment Case (7)

After they parted, Jing Hong and Zhou Chang spent the whole morning apart. Zhou Chang attended a sub-forum on cloud computing, while Jing Hong attended another.

They met again at lunch in the hotel restaurant.

This time, each had brought several subordinates and sat at separate tables. They just exchanged a distant glance, neither one saying hello.

The hotel served Western food at noon. Zhou Chang noticed his eyes kept drifting over to Jing Hong's table while he ate.

It was warm in the hotel, so Jing Hong had taken off his suit jacket and was still in that light blue custom shirt from earlier. He was cutting into the beef on his plate, chatting and laughing with the others. The execs at that table were clearly great talkers—men and women alike, cracking jokes left and right, and the table kept erupting in laughter. Jing Hong would either smile at whoever was talking or keep cutting his beef, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, occasionally throwing in a word or two.

Zhou Chang thought about how Jing Hong always acted so polite and aloof around him, calling him "President Zhou" every single time, and for some reason it pissed him off.

After staring for a bit, Zhou Chang finally looked away for good, wolfed down the rest of his seared scallops, and chucked his knife and fork onto the plate with a clatter.

The Qinghui execs at his table jumped. They wanted to ask what was wrong but didn't dare.

"I'm heading back." Zhou Chang wiped his mouth with the napkin and stood up. From a distance, he was tall, striking, and hard to miss.

Zhou Chang shot a glance at Jing Hong's table and waited a few seconds, but Jing Hong never even noticed—didn't spare him a single sidelong look. He was completely wrapped up in conversation with the Fanhai folks. Some female exec was saying something, probably hilarious, and Jing Hong was listening closely, smiling, occasionally sipping his tea, his fingers long and elegant.

Zhou Chang stood there for a few seconds, felt bored, turned, and walked out.

Behind him, Jing Hong casually slid his gaze over, watching Zhou Chang's back for a few seconds until he disappeared out the door.

That afternoon was the Smart Expo's group signing ceremony. Fanhai signed a bunch of projects—with South Africa, Russia, Argentina, India, and other countries. Qinghui did the same. Xingyuan, Weilai, and a bunch of other large and mid-sized companies and startups also took part in the group signing. Some of those startups had even gotten Fanhai investment, like one that made intelligent edge computing products for self-driving cars.

In front of the cameras, Jing Hong sat up straight, sharp in a perfectly fitted suit. A volunteer handed him a folder. Jing Hong gave it one last look and scribbled his name in a few quick strokes.

The cameras flashed in a nonstop blaze.

Once Jing Hong finished signing, the volunteer took the folder and handed him the next one.

……

After the group signing ceremony, Jing Hong headed back to Fanhai's Beijing HQ.

Back in Beijing, Jing Hong immediately cleared up the work that had piled up during the Smart Expo and pushed through a few reforms inside the group.

For example, from then on, PPT was no longer the only accepted format for internal company meetings. In other words, people could present using Word.

In a company-wide email, Jing Hong said that for the vast majority of Design Docs, plain Word text plus the simple shapes Word offers—rectangles, arrows, that kind of thing—was more than enough for presenters to get their point across. Everyone could understand them easily.

Jing Hong didn't actually want employees obsessing over form and wasting precious time "designing PPTs." These days, PPTs at big companies were getting more and more competitive in looks, but honestly, they didn't need to be beautiful or fancy. If employees had that kind of time, they'd be better off resting or hanging out with their families.

This move got a hugely enthusiastic response from Fanhai employees.

Another example: the "Corporate Development Business Group" set up a new startup advisory team, encouraging employees who wanted to start their own companies to talk it over with the company first. If the business plan was good enough, they could even get angel investment straight from Fanhai. To make employees feel secure, Fanhai agreed to record the whole consultation process.

Jing Hong hoped these measures would pay off, but Fanhai was just too big—over a hundred thousand full-time employees and way too many variables. Even Jing Hong himself couldn't push a lot of things through. He figured Qinghui was the same way.

Strangely, lately, every time Jing Hong failed at something, he'd think: Would Zhou Chang have pulled it off? Or even when Jing Hong did manage to get something done, he'd still wonder: Could Zhou Chang have done it better?

He kept guessing, kept comparing—no answers, but somehow he enjoyed it.

……

Days went by. Before he knew it, over a month had passed since he got back to Beijing.

Jing Hong finally made the hard call: he moved the head of Fanhai's Cloud Computing Business Group to another division and promoted a certain SVP with a sales background to run cloud computing, bumping him up to SEVP.

This sales guy was someone Jing Hong had always rated highly. In fact, Jing Hong had discovered him and recommended him to Jing Haiping, back when Jing Hong had just gotten back to China.

He'd graduated from a top university with a computer science degree, but against all expectations, he loved sales.

What Jing Hong liked most about him was that drive—or rather, that wolf-like hunger.

After graduating, he went around selling sales software, but a lot of factory compounds had guard dogs. Other salespeople didn't dare go in. Only he saw it as an "untapped market"—an opportunity. He got himself a hard-shell briefcase, wore tall bite-proof rain boots, put together a "Bite-Prevention Manual," and within just three months he was the top salesperson.

What got Jing Hong's attention was the "Thousand-Group War" of 2011—the first big battle in China's internet industry, the first time companies burned cash, the first time hundreds of millions were thrown at marketing. After that came ride-hailing, bike-sharing, food delivery, fresh groceries, video, livestreaming... the list goes on.

In 2011, group-buying apps were popping up like mushrooms after rain. At the peak, sales managers from these apps would literally run into each other at merchants' doorsteps and start brawling, so you couldn't tell if they were from internet companies or the mob. This new SEVP was a hell of a fighter and stood out again, beating the competition so badly that people started avoiding him—and because they avoided him, he was always the first sales manager merchants saw on their grand opening day. Later, Jing Hong heard that his childhood dream was to be a gangster.

If that were all, Jing Hong wouldn't have told Fanhai to poach him. But when this new SEVP became a regional manager, Jing Hong's opinion of him completely changed. He didn't blindly follow the "iron rule" that "the more merchants, the better." Instead, he believed that if orders were too scattered, it would kill merchants' enthusiasm. So early on, he only picked merchants that users liked and that had steady supply, winning praise from both merchants and customers. Second, he didn't dump his marketing budget offline, didn't use little gifts or cash to get people to download the app. Instead, he went online, targeting real consumers—patient, not impulsive. And while everyone else ran their group deals at night, he chose noon, giving people the chance to round up friends and coworkers in real life to hit the numbers.

Jing Hong felt that this person possessed qualities he greatly admired: a clear head and brilliant execution.

Jing Hong didn't like feeling out of control.

Now, the person Jing Hong had his eye on was about to take charge of the entire Cloud Computing Business Group.

When the news of Fanhai Cloud Computing's leadership change was announced, the industry was shaken.

Major media outlets reported one after another:

"Fanhai Group Cloud Computing Executives in Major Reshuffle: Tech Faction Yields to Sales Faction!"

"Lightning Leadership Change in Cloud Computing—What Does Jing Hong Intend?"

The articles read:

"On [Month] [Day], Fanhai Cloud Computing Business Group announced its latest structural upgrade. Jiang Rengui, former Senior Vice President of Fanhai Group and COO of Fanhai Cloud Computing Business Group, will succeed Wang X, former Senior Executive Vice President of Fanhai Group and CEO of Fanhai Cloud Computing Business Group, and will be promoted to Senior Executive Vice President of Fanhai Group. Wang X will be transferred to... Zhang XX, Vice President of Fanhai Group, will additionally serve as COO while continuing his existing duties. Meanwhile, Tao XX, General Manager of Amazon Web Services China, will also join Fanhai Cloud Computing Business Group...

In an internal letter, Jing Hong expressed his hope that Jiang Rengui would lead the Cloud Computing Business Group in making timely judgments and deployments regarding major market trends, achieving a transformation from quantitative to qualitative growth, and building a robust ecosystem for Fanhai's cloud computing..."

Journalists also analyzed:

"Executive changes typically signal a company's dissatisfaction with existing performance and a desire to adjust strategic direction and implement a series of reforms.

Today, the industry has evolved from the initial stage of price competition and land-grabbing to a new phase of competing on products and services. Fanhai's move likely signifies a strategic shift from technology-driven to market-pulled..."

However, regarding the outcome, journalists were cautious, saying:

"Tech faction yielding to sales faction—Fanhai has set a domestic precedent. There's no denying this is an extremely aggressive and bold move. As for whether it will ultimately achieve the results Jing Hong wants, we can only wait and see."

Jing Hong didn't even click on these reports.

Then, just two weeks later, Qinghui Group also announced a structural upgrade for its cloud computing division, similarly "elevating" a certain SVP with a sales background.

The industry was once again in an uproar.

If only Fanhai Group had done this, it might have been just an experiment. But now that Qinghui Group had done the same, it signaled that "tech faction yielding to sales faction" was a collective shift.

Journalists once again sprang into action:

"China's cloud computing giants making a collective 180-degree turn?"

"Fanhai Group and Qinghui Group adjusting direction and redeploying at the same time—can this break through bottlenecks and achieve results?"

"Hot on the heels of Fanhai, Qinghui's cloud computing division also announced a restructuring: ex-Qinghui Group SVP..."

"The gap between China's SaaS① sector and the rest of the world keeps widening, and no major homegrown player has emerged yet. Meanwhile, Salesforce's annual revenue is already closing in on $10 billion. That puts Chinese cloud providers like Fanhai and Qinghui—who supply the computing and storage for SaaS firms—in a pretty awkward spot. Now it's obvious the big players like Fanhai and Qinghui are betting on teaming up with SaaS companies, catering to their needs and growing the whole market, truly cementing their infrastructure-level dominance as cloud service providers..."

And all of that was true.

On the day that rocked the industry, Zhou Chang sat in the back of a Rolls-Royce with Nappa leather seats, rolling his shoulders. He held his phone, staring at an empty chat thread. With a flick of his finger, he forwarded a Qinghui announcement to Jing Hong—whom he hadn't seen in ages—about Qinghui also putting a sales guy in charge of cloud computing, along with a message:

"Guess I'm in this with you, for better or worse."

It had been months since they'd exchanged numbers, and the chat thread was still empty.

This was the first one to break the silence.

Because, honestly, this whole thing had been Jing Hong's idea in the first place. On the 28th floor of a hotel in Chongqing, drenched in sunlight, Jing Hong had once asked: "Mr. Zhou, has Qinghui ever considered putting a sales person in charge of cloud computing?" At the time, he'd floated the idea: "Let's give it a shot together—win together, lose together."

Fanhai didn't have the guts to go for it then, but now Qinghui did—or at least looked like it did.

To his surprise, Jing Hong got back to him fast.

A few minutes later, Zhou Chang's phone buzzed.

Seeing Jing Hong's reply, Zhou Chang's eyebrow arched slightly.

Because Jing Hong had actually sent a voice message.

Zhou Chang hit play with his thumb.

Jing Hong's voice came through, and he first explained why he'd sent a voice note: "I'm in the car."

Then his voice took on a slightly mocking edge: "I can't take that heat."

Translation: I'm not taking the fall for this—don't blame me.

Jing Hong, of course, knew perfectly well that Zhou Chang's move had nothing to do with him. He wouldn't risk his company's future on a whim, and neither would Zhou Chang.

Zhou Chang swapping a tech guy for a sales guy could only mean one thing: he wanted to do it that way.

But since Fanhai announced first and Qinghui second, Zhou Chang had to make it look like "Fanhai didn't have the guts, but Qinghui did."

Jing Hong didn't notice that his casually mocking tone was something he almost never used, so much so that his driver up front shot him a surprised look in the rearview mirror.

A few seconds later, Zhou Chang's message came again.

Also a voice message.

Jing Hong played it, and Zhou Chang's low, magnetic voice came through loud and clear: "Pretty ruthless, huh?"

Jing Hong's lips curved into a faint smile, and he didn't reply.

Whether he's cold-hearted or not depends on who you are. With a guy like Zhou Chang, one slip and he'd tear you apart—nothing left but bones.

Zhou Chang was a shark in a human suit, plain and simple.

The car drove all the way back to "Bamboo Fragrance and Clear Charm."

Once home, Jing Hong got back to work as usual, still firing off emails at 3 a.m. and hopping on video calls with overseas branch managers.

When it came to meetings with overseas branches, he bent over backward to accommodate their schedules. He didn't want it getting around that "working at Fanhai's U.S. office means taking calls with China at 3 a.m." So if the U.S. side wasn't going to take night calls, that left Jing Hong to do it.

After a shower and drying his hair, lying on silk sheets in nothing but soft boxers, for some reason, after double-checking his morning alarm, he opened the chat thread with Zhou Chang again and played Zhou Chang's "Pretty ruthless, huh?" once more.

Then a second time.

Then a third.

Little did he know that, at almost the exact same time, Zhou Chang was replaying his "I'm in the car. I can't take that heat" over and over, savoring every word.

Author's Note:

[Note]:

①SaaS: Software-as-a-service—basically, software delivered over the internet. Salesforce, for example, does online CRM for sales teams.

A few readers asked about Fanhai's org structure, so here's the gist:

Fanhai has X business groups in total. Reporting to Jing Hong are the heads of each group (mostly SEVPs), plus some group-level CXOs like the COO, CFO, CSO, and so on. Each business group has departments—like the Enterprise Development Group, which has an investment arm, a marketing arm, etc. The department heads are SVPs (Senior VPs) who also serve as GMs (General Managers). Zhao Hanqing sits at that level. Below them come VPs, Directors, Senior Managers, and Managers.