Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
It had been five years since Cheng Yunfeng started Rock Technologies. It was already a success to have persevered for five years as a high-tech company. In his own humble words, he had achieved a small success by this point in his life. At less than 40 years old, he was worth more than a hundred million and could freely enjoy life.
The cleaning robot that Rock Technologies had developed was now in its third generation. Customers’ reactions were good and the product had accumulated total sales of over one million units. It had the second largest market share in the nation.
The Da Mi cleaning robot by Da Mi Company had the largest market share. It had accumulated total sales of over two million units. However, from a profit perspective, Da Mi Company’s net profit from each robot sold was only some tens of dollars, a mere tenth of the Rock robot. Da Mi Company employed the business strategy of “making a loss from the hardware, and profiting from the software.” Through its low price, it had grabbed a large portion of the market share for cleaning robots. However this market had not been fully developed. It had great potential for expansion. Da Mi Company’s involvement in this market had not seriously affected the sales of the Rock robot. On the contrary, it had led to even more interest in cleaning robots and promoted the growth of the market.
The Rock robot, with its good reputation, experienced another wave of growth. Even so, in his private sphere, Chen Yun Feng hurled curses at the rival company. “Monkey Lei! You’re already dominating the mobile phone industry. How many small companies have been forced out of business because of you? Now, you even want a piece of the cleaning robot industry. You manufacture them at a high cost and sell them for pennies. Others want to profit even if you don’t!”
His attitude towards the President of Da Mi Company, Lei Xiao Jun, was one of anger, frustration, and restlessness. However, when Xing Hai technologies had quickly sprung up with the speed of light at the beginning of this year, it had caused him to feel extreme terror. A performance level that was ahead of others by an era, and a price that was similar, with overwhelming praise from the public and a reputation that had swept across the country.
This caused Cheng Yun Feng to become extremely unsettled and restless. He frequently woke up from nightmares with his back drenched in cold sweat. His dream of making his Rock Technologies into the second Da Jiang Technologies in Z country was about to be dashed.
It was especially so when he saw hundreds of thousands, even millions of Wa-wah robots being sold each time. The sales volume of the Wa-wah robot in two hours was more than the sum of what he sold in his five years of hard work. The sales volume of the Rock robot had dropped sharply, and a majority of consumers said that the Wa-wah robot was better in their reviews. He knew what he must do! In other words, he had to fight! He had to resist! Otherwise, Rock Technologies would not be able to survive another year in the face of this rapidly expanding giant of a primordial beast! So he would poach members from the rival company’s development team!
Noticing the giant loophole in the supply chain of his rival company, he immediately called to report the secret information via a phone call to a Japanese number. Having gone mad with joy, he said, “With insufficient core components, you won’t be able to deliver the goods.”
After about 10 days, Yaskawa Electric and Fanuc Corporation from Japan called back. “Mr. Cheng. Ling Feng Jing Mi Technologies did not come to sign the order contract. They did not accept the increase in our prices. Mr. Cheng, you’ve caused us to lose an order worth $3,000,000. You have to accept responsibility for our losses.”
Cheng Yunfeng replied, “No problem, I can take the responsibility. Rock Technologies will sign a $3,000,000 order contract with you.” The project of the “Rocky Robot” had rapidly started after Manager Jiang from the Human Resource Department had poached Su You Jie and Wu Lei. Its progress was extremely fast. The “Rocky Robot”, which was similar to the Wa-wah robot in terms of performance, could be introduced to the market within a month. It would swiftly fill the void caused by the severe lack of supplies of the Wa-wah robot.
The staff from the two Japanese companies said, “Ok, but we want to raise the price by 50% for this batch of order.”
“No, no, this is too much. I cannot accept this. The highest increase can only be 5%!”
“We’ve heard that there is a model of cleaning robot that is trending in the country of Gui. It has caused the demand for brushless motors and the mobile components for mechanical arms to increase tenfold. As we have limited manufacturing resources, our prices have increased by at least 30%.”
“At most, I can allow you to increase by 10%!”
Giving a sinister laugh, the staff replied, “30%! If you can’t accept that, we’ll just have to wait for a more attractive buyer,”
With a livid expression, Chen Yun Feng gritted his teeth and said, “Ok!”
…
After a month, the development of the Rocky Robot was a success. Its mass production was about to begin. The technical team of Rock Technologies was celebrating in joy. Cheng Yunfeng was immersing himself in the delight of the celebratory dinner. He was drinking heartily with the staff from the development team as they looked forward to the beauty of their success.
However, a situation reported by the sales department immediately caused his smile to freeze and his brows to scrunch up. “Chief Cheng, there has been no abnormality seen in the supply chain of Xing Hai Technologies. The Wa-wah robot is still being distributed as per normal. Everyday, there are tens of thousands of new comments on Taobao and Jingxi Mall. Consumers had indicated that the goods were delivered and gave five-star ratings.”
“What?!” Chen Yun Feng flatly denied, “This is impossible!” A layer of cold sweat beaded on his back. His face turned white and pinpricks of cold sweat beaded along his forehead. Pointing at the sales department manager, he bellowed, “How could you only report such an important situation now?!”
The manager felt very aggrieved. “Chief Cheng, you’ve been staying at the development department every day for the past few days. You told me not to disturb you if there’s nothing of importance…”
“You! Pack your things and get lost right now!” Although the sales manager was a distant relative of his, someone had to be responsible for such a huge mistake.
After which, he selected some staff to conduct an investigation. Within three days, they had to find out the reason why there were no issues with Xing Hai Technologies supply chain! The next day, the investigation personnel bought two of the latest Wa-wah robots from a scalper at the price of $10,000 per unit. They proceeded to disassemble the robots.
Finally, they found the reason. “There is no manufacturer name, no product batch number, no quality certification… Chief Cheng, the core components that they’ve used as replacements are two types of uncertified components.”
“They are counterfeit components produced in a domestic factory?” Chen Yun Feng’s anxious expression finally settled. His worries instantly vanished. He could not help but smirk. “There really is no way but to make this sort of bad move, is there? But, this isn’t wrong either. If it was me who was facing the same difficult circumstances, I’m afraid I would be forced to use this sort of method to solve the problem too.”
“But it’s still a dead end!”
“What’s the working lifespan of a Japan imported component? And what’s the working lifespan of a domestically produced counterfeit component? Don’t you have an inkling of the differences? Your attempt to sell shoddy goods for the price of the originals is in vain! You deceive the consumers by using inferior counterfeit components to replace original imported components. This sort of thing has already been done by Hua Yao Company! They had a full-on public relations campaign in order to suppress the incident. Even so, the image of the company took a huge hit. How big is your company? How long have you been established? Yet, you dare to do this? Even I have to take my hat off! But, are the consumers idiots? Can they accept a product that costs a few thousands dollars but starts experiencing issues within three to five days? It’s been over a month now. It seems like you’ve sold many inferior counterfeits. Now is the right time to expose the large-scale quality issues.”
However, after he got someone to do a check on the internet, he found out that there were no posts regarding the quality issues of the Wa-wah robot. More than 99% of the posts were favorable reviews.
“Could it be… that the inferior counterfeit components in the body of the Wa-wah robots have a quality guarantee period of two months? Or someone had exposes the quality problems but the incident was quickly handled by Xing Hai Technologies’ public relations department?”
“No!” Chen Yun Feng stomped his foot. “No matter which situation it is, Rock Technologies can’t just sit and do nothing! We have a civil duty to reveal the serious quality issues in the Wa-wah robot to the public. We have to take the initiative to expose them… This is something we have to do as an enterprise with a sense of social responsibility. This is a matter of utmost urgency!” He immediately built a team in charge of exposing the issues and demanded that they use the various online channels to announce the quality issues in the Wa-wah robot to the public. The team should use the shortest amount of time possible to do so and the more people that knew about the issues, the better!
With a sense of justice, Cheng Yun Feng said, “I’ll let you know, Xing Hai Technologies, you’ll be facing imminent demise for making inferior counterfeit products in Z country at the beginning of this year!”
He did not take a second look at the two types of counterfeit components lying on the table. He also did not request for someone to test them… Why test something that was an inferior counterfeit?
…
On the 25th, while having his lunch at home, Chen Jin suddenly received a call. It was from the Vice President, Liang Ying. “Chief Chen, it’s a disaster! A huge amount of posts have suddenly appeared on the internet since last night saying that our Wa-wah robots use components that are counterfeit and inferior. They say that there are huge quality issues and we are deceiving the consumers… It’s caused a big uproar online. The topic is topping Baidu’s ‘hot search’ engine! Chief Chen, what should we do?!”
Chen Jin put down his chopsticks and slowly raised his head. “Oh..” Not only was he not panicking, he even smiled. Giving a few words of appeasement to Liang Ying, he told her to settle down and said that he had an appropriate counter plan. Then, he hung up.
“Has it arrived?” A malicious smirk appeared on the corners of his lips. He muttered, “Has the opportunity to advertise my company arrived? The saboteur from the same industry that desires the death of Xing Hai Technologies – it’s about time you gave yourself away. You should be able to let me know your identity.”
Hehe, a great performance was about to begin!
…
“Ah!”
Su Yun was sitting across from him at the dining table and quietly eating her meal when she noticed the sinister smirk at the corners of his mouth. She felt as if her whole body was electrified. First she was stunned, then her heart started to beat rapidly and fiercely. Her pretty face quickly became red. After she recovered from her reaction, she swiftly ducked her head. However, her rapid heartbeat showed no signs of slowing.
A voice reverberated in her mind; So handsome.