Tech giants start by disassembling systems

Chapter 4 Hongyuan Intelligent

Su Chen stood at the window of the second-floor conference room, looking down at the empty production workshop below.

It was 3:30 p.m., which should have been the busiest time of day for production, but all three assembly lines in the workshop were shut down. Dozens of workers in blue overalls were gathered in twos and threes, some playing on their phones, some chatting, all with an uneasy expression on their faces.

They already know about the return.

The news spread rapidly within the small company, from Zhao Guoqiang's use of inferior goods to the distributors' collective halt to ordering; almost everyone had heard about it.

What worries them is not the company's reputation, but their own livelihood.

If the company goes bankrupt, these dozens of people will have to find other ways to make a living.

Su Chen withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Zhou Ming.

Where is Zhao Guoqiang now?

"He's still in his office on the first floor," Zhou Ming replied. "I just went down to check on him; he was on the phone, and he didn't seem to be doing anything wrong."

"Call security to restrain him, then notify the rest of the management team to come to the meeting room."

Zhou Ming was taken aback: "Control it?"

"He is suspected of embezzlement, having received at least 800,000 yuan in kickbacks from the company, causing direct economic losses of no less than 600,000 yuan to the company, and the damage to the channel's reputation is incalculable." Su Chen's tone was as calm as if he were stating a weather forecast.

"Call the police now and let them handle it."

Zhou Ming opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just nodded heavily.

"I see."

He turned and walked towards the door, but stopped halfway there and looked back at Su Chen.

"President Su, Manager Zhao is, after all, your cousin. If this gets out, your mother might—"

"My mother passed away in 2012," Su Chen interrupted him.

This information comes from the body's memories. Su Chen's mother died in a car accident four years ago, and Su Jianguo has not remarried since then, devoting all his energy to the company.

Zhao Guoqiang was able to get the position of production director at Hongyuan Intelligent because of his relationship with his cousin-in-law. Su Jianguo, out of affection for his deceased wife, always took good care of this cousin-in-law.

This is the reward we get in return.

"Go ahead," Su Chen said.

Without further hesitation, Zhou Ming strode out of the conference room.

Five minutes later, a commotion arose downstairs.

Su Chen walked to the window and glanced out—Zhao Guoqiang was being dragged out of the first-floor office by two security guards, his face flushed and shouting something loudly.

"What are you doing? I'm the company's production director! Let me go!"

Zhao Guoqiang is a middle-aged man in his forties, short and stout, with a buzz cut. He always speaks with a smile and is polite to everyone.

But at this moment, there was no smile on his face, only anger and a hint of guilt that Su Chen could clearly see.

"Su Chen! What are you doing?" Zhao Guoqiang looked up and saw Su Chen by the second-floor window, and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I'm your cousin! Don't you know how your father treated me when he was alive? How can you do this to your deceased mother?"

Su Chen looked at him expressionlessly.

Using his deceased mother to play the emotional card? He'd seen this tactic far too often in his previous life's workplace.

"Zhao Guoqiang." Su Chen's voice wasn't loud, but it was loud enough for the people downstairs to hear clearly.

"You privately replaced qualified suppliers and purchased inferior parts to pass off as genuine products, embezzling no less than 800,000 yuan in price differences. This resulted in serious quality problems in two batches of the company's products, causing direct economic losses exceeding 600,000 yuan, and all cooperative distributors have suspended their purchases."

"Did you fabricate these facts?"

Zhao Guoqiang's lips trembled slightly.

All the workers in the workshop stopped what they were doing, and dozens of pairs of eyes turned to Zhao Guoqiang.

"I...I did that to save costs for the company!" Zhao Guoqiang shouted, his neck stiff. "The company's cash flow was already tight when your father was sick. I switched to a cheaper supplier to save money for the company!"

"Save money?" Su Chen's tone finally softened a bit—a chilling warmth.

"Where did the money go? The company's procurement costs only decreased by 10%, where did the remaining 30% go?"

Zhao Guoqiang's face turned pale instantly.

He thought these financial details would take at least several days or even weeks to uncover through auditing, but he didn't expect that Su Chen had already calculated everything clearly on his first day in office.

"You...you're lying! I didn't embezzle anything! Do you have any proof?"

"The purchase approval form, the genuine quotation from Hualida Company, and the unusual deposit records in your bank account over the past twenty days—the police will investigate these things for me."

After Su Chen finished speaking, he stopped looking at him and turned back to the conference table.

Zhao Guoqiang was still shouting downstairs, but his voice was starting to tremble.

Zhou Ming quickly returned to the conference room, followed by three people—Li Wei, the finance director; Zhang Lei, the head of the technology department; and Meng Xiaoting, the sales manager in charge of marketing and channels.

These three people, along with Zhou Ming and Zhao Guoqiang who has already been removed from office, constitute the entire management team of Hongyuan Intelligent.

The company has a total of 52 people. In addition to the management, there are more than 30 production line workers, seven or eight after-sales and administrative staff, and three technicians who do hardware debugging.

Su Chen glanced around at the three people who had arrived.

Li Wei, 31 years old, female, round face, wears glasses, and looks nervous. She was recruited by Su Jianguo from an accounting firm. She is meticulous in her work but low-key, and has little interaction with Zhao Guoqiang.

Zhang Lei, 28 years old, tall and thin, wearing a T-shirt with the Arduino logo, looks somewhat bookish. He is the company's only "R&D staff," and is usually responsible for flight control parameter tuning, software bug fixing, and new feature testing.

Meng Xiaoting, thirty years old, with short, neat hair, looks shrewd and capable. She is responsible for liaising with all distributors and online channels, and the return emails that came in this afternoon were first sent to her inbox.

"You should all know the situation by now," Su Chen said, getting straight to the point.

"I've already reported Zhao Guoqiang to the police for using inferior materials and embezzling company assets. But the more pressing issue now is: how to minimize the losses already incurred, and how to keep the company alive."

The three people looked at each other, but no one spoke.

Su Chen continued, "Meng Xiaoting, could you tell us about the situation on the distribution channels?"

Meng Xiaoting stood up, clutching a printed form in her hand.

"Currently, we have a total of 47 offline distributors and eight online distribution stores. As of this afternoon, all 47 distributors have sent notices to suspend orders. Among them, 19 have explicitly requested the return of the two most recent batches of goods, while the remaining 28, although not requesting returns, have expressed a 'wait-and-see attitude.'"

"On the online channels, three Tmall distributors and two JD.com distributors have suspended links to Hongyuan products, and the three WeChat channel partners have not yet responded."

How large is the scale of the returns?

"We recently shipped a total of 800 units in two batches. We've confirmed that approximately 350 units will be returned, and some are still in transit. The dealer says they'll return them once they receive them. The final number of returns is expected to be over 500 units."

Su Chen did a simple calculation.

Five hundred drones, with a factory cost of approximately 1,500 yuan each, amounted to a product cost of 750,000 yuan. Adding in logistics costs, compensation for breach of contract by distributors, and after-sales processing costs for defective products already sold, the total loss approached one million yuan.

The company only had 1.2 million in its books.

This means that after dealing with this return crisis, the company won't even have 200,000 yuan left.

Salaries are due at the end of the month. The salaries of 52 people, plus social security, rent, and utilities, amount to nearly 300,000 yuan in fixed expenses each month.

We don't have enough money.

"Li Wei, could you calculate how large the funding gap will be if all returns are processed, plus this month's fixed expenses?"

Li Wei adjusted his glasses and flipped through a few pages of his notebook: "I've made a preliminary estimate, and the shortfall is roughly between 300,000 and 400,000. And that doesn't even include next month's figures..."

"Take it one step at a time," Su Chen interrupted her.

He stood up and his gaze swept over everyone present.

"There are only two most important things right now."

"First, all defective products must be returned unconditionally and in full, regardless of whether the distributor has requested a return. We will proactively contact them and issue refunds. Not a single product with quality issues will be allowed to remain on the market."

Meng Xiaoting nodded, but her expression was complicated—she knew what a full refund meant: greater financial pressure and admitting to all distributors that "our product really has a big problem."

"I know what you're thinking," Su Chen saw through her concerns. "Taking the initiative to withdraw is a hundred times better than being forced to. Being forced to withdraw is shameful, while taking the initiative is responsible. Distributors aren't stupid; they know who's genuinely good to them and who's just going through the motions."

"The second thing," Su Chen turned to Zhang Lei, "Zhang Lei, I need you to immediately take inventory of all the spare parts in the warehouse, mark all the substandard parts that Zhao Guoqiang replaced, and seal them separately. Also, take stock of how much qualified inventory remains from our original suppliers, Hengxinda and Jingwei."

Zhang Lei nodded quickly: "Okay, I'll go right away."

"Go ahead, give me the results by today."

Zhang Lei quickly left the conference room.

Su Chen then looked at Zhou Ming: "Notify all employees that there will be a company-wide meeting at 5 PM today in the workshop. I have something to say to everyone."

"clear."

Zhou Ming and the others left the conference room one after another.

Su Chen was left alone in the room again.

He walked to the window and looked down at the crowd gradually dispersing and the empty first-floor office left behind by Zhao Guoqiang, who had been taken away.

The company's situation was worse than he had anticipated.

After deducting return compensation and this month's expenses, the 1.2 million yuan in cash might not even leave 100,000 yuan.

With trust in the distribution channels collapsing, new sales revenue is unlikely in the short term.

The management team is missing a key position – the position of production director has become vacant.

If a solution cannot be found within a month, Hongyuan Intelligent will become another name to disappear silently in Shenzhen's drone bubble.

But Su Chen didn't panic.

Because he has two things that others don't.

The first thing he knows comes from memories from more than twenty years later. He knows which technological paths will succeed, which tracks will explode, and which detours he doesn't need to take again.

The second thing is the system panel that waits quietly deep within my consciousness.

Virtual disassembly laboratory.

He hasn't even had a chance to actually use it once.

"Tonight," Su Chen said to himself, "after I get back tonight, I'll take apart a Phantom 4 and see what happens."

The five o'clock all-hands meeting was fast approaching. He needed to think about what to say to the employees first.

The company is now his, and the livelihoods of fifty-two people depend on him.

No matter how difficult the road ahead, he didn't intend to let the company die.

Su Chen turned away from the window, sat back down at the conference table, and began to write out an outline on a blank sheet of paper.