Chapter 279 Hold it back!
The moonlight is bright and the stars are shining.

Such a night sky is rare in Zhongguancun, which is brightly lit all night long. Tomorrow will be a nice day with clear blue skies.

Liu Qing looked out the window with his thoughts wandering lazily, while Cheng Wei sat at his desk as chairman and CEO, quietly looking at the words on the whiteboard whose ink had long dried.

Xie Jingxing glanced back and forth at the two of them, and finally broke the silence: "Last month at the Internet Conference, Mr. Ma told me that Alibaba Cloud used the Double Eleven event to accumulate cloud technology research and development. We also have such conditions, so we have a huge advantage in autonomous driving technology and smart car business."

"It's like this. We are currently in talks with Alibaba's technical expert... Zhang, what's his name? Liu Qing is in talks and is planning to poach him." Cheng Wei responded in a gentle tone.

Liu Qing didn't look back, but smoothed the hair beside her ear and said lightly, "Oh, Zhang Wensong. Let's talk about it after the Autonomous Driving Technology Research Institute is officially established after the new year. He doesn't have much confidence in us."

"So the first thing is to prioritize internal strategic arrangements, including competition in the online car-hailing business market and building an ecosystem centered on Xiaoju Car Service. If we don't prioritize first, not only will the outside world have no confidence, but the company's employees will also not know what to do."

Xie Jingxing stood up, walked around to the back of Cheng Wei's desk, and took a bottle of wine from the bookshelf.

"Go get me some ice."

He only took a cup. Liu Qing looked at him sideways, but in the end, he said nothing, twisted his waist and went outside the office to find ice cubes, and slammed the door lightly.

Cheng Wei hesitated and said, "This is the dilemma. We need to achieve good performance growth to raise money. After raising money, investors have requirements for our valuation growth. If we want to increase our valuation, we have to improve performance and continue to raise money. Apart from fighting Uber this year, the company's energy has been very scattered in other areas."

Xie Jingxing just listened without making any comment. A few minutes later, Liu Qing came in with two wine glasses, a bucket of ice cubes, and some snacks like ham and salmon.

After pouring a glass of wine for Cheng Wei, she dragged a chair and sat down at the desk.

"Please give me a whole cucumber to cleanse my mouth." Xie Jingxing asked again for no reason.

Liu Qing clenched the wine glass, took a deep breath and endured it, then stood up and went out again, closing the door a little louder.

Cheng Wei pursed his lips and frowned, concluding: "In fact, I think the deeper reason is what you just said. We are trapped by the concept of the sharing economy. We always think that any business line can be done well if it is connected with this concept, so we don't want to let go of anything."

Xie Jing Xing still didn't answer, he just took a sip of wine and ate a piece of ham.

It’s true that the delicate fat in the pig’s hind leg is very satisfying, but the industrial knife skills are so poor and soulless.

This time, Liu Qing came back more than ten minutes later. He looked at the half of the ham meat that had disappeared, and then looked at Xie Jingxing who was leisurely wiping the oil from the corner of his mouth.

The corners of her mouth curled up slightly: "Boss Xie, do you have any other instructions?"

"You go and fix it..."

"Alright, alright, Liu Qing, just sit down and don't listen to him." Cheng Wei had to, couldn't help but step out and interrupt.

Xie Jingxing rolled up the tissue and shot a three-pointer at the trash can. It went in empty. He raised his eyebrows proudly: "Regarding the company's strategic priorities, I still say the same thing. There are too many people like Zhu Jingshi in the company."

"Your net loss of $8 million for the whole year was not just caused by the battle with Uber. How many external acquisitions did you make in the car rental, private car, and bus businesses?"

His words were straightforward, but his attitude was calm: "When we were raising funds, we treated these as performance growth, but at the end of the year, the financial report showed all negative assets."

"This is a common way for Internet companies to raise funds during their rapid development period. Zhu Jingshi and his team did a good job, but you two have a big problem. They are specialized in acquisitions, not management. How could they allow these people to take advantage of the acquired business?"

Xie Jingxing sneered. He himself was doing this, and saying this was extremely hurtful and insulting.

Liu Qing blushed immediately. She was the one who brought in Zhu Jingshi and other investment banking talents. These words sounded like she was scolding her to keep her hands off the paws and not reach out beyond her professional expertise.

Cheng Wei also looked embarrassed. Didi's own business lines were all firmly in his hands, but the businesses acquired this year were taken over by a large number of "investment banking experts".

To him, Xie Jingxing's words were a response to Yin Yang Liu Qing just now. You clearly know that PPT masters like Zhu Jingshi like to fight for power, and you deliberately condone him. Now he is trying to deceive me, which distracts the company's internal energy.

Do you think I don't know what's going on?

"Didi is a grassroots company that has been fighting its way to where it is today. It is understandable that they have introduced elites to improve their professionalism. However, too much is as bad as too little. You are still a startup team, not a team that can maintain its position."

Xie Jingxing continued to talk to himself: "Take the strategic concept of 'industrial alliance' as an example. The entire strategic department from top to bottom, even the team responsible for the next round of financing and many executives, all agree that we should not build cars but build a shared ecosystem."

"Such convergent thinking is very fatal to entrepreneurial teams, and the elites are just that convergent. After all, they are all trained by Wall Street and the financial industry to conform to the standards of secular value recognition."

He exhaled the alcohol and waited for Cheng Wei and Liu Qing to express their opinions. Both of them felt that they were being criticized and did not want to lose face in front of each other. Silence is Cambridge tonight... He drank too fast and got drunk. The delicious ham meat tasted greasy, very greasy...

The fat man with a bullied face and the thin woman with a big mouth drinking wine were not as lively as two pieces of good ham in Xie Jingxing's eyes. They were as stubborn and dull as stones.

"How to balance the company's elite temperament is the next issue you need to consider."

Xie Jingxing recalled, "The negative impact of this is not only on financing and business priorities, but also on PR. I heard that you guys wanted to buy all the taxi licenses on the market. Do you want to buy a career position for the patrol dog at the company's door so that they can also eat a share of the government's food?"

"That was an internal proposal. We wanted to show our attitude of actively integrating into supervision!" Liu Qing broke down.

Industry regulatory regulations were introduced in the middle of the year. Didi, which actively participated in the shallow suggestions in the formulation stage of the regulatory regulations, successively won the first online car-hailing platform operating license, special car qualification license, and electronic map Class A surveying and mapping qualification.

Subsequently, it hired a director-level talent from the former transportation department to form a comprehensive professional PR team. Therefore, it can be said that the newly issued regulatory regulations are good news for Didi and can be regarded as an industry barrier.

Some colleagues who have been unable to obtain relevant qualifications are so angry that they openly throw their hats in the ring and curse. On the one hand, the relevant departments have blocked the supervision of the traditional taxi industry, and on the other hand, they have condoned some companies that claim to be technological innovations.

No matter how their business is doing, the fact that they can use the name of a technology company as a cover to issue unlimited taxi licenses to themselves is worth a valuation of tens of billions of dollars!
This was the end of the story. Liu Qing was immediately frightened and felt that he could not bear such negative accusations. Since you said that we would not integrate into the supervision, then I will use a valuation of over 10 billion to buy all the licenses to integrate into the supervision, and by the way, completely kill your chances of integrating into the supervision.

Then, Cheng Wei was so scared that he kept shaking his head and saying no. However, a few days later, the relevant department issued the first fine for online car-hailing company suspected of commercial monopoly, with a maximum fine of 50 yuan.

Anyone who was born and raised in China and comes from an ordinary family would not come up with such a weird idea.

"Why are you so unconvinced? Has this happened once or twice? You always copy the American way of playing and fool your subordinates."

Xie Jingxing put down his wine glass heavily. "A few days ago, Liu Qiming told me that the leaders of the relevant departments in Jingyue City asked him privately whether Didi's PR specialists were all second-generation children with their own resources like CEO Liu? Guess what, he thinks your specialists are very proactive and are always eager to solve problems, but they are also very arrogant. He needs to make an appointment if he wants to talk to your specialists."

"I don't understand what you want to say. If you are dissatisfied or have other solutions, just say it directly. There is no need to be sarcastic and stick to the facts!" Liu Qing stared with slightly red eyes.

This was the first conflict between the three since they drove to Tibet. Cheng Wei took off his glasses and turned his head away.

"First, when facing regulation in China, don't think about actively solving it. Resist it, resist it hard, stand firm when you are beaten, and try to get a lighter punishment. If you are not Liu Chuanzhi's daughter, all active solutions mean challenging authority, and no one wants to accompany you to solve this and that."

Xie Jingxing raised two fingers: "Secondly, based on this point, it is unreasonable for you to reduce the PR's travel expenses to the minimum. Do you want them to use those unaccounted business funds to solve the problem? How many heads do they have? How much salary do they get a month to protect you from bullets?"

"I admit that I can never do without the influence of my father, but the starting point of all my thinking about work is to push the company on the right path!"

Liu Qing was so angry that he was shaking all over. He stood up and pointed his finger at Xie Jingxing's nose, "Listen carefully, we are the ones who are on the front line every day, and you are the one who enjoys the benefits of the company's rapid growth. You show up every now and then to inspect work and assign tasks like a leader! Anyone can say that I am a second-generation kid, but you are the only one who has no right to make decisions, and you will never have the right!"

"Liu Qing, calm down. Both of you should stop talking. Jingxing is drunk..."

As their emotions gradually got out of control, Cheng Wei quickly spoke up to stop the fight.

Xie Jing Xing also stood up suddenly and started to scold: "Don't pretend to be a good guy. How many times have you been called in for talks by the relevant departments recently? Every time you were scolded like a grandson, and you were confused and couldn't find the reason?"

"Incompetence is incompetence, don't talk about qualifications. I am a second-generation kid, so what? I am not only a second-generation kid. One minute I sat at the same table with your father at the National Day reception, and the next minute I went to the countryside of Yunnan to drink with the director of a rural cooperative. You can't do what I can do, and yet you talk to me about qualifications. From your hair to your toes, what qualifications do you have to be arrogant in front of me? Even if you don't accept it, just bear with it!"

Liu Qing's tears flowed out, she opened her mouth stupidly and made mechanical lip movements, but no sound came out.

I was stunned by the scolding and couldn't think of how to refute. My mind was a mess and the only thing left was the thought of humiliation. I instinctively wanted to reject this humiliation.

"Hold it back!"

Xie Jingxing yelled at her with a tense expression, and cast his eyes on Cheng Wei, whose face had turned pale: "And you, both of you listen to me, I will only say this once."

"As a car operation service provider covering the entire public transportation infrastructure, the word 'private' is a paradox. In the future, Didi will not be named Cheng, Xie, or Liu. No matter how you fight, you are just executors who have been given management power."

Liu Qing's tears were instantly stopped and she almost burst into snot bubbles. Cheng Wei seemed to be shot in the soul and his whole body became stiff for a moment.

"Secondly, the strategic priority of Xiaoju Car Service business line ranks second, and it does not need to care about the perception of investors. In other words, the car manufacturing business and the online car-hailing business are inseparable for the time being. While the self-made car business reduces Didi's own operating costs, it means that drivers can earn more on our platform. This is the industry barrier on the supply side of the online car-hailing business."

Xie Jingxing finally said softly: "After the new round of financing, Xiyou, as the representative of the investor, requested to appoint a senior executive to the position of PR director."

(End of this chapter)