Rebirth: Starting from the Cafeteria

"I understand. I will make corresponding adjustments next."

After listening to Du Shaojie's words, Wu Dazhui had an idea in his mind and began to think about the next adjustment plan.

Du Shaojie will not participate in the specific business management, so let him take care of the rest.

After eating and drinking, Du Shaojie left the fish restaurant and returned home.

A few days passed quickly.

Du Shaojie taught the fine-tuned [Roast Whole Lamb] process to the barbecue chef and no longer cared about what was going on there.

He rearranged his schedule and would set aside some time every day for fitness. The body is the capital, and if you don't take care of it now, it will be too late when you get old.

During this period, many chef competitions were held in various places, with various names and organizers. Du Shaojie also received many invitations, but they were not invitations for him to participate, but invitations for him to be a judge.

He was not very interested in these activities, but the restaurants under the catering company did send players to participate actively according to the needs.

After so many years of training, a large number of outstanding chefs have emerged under the company. They can often be seen in various competitions and have achieved good results.

“I always feel like there’s something missing.”

Du Shaojie has been waiting for a breakthrough before taking the "senior technician" exam, but there has been no breakthrough yet, which makes him feel helpless.

He felt that if he wanted to improve his cooking skills, he would need some luck.

Thinking of this, he simply stopped being anxious. Some things are just like that, haste makes waste, and it might not be a bad thing to let it settle for two more years.

this day.

Du Shaojie went to the construction site of the resort and found that the progress of the project was faster than he expected. The overall development was divided into two parts, the resort first, and the construction of the high-end villa area lagged behind.

On the way back, he received a call from Cai Jing.

“Did you go to the construction site?”

"Yes, we are on our way back. The progress of the project has far exceeded my expectations. It should be completed after the New Year, right?"

"It's not a big problem. You should trust us in this regard. We are professionals. I want to tell you something. The company is planning to invest a huge amount of money to develop a high-end villa project in Shenzhen. There is currently a lot of opposition, and I need your support."

After hearing Cai Jing's words, Du Shaojie was a little dazed.

Before we knew it, Shenzhen Jinxing Real Estate Development Company had successfully gone public and became a real joint-stock company. But how long had it been since Cai Jing could no longer control the situation?
"I definitely support you, but you have to tell me in detail."

"The situation is that the majority of shareholders are not optimistic about this project. They think that the project is too advanced and that future sales will definitely be a problem. In this case, if I force a vote, I won't be very sure, so I need you to stand on my side."

"Okay! Let me know when you need to vote and I'll go."

Du Shaojie has never attended the shareholders' meeting. In the past, Liang Meiqin exercised the voting rights on his behalf.

Since Liang Meiqin left, he has given up voting, which is equivalent to abstaining from voting every time. Now that Cai Jing is in trouble, she needs his voting rights.

Du Shaojie doesn't care who is right or wrong, he will only stand on Cai Jing's side.

"Okay! Thank you very much."

Cai Jing didn't say much and quickly ended the call.

Du Shaojie has his own plans. He doesn't know when the dividends will be paid back, so he will hold on to the shares in his hands at the appropriate time to obtain investment returns.

This is the best way to monetize.

Before this, he will clearly support Cai Jing, and this will not change.

A week later.

Shenzhen Jinxing Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. held an extraordinary shareholders' meeting to review the villa area project.

Du Shaojie attended the meeting, and in the end, Cai Jing's project plan was approved. Usually, his voting rights would not have much influence, but at the critical moment, it played a decisive role.

Even without talking about personal relationships, Cai Jing's villa project cannot lose money. Building villas in that location will be the representative of "luxury homes" in Shenzhen for the next ten years, and the number and purchasing power of wealthy people will definitely exceed everyone's imagination.

After finishing this matter, he came to the headquarters building.

Nowadays, the branch of Dingxin International has also settled in the headquarters building, making it very convenient for him to handle some official business.

Since having a personal secretary, the backlog of documents has been greatly reduced, and the only things he needs to deal with are a few documents that need to be re-signed.

"Boss Du, there is something I need to report to you. I don't know if you have noticed that there is a trend sweeping the country recently, and a large number of fast food restaurants have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

At present, fast food has limited impact on Xichuan Restaurant, Xiangweiju, Seafood House and Shuweixiang Hotpot, but its impact on Northwest Noodle House cannot be underestimated. "

Since the workload was not heavy, Du Shaojie quickly finished his official business with the assistance of Luo Qin.

Meng Gang came to talk about the latest changes in the catering industry. In recent years, not only has foreign fast food begun to enter the mainland in a big way, but Chinese fast food has also been booming. Fast food has not had much impact on mid- to high-end restaurants, but it has had a big impact on snack bars and stir-fry restaurants.

The company's Northwest Noodle House is facing this problem. The noodle house mainly serves snacks, but it has no price advantage. Not only Meng Gang is anxious, Su Dapeng is already so anxious that he can't sleep.

"Adjust the product mix and don't rush to lower prices."

Du Shaojie didn't worry much about the noodle shop, and the profitability of [Northwest Noodle Shop] was good in recent years. He didn't expect the situation to suddenly reverse.

However, we should remain stable at this time and adjust some varieties appropriately, but we should not blindly lower prices.

"Mr. Du, if we don't lower the price, we won't have the cost-effectiveness advantage. There are too many alternatives to snacks like this. I'm afraid we won't be able to keep going for too long."

What is Meng Gang most worried about? He is worried that Northwest Noodle House will suffer losses and become a "bleeding point" for the company.

When that time comes, it will be too late to close the stores, and he is worried about a chain reaction.

"Don't worry, I'll do some research later."

Du Shaojie is not as cautious as Meng Gang. He has read the latest financial report and the noodle shop's operating data is still good. It is far from the most dangerous moment.

in the afternoon.

He went to Hong Kong and calmly stayed with Liang Meiqin for a few days before starting a new round of inspections.

As his first stop, he chose Shanghai.

"Mr. Du, we have selected high-standard ingredients. All snacks and dishes have been repeatedly refined. The quality and taste are first-class."

The store manager accompanied Du Shaojie to inspect the kitchen and dining area. The work in all aspects was very good and there was nothing wrong to find.

There are many reasons for the decline in passenger flow, but one important reason is the low cost-effectiveness.

Du Shaojie also specially ordered a bowl of [Mutton Noodle Soup] to try. It tasted very fresh and not smelly at all. It was really delicious.

But at the same time he also discovered a problem. The price of each serving of [Mutton Soup Noodles] was not low and was a bit too "exquisite". A bowl of noodles plus some other snacks was not enough to fill him up.

"The portion is still a little small. This bowl of noodles is not cheap. Can you add more noodles and more meat?"

It can be seen that the profit of this bowl of noodles is still considerable, so why is the noodle shop unwilling to increase the portion?
Du Shaojie could see through it at a glance. They were doing this just to increase sales. If a bowl of noodles was not enough, customers would order more snacks, and wouldn't the sales increase?

In the past, people might have just accepted it with a pinch of their nose, but now with the rise of the fast food industry, doing so will discourage many old customers.

"It's OK, but the profit margin will be lower."

The store manager was also knowledgeable and quickly calculated the costs and profits, seeming a little reluctant.

Du Shaojie felt speechless, but he still said patiently: "Cost control and profit margin are relative. If the entire market environment changes, if you still stick to the old ways, wouldn't that be self-destruction?"

At this point, he recalled the beef noodles that were all over the country. The beef slices were paper-thin, but the noodles were generous. Although the taste was not very good, it was filling and the price was relatively cheap.

In summary, either the price is low or the cost performance is high. Unless you are irreplaceable, you have to occupy one of the two. If you don’t occupy either, it will be difficult to continue operating.

In the past, competition was not fierce, but now with the rise of the fast food industry, this point is very critical.

"Mr. Du wants us to lower the price?"

"No, why don't you understand? Lowering the price won't work, but you can adjust the portion size, give more noodles, give more meat, then the value for money will be better, right?"

What Du Shaojie hates most is frequent price cuts for promotions. The catering industry has its own internal rules, and price wars cannot decide everything.

Having said that, he got up and went to the kitchen to start doing the cost calculation himself.

After getting more accurate data, he asked the kitchen to make a new bowl of [Mutton Noodle Soup], increasing the amount of noodles and mutton a little bit, but it seemed that the ingredients of this bowl of noodles were much richer.

And the profit is still within a reasonable range.

"I understand, President Du. I will report to the regional company and the head office later."

The operation of the store will not change because of Du Shaojie's words, but each store is obliged to report truthfully to the regional company and the head office any problems found by Du Shaojie during the inspection.

Su Dapeng and others will consider whether it is necessary to change the operating procedures based on the detailed data of each store.

All of these things are digitized and standardized, and must be unified in all stores across the country and cannot be easily changed.

Du Shaojie nodded and said no more.

We stayed in Shanghai for a few days, during which time we took some time to visit my sister's family, and then we continued our inspection tour.

We stayed in Beijing for a while and found many problems along the way. Most of these problems were related to changes in the business environment, but we couldn't just let them go and had to make corresponding changes.

After the inspection, Du Shaojie returned directly to Shencheng. (End of this chapter)