Chapter 58: The First Day as President
On the first day that Shirakawa Kaede took office as the president of Shirakawa Electric, he announced a resolution that starting from this month all employees would change from a six-day work week to a five-day work week, with Saturday and Sunday off.
As soon as the decision was passed down, the workers in the workshop cheered.
In 1979, most companies in RB worked six days a week, and only a few companies implemented a two-day weekend. Only a few giant companies had such benefits, and although people didn't say it, they were actually envious.
Therefore, once this welfare policy was announced, everyone's favorable impression of the young president Sang increased rapidly.
Raising the salaries of supervisors and providing benefits to employees is the first step for Baichuan Feng to win the hearts of the people. In fact, he also wants to be simple and crude, and directly increase the salaries of all employees.
But the landlord had no surplus food, and the purchase of Watanabe Electric had emptied out all his assets.
So after much thought, only a two-day weekend system can motivate everyone.
He did not pay any extra costs, and the employees gained real benefits. They had four extra days of vacation each month, and their salaries remained the same, which was a salary increase, a win-win situation.
At this time, Shirakawa Kaede was sitting in the president's office on the third floor, carefully reviewing various production materials of the former Watanabe Electric. The more he looked, the tighter his brows furrowed.
The situation is worse than I imagined, and some are even shocking.
"Hasegawa-san, the retail price of our Blackstone record player in the market is 83,000 yen, and we can ship about 120 units per month. But the profit from each unit sold is only 830 yen, which means our profit margin is only 1% of the selling price?"
Shirakawa Feng raised his head and looked in disbelief at Hasegawa Hiroshi standing in front of him. The latter is still the head of the marketing department of Shirakawa Electric.
"Hai" Hasegawa Hiro lowered his head in shame. He wanted to explain but because he didn't know the character of the young president, he ended up saying nothing.
"Hasegawa-san, you are the marketing director of Shirakawa Electric. If you have any questions or suggestions about the company's operations, please be sure to speak up. We have the same goal."
Baichuan Feng saw that Hasegawa was hesitant to speak, so he simply put down the report in his hand and decided to have a straight talk with him.
Seeing that Shirakawa Feng's eyes were not fake, Hasegawa Hiro boldly spoke directly, "President Shirakawa, the cost of our Blackstone record player is too high, at least 30% higher than similar products!"
"Hmm?" Shirakawa Feng picked up the report in his hand and compared it. Sure enough, the material cost alone was as high as 50,000 yen. Adding labor costs, taxes, etc., the factory price of a vinyl record player must be at least 69,000 yen to ensure profitability.
Although the retail price is 83,000 yen, distributors and retailers must take at least 15% of the profit. This way, Blackstone record players can enter their channels and retailers will have the motivation to recommend products to customers.
Seeing the number of 69,000, Baichuan Feng took a breath of cold air. It would be impossible to make a profit with such a high cost.
The market positioning of the Blackstone turntable is only mid-to-low-end, and the price of 83,000 is within the price range of most mid-to-low-end vinyl turntables on the market.
In other words, Blackstone has no pricing power because it is not a monopoly product. If the price is set too high, consumers will turn around and choose other products.
"Why has the cost of materials skyrocketed since this year?" Baichuan Feng noticed that since 1979, the cost of components such as motors and electric machines has suddenly increased by more than half compared to before, which is very unreasonable.
Small parts like motors are not monopolized products. We can't just raise their prices arbitrarily because of a factory fire, like memory did in later generations.
This was exactly what Hasegawa Hiroshi was waiting for. When he got the start, he immediately started complaining.
It turns out that everything started with that young Watanabe. Ever since he took over Watanabe Electric, he has had no interest in running the business, but has become extremely interested in stocks and bonds.
With the introduction of a bad friend, he rushed into the stock market alone. Within three months, he spent all his savings, and then he set his sights on the company's account funds.
Later, in order to raise more cash, he came into contact with Changyin and Inagawa-kai through the introduction of a friend. The premise was that his friend happened to have several relatives who made small parts such as motors and styluses.
Don’t you think this is a coincidence? It’s only right that you take care of your friend’s business.
But little Watanabe, who never cared about these things, didn't know that the prices of these parts suppliers introduced by his friends were generally about half higher than before.
Hasegawa Hiroshi was the head of the marketing department. When the profits of the Blackstone record player dropped, the first person that Watanabe scolded was him. But he never listened to Hasegawa's explanation.
Now that the new president had taken the initiative to ask, Hasegawa immediately spilled the beans and told him everything.
After listening to Hasegawa's slightly complaining accusation, Shirakawa Feng didn't know what to say to the young Watanabe.
He was even somewhat glad that Watanabe Issei did not drive Blackstone Record Players into bankruptcy.
At least on paper, it was profitable. Although it was only a few hundred thousand yen, less than a month's salary for a workshop employee. It was also amazing...
Baichuan Feng put down the report and sighed. "Notify the heads of each department to hold a meeting in 30 minutes. Blackstone Record Player can't go on like this."
Looking at Hasegawa's leaving back, Shirakawa Feng stood up and stretched. The more he looked at the reports and materials, the more confused he became.
He left his desk and walked to the window, where the sunny Tama River was visible, with white sails and a few tourists.
Today is the last day of June. It’s a hot summer day and there are many people swimming in the river with swimming rings.
The scenery here is very beautiful. Baichuan Feng smiled. This will be his territory in the future. Although it is a bit complicated and broken, at least there is a foundation for everything to start from scratch.
All things are difficult at the beginning, so first of all, just enjoy the pain and happiness.
…
Thirty minutes later, all the executives of Shirakawa Electric gathered together again, with an assistant from Komatsu taking minutes of the meeting.
Unfortunately, summer vacation hasn't officially started yet, and Asuka Kobayashi is not in place yet.
Seeing that everyone was present , Baichuan Feng stood up with a serious expression, "Everyone, I have a general understanding of the current situation of Blackstone Record Player. To be honest, it is not optimistic."
Everyone below was silent. They had seen all of this, but no one had dared to mention it before.
Shirakawa turned to the left and asked, "Mr. Yamaguchi, who was the supplier of the motor and needle for the Blackstone record player before last year?"
"The motor is from Omron, and the stylus is from Kyocera." Yamaguchi blurted out the answer without thinking. He knew everything about the Blackstone record player.
"How is the product performance? Has the price changed over the past year?" Baichuan Feng asked, stroking his chin.
Yamaguchi's eyes lit up. "The reliability is very good. Under normal use, the stylus can work stably for at least 4-5 years. The motor, Omron guarantees a service life of 10 years, and the data we tested is roughly the same.
As for prices, they have increased slightly by about 3% compared to last year, so overall there has been little change.”
Shirakawa Feng nodded, "Starting tomorrow, the motors will be replaced by Omron, and the stylus will resume being purchased from Kyocera."
"Hui!" Yamaguchi responded loudly.
The first decision that Shirakawa Feng made after joining Blackstone Record Player showed everyone how decisive he was.
He didn't even want to ask the name of the current supplier. As for the reason for changing suppliers , everyone knew it even without him saying it.
