Chapter 86: Chapter 83 People with Shared Values and Goals!
One day later.
Luzhou City, South Lane Cat Cafe.
Xu Yun sat quietly in a corner of the cafe, wearing a relatively dark-colored casual outfit, with a Davosa watch worth over two thousand on his wrist, and his hairstyle was simply styled.
Overall, his appearance looked much more poised than when he was on campus.
Xu Yun wasn’t dressed up like this for a date today, but for an interview.
Huadun Biotech’s positioning is as a standard biomedical company, so the nature of the company is definitely both production and research and development.
Although the word "research" seems cumbersome, in reality, it’s the simplest segment.
After all, once the company is established, Xu Yun’s main focus will be on this sector, personally taking charge.
With the mysterious halo’s blessing, research can even be said to be the most stable section of the entire company.
But production is different, as it actually is a term with a broad scope.
From product output to personnel adjustments, it can all be considered part of production.
Therefore, choosing a well-managed upper management team is undoubtedly a crucial challenge.
Generally speaking.
Besides the CEO, which even elementary school students know, a company usually also has a Chief Operating Officer (COO), Chief Accounting Officer (CAO), Chief Branding Officer (CBO), Development Director (CDO), and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), among others.
If the company grows further, CQO, CUO, CLO, and the likes will emerge.
It’s basically just fixing the first and third alphabet letters, then rotating the middle alphabet letters to complete the titles.
However, these positions have a common feature, which is that those with the title ’Chief’ usually have more power than those with ’Director’.
In Huadun Biotech’s upcoming personnel structuring, positions like Development Director, Public Relations Director are relatively easy, as domestic talent supply in this area exceeds demand.
Whether through social recruitment or headhunting companies, a good candidate can be selected without taking much time.
This is one of the innate advantages of being backed by USTC, standing in a favorable position.
It’s like in Records of the Three Kingdoms with full prestige, having a head start, without worrying about whether others will acknowledge you.
But apart from these, there are several positions that are not easy to find.
For example.....
COO, namely the Chief Operating Officer.
The main task of the COO is responsible for establishing the functional management organizational system, belonging to the standard professional manager category.
Under the circumstance where Xu Yun, the CEO, has severe bias (strong in R&D but weak in management), the choice of COO is undoubtedly crucial within crucial.
Not long ago, Academician Pan recommended a few candidates for Xu Yun, amongst which two or three were jointly voted against on the spot.
And among the remaining candidates, Xu Yun was immediately drawn to the person he would meet today.
The reason was simple, because Academician Pan said:
"He also hates cockroaches."
Just as Xu Yun was lost in thoughts, a deep male voice suddenly came to his ear:
"Hello, are you Chairman Xu?"
Xu Yun looked in the direction and found the speaker to be a man about 170 centimeters tall.
The man seemed to be around 35 or 36 years old, wearing a whole set of Brioni casual clothes.
While his attractiveness wasn’t particularly high, his two sword-like brows were straight, giving off a sharp impression.
Having already seen the photo, Xu Yun hurriedly got up and politely shook hands with him:
"Hello, I am Xu Yun."
The visitor also formally returned the courtesy to Xu Yun:
"Hello, I am Gu Qunqing, you can also call me Aaron."
After sitting down.
Xu Yun first called the waiter to order two cups of coffee, then started a topic:
"Mr. Gu, hearing your English name... are you a believer?"
Gu Qunqing shook his head:
"No, when I was choosing my English name, two A’s came first, so I casually chose it, being lazy, that’s why."
Xu Yun: "..."
Seeing Xu Yun looking dumbfounded, Gu Qunqing casually laughed:
"Surprising, isn’t it? But sometimes many things are truly coincidental, without any special meaning.
Like Mr. Lu Xun’s articles, originally he just wanted to put in a few more words for manuscript fees, but later generations interpreted them with many non-existent meanings. If there were heaven, hell, or the underworld, no idea if Mr. Lu Xun would want to beat up those question setters upon meeting them."
Looking at this somewhat naturally familiar interviewee, Xu Yun couldn’t help but nod slightly in his heart.
From the brief conversation, it seems this person isn’t the kind who spits out a bunch of foreign nonsense as a ’sea turtle’.
Gu Qunqing, a talent introduced by Academician Pan, GSB... namely Stanford University’s MBA.
These years, for unknown reasons, the MBA suddenly became somewhat commonplace.
But in reality, MBAs from those top institutions still hold high value, with frighteningly low admission rates long-term.
This point can actually be seen clearly from salary levels:
Generally, MBAs from Wharton, Stanford, Harvard, or Yale School of Management, typically have a salary exceeding 500 thousand before studying, and after graduation, if willing, they can casually choose million-level positions.
Not to mention people like Gu Qunqing, an MBA who graduated a whole cycle earlier. If Academician Pan hadn’t introduced him, Xu Yun basically wouldn’t have the chance to come into contact with such a big shot.
Xu Yun lightly coughed and asked:
"Mr. Gu, I heard that you previously served as Executive Vice President for the South American Region at Sanofi, achieving remarkable results. Both your status and career prospects were quite bright, so why did you resign later?"
Upon hearing this, Gu Qunqing’s expression gradually turned serious.
He knew that Xu Yun’s question marked the official start of the interview process.
He remained silent for a few seconds and then said:
"To be precise, I was the one who submitted my resignation.
As for the reason...
It’s actually very simple, it boils down to eight words: white supremacy, invisible discrimination.
At the time, my team’s performance increased by 274% over three years, ranking first among the nine Executive Vice Presidents in South America, yet I was still constantly being hindered."
As he spoke, Gu Qunqing smiled slightly and took out his ID card, shaking it by a corner:
"Of course, if I chose to give up this card, many obstacles would likely be solved—at least temporarily.
For example, someone under my command, also a domestic student initially at m3 level, rose to regional VP three years after changing nationality, and constantly talked about ’your country’ to ’your country’.
The senior management at headquarters hinted more than once that I could be promoted to m9 whether I entered Europe or America.
But the question is... why should I? Why should I change my blood and wear a different skin?"
He then took a deep breath to calm his somewhat excited mood:
"What happened next was even simpler; a mole was inserted into the team, resources were reduced, tensions accumulated to a breaking point, and I chose to resign, returning to the country three years ago.
I originally planned to have a talk with Hengrui Pharmaceutical, but Academician Pan came to me and said that his apprentice had made some significant news, and it had something to do with cockroach extermination, so I changed my mind temporarily.
Chairman Xu, you probably don’t know how many large cockroaches there are in America...
American cockroaches, true to their name, have their main habitat right in America...."
Seeing the conversation shift and the mention of cockroaches bring a look of resentment to Gu Qunqing’s face, Xu Yun felt an instant sense of camaraderie with him.
He then thought for a moment and took out a report from his bag:
"Mr. Gu, this is a partial effectiveness report of the Fifth Generation Imidacloprid. Some contents are currently not convenient to disclose, but mainly the ingredient and preparation aspects, which don’t affect the reading experience.
You can have a look first. Feel free to raise any thoughts or questions you might have, let’s be open and transparent."
Gu Qunqing nodded, took Xu Yun’s report with both hands, and began to read it seriously.
Though today’s meeting could be seen as Xu Yun interviewing Gu Qunqing, it was equally about Gu Qunqing assessing Xu Yun.
A graduate from GSB, who had been a top-tier executive at a major pharmaceutical company, would not just accept Xu Yun based on only one word from Academician Pan.
To say something that might sound a bit AOe, most MBAs from top schools are somewhat literary-minded, dreaming of changing the world.
So, when choosing a job, salary may not be the primary focus; the company’s future and potential are the key aspects.
Before coming, Gu Qunqing specifically used his personal connections to understand Xu Yun’s background, and it was not through Academician Pan’s network; he even got hold of Xu Yun’s academic transcript.
At least from the resume, Xu Yun really seemed to be a capable person.
Strong research and development ability, somewhat lacking in management skills, highly compatible with his own attributes.
Plus, with the company backed by USTC, the only remaining concern for Gu Qunqing was the effectiveness of the product.
Therefore, he read the report very carefully, using his fingernail to underline key words and sentences.
"Insecticide generation 5.5 to 6, insecticidal rate far exceeds Bayer and Senxia Pharmaceutical..."
As someone who has worked at a top international pharmaceutical company like Sanofi, although Gu Qunqing is not a specialist in biomedicine, he still knows how to critically look at the data he needs to understand.
After half an hour.
He slowly raised his head and looked at Xu Yun:
"Chairman Xu, is this report really without any embellishment?"
Seeing this, Xu Yun felt assured and said with a smile:
"Mr. Gu, if you’re worried that we’re using a false report to deceive you, we can certainly add relevant breach clauses in the contract.
After the patent application is successful, you can freely have any third-party agency test it, whether domestically or internationally, is not an issue.
If the test results fall short of this report by more than 10%, you can throw it in my face and tell me to return the money, okay?"
Hearing this, Gu Qunqing was momentarily stunned and then burst into laughter.
It’s undeniable that there’s often something about people being in tune with each other.
In less than an hour, both Xu Yun and Gu Qunqing felt a sense of meeting a kindred spirit—especially when talking about cockroaches.
Then Xu Yun asked a few questions about the offline module, to which Gu Qunqing responded fluently.
Two hours later.
Xu Yun put down his emptied coffee cup and asked Gu Qunqing:
"Mr. Gu, may I ask how long your non-compete agreement signed before leaving your previous job still lasts?"
Gu Qunqing looked deeply at him and said:
"At the time, I signed for three years in accordance with legal arbitration, as for now....."
"There’s just 72 hours left."
.......
Note:
Although there was no explosive update today, there’s quite a bit of content in this Chapter. Please, could everyone give me some monthly passes!!