The Industrial Giant Reborn

"It's slightly worse, but considering that the population density of Los Angeles is larger than other cities in California, these gaps are acceptable. In fact, when we build a new supermarket, we also take into account the nearby population, such as where we are now. The one in San Francisco is a little smaller than the one in Los Angeles, but not much, and the one in Torrance is a lot smaller," Pierce explained.

"Well, it looks good." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, although there are not many people in the supermarket, everyone is pushing a large trolley, and there are a lot of goods in the cart. It can be said that the shopping here alone exceeds the average supermarket. more than ten of them.

The core of warehouse-style supermarkets is to allow members to come once in a while, and then go shopping like crazy, either to fill up their own small warehouses or to fill up their own cars. This business model will lead to low traffic, but instead It also reduces Costco's demand for labor. You must know that in the United States, one of the main costs of supermarkets is labor, and the number is small, which also allows Costco to calmly offer high wages to poach experienced people from other supermarkets. .

Pierce continued: "Eric, there is a problem that may become our trouble in the future. Costco's middle-level management talents are all transferred from Fedmart. Now Costco only has 5 supermarkets. It is not a problem for the time being. But if we continue to build new supermarkets, there will not be enough people in this area.

Moreover, the business models of Fedmart and Costco are still different, and people recruited from other supermarkets have no way to get started directly, so I hope that the company will allocate a special fund for talent training. "

"How did you train Fedmart before?" Chen Zhiwen asked rhetorically. The cultivation of talents is a must-have plan for any company. Small companies can still recruit people directly, but large companies cannot. They must have their own internal training plans. Larger companies rely more on this set of plans. For example, large automobile companies or large Internet companies recruit directly from universities, and rarely recruit from society, unless there is a real shortage of people or the recruited people are very capable, and Or the position is special and cannot be cultivated internally.

Pierce smiled and shook his head and said, "Fedmart doesn't have a specific plan in this regard. We are recruiting normally and cultivating slowly, because we have only opened a dozen supermarkets in more than ten years, and the turnover rate of personnel is relatively low. There is no rush at all. There is a shortage of people.

Now, Costco is expanding very fast, and the model is different from that of traditional supermarkets. If it continues to expand at this speed, it may be severely understaffed by next year. Reluctantly operating, there will be very big hidden dangers. "

"Then how to cultivate?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"I don't have any information about this right now, and I want to gradually improve it and make the talent training plan a standard, and this can only be learned slowly when training new people. We and new people are all learning processes. "Pearce said: "The easiest way is to recruit more people. If a supermarket needs 10 managers, then recruit 20, spend more labor costs, and then let everyone be familiar with it. When opening a new store, they will be transferred directly. In the past, the new store also recruited more people, the same operation, in this process, the company will gradually improve the training process, shorten the labor cost and time cost of training. But if this is the case, the company's profit will be reduced a lot. "

"It doesn't matter a little bit. Opening a new store requires not only hardware costs, but also personnel. Besides, the more stores you have, the lower your operating and purchasing costs will be." Chen Zhiwen said indifferently: "It's just that locals are willing to go to other places. ?"

Pierce said: "That's no problem. Even if you go to a foreign store, you basically start for a period of time, maybe half a year or a year. You can come back when the staff level of the new store is sufficient. Supermarket operation is actually not a high-tech job. We The people recruited locally also have other relevant experience and get familiar with them quickly.”

"Supermarket operations do learn quickly, but new stores are often the most tiring, especially our supermarkets still need to open membership, the success or failure of supermarkets often depends on the first half a year, the success of this half year, the supermarket is basically successful , If it fails, it will be difficult to turn around later." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said: "Pierce, I think we need to train a group of elite talents to give guidance to the new store. The more experienced they are, the more successful the new store will be. The greater the possibility, it may even exceed the previous store."

"This is a very good idea." Pierce agreed after pondering for a while: "We cultivate a team that is good at developing members in the early stage of supermarket opening. As long as they do well, it can basically reduce the risk of us opening a new store. .”

"Then recruit highly educated talents, and give priority to recruiting high-achieving students majoring in retail, marketing, and psychology. You can also invite some professors and experts in this field to guide and analyze how to attract people to become members more easily. I need to use these The knowledge is organized into words, and then it becomes an important secret of Costco." Chen Zhiwen said boldly: "Money is not a problem, you can spend what you need, and in addition, the training plan for ordinary management talents you just mentioned is also implemented together."

During this period of time, Chen Zhiwen has actually gotten rid of the lack of funds in the early stage. Red Bull is developing very smoothly. The sales volume in the US market is considerable, and it is far from reaching its peak. The market has a lot of room for growth, just to prevent other beverage giants from entering the market in the future. Now All of Red Bull's profits are even overdrafting future profits, and they are desperately advertising. In addition to inviting celebrity endorsements and bombing TV advertisements, they also started to contact Hollywood groups, implanted soft advertisements in movies and television, and began to buy high-quality products in many sports venues. For billboards, although Red Bull can't afford other things at the moment, as long as it can develop well, it will be the greatest help to Chen Zhiwen.

As for Midea, the home appliance industry is indeed so-so, but the high-profit arcade industry has already begun to bud. Wait for a year or so, not to mention the return of a net profit of 100 million US dollars a year like Taidong, as long as 30% to 50% is enough. up.

The biggest success, of course, is the stock of Wal-Mart, which is still rising and is high-quality credit capital.

Costco is also losing money now, but the first supermarket in Los Angeles, if it does not share the investment cost, it can already be said to be profitable. Warehouse-style supermarkets make profits so fast, and the most important thing for supermarkets is that they have a huge amount of cash. Liu, the retail giant of later generations, in fact, more than half of the net profit is based on cash flow, not retail profit.

Apart from the imminent tough battle in Hong Kong, in other respects, there is basically no economic pressure. The only thing that needs continuous investment is the continuous expansion of Costco. This is the core strategic plan at present, and it is even more important than Wharf in Hong Kong. Or even more important than Huang.

Funding is no problem, so hardware expansion is naturally not a problem, and if the personnel problems caused by rapid expansion can be solved, then nothing will go wrong.

"Okay, then I'll ask the HR department to make a preliminary plan and show it to you after it's finished." Pierce asked, "Eric, how long do you need to stay in the United States?"