Chapter 128: Laying a Solid Foundation

At noon, Zhou Ming was having lunch with Tang Ran at a restaurant. Tang Ran said to Zhou Ming, "Brother Ming, a lot of people in our office are talking about the accident at the nightclub in San Yuan yesterday! They say such places are really dangerous. Thankfully, I didn't go. I read in the newspaper that one person died on the spot and another couldn't be saved at the hospital."

"Actually, it's not as exaggerated as they say. The accident was just due to their irresponsibility," Zhou Ming explained with a smile. "But didn't I tell you not to go last night? With your timid nature, you would have been terrified seeing the accident scene."

For Zhou Ming, who was a witness to the accident, he had a better grasp of the situation compared to the rumors circulating at Tang Ran's workplace. Moreover, due to the competitive nature between them, Zhou Ming was also quite concerned about the outcome. Early this morning, Zhou Ming received news from the city that due to safety hazards, the Jinbihui Bright Nightclub must suspend operations for rectification and will only reopen once safety is ensured.

Originally, the Shenzhou company's backstage operations wouldn't have been punished this way, but since the nightclub was located in San Yuan, which was intended to cater to foreigners in Nanjiang, and since only foreigners were dancing on the opening night, the casualties were also only foreigners.

In this case, there was no way to protect anyone; they could only handle it officially.

Domestic affairs often have different procedures for domestic and foreign issues. Zhou Ming clearly remembered a news story from the future where the police searched the city to help a foreigner find a bicycle. If it were an ordinary citizen, it would be a different story. This led to cities later establishing services for foreigners to improve emergency response efficiency, which was a rather ironic situation.

Tang Ran stuck out her cute little pink tongue with embarrassment and said, "Well, it was good that I didn't go. But the nightclub owner really messed up. To rush the opening, they cut corners and didn't care about customer safety. They deserve what happened. I wonder how they'll do business in the future."

"Everyone has their own way of doing things. For them, they wanted to open the first nightclub in Nanjiang. As long as the sign was up, they wouldn't have to worry about business," Zhou Ming said. "They were just too hasty, and as a result, they have this issue. Regardless of whether their reputation is damaged, the forced closure is already quite damaging."

"Yes, they deserve it!" Tang Ran agreed. "By the way, when will your nightclub open? I've already told my colleagues that we'll definitely come to support you."

"Thank you in advance, Ran Ran!" Zhou Ming praised Tang Ran. "But it will probably be at least another week. After all, with the recent incident, the city will definitely raise the safety standards for nightclubs and there will be more inspections."

Zhou Ming was serious. Early this morning, the city issued a new safety notice in response to the accident.

After finishing lunch with Tang Ran, Zhou Ming dropped her off at her office and then drove to the city government. Although Zhou Ming had already made it clear to Mayor Chen Yunfei that he would not participate in the construction of the securities market, as a development advisor for Nanjiang City and the person most knowledgeable about the securities market in the city, he could not ignore it. He had to be involved to prevent a repeat of past bureaucratic mishandlings.

Therefore, when preliminary plans and temporary policy drafts for the securities market were ready, Zhou Ming was invited to the city government to review them.

Upon arriving at the city government, Zhang Heng, the secretary of the Executive Deputy Mayor Qiao Weijiang, greeted him at the door. Zhou Ming said to him, "Director Zhang, you're already the Deputy Director of the Securities Market Construction Leading Group's Office. Isn't it a bit much for you to come out to greet me?"

Zhang Heng replied, "No, Advisor Zhou, I am not really a deputy director. One must know how to be grateful. No matter what position I am in now or in the future, I will always be most grateful to you, Advisor Zhou."

Seeing Zhang Heng's words, Zhou Ming didn't say much more.

The Securities Market Construction Leading Group was a newly established temporary organization in Nanjiang City, led personally by the Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, Lu Xiong. All other municipal leaders were involved, and the Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee served as the office director. It was already quite a feat for Zhang Heng to secure a deputy director position among these high-ranking officials, especially after Qiao Weijiang's recent downfall. According to official rules, this was considered a comeback.

This was why Zhang Heng was so grateful to Zhou Ming, though Zhou Ming felt that it was also due to his own efforts.

The office of this group was located in the Municipal Party Committee Office. Zhang Heng led Zhou Ming to his desk and handed him the prepared documents related to the Nanjiang securities market construction.

Zhou Ming skimmed through the documents and nodded to Zhang Heng, saying, "The general framework is fine. After all, we've never done this before and we lack company law, securities law, accounting law, and other regulations. There's a lot of learning to do. This is just a temporary measure and can't be too detailed, but one thing you need to remember, Director Zhang, is that we must protect the vulnerable groups, and responsibilities and powers must be clear. We can't have a case where everyone is treated equally regardless of their faults."

"Got it. I'll make sure to pay attention to that while organizing the documents," Zhang Heng said, taking out a notebook and seriously noting down Zhou Ming's words.

Seeing Zhang Heng's manner, Zhou Ming smiled and said, "There's no need to be so formal. I'm not a leader."

Zhang Heng smiled awkwardly, "A good memory is not as reliable as a bad notebook!"

Since Zhang Heng insisted on noting it down, Zhou Ming allowed it and continued, "Besides these regulations, another point is that the government must have a specialized supervisory body to constantly monitor the operation of the securities market."

"Director Zhang, you've been to Port City. You should know that the economic bubble before the stock market crash there was due to a lack of proper supervision and guidance. After all, economic bubbles are something that accounting settlement companies can't avoid. Now, Port City is discussing the establishment of a securities regulatory commission. Since they've already experienced this lesson, we mustn't repeat their mistakes. We need to establish our own securities regulatory commission ahead of time," Zhou Ming said.

Zhang Heng noted down every word from Zhou Ming and said seriously, "Advisor Zhou, your suggestion is excellent. I fully agree. After all, a market without supervision and guidance will always be chaotic and will eventually run into problems."

Zhou Ming nodded. Compared to other countries and Port City, the establishment of a securities regulatory commission in China happened early, but it was still a remedial measure after problems occurred. Now that he had the opportunity to influence the construction of the securities market and the regulatory commission, Zhou Ming felt it was essential to address both simultaneously to prevent issues from arising.

After leaving the city government, Zhou Ming headed straight to his nightclub on Commercial Street, which was still under intense renovation.

Du Peng was also there overseeing things. Even though the recent incident wasn't directly related to him, it was wise to be cautious given the situation.

Fortunately, nothing happened that day.

...

A week later, the overall renovation of the nightclub was completed, and only the final details were left once the harmful gases inside naturally dissipated.

With the renovation nearly finished, the focus shifted to recruiting and training staff. As a reborn person, Zhou Ming placed great importance on service quality. He believed that the quality of service was crucial for a nightclub to be considered top-notch, aside from the décor. A venue with poor service, no matter how luxurious, would struggle to retain customers.

In an era where service awareness was still emerging, establishing a reputation for excellent service could easily lead to a national chain.

The nightclub's general manager, Kong Xiaolin, shared Zhou Ming's view. She admired him and also agreed with his perspective.

Zhou Ming drove to the conference room at Dongmen Hotel, where Kong Xiaolin had arranged for him to train the newly recruited staff.

As the former manager of Nanhu Hotel, Kong Xiaolin brought some of her trusted team members, who were assigned as lobby managers for the nightclub's bar and KTV areas, and as head waiters. These individuals were reliable, but the rest of the staff needed to be trained from scratch.

Upon opening the conference room door, a round of enthusiastic applause greeted Zhou Ming. He smiled and nodded to everyone while walking to the podium.

In the service industry, women naturally have an advantage over men. Kong Xiaolin implemented Zhou Ming's idea well, so most of the recruited staff were young women, and many were quite attractive. Zhou Ming, standing on the podium, saw a sea of charming faces below.

Of course, it wasn't all women; there were also a group of security personnel and male staff who, being modest, stayed in the back.

Kong Xiaolin followed Zhou Ming's guidelines, prioritizing retired soldiers for security and ensuring that male staff had hotel service experience, avoiding social misfits. While black market influences could be financially managed, they must not be involved.

The key to recruitment was: having the right values!

Zhou Ming aimed to make his nightclub a national brand, not like the opportunistic approach of Huashao's place. Thus, a solid foundation was essential, and he absolutely could not allow it to become a disorganized mess.