Chapter 1265: Come on, fight to the death!

'Knock, knock!'

'Come in!'

In the office, Fu Kai, with his arms folded, walked back and forth in front of the French windows. The sudden knock on the door made him stop in his tracks, and he turned his head and said something to the door.

When he saw that it was Luo Zhiming who had pushed the door open, Fu Kai's eyebrows subconsciously tightened.

Luo Zhiming is a Chinese national of Japanese descent. He originally worked at Seibu Department Store, but later passed through the recruitment of Guangming Fund and was interviewed by Fu Kai before joining the island nation's 7-Eleven convenience store chain as the manager of the human resources department.

Luo Zhiming's abilities are indeed formidable. Since taking up the position, he has never disappointed Fu Kai. The talent management system of the 7-Eleven convenience store was able to be set up in less than two months, and Luo Zhiming deserves a great deal of the credit.

But even though he is such a capable person, he has become the last person Fu Kai wants to see these days.

The reason is that whenever he comes, he basically brings bad news.

Sure enough.

As soon as Luo Zhiming enters, he reports the situation to Fu Kai with a grave expression: 'President, 36 more employees have submitted resignation letters, including 5 store managers, all of them with firm resolve.'

'Here is the list of employees who submitted resignation letters this time.'

After saying this, Luo Zhiming handed Fu Kai a document.

Fu Kai took it with a solemn face, flipped through it, and said with a heavy heart, 'Including the last batch you reported, there are now 84 employees who have submitted resignation letters, including 13 store managers!'

'All of them are sales staff...'

'Yes,'

Luo Zhiming nodded with a somewhat gloomy expression.

There are only 100 7-Eleven convenience stores now, and according to the staffing of 5 employees for a 24-hour convenience store, there are 500 employees for 100 stores.

But now, only two days in, one sixth of the staff have submitted their resignation, and thirteen of them are store managers!

It's fine if the ordinary staff resign.

But it's heartbreaking that even the store managers, who have certain rights and are well-paid, have applied to resign.

Every store manager is carefully selected and is absolutely the backbone of the company when it is just starting out.

If they are replaced casually, it will easily affect the management of the store, as well as the sales and restocking of products in the entire store behind them.

'Are you sure it was Ito Yokado Convenience Store that did it?'

Fu Kai closed the file, looked at Luo Zhiming, and asked in a low voice.

Luo Zhiming nodded emphatically: 'It was Ito Yokado Convenience Store that did it. They didn't try to hide it, so it was easy to find out.'

'Ito Yokado Convenience Store is like a mad dog. The entire human resources department is out in full force trying to poach people. Just before I arrived, I got a call from a headhunting company, too, trying to poach me.'

'Now 84 employees have submitted resignation letters, and I'm afraid that more will follow.'

'Hold everything back, reject them all. Even if they really want to go, they have to wait a month. Whoever dares to quit directly will be dealt with by the legal department.'

'In addition, all of these people will be blacklisted and never hired again!'

Fu Kai's gaze was sharp as a knife, and he spoke harshly.

According to the island country's labour law, regular employees can choose to resign, but they must submit a resignation application report one month in advance. If the company's human resources department does not approve within one month, then they can resign directly.

Otherwise, the company can apply for labour arbitration, and in the absence of any fault on the company's part, the only ones who will suffer are the employees.

Luo Zhiming decisively replied, 'I understand.'

Afterwards, Luo Zhiming said with a worried expression, 'President, during this one-month period, even if these employees do not resign temporarily, their work efficiency will seriously decline. They will just muddle through, which will easily lead to a bad work ethic in the entire company.'

'Furthermore, if there are more employees applying to resign in the future, then our current talent training system may not be able to withstand it. Even if it is just supplemented in time, it will seriously affect our original expansion plan.'

'This is not a solution. I think we should fight fire with fire and poach talent from their company.'

When he said this, Luo Zhiming couldn't help but look fierce.

This was a solution he had thought of before coming here, and he had also come up with a feasible plan to poach talent.

Fu Kai nodded slightly, beckoning Luo Zhiming to come and sit on the sofa. 'Zhiming, let's sit down and talk. Tell me your thoughts.'

'Okay.'

After sitting down, under Fu Kai's gaze, Luo Zhiming clearly explained his thoughts:

'President, in terms of the salary system, our salary level is slightly lower than that of Ito Yokado's convenience stores. This is also because we are a new company and Ito Yokado's convenience stores are an old company, so the salary level of employees is higher.'

'Our employees will be poached, and apart from other factors, attractive salaries and benefits are the most important factor.'

'So I suggested that we raise our salary levels to be slightly higher than Ito-Yokado's, so that employees would be less inclined to leave. Our competitors would have to pay more to poach our staff, and it would also have an impact on their compensation system.

'After taking these self-protection measures, we started poaching staff from Ito Yokado convenience stores. They have nearly 5,000 employees in their sales system alone, and the vast majority of them are industry veterans who can be put to immediate use once they are poached. We have higher wages, so we should be able to poach people.'

'However, in a single store, the most important thing is the store manager. If the store manager is capable, the average store staff member's ability can temporarily lag behind and there is no need to worry for the time being.'

'But it's more difficult to poach store managers. For efficiency and success, I suggest targeting the deputy department heads of Ito Yokado's convenience stores. Those people are not bad at all, but it's just that the full-time positions in Ito Yokado's convenience stores are full, which makes it more difficult for them to advance. And we can just happen to provide them with a platform to give full play to their abilities.'

'The most important thing is that even if Ito Yokado's convenience stores want to retain those deputy department heads, they are unable to do so because they don't have enough positions to make a commitment to these deputy department heads, and they dare not raise the salaries of the deputy department heads.'

'You can get a promotion and a pay rise here, but you won't get anything there. I don't think anyone who isn't stupid would turn down the offer we're making.'

After listening to Luo Zhiming's words, Fu Kai couldn't help smiling, and after looking at Luo Zhiming appreciatively, he praised him, 'Not bad, you have a clear line of thinking.'

Luo Zhiming smiled modestly.

Fu Kai suppressed his smile, pondered for a moment, and then instructed Luo Zhiming, 'I will arrange the salary issue. I will have the finance department come up with a reasonable plan by tomorrow at the latest.'

'However, you need to be ready to take action now. Carry out a comprehensive poaching operation on the Ito Yokado convenience stores. Since they have started, we can take advantage of this opportunity to accelerate the pace of expansion.'

'If you can poach the manager of an Ito Yokado store, do so. If not, poach the assistant manager.'

'As for the administrative staff, don't touch the department heads, but focus on poaching the most capable and experienced deputy department heads. Once they are hired, they can be promoted to the next level. Our company is expanding rapidly, so there are plenty of positions for them.'

'You should first come up with a preliminary plan and discuss it with the marketing department. We will discuss it at the meeting tomorrow.'

'Okay, don't worry, I will definitely come up with a complete plan for the meeting tomorrow,'

Luo Zhiming replied solemnly.

'Good.'

'If there's nothing else, you can go ahead and get to work.'

'Yes.'

Fu Kai let out a sigh of relief and watched Luo Zhiming walk out the door. But just as Luo Zhiming opened the door, he saw the Marketing Manager, Eiji Yoshino, and Purchasing Manager, Tomoyuki Yoshida, who he was looking for, arrive at the door. Judging from their hurried appearance, something bad had obviously happened.

Fu Kai also saw the two people appear. Just as he let out a sigh of relief, his heart started to race again.

'Zhi Ming, don't go yet. Come with Yoshino Eishi and the others.'

At Fu Kai's order, the three of them came and sat down on the sofa.

Fu Kai went straight to the point and asked, 'Did something happen for you two to come together?'

Yoshida Tomo and Yoshino Eishi glanced at each other, and in the end, Yoshida Tomo said first, 'President, there is a problem with the company's product procurement. Many suppliers are refusing to deliver goods for the time being. If we want to place an order, we will need to wait a long time, at least three months!'

'You previously asked the purchasing department to stockpile certain types of goods, and the inventory can last for a while. However, some hot-selling goods will be sold out in half a month at most if the current situation remains unchanged.

'These are only products with a certain shelf life. For fresh food, some suppliers have already stopped supplying.'

After Yoshida Tomo had finished speaking, Yoshino Eiji added, 'President, what Tomo said is correct. Some rice balls, sushi and other fresh food are no longer being supplied. Tonight, many of the counters in the fresh food section of our stores will be empty, which will have a significant impact on us.'

Fresh food is a special feature of the convenience store industry in island countries, with a very wide range of products that can fully cover consumers' three meals a day.

For example, 5℃ refrigerated products include sandwiches, salads, eggs, milk, etc.

20℃ warm products include bento boxes, rice balls, fresh bread, etc.

There are also room temperature products, soft drinks, instant noodles, fried chicken burgers, etc.

In order to ensure freshness and taste as much as possible, refrigerated and warm products are delivered three times a day.

Yoshino Eiji says that it is completely normal for some fresh food to be sold out by the end of the day.

The turnover of fresh food in a convenience store is very high. Office workers, students and even housewives will buy fresh food such as rice balls and bento boxes in convenience stores.

If these goods are out of stock, the impact can be huge.

Imagine a group of hungry consumers come to the 7-Eleven convenience store, wanting to buy a bento or onigiri for lunch, but find that their favourite food is sold out and there are not many other options.

The consequence of disappointment is to go to another store!

Once the 7-Eleven convenience store leaves a bad impression in the minds of consumers, it's over!

A brand that has been built up over ten years can collapse at any time!

This problem is even more serious than the problem of employees being poached, as reported by Luo Zhiming.

If an employee applies for resignation, at least the company can hold out for a month.

But a shortage of goods is like a knife at your throat!