They admitted that they couldn't replicate Zhang Menglong's approach! A 996 work schedule had already reduced their labor costs by nearly half, but if they followed Zhang Menglong's method, their annual profits would drastically decrease!
After all, not everyone was like Zhang Menglong, who just ran a company to pass time and for fun.
And Zhang Menglong saying no to overtime, that was one thing, almost just a return to the time before 996 had become prevalent. But double overtime pay? What was that all about?
According to normal overtime standards, weekday overtime was 1.5 times the regular salary, weekends twice, and public holidays three times. According to Zhang Menglong's standards, weekday overtime was three times the regular salary!
If they were just ordinary workers, they could work overtime until Zhang Menglong was bankrupt! Even if they wanted to compete with him, was there a need to go this far?
"Mr. Zhang, was it necessary to mock us in this manner? If your employees choose to work overtime every day, even getting paid for bathroom breaks, would you pay them overtime for that too?" Ma Yun asked.
"So are you saying we should learn from you, work people to death every day, and only then are we managing an enterprise properly?" Zhang Menglong scoffed, "I've heard that some companies have reached a 007 work level, even working over 30 hours continuously. There was news just a few days ago about someone dropping dead, don't tell me it was their personal choice!"
Ma Yun really wanted to say that you could choose not to work 996, but there will always be people who can work 996—that is the harsh reality of this society, that's how workers are!
"As long as they work diligently, I won't withhold a single cent of the overtime pay they deserve!" Zhang Menglong scoffed, "As for my losses? I'm only losing a few hundred billion US dollars a year, less than one percent of my total income. Do you think I care?
"Lose a few hundred billion US dollars a year?" Several people exchanged wry smiles.
What does "only" mean? Is a few hundred billion US dollars a small amount? The few of them combined don't even make a hundred billion US dollars in a year, and that's less than one percent of Zhang Menglong's annual income?
Could he really be earning tens of trillions of US dollars a year? That's nonsense! The entire global GDP for a year is only tens of trillions of US dollars. Just last year, the global GDP reached over 80 trillion US dollars.
According to Zhang Menglong's claim, did he generate most of the world's GDP? He should already be the ruler of Earth by now, perhaps even dominating the planet and leading humans in expanding and exploring the universe, not here squabbling with them.
But they believed that Zhang Menglong might not make tens of trillions a year, but a few trillion was definitely possible—otherwise, how could he easily cough up a trillion US dollars to acquire shares in Tengxun and Baidu?
"It seems that this return to our country is going to change the entire environment again!" Ma Yun and the others sighed.
Zhang Menglong owned many companies, he didn't know, but he did know that currently booming enterprises like Weibo, Unicorn Technology, and Sound Forest Music were all his businesses, especially Unicorn Technology, which was already poised to rival them alongside the likes of BAT.
Once Zhang Menglong's policies were publicized, they would inevitably cause a massive uproar in society and even create immense public pressure.
Zhang Menglong's companies were so big without a 996 culture. What makes you think you need it? His company pays double the statutory overtime rate; do you? If not, then their employees would resign. Truly capable people are never bound by one job.
The most terrifying thing was the possibility that a vast number of talented individuals might flood into Zhang Menglong's company. Although it would increase costs, it would strengthen the company's capabilities and accelerate its growth—Zhang Menglong might not end up the loser!
"This lad, he's too cunning!" Thinking of this, Ma Hua and the others were secretly alarmed.
But they had no idea that Zhang Menglong hadn't thought that much at all. He was merely feeling annoyed and wanted to try changing society a bit. As for what they were thinking, Zhang Menglong had never considered it.
"Alright, everyone, since you've come here, let's not let these issues spoil our mood," Lu Fei, who was somewhat less of a capitalist among the group, said as he tried to smooth things over. "Let's talk about the auction instead!"
"That works!" Zhang Menglong then started to gather their attention. "Please, take a seat, everyone. It seems like you've all heard quite a bit about this auction, haven't you?"
"Hahaha, it seems like Mr. Zhang hasn't paid much attention to this auction," Lu Fei chuckled.
"An auction is just about who has the money to win the bid. Even if you know what's being sold, what good does that do you?" Zhang Menglong said. "But as long as you have the money, even if you don't know what's being sold, when the items come out, you'll still have the money to buy."
"That's true," Lu Fei sputtered, feeling embarrassed. Zhang Menglong's statement was indeed not wrong, but the key was, even if you had the money, you had to spend time gathering it.
Take Ma Yun, for example. He certainly had money, but most of the time, his funds were hard to mobilize. If it really came to a large capital movement, especially when the auction wasn't held in Huaxia and involved transnational capital flow, it became even more troublesome.
This time, for the auction, Lu Fei had prepared three hundred million Euros, but gathering that sum had taken him almost half a month.
"Mr. Zhang, how much money have you prepared this time?" Lu Fei asked curiously.
"This..." Zhang Menglong really didn't know how much money he could gather, as so far, all his major expenses had been handled by Hong Yi, and there hadn't been any transnational large capital movements. "Let me ask for a second!"
Zhang Menglong called Hagen. "Hagen, I have a question."
"Mr. Zhang, whatever you need, just tell me."
"Oh, it's nothing big. I just want to know, if I want to use money, how much capital can I mobilize at any time?" Zhang Menglong asked.
"If it's about capital available at any time within Europe, five trillion Euros should be no problem,"
"Ssst!" Hearing that amount, Zhang Menglong couldn't help but gasp. Five trillion Euros. If it were compared to last year's world GDP, it could rank third, only behind America and Huaxia. He could actually mobilize such a vast amount of wealth at any time in Europe.
"Do you need to use a large amount of funds?" Hagen thought Zhang Menglong felt it was not enough. "Give me one night, and I can gather ten trillion Euros for you. If it's by tomorrow afternoon when the auction starts, gathering twenty trillion Euros should also be possible."
"That much?" Zhang Menglong was shocked by the number.
"Of course, that's just the authority of our Doleras family alone. If you mobilize the power of the other few families together, it wouldn't be impossible to prepare fifty trillion Euros in cash for you by tomorrow morning."
"That's enough, that's enough!" Zhang Menglong nodded repeatedly. Forget fifty trillion Euros, he remembered that the highest historical record for an auction so far hadn't even exceeded one billion US Dollars. Even if this auction was a bit special, a few hundred billion Euros would be enough for him to dominate the event!
Zhang Menglong still had one question: could there really be fifty trillion Euros in cash available in the world?