Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 508: Why Did President Pei Use a Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut?
Clearly, Qiu Hong still harbored a great deal of resentment over his failed startup. At first, he managed to maintain a calm, matter-of-fact tone, but before long, his narration gradually turned into a series of complaints.
Pei Qian could easily hear the frustration in his voice.
As a game producer who had previously delivered successful projects, Qiu Hong's game design ability was certainly not in question.
Of course, his expertise was specifically in designing Chinese pay-to-win online games. As for other genres, he had virtually no experience.
But that wasn't a problem, because he had never intended to make anything else. His goal had always been straightforward: develop pay-to-win MMORPGs and make money.
So it was obvious that the failure of his startup had nothing to do with his game design skills. The real issue was that he had failed to be a good boss.
The "project management" problems Qiu Hong kept emphasizing were precisely the biggest reason his company had failed, and he clearly had a mountain of grievances to air about it.
He went on to describe all the measures he had taken to strengthen project management.
For example, he required employees to clock in and out, made sure to arrive early and leave late every day to supervise everyone, and even decided to distribute 10% of the game's profits to employees as bonuses.
Those measures did improve the company's condition somewhat and increased efficiency, but they still couldn't prevent the company from collapsing.
Pei Qian felt a dull ache in his head.
That does sound like a genuine reason for failure.
But... it doesn't seem applicable to me...
My employees are already a bunch of workaholics who charge ahead like wolves. I deliberately detached project bonuses from game profits and tied them to player reputation instead, specifically to stop them from obsessing over making money.
If I actually rewarded them based on game profits, wouldn't everything explode on the spot?
The key point was that, according to Qiu Hong, the company's failure stemmed from employees slacking off.
But Pei Qian's problem was exactly the opposite.
He had already tried every conceivable way to encourage his employees to slack off, yet they simply refused to do it.
So what am I supposed to do?
Even if I now know the "correct answer," I still have absolutely no idea how to solve the problem.
The more Qiu Hong talked, the more emotional he became, and Pei Qian didn't have the heart to interrupt him.
Eventually, Qiu Hong seemed to have talked himself tired. He paused to take a sip of coffee.
Pei Qian cautiously asked, "So... may I ask something?"
"Do you happen to know what kinds of company policies might actually cause employees to slack off and make project schedules spiral out of control?"
Qiu Hong blinked.
"Huh?"
"Isn't slacking off human nature? If you don't manage people at all, they'll naturally slack off."
Pei Qian fell silent.
...That doesn't match my experience at all.
There was a period when I barely managed anything. I only spent two or three hours a day in the office.
Yet all my game projects were still completed on schedule.
Pei Qian asked again,
"What if... I let everyone work without clocking in, provided unlimited snacks and drinks, strictly prohibited overtime, made project bonuses completely unrelated to game profits, and never even asked about development progress, yet the game was still finished on time—and even made money?"
"Could that happen?"
The expression on Qiu Hong's face became wonderfully complicated.
It was the unmistakable expression of someone thinking:
"Are you kidding me?"
"Absolutely impossible!"
"President Ma, if you're going to daydream, I'd recommend dreaming about winning the lottery instead. That's far more likely to come true."
Pei Qian slapped the table excitedly.
"Exactly! That's what I think too! It should be absolutely impossible!"
"But as far as I know, our company's game development department seems to operate exactly like that."
Qiu Hong didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he slowly shook his head and took another sip of coffee.
Then, with a trace of bitterness in his voice, he said, "President Ma, that's only what you see on the surface."
"That only proves that the leader of Tengda Group's game development department has elevated project management to an extraordinary level."
"They've gone beyond anything you can comprehend and reached a state of complete mastery—a return to simplicity."
"That kind of top-tier project management isn't something ordinary people can imitate."
"It's like in martial arts novels, where the protagonist says, 'The highest technique is having no technique.' But if you forget all your techniques, you'll just get beaten black and blue."
"President Ma, let me give you one piece of advice."
"Forget everything about Tengda Group's game development department."
"You simply can't learn from it."
"And I'm not picking on you."
"I can't learn it either."
"Almost no one in this world can."
"A business genius like President Pei is one in a million."
"The experience of someone like him simply isn't something the rest of us can use as a reference."
Pei Qian: "..."
Forget everything about Tengda Group's game development department?
No way! I'm trying to solve the problems in the game development department right now. How can you tell me to just give up?!
And what do you mean by 'returning to simplicity' and 'highest technique is having no technique'? What are you even talking about?
Pei Qian was speechless.
Weren't you supposed to be sharing lessons from failure?
How did this turn into another round of praising me?
Qiu Hong glanced at his watch.
"Ah, time's up."
"President Ma, I've really enjoyed talking with you. It's been a long time since I've been able to have such an open conversation with someone. All the frustration I've been carrying around has completely disappeared!"
Pei Qian: "..."
Your frustration has disappeared?
Mine hasn't improved at all... if anything, it's gotten even worse...
Pei Qian asked, "So, next time we meet, you'll tell me about some new causes of failure, right?"
Qiu Hong nodded.
"Of course."
"I have a vague feeling that you and I could become kindred spirits."
"We seem to share a certain trait."
"It seems we're both people with great ambitions but nowhere to put them to use; both of us have a clear goal, yet no one around us is willing to cooperate."
"Don't worry, President Ma."
"We'll overcome these difficulties!"
"In any case, I'll tell you everything I know without holding anything back. We'll improve together!"
A clear goal... yet no one willing to cooperate?
You couldn't be more right!
Pei Qian thought to himself that although he and Qiu Hong had completely different goals, they were both struggling to climb out of the swamp of failure and move toward a brighter future.
From that perspective, perhaps they really could become kindred spirits.
Even Pei Qian couldn't help but feel moved.
He reached out and firmly shook Qiu Hong's hand.
"Agreed."
"Let's do our best together!"
...
...
Tuesday, May 3.
OTTO Technology.
The holiday had just ended.
On the first day back at work, OTTO Technology's employees quickly settled back into their routines, throwing themselves into their work at full speed.
Chang You walked through the office area toward his own office, casually sweeping his gaze across the room and taking in everyone's condition.
'Could the influence of the Tengda Spirit really be this obvious?'
He was a little puzzled.
He could clearly sense that OTTO Technology had undergone a subtle transformation.
Since the company's official establishment last November, half a year has already passed.
Including Chang You himself, all of the company's core employees had come from Hongcheng Technology. President Pei had never interfered with the company's daily operations, and Director Lin—who had been sent over from headquarters—had likewise never micromanaged the company.
As a result, OTTO Technology's way of working had initially been exactly the same as Hongcheng Technology's.
But now...
The people were still the same people.
Yet everyone's way of working had gradually begun shifting toward Tengda Group's style.
The most obvious change was that everyone's working hours had become shorter, while the amount of work being completed had remained exactly the same.
That could only mean one thing:
Overall productivity had increased.
Chang You remembered that back at Hongcheng Technology, whenever he walked through the office, he could always spot someone slacking off.
Of course, he never pointed it out.
After all, he believed it was only natural that people couldn't maintain peak efficiency all day long. Slacking off from time to time was simply human nature.
Yet now, everyone seemed to be working efficiently.
Cases of people slacking off had become extremely rare.
The difference between these two environments was obvious at a glance.
Take today, for example.
If this were still Hongcheng Technology, everyone would have spent the morning organizing this week's work plans, replying to emails that had piled up over the weekend, checking their phones now and then, and before they knew it, the entire morning would be gone.
But now, everyone finished organizing their schedules and replying to emails in just over half an hour.
The rest of the morning was devoted entirely to work.
Each person seemed even more eager than the last.
Most importantly, President Pei rarely came to OTTO Technology.
He had never required anyone to study the "Tengda Spirit," either.
So how had this subtle influence gradually seeped into the company, quietly nourishing it without anyone even noticing?
The more Chang You thought about it, the more convinced he became that President Pei truly had an extraordinary mastery of project management.
Back in the past, Chang You had always needed to check attendance, set targets, and constantly follow up on everyone's progress.
Now, none of that was necessary.
The entire company operated like a perfectly coordinated limb—point in any direction, and everyone moved together without hesitation.
Their cooperation was seamless.
With such an incredibly sophisticated project management system in place, Chang You found his own job unbelievably comfortable.
He no longer had to waste time arguing with employees or chasing them for progress updates.
Instead, he could devote all of his energy to thinking about the company's future business strategy.
When I get the chance, I really need to ask President Pei—the master of management—how he achieves this kind of subtle influence that works without anyone even noticing. Does he have some unique philosophy of project management?
After finishing his daily session of admiring President Pei in his imagination, Chang You turned his attention back to this week's work.
Today, he had another mystery left behind by President Pei to solve.
Previously, when President Pei had assigned tasks to OTTO Technology, he had also laid out the company's next-stage strategy:
Don't develop another phone for now.
Stretch the development cycle to around ten months.
Establish a software laboratory.
Develop practical apps, improve the mobile operating system, and optimize the camera's imaging algorithms.
Chang You had already interpreted these instructions.
After careful reflection, he had concluded that President Pei's strategy was absolutely correct.
The OTTO E1 was an expensive flagship smartphone.
At the same time, however, it was also a phone full of shortcomings.
If they immediately began developing a new model, what would the customers who had just purchased the E1 think?
"I treated this phone like a treasure, but you're treating me like a sucker to be harvested?"
OTTO's pricing strategy was to never reduce prices.
But if new models were released too frequently, what would become of the owners of older devices?
Although OTTO would offer trade-in programs, releasing new phones too often would inevitably dilute the brand value that the company had only just begun to establish.
Therefore, President Pei's decision to spend an entire year polishing the software—including the operating system, imaging algorithms, and various everyday applications—carried at least three layers of meaning.
First, it fulfilled the company's promises to its customers.
Second, it extended the product cycle to one year, ensuring that the next phone could incorporate more advanced and mature technologies, giving it more compelling selling points while also helping preserve the value of the E1.
Third, it devoted significant resources to software development, increasing the phone's overall value, compensating for its weaknesses, and making customers feel they had truly gotten their money's worth.
Having deciphered the deeper meaning behind President Pei's next-stage strategy, Chang You immediately approved a major investment to establish an imaging laboratory dedicated to tuning camera hardware and optimizing image-processing algorithms, with the goal of strengthening the phone's photography capabilities and software experience.
However, barely two days after he had finally figured out President Pei's intentions, another instruction arrived.
This time, Chang You was completely baffled.
President Pei actually wanted OTTO Technology to develop an app for signing up at a gym?
The app's requirements were extremely simple.
They had been proposed by someone named Guo Licheng.
After logging in, customers would simply be able to view their workout data, reserve training sessions, and perform a few other basic functions.
That was all.
Chang You couldn't understand it.
Was such a simple app really worth assigning to OTTO Technology?
Our software team specializes in developing much more sophisticated applications.
For such a tiny gym registration app, couldn't they just hire any ordinary development team?
Why did President Pei specifically insist on giving it to us?
Furthermore, this app had absolutely nothing to do with the strategic direction President Pei had previously established.
The strangest part was that President Pei had specifically emphasized one point:
Do not pre-install this app on the phone.
Why?
Although Chang You had immediately assigned people to begin development as soon as he received the request, many days had passed, and he still hadn't been able to grasp the deeper meaning behind it.
If he were someone without any ambition, he would simply implement the requested features for the gym app and call it a day.
But after witnessing the success of the OTTO E1, Chang You understood one thing very clearly:
No matter how simple a task personally assigned by President Pei appeared to be, it always contained a deeper purpose.
Otherwise, why would President Pei personally give the order?