Chapter 113: For the Company’s Interests!

Chapter 113: For the Company’s Interests!

Madam Su had already decided: she was going to leave her daughter Su Qingying with no graceful way down.

She was also relieved that this was only a routine executive meeting—not a group-wide meeting, not a board meeting, not a shareholders’ meeting. A different occasion meant a different scale of damage from a clash between mother and daughter.

The impact had to be held to a minimum, and her daughter’s rebellion killed in the cradle.

“Zhou Da and Yang Kuo haven’t done anything wrong,” Su Qingying said.

“They’ve done nothing wrong and you still want to fire them?!” Madam Su slapped the table and rose again.

“But whether they should be fired doesn’t necessarily have any direct bearing on whether they’ve made mistakes,” Su Qingying said.

“Ridiculous! What sort of logic is that? Has anyone ever acted as recklessly as this?” Madam Su said at once. She wasn’t merely opposing Su Qingying herself; she was stirring up the feelings of every executive in the room.

Because she knew Su Qingying wanted to dismiss two mid-level managers. A matter like that required no board resolution whatsoever, let alone a shareholders’ meeting. Su Qingying genuinely did have the authority to dismiss them outright. With Su Ruiwen away, she could remove people without anyone’s consent.

Madam Su was afraid she would insist on acting alone.

So she needed the assembled executives to press Su Qingying together.

She knew that whatever else was true—even if her daughter had been put up to this by Li Ruobing and had suddenly turned against her today—Su Qingying could not possibly afford to offend the whole room. It would be extremely damaging to her future takeover of the company, and it would make people distrust her, question her.

And sure enough, at Madam Su’s words every executive in the conference room turned to look at Su Qingying.

Their expressions were plainly wrong.

Madam Su was not twisting logic by force. What Madam Su said was right.

It was Su Qingying’s words that had a serious problem.

Su Qingying pressed down every trace of unease and nervousness inside her, looked at Madam Su without expression, and went on. “Five days ago, on the morning of July 7, a major robbery took place at our Jinfu Group business hall in Donghai. The case was solved that same day, but the negative impact is still fermenting…”

“Donghai is where Jinfu Group’s headquarters stands,” Su Qingying said, sweeping her gaze across the executives again. “We have five stores here in total. The store on Commercial Street is not only the largest in Donghai but the largest in the entire country.”

“The Commercial Street store is the best and the highest in every respect—renovation, surveillance equipment, security level.”

“And that was precisely the store that was robbed. Diamond jewelry worth more than twenty million was taken on the spot. All of it has since been recovered, and yet the outside world has already begun to raise doubts about Jinfu Group’s internal management, to question our security capabilities. Even our partners have sent us multiple letters of inquiry these past few days…”

“The robbery itself was not our fault. But if our security measures were insufficient, if we couldn’t provide customers with a safe and reliable shopping environment, then that is my responsibility. Why was it only Jinfu Jewelry that was robbed? Why weren’t other jewelry stores robbed? Was our security force inadequate? Was there a problem with our security plan from the outset that made us a target?”

“We know that isn’t what happened. It was a sudden incident with a high degree of randomness. But the public doesn’t see us that way. And once the public begins to doubt us like that, will some customers come less often, or stop coming here to buy jewelry at all, out of concern for their own safety?”

“Even if encountering a robbery is a low-probability event, nobody wants to be the one who runs into it. And our competitors have been guiding public opinion since the day it happened, manufacturing topics without pause, attacking us—saying our security has problems, saying our store was targeted because it isn’t safe… We have to make a response.”

“The public is sensitive. Stock investors are sensitive too. The stock price these past few days has proved the point.”

“On July 8, our stock hit limit-down.”

“On July 9, it hit limit-down again.”

“In two days our group’s market value evaporated by nearly eight billion. It began to rebound on the 10th, and by the market opening this morning more than half of what evaporated had been restored—but the impact still hasn’t disappeared.”

Dozens of people in the conference room listened to Su Qingying speak.

Every one of them understood where she was going.

Madam Su’s expression changed, and changed again.

She had not expected her daughter to begin with the major robbery. Now she understood… as long as Su Qingying bit down firmly on the security issue, somebody in the Security Department was certain to bear responsibility.

“Before Father boarded his flight, he reminded me specifically,” Su Qingying said, holding her mother’s gaze. “He said that on the follow-up handling of the robbery and our response, he was giving me full authority. He told me I must handle it well, and handle it beautifully.”

“So Security Department supervisor Zhou Da must be dismissed.”

Su Qingying swept her eyes around the room again. “Whether the responsibility is his or not is unimportant. What matters is calming public opinion and making a public stance. We have to let the outside world understand Jinfu Group’s determination to reform on security, and pull the stock price back as soon as possible.”

“Zhou Da may not accept it. That’s fine. I’ll speak with him. If he wants to leave with dignity, he can resign to take responsibility, and I’ll give him an additional sum in compensation privately. But whatever happens, the man goes.”

Su Qingying finished.

In truth, everyone understood. Su Qingying had said so herself: the responsibility wasn’t Zhou Da’s. It had been a random, sudden incident. Even banks, with far stronger security, were not immune to robbery.

And Zhou Da was in overall charge of security. His work could not possibly reach down to the level of personally arranging security for an individual store.

But from the standpoint of a company operator—

there was nothing wrong with Su Qingying’s arrangement at all.

If anything, it showed considerable boldness.

To calm public opinion and make a stance, they had to drag out Zhou Da, the head of the Security Department, as the sacrifice.

In the end it was for the company’s interests.

Su Qingying was finding her reason in the larger momentum—a reason nobody could easily refute.

“Mom!” Su Qingying looked at her mother again. “Do you think my reason is sufficient? I think it’s more than sufficient. I believe that not only can everyone seated here understand me—at a board meeting, at a shareholders’ meeting, they would understand me and support me. I am doing this for the company’s interests, for the shareholders’ interests.”

Madam Su’s face was dark. She couldn’t produce a single word.

A few seconds passed.

“Fine! You dismiss Zhou Da. What about Yang Kuo?” Madam Su stared at her and asked. “If you want to drag someone out to bear responsibility, Zhou Da alone is enough. What has Yang Kuo done wrong? Does he need to take the blame for the company as well?”

“No,” Su Qingying said.

“Then what reason have you got left?”

“He doesn’t work for the company.”

“Hm?” Madam Su went still.

Every executive in the room went still as well.

It was a fact all of them had subconsciously overlooked, because they were used to it. A small matter. Nobody paid it any attention.

“When has Yang Kuo ever worked for the company? Has he done so these past few years? He is attached to the Security Department in name only. He has always worked for the Su family. He is your private bodyguard, Mom.”

Su Qingying looked at Madam Su and continued. “His work in future won’t change, but within Jinfu Group he must be removed from the rolls. Our Su family founded Jinfu and operates it, yes—but Jinfu Group is a listed company now. It doesn’t belong to a handful of people. It belongs to all shareholders. Is there a problem with my dismissing him?”

Madam Su stared at her daughter in silence.

There was no problem. There truly was not the slightest problem with it.

Madam Su understood that who was dismissed, who was not, and what reasons were given were beside the point.

Her daughter was determined to resist her today. She was simply finding reasons to “rebel.”

“Call a board meeting! Notify them immediately. Convene a board meeting!” And with that Madam Su walked straight out of the conference room.

She had had enough.

There would be a board meeting.

Madam Su would make her daughter Su Qingying understand that even if her arguments were well-founded and reasonable, even if this was a “small matter” not worth bringing before the board at all, nobody on that board would support her. If Madam Su disagreed, nobody would support her.

In the end the board of directors was still a board where her husband Su Ruiwen had the final say.

And at present she could represent her husband.

She was going to make her daughter understand, thoroughly and completely, who truly had the final say in Jinfu Group today.