Due to her mother’s lobbying and the joint resolution by the major shareholders, Xu’s chairman Xu Jinfu could only sign the consent form.This meant that Ya-Yan would get the same importance in funding as the secret project.
But due to Xu Jinfu’s insistence, the shareholders had reached a consensus – the allocation of resources in the production line, sales, advertising , distribution, etc., must be determined by the sales of the product. The higher the market share, the more support the product would receive.
Ya-yan’s market share in the current scenario could be described as pitiful. This meant that, apart from the funds, it would not enjoy any advantage of the company resources.Yanliang needed to personally create a team and grab a higher market share by relying on the strength of this team alone.
And she needed to achieve all of this in one year.
Fortunately, she did not lack funds. Since she could not use the existing people in the company, she could only persuade head hunting companies to find relevant skilled personnel with the lure of high salaries.
The repackaging of Ya-yan, it’s re-positioning, the R & D , recreating the production line, all of this would take time. But with a lot of investment funds, the time taken could be greatly reduced.
Ya-Yan was dominant in the cream sector , but so far in basic skin care and other fields, it didn’t have any market share.When Yanliang took over, the first thing she did was to sign an R & D contract to develop YaYan products in basic skin care, sunscreen, body care and other areas.
Then there were some things that money could not buy . Such as the most important thing in any product marketing – the sales channels.
Major brands usually had a fixed vendor, for a new entrant to lure those vendors away from others was no easy feat.
The following month was the busiest month in her experience.
Endless meetings, endless redrawing of the previous plans, the construction of new plans – to have an existing brand grab market share from legitimate well accepted brands was easier said than done.
Once again as she stayed up late for a meeting where the new plan proved non viable, Yan Liang gave in to temptation – she tossed the folder , and stretched her legs to lay on her chair without a word.
The team who were staying up all night working for many days were disappointed to see all their efforts go up in air, but they understood the feelings of Yanliang: “Ms Yan, this sales plan is going nowhere, but we are confident we will find another way.”
Yanliang knew that the other people in her team were more qualified than her. She reined back her bad mood and smiled at her colleagues: “We have all worked late nights this week , you should all leave early today.”
Everyone complied . They picked up their things and filed out of the conference room.Seeing Yanliang still sitting , a colleague kindly asked: “Ms Yan, what about you?”
“You go ahead, I need to deal with something first.”
Her colleague nodded and closed the door on his way out.
In the empty meeting room, Yan Liang sat , depressed. Actually she did not have anything to deal with, she just needed some space to review where she had gone wrong.
Her father had built Xu’s cosmetics from a small company to a cosmetics empire, her father was undoubtedly successful. If she did not have even one- tenths of his ability, then what gave her the right to judge and despise him?
Yan Liang was castigating herself for her failures when the conference room door was suddenly pushed open.
Yanliang heard the door open. She did not want anyone, especially her subordinates, to see her look of depression, so she hurriedly composed herself.
A cup of hot coffee was quietly handed to her , and a familiar cold smile greeted her, “ Why haven’t you left yet…”
She was shocked.
In front of her astonished gaze, Jiang Yu Nan seated himself silently in the chair next to hers.
Yanliang immediately stopped pretending, her shoulders dropped down again, and with a sigh, she picked up the coffee.
Jiang Yu Nan leaned forward slightly in his seat, his eyes looking up at her, “ Have you been staying up late a lot these days ?”
“How did you know?”
“You look quite ugly.”
Yanliang glared at him, but was still worried enough to touch her face.
This translation belongs to miumiu596.wordpress.com. If you are reading this somewhere else, it has been taken without the translator’s permission.
She figured that she really did look haggard because she was working a lot of late nights recently. Her contradictory move attracted Jiang Yu Nan’s attention. He shook his head and chuckled, “ I’m kidding. You’re as beautiful as always.”
Yanliang’s expression calmed down, she did not need his teasing evaluations, she just needed some peace of mind to drink her coffee.
Jiang Yu Nan casually turned over the file in front of her.
His posture was really casual, but his eyes sparked with an unusual insight. In Yan Liang’s experience, to understand this man, one could not just look at the surface, one had to read his eyes.
At this moment, looking at the way his eyes lighted, Yan Liang felt he may have some favourable information for her. She immediately put down the coffee cup and sat up, “What advice would you give me ?”
Jiang Yu Nan put the folder back, crossed his arms, and stretching his legs, looked at her. The way he looked at her was like a smart teacher looking at a stupid student. “ Ya Yan is in a big problem. “
Yan Liang’s face immediately sank.
Earlier , she would have thrown the cup of coffee and left, but now, she quickly composed her face and humbly asked for advice like a good student, “What would you do?”
”I’m a very expensive consultant.”
Seeing his slightly provocative expression, Yan Liang knew he was being sly, but this was a game of relative advantages, and right know he had a clear advantage because she knew this man’s strengths more than anybody else and needed it. She could only compromise and asked him, “What do you want?”
“Not much,” said Jiang Yu Nan, pointing to her lips, and then quickly raising his gaze to her eyes, “a kiss is enough.”
Jiang Yu Nan had thought that she would at least hesitate for a moment. He waited for this woman to stare at him with her trademark ferocious glare. But instead, it was she who was suddenly bullying him.
Yanliang grabbed the man’s tie, pulled him forward, immediately aimed at his lips and presented a resounding kiss.Then she tossed his tie, “ Tell me.”
“Your focus should not be ‘do new’, it should be ‘do the old’.”
Yan was really angry : “Do not beat around the bush, Mr Jiang!”
Jiang Yu Nan always found her anger interesting, he never tired of it.
“Since the cream has done well, make it the main pivot of your campaign. Don’t compete with the other market leaders in the other segments. If you want to make Ya-Yan a comprehensive
brand with other products like basic skin care, body care categories etc, that is indeed essential, but that’s just icing on the cake.
As a general consumer, what is the first thought that comes to mind when someone mentions Kose or Estée Lauder ?”
Yan Liang was struck in awe by his words, regaining her composure, she asked , “Go on.”
But Jiang Yu Nan just looked at her, he did not continue . She asked him to go on, but instead he got up from the chair.
He approached her, his gaze swept over her from top to bottom. This time there was no need to be sly, he brazenly touched her lips with his fingers, and then raised her chin:
“I didn’t enjoy the last kiss enough …”
The end of the sentence melted in his kiss.
Why did she feel this was like selling her body? Yan Liang forced herself not to think about this conundrum, she tried to divert her attention to think about something else, for example, his kiss was so wonderful –
Long after the French kiss, Jiang Yu South leisurely held her hand, his eyes looking at the slightly out of breath Yan Liang . He pecked her lightly on her lower lip which had slightly reddened and said ,” Don’t always think of the big picture. First make the cream your priority, then build up your long term plan.”
To bet all her chips on the cream alone was a big risk; Yan Liang was not sure she had the courage. But in front if this man, one with so much talent, a master at strategising.. she was almost convinced.
Jiang Yu Nan only looked at her faintly, but it was as if he could see through her. He was silent for a long time, Yan Liang had decided in her heart to speak first , when he suddenly said, “ Once you have worked on this, you need to find a person. “
“ Who?”
“ Lu Zheng.”
Miumiu – and the third most important character in this novel is introduced.