WPG0014: Long-Term Mission: Hope Father Becomes Dragon!

While An Wuyang and Li Wenya were talking, An Huchun looked at his son with a hint of guilt.

An Wuyang spoke up first. "Dad, I'm telling you all this just to let you know I've grown up now and can earn my own money. Don't put too much pressure on yourselves."

Li Wenya chimed in with praise. "I told you before, our son would make this decision. Now do you believe me?"

"Huh?" An Wuyang put on an exaggerated expression. "Dad didn't believe me?"

An Huchun quickly let out a dry laugh.

"Old An, tell our son about the severance plan." Li Wenya changed the subject to remind him.

"The severance plan is already done?" An Wuyang asked.

An Huchun answered firmly. "The preliminary plan is ready. I've decided to give all departing employees 2N+2 in compensation, with N based on the average take-home pay over the past 12 months, not the minimum wage standard."

"Additionally, management's severance will be twice their annual salary," An Huchun added.

An Wuyang stared at An Huchun in shock, because this compensation standard was absolutely the cream of the crop!

Under normal circumstances, a company offering N+1 severance was already considered extremely generous.

When a foreign company pulled out and offered N+3 severance, some even called it maliciously generous compensation.

Now An Huchun wanted to offer 2N+2, calculated on the average take-home pay over the past 12 months—what else could that be but the absolute best?

Seeing An Wuyang's stunned expression, An Huchun thought he disapproved, so he quickly explained. "Wuyang, a lot of people in our group have been with us their whole lives. Those uncles and aunties watched you grow up, many even held you as a baby. You..."

An Huchun trailed off.

An Wuyang spoke up. "Dad, what are you thinking? I don't disagree."

"Good, I'm glad you're on board." An Huchun breathed a sigh of relief.

"This time, our An family owes them. A lot of them are in their forties now, and after leaving us, they'll have a hard time finding new jobs. That's why I want to compensate them more, so they don't have to worry about the future," An Huchun explained.

"Your dad's just too soft-hearted!" Li Wenya said, seemingly teasing but actually supporting him.

"How much will the severance cost?" An Wuyang asked.

"The new factory will be fully dissolved—106 employees there. The headquarters also needs to be streamlined, with an expected layoff of 38 people," An Huchun detailed.

"The sales team will be cut down to just ten percent, laying off 50 people," An Huchun added.

"The highest severance goes to Li Ping, a technical engineer at the new factory. He's worked for our group for 32 years, with an annual salary of 360,000, plus bonuses and benefits totaling 480,000 a year, averaging 40,000 a month," An Huchun listed the data.

"Under the 2N+2 standard, Old Li will get 2.64 million in severance," An Huchun said, naming the highest amount.

An Wuyang was utterly shocked!

Severance as high as over two million?

This...

Even though An Wuyang had anticipated some people's severance would be very high when he heard the 2N+2 plan, seeing it reach over two million still stunned him.

Seeing An Wuyang's shocked expression, An Huchun added, "Old Li's case is an exception. No one else is that high!"

"Dad, do you have a list of the severance amounts?" An Wuyang asked.

"I'll send it to you." An Huchun took out his phone and sent the severance list to An Wuyang.

An Wuyang first scrolled to the bottom to check the total.

This round of layoffs totaled 194 people. Wugengtian Pharmaceutical Group had only 272 employees in total, meaning the layoff rate exceeded 71%!

The total severance for these laid-off employees came to 136 million Xia Guo Yuan, with an average severance of over 700,000 Xia Guo Yuan.

Was this severance?

What kind of charity philanthropist was this?

An Wuyang admitted he was wavering. Even though he'd thought he should support An Huchun earlier, seeing 136 million Xia Guo Yuan in severance costs right in front of him, he had to admit he was shaken!

"How much money does the group have on hand?" An Wuyang asked.

"Less than 20 million," Li Wenya replied.

"Besides the severance, the group has 120 million in loans coming due, and the bank has clearly stated they won't extend our credit," Li Wenya added.

"The group also has about 80 million in commercial acceptance bills due, and roughly 60 million in supplier payables to handle," Li Wenya continued.

"Is our group in that bad a shape?" An Wuyang was dumbfounded!

Wasn't the family business making half a billion a year before? How had it fallen into a debt spiral in just a few years?

Did that make sense?

If his father had been working on innovative drug research, then it made perfect sense!

Innovative drug development has always been a high-risk, high-investment model. Even with the recent introduction of AI-assisted research, the costs and time required for innovative drug development remain sky-high.

According to the latest 2021 report, the success rate for innovative drug research is only about 7.9%, meaning roughly one out of twelve drugs makes it to market.

Furthermore, the average R&D cost for each innovative drug is as high as 2 billion USD, with an average development cycle of 6.9 years.

Given this high risk and high investment, it wasn't unreasonable for it to drag down Wugengtian Pharmaceutical Group, was it?

After all, the group was only making half a billion Xia Guo Yuan a year before!

Spreading the average R&D cost of 20 billion USD for innovative drugs over the average R&D cycle of 6.9 years, and setting the exchange rate between USD and Xia Yuan at 1 to 7, the average annual R&D cost for innovative drugs reaches as high as 2 billion Xia Yuan.

The Wugengtian Pharmaceutical Group only earns a "mere" 0.5 billion Xia Yuan per year, which indeed cannot withstand the strain of innovative drug R&D.

Ding!

Random Choice: Capitalist? Philanthropist!

Kind-hearted rich second-generation fails in business, then out of old sentiment offers a sky-high severance package, maxing out the prodigal attribute!

Host's Choice: The host is free to decide whether to support the sky-high severance package.

Choice Reward: Different rewards will be granted based on the host's different choices.

The Happy Life System displayed a new prompt in An Wuyang's mind, indicating that he had triggered a new random choice.

To be honest, facing a severance package as high as 136 million Xia Yuan, there was a moment when An Wuyang really didn't want to pay it.

What capitalist could withstand such an exorbitant severance package?

But An Wuyang thought deeper.

PS: Is An Huchun really that stupid? Or do some people have twisted thinking?