Industry Secrets, Sheng Changya's Little Thoughts

"What? The partnership was doomed to fail?"

Sheng Changya was too shocked for words. For a moment, she could not make sense of it, and asked in bewilderment, "Then why did the company put forward an acquisition proposal at all? Why not simply stay away?"

As Zhou Yuli drove, she sneered. "Oulaiya is a global company. We don't even have an R&D department in China. Anyone could tell we wouldn't spend a fortune buying a whitening formula."

"Changya, you still lack strategic vision. Think about it—where is the company's biggest market? Overseas, right? Do foreigners need whitening? No, they want tanning instead. So whitening products are inherently limited for a global company."

"Whitening product lines only have a market in East Asia. Although the domestic market is huge and annual sales are growing rapidly, whitening products aren't a necessity. Not every customer buys them, and even if they do, they don't care much if the results are merely average. So our current whitening product line is more than enough."

"Three Purities' whitening formula isn't bad. It's too good. That makes it too valuable, and its cost-effectiveness is too low for us."

"After all, in the cosmetics industry, marketing is what matters. Technology is merely the icing on the cake."

"The company spends enormous sums every year on distribution channels and celebrity endorsements. Our market share is firmly secured, and we never have to worry about sales. Do we really need to go to all that trouble to come up with something new? Consumers in this industry don't understand any of this anyway. They're easy to fool."

"So after discussing it with headquarters, the company decided on a conservative approach. We've basically given up on this formula, but we couldn't make no gesture at all. So we drew up an acquisition proposal and sent us here to sound them out."

"Heh heh, what if President Wei had lost his mind and was willing to sell it to us for a pittance? There have been plenty of idiots who sold brands cheaply before."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "But as you saw, this President Wei is sharp as a devil. We can't fool him at all."

Sheng Changya still struggled to argue. "But the partnership proposal was an option too. What if a competitor snatches it up?"

Zhou Yuli gave a scornful laugh. "Are we afraid of them? Consumers recognize brands. The pie is only so big—how easy do you think it is to steal someone else's territory?"

Then she turned back and glared at her. "And why are you so muddle-headed? That's just how the market is right now. We spend so much every year developing anti-aging and whitening products ourselves. If you partner with Three Purities, what are all those R&D personnel at headquarters supposed to do? Fire them all? Let all our previous investments go down the drain?"

"Besides, you know how arrogant the Gauls are. From what I can tell, headquarters is still deeply divided over this formula. There are plenty of doubts. They don't dare trust its effects so easily, afraid it could have delayed adverse reactions like hormones. And you know Three Purities is only a small pharmaceutical company. Even if they stumbled into inventing one or two new drugs, their R&D capabilities are still terrible. How could that reassure anyone?"

Not a word of Zhou Yuli's endless chatter entered Sheng Changya's ears. She slumped against the back seat, as though every bit of strength had been drained from her body. She could not even move a finger, and her entire being sank into confusion.

What a shame. In the end, there was still nothing I could do. It was always like this.

She murmured to herself inwardly, utterly dejected as helplessness enveloped her.

For the first time, she doubted her career.

Was this how companies competed—by being less terrible than one another?

Relying on marketing and deception to sell products.

Did this industry even have a future?

What exactly was she doing?

Working overtime until ten-thirty every night, all for a proposal that had long since been abandoned?

Racking her brains over something whose outcome had already been decided?

Her life, her youth—it had all been wasted!

From beginning to end, she had been the only one doing useless work on this matter.

The company did not care. No one cared except her.

It was utterly ironic!

She laughed wildly in silence.

As Zhou Yuli drove toward Sea City, she babbled on about all sorts of office gossip, complaining about bizarre incidents involving HR and other departments. She never noticed anything unusual about Sheng Changya in the back seat.

Time passed quickly. Zhou Yuli pulled over beside a shopping mall, then turned around and called out, "Changya, the nearest subway station is here. Don't work overtime today. Go home early and get some rest."

Seeing Sheng Changya's low spirits and listless appearance, she hurriedly comforted her. "Ah, it's all my fault for being loose-lipped and telling you about the senior management's decision ahead of time, putting you in such a bad mood. Honestly, this kind of crap is perfectly normal at the company. You'll get used to it. In a couple of days, you'll have forgotten all about it."

Sheng Changya nodded, thanked her, then got out of the car weakly and headed toward the subway station at one corner of the mall.

After suffering such a blow, she was in a terrible mood and planned to go straight home to rest.

After trudging forward a few steps with her head down, she suddenly caught the rich aroma of coffee drifting through the air.

Looking up, she saw a Luckin Coffee shop on her right.

She had seen this brand many times, but had always just passed by without trying it. She had heard it was a domestic coffee brand and quite cheap, though she did not know how it tasted.

The coffee smelled so good that she could not resist walking in and spending fifteen yuan on a thick milk latte.

It really was cheap—only half the price of Starbucks.

After several mouthfuls of sweet, fragrant coffee, her spirits seemed to lift a little.

Huh, it actually tasted quite good. It did not seem any worse than Starbucks—if anything, it was even richer.

She looked at the coffee in her hand and suddenly froze.

It was as though lightning had struck from the sky, instantly sweeping away every trace of confusion in her mind.

Her mood immediately became incomparably light, and she could not help smiling.

As she smiled, an idea gradually emerged in her heart.

Like a seed breaking through the soil, it swiftly took root and sprouted.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she immediately found a seat, gathered her thoughts, and considered what she should do next.

President Wei was surely discussing the Whitening Drug with other cosmetics companies at this very moment.

Zhou Yuli was right. Whitening products only had a market in the East, and the largest cosmetics company in the East was the Shiseido Group.

The cosmetics industry was neither particularly big nor particularly small. Competitors often crossed paths, and employees frequently hopped between companies. One female colleague she was fairly close to had happened to worked at Shiseido before.

Sheng Changya took out her phone and quickly sent a WeChat message: "Lucy, babe, I need to ask you something about your old employer, Shiseido."

A reply came quickly. "Changya, weren't you going to discuss that new whitening project? How come it still hasn't been settled?"

"Don't even mention it. The company never wanted it in the first place, so I'm guessing it's a lost cause. But I saw people from your old employer there. Their offer was pretty high, and I think they'll get the project. Our whitening line's sales in the second half of the year probably won't be looking good."

"Heh heh!" A dog-head emoji came from the other side. "Don't worry. I can't say for other companies, but if my old employer gets it, this project is definitely doomed!"

Sheng Changya was shaken to the core and hurriedly pressed for more. "Huh? How could that be? Tell me about it in detail!"

The other side immediately called her. Her voice was kept very low. "Changya, I'm only telling you because we're close. The Japanese at Shiseido are downright underhanded. If you hadn't worked at the company for a long time, you really wouldn't know about this."

"They bought quite a few new technologies and formulas before—anti-aging, whitening, moisturizing, anti-glycation, all kinds of things. But have you ever seen Shiseido launch any brand-new product lines? Not a single one. All the things they bought are just sitting in the headquarters warehouse, gathering dust."

Sheng Changya thought it over and suddenly understood. "So they're stockpiling them and waiting to sell at a good price? That seems pretty normal."

Lucy said bitterly, as if she were disappointed in her. "Why can't you figure it out? Waiting for a good price means the stuff still has value, but Shiseido absolutely won't use what they buy. The thinking behind it is much the same as when Oulaiya bought Little Nurse. Think it over carefully yourself—I can't spell it out too clearly."

With that, she hung up.

Sheng Changya stared blankly at the phone in her hand, finally understanding.

Little Nurse had once been one of the top three domestic cosmetics brands. After it was sold to Oulaiya, it almost disappeared from the market very quickly. It was said that it had been killed off to make way for Oulaiya's own daughter, Garnier, to enter the market.

This "conspiracy theory" had spread like wildfire back then. Afterward, more and more successful local brands, such as Maxam and Robust, also quickly vanished from public view after being acquired by foreign companies.

So Shiseido had spent heavily to buy up emerging new technologies and formulas on the market not to use them in its own product lines, but to nip potential threats in the bud as early as possible.

So that was it. This really was insider information that only longtime company employees would know.

What use was this information to me?

She held her head in both hands and thought carefully before quickly making a decision.

Picking up her phone, she carefully considered her wording before finally sending a message.

"President Wei, how are your negotiations with Shiseido going?"