The R&D Department Is Established!

Gao Yuan never imagined that the first department to be put in place at the company would actually be the R&D department.

Just two days after Xu Qingzhou and Gao Yuan had hotpot together, he arrived at Kunlun Factory with his students.

Seeing Gao Yuan's puzzled expression, Xu Qingzhou smiled and explained, "Do you remember our Director Qin?"

Gao Yuan nodded slightly. "Of course I remember. This loan application went so smoothly entirely thanks to Director Qin's support. I was even thinking of finding an opportunity to thank him."

Xu Qingzhou said, "Yesterday, I mentioned to Director Qin that I was planning to come help you out. Not only did he not object, he strongly supported it."

"So today, I brought the students over first to tidy up the laboratory. If I find that we're still missing anything when I get back, I'll write you a list."

Gao Yuan was overjoyed. "In that case, I owe Director Qin two enormous favors. I wonder what hobbies the old gentleman has? I'll buy something and deliver it to him later."

Xu Qingzhou shook his head dismissively. "Forget about gifts. From what I gathered, the director thinks X Fiber has tremendous potential. It might one day go head-to-head with an international giant like Asahi Kasei, and perhaps even challenge the King of Chemical Fiber, DuPont. It's not entirely impossible."

"That's why he so readily let me come out and take on this part-time job. And if there's a real need, I can speak to the director about temporarily drawing on the laboratory's resources to help out. Of course, you'll need to cover some travel and operating expenses. After all, we're in a market economy now."

Challenge the King of Chemical Fiber, DuPont?

Gao Yuan suddenly felt immense pressure. DuPont did not merely have one or two flagship products; it covered the entire industry. It was a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue exceeding twenty billion US dollars. Director Qin really dared to dream. Even Sinochem Group, China's strongest at present, was merely a follower of DuPont and BASF.

"Teacher Gao, where did you get the inspiration to invent X Fiber?"

"Teacher Gao, could you tell us what difficulties you encountered while testing the synthesis process?"

At that moment, Xu Qingzhou's students gathered around and asked Gao Yuan about his experiences, thought process, and other matters from when he invented X Fiber.

Hearing himself called Teacher Gao, Gao Yuan felt both surprised and delighted. Looking at these graduate students, he found them utterly endearing.

Xu Qingzhou said with a smile, "X Fiber appeared out of nowhere and shocked everyone. You're already the idol of the laboratory. Why not take this opportunity to say a few words to everyone?"

"After all, these students didn't come to help for the two-hundred-yuan daily allowance. They're interested in you personally and want to meet the inventor of X Fiber."

Young people always loved a bit of excitement. At Xu Qingzhou's words, the students immediately began egging him on.

"Tell us, Teacher Gao. If you win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry someday, we'll be able to brag about it to our classmates and families."

"That's right. Please enlighten us, Teacher Gao. How can one become someone who sparks inspiration?"

Everyone was so enthusiastic that Gao Yuan knew he could not refuse. Besides, he had intended to recruit talent into the company anyway, so he decided to go with the flow.

He cleared his throat and said with a smile, "Let's not discuss laboratory matters today. There will be plenty of time for that later, and we can exchange ideas slowly. Today, I want to talk about something else."

"Recently, two news stories have caused quite a stir. In one, Boss Wang of Wanda Group claimed that a doctoral student under him had no common sense and did not even know how to pour wine for clients, so he fired him on the spot. In the other, a young man working at a bank was slapped in public by his superior because he refused to drink a toast offered by that superior."

"The protagonists of both stories were young people newly entering society. Both incidents began because the young people refused to play along with drinking-table rules, lacked tact, and upset their leaders."

After pausing, Gao Yuan swept his gaze across the young faces before him. "Hearing this, you may think I'm about to talk about how to adapt to drinking-table rules and cultivate tact."

"However, what I want to say is, screw tact! Screw the rules!"

Boom~

The scene erupted in an uproar. Gao Yuan's somewhat crude language shocked everyone, and they all pricked up their ears, eager to hear why he would say such a thing.

Gao Yuan spoke as he recalled the past. "I used to be unable to understand it. I clearly wasn't someone with social anxiety. I had many friends at school. I joked around with them, sang and drank with them. So why, once I started working, did I become gloomy and unwilling to communicate with my colleagues or boss, unwilling to take part in the company's group activities?"

"And Cao Feiyu—I've known him for nearly twenty years. Around me and our friends, he was always completely at ease. We even went on dates with girls together, and he never seemed particularly introverted."

"Yet during the more than year he worked in Hangzhou, I noticed Cao Feiyu becoming increasingly silent and depressed every day. After returning to the apartment he rented, he would always pull me into a conversation, as though he had accumulated countless words at work with no one to tell them to, and could only confide in his childhood friend at night."

With a bitter smile, Gao Yuan continued, "I don't know which pot-bellied elder invented the term 'tact.' It was as if young people who couldn't build connections, flatter people, read the wind, understand drinking-table rules, or grovel before their leaders were fools without tact who deserved to be disliked."

"Isn't a world like that absurd? We studied for so many years in order to put what we learned to use, not to build connections. As long as I can do my own work well and do it professionally, what business is it of yours whether I drink or not!?"

"If you ask me, the people with the least tact in this world are precisely those capitalists who got rich through savage growth."

"Please remember what I said today. If one day your leader dislikes you, you get fired, or you feel stifled at work and nothing goes your way, it may not necessarily be your fault. More likely, your values simply do not align with those of that company."

"What should you do when your values don't align?"

"Of course, go your separate ways. Different values cannot be forcibly reconciled. Rather than agonizing over who is right and who is wrong, think carefully about how to find your next employer, one you can get along with peacefully."

"Anyway, I don't know about other companies, but here, none of you need to worry about this so-called tact. There are no rigid rules or regulations either. Every one of you is free. As for compensation, I will do everything I can to provide the best treatment within my means!"

Gao Yuan's words truly struck a chord with these young people and won him enormous goodwill.

Clap clap clap~

Thunderous applause broke out around him. Everyone felt that Gao Yuan was very different from traditional bosses, possessing the values of young people in this new era.

Combined with the dazzling halo of being X Fiber's inventor, everyone's impression of Gao Yuan rose to another level, and their trust and goodwill toward him grew rapidly.

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