If you cheat, money will follow

A week later, German officials approved the transaction submitted by Leda Investment Company and Porsche Company, and the overall situation was set.

When Zeng Xi returned to Jiangzhou, Chang Le prepared to go to the airport to greet him in person, but judging from the situation, he was not needed.

Xu Xiaolan told him that from Jiangzhou, Xiao Henghua had led a large force to the airport to greet him.

From their perspective, Leda Investment (Jiangzhou) Company has brought glory to Jiangzhou, brought rare exposure, expanded the city's influence, and deserves corresponding courtesy.

After greeting Xiao Henghua and others, Zeng Xi quickly rushed back to the company and reported to Chang Le.

"Boss, our employee recruitment plan should be carried out in advance."

"While I was in Germany, many Chinese Engineers Association organizations asked me whether they needed to recruit employees. The salary could be reduced appropriately, or they could return to work in China. Working in Jiangzhou is also acceptable."

Chang Le said with a smile: "It seems that we still underestimated the negative impact of the crisis."

"I agree, let's make arrangements immediately. This time you don't have to lead the team in person and have a good rest at home. I heard from Xiaolan that your wife is here with her children. You should spend a few days with them."

Zeng Xi smiled and said, "Thank you, boss. I really miss my child."

Chang Le said: "Let Zhou Yu from the Human Resources Department lead the team and go to North America first. The situation there should be more serious than in Europe."

Zeng Xi said: "In addition, it is recommended that the administrative department contact Jiangzhou in advance. According to reports from these organizations, many engineers will have families to support, and issues such as education and housing require supporting facilities to keep up."

Chang Le said: "We have considered this aspect when formulating the production base plan, but the project is currently under construction and will not be put into use in the short term."

"Your suggestion is very good. You can ask Xu Xiaolan to formulate a "Thousand Talents Plan" and connect with Jiangzhou City in the name of the "Thousand Talents Plan". I believe they will support it."

Zeng Xi said: "If it were me, I really can't think of a reason to refuse."

After all, the targets that Leda Automobile wants to recruit are all mid-to-high-level automotive R&D engineers with the three characteristics of high education, high quality, and high income.

The gathering of thousands of high-quality engineers in Jiangzhou will naturally have an impact on Jiangzhou's urban talent structure, and will also stimulate consumption and the economy in the region.

As for whether they can be recruited and how many can be recruited, there is no need to worry at all.

Let’s not talk about Europe for now, let’s look at North America first.

North America is the center of the storm. The subprime mortgage crisis triggered by the downturn in the real estate market has been passed on to the automobile consumer market.

The market is short of money and credit is tight. People no longer have enough funds to support automobile consumption.

Coupled with the high historic oil prices, it has had a huge negative impact on car sales.

In the first quarter, North American auto sales fell 12% year-on-year and 5.3% month-on-month;

The sales of new cars by the three giants, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, fell by 12.5%, 7.4% and 13.4% respectively.

By June, North American car sales hit a record low since the 6s in a single month, with sales of only 90 million units, down 119% year-on-year.

Note: The 18.3% decline is a very serious figure. It will affect not only the complete machine manufacturers, but also thousands of suppliers behind them.

In the first half of the year, sales in the North American auto market were only 740 million vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 10.1%, and the lowest in history since the 90s.

Looking at the car models, light pickup trucks and SUV models are the representatives of the American large V8 and environmentally friendly models. They are also the pillar models of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, and they are also the main models that generate cash flow.

Then, in the first half of the year, sales of such models fell 27.4% year-on-year.

Even in May, the Ford F-series pickup truck lost its position as the North American sales champion that it had held since 5; by June, it fell directly to fifth place in the North American car sales list.

The top 4 are: Corolla, Camry, Civic and Accord...

The data is cold, but it is real.

It truly reflects: Detroit, winter is coming.

The three giants are all thinking about how to survive, but the more cruel fact is:

In mid-September, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt;

On the same day, Merrill Lynch, the third largest among the five major investment banks, sold itself to Bank of America for US$440 billion. At this time, its assets were US$8800 billion;

Immediately afterwards, the only two remaining investment banks of the five major investment banks, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, used connections and backdoors to promptly transform into bank holding companies and respond to the run by soliciting deposits.

This is still the case on Wall Street, which is rich and filthy. Everyone is in danger and only seeks to protect themselves. Other financial institutions are even worse.

There is no money in the market, and it is difficult for auto giants to get money from the market, so all they can do is cut costs and lay off employees.

Look at a set of North American numbers.

In February 2007, Chrysler laid off employees;

In November, Chrysler announced additional layoffs.

It's 2008.

In April, General Motors laid off 4 employees at its transmission factory;

In May, General Motors closed its Windsala transmission plant in Ontario, leaving 5 people unemployed;

In June, the Ontario pickup truck factory closed and 6 people lost their jobs.

In June, General Motors parts factories laid off 6 workers.

In July, GM continued to announce employee layoffs, this time directly targeting white-collar and above employees, laying off 7 engineers of various types.

In August, September, and October, there is news about layoffs every month.

Although the main layoffs are assembly workers on the production line, it has become an established trend to lay off high-paid engineers in batches.

Those engineers who are still on the job are not interested in working, and everyone is in danger. After all, no one can guarantee that their names will not be included in the next batch of lists.

This is just North America, let’s look at the numbers in other regions.

In February 2008, BMW laid off 2 employees at its German factory.

In June, Volvo Europe laid off 6 employees.

In July, Italian Fiat announced that it would close six factories and lay off 7 people.

In August, Toyota, which has passed down one car to three generations and still has people driving the cars, laid off 8 employees.

In September, Renault announced at the latest that it would lay off 9 people next year.

In October, Volvo Europe continued to lay off 10 people.

In the same month, Nissan laid off 1600 employees in Barcelona, ​​Spain;

Volkswagen cuts 4700 jobs;

Mercedes is laying off 2300 people and will lay off another 1300 people by next year at the latest.

This is the general trend. As a person and in business, you must conform to the general trend and act with it.

Chang Le said: "Sister Zeng, our previous plan was too conservative. It was estimated that 500 people would be easily reached. Now we can adjust the plan and set the number of people at more than 1000 people, and the threshold should be raised accordingly."

Zeng Xi said: "Boss, I already have new ideas. This recruitment focuses on three levels: director level, director level engineer, and senior engineer. General R&D engineers are recruited from domestic universities. The total recruitment scale should exceed 2000 people. We will review it later. R&D progress increased.”

Chang Le said: "Yes. Domestic and foreign work should be carried out simultaneously, and media publicity must be followed up. Some adjustments should also be made in terms of remuneration to give equal treatment to senior talents above the director level. This can show the strength and strength of Leda Automobile Sincerity, let them work with peace of mind and engage in research and development.”

Zeng Xi said: "Okay, I will arrange it. There is another thing I need to report to you."

"what's up?"

"In Germany, Ford contacted me and asked if we wanted a Volvo."

"...How much did they quote?"

"A billion dollars."

"Haha, forget it. Don't you, Mr. Li, want it very much? We won't take away people's love."

"it is good!"