Chapter 281: Mutual Benefit and Win-Win

Mingri Group,
CEO’s Office.

Song Xia knocked lightly and stepped inside.

“You’re here. What’s the matter?”

Chen Mo looked at Song Xia with a hint of surprise, unsure why she had come.

“Let’s sit and talk.”

After taking a seat, Song Xia looked across at President Chen and began speaking slowly.

“President Chen, two competing cat cafés have already opened, and they’re offering a lot of promotional deals. Plus, many of the cats in their cafés are rare breeds.”

“As a result, nearly one-fifth of our previous customers have been drawn away.”

“And that’s just with two cafés opening. If the other three launch soon, we could lose an even bigger portion of our customer base.”

As Song Xia spoke, Chen Mo was secretly overjoyed.

This was great news!

Those so-called competitors were practically his best teammates.

Go ahead, open up faster, steal all the customers—wouldn’t that help turn the Cat Café from profit to loss?

Wonderful. Truly wonderful.

Of course, no matter how pleased he was inside, he couldn’t let it show on his face.

He cleared his throat, put on a serious expression, and looked at Song Xia.

“Competition among businesses and customer loss is a normal part of the market. What are you proposing?”

“President Chen, I’m worried that if we keep losing customers, the Cat Café’s revenue will drop. I was thinking we could run some promotional campaigns too—get ahead of the other three cafés before they open, use the offers to stabilize our customer base and reduce the loss.”

Song Xia carefully laid out her thoughts.

Chen Mo looked at her and shook his head slightly.

“I’ve said it before—customers who stay because of discounts are only staying for the deals. They’re not here because our coffee tastes better or our service is superior. They’re just choosing the cheaper option.”

“Have you considered that once we start offering discounts, the other cafés might counter with even bigger promotions to compete?”

“If that cycle continues, it becomes a vicious spiral—not healthy competition.”

“So, I don’t want to offer any discounts. Customers who truly like our Cat Café will choose to stay. We don’t need to care about the numbers. We won’t compete on price—I want to compete with our service, and more importantly, with the quality of our products.”

“Just keep operating as usual.”

Chen Mo took a sip of water, signaling that his decision was final.

No chance of keeping the customers? Perfect.

“I understand, President Chen.”

Song Xia nodded. She had already anticipated this outcome before coming, so she wasn’t too surprised.

After all, since the founding of Nanhe Coffee, the philosophy had always been: no advertising, no discounts.

Even when all the coffee shops were running at a loss, that principle never changed.

Clearly, the Cat Café would be no different.

President Chen was a man of principle and boundaries.

She sighed inwardly, then continued.

“President Chen, there’s one more thing. The Nanhe Coffee office in Beijing has been established, and the five store managers selected today have already set out. For the initial five coffee shops, we’ve decided on one Cat Café, one Maid Café, and three traditional specialty coffee shops.”

“There’s no issue with the other stores. The only concern is the Cat Café—we’re having trouble deciding on the cats.”

“We’ve done our research. There are cat and dog rescue stations in Beijing, and we’ve already made contact. We can go there to adopt cats at any time.”

“But there’s one problem. The cats in other cafés are mostly rare breeds, which definitely makes them more attractive to customers.”

“So, to increase our Cat Café’s appeal, we could consider purchasing some rare breeds to place in the shop. That way, even if competitors appear, we’d still have an edge thanks to the cats’ uniqueness.”

As Song Xia spoke, Chen Mo fell into deep thought.

Choosing rare breeds did have its advantages.

For one, they were expensive—buying more would help burn through some funds.

But the downside was that rare cats would boost the café’s competitiveness, possibly leading to more profit, and maybe even quickly recouping the cost of the cats.

If that happened, it would go against his goal of losing money.

But if they chose cats from the rescue station, it’d be a different story. Rare breeds were scarce there.

Using rescue cats would definitely put them at a disadvantage compared to other cafés.

That way, even if the Cat Café made money, it wouldn’t be much.

Even if it didn’t lose money, at least it wouldn’t earn too much.

After weighing the pros and cons,

Chen Mo finally made his decision.

“Let’s go with the rescue cats. Sure, rare breeds can attract more customers, but we can’t chase profit at the cost of everything.”

“Sometimes, we need to hold onto a little warmth.”

“Giving up some of the café’s appeal can ease the burden on the rescue stations and give those stray cats a warm, safe place to live. Why not?”

“Understood, President Chen. I’ll have the Beijing office coordinate with the rescue station and send someone over to pick out the cats in advance.”

Song Xia nodded and stood up to leave. She understood President Chen’s compassion well.

Sometimes she thought—if President Chen weren’t so kind, he could probably make a lot more money.

Take the employee benefits, for example—no one even knew how much had been spent on those.

Last year, the salaries and benefits for employees under Mingri Group had already far exceeded the industry average.

Even if President Chen didn’t raise wages anymore, the staff would still be content with the perks they received.

After all, even if they jumped ship, they wouldn’t find better treatment elsewhere.

But President Chen didn’t stop there. The first thing he did after the New Year was to adjust salaries based on how long employees had been with the company.

And then there were the sports meets, year-end rewards, and so on…

If President Chen didn’t distribute these benefits, the money would’ve just gone into his own pocket.

But instead, President Chen chose to give up those profits and share them with his employees.

That alone showed he was different from those bosses who only cared about money.

And maybe that’s exactly why his company has grown so rapidly.

She had observed the employees at work—every single one of them was diligent and highly efficient.

They were afraid that if they slacked off, they’d be replaced by other job seekers.

So in the end, it was a win-win. President Chen probably did all this to create exactly that kind of environment.

Song Xia thought to herself.

“Oh, right. When you get back, have the Beijing office donate 500,000 yuan to the Rescue Station over there. If they won’t accept the money, then use it to buy supplies worth the same amount and donate those instead.”

“I’ll transfer the funds to the Beijing office account shortly.”

Chen Mo called out to Song Xia just as she was about to leave.