Whether it is Ankang or the professors and students of the school, they are not familiar with the format of chain commercial retail. Therefore, Ankang took the opportunity to learn about the project and took them to the field.

On the one hand, Ankang took Professor He to conduct interviews with the company's managers. On the other hand, Ankang arranged for several students to go to the three stores with the biggest problems to squat for real-time statistics. For students familiar with statistics, these tasks are not too difficult.

If you want to know the sales volume in a day, you only need to take a few representative time periods in the day to count the customer flow, transaction rate, transaction quantity, and transaction amount. Then do the same work in a day for a week in a row to get an averaged data. This data is not necessarily accurate and can only be used as a reference. Moreover, health does not necessarily require a data accurate to the decimal place. Error values can be handled by technical means.

The turnover of inventory can be obtained by the volume and frequency of purchases in a store. On the one hand, you can send someone to squat, and on the other hand, if the student who does this task is flexible, he can go to the security guard and the old man in the underground garage to ask about the delivery vehicle.

It is not difficult to survey customers, you only need to design some survey coupons and give some small gifts. It's the kind of work that students are the best at. Ankang used to do this kind of work when he was in school, and now the students use more advanced methods.

Investigating suppliers is even more difficult. First of all, the students are not familiar with the retail industry, and they do not know how to contact suppliers and how to ask questions. And these issues should not be too sensitive so as not to cause alarm in the company. An Kang was also afraid that Wu Mo and his colleagues in the company would know that he was spending so much energy investigating and collecting evidence behind his back, and suspected that his motives were not pure.

However, even if it was difficult for them, they found the problem. These issues have a direct impact on the company's purchase volume and inventory.

"Ankang, you see, the conclusions we deduced with the model at that time are getting clearer and clearer." Professor Ho pointed to a new model made by a student. The new model, using the data collected in the survey, is not exactly the same as the data that Ankang originally gave to Professor He, but the results presented are the same - the relationship between procurement, inventory and sales does not make logical sense.

An Kang said: "Teacher, I think you are like a legendary master in the world. We are taught a simple but effective way to analyze and draw conclusions with just a limited amount of information. ”

Professor He smiled and said, "See a leaf, and know autumn." I'm not going to deceive you. Isn't there a saying that 'there's nothing new under the sun'? Although I don't know much about the chain retail industry, all companies exist for the sole purpose of making the most profit for shareholders. Therefore, all activities are inseparable from costs and revenues. The logical relationship between inventory and sales is, in the final analysis, the relationship between cost and income. It is only necessary to firmly grasp this one, so as not to respond to all changes, and sooner or later the enemy will show his feet. ”

"The teacher taught yes. The teacher is really taught. ”

"Ankang, you don't have to pat my ass here. I can also see that you have your own set of methods. I think one of the formulas you demonstrated in excel that day was pretty good. ”

"This is also a change to the formula you taught, with some empirical parameters added. Nothing to speak of. ”

"That's not a nuance. As teachers and students, what we lack most is experience. A lot of theoretical knowledge needs to be put to the test in practice. ”

An Kang asked a question that was not directly related to his current work: "Professor He, I heard that you were hired as a consultant by a company in Zhangjiang?" ”

One student interjected, "It's not one company, it's several." ”

Professor He smiled: "It's not a big company. There are several companies that are in the growth phase. They think that the company has hit a bottleneck or foresee that the company will hit a bottleneck, so they want me to give them some advice from an outsider's perspective. ”

Ankang saw this as a good opportunity and told Professor He: "Our company is currently considering investing in some start-up companies in Zhangjiang. What do you think about the development of Zhangjiang and the development of those companies in Zhangjiang? ”

"Zhangjiang was originally established with the aim of forming a high-tech highland, introducing some high-tech enterprises to China that are difficult to achieve in our country," Professor He said. These high-tech enterprises can not only bring advanced technology and advanced management concepts, but also form an industrial chain. You know that a company can move from one country to another in just a few months. However, if the country has a complete industrial chain, then a company needs to think twice about moving away. ”

"I understand that. The industrial chain represents not only skilled technicians and workers, but also a low-cost R&D, procurement and sales system. ”

"Yes. If you look at the influence of Nokia on Finland, a small Nordic country, you can see the huge role of the industrial chain in a country. In the past, the industrial chain of our country was not highly technological, and there was no moat of competition, and it basically relied on the low cost of cheap labor to compete. In the future, we should learn from countries like Japan and South Korea and occupy a place in the high-tech industrial chain. After all, a pair of shoes is easy to make, and a Nokia mobile phone is not something that can be built simply. How many key technologies are not in our own hands. If one day we get stuck in the neck by someone else, then we will be very passive. ”

Ankang couldn't help but sigh: "Although companies like Haier and Huawei have developed and expanded and entered the international market, compared with companies like Panasonic and NEC, not only are their scale limited, but their technology is decades behind." ”

Professor Ho said, "Yes. If the state does not pay attention to the influence of science and technology on the national economy and the future development of science and technology enterprises, we will be slaughtered by others in the future. ”

Ankang said with a smile: "However, it is not easy for our country, not only to fight with the United States for science and technology, but also for Europe for welfare, and for Africa to fight for labor costs." Over the years, it has been a situation of complete single-handedness. ”

"It's okay to go it alone in the early stages of development. But to catch up with or even catch up with advanced technology, it is necessary to cooperate. Zhangjiang is actually a hotbed of cooperation. After high-tech companies are introduced, they will take advantage of the opportunity of localization to carry on some non-critical technologies and manufacturing. Over time, we will gradually take on key technologies and manufacturing. Next, you can also see that Zhangjiang will become an entrepreneurial base again. This is the same as Silicon Valley in the United States. After speaking, Professor He asked, "How big is your company going to do in Zhangjiang?" ”

Ankang touched his head and said, "It's hard to say how big things you can do now." Before, we didn't pay much attention to this sector. That is to say, I am alone in the company to encourage and instigate, so the general manager asked me to study and find some small companies for tentative investment. ”

"I see."

"I have an idea, I don't know if you can agree. I'd like to join your advisory group and help you out. ”

Professor He understood as soon as he heard it: "You want to take the opportunity to get some first-hand information and field research opportunities." ”

Ankang smiled: "I really can't jump out of the palm of the Buddha." ”