Super Zoo

The candidate Suming had in mind was none other than the boss of their university dormitory and class monitor, Yang Tao.

Yang Tao's family was in the travel agency business. His father was the deputy head of a state-owned travel organization in the early years. Later, when the unit became unprofitable, his father ventured into business starting from scratch as a freelance tour guide. Within a few years, he had established his own travel agency, which continued to grow larger and larger. By the time Yang Tao was in university, they had even acquired the state-owned travel agency where his father used to work.

To celebrate this achievement, Yang Tao had treated everyone in the dormitory to a meal. At that time, purely in terms of economic condition, Yang Tao's family was much better off than Wang Hao's.

After graduating from university, Yang Tao returned to his hometown to help manage the family business.

At the last high school reunion, Suming heard that something had come up in Yang Tao's family, and it was clear from his demeanor during the gathering that he was a bit troubled.

Yang Tao was popular both in their class and in the dormitory, not only because he was warm-hearted towards his classmates but also because he had a rare quality; he never troubled his friends with his own issues.

Knowing his character, Suming and Wang Hao refrained from prying too deeply since he did not bring it up.

If Yang Tao could come to help, he would undoubtedly be the most suitable candidate. There was no need to mention his professional level as his family was already in the business. He grew up immersed in the industry and, after graduating, had been personally involved in the related operations. There was certainly no question about his capabilities and knowledge.

What's more, Yang Tao was a university classmate of theirs, and at present, the 'Classmate Gang' within Taoyuan Group was a very influential force. These people all respected Yang Tao, and others knew that their boss, Suming, held him in high regard. If Yang Tao was in charge of the tourism aspect, he would quickly blend into the company's broader environment without causing dissatisfaction among others. Even if some people harbored different ideas, it wouldn't affect work in the short term, and as time passed and Yang Tao established himself, those thoughts and petty concerns would become insignificant.

However, Yang Tao had his own family business, and it might not be easy to get him to come over to help.

Suming's plan was, if there really wasn't a suitable candidate, he would take on the leadership of the travel department himself and ask Yang Tao to transfer a few capable personnel from his family's travel agency to assist.

Suming found Yang Tao's phone number and dialed it.

After several beeping tones, the mechanical voice stated, "The number you have dialed is switched off."

After trying several more times, the result was the same.

"Huh?" Suming was taken aback. Had Yang Tao changed his phone number? That seemed unlikely. Yang Tao's family was wealthy and didn't care about roaming charges. Back in school, he had used an out-of-town number, and after returning home, he hadn't changed it. At the last reunion, he was still using the same number.

Although the dormitory mates didn't contact each other frequently, they would occasionally send messages. It was unlikely that Yang Tao changed his number without even a heads up.

As for the phone being switched off, that seemed even less likely.

Yang Tao was a businessman whose phone was on 24 hours a day. While someone like Wang Hao might switch off his phone for reasons like a bad mood or oversleeping, Yang Tao definitely wouldn't.

"What are you up to?" Suming thought for a moment, then called Wang Hao's mobile phone to explain the situation.

Wang Hao was out shopping with Peng Xue and found the situation strange when he heard about it.

Their dormitory's boss, Yang Tao, was very good at 'tormenting' himself. No matter how tough or difficult the situation, he would bear it alone without letting others notice, let alone switch off his phone because he was upset.

"I'll inquire about it," Wang Hao said. Unlike Suming, who in university truly had few close friends - mostly just those in the dormitory - Wang Hao had a much broader circle of contacts in his college days. He was the type who was adept at social dancing; likely a third of his peers would enjoy a few drinks with Wang Hao, including a few from his hometown who had returned to the same city after graduation.

Wang Hao seemed to be making calls to contact people on the other end. In the meantime, Suming set the matter aside and opened his computer to browse the latest issue of the Tao Garden Journal.

Nangong Yan, who was in charge of publicity work, had fought a beautiful battle with this internal journal. It had become an emblem of honor among all of Tao Garden's enterprises, treasured by leaders and employees alike.

This level of importance subsequently influenced Suming as the boss. He might not always read the company's business reports on time, but he would skim through each journal issue from start to finish whenever he had the chance.

This issue of the journal featured an interesting segment that surveyed the single and unmarried male and female employees across several companies. The results showed that Shen Yan's computer company had the highest proportion of single employees, with unmarried individuals making up 80%. In contrast, Great Sage Liquor Industry, largely composed of young people in their early twenties, had the lowest rate of singles. Many young people who went out to work married early, with spouses either working in other regions or staying back at home to farm.

"This girl is playing matchmaker now," Suming chuckled, understanding that Nangong Yan intended to pair up single men and women from the companies.

It's a good deed to help people find life partners, and it also helps stabilize the hearts of company employees. Many large corporations have an unwritten rule when recruiting employees: those who are married and have a stable family life are given priority. Having a family means an individual is less likely to make significant changes in life and is generally more responsible. If both spouses work in different companies within the group, they would naturally treat the group as their 'home.'

This was Nangong Yan's notion, but Suming's thoughts went even further.

Houses.

When thinking about marriage, the first thing that came to Suming's mind was this word.

To be strict, four words: housing welfare allocation.

If speaking about retaining employees, the most direct methods are equity incentives and housing welfare.

Let's not discuss equity for the moment; the companies have yet to be integrated. To be honest, even Suming felt things were a bit chaotic and needed to find the right opportunity to readjust and establish a group structure. Talking about equity incentives now was a bit premature.

Discussing houses was also premature, but it was possible to promise a future arrangement.

Feeding on a promise is like assuaging hunger with the thought of food. Once everyone is 'full' and motivated, as the company grows, the promised benefit will naturally materialize.

"Distribute houses?" When Nangong Yan heard this suggestion, her first reaction was clearly one of surprise.

Like all henpecked husbands, Suming was fairly open about his finances with Nangong Yan.

As for his current ventures, giving out some bonuses to employees wouldn't be a problem, but if it came to building staff housing complexes and distributing welfare houses, Suming didn't have that amount of money on hand.

Unless he invested all his available funds and had Su Desheng's construction team halt all other projects to focus solely on building staff welfare housing. Additionally, Suming would have to pull in various favors to acquire a decent piece of land in Yangchuan City.

That would be a loss not worth the cost.