Chapter 17: Are you willing to come to China?

  At the train station, the station staff kept shouting.

  "Passengers, please note that the 7 o'clock train for San Francisco will depart from platform twelve."

  The station staff holding an iron megaphone kept repeating this sentence over and over again.

  At this time, a man in his fifties, wearing a black woolen coat and of tall stature, looked around the waiting room of the train station with an air of searching for someone. His sharp-featured face had a look of seeking someone. The people inside the train station were very crowded, with streams of people rushing past him from all directions, surging towards each exit, going their separate ways. In the high-ceilinged halls of the station building, the sounds of people's conversations and shouts echoed back and forth.

  It's just in time for the weekend, and it has just snowed, the air is both refreshing and cold, so everyone is rushing to get on their way.

  Through the entrance of the station, Tyler walked down the ramp and onto the long concrete platform. He followed the train numbers: four, five, six, seven; under the open door on the left side of the seventh car's window, there was a small blue circle printed with a perforated template. This was a sign that the equipment inside this car was more advanced than the first-class cars - each compartment had a larger area and the equipment inside could be used for meetings during certain trips, which was the high-end luxury suite of the Pacific Railway Company.

  "That's it!"

  Taylor walked into the car and down the aisle of closed compartments, stopping at the fifth door where he knocked twice.

  "Is it Mr. Taylor?"

  A man's voice came from inside the room.

  Taylor was taken aback for a moment, then he smiled again. Didn't he come here to deliver something to Mu Xiangyu himself?

  He specially called the train station at dawn and found Mu Xiangyue through the station staff, telling him that if he wanted to return home, he had a gift for him, a note on "The Principles of Scientific Management".

  He naturally expressed his gratitude, but due to time constraints, he was unable to go in person since he was already at the train station. So, he took the initiative to come to the train station himself, firstly to see him off, secondly to deliver the notes, and most importantly, Tyler wanted to meet that mysterious investor here.

  The chain on the door rattled twice, followed by the sound of pulling the door bolt. The door opened inward, but the person who appeared was not Mu Xiangyue, but a younger Eastern child.

  "You must be Mr. Taylor! Please come in, young master has been waiting for you!"

  As he walked into the private room with some surprise, Tyler saw a young Oriental man sitting on the edge of the sofa against the car window. He could even be described as an Oriental little boy. Perhaps it was an illusion, but Tyler felt that his face had a childlike smile. His handsome appearance combined with this smile made him seem extremely approachable.

  Is he that investor? So young?

  After Tyler entered the private room, Li Zichen, who was already standing up, smiled and sized up Tyler. This founder of modern enterprise management was sixty-seven or eight years old, short and stout, with a completely bald head. His face was quite harmonious and likable. His brown eyes were large beyond his metal-rimmed glasses, and in those eyes, there was, hmm, expectation and doubt!

  "I hope I didn't disturb you, sir!"

  Taylor looked at the Chinese man with some confusion, shifting his gaze to his attire. It was only then that Taylor believed he hadn't come to the wrong place. Although he looked very young, one could tell his identity just from what he wore. Mr. Mu wore nothing but a $5 suit, which in Bethlehem was the Sunday best for laborers.

  And this gentleman's clothes are worth a fortune, custom-made attire, just his suit and shoes may be worth thousands of dollars, even tens of thousands of dollars, he is a rich man!

  Han Xiang and Tyler greeted each other with a smile.

  "What's this? Please sit down, Mr. Taylor."

  As soon as he finished speaking, Li Zichen continued to say.

  "Please forgive me. Mu, I'm actually busy with something, so I won't be here!"

  "Oh."

  Tyler gave a slight nod and took in the sleek, high-tech cubicle.

  Inside, there was a table and a sofa, but no bed. The compartments were separated by wooden partitions. On the windows hung two layers of black and red velvet curtains, which weakened the noise of passersby outside. On the table stood a lamp with a fringed shade.

  "Mr. Taylor, I have just three questions!"

  With a smile on his face, after Taylor sat down, Li Zichen spat out a sentence.

  Three questions, Taylor had just sat down and was taken aback, was he asking himself three questions?

  "Mr. Taylor, you are an authority on economic management, I have only one question to ask, now that China is about to achieve a republican revolution, in your opinion, what kind of industry should China invest in to become rich and strong?"

  Facing this question, Tyler furrowed his brow and pondered the issue he had never considered before, and only spoke after a long while.

  "If we look at it from the perspective of capital returns, Chinese entrepreneurs are more willing to invest in labor-intensive textile mills and flour mills. On the one hand, China imports a large amount of cotton cloth every year, and the market needs this type of factory. On the other hand, due to limited capital, like Mr. Mu, whether it is from an investment perspective or a return on investment perspective or a technical perspective, investing in a textile mill is undoubtedly the most suitable!"

  When Tyler said this, Li Zichen nodded in agreement. This is exactly the route chosen by the vast majority of capitalists throughout history. The cotton mill has a small investment, quick returns, and low technical requirements, and China also has a huge market demand, making it the most suitable investment for China's industrial development.

  "But..."

  Looking at the young man in front of him, Tyler smiled slightly, with a confident smile, now he at least believed one thing, this young man knew himself, and even more, these three questions had other meanings.

  "If we consider becoming rich and powerful, I think for Chinese people, you value "power" more than wealth. For any country, to pursue the path of a strong nation, it must invest in capital-intensive heavy industries, but this is not realistic for China at least for now. On one hand, neither the government nor private sectors have sufficient funds, and industries like metallurgy and machinery require high investment with long return cycles. On the other hand, these industries also require high technical skills..."

  Taylor noticed that when he spoke, the young and wealthy man nodded from time to time, seeming to agree with his views. In Taylor's heart, he began to believe in his own conjecture, as if he was conducting an interview.

  Taylor's response made Li Zicheng extremely satisfied. He had no experience in managing a company, and the person in front of him was an authority expert in this field. If he wanted to build the world's first-class factory, apart from those patents and drawings, perhaps hiring him as the company's management director would be the best choice.

  "Mr. Taylor, have you accepted an offer from another company now?"

  When Li Zichen said this, he smiled and winked, while Mu Xiangyu was shocked to look at the person beside him. He...he wanted to hire Tyler!

  As expected, Tyler, who had been somewhat nervous, finally relaxed and shrugged his shoulders.

  "Now almost all of America sees me as the villain who squeezed out the last penny! And I haven't accepted a job offer from any company in ten years."

  "Mr. Taylor, I personally believe that scientific management is a revolution in business management, only now people are not yet aware of it, but what can be more convincing than facts to make people accept scientific management?"

  Really?

  Taylor frowned slightly. Scientific management was a factory management theory established on the basis of a series of long-term experiments. Did he think that scientific management had no factual basis?

  Before Tyler could ask his own questions, Li Zichen began to explain.

  "Mr. Taylor, please don't misunderstand me. In my opinion, your experiments in Bethlehem Steel and any other company are undoubtedly successful, but what I'm talking about is a revolution from scratch, no matter how much success your experiments achieve in these companies, people will only see Bethlehem in the end. But if I can provide you with a suitable stage, for example, a newly established enterprise that uses scientific management as its foundation from the very beginning, I think that after many years, when people talk about the success of this company, they will naturally associate it with the fact that scientific management led to its success, and within this company, you can fully demonstrate your management talents and build it into a company with the highest production efficiency in the world..."

  As Li Zichen spoke, Tyler fell into deep thought, and he couldn't deny that his heart was moved. A company, managed entirely according to scientific management methods - if this company succeeded, the whole world would understand that it was a success of scientific management. Is there anything more convincing than this fact?

  "May..."

  After hesitating for several seconds, Tyler's face showed some difficulty.

  "I have not been in contact with any industrial company for ten years, only engaging in unpaid management consulting, writing and lecturing work to promote scientific management!"

  Although Taylor said so, he had already been moved in his heart. If he wasn't moved, would he have come here?

  Taylor's hesitation was met with a dismissive look from Li Zichen, who continued speaking.

  "So, Mr. Taylor, I have one last question!"

  Staring at Tyler, Li Zichen, who had been in control from start to finish, spat out a sentence.

  "Mr. Taylor, would you like to go to China for your new job?"