Chapter 1440 Charity with a Touch of Commerce?

"President Pei, which project should we focus on for next month's promotional plan?" Meng Chang asked proactively.

Pei Qian nodded slightly. "Hmm, this Meng Chang is not bad. He's becoming more proactive and getting the hang of things."

It seemed that his incentive measures were working well.

However...

Pei Qian hadn't really decided which specific project to focus on for next month's promotional plan.

Because next month was settlement time, most of the projects had already been developed and finalized. Even for the unfinished ones, the main task was just wrapping things up.

It wasn't that these projects couldn't use promotional resources, but this particular timing was sensitive, and Pei Qian was worried that things might get out of control.

It was fine to mess around at other times. Even if things went wrong and they ended up making a lot of money, there would still be time to spend it all before settlement. There was room for correction.

But with only one month left until settlement, how could he clean up the mess if something unexpected happened?

Wouldn't that undo all the hard work of the entire cycle?

However, it wouldn't be appropriate to stop Meng Chang now. After all, the advertising and marketing department was a key area for Pei Qian to burn money. With Meng Chang's help, the settlement for this cycle should go more smoothly.

After a moment of consideration, Pei Qian's eyes suddenly lit up.

"That's right, there's one project that fits perfectly!"

"The charitable project for this cycle!"

Previously, Pei Qian had already planned how to spend the charitable funds for this cycle: directly providing supplies to some impoverished elementary schools in Handong Province. Each student would receive a bag of milk and an egg every day, and impoverished students would receive necessities like rice, oil, fish, meat, and vegetables during the mid-term and final exams.

Improving academic performance might be difficult, as students have varying levels of effort and learning abilities. The most important thing for improving grades is good teachers, which are a scarce resource.

But providing these basic necessities would at least ensure that impoverished children could eat their fill, get proper nutrition, and grow up healthy. It was a low-investment, high-return form of charity.

Of course, the high return wasn't economic benefit, but rather the impact on the children's development.

So far, this initiative was almost complete. Both the schools and the suppliers of these foods had been carefully selected. Tengda was essentially the investor and intermediary, connecting the two parties and also responsible for supervision and guidance.

Of course, the coverage wasn't particularly extensive yet, but the charitable funds would continue to increase in the future. The better Tengda developed, the more charitable funds there would be.

"Using this charitable project for promotion shouldn't have any serious consequences, right? It definitely wouldn't affect the settlement, would it?"

Pei Qian thought, "This has potential!"

But after thinking carefully, there were still two problems to solve.

First, in the system's judgment, charitable endeavors and commercial ventures were two completely different areas, subject to different rules. Promotional expenses couldn't be spent without limit on charitable causes; there were many restrictions.

Otherwise, burning money would be too easy. Couldn't you just start a charitable cause and pour promotional funds into it?

There was a solution, though: either spend less money or find a way to blur the nature of this charitable cause to bypass these restrictions.

The best approach was to make it a half-charitable, half-commercial venture, essentially dividing the initiative into two parts.

On one hand, it would retain the characteristics of pure charity, allowing for unlimited charitable funds to be poured in. On the other hand, it would have some commercial attributes, allowing him to exploit loopholes in the system's rules and pour in a lot of promotional expenses to achieve the goal of burning money.

Of course, this raised the second issue.

After spending promotional funds, would it suddenly become extremely profitable? How to add commercial attributes while ensuring it couldn't make money was a major problem.

And even if he managed to do that, there would still be risks.

What if the promotion was too successful, and the initiative's impact spread throughout the country? That would inevitably boost the Tengda Group's reputation!

Pei Qian could say that he had suffered greatly from this, and it was almost driving him crazy.

Tengda's established reputation was too strong, to the point where this influence extended to all aspects of the group company. Every time they entered a new field or developed a new product, it would become the focus of attention, generating high expectations due to this reputation. It was impossible to keep a low profile.

Coupled with the bizarre luck of products succeeding for no apparent reason, it was like adding fuel to the fire, leaving Pei Qian battered and bruised.

Therefore, even if he changed the nature of the initiative and bypassed the system's rules, he had to be careful and try to ensure that the promotional plan didn't work.

In other words, "Do good deeds without leaving a name."

To be honest, it was very difficult.

Previously, Pei Qian had donated all of his charitable funds to his alma mater, but he had very discreetly avoided pouring any promotional funds into it. That was precisely the reason.

No promotion was the safest approach.

But now, for the sake of settlement and to explore more ways to spend money, Pei Qian decided to take a risk and give it a try.

Pei Qian briefly explained the charitable plan to Meng Chang and said, "I want you to create a promotional plan for this charitable initiative next month, but there are two requirements."

"First, I want to slightly change the nature of this charitable initiative, so that it's no longer a purely charitable activity, but has some commercial attributes."

"But what I mean is not to make it profitable. You can understand 'having commercial attributes' as a purely altruistic act, without any economic demands. Consider it based on this premise."

"Charity is still its primary goal, accounting for as much as 90% or more. Even if there's a tiny chance of commercial success, it can't affect the charity itself."

"Second, the promotional plan will still be calculated for commission as before, with some changes in the details, under the premise of spending as much promotional money as possible: I need the promotional effect to be as good as possible in the impoverished rural areas that the charitable initiative can reach; and in irrelevant areas on the internet, it's best if no one knows about it."

"So, do you have the confidence to complete this task?"

Meng Chang's first reaction was confusion.

"What, what, what is all this?"

"Isn't this charitable initiative already pretty complete? Sending nutrition to children in impoverished elementary schools is a good thing!"

"The suppliers and elementary schools have already been contacted, so why not just implement it directly?"

"Why are there two more requirements, like adding feet to a snake?"

Looking at these two requirements again.

The second requirement regarding the promotional effect was understandable, but the first requirement was a bit strange.

Charity is charity, and commerce is commerce. Why must charity have some commercial attributes? Moreover, charity is still the primary goal, completely disregarding whether the commercial part is profitable or not.

Isn't this a bit contradictory?

He really couldn't figure out what President Pei was thinking!

But after a brief period of confusion, Meng Chang became excited.

Although he hadn't figured out President Pei's true intentions, he sensed one thing: President Pei valued him even more, and the difficulty of the tasks assigned to him was further increased!

This task was worth studying carefully.

Moreover, upon hearing that he was responsible for promoting a charitable project, Meng Chang naturally had some associations.

The last time he came, President Pei had already hinted that Meng Chang must walk the right path. If he took the evil path and paid off his debts early, he would be kicked out of Tengda.

Just half a month later, President Pei asked him to promote a charitable project.

Was this a coincidence?

No, how could it be a coincidence! This was almost a clear indication!

Clearly, President Pei had probably already guessed that he was earning extra money through various means. This was giving him a chance to make amends!

Meng Chang had previously considered whether to disperse some of these ill-gotten gains and do what he could.

On the one hand, it was to seek peace of mind, and on the other hand, it was to consider that if President Pei found out about it later, he would give him a break for doing good deeds with the money.

But Meng Chang thought about it while working on the promotional plan for *Ghost General 2*, and after half a month, he still didn't have any good ideas.

There were many channels for doing charity, but which specific method would President Pei approve of? It was really hard to say.

Now that's great, no need to worry, President Pei had arranged everything!

It seemed that he had underestimated President Pei.

Meng Chang had previously had a sense of侥幸 (jiao xing, lucky) , thinking that President Pei probably didn't know that he was earning extra money through Fan Xiaodong, but now he realized that he was wrong.

President Pei was just saving him face by not pointing it out directly.

This task was a subtle hint, trying to guide him back on the right track.

As for how President Pei knew about it specifically...

Meng Chang didn't think that Fan Xiaodong was an informant, nor did he think that President Pei could be so well-informed.

The biggest possibility was that President Pei knew Meng Chang's personality too well and knew that he would inevitably come up with some tricks besides the commission.

These thoughts flashed through Meng Chang's mind quickly, and then he nodded and said, "Okay, President Pei, I will definitely do my best on this matter!"

"Oh, right, President Pei, the video from the sales department has already been made. I have already forwarded it to you."

"Oh? Not bad, not bad, I'll watch it later." Pei Qian nodded, very satisfied with Meng Chang's work.

Finally, he could confirm the internal candidates who would suffer with Tian Heiquan!

One made the content, and the other edited the video, jointly creating Young Master Tian's account. Neither of them could escape!

Meng Chang didn't linger any longer and turned to leave.

...

After leaving President Pei's office, Meng Chang pondered the specific meaning of the task assigned by President Pei this time as he walked towards the advertising and promotion department.

"From the perspective of a charitable activity, it is already very complete."

"Why add some commercial factors? And the first goal of these commercial factors is not to make a profit, which is very strange."

"What is commerce?"

"If we take a very utilitarian point of view, commerce is about figuring out how to make money. But this is definitely not the concept of commerce in President Pei's eyes."

"The commerce that President Pei understands must have a more serious and positive meaning."

"Commerce is the buying and selling of goods, the circulation of currency, and various economic activities. By extension, commerce is the process of exchange and connection between different economic entities. The meaning of commerce lies in optimizing resource allocation, better gathering the productivity of different individuals, thereby better promoting social development."

"So what are the advantages of commerce compared to charity that President Pei must add commercial elements to charity?"

"Hmm... I've got it."

"Cohesion and driving force!"

"If this event is just a very simple charitable activity, then only Tengda is contributing, and only President Pei is contributing. Other companies have no motivation to participate, and the resulting impact will inevitably be very limited."

"And commerce itself is something that has cohesion and driving force. If this charitable activity can have commercial elements, then it can attract other companies to jointly enter this charitable cause, which can help more people and have a better effect!"

"President Pei means to let more companies or individuals participate and gather greater strength through the attributes of commerce. Correspondingly, Tengda must also give certain rewards."

"Thinking this way... is President Pei hinting that I should take the lead?"