Chapter 132: The Essence of Business — Saving Time
The next morning, Yang Wendong arrived at the company early—only to find a pile of mops stacked up at the entrance.
"So many?" Yang was genuinely surprised.
Wei Zetao, having just seen the boss arrive, came over and said, "Mr. Yang, these are all the mop varieties from eight different department stores nearby. In total, 52 types. Pretty much no two are the same."
"Hmm." Yang nodded. "I guess I underestimated how many kinds of mops there are. We might have overbought a bit."
Wei chuckled. "It's no problem. Our factory's quite large, and mops wear out quickly. If we replace them regularly, this batch might only last a few months."
"True." Yang didn't mind. It wasn't much money.
And it definitely wasn't worth wasting his own time going from shop to shop—that would be a terrible trade-off, given how much more valuable his time was.
Wei asked, "Mr. Yang, what are all these mops for?"
"Call in Old Hong. We'll take a look together. Also, have someone move all the mops to the conference room. We'll meet there."
"Got it." Wei nodded immediately.
Normally, when a boss requested items, they were delivered either to the office or a meeting room. But since these were large, awkward items, and no one knew what they were for, staff had just left them at the entrance.
Wei called over two workers to move the mops, then went next door to fetch Hong Xuefei. The factory offices were all located near the main gate, so it didn't take long.
Soon, the mops were relocated, and Hong arrived.
"Mr. Yang, you wanted to see me?" he asked.
"Take a seat," Yang said with a smile, not getting to the point right away. Instead, he crouched and began inspecting the mops on the floor.
Seeing this odd behavior, Wei suddenly had a wild thought. "Mr. Yang, don't tell me... are you planning to make mops?"
Yang laughed and shook his head. "Of course not. But yesterday at my new place, I noticed how hard it is to wring a mop dry. So I started thinking—what if there's a better way to get the water out?"
"A better way?" Hong looked puzzled. "Aren't they just wrung out manually or left to dry in the sun?"
Yang shook his head. "Those methods either waste effort or time. In modern society—especially in places with higher economic standards—both are extremely precious. It's not worth the hassle."
"So what are you suggesting?" Wei asked. "We should solve this issue?"
"That's the idea," Yang nodded, then suddenly asked, "What do you think is the essence of a product?"
"The essence?" Wei and Hong looked confused.
Yang smiled and said, "There are many ways to define a product's essence, but I think the most valuable one is this: saving time.
Take cars—they save people travel time. Washing machines reduce time spent on laundry. Dryers cut drying time. Elevators save time climbing stairs, right?"
Wei nodded. "That makes sense. Even our Post-it notes indirectly improve office efficiency—saving companies time."
"Exactly." Yang agreed. "So any product or service that helps people spend less time dealing with life's inconveniences is a good product.
That should become Deli's future R&D philosophy. Old Hong, from now on, whenever you're designing something, think about what can help customers save time. If it does, it'll succeed."
This concept was already the backbone of many future internet giants.
E-commerce saved people the time of going to physical stores. Food delivery saved time on eating out. Ride-hailing apps cut down the wait for a taxi. Search engines reduced research time. Social networks shortened the time it took to access news.
You could argue that most of the internet economy was built around saving time.
"Great point. A product's purpose is to reduce time spent by users," Wei said, nodding. "So what you're saying is—we make something that shortens the time it takes to wring out a mop?"
"Exactly. Especially since housework is mostly done by women globally. Most of them aren't going to exert a ton of force just to wring out a mop."
"True," Wei nodded.
Hong asked, "Mr. Yang, what kind of device would work?"
"We take inspiration from washing machines," Yang said. "Spin cycles dry clothes, right? So what if we could spin the mop the same way?
I'm not talking about an electric appliance—we don't have the capacity for that yet."
He pulled out a sketch and continued, "This is what I have in mind: a structure where you insert the mop and press down. That downward pressure causes the mop head to rotate. It mimics the drying spin of a washing machine.
Except instead of using a motor, we rely on manual force. Anyone can press down with 20–30 kilos of force. That's much easier than wringing the mop head by hand."
"If we can make that work, it would be an incredible product," Wei said, now visibly excited.
It was the kind of item that had every hallmark of a runaway success.
Yang turned to Hong. "Can this be designed structurally?"
Hong examined the rough sketch and said, "It should be doable. It's essentially converting linear motion into rotational motion.
That kind of conversion is very common in machinery. Usually, it goes the other way—motors provide rotary power, which is converted into linear motion."
"Good." Yang nodded. "Start designing the spin mop. Launch it as a formal R&D project. Keep all documentation, and have HR and admin file a backup copy."
That was legal advice from Lawyer Zhang Weida. When a company starts developing a new product, it needs to protect its idea from being stolen or copied.
It wasn't a common issue, but with thousands of companies worldwide, anything could happen. The safest approach was to archive everything from the moment of project initiation. Those records could become critical evidence later.
"Understood. I'll start preparing the paperwork," Hong replied.
Yang asked, "Your R&D team isn't swamped right now, right?"
"We're still helping the lab with adhesive testing for the hooks," Hong said.
"That's fine. Glue testing is straightforward and doesn't need a full team. If you've got time, focus on this new project," Yang said.
Even though Post-it production would keep the factory busy for a while, that was production work—not R&D.
Aside from the adhesive hooks, all of Yang's earlier product ideas were already in manufacturing. So ironically, the R&D department had become the least busy team.
This spin mop idea was the perfect next assignment.
"Alright," Hong said.
Yang added, "We'll call it the 'Spin Mop.' That's also the name of the project. I want a list of initial team members by today. Finance will allocate a separate budget for this development."
"No problem," Hong said. "If there's nothing else, I'll get to work on it now."
"Go ahead." Yang nodded.
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