Tom Tang | Carrying the flag and striving to be the first, with solidarity, and move on!

Dear employees of MU Group,

It was the last day of the 100-day challenge yesterday. Although everyone is hard working, the overall order and shipment situation of the MU group is not ideal, it is lower than the expectations at the beginning of the year. And, expected data for shipment situation in April will be lower than expected data at the beginning of the year. At the same time, the real shipment situation in April will be lower than expected data of shipment situation in April, because of COVID-19. Anyway, the 100-day challenge is finished. Thank you for your hard work, as well as your unremitting efforts in the past 18 years. If it weren’t for your long-term struggle, we may still be an unknown small company. The company is Thank you so much, everyone!

It is a new beginning today, we are facing a new expedition, which is different from the previous expeditions. It is forced by survival. Also, it is fair for all companies, we got many opportunities past, and we also meet unprecedented challenges today. With the development of the company, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are top2, top4, and top30 of export markets of MU Group last year respectively, so MU Group were badly affected by the war between Ukraine and Russia. And, the war also effects of Poland (the Top 3 export market of MU Group last year). On the other hand, the number of orders has declined significantly from last year in European Market. There are two reasons, the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the saturation of European and American procurement last year, which lead to more factories’ lack of orders. Raw materials are rising but demand is declining, which leads that the factory’s long-term labor shortage has also being greatly relieved. At the same time, the COVID-19 has once again affected the production, supply chain, and logistics. Our gross margin (last 1 year) hovers at the lowest level in the past 19 years. I wrote a lot of emails to try to recover lost profits, but it was useless.

Our warriors are facing a new expedition again, and our business market has spread to almost all countries and regions in the world today. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Shanghai, the isolation of our all employees who are based in Shanghai. Office suspended operations in Shanghai, The Russian-Ukrainian war, COVID19…We are facing unprecedented difficulties in order, supply chain, and logistics! There are many problems during a difficult time, including management and the team is fragile. Because lots of people join our organization in the past two years. Our team is still young, they are curious, but they are not mature. They don’t have power enough to face the bloody storm. There is competition in front of us, competition in the back, and competition on the left and right. The sudden change in the market is something we did not expect, there is no way out if we retreat! Either be the first, or be a bear, or carry the flag and fight for the first place, or kowtow and admit defeat, brave people could become winners. In response to our problems and shortcomings, we need to expose and correct them without any secrets, with solidarity, we will win again! All colleagues who are willing to make progress should give your enthusiasm, persistence, and seriousness, and treat guests like a lover. Your career will be successful! If your work is not directly facing customers, then your next process is your God, you must treat your God with the same enthusiasm as a lover! A slogan of the Soviet Red Army Vasily Klochkov in World War II: Behind is Moscow, and we have nowhere to go. We may be ashamed of our parents and children, but one day children will understand that their parents have dedicated their lives to the export business of the motherland, and earn foreign exchange for the motherland. Who are we fighting for, we should fight for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and make unremitting efforts for the happiness of ourselves and our families! For our parents, we may regret it for the rest of our lives. We cannot have more time to accompany us. We should blame ourselves, but I believe they can understand. I will write another letter to your parents this year! We have gone through a bumpy road and experienced many failures and pains. We have just embarked on a new road of rapid development, and we have encountered ideological and physical wars between the East and the West, and we have encountered foreign and domestic conflicts that have not been encountered in a century. However, the uncertainty of international politics is not the biggest problem. Our biggest competitor is our slack. The three companies with the largest scale and profit in 2012, are Good Seller, Dealer Well, and Source Well. They are the last three in MU Group this year! If it is said that who defeated them, it is slack. Of course, there are other reasons. The main reason must be slack, and the requirements are too low by themselves! I mean that physically hard work is not hard work. We need ideological hard work. As long as the culture is prosperous and the ideas are prosperous, the business will naturally prosper! All MU Group people, our warriors are facing a new expedition again. I writing a letter to you on behalf of the company!

In this high-speed development of MU Group, our biggest enemy is ourselves. The key to victory whether we can defeat ourselves is the key to our victory. We still have to emphasize the spirit of hard work. It is unimaginable that a company which not work hard can become a great company. First of all, we are not civil servants, public institutions, or state-owned enterprises. And we do not have any scarce resources, nor do we have mines or wharf. No business is done, and no wages can be paid, we will be unemployed. We have no backers to rely on, and only by working hard and moving forward in unity can we survive! I didn’t stress that everyone has to work hard. MU Group’s struggle is different from everyone’s struggle. It must not be achieved by every colleague! We can accept that some colleagues do not work hard, but you can only be a common employee. If you take a senior leadership position, there is no lifelong system for leading cadres. We only work in the company for life, and there is no lifelong system for leaders. Incompetent leaders will be punished, dismissed or go to suitable positions. Slackers will be dismissed, their income will be reduced until they are dismissed! If you do not want to work hard with your mind or prosper your mind and culture, you can stay in the company or you can leave. Some companies have better conditions than us, work easier than us, income is higher than us, and it is closer to home. It is normal. We respect everyone’s choice! We want to make great waves to rush for gold, to determine the reward based on contribution, and to determine the treatment based on responsibility!

We propose to build a warm governance company. For those colleagues who feel stressed out, we should give them an appropriate vacation. Our company is highly concerned about every colleague. I believe that will create a huge cohesion. The tougher the outside, the softer the inside, and the stragglers should have fully cared. Colleagues who work hard should have more opportunities, not only to increase their income and to promote awards. Without such difficulties, it is impossible to be a great general. The more difficult it is, the more you can not give up your efforts. Otherwise, you will lose the opportunity to make progress in the MU Group! We want to be a company that strives hard in thought and does not work hard in our life, including the incomes. If the company encounters difficulties, our leaders of MU Group should take the lead in reducing salaries. We want to create a better living and working environment for our colleagues, and we need to increase income. We require hard work in thought, rather than hard work in life. Only by maintaining hard work in thought, we can stay calm in unexpected difficulties! We must rise to the challenge, with solidarity and move on. We should go forward bravely without being afraid of difficulties. We propose to build a warm governance company, we will increase income and welfare. Other people always said our colleagues must to hard work, but they don’t know that our company culture. Our culture is to increase income and benefits, we will improve income and benefits this year! We cherish talents, I believe that the best people can be used to cultivate better people. Social recruitment needs to recruit the best people, campus recruitment needs to recruit the best students, we will prove what kind of values can be used to shape what kind of people Heroes. We are a knowledge-centered company, rather than a labor-centered company. We have nearly 2,000 bachelor’s students, it is a culture of struggle and warmth. We have the gentleness of the scholar, and we also have the barbarism. We are kind to others, but we are not weak and bullying!

Carrying the flag and striving to be the first, with solidarity, and move on! We will award honors for this expedition. There is the most difficult period from April 11th to September 22nd in MU Group, the company will record this moment. All glory belongs to All MU Group people! We will award medals for the expedition of “three keep and one gets”. Some colleagues asked me about the value of the medal, actually, all material of the metal is silver and gold, the medal represents our hard work. We need to establish a more scientific evaluation system to allocate and formulate bonuses more scientifically. The different departments should have different evaluation systems and assessment standards. At the same time, all evaluation systems and assessment standards keep some common parts. We must consider the management methods of reality and operability. The standard is the customer first, and the standard is the principle of profit first for large units and small units! We do not allow the profit of a small unit to be completed without disregarding the profit of a large unit. We are not allowed to directly or indirectly bring greater losses to the higher level for the sake of personal interests, the interests of this department, and the interests of this division! We must keep our eyes, there are some colleagues who like this behavior. A leader who can disregard the profit of a large unit, also cannot disregard the profit of a small unit. We must maintain a high degree of unity on this issue, and we can overcome all difficulties! MU Group meets unprecedented challenges today, we have entered a special period of combat readiness, we should not allow those behaviors and comments that hurt our group, we do not have any ways now, we must pick up weapons and defend our home. The company has the right to requisition all resources that can be requisitioned without reason during the special period! We believe that Unity is strength!

Carrying the flag and striving to be the first, with solidarity and move on. I summarize it into an action plan: “three keep and one gets” from April 11th to September 22nd .

1. keep getting more orders
We must keep getting secure orders, take orders and grab orders possible. At present, most suppliers are generally short of orders, and the phenomenon of shrinking orders and weak orders is obvious. We should put the work which is taking orders in front of all work, this is a war of survival and death. The company’s expenses cost monthly are 35 million to 40 million RMB. If there are no sufficient orders, we will no money to find good people to join the company. If there are no good people, we will be not developing. If we cannot be developed, we have no money, it is a vicious circle. It is important that secure order for our company today, be like Shuimen Bridge. We are not a small size company, we must secure orders possible. Unity is strength! I believe that MU Group will create overwhelming results. Thank you all!

2. keep completing goals quickly
We must keep completing all goals possible, and ensure the completion of goals quickly. The original goals will not be adjusted, and most divisions and sub-companies achieve your goals, please! For the shipment data gap in the Russian-Ukrainian market, please do your best to finish it. MU Group is grateful to the divisions and sub-companies that will be able to achieve their goals. The group’s goal is still to complete the import and export of 1.6 billion USD. I believe that it will be achieved. We have nine months to complete our goals. It is a war without gunpowder smoke, the battle has started. Finally, thank you all!

3. keep increasing employee’s income
We must keep increasing employee’s income possible, we do not want to job cuts for anyone, and we hope that we can ensure colleagues’ income increases and benefits are improved. With the transmission of COVID-19, war, and market weakness, our new income plan has been postponed. Although the external environment is grim and not optimistic, we are still developing healthily for the internal environment. Please trust us, trust MU Group. However, it is bound to suffer the impact of the external environment. The situation of orders, the achievement of goals, and even the situation of jobs and income are all extremely pessimistic in the future. But we are also optimistic because we have our organization and company culture. An excellent organization is capable of making the impossible possible. Our culture is “We believe that success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out”. Resources and mine will be exhausted one day, but culture will continue forever, thank you!

4. get a higher gross margin, net margin, and lower expenses margin
We must get a higher gross margin, net margin, and lower expenses margin possible. What can be accomplished must be completed in advance, and the requirements must be raised to complete it, and what cannot be accomplished must be completed. I believe that it all depends on colleagues effort. We must focus on per capita profit, per capita gross profit, and per capita net profit. The report on the gross profit rate of estimated will be published once every ten days, like the shipment statistics. It can help us to speed up the discovery of problems. We need to pay attention to the gross profit rate. At the same time, we also should strengthen the discipline inspection work and build the discipline inspection team in the business department and the company, thank you all!

People may think that I made the situation complicated. We just lower growth, it is fine. However, our employee is growing, and costs are higher. If the business increases by 30% or even 20%, the per capita efficiency will decline. At the same time, the per capita cost is constantly increasing, and the company’s operating pressure is huge! I mentioned several times in the previous email that the gross profit margin and net profit margin level in 2021, will be the lowest in the history of the company. Please all colleagues set aside more time to keep getting more orders, keep completing goals quickly, keep increasing employees’ income and get more profit! Please all employees offer suggestions and suggestions, and each business department, each company has its specific action plan, instead of copying the content of mine. It must be a more specific action plan, like how to guarantee the orders, get more profit, etc. I mentioned to Sam Zhu, we consider that centralized management when the specific time. All leaders live near the company and go home one day a month to improve efficiency and speed up work progress. All business divisions and companies also can consider similar approaches to improve efficiency and speed up work. MU Group is a fighting nation, we have never been a lack of fighting deeds and heroes in the development history of our company. We are facing the most severe situation today, MU Group is very grateful to everyone! Our colleagues visit customers on long-term business trips (2-3 months) in South America, Europe, and the United States. They are born in the 1995s. MU Group will increase the subsidies for going abroad during the COVID-19, and ensure the safety of every colleague’s food, accommodation, and travel. The company is very grateful to everyone! Our colleagues are hard-working, a girl who is the live stream of Tiktok works until 8 am. The colleagues of the department of Tiktok will live stream 24 hours every day. Many colleagues who are from the operation division and finance department worked until midnight every day for several months. I chatted with some colleagues in the design department yesterday, they are excited and happy. They are also very proud of the company’s future design studio and designer brand. We started 5 years ago, we can cooperate with the world’s top customers, including some companies that are World Top 500 brands, such as luxury brands. We are moving towards a worldwide fashion business organization, thank you to all our colleagues!

All MU Group people, our warriors are facing a new expedition, we must pick up weapons and defend our home, and work tirelessly for the well-being of yourself and your family! Carrying the flag and striving to be the first, our long march is “three keep and one gets” in the new era, our young group has experienced hardship, and entered its 19th year. Our warriors, our warriors, the battle is starting, we cannot bow down for difficulty. Either be the first, be the bear, carry the flag, or raise the white flag. I believe that victory must belong to the struggling MU Group people. We are ordinary people, we are still hard-working, let us help MU Group become grateful again! MU Group is grateful to everyone!