Training is a quintessential part of every thriving organisation but a recent story proved otherwise. A cosmetics company, which spent 900,000 yuan (US$126,000) or (Rs 1.03 crore) on hiring a consulting firm to brainwash its employees for increased sales, has claimed a refund after the strategy failed.
In 2020, a company based in Hangzhou, situated in the eastern province of Zhejiang, turned to Juhai Enterprise Management Consulting for assistance in sales training.
Zhu, a shareholder in the company, stated that the company promised her a substantial improvement in performance and staff motivation using a brainwashing technique.
Speaking to Zhejiang Media, Zhu said, “Back then, our company was stuck with management problems. They pushed us to join their training, promising that if we paid a certain amount, they could make our sales go up by double or more, by motivating our staff using a brainwashing method.”
On January 6, 2020, Zhu’s company signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Juhai and provided the funds. After this, a highly skilled instructor was appointed to train the employees.
Zhu reported that the training methods were unconventional, including encouraging salespeople to use shameless methods and asking them to clap and dance for motivation. Videos uploaded by Zhu showed staff dancing and clapping as directed by the instructor.
“The instructor promoted the idea that the world is yours if you’re shameless,” Zhu stated.
“At that moment, we felt the impact. They promised that if employees closely followed their guidelines, performance might improve considerably, maybe by five, six, or even ten or twenty times,” Zhu explained.
Zhu soon realised that the projected sales increase and service improvement fell short of expectations, so she requested a refund from Juhai. To back up his claim, Zhu noted that the contract called for the celebrity instructor to present three strategic seminars and one investment fair at the company during the first year, but he only showed up once.
After Zhu’s request, a Juhai representative named Luo stated that Zhu hadn’t fulfilled her payment obligations and thus came under incomplete service provision.
As per the contract, a total payment of 2 million yuan (Rs 23,210, 278) was required for a year’s worth of work, but only half was paid. Luo added that the 1 million yuan (Rs 1.1 crore) paid was adjusted, with 100,000 yuan (Rs 11.51 lakh) returned to the company.
Zhu is now asking for 660,000 yuan (Rs 76 lakh) back, which is what she believes the services were worth. Juhai’s headquarters has agreed to give back 162,000 (Rs 18.65 lakh) yuan.
This situation has set the internet abuzz. One user commented, “Instead of spending this money on brainwashing, giving it to employees would have been much more effective”. Another added, “Clearly, it was the boss who got influenced by the company and spent 900,000 yuan (Rs 1.03 crore)”.
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