Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

Look at this! Menendez's tone was very bad, and he threw a document to Jewell.

Jewell took the document and glanced at it, and then recognized that it was the quarterly financial report of a company. After a closer look, it was the quarterly financial report of Jaguar Land Rover.

Sales have increased so much year-on-year? It's very rare for a luxury brand car to achieve such a growth rate. Jewell continued to read with some surprise, and his expression changed drastically after ten seconds.

The sales of Land Rover Range Rover in the Chinese market increased by 370%? 3.7 times in one quarter? How is this possible! This is not a hot dog on the roadside, this is a car, and it is a luxury car with a price of more than 100,000 US dollars!

Menendez snorted coldly, and said, I have sent someone to inquire. The average monthly sales volume of Range Rover in the Chinese market is about 700 vehicles, which means that it can sell 2,200 vehicles in a quarter, and 3.7 times that is more than 8,000 vehicles. Don't you think this number is very familiar!

Menendez said this, with a ray of anger on his face: Didn't you tell me that, except for the United States, there is no place that can digest 8,000 Range Rover in one go?

Sir, there is absolutely no problem with my judgment. How could there be so many people in China who can afford a Range Rover! I guess this must be data falsification! Jewell then argued:

If the Chinese market can absorb 8,000 Range Rovers in a quarter, then it is impossible to sell only 700 a month before. Unless they suddenly appear 8,000 rich people!

Jewell didn't know that tens of thousands of multi-millionaires could emerge from any shed renovation project in the Pearl River Delta region. There are even thousands of billionaires in some projects.

Land Rover Range Rover was once known as the favorite of the nouveau riche. If you are a nouveau riche and don’t buy a Range Rover, you will be sorry for your status.

Before 2008, when people mentioned upstarts, the first thing that came to mind was the coal boss. After 2008, when people mentioned upstarts, most of them thought of relocated households.

There was once a joke that young men in a certain village could not find a match because they were too poor, and then the village sprayed the word demolition on the wall, and as a result, matchmakers from all over the world came.

Demolition and relocation to get rich is a special phenomenon. In fact, most of the relocated households cannot meet the standard of quickly rich. At most, they just want to improve their living and housing conditions. Some relocated households need to contribute their own money to have a new house. live.

But in economically developed areas, the situation of demolition and relocation to get rich is obviously much more common. For example, in the Pearl River Delta and Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, large-scale shantytown reforms have driven the development of cities, and at the same time created a large number of wealthy indigenous people.

Among these people, some received compensation for the entire building after the demolition, and then lived a life of a chartered renter who collects rent every day; some took the money directly and became multi-millionaires or billionaires in an instant; If you master the demolition funds and invest them, the annual interest will be enough for tens of millions of villagers.

For this group of people, buying a luxury brand car is completely within the affordable range.

Li Weidong aimed his client group at this type of people.

The customer base of luxury brand cars is relatively fixed. In layman's terms, there are only so many rich people, and only so many people who can afford luxury cars. Looking around the world, the only ones who can digest 8,000 Range Rovers in a short period of time are the relocated households in China.

Naturally, there are land expropriations and evicted households in foreign countries, and even the compensation is very high, but the compensation for land expropriation in other countries is difficult to make a large number of people rich overnight.

For example, when Foxconn built a panel factory in Wisconsin, the United States, it expropriated a piece of land of 147 acres, or about 900 acres.

But this landlord originally owned 9,000 acres of land, which means he only sold one-tenth of the land. He was originally a big landlord. He sold 900 mu and still had 8100 mu in his hands. And the benefits of land expropriation are basically taken up by this landlord, and no one else has anything to do with it.

For this landlord, even if there are two cars for one family member, how many luxury cars can he consume to death?

The private ownership of land in foreign countries makes the land concentrated in the hands of a few landlords. When land is expropriated, it is only necessary to negotiate with the landlords for land compensation. Land expropriation can only enrich a few people. Like the kind of landlord who has tens of thousands of acres of land in his hand, if he sells just one-tenth of it, it is enough to build a large factory.

There are no shed renovation projects in the United States. The so-called urban villages eventually become slums where everyone has guns and drugs.

Some countries in Western Europe, as well as Japan and South Korea in Northeast Asia, have carried out some shed renovation projects in urban villages, but their shed reform is not like China's complete demolition and re-planning, and then build high-rise buildings and various foundations. facility.

The shed renovation project in Western European countries is mainly to repair and renovate old buildings. For example, France often provides housing renovation subsidies. Residents can apply for subsidies from the government if they renovate their own houses. Surely this small grant won't make a millionaire.

Another example is the shed reform in Germany. It is to find a professional cleaning company to conduct a deep cleaning of the exterior walls of the building, clean up all the putty accumulated from the Bismarck era, and perform some antibacterial and deodorizing treatments, and the work is over. You can't make millionaires by cleaning walls.

The shed reform in Japan and South Korea is mainly to repair the appearance of old houses and demolish illegal buildings, and it will not demolish houses on a large scale to build new ones.

Japan is located in an earthquake zone, so it is not suitable for building high-rise buildings. If the house is built too short, the developer will not have much profit. Coupled with the factors of the real estate bubble back then, the developer will naturally have little interest in shed renovation. For Japanese developers, it’s okay to build one or two high-end apartments occasionally, but don’t even think about building an entire community.

There are also a large number of urban villages in South Korea, and various private constructions in the urban villages. The original one floor can be added to three or four floors, causing various safety hazards. This is very similar to the urban villages in Chinese cities.

The South Korean government also knows that urban villages should be transformed, but these urban villages cannot be demolished. South Korea's unique chaebol economy has made the government lose its leadership in the renovation of shanty towns.

The shed renovation project led by the chaebol is naturally unwilling to pay more compensation, and the demolition households want more compensation. In the end, no one can reach an agreement, so the demolition will not be done. The residents continued to live in the same place, the chaebol found a piece of open land in the suburbs to build a building, and the government sent people from time to time to demolish the privately built and random buildings.

Generally speaking, there is no such good thing in foreign countries that the shed reform creates a bunch of rich people. Those little foreigners who don’t understand China’s national conditions will think that this is a unique graffiti culture in China when they see the big “demolition” on the wall. .

So Ren Menendez and Jewell wanted to break their heads, and they didn't understand why China suddenly had 8,000 luxury car customers. But what is certain is that their plan to force Li Weidong to make compensation failed again.

Jewell can do what he did last time, slap his ass and leave, and continue to engage in labor movements in another place. However, Menendez is a locally elected congressman, and he cannot escape. He promised the workers that he will seek compensation. If he can’t get a penny, his reputation will definitely be severely damaged.

Regarding Menendez's political career, he opened his mouth and said: The 8,000-quantity Range Rover has been sold, and we have lost the bargaining chip. You should immediately contact the management and say that we can handle the anti-theft report from the Road Safety Bureau, but They also have to show something to the workers, they can’t pay a penny!”

Then what is the bottom line of our negotiation? Jewell asked.

After thinking for a while, Menendez said, You have to pay the workers one month's salary!

In Menendez's view, since he has lost his bargaining chip, compensation of 20,000 US dollars per capita is definitely impossible. If the employer can compensate one month's salary, it can be regarded as an explanation to the workers. Less is better than Not strong! If it is true that a penny is not returned, the workers will definitely have to settle accounts with themselves.

...

Mr. Li, the trade union representative just contacted us, and they are willing to lower the requirements. The latest condition offered by the union is that you only need to pay the workers two months' salary. I think there is still room for negotiation. The progress was reported to Li Weidong.

Two months' salary? Impossible! Six hundred dollars per person, for three consecutive months. Li Weidong set out his own conditions.

Well, I'm afraid the union won't agree. Based on my experience with the United Auto Workers, they're greedy. And it's hard for Senator Menendez to explain such a small amount of compensation to the workers, the lawyer said. .

Then don't let him explain, let's change someone. Li Weidong smiled slightly, and then said: He is not the only American congressman. Some politicians are willing to do things that can improve their reputation and attract workers' votes. .”

The lawyer is also a smart person, he immediately replied: I understand what you mean, I will go find a suitable candidate right away!

The American market is still very popular for luxury brand cars. Even if they are not produced in the United States, this market cannot be lost.

Therefore, Li Weidong is willing to make some concessions and give some compensation as appropriate, which can be regarded as a step for each other, and can continue to maintain the US market.

It's just that Li Weidong doesn't plan to give Menendez this favor.

Sending money, no matter how much you give, can buy people's hearts. There are some politicians in the United States who are willing to do this kind of favor.

...

Menendez has been waiting for the news of the negotiation. When the phone rang and saw that it was Jewell's call, Menendez couldn't wait to answer the call.

How? Did the management reply? Did they promise compensation? Menendez asked immediately.

Jewell on the other side of the phone said angrily: Sir, haven't we reached a consensus before, and I will be in charge of the negotiations. Why do you still need someone else to contact the management? And you have reached an agreement with the management!

What did you say? What reached an agreement with the management? Menendez was a little at a loss.

Louis Gordon is one of your people, right? On behalf of the workers, he negotiated with the management, and even agreed to the terms of the management. Jewell replied.

Louis Gordon? State Senator? Menendez felt bad for a moment.

This Louis Gordon is a politician in the same party as Menendez. The two belong to different factions and were once rivals in the party, but Menendez eventually won the party's primary election before he had a chance Go to a higher political arena. From this perspective, the two are still political enemies.

So Menendez immediately explained; Although Gordon and I belong to the same party, we are not the same boss, and we are not affiliated with each other. What did he do?

Jewell explained; He went to negotiate with the management and obtained a compensation of 1,800 yuan for each worker, which was paid in three months, that is, 600 yuan per month.

This is much lower than our conditions. 1,800 yuan is not enough for half a month's salary for auto workers! We want to compensate the workers for at least one month's salary! Menendez said.

But the management did not agree to our conditions! The management chose to cooperate with Gordon. Gordon is also a politician of your party, and he is also capable of mobilizing your party's resources. Jewell paused, and then said: Menendez Sir, there are traitors among you, you have already lost this battle!

Losing? Menendez was taken aback for a moment, suddenly seemed to realize something, and then shouted loudly at the phone: How can you admit defeat? You came here to beg me, let me help you to Pressure from the management! I could have done nothing, but I blocked my reputation to help you, and now you have to admit defeat easily!

Mr. Menendez, don't say that you are so great. When you helped me, didn't you hope to get the votes of the auto workers? We are just using each other, and we owe nothing to each other!

Jewell immediately put on a posture of turning his face, and then said: What's more, this failure is caused by your internal disunity. If there is no sudden appearance of Louis Gordon to disrupt the situation, I have already negotiated with the management. up.

Jewell obviously wants to shirk responsibility, which is also easy to understand, if he doesn't find a scapegoat, wouldn't he have to take the blame himself!

After finishing the call, Menendez leaned back on his chair in a daze. For him, the intervention of his political opponents in the same party was obviously the worst result.

If the politicians of the rival party intervene in this matter, then Menendez can still use the resources within the party to fight, but with the political opponents of the party, all the resources within the party will be useless. Next, he wants to deal with the capital , is even more difficult.

The political system of the United States is like this. If the two parties confront each other because of a certain matter, both parties will unite internally, and then use resources to unanimously externally fight to the death.

For example, during the mid-term elections, congressional seats in key swing states are worth hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign funds for the two parties. Hundreds of millions of dollars are naturally not political donations that a candidate for the House of Representatives has the ability to bring in. Most of them are resources given by the party.

But if there is no confrontation between the two parties, but intra-party competition, the elders of various factions will check each other, and politicians will compromise with each other. The palms and backs of the hands are full of flesh. concentrated.

This is the current situation. The intervention of the party's political enemies has prevented Menendez from using the power and resources within the party to continue to put pressure on Jaguar Land Rover.

Moreover, this political opponent in the party won 1,800 US dollars in compensation for the workers, but he didn't get anything. In contrast, the elders in the party may take sides with the other party.

No, we can't sit still, we must restore our reputation! But what should we do! Menendez frowned and thought for a long time, and finally came up with a good idea.

This matter was originally led by the auto union, and the strike was also led by the union. Moreover, Jewell would have failed in the strike. Why don't we just blame him! Let's say he misjudged the situation.

...

Menendez and Jewel began to blame each other, and this dog eats dog is what Li Weidong wants to see.

The Chinese factory of Jaguar Land Rover, with the technical support provided by BYD engineers, soon entered the production stage.

It took six months to build an automobile factory, which can definitely be called a miracle factory. This wave of publicity alone has welcomed a large number of foreign-funded enterprise inspection groups to the Yangtze River Delta region.

At the same time, the research and development center jointly developed by Jaguar Land Rover and BYD is also on the agenda.

Li Weidong is interested in BYD's technology in the battery field, and hopes to jointly develop electric vehicles with BYD.

BYD has taken a fancy to the three major parts of Jaguar Land Rover, hoping to improve the mechanical level of domestic cars.

In later generations, there will always be car owners who say that the quality of Land Rover is poor and there are many minor problems, but they really don't say anything about the poor. But as far as the three major items are concerned, the level of Jaguar Land Rover is still quite good.

To give a simple example, after BMW acquired Land Rover, it used Land Rover's chassis to develop the X5 SUV. Later, BMW had a thorough understanding of Land Rover's chassis technology before selling Land Rover to Ford.

After Ford bought Land Rover, it directly copied Land Rover Discovery and made the Explorer. The first-generation Ford Explorer looks almost like a Land Rover Discovery.

It is understandable that BMW's SUV chassis technology is relatively average, but Ford has a pickup truck model. Their SUV chassis technology is not bad, but they still have to copy Land Rover, which is enough to show Land Rover's technical level in SUVs.

Land Rover has many minor problems. One reason is that after the Indians took over, the quality control has declined. The Indians are invincible and obedient, but lack management skills. Moreover, Indian managers are good at improving short-term performance indicators, but they don't care about long-term development. It is difficult to do a good job of this century-old brand.

The second reason is that Land Rover is equipped with an overly rich electronic equipment system. Although a rich electronic system can enrich the functions of the car, it will also make the system more complicated. It's like a computer, the more plug-ins installed, the more stuck the system will be.

Man-made cars in India are like cooking. You can’t wait to add all the seasonings. The ingredients that looked normal, but after being stewed by Indians, they become a lump of indescribable things.

The same is true of the Indians' requirements for Land Rover. Regardless of whether it is useful or not, as long as there are functions, they will be added. Therefore, many electronic systems that are completely useless have been added to Land Rover.

Adding so many electronic systems, it would be fine if they have the ability to integrate and optimize, but the Indians are still not optimized well, and they often break down, which eventually makes Land Rover become poor quality and many small brushes in the mouths of consumers.

After Li Weidong took over Jaguar Land Rover, he naturally would not engage in Masala stew in India. He ordered the research and development to focus on mechanics and stability, and not to touch those useless electronic systems.

The advantage of traditional auto companies is mechanical technology, while the advantage of luxury brands is brand awareness. Jaguar Land Rover can focus on these two points.

As for the research and development of automotive electronic systems, this is something that technology companies are good at. Looking at the traditional car brands of later generations, no matter whether it is a luxury car or a civilian car, they really haven't done a good job in electronic systems.

On the contrary, many well-known Internet companies have produced highly practical automotive electronic systems.

Therefore, Li Weidong is not anxious about the integration of automobiles and electronic systems, and can cooperate with Internet companies in research and development in the future.

Research and development of new technologies has always been dominated by capital, and R\u0026D entities cannot afford capital. As long as they invest more money, they will naturally be able to take the lead.

...

After the Spring Festival, the north is still in the cold spring, but the Pearl River Delta in the south has already felt like summer.

Li Weidong walked into the meeting room of Xiaomi company, glanced around, and found that the core members of Xiaomi gathered together, and everyone looked very serious.

What's the situation? Looking at your faces, you plan to ask me for money again? Li Weidong said with a smile.

Mr. Li, this time is not a problem that can be solved by increasing investment. Rebs sighed lightly, and continued; The day before yesterday, I talked with the CEO of Ham Sausage, Mr. Zhou, for more than two hours. Maybe we have to give up our system. Ham sausage is our most important customer and the largest customer, if he gives up our operating system, our efforts over the past few years may be in vain!

At that time, the mobile phone operating system was still in the era of blooming flowers, mainly because the performance of Android was not very strong, which gave other operating systems room to survive.

It wasn't until 2012 that Android's running memory broke through 2G, which is several grades worse than Apple's IOS, and it doesn't have much advantage compared with other operating systems, so the era of Android's dominance of the world has not yet come.

Because Xiaomi's operating system entered the market relatively early, and it is also an open source system, coupled with the blessing of several popular games, it also occupies a place in the market, but the market share is far less than that of Android.

The ham sausage has always been the largest customer of the Xiaomi system. The main reason is that the sales of sausage mobile phones are large enough, and they have reached the top of the world.

For example, in the U.S. market, the quarterly sales of Apple mobile phones are less than 5 million units, while the quarterly sales of ham sausages exceed 6 million units. You must know that the U.S. is Apple’s home field, and they can’t sell ham sausages at home, let alone other markets. The ham sausage is competing.

One-fifth of the ham sausage models use the Xiaomi system, which is a very large number. Once the big customer of ham sausage is lost, it will be a catastrophic blow to the Xiaomi system.

So Li Weidong asked, Did Mr. Zhou tell you why they gave up the Xiaomi system, and did they want us to provide better conditions?

It's not about Apple's patent lawsuit! Rebs continued; The patent experts in the United States suggested that Ham sausage should improve the accused patent from the basic system, and this work will be done by Google. Also That is to say, in the future, ham sausage can only use Google's Android system to avoid patent infringement.

Our system is also developed by ourselves, so we should be able to provide basic system improvement services? Li Weidong asked.

Technically, we have no problem, but we can't fight against Apple, but Google can! So Ham sausage won't choose us. Rebs said.

Li Weidong nodded slightly, and then fell into deep thought.

In the smartphone market, ham sausage is in full swing, and its sales volume has surpassed that of Apple. Apple naturally cannot let its competitors develop, so it initiated a patent lawsuit against ham sausage, including mobile phone UI, underlying architecture, hardware design and many other aspects. Core patents on which smartphones operate.

Apple's patents are real, and many patents are really unavoidable. In this regard, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung have all suffered from Apple. Ham sausage started out as an OEM, and it didn't have its own core technology, so it was targeted by Apple, and it was hit to the bottom of it all at once.

One of the solutions for ham sausage is to circumvent Apple's patents through basic system optimization. This kind of thing can only be handed over to Google, and other companies cannot compete with Apple.

What's more, Google later bought Motorola, which is the patent fat man in the mobile phone industry, which gave Google a bargaining chip to compete with Apple.

However, the ham sausage eventually fell in this patent lawsuit. The US International Trade Commission finally ruled that the ham sausage infringed Apple's patent and raised the banner of banning the sale of ham sausage.

Losing the US market, the sales of ham sausages were cut in half, and then ham sausages made several serious mistakes.

For example, it does not pay attention to the appearance design, which reduces the favorability of consumers; for example, it treats the Chinese market with double standards, and the same model is sold with high configuration in Europe, but it is sold with reduced configuration in China; another example is that marketing lags behind, and Samsung spends more than 10 billion a year. US dollars for marketing, while the marketing cost of ham sausage is less than one billion.

In short, it was a series of operations that I stabbed myself, and finally played myself to death.

Thinking of this, Li Weidong calmed down a lot. Now that the ham sausage has started to decline and will eventually disappear from the market, it doesn't matter whether the ham sausage uses the Xiaomi system or not.

Taking a deep breath, putting on a serious expression, Li Weidong said, Think about it, everyone, is there such a possibility that Apple's real purpose is not to protect patent rights, but to completely beat the ham! In that case, no matter how Ham sausage modifies the basic system, he will lose this lawsuit, and even lose the US market!

If this is the case, for us, this is an opportunity. We should launch our own smart phone products as soon as possible, and quickly seize the market when the ham sausage is beaten by Apple. Of course, it is difficult for us to enter the American market, but in the Chinese market, we definitely have the opportunity to replace ham sausage.

Rebs immediately said: It's not that we don't have smartphones. We have made several prototypes before. You have seen them, Mr. Li, but they are not enough to reach mass production. First of all, we don't have a factory, and the construction A mobile phone production factory requires not only capital costs, but also production costs.

Let's find an OEM, Apple doesn't have its own mobile phone factory, so why not find Hon Hai as an OEM! Li Weidong said.

Our scale is probably not worthy of Hon Hai's OEM for us. Rebs said.

It's not just Hon Hai that makes mobile phones. How many of those counterfeit mobile phones in Huaqiangbei are manufactured by Hon Hai? To ensure the quality, we can find BYD, I am very familiar with BYD, and they can manufacture everything there.”

Even if there is no problem with the foundry, we still need to solve the hardware problem. We have to find a suitable hardware supplier. Rebs went on to explain.

Hardware supplier? Is it a processor? Li Weidong asked.

In Li Weidong's memory, China's high-end chips were stuck, so he first thought of processors.

Rebs shook his head: It's not a processor. There are many companies in the market that can supply processors, such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, MediaTek, Nvidia, etc., can supply processors. But as a smartphone, the most What matters is the screen, and suppliers for that are more difficult.

The biggest difference between a smartphone and a feature phone is that one uses a touch screen and the other uses buttons.

Other components, such as processors, memory, cameras, etc., have existed in the era of functional phones, and a relatively complete supply chain has already been formed, so procurement is not difficult.

At that time, the touch screen was still a new industry chain, and the supply and procurement were much more complicated.

Rebs went on to introduce: When it comes to screens, the best is definitely Sharp. Sharp's screens are world-class in terms of cost performance and stability. Both Apple and Ham sausage use Sharp screens.

I have also contacted Sharp before and proposed to purchase screens, but Sharp ignored us when they heard about our purchase volume. Sharp disliked that we purchased too little, and they only paid attention to big customers like Apple.

That's a problem. Li Weidong thought for a moment, then asked; What about Samsung and LG's screens? Can they replace Sharp?

Samsung and LG's screens are still much worse than Sharp in terms of performance, and they are even more expensive than Sharp. Our costs will also increase a lot, Rebs replied.

Korean products are more expensive than Japanese products? Who gave them the courage? Li Weidong asked in surprise.

It is said that because the yield rate of Korean screens is not high, the production cost is higher than that of Sharp, and the price is naturally higher than that of Sharp. Rebs replied.

At this time, Chinese companies such as BOE and Tianma have not yet risen, and South Korea's Samsung and LG have not yet achieved technological overtake. On the contrary, Japan's Sharp, relying on its laurels, is still at the top level in the world. Not only does Apple use Sharp's screens, but even Samsung's own high-end phones use Sharp's screens.

It seems that we have to use Sharp's screen. Li Weidong said, opened the phone's calendar to look at it, and then said: When looking for Sharp to buy a screen, you can't rush it. You need a suitable opportunity. Let's wait. In just a few days, the opportunity will come!

...

The voice of the newscaster sounded on the TV: According to the measurement of the National Earthquake Network, at 13:46 BJ time on March 11, 2011, in the western Pacific Ocean, 38.1 degrees north latitude, 142.6 degrees east longitude, 8.6 magnitude earthquake, with a focal depth of about 20 kilometers... It is reported that the Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a destructive tsunami warning!

Hearing the news, Li Weidong immediately called Rebus.

Mr. Lei, the opportunity has come, we have to get ready and talk to Sharp about purchasing!