Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

Olympus Corporation.

There were only three people in the huge conference room, namely Olympus Chairman Juchuan Takeshi, Vice President in charge of Finance Dai Jiuzhi, and Li Weidong.

Although this is the home court of Olympus, Ju Chuangang and Dai Jiuzhi looked cautious, but Li Weidong, who was a guest, looked calm and relaxed.

Mr. Li, the rumors about our Olympus from the outside world are all false rumors. We have no financial problems. Not only do we have huge assets, but we also have abundant cash flow. Kikukawa said calmly.

Since there is no financial problem, your company shouldn't have to worry about the next financial audit, right? Chairman Ju Chuan, I, Li Weidong, am not an unknown person. You don't think I don't have any information, so you rush to visit me?

Li Weidong lowered his voice, and continued; After all, such a huge figure of 1.8 billion US dollars cannot be covered, and any firm can audit it, let alone a national-level audit institution.

Hearing the figure of US$1.8 billion, Ju Chuan's heart tightened and his mind cleared up a lot.

As Li Weidong said, since a rich man of his level dares to come to the door in person, he must have something in his hands. Being able to accurately say the number 1.8 billion shows this point.

At this time, Ju Chuangang was already extremely guilty, but he didn't dare to show anything on his face.

Li Weidong went on to say: Chairman Ju Chuan, I am not here to blackmail Olympus, but to talk about cooperation. I don't want too much. I just hope to get a share of the optical lens. This does not affect your company's core camera business, as well as the endoscope business that has grown rapidly in recent years.

The market for optical lenses is big enough for even Olympus, and I am mainly engaged in the business of mobile phone cameras, which does not overlap with Olympus. If we cooperate, Olympus will not lose, but can gain.

Mr. Li, investors all over the world are optimistic about the future of smartphones, and Olympus will also enter the mobile phone camera business. Vice President Dai Jiuzhi said.

But you have to pass the auditing test first! If you can't pass this test, neither Chairman Ju Chuan nor Vice President Dai Jiu will be able to stay in your current position.

Li Weidong stretched out two fingers while speaking, and continued: I can pay 200 million US dollars. Although it can't fill the hole of 1.8 billion US dollars, using some financial leverage means is enough for you to cope with this audit.

I heard that there are 200 million US dollars,

Ju Chuangang couldn't help feeling a little moved.

Li Weidong continued to persuade: Chairman Ju Chuan, please forgive me, the time left for you is running out. The audit work of your company was only suspended because of the Fukushima nuclear accident, but it was not cancelled. Wait until the authorities handle it. After the nuclear accident, the audit will still be restarted. If you have no way to make up the shortfall before then, hehe...

Ju Chuan hesitated for a moment, then sighed helplessly, and then said, Two hundred million US dollars is not enough, at least three hundred million US dollars is needed!

Two hundred and twenty million! Li Weidong immediately started bargaining.

Two hundred and ninety million! Kikukawa followed suit.

250 million, not through patent licensing fees, but through asset mergers and acquisitions. I will buy an affiliated company of Olympus to complete this deal. At that time, you need to license the patented technology to this affiliated company. !” Li Weidong continued.

Ju Chuangang and Dai Jiuzhi looked at each other. The transaction model mentioned by Li Weidong belongs to capital operation, which is highly maneuverable and easier to bypass audit supervision, so it is more convenient for Olympus to use this transaction. Money to fill the hole.

After hesitating for a while, Ju Chuangang still quoted a price of 270 million US dollars, and the two sides argued a lot, and finally set the transaction price at 265 million US dollars.

...

Rebus first observed Li Weidong's face, and then asked, The deal is over?

It's done! Li Weidong nodded.

How much? Rebus asked next.

Two hundred and sixty-five million dollars. Li Weidong replied.

Although it's quite expensive, it's worth the money to enter the optical lens market. Rebs's face showed a gleam of joy, and then he continued: At least in terms of mobile phone cameras, we don't need them in the future. Reliance on foreign suppliers!

Li Weidong said, I am interested in Olympus, not just the optical lens business. The objective lens system of Olympus is also a good thing, not inferior to Nikon, Canon and Zeiss at all.

Objective lens system? It's mainly used in industry, right? Do you have business in this area? Rebs asked.

Not yet, but there will be in the future! Li Weidong sighed lightly, and continued; The current layout is for ten years later, so that we don't have to rely on others!

...

If it's just for Sharp's panel, Li Weidong doesn't need to come to Japan in person, it's enough for Rebus to talk alone.

The real purpose of Li Weidong's trip is actually the optical lens business of Olympus.

Olympus was founded in 1919 and started as a microscope. The first commercial microscope in Japan was produced by Olympus. The rapid development of Japanese medicine in the 20th century is absolutely indispensable to Olympus.

Most Chinese people know the Olympus brand because Olympus produced first-class cameras. In the era of continuous film, Olympus can indeed beat Nikon and kick Canon.

In the 1980s, Olympus cameras were the highest level of imported goods, and only the children of high-ranking cadres could match Olympus cameras. Even in the 1990s, the grade of Olympus was still higher than that of Nikon and Canon, and of course the price of products of the same level was higher than that of Nikon and Canon.

However, after entering the era of digital cameras, Olympus gradually fell behind and was overtaken by Canon and Nikon. The main reason is that Olympus products are too expensive, and the performance of digital cameras is almost the same. When the performance gap is not large, consumers still prefer cheap products.

Olympus has also gradually shifted its business focus to medical devices, such as various endoscopes, which Olympus does well, and various imaging equipment, which are also Olympus' specialty products.

In 2011, many consumers still bought Olympus cameras, but 40% of Olympus’ income came from medical products, and the sales of cameras were purely based on money.

Ten years later, the SLR market has been occupied by Canon, Sony and Nikon, and Olympus has a small market in the field of mirrorless cameras, and its customers are mainly fans.

Although relying on medical equipment, Olympus still has a very good profitability, but it is undeniable that the century-old Olympus has declined, and the beginning of the decline was the financial fraud incident that broke out in 2011.

Counterfeiting by Japanese companies is nothing new. The more established and large companies are, the easier it is to counterfeit. On the contrary, many small companies have always maintained the artisan spirit.

It's not that small businesses are more conscientious, but that small businesses have fewer customers. If they don't focus on making products, the few customers will run away. Therefore, small businesses must have the spirit of craftsmanship.

We usually see news about fraudulent Japanese companies, basically falsifying product data. The Olympus fraud is a financial fraud, which is also the largest financial fraud case in Japanese history.

Things still have to start with the Japanese real estate bubble in the 1990s. At that time, Olympus, like other Japanese companies, invested a large amount of securities. The Japanese real estate bubble led to tens of billions of yen in Olympus. loss.

After all, it was the most glorious era for Japanese companies. For a top Japanese company like Olympus, the loss of tens of billions of yen is completely acceptable.

However, in order to make up for these losses at that time, the head of Olympus chose another wrong path, which was to bet on financial derivatives with higher risks.

It has been introduced before that in that era, Japan invested in Southeast Asia on a large scale. The so-called high-yield financial derivatives were actually going to Southeast Asian countries to earn interest rate differentials.

Then the Asian financial crisis broke out, and Olympus lost all its investment. The original loss of tens of billions of yen snowballed into a loss of hundreds of billions of yen.

At this time, Olympus began the first round of show operations, using the deposits in the account and government bonds as collateral, obtaining loans from banks, investing in overseas funds, and then using overseas funds to purchase loss-making financial products.

In this way, the loss-making financial products have become assets. Although the assets are still losing money, the losses on the books have been smoothed out.

This is like having a supermarket worth 10 million, but this year it lost 2 million. Zhang San spent 10 million to buy this supermarket. When calculating assets, Zhang San has assets of 10 million, but in fact Zhang San only has 8 million. Ten thousand.

This is only good on the books, and the losses still exist in real terms. In order to really balance the accounts, losses need to be transferred out of the books in a reasonable way.

So Olympus carried out the second round of show operation, which is to restart some dormant companies or leather bag companies that had business dealings with Olympus, and then buy these companies at a high price.

For example, in 2005, Olympus acquired a food container manufacturer for 70 billion yen. By 2009, the valuation of this company had become 14.3 billion yen, so the difference was 55.7 billion. Yen is the loss filled in the accounts.

This kind of financial fraud is actually not very clever, and any accounting firm can audit it, but Japanese companies have always been secretive about their own problems. As long as no one mentions this matter, it will be treated as if it did not happen.

But things went wrong because Olympus involved a British medical device company during the operation of Olympus. Olympus spent 211.7 billion yen to acquire this company with total assets of less than 100 billion yen. The British finance firm responsible for the acquisition paid $67 million in consulting fees. This set of operations allowed Olympus to wipe out 110 billion yen in book losses.

The British are not Japanese. They are not used to Olympus. The Japanese audit department can ignore such an obvious financial fraud, but the British audit department cannot pretend to be blind.

In order to cope with the British scrutiny, in February 2011, Olympus hired British economist Michael Woodford as Olympus CEO. It is also for this reason that when Li Weidong came to Olympus, he met Chairman Ju Chuangang and Vice President Dai Jiuzhi, not the president.

The British CEO is not an idiot either. He is a serious economist and can understand the company's financial reports. Immediately after he took office, he discovered that the company had financial problems. He also asked Ju Chuangang and Dai Jiuzhi many times, but they were all prevaricated.

The British CEO simply found an investigation company to conduct a secret investigation, and then discovered Olympus’s financial fraud. The British CEO did not want to take the blame, so he chose to show his cards on the bright side. He convened an interim board of directors and asked for the removal of the directors. Chang Juchuan Gang.

Instead, the board voted unanimously to fire him as CEO.

Obviously, the British CEO didn't understand that he was just a wage earner, and Olympus invited him here to evade the British audit. In the end, you want to poke this hornet's nest yourself, and don't kick you away!

However, it was also this incident that sparked external repercussions and eventually detonated the Olympus financial fraud incident. After in-depth investigations by the media and institutions, Olympus can only admit the fact that it has fraudulently financed US$1.8 billion in the past 20 years , Chairman Ju Chuan just bowed and apologized to step down.

Olympus is also a microcosm of the Japanese economy. The real estate bubble and the blow of the Asian financial crisis have made the Japanese economy strong on the outside but strong on the inside.

However, the Japanese are still living in the dream of I am second in the world, stubbornly thinking that they are right, burying their heads in the sand like ostriches, unwilling to look up at the world.

When they got up, they found that the world had changed, and then pretended that what they saw was an illusion, and continued to bury their heads in the sand, pretending that nothing happened.

Although Olympus' finances are faked, Olympus' technology and products are still genuine, and Olympus' lenses are still top-notch in the world.

Therefore, Li Weidong is willing to give more than 200 million U.S. dollars to obtain Olympus' optical lens technology. This is also the best time.

On the surface, Li Weidong said that he is optimistic about the development of smart phones, and that he wants to localize the camera of mobile phones. The next Xiaomi mobile phone will be launched, which is also a good cover.

In fact, Li Weidong is interested in optical lenses with high numerical aperture, which is one of the core components of lithography machines.

The working principle of the lithography machine is that the light source is gathered through the lens, and the pattern is engraved on the wafer silicon body. The light source and the lens are the two core components of the optical core.

The three major manufacturers of lithography machines in the future, ASML in the Netherlands, Nikon and Canon in Japan, Nikon and Canon both make lenses, and ASML in the Netherlands uses Zeiss lenses in Germany.

Looking around the world, there are very few companies that can compete with Zeiss, Nikon and Canon in terms of lens technology, and Olympus is definitely one of them.

...

In the conference room of CSR Group, a group of young foreigners are waiting for the bidding results.

Not long after, several staff members walked into the meeting room, and the host stood on the rostrum and began to announce the bidding results.

First of all, it is a routine thank you. Thank you to all companies for participating in the bidding. After finishing the polite words, we will get to the point.

The new high-speed train fresh air system, the winning unit is Fukang Construction Machinery Group!

As the host finished speaking, many little foreigners showed surprised expressions.

The winning bid was not Panasonic, not Siemens, not Eddis, and not Honeywell!

Fukang Construction Machinery Group? Do they make construction machinery? How can they get the fresh air system for the high-speed rail?

Chinese companies won the bid, and nine times out of ten this bidding is shady!

If it's not a fair and just bidding, then why invite us here! This is a commercial fraud!

All the little foreigners looked very angry. A representative of one of the American companies even stood up and questioned the host arrogantly: Everyone here is a world-class fresh air system supplier, and some companies even provide services for Boeing and Airbus.

But why didn't these excellent companies win the bid in the end? The winning bidder is a company that produces construction machinery, so I seriously doubt the fairness of this bidding!

The host replied: Sir, our bidding this time is completely fair, just, and open. Our expert group gave scores to the proposals of each bidding company, including not only the product performance, but also the There are ratings for after-sales service, price, etc.

The company that wins the bid may not have the best technology, the best after-sales service, or the cheapest price, but it must have the highest comprehensive score. Regarding this point, if you doubt the fairness of the bidding, we will partially publicize the proposals of the winning bidders.

Publicity? That's great. I'd like to see how this Fukang project is better than ours! said the representative of the American company with a look of resentment.

In order to show the fairness of the bidding, Fukang Engineering's bidding plan was directly publicized on the spot. Of course, some key data were still hidden.

Why is the airflow layout of this plan so similar to Kawasaki Heavy Industries' plan? The man said and looked at Kawasaki's representative.

It's quite similar. Has Kawasaki Heavy Industries cooperated with Fukang Engineering in this regard? Another questioning look also looked at Kawasaki's representative.

The representative of Kawasaki Heavy Industries immediately stepped forward, took a closer look, and his expression became dignified. The airflow layout adopted by Fukang Engineering is indeed very similar to the model of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, but the price is less than half of the price quoted by Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

The Fukang project's plan looks very similar to Kawasaki Heavy Industries on the surface, but there are still many differences in details, especially in terms of work efficiency, which can reach 80% of our level at most. Kawasaki representative said.

Speaking of work efficiency, Beverly Engineering is less than 80% of ours! The representative of the American company said proudly.

You still say it's not a black box operation! Such poor work efficiency, why win the bid!

At this moment, another voice sounded: The quotation of Fukang Engineering is really low! Can this quotation make money?

All eyes were on the quotation, and in the next second, the scene was completely silent.

In terms of work efficiency, Fukang Engineering's plan is indeed not as good as these large foreign companies, but Fukang Engineering's low quotation is irresistible!

For hardware quotation alone, Fukang Engineering is 50% lower than foreign companies, and for subsequent maintenance and parts loss, Fukang Engineering's quotation is only one-third to one-fourth of foreign companies. If this price is followed, foreign companies will not only not make money, but also lose money!

...

Chairman, we have won the bid for CSR's high-speed rail fresh air system! Ding Youliang couldn't hide his joy in his voice.

Li Weidong was relatively calm. He said, The batch of Japanese second-hand trains we bought from the Thais was worth the money!

Back then, Japan given Thailand a batch of second-hand trains. Thailand felt that the freight was expensive and the follow-up maintenance costs were also high, so they wanted Fukang Agricultural Machinery to pay for the freight. In order to stabilize Thailand's agricultural machinery market, Li Weidong could only pay to take over.

But Li Weidong didn't spend his money in vain. Since these Japanese second-hand trains used fully enclosed carriages, the research and development of the fresh air system for the carriages was put on the agenda. Based on the second-hand trains in Japan, Fukang Engineering began to develop the fresh air system for the trains. After many years, it can be regarded as a small success.

A few years ago, the green leather carriages of China’s railways could not only open the windows, but also have vents on the top of the head, so there was no need for fresh air systems in the carriages. Therefore, domestic research and development in this area is relatively weak.

But after entering the era of high-speed rail, the fresh air system has become a must for the carriages. The high-speed rail carriages are fully enclosed. If there is no fresh air system, even if you can't suffocate people after running down a train, you will have to faint a few times.

Li Weidong was not surprised that Fukang Project won the bid. From a general perspective, China's high-speed rail has been pursuing localization. Even if the efficiency of the domestic fresh air system is poor, it can increase the localization rate.

For iconic projects like high-speed rail with special intentions, the localization rate is an extremely important indicator and a manifestation of national strength. A higher localization rate can not only reflect the performance of the leader, but also reflect the ability of the team.

In terms of cost, Fukang Engineering's quotation is indeed cheap enough. For things like machinery and equipment, the local supply chain is a big advantage, especially in terms of follow-up maintenance, the cost of the local supply chain is much cheaper.

Ding Youliang went on to say: This time we were able to win the bid, mainly because we did not stop our research and development. We have invested five years in research and development of this train fresh air system alone, which can be regarded as reaping the fruit.

Li Weidong added: More importantly, we can take this opportunity to successfully enter China's high-speed rail supply chain, which is a strategic value. In the next ten years, we will build 40,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. This kind of opportunity Can be caught.

In addition, we cannot be complacent because of winning the bid this time. Next, we must continue to increase research and development and investment, and strive to make an environmental control system for large aircraft on the basis of the high-speed rail fresh air system!

Do you want to supply the supply chain for large aircraft? Ding Youliang's tone was full of guilt.

Ding Youliang started out as a crane, and being able to enter the supply chain of high-speed rail has already become a high-profile lease. To make a profit from a large aircraft is something that he dared not even dream of.

Li Weidong went on to say: You should have heard of the C919 project, right? The project has been established for several years, and now it has completed the demonstration stage. The project has also passed the national review and is transferred to the detailed design stage. It is estimated that within three years, the prototype The machine can go offline.

However, according to the current domestic supply chain, domestically produced large aircraft have a localization rate of at most 10%, which is far from enough. We must achieve Boeing's 70% localization rate! From 10% to 70%, how many supply chains are there waiting for us to enter? Don't miss this opportunity!

Chairman, that is a large commercial aircraft. With our technical reserves, it is really difficult! I am afraid that we have invested a lot of money and time, but in the end it will be nothing! Ding Youliang said.

For technology, we can seek foreign aid. As far as I know, Germany's Liebherr is in the supply chain of aircraft environmental control systems. Haven't we also introduced Liebherr's construction machinery technology, and this time we can discuss cooperation with them. As for money...

Li Weidong paused, and after thinking for a few seconds, he said, First set up the project and make a beginning. The follow-up funds can be obtained from the state. For projects such as large aircraft, the state will definitely provide financial support.

Chairman, have you heard any rumors? There are new policies to be introduced in this regard? Ding Youliang immediately asked.

There will be in the future. So you can do it with peace of mind. As soon as the national policy is introduced, as long as we have a project, we will be able to get scientific research funds! How about this, about this matter, call a meeting with the management, we will There must be a detailed strategic layout for the next ten years. Li Weidong said.

At this time, the grand strategy of Made in China 2025 has emerged in Li Weidong's mind.

...

Fukang Engineering and Fukang Agricultural Machinery have been integrated into Fukang Construction Machinery Group. The businesses of the two companies already have similarities. After they are integrated, they will have more advantages from supply chain to product production.

In the group conference room, executives gathered together, waiting for Li Weidong's instructions.

Li Weidong opened the materials in his hands and said: The materials in your hands are the development policy of the group that I have drawn up for the next ten years. I believe you have all read it. Next, I will explain a few points emphatically.

First, we can't just be satisfied with making products, but also make layout in the upstream industry. That's why I put forward the two aspects of key basic materials and core basic components in the development plan, and we must build our own supply chain.

In the next ten years, we will completely establish our own supply system for basic materials and core basic components, not only in quality, but also in quantity!

This supply chain system is not only to meet our needs, but also to meet the needs of other domestic companies, even foreign companies, and we have to do it too!

The second is the construction of intelligent manufacturing projects. We need to develop intelligent products and self-controllable intelligent devices to realize the intelligentization of key processes, the replacement of key positions by robots, and the intelligent control of production processes. We will build intelligent engineering and digital workshops. Form a set of industrialization system.

Why do we need to form industrialization? Because I hope that our intelligent manufacturing project will not only serve ourselves, but also serve other enterprises and provide them with intelligent industrial production solutions. Of course, all of this needs to rely on our own successful intelligent construction.

The third is the innovative research and development of products. I don’t need to say more about the benefits of this aspect. Everyone knows it. Due to the limitation of battery technology, the electric drive of construction machinery cannot be applied on a large scale. However, we have achieved preliminary results in the unmanned and intelligent agricultural machinery.

In addition, in addition to making products, we also need to strengthen equipment information collection, intelligent decision-making and precise operation capabilities. No matter how good a product is, it is for use. We need to form an overall solution for informatization, so that such a product can be used.

As Li Weidong said, his voice changed: Some people may think that the ten-year development policy I formulated is a bit too ambitious; some people may think that it will require a lot of investment, which will exceed the range we can bear. But because I am Chairman, you dare not raise objections.

But what I want to tell you is that although there is a road, it will come soon, and although things are difficult, if you do it, you will succeed! Back then, Fukang Engineering was on the verge of bankruptcy, and Fukang Agricultural Machinery was just a county agricultural machinery factory. We have come all the way to today, relying on down-to-earth, hard work, relying on the ambition of Yugong to move mountains and the perseverance of water dripping through stone! If there is a savior in this world, it is ourselves!

Kang was so passionate about what he said, and there was applause immediately below!

Li Weidong heaved a sigh of relief. Although the applause was most likely still flattering him, the chairman, today's meeting can be regarded as unifying the thinking of the entire Fukang Group.

Only when everyone's thinking is unified can they work together, and there will be no situation where their own people hold back.

The ten-year development plan of Fukang Group looks very good, but the capital investment is actually very high, and money is needed everywhere.

But if you look carefully at the content, key basic materials, core basic components, intelligent manufacturing engineering, electric construction machinery, and unmanned intelligent agricultural machinery are all within the scope of Made in China 2025.

Made in China 2025 is the country's development strategy, which includes many projects. If the country wants to develop these projects, it will naturally not allow companies to pay for them. Once the grand plan of Made in China 2025 is implemented, related projects can easily get state funds. support.

Li Weidong has already thought of this, so he decided to set up the project first, lay the foundation, and then make some achievements. After the implementation of the Made in China 2025 plan, he can apply for financial support from the state.

It is definitely much easier to apply for funding for a project that already has a foundation. Moreover, this is a project related to the overall national strategy, and there will definitely be a lot of funds.

This is tantamount to the state spending money to help upgrade its own industry. If it fails, it will be a waste of energy, but if it succeeds, it will gain both fame and fortune.