Reborn Tycoon Rise

"Common development?" Xu Zhi frowned and said, "Mr. Panasonic, our two companies don't seem to have much basis for cooperation, and we are still competitors in the field of household appliances."

"That's not necessarily true." Konosuke Matsushita smiled and said, "I heard that Mr. Xu opened a large home appliance chain store in the United States?"

"Yes, what do you mean by Mr. Matsushita?" Xu Zhi nodded and asked. Best Buy's investment plan was finalized at the end of last year. For this purpose, a large number of managers were hired from Wal-Mart supermarkets and Sears department store chains.

In order to legally avoid taxes on Midea's huge profits in the United States, it only announced at the end of last year that it would invest in large-scale electronic shopping malls in 17 cities in California, and the scale will become larger and larger in the future.

This kind of investment has naturally attracted the attention of many peers in electrical appliances and electronic products. However, even if they knew that Midea was expanding its sales channels, no one would be willing to follow up. After all, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment are made every year. , there are only a handful of electrical appliance industries that the entire United States can produce.

For example, the recently prosperous General Electric Company cannot do this, because the annual profit of GE's entire electrical appliance business is only 70 million US dollars. It is impossible for the head office to invest such a huge amount of money into the terminal sales field for a sub-sector business.

"Mr. Xu is actually willing to spend so much money to enter terminal retail, which is indeed beyond my expectation." Matsushita Konosuke said with a smile. Panasonic Group also invests some funds every year to expand its own channels, but more often it uses others resources, rather than building retail terminals by itself like Midea,

Every company has its own main business. Panasonic, Sony, and even electronic giants such as General Electric and HP all focus on the innovation of electronic technology. If they invest heavily in the physical terminal field, it will seriously consume the company's funds. , which will have a great impact on research and development.

"This is just the development direction chosen by different companies. The U.S. market will always be the largest market in the world, and currently, the retail industry has begun to develop in the direction of large shopping malls. I think it is the best time to enter this industry now." Xu Zhi smiled and explained that although the golden finger of time travel cannot provide much help in terms of technology patents, it can guide the direction of the company's development.

As Xu Zhi knows, the current most mainstream color TV picture tubes will gradually be eliminated in the next 15 years. Although Midea has also invested in its own picture tube production base, it is only to develop the TV market, but Midea has internal It will not use too much money to develop new picture tube display technology.

Competitors are different. Companies such as Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi, Samsung, and Philips still spend tens of millions of dollars each year to develop a new generation of picture tubes.

Just in this area, Midea has saved a lot of money in one year. Even if competitors have developed new picture tube technology and the screen definition is much higher, the current technologies have matured, so a little bit of high-definition In fact, the eyes may not be able to distinguish it.

In the future, it will be the LCD screen that will defeat the traditional display, but in fact, there are three technical specifications for the development direction of LCD in this era, namely TN, STN, and TFT LCD technology.

Some TV giants in Japan and the United States are actually not stupid. They also know that LCD screens will one day replace color picture tubes, but they do not know the direction of the development of LCD technology, and they do not know when LCD will replace picture tubes, let alone that it is still possible. No one knows what a laptop is. In this regard, Midea has focused on developing TFT liquid crystal technology from the beginning, which gives it an advantage in terms of cost and time.

After knowing the suitable development direction, the company's R\u0026D funds are naturally much more abundant than those of its peers that are flourishing everywhere. There is naturally more idle funds that can be used, and it is naturally willing to make huge investments in developing terminal sales channels.

Konosuke Matsushita asked: "I don't know what model Mr. Xu's Best Buy Company is planning to develop in. Will it be fully self-operated or will it accept franchises in the future?"

Xu Zhi said with a smile: “Currently, the company is planning to operate everything on its own, but as long as it develops to a certain level, it will accept franchises.

Mr. Matsushita should also understand that if a chain store model does not have a certain reputation, who would be willing to invest in it, let alone such a large chain supermarket. "

A modern supermarket chain requires millions of dollars in investment, no matter how simple it is. When the "Best Buy" brand is not well-known enough, it is impossible to develop through franchising.

"Then I wonder if Best Buy will accept investment?" Konosuke Matsushita took a sip of sake and asked with a smile. He already understood Xu Zhi's layout. He obviously wanted to vigorously enter the terminal retail field. If it is really successful, in the future, whether it is Panasonic, Sony or other Japanese brands have to rely on the people in front of them to a certain extent.

This indeed plays into the strengths of Midea Electronics. The profits are high enough, but the technical foundation is weak. It wants to compete with European, American and Japanese companies, but it is at a disadvantage because it is a city and does not have enough talent reserves. In this case, It is indeed a very suitable move to invest huge sums of money into the terminal retail field.

The profit of Panasonic Group is not lower than that of Midea, but it is impossible to copy this trick. First, its opponents have already taken the lead. Second, this method requires a lot of funds, and the development direction of Panasonic Group is mainly scientific research, R\u0026D and new technologies. Product development, it’s hard to turn the ship around!

Xu Zhi shook his head and said: "Best Buy is currently in the stage of large-scale expansion and does not plan to accept external investment for the time being."

"Matsushita Konosuke smiled and said: "I understand that with Mr. Xu's financial resources, he will not worry about funds, but what we Panasonic can provide is not only funds, but also resources that have been operating in the United States for many years.

We are all outsiders, and our counterparts in the United States are also very unfriendly to us. This is true for the electronics industry, and the same is true for electronic terminal retail. "

Xu Zhi smiled and said: "I agree with Mr. Matsushita's statement. Best Buy will indeed encounter various problems in its future expansion, but this is not a big problem. I can introduce American capital and even arrange for Best Buy to be listed in the United States. , I think, in this matter, Panasonic may not be the best choice."

The expansion of supermarket chains like Best Buy will bring about a series of problems, especially in a country like the United States where votes are king. Even when Wal-Mart opened supermarkets in many places in the United States, it encountered demonstrations by local grocery store owners. Most of them were defeated by Wal-Mart, but a small number of them lost.

Although Best Buy is different from Wal-Mart, it is very likely that it will encounter the same problem. A non-American company operating in the United States will not be able to prosper in the long run without giving some of its fat to local snakes.

Konosuke Matsushita nodded and said: "Of course Mr. Xu can bring in American capital, but having one more choice behind the scenes can't be a bad thing, right?"

Xu Zhi thought for a moment and said: "Mr. Panasonic wants to invest in Best Buy. I can agree to sell a small amount of shares, but I need Panasonic to sell me a patent?"