The birth of the Hong Kong Island family

Lin Ruinan took his team to the Red Bull Building in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong for inspection, and his eldest brother Lin Ruihuan personally accompanied him.

Everyone puts on work clothes and hats, and only after passing the inspection can they enter the workshop where Red Bull is produced. Inside, I saw bottles of Red Bull on the conveyor belt. The highly mechanized production was refreshing.

"Brother, in which countries is Red Bull currently sold?" Lin Ruinan asked curiously.

He is very interested in introducing Red Bull to Europe, so now he almost feels like doing this.

Lin Ruihuan said: "We have sales in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Japan, and the sales are pretty good. Of course, there is still a big gap between the best-selling beverages. In my father's words, the European and American markets are much bigger than the Asian markets. Times, of course more marketing is needed to sell this product to the world.”

My father attaches great importance to this drink, as it symbolizes the family, and hopes to promote it globally. Of course, there are a lot of complex issues here, the formula of Red Bull, and how Red Bull should be known.

Lin Ruinan said confidently: "I must do this well!"

Lin Ruihuan patted the youngest on the shoulder. The brothers all inherited their father's wisdom and had good potential in the business field. Although he is not half as good as his father, if he is trained by his father, he can gradually stand on his own and help the family become more prosperous.

The potential of nine brothers and sisters working together is infinite!

night.

The Lin clan gathered at Villa No. 79 in Deep Water Bay. Even Lin Ruidong, Megan and his wife, and Audrey Hepburn also came to Hong Kong to gather.

This was the first time Megan Rockefeller met all the members of the Lin family, and she was very surprised.

When she first met Lin Ruidong, she thought Lin Ruidong's parents were just former lovers; but when it came time to talk about marriage, she found that her future father-in-law and mother-in-law were very loving; and now, she discovered that her father-in-law was really powerful and could marry Three wives, and we can still have such a good relationship with each other. Of course, Lin Ruidong also explained to Meghan that polygamy was allowed in Hong Kong before 1971, so his father's behavior was not a problem.

At the large dining table, Lin Zhichao and Wu Wenying sat at the top. At first glance, they looked like they were really a big family!

Three wives, seven sons, two daughters, and five daughters-in-law, a total of 19 adult clan members.

In addition, there are four third-generation male tribesmen, the oldest is five years old; Li Bingqian and Megan also have third-generation Lin tribe members in their bellies.

"Let's eat!"

After Lin Zhichao gave the order, everyone picked up chopsticks to eat, and he personally picked up the first dish for his old mother as a sign of filial piety.

Soon, the restaurant was filled with pleasant chatter and laughter. In Megan's view, this family is very harmonious, and she also uses broken Chinese to integrate into the family, because she knows that this is what her husband wants to see.

During the dinner, the three wives were organizing a vacation again, and they would definitely bring Wu Wenying with them.

"How about Switzerland?"

“France is not bad either!”

After finally confirming their destination, the three women looked at Lin Zhichao.

Lin Zhichao smiled and said: "Why don't I go? I'll try to take as much time as possible!"

The three girls gave up when they saw fit, and Tang Caiyun said, "Then let me see if my husband can get away from work!"

Lin Zhichao compromised again and said: "It's no problem. I'll put aside my big work and go on vacation with you. But we have to make arrangements for this weekend's vacation first. Everyone has to take good care of Megan tomorrow. This is her first time in Hong Kong. You can take her to explore the city of Hong Kong. As for Sunday, our family went to the yacht and the Discovery Bay Golf Club."

Megan said quickly: “Thank you, father!”

Lin Zhichao smiled and said: "Thank you, you are still a guest the first time I come here, but you won't be the second time I come here!"

Meghan immediately said playfully: "Father, I am not a guest when I come here for the first time. We have a home in Hong Kong, No. 1 Repulse Bay. Moreover, this place also makes me feel like home, even though it is my first time here. "

Lin Zhichao smiled and nodded, and said with satisfaction: "It seems that you and your wife have a good relationship, which is the biggest reason why you quickly integrated into this family. I wish you a healthy baby."

The family is happily enjoying themselves!

In the evening, Lin Zhichao called Lin Ruinan to the study for questioning.

"Do you have any ideas about developing the Red Bull brand in the West? After all, you could have invested in Audrey and developed steadily, and the wealth managed by the two is not of the same magnitude."

Lin Ruinan is only 22 years old this year, has only been working for a year, and looks very sunny.

He said without hesitation: "I like to accept challenging jobs, and under my father's planning, Red Bull has initially formed a complete promotion plan. Although I am still young, I believe I can do this well!"

In fact, Lin Zhichao didn’t have too many suggestions, just three:

The first one is to choose Northern Europe as the production base and headquarters to make use of local natural water resources; at the same time, improve the formula and add special gas drinks.

The second is to determine the marketing direction of Red Bull, which is to start from motor sports and eventually expand to all extreme sports, such as the advertising slogan "red bull gives you wings (Red Bull gives you wings)" and so on.

Article 3: Change the packaging to blue cans, which are different from those in Asia.

In short, it's all just talk on paper, what really depends on Lin Ruinan's own ability, of course, he also has a powerful team.

Lin Zhichao said: "Well, none of my sons are mediocre, but remember not to be proud. We can have confidence, but we must remain calm, listen to other people's suggestions, and don't be arrogant. It should be noted that your father has built such a huge career. I also have hundreds of advisors around me, and I’m happy to listen to their advice.”

Lin Ruinan asked curiously: "There are hundreds of consultants around father?"

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "The consultants I am talking about are not necessarily those who work or have temporary positions in my company. Some of them may be friends or partners. For example, this year we are selling the villas in Shoushen Mountain, and the model houses are very Beautiful, but the advertising company we cooperate with will give us a break. It turns out that the road is a bit muddy. I probably haven’t looked at it for a long time. The senior management also ignored such a small thing, but it was brought up by the advertising company. Naturally, everyone If you obey, this can be regarded as a consultant."

Lin Ruinan listened immediately and said: "Indeed, people who can buy high-end villas must also care about details. The muddy roads must give people a bad impression."

Then, he asked curiously: "Are there many Chinese consultants around my father?"

Lin Zhichao said: "Chinese account for more than 60%, and Westerners also account for nearly 40%. Talents should not be divided based on skin color, but should be adapted to local conditions and circumstances."

Lin Ruidong and Lin Ruinan certainly consider themselves Chinese in their hearts, but they are of mixed race, and their appearance is more like Westerners.

After the father and son chatted for a while, Lin Ruinan left with a full harvest.

That night, the girls from the three houses each returned to their villas, while Lin Zhichao took the three women to enjoy their personal lives. Of course, it may not necessarily be about communication between men and women. Even if we don't do that kind of thing, we are still willing to be in the same room and talk about some things. The relationship is very good.

Media Group Building.

Lin Zhichao met with several shareholder representatives of Asia Television in the conference room.

Although the media group has taken over 60% of the shares of "Lai's Voice", "Asia Television (formerly Lai's Television)" still has 40% of the shares in Standard Chartered Bank, Jardine Matheson, the Kadoorie Family, Wing On Kwok, and Shipping King In the hands of the five Xu Aizhou families.

In fact, in the early days, Lai's TV station was wholly owned by the British Lai's Voice. However, after the Hong Kong government announced in 1973 that it would increase the license for wireless television stations (Lai's Voice was originally a cable TV station), Lai's Voice had to put down its own responsibilities in order to increase the probability of winning the bid. posture to attract local consortiums to join.

In the end, Li's TV station obtained the wireless TV license as expected. In order to switch from cable to wireless broadcasting, Li's TV station stopped broadcasting for a full month, which shows its determination to enter the wireless TV station.

As for Jardine Matheson, it was once the major shareholder behind Jiayi TV with the Lin Bingyan family, but the struggle was fierce. Jardine Matheson once wanted to take control of Jiayi TV, but was defeated by the Lin Bingyan family.

Although it only lasted three years, Jiayi also experienced a series of intrigues and intrigues. In the end, the filming of more than 60 dramas in three years caused a financial breakdown and collapsed.

"Sir Lin, Asia Television has been in internal turmoil since the media group took control, and the ratings that had just risen quickly declined. We come here this time as representatives of shareholders, hoping that you will explain to us why you don't personally serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors, you must know that you are still serving as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Golden Harvest Films. Is it possible that the prospects of a TV station are not as great as those of a film company?" A foreign executive from Standard Chartered Bank asked.

Lin Zhichao said kindly: "Everyone, I am also paying attention to the development of Asia Television, but I don't think there is anything wrong at the moment. We are all businessmen, and it is necessary to implement cost control, especially in the media When the group initially took power, it was even more important to inject such an atmosphere into Asia Television. By referring to TVB, everyone will understand that only by learning from Run Run Shaw's diligence and frugality can we ultimately survive; and Jiayi Television is a lesson learned from the past."

Jiayi TV is just like opening up the water pipe. In the past three years, it has spent a lot of money to create many popular dramas. It has overwhelmed the TV station that cannot lift its head, and TVB TV stations have been involved in the competition of investing heavily in dramas.

Although this method can make wireless TV stations nervous and surpass the established TV stations, it will soon close down due to financial problems, and shareholders will lose all their investment.

After listening to Lin Zhichao's words, all the shareholder representatives had nothing to say.

However, Asia Television has been evaluated by industry insiders as being devalued. Not only does it not have the expectations that Lin Zhichao had when he took over, but everyone is not optimistic about it. The main reason is that Lin Zhichao only sent his retainers and young sons, and did not take care of it himself. .

The representative of Standard Chartered continued: "We do not doubt the strategy of implementing cost control, but now Asia Television is depreciating, and the ratings have not improved. People inside are panicked, and we shareholders are also very uneasy. Will this strategy work in the future? All this is unknown. So this time we met with Sir Lin, hoping that your media group would buy the shares in our hands."

Lin Zhichao hesitated for a moment and then said: "It is possible, but for your 40% equity, our media group only provides 50 million Hong Kong dollars. The reason is that everyone understands that we already control Asia Television and we did not intend to control 100% of it."

It was originally worth 80 million Hong Kong dollars, but now Lin Zhichao is only willing to offer 50 million Hong Kong dollars.

However, these representatives did not make a fuss, but agreed to go back to discuss it.

The reason couldn't be simpler. If it continues to be wasted, it will be worthless if it doesn't work!

During the many years of operation of Lai's Television, in the late 1960s, it invested 16 million Hong Kong dollars to build a Lai's Building in Kowloon as its headquarters building. Other assets are just some equipment and talents, with little real value.

Maybe, just the license plate is worth more.

After sending away the ATV shareholder representatives, Lin Zhichao returned to his office, with Li Ziduo and Lin Ruikai following him.

"Make an appointment with Shuyi Zhou for me. I plan to invite her to be the CEO of ATV."

Zhou Liangshuyi was originally a program producer at TVB. After being promoted to assistant general manager of TVB, she joined Jiayi TV with a team of people and prepared to start a big career. However, the shareholders of Jiayi TV were not financially strong enough to support Zhou Liangshuyi. reorganization plan.

Basically, this woman is a good spender, but it is obviously impossible to say that she has great abilities. But at this time, Asia Television needed Shuyi Zhou to come and spend money, and Lin Zhichao needed him to give Asia Television a change.

Li Ziduo immediately said: "Well, I will arrange it as soon as possible!"

He had a strange feeling in his heart. The boss made him the chairman of Asia Television to save costs. Now that the shareholders have confirmed their intention to withdraw, the boss is eager to change Asia Television's style.

Obviously, he is a pawn of the boss. Of course, the boss had already told him these things, so he didn't have much idea.

Next, Li Ziduo left first, leaving Lin Ruikai behind.

"Father, we have spent a total of 170 million Hong Kong dollars on this acquisition of Asia Television. These funds are the funds saved by Oriental Publishing House and Oriental Newspapers over the years. If we hire Shuyi Zhou, Asia Television will probably spend a lot of money." Lin Ruikai reminded.

Lin Zhichao nodded and said, "What do you think?"

Lin Ruikai said: "Actually, there is no need to worry. The comics industry of Oriental Publishing House now earns more than 40 million Hong Kong dollars per year; even Oriental Newspapers can reach more than 30 million Hong Kong dollars per year. The profits of the two can fully support Asia Television. It just depends on whether it is worth it. Selina Chow will spend money, but at most it will bring Asia Television to a level of 30-70% with TVB. After all, TVB is getting more and more powerful now."

Lin Zhichao smiled and said, "Then do you think it's worth it?"

Lin Ruikai blushed and said immediately: "Of course it's worth it! Mainly because I feel that I can also make some contributions to Asia Television."

Lin Zhichao understood that this guy was the CEO and in charge of Asia Television.

"You can only serve as the executive director of ATV and do not participate in the content development of ATV. At most, you represent the media group. I need you and Li Ziduo to assist me in managing the entire media group, not a TV station. Do you understand?"

Lin Ruikai could only nod his head and said, "I understand!"

Father’s orders cannot be violated!

What's more, he understands that his father is worried that he will be too involved in the entertainment industry, so he is not allowed to participate in things in the industry.

Lin Zhichao finally said: "The future development of ATV is already in my mind. You don't need to worry about not being able to compete with TVB!"

Lin Ruikai suddenly showed surprise. Out of admiration for his father, he completely believed his father's words.

"With my father's intervention, Hong Kong's TV stations will definitely have healthy competition, and TVB will no longer dominate Hong Kong."

"Haha, it's still too dark where you are standing. If you just look at Hong Kong, why should I take action personally? What I need to create is a new culture, a cultural system that affects Asia and the world. Of course, I have to do it step by step. You just need to Just follow me and learn."

Lin Ruikai was shocked inside. He didn't expect his father to be so 'arrogant', but he still believed that it would become true.

"Well, I will definitely study hard!"

North Point Funeral Home.

Lin Zhichao and Lin Ruikai attended the funeral of Li Xiaohe, the founder of TVB, who passed away due to illness this summer.

Li Mingze and Li Xiaohe of the Li family can be said to be elites. They have received high-level Western education. They both participated in the Anti-Japanese War and were officials in the Republic of China. After the Anti-Japanese War, they returned to Hong Kong to run their ancestral businesses and bring profits to the country. The family developed into a big family in Hong Kong.

However, neither of these two people lived to be 80 years old, which is not considered longevity. Li Mingze is 75 years old this year and should not have a few years to live.

It's definitely not retribution, and Lin Zhichao doesn't believe in that stuff either. There are too many descendants of people who have made money from side jobs in Hong Kong. They are all hidden wealthy families, and their descendants have all been rich for more than five generations. As for the poor, it is a question whether they can survive more than five generations, let alone turn over.

"Mrs. Li, my condolences!" Lin Zhichao said to Li Luyanqun and their children.

"Thank you Sir Lin for coming to see my late husband off!" Li Luyanqun said sadly.

This Mrs. Li was also a strange woman. She was very good at investing in later generations and made a lot of profits. The other person was a serious student in the 1940s who had a bachelor's degree in business management from Milos Women's University in the United States. His cultural level was very high, so it was natural for him to have business skills.

Lin Zhichao nodded, and then sat at the guest table. It happened that Run Run Shaw was next to him, and the two started chatting.

"Shao Sheng, are you interested in Hutchison Whampoa's shares in TVB?" Lin Zhichao said.

At this time, the TVB TV station has the highest valuation, reaching 1 billion Hong Kong dollars, which is the most suitable time to sell.

Upon hearing this, Run Run Shaw suppressed the ecstasy in his heart and said: "Lin Sheng, Li Sheng unfortunately passed away, but TVB cannot keep the vacancy of chairman of the board of directors. We are also planning to invite the three major shareholders to appoint the chairman of the board of directors!"

Lin Zhichao said: "There is no doubt that Hutchison Whampoa will take over Wireless. This is my attitude. I am not sure about the other two companies. Moreover, Hutchison Whampoa intends to reduce its stake. If Shaw Brothers is interested, you can come to negotiate."

Run Run Shaw nodded and said, "Okay, I'll talk about it later. Thank you Mr. Lin for admitting it!"

Lin Zhichao said: "You are too generous, I am also talking about business."

The two briefly chatted for a few words and then stopped talking.

In terms of business, in a few years, TVB may be at risk of depreciating again, once Asia Television rises. At the same time, even if it encounters Huaying negotiations, the value will fall back a bit.

Therefore, Lin Zhichao plans to sell some shares. As for selling them all, firstly, Run Run Shaw may not be able to spend so much money at once. Secondly, he can also save it to reduce his holdings when it is listed in the future. (End of chapter)