When will I have a long tassel?

"Ms. Li, with all due respect, I still don't believe you will actually develop this kind of machine tool."

After adjusting his mood, Duranti said to Li Tiantian.

"If nothing goes wrong, the prototype of the steel ball grinding machine tool that our group has independent intellectual property rights will be available next month. Mr. Duranti, do you want to make a bet with me?" Li Tiantian said.

"But this is a completely unnecessary thing!" Duranty said.

Li Tiantian smiled slightly and said, "Mr. Duranti, as a salesperson, my views are completely consistent with yours. However, I cannot doubt what the bosses consider."

Puller had calmed down by this time. He asked: "Ms. Li, I would like to know how much money your group is prepared to invest in developing this kind of machine tool?"

Li Tiantian said: "I don't know the specific figures. The public data is that the total investment will reach 10 million euros, of which 7 million euros will be provided by the Chunze Municipal Government, and our group will add no less than 3 million euros. for this development.”

"Investing 10 million euros just to carve up a market with an annual output value of less than 15 million euros is definitely not what a rational business manager should do. As far as I know, Linji Group is a company with a history of more than 80 years. Moreover, the business performance in recent years has also attracted the attention of the industry. Such a company should not make such irrational decisions, right?" Puller said.

Li Tiantian said: "Mr. Puller, I'm afraid you don't know the Chinese people well enough. We Chinese people, uh, in the words of Mr. Tang, have a 'fear of insufficient production capacity'. If there are any products that we cannot independently manufacture, , even if the production capacity is not enough to meet our own needs, we will feel anxious..."

"Why is this?" Puller was confused.

Undercapacity phobia, Puller has never heard of this disease, but it seems like something like this was written in a novel by Jack London. The protagonist experienced long-term hunger in the wilderness, and after being rescued, he was always worried about not having enough food. , hiding a lot of food next to him.

However, China is the world's factory. Its production capacity is larger than that of Europe. It accounts for 80% of the world's TV production and 55% of the world's crude steel production. When people from such a country come and tell themselves that they suffer from a phobia of undercapacity, are they kidding?

"Mr. Puller, you have never experienced our life." Li Tiantian said, with a bit of solemnity in her tone, "When I was a child, China's material supply situation has greatly improved. I have never experienced anything like my parents. They were in an era when even toilet paper was provided by ticket. But even then, the supplies around us were still extremely scarce.

"Let me give you an example. At that time, if we saw a lost nut on the road, we would pick it up and take it home."

"Why did you pick this up?" Puller asked in surprise.

For those who build machine tools, the most indispensable thing is nuts. This thing is a consumable, and it is measured in kilograms when purchasing. Nuts imported by customs are calculated in tons, and a container is dozens of tons. Who would regard this as a treasure?

Well, by the way, most of the nuts used by German machinery companies are imported from China. After shipping and tariffs, they are more than half cheaper than nuts made in Germany.

Li Tiantian said: "At that time, materials were scarce, and any metal products were very valuable. If you pick up a nut and take it home, you might be able to use it to repair something at home. At the worst, it can also be used to hang a light rope. .”

"Hang up the light cord?" Everyone in the room had blank expressions in their eyes, even Liu Jianghai. This kid is born in the 90s and really doesn’t know what hanging a light rope is.

Li Tiantian said: "When I was a child, the lights at home were switched by pull wires. The wire that pulled the switch was called a light rope. If there is no heavy object hanging under the light rope, it will float when the wind blows. If you hang it underneath With just one nut, the light cord can be hung, making it easier to pull up.”

Everyone was speechless. They had never seen the scene Li Tiantian described, but they could somewhat imagine it. They also made up this scene in their minds: a little girl, walking on the way home from school, saw a rusty nut in the mud, so she picked it up with joy, took it home, cleaned it, and tied it carefully On a dangling light rope...

If coupled with a BGM like Erquan Yingyue, there would really be no obstacle to understanding what "fear of insufficient production capacity" means.

"But, Ms. Li, China is no longer a country with a shortage of supplies. You have the largest production capacity in the world. If the nut factory in China caught fire..., uh, well, I should probably assume that it was their workers who were on holiday. It's Christmas, and all German machinery companies are shutting down production.

"In this case, shouldn't it be us German companies who should have the 'fear of insufficient production capacity' the most?"

Duranty said stumblingly.

There will be a day.

Li Tiantian thought in her heart.

She also heard the term "undercapacity phobia" from Tang Zifeng. When Tang Zifeng mentioned this word, he once gloated and prophesied that one day Americans and Europeans would have a taste of this disease.

"No one will embargo any product in Europe, so it is not surprising that Europeans have no production capacity fear. We in China have suffered from foreign sanctions, so if a product cannot be manufactured by ourselves, we There will be fear.

"The steel ball grinding machine tool thing stems from our own phobia. I don't know if Mr. Puller and Mr. Duranti have seen the articles in some Chinese media some time ago. Some experts warned us, When I say Europeans, I actually mean that your company may stop providing this kind of machine tools to us at any time, thus putting nearly a hundred ballpoint pen manufacturers in China in trouble," Li Tiantian said.

"This is completely nonsense." Puller said, "We have never said that we will stop selling steel ball machine tools to China. We maintain very good cooperative relations with Chinese customers. This kind of speculation in the media is completely untrue. Based on that.”

"But the Chunze city government was under a lot of pressure, and it was this pressure that forced them to spend 7 million euros to commission us to develop this machine tool."

"So that's it." Puller responded, and then asked: "Since you have decided to develop this kind of machine tool, and have also completed the patent development of some basic processes, then, when you two come to Miran Company, and What is it for?"

"Cooperation." Li Tiantian answered simply, "I said from the beginning that we are here to seek cooperation."

"Cooperation? How?" Puller asked.

Li Tiantian said: "As Mr. Duranti said just now, the market for steel ball grinding machine tools is really too small, and there is no need for two outstanding companies to meet the needs of this market. Linji Group invested 10 million euros to develop a new type of The steel ball machine tool is not only a waste of Linji Group's resources, but also affects the operation of Miran Company. This is a meaningless behavior."

It turns out that you also know that this is meaningless...

Puller and Duranty muttered in their hearts. However, neither of them interrupted, wanting to wait and hear what Li Tiantian had to say.

"The reason why the Chunze Municipal Government entrusted us to develop steel ball machine tools is because of concerns about the supply of machine tools. If your company can make a commitment to ensure that it will not stop providing such machine tools to Chinese companies at any time and under any circumstances, , then Chunze City will not have such worries, and our Linji Group will not have to do such meaningless things." Li Tiantian said.

"Do you just need a promise?" Duranty asked.

Li Tiantian smiled and said: "Of course it's not enough. Haven't we seen enough of Europe's violations of its commitments under various names? If we don't master the relevant technology ourselves, you can just find any reason and throw away the commitments we made as toilet paper. Put it in the toilet, the Chinese have suffered this kind of loss, otherwise they wouldn’t have the phobia of insufficient production capacity.”

"So, what else do you need?" Duranty was a little dizzy. According to Li Tiantian, if you still need to master the relevant technology yourself, why would you want to cooperate?

Li Tiantian said: "We hope to sign a technical cooperation agreement with Miran Company. Miran Company will permanently authorize Linji Group to use the machine tool patents owned by Miran Company, as well as the technical know-how that has not applied for patents. Of course, we will Patent royalties are paid to Miran Company in accordance with market standards.

"We promise that as long as Miran does not stop supplying Chinese companies, we will not produce such machine tools and it will not affect Miran's sales. However, in the technical cooperation agreement, such conditions need to be , that is, if force majeure occurs and Miran cannot supply goods to China, we have the right to freely use these patents and other intellectual property rights to produce alternative machine tools."

"What do you mean by freedom?" Puller and Duranty asked at the same time.

Before this, they didn't care about the cooperation between Chunze City and Linji Group. They just thought it was a performance by the Chinese to add some bargaining weight to the procurement. But what Li Tiantian told them was completely beyond their expectations, which caught them off guard.

Li Tiantian did not ask for a price reduction, but instead talked about a concept called "fear of insufficient production capacity", and then asked Miran to open all its patents and internal know-how to China, just to gain the capacity to independently produce steel ball machine tools.

Puller and Duranti could not understand the concerns of the Chinese people anyway, so they could not understand why Linji Group wanted to enter into such a cooperation with Miran. Obviously, this kind of cooperation will have no effect on Linji, because Miran will definitely not run out of goods from China, so Linji will never have the opportunity to use this agreement.

So, what exactly does the “freedom” that China needs mean?

"Freedom..." Li Tiantian thought for a moment, then smiled sweetly and said, "It's freedom."