Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

Johnson \u0026 Johnson, President Weldon looked at a document in his hand with a solemn expression.

This document comes from a well-known analyst on Wall Street. It contains an analysis and prospect prediction of the U.S. consumer market. This analyst is pessimistic about the U.S. consumer market.

The United States does not lack the world's top economists, and many of them include Nobel Prize winners and Nobel Prize judges. With something as serious as the subprime mortgage crisis, how could the elites on Wall Street not see that these people's annual salaries are not free? Get it!

Therefore, at the beginning of 2007, banks such as Citigroup and HSBC, as well as financial institutions such as ****, had already issued early warnings about the subprime mortgage market in the United States.

But it is a pity that George W. Bush, the then President of the United States, was, like his father, a good man in military affairs and diplomacy, but a mess in domestic affairs and economy. Facing the potential economic crisis in the United States, he did not introduce any effective policies. After his term was over, he went back to his big farm in Texas to have fun, directly leaving the mess of the subprime mortgage crisis to the next term.

However, as the president of Johnson \u0026 Johnson, Weldon cannot remain indifferent to the coming crisis.

Most of Johnson \u0026 Johnson's products are daily consumer goods and are extremely sensitive to market reactions. If the consumer goods market declines, it will directly affect the survival of Johnson \u0026 Johnson.

When enterprises face difficulties, the solution is nothing more than to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

However, given the current economic situation in the United States, open source may not play a big role. The entire consumer market is sluggish, and opening up new markets is almost like courting death.

Even for Apple's iPhone, the most popular electronic product in the world, the cumulative sales in those two years were only 6 million units, which is about the same as Xiaomi's current monthly sales.

Therefore, there is only one way before Johnson \u0026 Johnson, and that is to reduce expenditures.

Reducing production costs is the best way to save money.

Thinking of this, Wilden couldn't help but sigh. Then he picked up the phone, dialed a number, and said:

"Reply to the Chinese person and tell him that our Johnson \u0026 Johnson company will send people to China to inspect his production factory. If his factory can meet our production requirements, we can give them orders for electronic blood pressure monitors and blood glucose meters. Do!"

…

Lu Guangming came to Li Weidong's room excitedly.

"Chairman, Johnson \u0026 Johnson has agreed to send an inspection team to inspect our production factory!" Lu Guangming said with excitement.

"I won the bet again!" Li Weidong took a deep breath and continued, "Then you have to return home early to prepare."

"I'll make some preparations and book a flight back home." Lu Guangming nodded, and then asked: "What about Roche and Bayer in Germany, and Omron in Japan? Do we still want to go?"

"Don't rush to Germany yet. Based on my understanding of German companies, they will not easily move their factories to other countries. As for Japan, we can leave it alone first. The Japanese have always admired the United States. If we can It will be much easier to get the OEM from Johnson \u0026 Johnson and then fight for the OEM from Japan.”

Li Weidong paused and then said: "This time, Johnson \u0026 Johnson is willing to send an inspection team. A large part of the reason is that there are problems with the U.S. economy and the prospects for the retail industry are not optimistic, so Johnson \u0026 Johnson will consider letting us be its agents." Working.

If the U.S. economy was booming and the future of retail was bright, Johnson \u0026 Johnson would probably leave us alone. Even if the production line is to be moved, the OEM model will not be chosen. It is estimated that it will go directly to build a factory in China. "

The subprime mortgage crisis is a disaster for American companies, but it is an opportunity for many Chinese companies.

After the subprime mortgage crisis, the hollowing out of the U.S. manufacturing industry has become increasingly severe, and more and more manufacturing industries have gradually left the United States. Move to countries with lower production costs.

The production cost mentioned here refers not only to the wages of workers. If workers could become a major manufacturing country with low wages, then Africa would have been covered in manufacturing industries decades ago.

In addition to labor costs, policies, regulations, taxes, land, energy supply, transportation, supply chains, etc. are all included in production costs.

In these aspects, the United States obviously does not have an advantage.

Not only is the cost of labor in the United States high, but there are also labor unions everywhere, and they often go on strike to demand higher wages and benefits.

In terms of energy, although the price of electricity in the United States is not high compared to its income, the power supply network in the United States is actually relatively backward, and the American power system is mainly operated by private enterprises.

What private companies care about is profits. You cannot expect private power companies in the United States to be like China's State Grid, which would rather lose money than deliver electricity to every remote rural area.

Moreover, private companies are unwilling to bear the cost of power grid construction. In order to obtain power supply, many American companies have to pay an additional power grid fee to the power company, so that the power company can connect the wires to the door of the company.

Therefore, many larger companies will open their own power companies to generate their own electricity for their own use, which is actually cheaper.

Large companies have the capital to build free power grids, but small and medium-sized enterprises cannot build their own power grids. For small and medium-sized manufacturing industries, the private power grid system in the United States is really not friendly.

As for transportation, the logistics industry in the United States is very developed, but the transportation efficiency is low and the freight is not low.

This is mainly because the U.S. infrastructure is too old, which directly affects the operation of the logistics industry. The developed logistics industry has been held back by backward infrastructure. A port blockage in Los Angeles has caused shortages of goods on American supermarket shelves. For this reason, most of the trillion-dollar infrastructure bills proposed by Biden in later generations were voted for infrastructure.

In the short term, the subprime mortgage crisis has caused the greatest damage to the United States, in fact, the U.S. manufacturing industry. It was not until the United States set up trade barriers a few years later that it stopped the relocation of American manufacturing industries, and some manufacturing began to return to the United States.

…

In the American business community, news that Ford wants to lose weight has been spreading for a long time.

In 2006, Ford suffered a huge loss of US$12.6 billion, losing all its profits in the past five or six years.

Faced with this situation, Ford was forced to come up with a slimming down plan and would sell off some of its brands and assets to stem the company's losses.

In addition to Ford, the other two major American auto companies are also having a hard time.

General Motors suffered a huge loss of US$38.7 billion in 2007, a huge loss of US$30.9 billion in 2008, and directly filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Then the U.S. government took over, and finally the company was saved.

Although Chrysler only had a loss of US$1.6 billion on its books in 2007, it spent US$11 billion to quell the workers' strike. In 2008, it lost US$8 billion. In 2009, it went bankrupt and was eventually sold to Fiat Group.

The three major U.S. car companies have suffered huge losses. A large part of the reason is that there are problems in the U.S. economy. The subprime mortgage crisis has begun to take shape, which has weakened the U.S. consumer market.

In addition to the three major U.S. automakers, European, Japanese and Korean brands have also seen sales declines in the United States. In the U.S. auto market in 2008, Toyota's sales dropped by 15.4% year-on-year, Honda's sales dropped by 7.9% year-on-year, Nissan's sales dropped by 11%, Hyundai's sales dropped by 14%, Kia's sales dropped by 10.05%, Porsche's sales dropped by 25%, and BMW's sales dropped by 9.7%.

The United States is a country on wheels. In the United States, it is almost impossible to move without a car. The decline in car sales directly shows how bad the American economy was at that time.

What makes things even worse is that the American auto union is still making trouble at this time.

Take Chrysler as an example. They were already in difficulty in 2007, and they also suffered the most serious strike wave. Chrysler's factories in 14 states in the United States suspended production. In the end, Chrysler had to spend 11 billion U.S. dollars to pay American auto workers. Federation to establish a medical and retirement security fund.

When auto workers from other companies saw that Chrysler workers were making a lot of money, they also went on strike to demand increased wages and benefits.

Then General Motors took the plunge. Originally, General Motors had a chance to survive the subprime mortgage crisis by relying on corporate bonds. However, due to workers' strikes, GM's corporate bonds ran into problems, and it had to file for bankruptcy protection.

Therefore, some economists in later generations believe that the two major automobile giants, General Motors and Chrysler, were destroyed by the automobile unions. This is not unreasonable.

Many companies that invest in the United States spend millions every year on professional labor relations companies in order to resist American labor unions.

With the benefit of hindsight, Ford sold assets during the subprime mortgage crisis, completed its downsizing, and thus avoided filing for bankruptcy, which can be regarded as a successful business strategy.

But if you look at it over ten years, Ford still cannot escape the dilemma of decline.

In the Chinese market, although the Lincoln brand occasionally performs well, it cannot hide Ford's declining market share.

Especially after entering the era of electric vehicles, the rapid rise of Chinese car companies has made American cars that were already criticized for high fuel consumption even worse.

In the U.S. market, Ford relies entirely on its F-series pickup trucks to maintain its reputation. In terms of cars and SUVs, it is completely defeated by the Japanese duo.

However, the assets sold by Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo, not only turned a profit, but also became more and more prosperous. Ford's assets appear to have been sold at a loss.

Now Ford is planning to sell assets around the world to implement its downsizing plan, so it also pays great attention to potential buyers. At Ford's headquarters, Li Weidong met Bill Ford, the head of Ford.

Bill Ford is the fourth generation of the Ford family and the great-grandson of Ford founder Henry Ford. As early as 1979, he joined Ford and served in various departments of Ford. In 1988, he joined Ford's board of directors. In 2001, he became CEO of Ford and in 2006, he was appointed executive chairman of Ford.

Just looking at this resume, Bill Ford was completely trained as if he were recognized by Ford Company itself.

After Li Weidong and Ford exchanged a few pleasantries, they went directly to the topic.

Just listen to Li Weidong say: "Mr. Ford, I am very interested in your company's weight loss plan. I hope to help your company complete this weight loss plan."

He obviously took a fancy to Ford's assets and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to get a bargain, but he said he was here to help Ford. A few simple words made Bill Ford realize that he had encountered a more difficult opponent.

Bill Ford is also a good negotiator. As early as the early 1980s, he served as Ford's representative to negotiate with the United Auto Workers union, and he also negotiated a more favorable result for Ford.

In the United States, anyone who can negotiate with the automobile union and win is definitely a great person.

Bill Ford smiled slightly, and then said: "Mr. Li, our Ford company does have a lot of high-quality assets that can be shared to make more companies profit."

It's obviously selling something, but it's said that it's shared so you can make money. It's like the buyer owes Ford a sum. Even Bill Ford, a master negotiator, doesn't suffer at all.

Bill Ford continued: "We own more than 30% of Mazda's shares. Mazda's sales in Asia have always been very good. I guess Mr. Li will be interested in this, right?"

Mazda can be regarded as a century-old company in Japan. It first started out as a wine cork maker. It began producing trucks in 1931 and sedans in 1940. Its history of producing cars is several years earlier than Toyota.

In the late 1960s, Ford cooperated with Mazda to produce gearboxes. Then Ford took advantage of Mazda's deteriorating business and continued to acquire Mazda's shares. The shareholding ratio reached 33.4%, which was more than one-third. At that time, Mazda The presidents are all sent by Ford.

This is also an old tactic used by American companies. They will cooperate with you first, and then wait for an opportunity to eat you. Japanese companies suffered greatly back then, and then Korean companies, all of which were owned by Americans. Wage earner. Even the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which is rumored every day as the "Island Protector Mountain", is half-owned by Americans.

Mazda entered the Chinese market in the early 1990s, and later established a joint venture with FAW, and successively launched two popular models, Mazda M3 and Mazda M6.

Around 2010, Mazda cars were selling very well, especially the red Mazda M6. It had a very fashionable appearance and was very popular among young women. The price was not expensive and bosses could afford it. It was the first generation in the country. "Mistress Car".

Later, the "mistress car" gradually became involved, and the bosses also upgraded their consumption. Ma Liu was looked down upon by the mistresses. As a luxury brand, BMW fans NI took the place of Ma Liu, and later upgraded to a more luxurious brand. Porsche Maan.

Since Mazda's sales in the Chinese market are very good, Bill Ford instinctively believed that Li Weidong came for Mazda shares.

At this time, Bill Ford had already begun to think about it, and took the opportunity to give Li Weidong a hard blow. After all, for the Chinese, Mazda, with its sales rising steadily, is definitely a high-quality asset.

However, Li Weidong smiled and shook his head: "Mr. Ford, I am not interested in Mazda's shares. I am more interested in Jaguar Land Rover owned by your company!"

"Jaguar Land Rover?" Bill Ford, a master negotiator, couldn't help showing a surprised expression, and then looked Li Weidong up and down.

Is the Chinese man in front of me planning to swallow the elephant?