Reborn Industrial Tycoon

Chapter 226 Win-win (two-in-one chapter)

Li Weidong was not surprised that Bunta Takakura wanted the patent for the egg steamer. With Bunta Takakura's eyesight, he could certainly see that the egg steamer had market value.

The core function of home appliances is nothing more than to make human life more convenient and comfortable. From this point of view, the egg steamer is a qualified product.

Li Weidong knew Bunta Takakura well, and he had already guessed that Bunta Takakura would not pay too high a patent fee, and might just give Li Weidong tens of thousands of dollars.

Sure enough, Bunta Takakura said: "Mr. Li, if you are willing, our Xizhi Electric is willing to pay you 20,000 US dollars to purchase the patent for the egg steamer."

"Mr. Gao Cang, twenty thousand US dollars is not enough to apply for a PCT patent." Li Weidong replied with a smile.

"Well, then it's thirty thousand dollars. I think that's a very reasonable number."

Takakura Bunta paused and then said: "Your egg steamer is just a slight functional improvement based on the electric steamer. It is not a new invention. In other words

In other words, many electrical appliance companies can produce products similar to egg steamers with their existing technology, including us, Xizhi Electric, of course."

The last half of Mrs. Takakura's words were already equivalent to a threat. If Li Weidong does not accept the patent fee of 30,000 US dollars, then Xizhi Electric will directly produce a product "similar to an egg steamer". At worst, it will change its name, such as "egg warmer"

", "potato steamer" and so on, but in essence they are all egg steamers.

"This Takakura Bunta is just as I expected!" Li Weidong smiled calmly. Based on Li Weidong's understanding of Takakura Bunta, he had already guessed that Takakura Bunta would do this.

So Li Weidong asked: "Mr. Gao Cang, your Xizhi Electric wants to buy my patent, it should be to produce egg steamers, right?"

"That's right." Takakura Bunta said bluntly: "Under the current situation, I can't purchase products directly from your country, so I can only purchase patents and produce them in our country."

"Mr. Gao Cang, I have another cooperation model that you may be interested in." Li Weidong pointed to the egg steamer in front of him and said, "I can OEM this product for Xizhi Electric!"

"OEM?" Takakura Bunta frowned.

"I think Mr. Takakura must be familiar with the OEM production model, right? More than 30 years ago, many companies in Japan started by relying on OEM, and now in Japan, many companies have opened OEM factories in

South Korea and Southeast Asia." Li Weidong said slowly.

Gao Cangbunta narrowed his eyes slightly, as if thinking about Li Weidong's suggestion.

Li Weidong continued: "The structure of this egg steamer is not complicated and the cost is not high, so the profit is not that big. At least compared with other household appliances produced by Xizhi Electric, the profit is less or more.

Compared with telecommunications equipment and digital products, there is a huge difference.

If Xizhi Electric wants to produce its own egg steamer, it will need to improve the production line and train workers. These will increase the production cost of Xizhi Electric. The same production line should be used to produce TVs or printers than to produce steamers.

Egg machine, more profitable, right?

Therefore, it is not cost-effective for Xizhi Electric to open a new production line to produce small things like Xizhi Electric. It is better to directly adopt the OEM model, which can save a lot of costs. And my factory already has an egg steamer.

A complete production line, as long as Xizhi Electric is willing, we can OEM for Xizhi Electric at any time!

In addition, there is another advantage to adopting the OEM production model, because OEM is not a direct purchase. Strictly speaking, OEM is just your entrustment for processing and production, not a trading behavior of goods, so Xizhi Electric does not have to worry about certain

Limitations of objective factors.”

Takakura Bunta nodded: "Mr. Li, what you said makes sense. If we at Xizhi Electric set up a production line directly, the cost is indeed lower than finding an OEM. But once we successfully set up a production line, we can produce steam for a long time.

For egg cookers, as time accumulates, the cost of setting up a production line will continue to be reduced. From a long-term perspective, setting up a production line is cost-effective."

"Mr. Bunta Takakura, in addition to the cost of setting up a production line, the cost of parts and labor costs also need to be considered by Nishiba Electric. The parts produced in China are much cheaper than those in Japan. The labor force in China is also cheaper than that in Japan.

There are many. So the egg steamer produced in China is definitely much cheaper than in Japan." Li Weidong said,

Bunta Takakura shook his head: "If all Chinese parts are used, it is equivalent to purchasing directly from China, which violates the principle of OEM. This is fake OEM, and my superiors will not approve it."

Li Weidong immediately said: "I already have a plan in this regard. Mr. Gao Cang, please take a look. There is a stainless steel plate in this egg steamer. Water is heated through this stainless steel plate and turns into water vapor. This stainless steel plate

It should be regarded as the core component of the egg steamer.

So I plan that this stainless steel plate will be provided by Xizhi Electric, which is equivalent to the key core components provided by Japan, while our Chinese company only provides some non-critical components, so it does not violate the principle of OEM.

Aren’t most of the OEM production models around the world working this way?”

"Mr. Li, you are really a master at exploiting loopholes!" Bunta Takakura couldn't help but sigh.

"Mr. Gao Cang, I just proposed a more feasible solution, which happens to be beneficial to both of us! For Xizhi Electric, you get cheap products, but for me,

You can earn a little bit of hard work. It's a win-win situation!" Li Weidong said with a smile.

"Okay, I admit that Mr. Li's plan is indeed a win-win plan, and I will report it to the headquarters." Takakura Bunta said.

…

The first step of Li Weidong's Plan B is door-to-door sales. If Takakura Bunta is unwilling to purchase the egg steamer, then Li Weidong can only take the second step, which is to obtain OEM and sell the egg steamer in this way.

go out.

Due to the shortage of stainless steel in the country, Li Weidong simply took this opportunity to ask Xizhi Electric to provide stainless steel under the guise of providing core components. This can prove that this is a real OEM, and secondly, it can also solve the problem of shortage of stainless steel materials, so that

The egg steamer was successfully produced.

This kind of OEM only appeared in the 1950s and 1960s. The first companies to engage in OEM were Japanese companies. The following four Asian Tigers and Four Asian Tigers all started by relying on OEM in the early days, while China

OEMs also account for a large part of the manufacturing industry.

It is precisely because OEM is a new thing, and Western developed countries have not experienced the stage of OEM for others, so in the 1980s, the understanding of OEM in international trade was still relatively vague, even after the WTO

Within the framework, there are no clear provisions for the identification of OEMs.

As the OEM production model becomes more and more powerful, and even becomes a major production model in international trade, economists gradually define OEM as a kind of labor export with commodities as the carrier.

In other words, OEM is a kind of export, but it is not trade in goods or trade in services.

It is precisely because of the special nature of OEM that OEM can bypass many international agreements. Most unilateral or multilateral trade agreements have no restrictions on OEM behavior.

In many trade agreements, anti-dumping investigations can be conducted on certain commodities, tariffs on certain commodities can be increased, and even the import of certain commodities can be banned through administrative orders. However, these methods are completely ineffective for OEMs.

Because the core of foundry is manufacturing, while the core of trade is goods or services.

…

Two days later, Li Weidong received a call from Bunta Takakura and came to Xizhi Electric's office in Hong Kong.

After the two exchanged a few words, Takakura Bunta said:

"Mr. Li, I have already reported to the Japanese headquarters about the OEM. The headquarters agrees with this plan in principle, but the price must be within a reasonable range. So I invite you here this time to discuss the price.

matters."

Li Weidong knew that Xizhi Electric Appliances must have done a price evaluation on the egg steamer, so Li Weidong decided to quote first to take the initiative.

So Li Weidong said: "Mr. Gao Cang, our quotation at the Canton Fair for this egg steamer is US$25 per unit. It's about 3,000 yen!"

"Mr. Li, let's just talk about the US dollar!" Bunta Takakura said.

In 1989, Japan's per capita GDP exceeded 25,000 US dollars, and with the appreciation of the yen, this number will continue to rise. In 1994, Japan's per capita GDP exceeded 40,000 US dollars, followed by 25

There has been no growth in 2020, and Japan's per capita GDP in 2020 is thousands of dollars less than in 1994.

Therefore, for the Japanese in 1989, it was more cost-effective to talk about US dollars when buying things.

Li Weidong nodded and then said: "Okay, let's go by US dollars. If Xizhi Electric can provide stainless steel plates, then I can reduce the price of the egg steamer to 22 US dollars."

"Mr. Li, this is too high. We have calculated the cost of raw materials. Excluding the stainless steel plate, the cost of such an egg steamer will definitely not exceed 15 US dollars!" Takakura Bunta said.

"Mr. Gao Cang, what you calculated is the cost of raw materials. Don't forget there is also the cost of patents. I want you to pay a patent fee of US$1 for an egg steamer. Isn't that excessive?" Li Weidong said.

"That's only 16 US dollars!" Bunta Takakura said.

"There are also labor costs! I need to pay the workers, and in addition, I also need some profits! In the home appliance industry, gross profits of more than 25% are very common, so the $22 I want is a very reasonable one.

Price." Li Weidong said.

Bunta Takakura shook his head: "No, I'll give you up to 18 US dollars!"

"21 dollars!" Li Weidong said.

"19 dollars!" Bunta Takakura immediately countered.

"One price, 20 US dollars!" Li Weidong said immediately.

Takakura Bunta did not answer immediately, but fell into thinking.

Li Weidong immediately increased the price: "For the price of 20 US dollars, if Xizhi Electric orders more than 300,000 units at a time, I will give you an additional 5,000 units. Of course, you have to pay for the stainless steel plates."

Three hundred thousand units and five thousand units are given away, which is equivalent to US$19.67 per unit. This is an acceptable figure for Xizhi Electric.

However, the number of 300,000 units is a bit large, but it exceeds Xizhi Electric's plan. In Xizhi Electric's plan, they did not plan to buy so many egg steamers at one time.

"Three hundred thousand units? This is too much. Mr. Li, you are very optimistic about the market for this product!" Bunta Takakura said.

Li Weidong shook his head: "I think Xizhi Electric has underestimated the market for egg steamers. A mere 300,000 egg steamers have been put into the Japanese market and will be sold out soon. I'm afraid you Xizhi Electric will need it by then.

Place more orders.”

"I'm not as optimistic as you." Takakura Bunta shook his head.

"Mr. Gao Cang, you have stayed in Hong Kong Island for too long! You must know that Japan's consumption habits are different from those in Hong Kong Island." Li Weidong said with a smile.

Bunta Takakura looked disapproving, and said, "Mr. Li, I am Japanese, and I know Japan's consumption habits quite well."

"Oh? Then may I ask Mr. Gao Cang, when was the last time you bought daily necessities in a Japanese shopping mall?" Li Weidong asked still smiling.

"Well, well, because my workplace is always on Hong Kong Island, I don't usually have the opportunity to visit Japanese shopping malls." Takakura Bunta continued with a slight embarrassment: "But this doesn't mean that I don't understand Japanese people.

consumption habits.”

"Then let me ask another question? Which group of people is the main force in the Japanese consumer market?" Li Weidong asked.

"Of course they are middle-aged people, middle-aged office workers aged forty to fifty. Their salaries are relatively high and their population base is large enough. Of course they are the main force in the consumer market." Takakura Bunta replied without hesitation.

"You are wrong, Mr. Takakura. The main force in the Japanese consumer market is housewives." Li Weidong continued: "I can guarantee that a thirty-five-year-old housewife's spending power will definitely be higher than that of a forty-five-year-old housewife."

Male section chiefs are much taller."

Takakura Bunta instinctively wanted to refute, but after careful consideration, this was really the case.

After Japanese people get married, many women will choose to be full-time housewives. Before Japan's economic bubble burst, the income of the Japanese working class was generally relatively high, and there were many more women who were full-time housewives after marriage than in later generations.

In a traditional Japanese family, the wife is in charge of the money, and the wife is responsible for the daily expenses of the family. The husband has to receive pocket money from his wife, and it depends on the wife's mood to give more or less.

Japanese housewives are in charge of both money and spending, and are naturally the main force in the consumer market.

And those office workers who work hard all day, wearing suits and ties every day, look like human beings, but actually have no money in their hands, so naturally they can't talk about consumption.

Just listen to Li Weidong continue to say: "The main job of Japanese housewives is to take care of the family. They have to get up early every morning to prepare breakfast for the whole family, and prepare dinner for the whole family every night. In addition, they have to prepare lunch boxes for their husbands and children.

So they spend a long time in the kitchen every day.

As a household appliance used in the kitchen, the egg steamer can save housewives time and energy. Of course, housewives will be excited about such a product. For housewives who hold the financial power of the family, they should be very interested in it.

I am willing to spend four to five thousand yen to buy a machine that can help them save time and energy.

I think Mr. Takakura knows better than me how many families there are in Japan and how many housewives there are. If a mere 300,000 egg steamers were put into the Japanese market, they would be a drop in the bucket. Those housewives would soon be

We will snatch up these 300,000 egg steamers in one fell swoop.”

Bunta Takakura sighed lightly: "Okay, Mr. Li, you are a great salesman. You successfully convinced me that Xizhi Electric will sign the contract for 300,000 units."

"Mr. Gao Cang, happy cooperation!" Li Weidong laughed.

…

Li Weidong finally got 300,000 egg steaming machines and a contract worth six million US dollars.

After walking out of Xizhi Electric's office in Hong Kong, Zheng Jianan drove Li Weidong back to the hotel.

"Now that you have negotiated with Xizhi Electric, should I help you contact other electrical appliance brands, such as Panasonic, Hitachi, Sanyo, etc.?" Zheng Jianan asked.

Li Weidong shook his head: "No, one Xizhi Electric is enough. If there are more, my production capacity will not be able to keep up. And I also have my purpose in choosing Xizhi Electric."

"What purpose?" Zheng Jianan asked.

"Among Japan's major home appliance brands, Nisshiba is the least engaged. During World War II, Nisshiba was a military-industrial company under Mitsui. Even now, Nisshiba still produces tanks, machine guns, cannons and other weapons.

Don't look at it. Xizhi Electric is currently in the household appliance industry, but their business focus has begun to expand into the fields of digital technology, mobile communication technology and network technology. The proportion of household appliances in Xizhi's business will only increase.

Come less and less.

Xizhi Corporation's strategy is to become a pioneer in the IT industry. If it were not for the "Japan-US Semiconductor Agreement", Xizhi would have already made the best semiconductors in the world. Although the "Japan-US Semiconductor Agreement" restricts

Xizhi's development in semiconductors, but in personal computers and storage equipment, Xizhi is still the world's top level.

Just imagine, a company that focuses on the high-tech industry, how can it care about my simple egg steamer? Why do they put so much thought into the egg steamer? Compared with other household appliance brands, Xizhi Electric Appliances is running too fast.

It's almost out of the field of home appliances. This is exactly why I chose Xizhi Electric.

Xizhi's business focus is not on home appliances, which means that Xizhi Electric needs more OEMs. This is an opportunity for me. In the future, Xizhi will continue to weaken its home appliance business. I may also get some help from Xizhi Electric.

By getting more OEM orders, not only will it be an egg steamer, but I will also be able to get OEM orders for other products from Xizhi Electric.

If we switch to other home appliance brands, such as Panasonic, Hitachi, and Sony, their business focus will always be on home appliances. Of course, in the future, they will also need OEMs to reduce costs, but at least they will not be like Xizhi

, shrinking its home appliance business."

Zheng Jianan nodded in understanding. Although she was a lawyer, she didn't understand the strategic layout of doing business.

…

Li Weidong's original plan was to build his own brand. After all, when it comes to household appliances, brand is a key factor. Even when most consumers buy household appliances, they only look at the brand and nothing else.

However, the severe foreign trade situation forced Li Weidong to interrupt his brand plan, and his puppy brand could only be temporarily shelved.

Since his own brand cannot be sold, the only way for Li Weidong to continue to make money in the international market is to work as an OEM for major international brands.

The profits of OEM work are not high, and you can only earn a hard-earned salary. However, for China in the late 1980s, it seems that there is no right to be picky. As long as there is money to be made, it does not matter how much or how little the money is.

Let’s talk about it after making money!

Many foreigners are too lazy to do, disdain to do, or are unwilling to do, but the Chinese do not dislike it and do it all, even if it is only a meager profit, even if it costs their health and the environment.

These are the costs of development. Foreigners are not philanthropists. They will not leave those easy, comfortable and healthy jobs to the Chinese. If there are good jobs that make money while lying down, of course they should be left to themselves first.

However, being an OEM is not without its benefits.

For Li Weidong, in addition to accumulating capital, working as an OEM can also accumulate technology.

The OEM process is actually a learning process, and it is a very valuable opportunity for China, which was still very backward at the time.

In the future, many well-known domestic brands will start out as OEMs.

They first started assembling products for foreigners, and then gradually replaced parts with domestic ones, and finally realized that the products were purely domestic. At this time, the company had accumulated enough production experience, and they were able to launch their own products, relying on cabbage.

The competitive advantage of price will drive the former foreign brands out of the market.

Made in China started from pretending to be a grandson and grew up step by step.

…

Li Weidong did not stay in Hong Kong Island for too long. He returned to Yangcheng with a US$6 million order from Xizhi Electric.

The Canton Fair is not over yet at this time.

After getting off the boat, Li Weidong took a taxi to the Canton Fair site, and then went straight to Ma Dexing's office.

"Director Li? Are you back from Hong Kong? Let's sit on the sofa first." Seeing that it was Li Weidong, Ma Dexing asked directly, "Have you gained anything by taking the initiative? Did you get the order?"

"I got the order." Li Weidong nodded.

Ma Dexing asked casually. He didn't have much hope for Li Weidong. Until he heard that there was an order, Ma Dexing instantly became energetic.

"Have you really signed in for the order? This is a good thing! Director Li, take a rest first and I'll pour you some tea!" Ma Dexing stood up, walked to the thermos bottle, and started making tea for Li Weidong.

"If there is no order, I probably won't even be able to drink tea!" Li Weidong complained in his heart, and then said. "This time I went to Xizhi Electric's office in Hong Kong Island and got the order from there."

"An order from Xizhi Electric!" Ma Dexing was surprised at first, then ran back to his desk and took out a box of beautifully packaged tea leaves from the drawer.

I saw a smile on Ma Dexing's face: "Director Li, I just got a box of good tea, which is specially prepared for next year's Asian Games. You have to try it!"

Li Weidong sighed silently. It seems that this Xizhi Electric Appliance is still very famous and worth a cup of tea specially provided for the Asian Games!

Ma Dexing walked up to Li Weidong with the brewed tea, handed the tea cup to Li Weidong, and then asked: "Director Li, how much is the contract?"

"Six million!" Li Weidong replied.

"Hong Kong dollars?" Ma Dexing asked subconsciously.

"Of course it's US dollars!" Li Weidong said, calmly picking up the tea cup and blowing on the tea leaves floating on it.

When he heard it was US dollars, Ma Dexing couldn't sit still for a moment.

"Director Li? Where's the contract? Show it to me quickly!"

Thank you for your subscription. I have been posting two-in-one chapters recently, mainly for the 6000 uniform price. Thanks to book friend 4128, Liang Liangyu, 198215dai, book friend 4606, Shenzhen wants money from me, book friend 7842

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