Reborn Industrial Tycoon

Chapter 518 Competition or Cooperation

At the Puppy Electrical Laboratory in Shanghai, Li Weidong took a razor and tried it on his chin, then touched his chin and found that the shave was quite clean.

This is a three-head shaver that uses the floating head technology developed by Puppy Electric.

In the process of developing the floating blade head, Tang Hao found that there was not much difference between the principles of double-head and three-head shavers, but the three-head shaver was definitely better, so he simply made a three-head razor.

Li Weidong nodded with satisfaction: "Yes, the shave is very clean. Our floating blade technology has been successfully developed! Has the patent been applied for?"

"The application process is in progress. There is no similar patented technology in China, so it should be smoother to apply for a patent." Tang Hao answered.

"What about international patents? Our main competitor is Philips. They also have floating head technology, and the HQ8 series of shavers launched in Europe have already begun to use floating head technology." Li Weidong said.

"I have also studied the Philips HQ8 cutter head. The floating cutter head technology we developed is still different from Philips' floating cutter head technology."

Tang Hao took a razor, removed the cutter head, and continued: "Our floating cutter head technology is larger and heavier. We use more metal materials to realize the floating cutter head.

effect.

This is mainly because our materials are not as good as Philips, such as the elasticity of metal, the ductility of materials, etc., we are far behind, so I can only use a lot of stupid methods and add more metal parts."

Li Weidong nodded. In his memory, when domestic razors first introduced floating heads, they were indeed larger and heavier than Philips razors.

For the same three-head shaver, the Philips shaver is very light in the hand, while the Feiko shaver is very heavy in the hand.

The main reason for this is the problem of materials. The lightweight materials used by Philips cannot be developed domestically, so they can only be replaced by relatively backward materials. As a result, the shaver is large and heavy.

But as long as the razor is cheap, it doesn’t matter if it’s bigger or heavier. What’s more, for many Chinese people, the heavier the razor is, the more material it feels like.

Just like when rice cookers became popular in the early 1990s, there were many small workshops in the south that began to produce off-brand rice cookers.

However, the heavier these miscellaneous brand rice cookers are, the easier they are to sell. If the rice cooker is heavier, people will think that more materials are used. If the inner pot of the rice cooker is thick, then the quality of the rice cooker must be very good.

As everyone knows, the thicker the inner pot, the longer the heating time and the more power the rice cooker consumes.

At that time, Japanese rice cookers were not easy to sell, because my Japanese rice cookers used a lot of new materials and were lighter in weight. People felt that Japanese rice cookers were so light, they must not use enough materials, and the price was so expensive, so they would rather buy heavy brand-name ones.

sub rice cooker.

It was not until later that Japan applied more material coating processes to rice cookers, changing the thermal conductivity of the inner pot of the rice cooker, making the steamed rice taste more delicious, and then they achieved a turnaround.

The puppy's razor is currently only for the Chinese market. It doesn't matter if it is bulky, as long as it is sold cheaply.

The next second, Li Weidong suddenly remembered that he had promised before that if Tang Hao made a floating knife head, he would be rewarded with a house.

So Li Weidong said: "Tang Gong, there are several real estate projects under construction in Pudong, and some of them have good environments. Give yourself a holiday tomorrow and go pick one out!"

…

Netherlands, Philips headquarters.

De Rong, the head of the Quality Life Business Department, looked at the financial statements in his hands and frowned.

Sales of Philips' newly launched HQ8 series of shavers are not as good as expected.

The HQ8 series of shavers is a relatively failed attempt by Philips.

The HQ8 series of shavers focuses on color products. In addition to the traditional black HQ801, there are also white HQ802, red HQ803, yellow HQ804, silver HQ851 and blue HQ852.

Philips launched this color series, perhaps to make the product more youthful and personalized and attract young people to buy it. However, for electric shaver products, these fancy colors are not popular with consumers.

Colored razors are not as business-like as the traditional dark, gray or silver ones. Coupled with the overly square design and the texture of the plastic shell, this razor looks like an epilator for women.

.

The colors of epilators tend to be brighter, while shavers are better if they are darker.

Just imagine, an adult man with a masculine temperament is shaving with a yellow HQ804 razor, but his female partner mistakenly thinks that he is using a new type of epilator. That would be a huge loss of face.

So even though this shaver uses Philips' revolutionary floating head technology, sales are still far below expectations. Consumers would rather buy older models with less novel styles than sell the HQ8 series of shavers.

After the HQ8 series of shavers encountered Waterloo, Philips had to make changes. It redesigned the appearance of the HQ8 series of shavers and changed the color of the shell. Finally, Philips' reputation was preserved.

Later, Philips simply gave up on this square design. Later new models all used various tapered shapes, which was obviously intended to distinguish razors from epilators.

Today's Philips has not yet realized the reason for the failure of the HQ8 series, at least the elderly De Jong cannot figure it out.

"The HQ8 series obviously uses the most advanced floating cutter head technology, and the tilt angle of the cutter head is also more close to the surface. This should be a very good product, why can't it be sold?" De Jong read the report several times in a row,

The doubts in my heart not only did not diminish, but became more and more intense.

European companies have always been relatively superstitious about technology. They generally believe that as long as they are technologically advanced and incorporate various advanced technologies into their products, they will not worry about the market even if the price is relatively high.

Europeans at that time were typically not beaten by cheap goods.

Compared with the United States, the European market is much more closed. Even in the heyday of Japanese manufacturing, there was no way to seize a slightly lower market share in the European market. The European market has always belonged to European companies.

This is also related to geopolitics. Before the 1990s, Europe had to face the powerful Soviet Union. Because it had to be constantly vigilant about war, it emphasized self-reliance in all aspects, including manufacturing.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Europe lost its biggest threat and instead became inert. Europeans gradually embarked on a path of high welfare, with more and more holidays, but the manufacturing industry began to decline and became more and more dependent on imported goods.

high.

Just when De Jong was worried about the sales of HQ8 razors, his secretary knocked on the door and walked in.

"Mr. Derong, this is the package sent by Mr. Ke Cilei." The secretary placed a box in front of Derong.

Only then did De Jong remember that a few days ago, Ke Cilei, the head of Philips Asia, called to tell him that a shaver using floating heads had also appeared in the Chinese market. More importantly,

This shaver costs less than $50.

Now Ke Cilei's package has been sent to the Netherlands, and it should contain a sample of that razor.

De Jong immediately opened the package, revealing an ordinary packaging box. When he opened the packaging box, there was a razor wrapped in a bubble bag.

"Chinese packaging is really crude!" De Jong curled his lips with disdain.

Puppy's shaver is mainly aimed at the Chinese domestic market, so the packaging does not follow European and American standards, and is a bit crude in front of De Jong.

"It's still a three-head razor!" De Jong picked up the puppy's razor and shook it twice in his hand, with a look of disdain on his face again.

"It's so heavy. Not only can this thing be used to shave beards, it can also be used to hit people!" De Jong said to himself.

Then De Rong pressed the knife head with his hand and frowned fiercely.

"It's really a floating cutter head! The Chinese have actually mastered the floating cutter head technology!" De Jong thought for a moment, picked up the phone, and said to his secretary: "Please ask Professor Pesci to come to my office!"

Professor Pesci is responsible for the scientific research of the Philips shaver project. After receiving De Jong's call, he rushed over immediately.

"Professor Pacey, look at this!" De Jong handed the puppy razor to Pacey.

"This is not our razor!" Professor Pacey said, taking the razor and looking at it carefully, with the same surprised expression: "This is floating blade technology! In addition to us, there are people who have developed this technology.

Already?"

"It may not be research and development, it might be plagiarism!" De Rong looked fiercely and continued: "If it is plagiarism, then our group's legal department should be dispatched."

"Then let me take a look!" Professor Pacey immediately opened the head of the puppy shaver and carefully confirmed the structure inside.

After a moment, Professor Pacey sighed and said: "Mr. Derong, the floating head of this shaver uses a primitive technology, similar to the floating boring tool used in machining.

This floating cutter head uses multiple metal inner blade floating plates and blade pressure springs, and then positions the knife net and inner blade assembly on the blade pressure plate to achieve the effect of a floating cutter head.

Our floating cutter head is a whole. We connect the entire floating cutter head with the cutter frame, which makes our transmission hooking system more stable.

And we don’t use so many floating plates and springs. Our floating cutter head has a simpler structure, better effect and stability, is lighter in weight, smaller in size, and is more convenient to clean.”

"You mean, the technology they use is different from ours?" De Jong asked.

"Of course it's different. Our technology is more advanced! We don't bother to use such cumbersome and complicated old technology!" Teacher Percy said with a proud face.

"That means they didn't infringe our patent rights?" De Jong asked again.

"Applying for a patent for this design is an insult to innovation!" Pesci still looked arrogant.

There was a hint of helplessness in De Jong's eyes. Since Puppy Electric has no infringement, Philips cannot initiate an intellectual property lawsuit.

Although puppy razors are bulky, a three-head razor costs less than $50 and features floating head technology.

In comparison, the HQ8 series of razors priced as high as US$150 will have no place in the Chinese market.

A market of 1.2 billion people is about to be lost!

Not only the Chinese market, but consumers in other developing countries are also very price sensitive. If the puppy shaver enters other developing countries, it will inevitably have an impact on Philips shavers.

Thinking of this, De Jong decided to immediately contact Ke Cilei, head of Philips Asia.

De Jong looked at his watch and saw that it wasn't dinner time in Asia yet, so he quickly picked up the phone and made an international long distance call.

After a while, the call was connected, and it was not Ke Cilei who spoke, but Ke Cilei's assistant.

"Mr. Derong, Mr. Ke Cilei just went on a business trip to Malaysia this morning!" the assistant replied.

"What are you going to do in Malaysia?" De Jong asked.

"It is said that there are some problems with the power strip factory in Malaysia." The assistant replied.

"What's the problem? Is it a factory strike?" De Jong asked.

The assistant replied: "In recent days, Malaysia's currency has depreciated significantly, and capital has fled Malaysia, which has had a great impact on Malaysia's economy. Our raw material suppliers in Malaysia also ran away with their money.

On the way, Mr. Ke Cilei is going to deal with this matter."

"The supplier took the money and ran away? How much did we lose?" De Jong asked immediately.

"The specific losses are still being assessed. However, I heard that the situation in Malaysia is not optimistic. The Malaysian government may also impose restrictions on the financial market and may even adopt foreign exchange controls." The assistant replied.

…

Malaysia is the largest economy in Southeast Asia, and its per capita GDP is second only to Singapore. It is considered a relatively wealthy country in Southeast Asia.

Moreover, Malaysia is relatively rich in oil, gas and natural resources. You can make a lot of money just by selling palm oil and natural rubber. Therefore, Malaysia's economic structure is much healthier than Thailand.

In recent years, Malaysia has always maintained high economic growth, high savings rate, low inflation rate and low unemployment rate. Although there are some foreign debts, bank capital is very sufficient.

In the first month of the Asian financial crisis, almost everyone believed that Malaysia could withstand the attacks of international financial speculators.

However, in just one month, Malaysia gave up its efforts to defend the ringgit. Subsequently, Malaysia also suffered the same experience as Thailand, with currency depreciation, inflation, capital outflows, and economic collapse.

In the next few months, Malaysia will immediately depreciate by 50%, the Malaysian stock market will drop by 75%, and the economic growth rate will change from positive 7.3% to negative growth.

Malaysia's capitulation also affected Singapore. Fortunately, Singapore has strong financial resources and reached a US$30 billion exchange agreement with the Federal Reserve, which finally stabilized the foreign exchange market.

The Netherlands used to be the largest colonial power in Southeast Asia, so the Netherlands has a certain foundation in Southeast Asian countries. The Netherlands also colonized Malaysia back then, so when Malaysia's economy opened up, many Dutch companies also came to Malaysia to set up factories.

Of course this includes Philips, the top Dutch company.

Now facing the Asian financial crisis, Philips' factories in Malaysia are also in trouble.

…

Two days later, Philips Asia head Ke Cilei finally called De Jong back.

"Mr. Derong, the economic situation in Malaysia is very bad. I estimate that our factories in Malaysia will be suspended in the next few months. The worst thing is the power strip factory. The supplier ran away and we suffered heavy losses.

, Now it is unsustainable. If you want to stop the loss in time, the only way is to close the factory!" Ke Cilei said.

"What about the production capacity of power strips? The whole of Europe needs our power strips! If we stop supplying, we will hand over the European market to others!" De Jong said.

"Mr. Derong, please rest assured. I have found a manufacturer that can help us produce power strips, which can completely make up for Malaysia's production capacity. And I have asked about the price, and the FOB price is higher than our production in Malaysia.

Cheap." Ke Cilei said immediately.

"Oh? Where is the foundry?" De Jong asked immediately.

"China's Puppy Electric. They have a large factory with tens of thousands of workers and hundreds of various production lines!" Ke Cilei replied.

"Puppy Electric? It sounds so familiar..." After all, De Rong is old and his memory is not very good.

"Mr. Derong, the razor I sent you before was made by them." Ke Cilei said.

"What?" De Rong blinked and showed an incredible expression.

They were competitors a few days ago, but in just two days, they became partners!

After all, as I get older, my brain is a little hard to turn around.

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