Reborn Industrial Tycoon

"Look at this!" Menendez said in a very unkind tone as he threw a document to Jewell.

Jewell took the document and glanced at it, and recognized that it was a quarterly financial report of a company. After a closer look, it was the quarterly financial report of Jaguar Land Rover.

"Sales have increased so much year-on-year? It is very rare for a luxury brand car to achieve such a growth." Jewell continued to look at it in surprise, and his expression suddenly changed after more than ten seconds.

"The sales of Range Rover in the Chinese market increased by 370%? 3.7 times in one quarter? How is this possible! This is not a hot dog on the roadside, this is a car, and it is a luxury car priced at more than 100,000 US dollars!"

Menendez snorted coldly and said: "I sent someone to inquire. The average monthly sales of Range Rover in the Chinese market is about more than 700 vehicles, which means 2,200 vehicles can be sold in a quarter. 3.7 times is more than 8,000 vehicles.

Don’t you think this number is very familiar to you?”

When Menendez said this, there was a trace of anger on his face: "Didn't you tell me that except for the United States, there is no place that can digest eight thousand Range Rover in one go?"

"Sir, there is absolutely no problem with my judgment. How can so many people in China afford a Range Rover? I guess this must be data fraud!" Jewell then defended:

"If the Chinese market can digest 8,000 Range Rovers in one quarter, then it was impossible to sell only 700 units a month before. Unless they suddenly have 8,000 rich people!"

Little did Jewell know that tens of thousands of multi-millionaires could emerge from any housing renovation project in the Pearl River Delta. Some projects could even produce thousands of billionaires.

Land Rover Range Rover was once known as the favorite of the nouveau riche. If you are a nouveau riche and don't buy a Range Rover, you will be sorry for your status.

Before 2008, when people mentioned nouveau riche, the first thing they thought of was coal bosses. But after 2008, when people mentioned nouveau riche, they thought mostly of demolished households.

There was once a joke about a young man in a certain village who couldn't find a partner because he was too poor. Then the village spray-painted the word "Hai" on the wall, and as a result, matchmakers from all over the country came.

"Getting rich by demolishing" is a special phenomenon. In fact, most of the demolished households cannot meet the standard of "getting rich". At most, they just want to improve their living and housing conditions. Some demolished households still need to pay for their own money before they can buy a new house.

live.

However, in economically developed areas, it is obviously much more common to get rich through demolition. For example, in the Pearl River Delta and Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, large-scale housing reform has driven the development of cities and created a large number of wealthy indigenous people.

Some of these people received compensation for the entire building after the demolition, and then lived a life of rent-sharing every day; some took the money directly and became multi-millionaires or billionaires in an instant; and some were village collectives.

If the demolition money is used for investment, the annual interest will be enough for the villagers to divide it into dozens or even millions.

For this group of people, buying a luxury brand car is completely within the economic affordability.

Li Weidong targeted this group of customers.

The customer base of luxury brand cars is relatively fixed. Generally speaking, there are only so many rich people, and there are only so many people who can afford luxury cars. Looking at the world, 8,000 Range Rovers can be digested in a short period of time.

Yes, there are only demolition households in China.

Naturally, land expropriation occurs abroad, and households are relocated, and even the compensation payments are very high. However, land expropriation compensation in other countries is difficult to make a large number of people rich overnight.

For example, when Foxconn built a panel factory in Wisconsin, the United States, it expropriated a piece of 147 acres, or about 900 acres of land. The landowner received US$7 million in compensation and suddenly became a rich man.

But this landlord originally owned 9,000 acres of land, which means he only sold one-tenth of the land. He was a big landowner, and after selling 900 acres, he still had 8,100 acres in hand. And the benefits of land expropriation are also

Basically, it was all occupied by this landlord, and no one else had anything to do with it.

How many luxury cars can this landlord afford to buy even if his family members have two cars each?

The private ownership of land abroad has concentrated land in the hands of a few landlords. When expropriating land, you only need to negotiate with the landlords for land compensation. Land expropriation can only make a few people rich. For example, those who have tens of thousands of acres of land in their hands

Landowners can build a big factory by just selling a tenth of the land.

There are no shantytown renovation projects in the United States. What they call "villages in the city" eventually turn into slums where everyone is shot and drugged.

Some countries in Western Europe, as well as Japan and South Korea in Northeast Asia, have carried out some shantytown renovation projects in urban villages. However, their shantytown renovations are not like China's complete demolition and re-planning, and then the construction of high-rise buildings and various foundations.

facility.

Housing renovation projects in Western European countries are mainly about repairing and renovating old buildings. For example, France often provides housing renovation subsidies. Residents can apply for subsidies from the government when they renovate their own houses. This subsidy will definitely not generate millions of dollars.

Rich man.

Another example is the shed renovation in Germany. You need to find a professional cleaning company to deeply clean the exterior walls of the building, clean up all the putty accumulated from the Bismarck era, and perform some antibacterial and deodorizing treatments. Then you are done. Rely on cleaning.

Walls can't make millionaires.

Housing renovation in Japan and South Korea mainly involves repairing the appearance of old houses and demolishing illegal buildings. It also does not involve large-scale demolition of houses to build new ones.

Japan is in an earthquake zone and is not suitable for building high-rise buildings. If the houses are built too low, developers will not make much profit. Coupled with the real estate bubble of the year, developers naturally have little interest in housing renovation. Japan

As a developer, it's fine to build one or two high-end apartment buildings occasionally, but don't even think about building an entire community.

South Korea also has a large number of urban villages, and various private buildings in the urban villages are built randomly. The original one-story buildings can be added to three or four floors, causing various safety hazards. This is very similar to the urban villages in Chinese cities.

The South Korean government also knows that urban villages should be renovated, but these urban villages cannot be demolished. South Korea's unique chaebol economy has caused the government to lose its leadership in shantytown renovation.

The chaebol-led shantytown renovation project is naturally unwilling to pay more compensation, and the demolished households want more compensation. In the end, no one can agree, so the demolition will not be carried out. The residents continue to live in the same place, and the chaebol finds a vacant land in the suburbs to build.

From time to time, the government sends people to demolish privately built buildings, build them again after demolishing them, and then demolish them after they are built.

Generally speaking, there is no such thing as a good thing in foreign countries where shantytown reform creates a bunch of rich people. Those little foreigners don't understand China's national conditions. When they see the big "demolition" on the wall, they will think that this is China's unique graffiti culture.

.

So no matter how hard Menendez and Jewell tried, they couldn't understand why China suddenly had 8,000 luxury car customers. But what is certain is that their plan to force Li Weidong to make compensation failed again.

Jewell could leave as he did last time and continue the labor movement in another place. However, Menendez is a locally elected congressman and cannot run away. He promised the workers to fight for compensation.

If he couldn't get a penny, his reputation would be severely damaged.

Regarding Menendez's political career, he gave instructions: "The eight thousand Range Rovers have been sold, and we have lost our bargaining chip. You should contact the employer immediately and say that we can handle the anti-theft report from the Road Safety Bureau, but

They also have to show some respect to the workers, and they can’t afford not to pay a penny!”

"Then what is the bottom line of our negotiation?" Jewell asked.

Menendez thought for a moment and then said: "We have to give the workers a month's salary!"

In Menendez's view, since he has lost his bargaining chip, compensation of US$20,000 per capita is definitely impossible. If the employer can compensate for one month's salary, it can be regarded as an explanation to the workers. Less is better than

There's no need to force it! If they really don't get a penny back, then the workers will definitely have to settle accounts with themselves.

…

"Mr. Li, the union representatives have just contacted us. They are willing to lower their demands. The latest conditions proposed by the union are that you only need to pay workers two months' salary. I think there is still room for negotiation." A lawyer in the United States will give the latest information.

The progress was reported to Li Weidong.

"Two months' salary? Impossible! Six hundred dollars for each person, for three consecutive months." Li Weidong set out his own conditions.

"Well, I'm afraid the union won't agree to this. According to my experience in dealing with the United Auto Workers, they are greedy. And it's hard for Congressman Menendez to explain to the workers such a small amount of compensation," the lawyer said.

.

"Then don't ask him to explain, let's just change someone else." Li Weidong smiled slightly, and then said: "He is not the only American congressman. Some politicians are willing to do this kind of thing that can increase their reputation and attract workers' votes.

."

The lawyer is also a smart man, and he immediately replied: "I understand what you mean, and I will go find a suitable candidate right away!"

The American market is still very popular for luxury brand cars. Even if they are not produced in the United States, this market cannot be lost.

Therefore, Li Weidong is willing to make some concessions and pay some appropriate compensation, which can be regarded as a step forward for each other and can continue to maintain the US market.

It's just that Li Weidong doesn't plan to give this favor to Menendez.

Distributing money, no matter how much you give, can win over people's hearts. There are many politicians in the United States who are willing to do this as a favor.

…

Menendez had been waiting for news about the negotiations. When his cell phone rang and saw it was Jewell, Menendez couldn't wait to answer the call.

"How is it? Did the employer reply? Did they promise compensation?" Menendez asked immediately.

Jewell on the other side of the phone said angrily: "Sir, haven't we reached a consensus before that I will be responsible for the negotiations? Why do you still find other people to contact the employer? And you have reached an agreement with the employer!"

"What did you say? What agreement was reached with the employer?" Menendez was a little at a loss.

"Louis Gordon is one of yours, right? He negotiated with the management on behalf of the workers and agreed to the management's conditions." Jewell replied.

"Lewis Gordon? State Senator?" Menendez felt something bad in his heart.

This Luis Gordon is a politician from the same party as Menendez. The two belong to different factions and were once rivals within the party. However, Menendez eventually won the primary election within the party and then had a chance.

To step onto a higher political stage. From this perspective, the two are still political enemies.

So Menendez immediately explained; "Although Gordon and I are in the same party, we are not the same boss, and we are not affiliated with each other. What exactly has he done?"

Jewell explained; "He went to negotiate with the employer and obtained a compensation of 1,800 yuan for each worker, which was paid in three months, which is 600 yuan per month."

"This is much lower than our conditions. 1,800 yuan is not enough for half a month's salary for auto workers! We need to compensate the workers for at least one month's salary!" Menendez said.

"But the employer did not agree to our conditions! The employer chose to cooperate with Gordon. Gordon is also a politician of your party, and he also has the ability to mobilize your party's resources." Jewell paused and then said: "Menendez

Sir, there is a traitor among you, and you have lost this battle!"

"Lost?" Menendez was stunned for a moment, suddenly seemed to realize something, and then shouted loudly into the phone: "How can you admit defeat? But you came to me to ask me to help you win.

The employer is putting pressure! I could have done nothing, but I blocked my reputation to help you, and now you have to give in easily!"

"Mr. Menendez, don't think that you are so great. When you were willing to help me, didn't you also hope to get the votes of the auto workers? We are just using each other, and no one owes anything to the other!"

Jewell looked like he was about to fall out, and then said: "What's more, this failure was caused by your internal disunity. If Lewis Gordon hadn't suddenly appeared to disrupt the situation, I would have already negotiated with the management.

Already.

Jewell obviously wants to shirk responsibility, which is easy to understand. If he doesn't find a scapegoat, he will have to take the blame himself!

After ending the call, Menendez leaned back in his chair in despair. For him, the intervention of political opponents from the same party was obviously the worst outcome.

If politicians from the rival party intervene in this matter, then Menendez can still use the resources of the party to fight against him. However, if he engages in trouble with the political opponents of the party, all the resources of the party will not be used. Next, he wants to deal with the bosses.

, is even more difficult.

The political system in the United States is like this. If two parties confront each other over something, both parties will unite internally and then use resources to fight externally to fight to the death.

For example, during the midterm elections, the congressional seats in key swing states are worth hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign funds from both parties. Naturally, hundreds of millions of dollars are not the political donations that a mere candidate for the House of Representatives can attract. The vast majority of them

They are resources provided by the party.

But if it is not a confrontation between the two parties, but competition within the party, the bosses of various factions will restrain each other, and politicians will compromise with each other. The palms and backs of the hands will be full of flesh. On the contrary, there will be constraints from many parties, and resources will not be integrated.

concentrated.

This is the current situation. The intervention of his party's political opponents has prevented Menendez from using the power and resources of the party to continue to put pressure on Jaguar Land Rover.

Moreover, this political opponent within the party obtained 1,800 US dollars in compensation for the workers, but received nothing for himself. In contrast, the elders in the party may side with the other party.

"No, we can't sit still and wait for death. We must restore our reputation! But what should we do?" Menendez frowned and thought for a long time, and finally thought of a good idea.

"This matter was originally led by the Automobile Workers' Union, and it was also the union that led the strike. Moreover, that fellow Jewell would have set a precedent for strike failure. Why not just put the responsibility directly on him! Let's say he misjudged the situation."

…

Menendez and Jewell began to blame each other, and this dog-eat-dog situation was also what Li Weidong wanted to see.

Jaguar Land Rover's Chinese factory quickly entered the production stage with BYD engineers providing technical support.

It took six months to build an automobile factory, which can definitely be regarded as a miracle factory. The publicity effect of this wave alone has welcomed a large number of foreign-invested enterprise inspection groups to the Yangtze River Delta region.

At the same time, the R&D center jointly developed by Jaguar Land Rover and BYD is also on the agenda.

Li Weidong is interested in BYD's technology in the battery field and hopes to jointly develop electric vehicles with BYD.

BYD has taken a fancy to Jaguar Land Rover's three major parts, hoping to improve the mechanical standards of domestically produced cars.

There will always be car owners in later generations who say that Land Rover has poor quality, has many minor problems, and is really poor. But as far as the three major items are concerned, Jaguar Land Rover's quality is still quite good.

To give a simple example, after BMW acquired Land Rover, it used Land Rover's chassis to develop the X5 SUV. Later, after BMW thoroughly understood Land Rover's chassis technology, it sold Land Rover to Ford.

After Ford bought Land Rover, it directly copied the Land Rover Discovery and made the Explorer. The styling of the first-generation Ford Explorer was almost the same as the Land Rover Discovery.

It is understandable that BMW's SUV chassis technology is relatively average, but Ford has a pickup truck model, and their SUV chassis technology is not bad, but they still have to copy Land Rover, which fully illustrates Land Rover's technical level in SUVs.

Land Rover has many minor problems. One reason is that after the Indians took over, quality control declined. Indians are invincible and obedient, but they lack management capabilities. Moreover, Indian managers are good at improving short-term performance indicators, but they do not care about long-term development.

It is difficult to build such a century-old brand.

The second reason is that Land Rover is equipped with too many electronic equipment systems. Although rich electronic systems can make the car's functions richer, it can also make the system more complicated. It is like a computer with plug-ins installed.

The more there are, the more stuck the system will be.

Indian-made cars are just like cooking. They want to add all the seasonings. The ingredients that originally looked normal are turned into an indescribable mess after being stewed in a pot by the Indians.

The Indians also have the same requirements for Land Rover. Regardless of whether it is useful or not, as long as it has functions, all the functions will be added. Therefore, many electronic systems are added to Land Rover that are completely useless.

With so many electronic systems added, it would be fine if they had the ability to integrate and optimize them. However, the Indians did not optimize it well and often malfunctioned. Eventually, Land Rover became what consumers call "poor quality" and "too many small brushes."

After Li Weidong took over Jaguar Land Rover, he naturally would not engage in Indian Masala stew. He ordered research and development to focus on mechanics and stability, and not to touch useless electronic systems.

The advantage of traditional automobile companies is mechanical technology, while the advantage of luxury brands is brand awareness. Jaguar Land Rover can just focus on these two points.

As for the research and development of automotive electronic systems, this is something that technology companies are good at. Looking at the traditional car brands of later generations, whether they are luxury cars or civilian cars, they really have not developed electronic systems very well.

On the contrary, many well-known Internet companies have made highly practical automotive electronic systems.

Therefore, Li Weidong is not in a hurry about the integration of automobiles and electronic systems. He can cooperate with Internet companies in research and development in the future.

The research and development of new technologies has always been dominated by capital. R&D entities cannot hold back capital. As long as they invest more money, they will naturally be able to take the lead.

…

After the Spring Festival, the northern part of the country is still experiencing spring cold, but the Pearl River Delta in the south is already feeling like summer.

Li Weidong walked into the Xiaomi company conference room, glanced around, and found that Xiaomi's core members were gathered together, and everyone looked serious.

"What's going on? Look at your faces, are you planning to ask me for money again?" Li Weidong said with a smile.

"Director Li, this time is not a problem that can be solved by increasing investment." Rebus sighed lightly and continued, "The day before yesterday, I talked with Mr. Zhou, the CEO of Ham Sausage, for more than two hours.

We may have to give up our system. Ham sausage is our most important customer and the largest customer. If he gives up our operating system, our efforts in the past few years will probably be in vain!"

At that time, mobile operating systems were still in the era of flourishing, mainly because the performance of Android was not very strong, which gave other operating systems room to survive.

It wasn't until 2012 that Android's running memory exceeded 2G, which was several levels behind Apple's iOS and did not have much advantage over other operating systems. Therefore, the era of Android's dominance has not yet come.

Xiaomi's operating system has entered the market relatively early and is also an open source system. Coupled with the support of several popular games, it has also occupied a place in the market, but its market share is far lower than Android.

Ham sausage has always been the largest customer of Xiaomi systems. The main reason is that the sales of Ham sausage mobile phones are large enough, and it has reached the top of the world.

For example, in the US market, the quarterly sales of Apple mobile phones are less than 5 million units, while the quarterly sales of ham sausages exceed 6 million units. You must know that the United States is Apple's home court, and it cannot sell ham sausages at home, and other markets cannot follow suit.

The ham sausage is tough.

One-fifth of the ham sausage models use the Xiaomi system, which is a huge number. Once the ham sausage is lost as a big customer, it will be a catastrophic blow to the Xiaomi system.

So Li Weidong asked, "Have Mr. Zhou told you why they gave up the Xiaomi system? Do they want us to provide better conditions?"

"It's not about the patent lawsuit with Apple!" Rebus continued; "Patent experts in the United States suggested that Ham sausage improve the accused patent from the basic system aspect, and this work will be completed by Google.

This means that in the future, ham sausages can only use Google’s Android system to avoid patent infringement.”

"Our system is also developed by ourselves, so we should be able to provide basic system improvement services, right?" Li Weidong asked.

"Technically, we do have no problem, but we can't compete with Apple, but Google can! So Hamburger won't choose us," Rebus said.

Li Weidong nodded slightly and then fell into deep thought.

In the smartphone market, ham sausage is at its peak, with sales exceeding that of Apple. Naturally, Apple cannot let its competitors develop, so it launched a patent lawsuit against ham sausage, covering many aspects such as mobile phone UI, underlying architecture, hardware design, etc., almost all of which have an impact.

Patents at the heart of how smartphones run.

Apple's patents are real, and many patents cannot be circumvented. In this regard, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung have all suffered losses from Apple. And ham sausages started as OEMs and do not have their own core technology.

, being targeted by Apple, he was immediately hit to the core of his life.

One of the solutions to the problem is to circumvent Apple's patents through basic system optimization. This kind of thing can only be left to Google, and other companies cannot compete with Apple.

What's more, Google later bought Motorola, the "patent fat guy" in the mobile phone industry, which gave Google leverage to compete with Apple.

However, the ham sausage eventually failed in this patent lawsuit. The U.S. International Trade Commission finally ruled that the ham sausage infringed Apple's patent and raised the banner of banning the sale of the ham sausage.

Without the US market, the sales of ham sausages were cut in half, and then the ham sausages made several serious mistakes.

For example, it does not pay attention to appearance design, which reduces consumer favorability; for example, it treats the Chinese market with double standards, and the same model is sold with high configurations in Europe, but with reduced configurations in China; and for example, marketing lags behind, and Samsung spends more than 10 billion a year.

US dollars are spent on marketing, while the marketing cost of ham sausage is less than one billion.

In short, it was a series of operations in which I stabbed myself, and eventually killed myself.

Thinking of this, Li Weidong became a lot calmer. Since the ham sausage has begun to decline and will eventually disappear from the market, it does not matter whether the ham sausage uses the Xiaomi system or not.

Taking a deep breath and putting on a solemn expression, Li Weidong said, "Think about it, is it possible that Apple's real purpose is not to defend its patent rights, but to completely defeat the ham sausage!

In that case, no matter how Hamon modifies the basic system, he will lose the lawsuit and even lose the US market!

If this is the case, this is an opportunity for us. We should launch our own smart phone products as soon as possible, and quickly seize the market while ham is being beaten by Apple. Of course, we estimate that the US market is very big.

It’s difficult to enter, but we definitely have a chance to replace ham sausage in the Chinese market.”

Rebus immediately said: "It's not that we don't have smartphones. We have made several prototypes before. You, Director Li, have also seen them, but they are not enough to achieve mass production. First of all, we do not have a factory, and we have built

A mobile phone production factory not only requires capital costs, but also production costs."

"Look for OEMs. Apple doesn't have its own mobile phone factory, so it's not like we're looking for OEMs from Hon Hai!" Li Weidong said.

"With our scale, I'm afraid it's not worthy of Hon Hai to do OEM work for us," Rebus said.

"There is not only one Hon Hai OEM for mobile phones. How many of those knock-off mobile phones in Huaqiangbei are OEM by Hon Hai?" Li Weidong paused and then said: "If you are worried that the craftsmanship of the small workshop of knock-off mobile phones is not good, you can't

To ensure quality, we can go to BYD. I am very familiar with BYD and they can OEM everything."

"Even if there is no problem with the foundry, we still need to solve the hardware problem, and we have to find a suitable hardware supplier." Rebus continued to explain.

"Hardware supplier? Is it the processor?" Li Weidong asked.

In Li Weidong's memory, China's high-end chips were stuck, so he first thought of processors.

Rebus shook his head: "It's not the processor. There are many companies on the market that can supply processors, such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, MediaTek, Nvidia, etc., all of which can supply processors. But as a smartphone, the most important thing is

What’s important is the screen, and it’s more difficult for suppliers in this area.”

The biggest difference between smartphones and feature phones is that one uses a touch screen and the other uses buttons.

Other components, such as processors, memory, cameras, etc., have been around since the era of feature phones, and a relatively complete supply chain has already been formed, so procurement is not difficult.

At that time, touch screens were still a new industrial chain, and supply and procurement were much more complicated.

Just listen to Rebus's introduction: "When it comes to screens, the best one is definitely Sharp. Sharp's screens are world-class in terms of cost performance and stability. Apple and Hamburgers both use Sharp screens.

I had contacted Sharp before and proposed to purchase screens, but Sharp ignored us as soon as they heard about our purchase volume. Sharp was dissatisfied that we purchased too little and they only focused on big customers like Apple."

"That's a question." Li Weidong thought for a moment and asked, "What about Samsung and LG screens? Can they replace Sharp?"

"Samsung and LG screens are still much worse than Sharp in terms of performance, and they are more expensive than Sharp. Our costs will also increase a lot." Rebus replied.

"How dare Korean products be sold more expensive than Japanese products? Who gives them the courage?" Li Weidong asked in surprise.

"It is said that it is because the yield rate of Korean screens is not high, the production cost is higher than Sharp, and the price is naturally higher than Sharp." Rebus replied.

At this time, Chinese companies such as BOE and Tianma have not yet risen, and South Korea's Samsung and LG have not yet achieved technological overtake. On the contrary, Japan's Sharp is still at the top level in the world by resting on its laurels. Not only Apple wants to use

Sharp screens, even Samsung’s own high-end phones, use Sharp screens.

"It seems we have to use Sharp's screen." Li Weidong said, opened the calendar on his phone and looked at it, and then said: "Looking for Sharp to purchase a screen, you can't rush it, you need a suitable opportunity, let's wait a little longer.

It only took a few days for the opportunity to come!"

…

The newscaster's voice sounded eloquent on the TV: "According to the National Seismological Network, at 13:46 BJ time on March 11, 2011, in the western Pacific Ocean, at 38.1 degrees north latitude and 142.6 degrees east longitude, an 8.6 earthquake occurred

magnitude earthquake, with a focal depth of about 20 kilometers... It is reported that the Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a destructive tsunami warning!"

Upon hearing the news, Li Weidong immediately called Rebus.

"Mr. Lei, the opportunity has come. We have to prepare and go to Sharp to discuss purchasing!"