Reinventing the Millennium

"Mr. Fang, what do you think of the competition between Gome and Tesco and its collapse in the middle?"

"Without the competition from Gome, there would be no Double Eleven event on Tesco. Before yesterday, I didn't expect Tesco to be able to do this. As for its middle road, I will try it another day. We can’t invite Mr. Huang to come before you, because he, the client, understands the situation.”

"Mr. Fang, do you think the LCD panel companies in the world today are suspected of monopolistic behavior?"

"Good question, I can't tell you."

"Mr. Fang, I heard that the Royal Bank of Scotland has no obvious breach of contract. What do you think of it being banned from cooperating with the Bank of China?"

"I haven't seen its contract, and the country's financial security is more important."

Fang Zhuo was sitting on the podium of the multimedia classroom of Peking University Guanghua School of Management - Professor Li brought up a stool and answered many of the more sensitive questions from the students.

He once said 0.8, and if it was inconvenient to say, he would just say that he couldn't say it, which was quite down-to-earth.

The students of Peking University are naturally the proud ones, but sitting here is the richest man in the mainland who has just had a sword fight with Li Jiacheng. In addition, from time to time, Professor Li Zhimin's praise and explanations, most of them have a kind of legendary fans on stage. mentality.

However, legends are legends and fans are fans, so there are plenty of direct questions to ask.

Fang Zhuo was fortunate enough to have experienced such a sharpening scene. Faced with today's questioning situation, he was not panicked at all.

After such an impromptu class and receiving warm applause from everyone at the end, he received a lot of resumes, some of which were obviously written in a hurry, and the two A4 papers filled with resumes were still crumpled.

Fang Zhuo held his resume and said to Professor Li Zhimin with a smile: "The students are really enthusiastic."

Li Zhimin replied simply: "Mr. Fang, who can be non-enthusiastic when facing a billionaire?"

Fang Zhuo laughed loudly and asked: "Professor Li, I see that you seem to be talking about me a lot here. Are you interested in trying our e-commerce store?"

Li Zhimin flatly refused: "Mr. Fang, I'm just talking words. If I really go into battle, facing people like you, Mr. Fang, my performance will not be much better than that of the venture capital investors who came to Hang Lung."

Fang Zhuo saw that he was a little curious and wanted to ask about the past, so he smiled slightly and did not answer. He just took out his resume and chatted casually.

He had a good impression of this professor, unlike some college teachers he had come into contact with in the past who often had a negative impression.

Yike, Yigou, and Bingxin are all very hungry for talents. This trip to Peking University and the scholarships established earlier in Shanghai, Luzhou, and Lin'an are all to expand long-term influence and hope to attract more fresh blood.

At the same time, Liu Quanpeng, associate professor of the Department of Microelectronics of Tsinghua University, who was invited to Tokyo to discuss CMOS with Sony last time, was also roped in by Yike to form a small team to try to promote his own industry-university-research plan.

Generally speaking, both Fang Zhuo and Yike have had successful experience in cooperation with universities, and are willing to continue to use this experience to do things that are beneficial to each other.

That night, Lao Xiong had a meal and a meeting with Tesco, and finally said goodbye and went back.

Before he left, he invited Mr. Fang to come home for dinner when he had time.

Fang Zhuo couldn't bear to refuse, so he considered his itinerary and planned to visit Lao Xiong's home before returning to Shanghai.

Tesco's Double Eleven has initially been a success, but warehousing, logistics, and after-sales are still in a very tight working condition. They are the real flesh and blood under the surface data.

Another day later, as more media began to report on Tesco’s promotional activities with a tone of wait-and-see, analysis, and approval, people such as Ma Huateng and Sun Tongyu who had only appeared in the blog comment area began to call. Congratulations.

There are still one and a half months before the end of 2005. This year, domestic e-commerce has focused most of its attention on Alibaba's Taobao. Although there was also a dispute between Tesco and Dangdang when it was launched, it was soon called It’s just a small fight, but the real industry event is the blockbuster cooperation between Alibaba and Yahoo.

Taobao has already overwhelmed eBay. With Alibaba receiving a billion-dollar investment from Yahoo, it can almost be officially announced that the competition between domestic C2C companies and foreign giants has been settled.

However, in November near the end of the year, Tesco, which was just launched this year, showed a surprising bright light in the field of e-commerce with unlimited prospects. According to this trend, not to mention B2C Dangdang, foreign B2C The giant Amazon may also find it difficult to compete with Tesco.

In the past, Taobao overtook eBay, and in the future, there was Tesco, which occasionally showed its prowess.

The development of local e-commerce companies is advancing at a speed that neither the media nor the industry expected.

Likewise, it seems that officials at some levels are not very good at defining certain behaviors in the new industry.

On November 16, after attending the Bank of China cooperation meeting with Paulson and Zhang Hongli, Fang Zhuo received an embarrassing report from Tesco. The relevant departments of Shanghai City called the company and briefly discussed this online transaction. The issue of whether selling a house at a discount violates the rules and regulations.

Tesco's 30% discount offer for house grabbing has been promoted step by step. Its effect on Tesco is greater than imagined, and it has spread widely.

In view of this contagious nature, the relevant departments in Shanghai studied for several days and still believed that this operation should be stopped.

The leader's call was very polite and did not force a stop. He said that the e-commerce model was quite new and asked the company to work out a suitable plan.

Then Fang Zhuo received the report.

Fang Zhuo is not ignorant. Tesco's publicity effect is already great, so there is no need to be hard-pressed on this kind of thing.

He personally called the leader to express his professional apologies, and then discussed whether he could let him go through the process of winning the lottery before announcing the suspension, which would be considered a beginning and an end.

At least he had some reputation and some connections, so the leader gave vague acquiescence.

Accelerate progress and have a beginning and an end.

Fang Zhuo asked someone to keep an eye on this matter. The superiors would gain face, the consumers would gain favor, and Tesco would also gain the fame it wanted, and everyone would be satisfied.

On November 18, after nearly three weeks of intensive meetings and discussions, Fang Zhuo, Paulson, and Zhang Hongli signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with Bank of China on behalf of MIGA Fund, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of China.

If nothing else happens, the formal contract signing will be completed in early December.

Because of the public controversy with the Li family, Fang Zhuo did not miss the press conference like that time at ICBC. Instead, he sat upright and firmly next to President Li, in the C position of the media lens.

He made mental preparations and planned to answer reporters' questions about previous public opinions.

However, the Bank of China probably did its work in advance, and the reporters’ questions were all fair and neutral.

After the meeting ended, some media came over to ask an irrelevant question about Tesco.

"Mr. Fang, Tesco's e-commerce is doing very well, but I heard that Amazon and Dangdang will increase their investment because of Tesco's excellent results during Double Eleven. What do you think of this?"

Fang Zhuo also heard about it in the past two days.

Probably stimulated by the data of 712 million in three days, Amazon and Dangdang have expressed similar opinions, and they will not sit back and watch Tesco dominate domestic B2C.

"Very good, this is a good thing." Fang Zhuoxian commented on Dangdang and expressed his condolences, "Dangdang is finally willing to work hard. I am proud of Qingzi."

The reporter almost stopped and bit his tongue to keep from losing his composure.

Fang Zhuo continued: "It is a good thing for competition to flourish. Real gold is not afraid of fire. Tesco needs competitors to become better. I am also willing to represent our domestic e-commerce industry in a small way and welcome Amazon's investment and competition." "

He finally said: "I believe that only the companies that know best and are most willing to put consumers first can win this competition. I am looking forward to the performance of Tesco and Amazon."

Fang Zhuo stopped accepting interviews after answering this question.

This is the first interview he has accepted since Double Eleven on Tesco, and the second time in this period. The last time he responded to greetings from his hometown through the China Securities Journal on the phone.

With the outstanding performance of Tesco, Mr. Fang’s rare positive response quickly appeared in the media.

It's a pity that Li Guoqing, who took the initiative to cancel his blog, refused the reporter's microphone this time. It seems that he is determined to do something that will truly make Mr. Fang proud.

Wang Hanhua, Amazon’s head of China, actively accepted media interviews and gave Mr. Fang’s response.

"Both Joyo and Amazon are willing to engage in healthy competition with their peers, and we are willing to provide consumers with the highest quality products and services."

"This kind of product service will not be limited to price alone. We believe that better quality, after-sales, and consumer experience are what consumers are most happy to see."

Obviously, Wang Hanhua is secretly blaming Tesco for its price-driven strategy during Double Eleven.

A reporter interviewed Mr. Fang again for this purpose, but the latter did not accept the interview.

But soon, it was said that Mr. Fang’s funny comment about Wang Hanhua at the meeting was widely circulated in the industry.

——“This is very un-Amazonian.”

Very un-Amazonian?

What does Fang always mean?

Wang Hanhua was previously the vice president of Motorola's Asia Pacific region, and is now the president of Joyo.com and the person in charge of Amazon in China. A large part of his current work is the docking of the two websites.

Does Fang always think that Wang Hanhua and Amazon are not compatible? Do you think Amazon’s strategy in China is different from that of its headquarters? Or do you think there will still be big changes at Amazon?

One sentence of evaluation is quite meaningful.

Many people are wondering about Mr. Fang's true intentions.

However, Fang Zhuo himself neither accepted the media's response nor emphasized Amazon's competitive pressure internally. He only focused on reviewing the performance of different departments of Tesco in this promotion, which also left the company's executives with no time to distract.

On November 20, things in Beijing gradually came to an end. Fang Zhuo planned to return to Shencheng to improve his cultivation behind closed doors and be kind to others after the signing with Bank of China was completed in early December.

On this day, Changhong's old friend Ni Runfeng flew to the capital.

Compared with the last time I saw him, Ni Runfeng's energy and spirit were actually more hale and hearty.

"Old Ni, I heard that you are not doing well recently, but your face is very rosy and starting to look shiny." Fang Zhuo's first sentence when he saw Lao Ni was this.

Ni Runfeng was facing the crisis of being laid off, but he smiled calmly and said: "If you have nothing to worry about, it is a good time in the world."

The countdown to the end of his tenure at Changhong has begun. Although Changhong has embarked on the path of liquid crystal technology and gradually shaken off its decline, his arbitrariness in forcing companies to disclose plasma patents and semi-forcibly deciding to invest in panel production lines has ushered in liquidation.

There are good reasons.

You have not experienced the collapse of the plasma route. Although your judgment sounds reasonable, it does not necessarily mean defeat, right?

Okay, let’s put aside the failure or defeat for the time being. The free disclosure of plasma patents has caused losses to the company and made internal technical staff very dissatisfied. This is the real truth.

In addition, age has also arrived.

Ni Runfeng had already had psychological expectations. His struggles in several meetings were purely to delay as much time as possible and pave the way for Zhang Xuebin to take charge of Meiling.

Facts have proved that the delay has indeed brought favorable factors. As far as this Double Eleven is concerned, Changhong Qingcai Tube TV inventory and Meiling made its own LCD TV a great success.

Looking at LCD TVs alone, Meiling, which has actively participated in them, is completely on the same starting line as other first-tier TV brands, and is even slightly ahead by half a body.

"Lao Ni, I can't call you Lao Ni from now on, I have to call you Lao Ni." Fang Zhuo said with a smile.

Ni Runfeng smiled slightly and said: "There are many people in Changhong who want to rise to the top. It is not certain whether Zhang Xuebin can do it this time."

The public opinion packaging and the success of LCD TVs that lasted for more than half a year have only made Zhang Xuebin, an outsider, more valuable. Whether he can take over Ni Runfeng's position is still uncertain.

Fang Zhuo is not that concerned about gains and losses in this matter. Anyway, the ice core production capacity has been greatly boosted by domestic TV companies. The cooperation with Morningstar Semiconductor is getting better and better. Whether Zhang Xuebin can take over depends on luck.

"Lao Ni, tell me, am I suitable to show up in Sichuan again?" He kept his thoughts to himself, and he was not stingy if he could help.

Ni Runfeng has repeatedly considered various factors. Changhong's stock price has rebounded, which has relieved many interested parties. However, Changhong's overseas channels are still in the hands of Yike, which is a bargaining chip.

However, objectively speaking, being controlled by others makes people feel unhappy. Mr. Fang's last trip to Sichuan and Sichuan did not leave a good impression.

He said seriously: "No, some things can only be done but not said. If you go to Sichuan and Sichuan to support Zhang Xuebin, I'm afraid there will be a backlash immediately."

Fang Zhuo believed Ni Runfeng's judgment of his situation: "Well, how about handing over part of the equity of the overseas channel company to Meiling and letting Zhang Xuebin serve as the director of the company?"

"I'm here to raise this matter and let Zhang Xuebin compete for part of the company's leadership from you. This will be much more beautiful." Ni Runfeng said.

Fang Zhuo nodded slightly, which was a huge bargaining chip for Zhang Xuebin.

He pondered: "If this doesn't work, it would be a good idea to have him in Meiling. Well, does Changhong know this too?"

If Zhang Xuebin cannot take over Changhong, Bingxin will still need a close partner. Although Changhong is now Meiling's major shareholder, it only holds less than 30% of the shares. Its direction is greatly affected by Luzhou's attitude.

Ni Runfeng was startled at first, and then smiled, Mr. Fang, Mr. Fang, you are still so bad.

Fortunately, he was about to get off the bus, leaving the worries of happiness to Zhang Xuebin.