The Industrial Giant Reborn

"15 million U.S. dollars?" Although Chen Zhiwen had heard about IBM's high profits for a long time, he couldn't help being surprised when he heard the quotation. It only cost 6 million U.S. dollars to build a logistics center and dozens of trucks. The computer management system requires 2.5 times the hardware.

"Yes, and it's not just that. If we want to install GPS on every truck and transmit some information of each store through satellite signals, the price will be very expensive. I have also consulted with related companies. The cost may be hundreds of thousands of dollars, and if Costco opens a new store in the future, the cost will increase.” Pierce said.

"This kind of price is too expensive." Chen Zhiwen also frowned. He really wanted to be smart, even if it was much worse than the most common small supermarket in the future, but at least he could query a lot of information through the computer , the simplest is the inventory quantity. When the supermarket becomes bigger and bigger, this kind of data will become more and more chaotic, and more and more labor will be needed to sort it out.

It’s just that in the era when computers are still very unpopular, such a set of hardware + software management system can only be produced through customization. This is the field of IT giant IBM, so he asked Pierce to contact IBM for a try, although there is an offer It will be very expensive, but I still didn't expect that the price would be so high, far exceeding his budget.

Pierce went on to say: "I have analyzed the logic of this management system. Using satellite transmission is actually faster. We can completely replace it manually. After sorting out the information of the branch, send it to the headquarters, and then the people in the headquarters will send it to the headquarters. Enter the computer, and it is not necessary to install GPS on the transport vehicle. Our distance is not too far, and basically there will be no traffic jams. As long as we relax a little bit in time control, generally there will be no problems. You can save a lot of money by leasing satellite signals, but the data management system for the entire supermarket is a must, and it's hard to save this money!"

"IBM's status, coupled with this offer, is unlikely to give in. Have you consulted with other similar companies?" Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

Today's IBM mainly produces industrial and commercial large-scale servers, customized management systems, supercomputers, etc. The main customers are government departments, military departments, aircraft, automobile and large parts companies, large construction companies, and university research institutions. , Banking, insurance and other giant companies are super giants in the United States and even the world. At their peak, their market value was estimated to be 25% of the GDP of the United States that year. The Microsoft and even Apple empires of later generations cannot compare.

Big shops bully customers, and big customers bully stores. This is an iron law of business. It is estimated that it will be harder than heaven to make customers like IBM cheaper.

"Yes, it's a company run by a Chinese like Eric and you. It's called Wang An Company." After speaking, Pierce found a business card from his purse and handed it to Chen Zhiwen.

"Wang An Company? Do they have this business?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

Although Midea is not yet involved in the computer business, it will definitely be in the future. Therefore, he also knows a little bit about the most famous computer companies in the United States. The most famous is naturally IBM, and the second basically belongs to Wang An .

However, because the current computer is quite different from the computer defined in Chen Zhiwen's mind, he did not pay much attention to this aspect. If Costco did not urgently need to seize the golden time development opportunity, there is no need to use the data management system .

"Yes, Wang An's main products are small computers, but they also want to enter the main computer market, but IBM's main customers are the military, government, banks, large automobile and aircraft companies, such customers, Wang It can be said that it is very difficult for An Company to grab business, so they are also very interested in our business, but because they have no experience in this field, I dare not let them try at will, and there is another big problem, they do not understand Retail, I want to use the feedback from our platform to develop software,” Pierce said.

"In this way, the retail supermarket market is indeed in line with Wang An's current positioning. At least IBM has not made any achievements in this field." Chen Zhiwen said.

It’s not that IBM doesn’t like this market, but it’s because the current computers are too expensive, so expensive that many Fortune 500 companies have a heartache when placing orders, but military, national defense, large automobiles and aircraft projects are important It is very high, the data is complex, and manpower may not be calculated at all, and no matter how painful it is, you can only buy it.

Banks and other financial institutions, it’s not that manpower can’t calculate it, but data is very important and cannot be wrong. In addition, investment banking institutions need efficiency. The higher the efficiency, the more money they make. Seconds, but willing to spend billions of dollars to build a fiber optic pipeline across the United States, as long as they can make more money, they are naturally willing to buy high-priced computers.

The retail field is relatively indifferent. Although the data is large, so what if something goes wrong? The big deal is to call for another human to do it again? If you can't do it, you will lose some money? it's not a big deal.

Therefore, the current retail giants have no plans to engage in information technology at all. Only when Wal-Mart spent hundreds of millions of dollars to launch satellites into the sky in the 1980s was it considered the first company in the retail industry to value technology. This investment was laughed at at the time. It's a fool, but after a few years, Wal-Mart's logistics costs dropped from 8% of turnover to 3%, and no one laughed anymore.

As for Wang An Company, its main products are small commercial computers, that is, computers for professionals in many large companies, while IBM's main business is large commercial computers. Before the 1960s, these two markets were monopolized by IBM. It was not until Wang An Company invented a cheaper small computer that it took away this small market from IBM.

However, compared to large-scale supercomputers or large-scale server clusters that cost tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars, what Wang An Company has snatched is just a drop in the bucket.

The ambitious Wang An naturally wanted to enter the mainframe computer market, but there was no suitable entry point.

Pierce asked: "Eric, do you mean that commercial computers will be used on a large scale in the retail field in the future? But in general supermarkets, the SKUs are not only ten times more than our Costco, but also have many more stores than us. Even Wang An No matter how cheap a computer company is, it is impossible to afford this kind of cost."

"The price of electronic products will become cheaper and cheaper!" Chen Zhiwen said: "If you can't afford it now, it doesn't mean you can't afford it in the future, so I have to prepare first, so that I can gain experience in this field before other colleagues, and there is Can further reduce costs!"

Don't say that Pierce, who doesn't understand the electronics industry, is an elite figure in the electronics industry, and many people can't predict the future development of the electronics industry.

The biggest advantage of Costco is that the supermarket has a large amount of goods and few varieties, which results in much less data to be processed and is easy to manage. It can be used as the best test site to provide experience for the use of the entire retail software. This is The achievement Chen Zhiwen wants most, as long as he maintains a few years more experience than his peers, that is an advantage.

For the small-scale test now, the reduced logistics cost may not necessarily be comparable to the price of the computer, but the acquisition of a lot of data and experience will have a great effect after the scale is expanded in the future.

"If this is the case, you can really try it first, then let Wang An Company take charge of this matter?" Pierce asked.

"Let's look at the quotation first, it's cheap enough. But we only think about making the hardware for them, and we will do the software ourselves. As for Wang An's company wanting to use us to increase their own capabilities through trial and error, then don't even think about it. "Chen Zhiwen said:

"My Midea company has a branch here in the United States. The person in charge of this branch is called Woz. He is very good at software research and development. I will contact him in two days and ask him to come here and be in charge of communication. Wang An company communication.

In terms of software, let him be in charge. There should be no such software for managing supermarkets on the market now. Companies capable of making software do not understand retailing and do not have a lot of experience in trial and error, even IBM estimates that it is the same. "

Woz's abilities are very strong, but they may not be all-powerful, but a good management team must use all kinds of talents to complete tasks under the condition of professional knowledge. Even if they don't understand this kind of data processing, they will always know the needs. What kind of talent, as long as the team is built up on the line.

"I have inquired that writing such software needs to be changed according to the actual situation, which takes a lot of time. Can this Mr. Woz stay in Costco for a long time?" Pierce asked.

"It's okay for a period of time. The main thing is to let him build up the team, and then just ask about it from time to time." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

In fact, Woz's team has not developed the arcade machine recently. The software and motherboard of the Magic Cube have been developed long ago, and the equipment has been tested for a long time. As long as an order is given, Hong Kong can quickly produce it.

It's just the market demand, which obviously can't keep up with the few games in Chen Zhiwen's mind. Under the guidance of Chen Zhiwen, Woz's team has even developed "Space Invaders".

In terms of the market, Snake also began to expand under the full force of Henry Morgan. It is estimated that it will take half a year before the next show can be launched. This is also for the sake of maximizing profits. Not every bar owner can Afford several arcade machines with three or four thousand dollars worth of different games.

"Then that's fine. Since this Woz understands technology, let him take a look at the hardware. I'm afraid that something will go wrong. I can't afford several million dollars." Pierce said with a smile.

"Okay, if it succeeds, then our Costco will be the first supermarket in the history of the retail industry to use a large computer to manage it." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"I hope that our large investment will bear fruit." Pierce said, tens of millions of dollars, if used for expansion, can build four or five new stores, which is for Costco, which currently only has 16 branches. , It is a very large investment. If Chen Zhiwen hadn't acted arbitrarily and arbitrarily, in a normal company, the board of directors would definitely not be able to spend this money.

After all, the results and performance of investing in new stores can be seen directly, but this computer?

"There will be, and the future will be dominated by computers." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "In fact, the greater significance of this supermarket management system is testing. It may only take two or three months to make it at the beginning, but I want to take it slowly. Perfection requires a long time of groping in practice, and this can only depend on you.

I will ask Midea to select a special team to stay in Costco in the future. If you need anything, you can mention it, if you don’t need it, you can delete it, or if you have any ideas, you can also say it. These are experiences. It is also a patent. If the software in this area is perfected, maybe you can still make money by selling this software? "

"Sell the things we researched to other supermarkets?" Pierce asked.

"It depends on the situation. The really good solution is to sell the old solution after we update the version. Not only can we recover the cost, but it can also prevent other technology companies from developing this kind of technology." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

Enterprise software is actually a big market. The Oracle of later generations is a software giant second only to Microsoft all year round. However, this industry requires a lot of resources for research and development. Midea is not good at these, at least not yet. Yes, but now if we cooperate with Costco, have actual data and technology, and develop a set of software for the supermarket management system, it should be no problem.

"That's not bad." Pierce nodded.

Chen Zhiwen went on to say: "So let's just do whatever we want in the past few years. The logistics center is ready to be built, right? Can Costco get $6 million in cash from its account?"

"Not enough. Costco has built 6 new branches in the past six months, and the funds in the account are relatively tight. I have used the supplier's account funds to the maximum." Pierce said.

"Okay, I'll come for the funds. I'll give you 2 million US dollars first, and I'll give you the rest in two months." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

In two months, arcade machines will be fully rolled out in the United States. Henry Morgan also needs to give him 25% of the account as agreed, and it is even possible to place a new order. Moreover, arcade machines are not only needed in the United States, as long as they are in the United States. If it becomes popular, people with discernment in Europe, Japan, and even Asian countries will come and give him money on their own initiative.

As long as next year comes, the entire Midea will no longer be short of funds, especially in the second half of the year when the Magic Cube will become popular in the United States, and then it will be able to use the profit in units of 100 million US dollars to enter the real high-tech industry research and development field. up.

"That would be the best." Pierce said with a smile. He had planned to ask for money a long time ago. I can ask the boss for money!