When will I have a long tassel?

Next to the lively sales scene, a short Asian man with his trademark bandy legs trotted to a Toyota parked under the shade of a tree, opened the passenger door and got in. The vehicle started, and the little man turned his head and reported to a man in the back seat:

"President Okada, I have already inquired. It is China Linji Group that is promoting their Changying brand machine tools."

Seizo Okada, President of the African Business Unit of Japan's Someno Machine Tool Company, looked solemnly and asked the little man: "Is anyone interested?"

"Uh..." the little assistant Hiroshi Nagai faltered.

"What?" Okada Seizo's tone was filled with dissatisfaction.

Nagai Hiroshi didn't dare to be careless anymore. He lowered his head and said, "Yes, the locals are very interested?"

"What do you mean you're interested?"

"They...are panic buying."

"Panic buying? They are actually rushing to buy Chinese machine tools. Why?"

Okada Seizo's voice was a little louder, which was a sign of anger.

"Yes..." Hiroshi Nagai whispered as if he had made a mistake, "They seem to like Chinese machine tools very much, and according to them, this is all because of Principal Ning from China."

"What's going on with Principal Ning?" Okada Seizo asked in surprise.

Hiroshi Nagai is probably also retired from the Special High School, and he has some talent for intelligence. In the short time just now, he has almost understood the situation. He replied:

"This Principal Ning is the principal of Luzhong Machine Tool Technical School. Luzhong Machine Tool Technical School is a machine tool technical school jointly established by the Lusanya government and the Chinese government. Funds and teachers are provided by China. Something like this schools are found in many countries in Africa.

“So far, these schools have trained no less than 5,000 skilled machine tool technicians in Africa. Some of these technicians are now the backbone of various companies, and some have opened their own factories.

"Because they received education from the Chinese, they are very familiar with and trust Chinese machine tools. The Chinese name of Principal Ning is Ning Mo, and he was originally an employee of Linji Group, so the students trained by him are very familiar with Linji I especially trust the group’s Changying brand machine tools.”

"I have long said that the Chinese are playing a very big game of chess. Now, their chess position has been made and we have lost the first move." Okada Seizo murmured.

Nagai Hiroshi didn't say anything. He knew that Okada Seizo's words were not originally meant for him, but were complaints to the senior officials of Someno Company and even the Japanese government.

Hiroshi Nagai has heard Okada Seizo make similar complaints many times. Every time Okada Seizo complains like this, it's because there's something wrong with his performance. Okada Seizo firmly believes that his poor performance is not because of his incompetence, but because of the mistakes of Someno Company and the Japanese government.

Okada Seizo earlier served as the person in charge of Someno Company’s China Region. With the development of China's domestic machine tool industry, Someno's share of the Chinese machine tool market has continued to shrink, and finally reached the point where the benefits were less than the costs. Someno Company had to downgrade the China company to an office, and Okada Seizo was also sent to the barren Africa to serve as the president of the African Division.

Someno Machine Tools has always had a large market share in the African market, but because the overall size of the African market is small, Someno Company does not pay special attention to the African market. In recent years, in addition to the sharp decline in Someno Machine Tool's share in the Chinese market, its share in other Asian countries and European and American markets has also been challenged. What challenges it is the rising Chinese machine tools.

At the same time, China's One Belt One Road strategy has made great progress in Africa. Many African countries have started the industrialization process, driving demand for machine tools. The African machine tool market has begun to become a new focus of global machine tool manufacturers, and Someno Company has also Gradually, it pays more attention to the African market.

But at this time, Okada Seizo felt the decline of Someno Machine Tools' share in the African machine tool market. Yes, it's just a decline, not a collapse. However, Okada Seizo clearly remembers that the China company he was in charge of also experienced a similar situation back then. At first, the sales of individual models suffered a setback, and then there were more models, and then... nothing more. Old users were like Someno Machine Tool was thrown away like a broken shoe.

Could it be that in the African market, we are going to make the same mistakes we made in the Chinese market?

The more Okada Seizo thought about it, the more he found that there were indeed such signs, which made him panic.

This is not because I am incompetent, but because my opponent is too cunning.

This is Okada Seizo’s judgment of the situation.

He has learned that most of the share lost by Someno Machine Tools in Africa has gone into the pockets of Chinese machine tool companies. It is not just Japanese companies that have lost business to the Chinese, but also European and American companies.

The United States has long since settled down and has no intention of participating in the competition in the global machine tool market. European countries have traditionally been strong in machine tools. However, due to the impact of the European debt crisis in recent years, many companies have been half-dead and have lost interest in participating in market competition. Many European companies have even directly raised the white flag to the Chinese and allowed Chinese companies to merge. himself, and then lived a carefree life under the leadership of his new owner.

In fact, there are many Japanese companies that are lying flat. They still have some technical capital that they can rely on. If they don't mess around, they can still live a very comfortable life in ten or eight years. Someno is one of the few companies in Japan that still wants to give it a try, so facing competition from China, it will feel a lot of pressure.

The troubles in life actually come from ideals.

If you want to be a salty fish from the beginning, what worries will you have?

Okada Seizo actually wanted to be a salted fish, but unfortunately his boss did not allow him to do so. He received reprimands from the headquarters almost every day, requiring him to take immediate action to reverse the decline in the African market, which forced him to brace himself and think about countermeasures.

"Go to the Lusanya Ministry of Trade and Industry." Okada Seizo told the driver.

Multinational enterprises have privileges in many African countries because the annual output value of these enterprises is even higher than the GDP of many African countries. When a country is poor, there is no dignity at all. Government ministers have to be polite when meeting the CEOs of multinational companies and do not dare to offend these funders.

Okada Seizo has visited various government departments in Lusanya many times in the past. He does not need to make an appointment in advance to go to these departments. He can just come to the door on a whim, and the other party will never accuse him of any abrupt behavior.

Hearing about Okada Seizo's visit, Lusanya's Minister of Trade and Industry, Kawaga, personally took his assistant to greet him outside the office building and took him, Nagai Hiroshi and his entourage to his office. After a few simple greetings, Okada Seizo explained his purpose to Kawaga:

"Minister Kawaga, I am very honored to inform you that Someno Corporation has just united 25 Japanese companies and is preparing to provide Lusanya with a development loan of US$20 million to help Lusanya renovate equipment for existing companies. Transformation. Our vision is to bring the technical equipment of more than half of Lusanya’s industrial enterprises to a level no less than that of the West in 2010.”

"It's such a good thing!" Kavaja's face showed some joy, which was 70% exaggerated and 30% sincere.

20 million US dollars is not a big number for Lusanya today. But no matter how small a fly is, it is still meat. Generally speaking, Lusanya is still a poor country. It is also a good thing to be able to get a loan of US$20 million out of thin air.

"Someno has always regarded helping Africa develop its economy as its social responsibility. In the past 40 years, we have provided no less than 10,000 machine tools to enterprises in African countries. These machine tools have played an important role in Africa's industrialization process. effect.

"Now, the global industry has begun to enter the era of informatization and intelligence, but most companies in Africa have not yet started such a process. This is a very regrettable thing. We raise such a fund in the hope of helping Lusanya Machinery companies upgrade equipment.

"Someno Company is a leader in the world's new generation of machine tool technology and can provide machinery companies with a variety of intelligent machine tools including turning, milling, grinding, boring, etc. I believe that after Lusanya companies obtain these machine tools, they will It will be able to raise its production technology level to a higher level and become more competitive in the international market."

Okada Seizo was talking eloquently, and the Lusanya translator on the side was stumblingly translating his words into the local language and telling it to Kawaga. It was inevitable that some sensational words and phrases were missing in the middle, which actually made Kawaga more excited. Can more accurately grasp the mystery of Okada Seizan's words.

"President Okada, do you mean that the US$20 million loan you provided will be mainly used to purchase machine tools from Someno Company?" Kawaga asked tentatively.

"Of course, what's the problem?" Okada Seizo asked.

"There's no problem, it's a matter of course." Kawaga said with a sneer.

Sure enough, pie will not fall from the sky for no reason, and a company will not give itself a loan for no reason. This is like those business phone calls from "loan centers" that often say they can give you a loan amount of hundreds of thousands. Don't think that you have a biological father working there and that they are here to provide you with benefits. Any unreasonable loan must be a sinkhole, enough to build a FAST...

So, how big of a hole does Okada Seizo plan to dig when he personally comes to wish him a happy new year?

"But, President Okada, according to my impression, the machine tools of Someno Company are... relatively expensive. The price of an ordinary precision gantry milling machine is more than 500,000 US dollars. Based on this price, the machine tools provided by your company are... This $20 million loan doesn’t seem to be able to buy many machine tools, right?”

asked Kruta, Khawaga's assistant. He was a graduate of Luzhong Machine Tool School, and he had some knowledge about machine tools. He immediately discovered the flaw.