The birth of the Hong Kong Island family

"Oriental Daily News" and "Asia Daily News" started a "recruitment war for editorial staff" in Hong Kong. It had a great impact on the media field for a while. Both sides adopted high-paying recruitment methods, causing the salaries of reporters and editors in the entire industry to rise a lot.

Even if you don't fight, you still have to get involved in this invisible war. Newspapers such as "Sing Tao Daily" and "Ming Pao" also have to increase wages to stabilize their employees.

In this battle, the Ma brothers of "Asia Daily" were miserable. Although they were rich, they had to face large expenses; what's more, there was a rumor in the market that "Asia Daily" was a white newspaper, so They have to pay higher prices to recruit editorial staff from the market.

They had known for a long time that some citizens were jokingly calling Asia Daily a white paper behind their backs. But when rumors suddenly increased its influence, they had to suspect that someone was deliberately amplifying the news.

However, they do not dare to act rashly. Generally speaking, community members do not dare to offend newspaper reporters and lawyers. These two people are the most difficult to offend. If they offend reporters, they are a group of people who will write you down. If they offend lawyers, then they will be punished. Even more afraid, after all, they might need a lawyer one day.

Media Group.

President Luo Wenhui, editor-in-chief Dai Pingshu and other senior officials are having a meeting. Due to the full decentralization of power by boss Lin Zhichao, only the president and editor-in-chief of Oriental Daily have the opportunity to report to the boss in person. Most of the time, the management team led by Luo Wenhui and Dai Pingshu runs Oriental Daily.

The management of the group generally only supervises and reviews financial matters and does not dictate specific operations.

But in fact, whether it is Luo Wenhui or Dai Pingshu, they know that the positioning and business outline of "Oriental Daily" come from the hands of the boss; it is just that the boss fully trusts them and allows them to implement it in detail.

"Asian Daily wants to enter the popular newspapers, so we will increase their labor costs. The salary of one of their experienced news editors is at least 1,000 Hong Kong dollars per month. However, the turnover rate of our original news editors is less than 2 %, but instead recruited many experienced news gathering and editing personnel from outside." Luo Wenhui summarized the situation of this 'battle'.

Of course, the competition has just begun.

A senior executive asked tentatively: "President, if we continue like this, we will lose 800 yuan. Shouldn't we pay attention to the training of our news gathering and editing staff, and use the old to lead the new? This will save costs."

Luo Wenhui said with a smile: "This is the meaning above, otherwise I would have to consider the cost factor! There are actually many reasons, that is to continue to expand our sales and consider long-term benefits. Starting from the 1970s, we will also issue overseas Chinese It is an 'overseas version' of a densely populated city, so don't worry about the problem of too many editorial staff. What's more, we are also planning to imitate the American magazine Fortune and create a financial monthly magazine. In short, we are still in the investment stage."

No more objections from the public!

Luo Wenhui said in his heart, I'm afraid you don't know that the boss actually dislikes "Asia Daily"; once "Asia Daily" experiences this setback, "Oriental Daily" will have a second round of offensive. According to the boss's idea, that is to make a fuss about distribution, and jointly recommend "Oriental Daily" with publishers and newsstands.

In terms of financial resources, how can the Ma brothers of "Asia Daily" be compared with the media group of "Oriental Daily"!

Then, Luo Wenhui said: "Chief Editor Dai, the editors trained by our company are all treasures. Your editorial department must take good care of them! The loss of any one of them is a big loss."

The editors of "Oriental Daily" are all familiar with Lin Zhichao's true biography, and they know how to capture the hearts of the public and manipulate their articles; just like the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch in his previous life, he cultivated a group of excellent editors in Australia. As long as these people are brought to the UK and the United States, they can instantly bring a newspaper back to life.

To sum up, these editors need to know how to write 'summary articles', analyze the subject content of the news itself, and write short and concise 'essays' that go straight to the topic, while also being attractive.

Dai Pingshu said with a smile: "Everyone dislikes Asia Daily, and everyone knows the reason. What's more, Oriental Daily has very good welfare benefits, and is backed by a media group, so it has great development prospects. No one has changed jobs at present. After all, there is no such thing as 'people go to lower places'."

Luo Wenhui nodded, and then made some plans. "Oriental Daily" continued to show its fangs and seize the Hong Kong media market.

The "media grab war" caused by "Asia Daily" and ignited by "Oriental Daily" was the first "war" in the Hong Kong media industry. It affected a wide range and had great influence, and the industry was shocked.

Because there were not so many things to do when running newspapers in the past, many people were caught off guard, including Sing Tao Daily, Ming Pao, Industrial and Commercial Daily, etc.

Some people joke that the consortium is interested in the profits of the media, and the fans are interested in the influence of the media. In short, the influence is relatively large.

Asia Daily.

"Brother, we can't go on like this! If we poach someone, we have to pay a monthly salary of a thousand yuan. The level of importance varies, and there are not many people with real skills. The editor of "Oriental Daily" has not poached anyone. "Unexpectedly, the reporter who originally joined our "Asia Daily" jumped to "Oriental Daily". It seems that the media group attaches great importance to popular newspapers such as "Oriental Daily"," Ma Zhenzhen said.

Ma Xiru said: "The more this is the case, it means that it is right for us to enter the newspaper industry and the Dazhong newspaper. If you think about a person who is so rich, he has to run a vulgar newspaper like the Dazhong newspaper, even at the cost of incurring some criticism. Do you think Lin Zhichao is for what?"

The Ma brothers, the eldest is smart and cunning, while the second is brave and fierce.

Ma Zhenzhen said: "I heard from outside that it was because I was attacked by Zuo Lengchan's newspapers that year, so I decided to become a media player and have my own right to speak."

This answer is a common saying outside. Everyone thinks that Zuo Lengchan's newspaper attacked Lin Zhichao, which made Lin Zhichao very unhappy, so he had his own newspaper afterwards to make things less passive in the future. Otherwise, why would the world's most majestic shipping king engage in a meager profit industry like the media, and why would he even hesitate to run a newspaper like "Popular News" that is not worthy of being in the palace of elegance?

Ma Xiru said: "That's right! With the right to speak, even if we run the Asia Daily and it can't directly clear our name, it can still make some wealthy country gentlemen look at us brothers with new eyes. This will be very important for us in the future."

Ma Zhenzhen suddenly said happily: "Not only that, we have been very popular among our peers recently. Who would have thought that we could also run a newspaper. We are now 'serious' businessmen! Haha!"

He laughed arrogantly, "Hong Kong's four major fan-selling families", the Ma brothers occupied two places; similarly, the other two only knew how to sell fans, but did not know how to clean up their reputation. He felt that they were superior to others.

"low profile!"

"Yes, big brother, haha!"

The other side.

"Sing Tao Daily", "Ming Pao" and others have been involved in the "newspaper industry talent war". Facing a consortium and a fan-selling society, they suddenly felt that their money was thin. We can only try to stabilize the brain drain as much as possible, but it is still inevitable.

Lin Zhichao came to the Uniqlo Clothing Company located in the Crocodile T-shirt Building. This company has been developing steadily. Now after nearly twenty years of development, the scale is quite grand.

In terms of properties, it owns: Crocodile T-shirt Building in the heart of Central, UNIQLO Industrial Building in Kwun Tong, Kwun Tong Crocodile T-shirt Industrial Building (formerly the Jewish Brothers' Qi Oi Building), and 16 high-quality stores in Hong Kong.

In terms of business, it owns: crocodile shirt brand, the most famous and representative high-end clothing brand in Hong Kong; traveler luggage, the ancestor of trolley cases whose products are exported to Europe and the United States; OEM for some European and American mid-to-high-end clothing brands, which is the most recent New business has been added in a few years, but it is developing rapidly; it represents two first-tier European clothing brands and has five stores in Hong Kong.

In terms of cash, the situation: Over the years, it has provided Lin Zhichao with steady growth in income. In addition to the company's development, many of them have been used for Lin Zhichao's personal expenses. The start-up capital of the media group also came from this company. For example, the profit this year is more than 8 million Hong Kong dollars (including property rent and OEM for mid-to-high-end brands), and continues to grow.

To put it simply, the current Uniqlo clothing company is already a large clothing company in Hong Kong, far larger than the crocodile shirts in its previous life at the same time. After all, the crocodile shirt brand is just a brand of Uniqlo. In addition, the crocodile shirt itself has also left Hong Kong and is developing well in Southeast Asia.

If it goes public in the next two or three years, the amount of funds raised will be no less than HK$30 million (25% of public shares); probably, it will be about the same size as Cheung Kong Holdings in its previous life (32 million); more than the 17.5 million raised by Crocodile Shirts in its previous life. More than doubled.

actually.

Lin Zhichao did not expend much energy in developing this company. He fully trusted the management team headed by Zhao Mingyi and Hong Yunpei; he only provided guidance in every key link of the company's development, and occasionally expressed his opinions after inspections. .

With the current development, management such as Zhao Mingyi and Hong Yunpei attribute the greatest credit to the boss's command. This is the good result brought about by the time traveler's knowledge and Lin Zhichao's own business level in this life.

In the "boss" conference room, senior executives greeted each other one after another.

This boss only meets with everyone two or three times a year, but everyone dares not to take him seriously because the boss is very powerful.

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "Today's meeting begins! First, let's discuss the company's development direction in the 1970s. If you have any suggestions, please put them forward!"

As early as a month ago, he said he would hold a meeting to discuss this issue.

Zhao Mingyi, the general manager, was the first to speak: "The crocodile shirt brand insists on pursuing high quality, fabric comfort, and fashion elements. At the same time, it should add 'crocodile shirt children's clothing' and 'crocodile shirt women's clothing'. Invite internationally renowned designers Design, keep up with global fashion elements and OEM European and American mid-to-high-end clothing, we should continue to pursue more orders."

Well done!

At this time, the popularity of crocodile shirts in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia was already very high. Especially in Hong Kong, it is known as a representative thing like the 'Bauhinia flower'. Crocodile shirts are not just for clothing. They have already entered the ranks of leather goods. Products such as wallets, belts, and leather shoes have been deeply loved by Hong Kong people since childhood.

Zhao Mingyi means to continue to develop crocodile shirts and OEM for mid-to-high-end clothing in Europe and the United States.

At present, Uniqlo Clothing Company has more than 1,200 skilled tailors, and it is already a very powerful garment factory. Unlike those large garment factories, the quality of these 1,200 tailors is very high, so they can OEM for mid-to-high-end clothing products in Europe and the United States. .

The number of tailors must be much lower. Lin Zhichao's father-in-law Tang Zhongyuan's Dongfang Garment Factory has more than 10,000 garment workers. But Oriental garment factories all produce cheap clothes. Although their products are sold in Europe, the United States and Africa, their profits are actually very small, only about 20 million a year. Although Dongfang Garment Factory makes good money, the investment is also huge. Equipment needs to be replaced frequently, factories need to be built overseas, etc.

Lin Zhichao said: "The development plan for the crocodile shirt brand and OEM business is correct. We can refine the development outline in the future. Hong Kong in the 1970s must have been an international metropolis, a region with in-depth exchanges of Chinese and Western cultures, and economic development. The speed is fast, people pursue fashion, and the popularity of brands is very high. Crocodile shirts must adapt to the development of the times, and cannot be one step behind or one step behind. As for OEM, our crocodile shirts have advantages that other garment factories in Hong Kong do not have, that is, for The quality of mid-to-high-end clothing is controlled, and we hope to have more OEM contracts in the future.”

He described what Hong Kong would have been like in the 1970s to give his men a reference.

Zhao Mingyi and others immediately felt that how things should develop, the boss's beacon was too important.

After writing it down, everyone spoke one after another. Lin Zhichao listened carefully to the work report. Generally speaking, they are developed around the two brands of crocodile shirts and travelers, and the OEM business has been separated and is affiliated with Uniqlo clothing company.

Finally, Lin Zhichao said: "I plan to make ready-to-wear 'UNIQLO' clothing brand, specializing in the young people's clothing market. To put it simply, jeans, T-shirts, dresses, etc. are already popular in the West, which will inevitably affect Hong Kong's dressing style . Young people may no longer wear suits and leather shoes. They may also pursue fashion and wear jeans, bell-bottom pants, hot pants, Hawaiian suits and cloud suits. This is the future clothing trend. So the UNIQLO clothing brand is simply a trend. It is a young, high-quality and affordable clothing brand. The brand does not distinguish between men and women. It makes clothing for men and women as well as children's clothing. The clothing style is based on Western style elements."

GAP in the United States should be established this year; ZARA in Spain should be five or six years away; and Uniqlo in Japan was established in the 1980s.

Of course, these have nothing to do with the Hong Kong brand ‘UNIQLO’.

The 'Uniqlo brand' that Lin Zhichao is talking about is not immediately identified as a 'Fast Retailing brand', it is just a young and fashionable clothing brand.

After Zhao Mingyi and others heard this, they knew that their boss was already confident, so they naturally would not object.

Zhao Mingyi said: "If we want to establish the Uniqlo brand, then we must get first-hand information about European and American fashion, and then use our own designers to design the style. At the same time, after all, Hong Kong clothing is in the situation that the boss said A transitional phase, so the process may be lengthy."

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "It doesn't matter, I am a long-term investment. First of all, we need to have a design studio in Europe and the United States to immediately sell clothing styles from shows in Milan, Paris, the United States and other places, as well as clothing styles from fashion magazines. Bring it back to Hong Kong; however, our fashion designers will make secondary innovations on it, and then put the production on the shelves and need to strengthen popular marketing, so I will ask its publishing house to create a fashion magazine to cooperate with our brand marketing. Finally, First open two or three stores to try, and then reposition yourself at the right opportunity.”

There is no doubt that everyone is very interested in doing it because the boss is so confident.

Lin Zhichao also understood that before the 1980s, the concept of "Fast Retail" could not be proposed, but throughout the 1970s, the foundation could be laid.

As for using magazines to cooperate, Lin Zhichao has already thought about it, and he will use "FHM" magazine. Although this magazine is positioned as a men's magazine, women actually also like to read it because they want to understand men from it.

Of course, wait until the seventies!

"Okay, I will prepare the 'UNIQLO' clothing brand as soon as possible according to the boss's wishes!" General Manager Zhao Mingyi said immediately.

He and Lin Zhichao have been together for more than 20 years, and they are almost fifty years old. Under the encouragement of Lin Zhichao, these veteran officials have never stopped learning and making progress.

In all Lin Zhichao's companies, the management does not receive a fixed salary, but will give out a few percent of the profit every year as a 'year-end dividend (bonus)'. Many senior executives can receive more than half a year's salary, or even more than one year's salary as a 'bonus'.

In fact, in this era there are already many senior executives who can get shares of the company.

Of course, that situation is not suitable for Lin Zhichao’s companies:

First of all, generally you can get equity in a company by creating a business from scratch overseas, such as opening a textile factory in Southeast Asia;

Secondly, the soul of all Lin Zhichao's enterprises is still himself, and it is he who formulates the development outline. Senior management is not indispensable, but the development of the company requires their efforts.

Finally, Lin Zhichao's salary and benefits have always been unrivaled among his peers; because Lin Zhichao's corporate performance is generally very good, his salary is the envy of outsiders.

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "Okay, report to me if there is any progress! Uniqlo Clothing Company will go public in the next two or three years and complete the fund-raising, which will be mainly used for the allocation of the company's assets and plans to expand overseas in the future. And you, too, will Becoming an executive of a listed company will bring you even better benefits.”

Everyone was surprised!

Zhao Mingyi took the initiative to express his gratitude: "The salary given to us by the boss is high enough. It is only under your leadership that we have achieved today's results. We are very satisfied with the benefits."

Hong Yunpei also said: "Indeed, sailing on the sea depends on the helmsman, and the boss is our helmsman."

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "You don't need to be modest about this. I always think about it. If I can earn 10 million, I need you to earn at least 100,000. I believe I have always done it. After going public, the company will expand in the clothing field. It is also possible to diversify development and increase the proportion of property. I believe the company's effect will be better. I naturally have the means to increase high benefits for you. However, just because we want to be listed and develop, I hope to increase reserve talents and management in the future. Make plans for the long-term development of the company. I am not afraid of paying more, but I am afraid that the company will not have enough talents when it develops. You must do this well."

"Yes, boss!"

We won't worry that the boss will dislike us for being old. After all, almost all of the boss's employees have been with him for about twenty years. As far as they know, the boss's middle and senior management almost never have anyone leave their job. Only senior management can join from outside, but this will not affect the original position of the senior management.

After the meeting, Lin Zhichao was also planning the future of the Uniqlo Group in the office.

Listing can raise about 30 million Hong Kong dollars. This part of the funds is actually Lin Zhichao's plan to 'cash out' some properties. After the Uniqlo Group raised funds, at the peak of the real estate industry in 1972-1973, it bought some shops of Lin Zhichao's private real estate company (there were many shops on the first floor of street-facing residences), and then reserved some funds for the company's development.

Uniqlo Group did not suffer a loss. After all, after the stock market crash and the oil crisis, Hong Kong real estate fell by only about 30%, which is not a big drop. These properties can provide continuous financial support for Uniqlo's future development.

Lin Zhichao is not all about cashing out. After all, he can directly sell the property and extract profits from Uniqlo; he is more about making a long-term plan for Uniqlo's future.

Only by going public can we use the capital market to acquire and expand at the lowest cost in the future.