The Industrial Giant Reborn

The next day, Chen Zhiwen came to Midea's headquarters in the Prince's Building, and told Lei Shengli that he was going to find a separate office for Midea.

"Thank you, Chairman, for your concern. During this period, the growth rate of Midea's personnel is indeed too fast." Lei Shengli said embarrassingly. After entering 1976, Midea's business began to grow on a large scale, and the arcade market exploded. He said that in Europe alone, orders for three or four thousand Snakes can be obtained every month, and the Magic Cube, which has just entered the US market, has shown a potential to be more popular than Snakes.

In terms of household appliances, after several years of slow development, coupled with Chen Zhiwen's investment in retail terminals, this year's market has entered the preparations for an explosion since the beginning of the year. Many supermarkets in Europe and the United States have placed orders for fans and some refrigerators to Midea.

Although the production of the terminal is in the factory, the export business has increased, and the number of people connecting with overseas has increased, and the number of people connecting with the factory will naturally increase. This has led to a serious shortage of people at Midea's headquarters. A lot of people worked overtime. Although overtime pay was paid, it still didn't fit Chen Zhiwen's business style.

"Stop complaining about the trouble of too fast development. It's too late for others to envy you." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, "How's the sales of Midea's music player in Hong Kong recently?"

Midea's products have been mainly used in European and American markets over the years. Not to mention that they are not sold in Hong Kong or Southeast Asia, they are also developed incidentally. Until the recently developed music player S-1, it is mainly for Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. and other areas.

"The sales are not bad. In a week, more than 2,000 units were sold. Although there is not much money, it also shows that this S-1 music player is still very popular. In the future, it will open up the Gulf and Southeast Asia. , there should be a market," Lei Shengli said.

"Well, you should pay more attention to this area, but more importantly, this player is too big and can only be placed on a table. What I need more is a player that can be placed in a pocket. It can be placed in a backpack, and the sound can be brought out through the headphone cable." Chen Zhiwen held a small player beside him, shaking his hands, and said, "This thing weighs about 3 catties."

"Each one weighs 1.42 kilograms, which is not very heavy, but the space is indeed too large, so it is not suitable for carrying in a backpack." Lei Shengli said, if the things are small enough, 1.5 kilograms is not a problem in the bag, but this This kind of plastic and hollow music player is too big. It is 25 cm long and 10 cm wide.

"As far as I know, Japan's Sony is also researching this kind of player that can be put in the pocket. We don't talk about surpassing them, but it's better to have them, even if they appear later, the market is huge." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Before the appearance of MP3, the global market for portable music players was in the tens of millions. Naturally, Chen Zhiwen did not want to let go of this market, but it is unrealistic to want to monopolize it all. Make it first in the market, and if you have the ability to develop MP3 first in the future, you can take advantage of this first-mover advantage and a complete sales channel to explode quickly.

And it’s just a tape player. With the assembly cost in Hong Kong, it also has a certain low-cost advantage over Japanese brands. In addition, it can be moved to the mainland in the future, which can further reduce costs. As far as Chen Zhiwen knows, Sony’s Walkman is based on For the high-end route, it is not a problem to go to the mid-range by yourself.

"Japan has mastered a lot about the tape resolver patent. It will take a long time for us to get around it, and it will be even more difficult if it is miniaturized." Lei Shengli said with a frown.

"There are quite a few patents in this area in Europe, but because the labor costs in Europe are too high, they can't compete with Japan, but if they cooperate with Hong Kong's labor, there may be a chance to turn around." Chen Zhiwen said: "Go and buy some European and American patents. In terms of patents, these patents are actually useless in their hands, and then based on them, we can develop R\u0026D centers in Hong Kong, Bay Bay, or directly in Europe and the United States.”

When technology patents cannot compete with Japanese giants, it is a better choice to choose to cooperate with European and American companies. Even if there will be profit sharing in the future, it is better than not having this opportunity. After all, high-tech things, especially It is difficult for outsiders to surpass the technology that others have studied for a long time.

In this industry, Chen Zhiwen is not absolutely sure that he can develop this technology.

Except for some computer-related products, games, etc., he is not absolutely sure that any electrical appliance will be successful, but in many cases, it must be tried. After all, Japanese electronics giants do not know what products will sell well in the future, and they do not know what technologies It will be practical, so it is all a wide-spread research and development, and the research and development costs are very high, but he knows what to research, and this alone can save dozens of times of money.

If under such circumstances, no special research and development is invested, then it is better to forget about real estate speculation forever, and it is more profitable to speculate in real estate in the short term.

"Okay, then I'll try to communicate with Philips first." Lei Shengli nodded and said, as the person in charge of Midea, he also knows very well that Midea's research and development capabilities are actually far worse than those of foreign companies. It is also difficult to open a branch in the United States.

The reason why he can achieve the current results is actually relying on the success of the game field, but games are creative, although making money, they are not technical. As for home appliances, they mainly rely on the long-term investment of their boss in the retail terminal. It is almost impossible for Hong Kong electrical appliance brands to enter Wal-Mart. Not to mention so many supermarkets behind.

"Are you sure? Philips can cooperate with us?" Chen Zhiwen asked rhetorically. Philips, a well-known large company almost a hundred years ago, invented the light bulb with an extremely long life as early as around 1900. The scale is launched to the market.

In recent years, Philips has achieved success in many civil and office fields. If there are Fortune 500 companies, Philips will definitely be one of them.

"I have a certain degree of confidence. Although the performance of Philips' tape conversion technology is not inferior to that of Japan, but because there is no market, if it continues like this, it will only be eliminated." Lei Shengli said with a smile.

"Well, okay, let's cooperate and continue to develop research and development. Hong Kong will strive to have its own technology as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

The most suitable research method is to sell the products, and then use the funds for research and development. Otherwise, the technology without market is just a grassroots without roots.

No matter what, think of a way to get the market first, even if you lose money, even if you let the core technology suppliers make most of the profits, but as long as a closed market loop is formed, you can study it slowly, and one day you will get related technologies.

In this regard, later generations of mainland home appliances are of this model, such as air conditioners. In the 1990s, the air-conditioning compressors of several major domestic air-conditioning companies were imported, and most of the initial profits were obtained by overseas suppliers. However, as the market was controlled, Several companies began to develop their own technology, and finally made a breakthrough, and then swept the Japanese electric company, which was once making money, into the long river of history.

Market first, after grasping the terminal market, you will have the ability to develop technology in reverse. In the entire history of human business, only a few industries such as the chip industry, automobile gearbox + engine, etc. will have a large number of suppliers. Others, Basically, whoever has the market is the boss. Even if you may be stuck for a while, there will always be a day when you can break through by yourself.

Of course, the prerequisite for this to be possible is that there is enough research and development spirit, and there is no shortage of beauty. The first thing to do now is to find a way to get the market and invest in the US retail industry. This is the purpose. In the future, the funds will be abundant. Focus on the European retail market. Anyway, several European supermarket giants are still in their infancy, so there are always opportunities.