2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 224 Solving the Trouble (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

What should be done when personal interests conflict with collective interests?
That depends on how much influence you have. Obviously, Xu Xueming doesn't have that kind of influence.

Although he was not satisfied with Tan Jincheng's proposal and it would not benefit him personally, he had no choice but to report it.

Furthermore, Tan Jincheng's proposals to establish the Flash Technology Warehousing and Logistics Transfer Center in Yicheng, as well as to donate funds to his hometown to improve people's livelihoods, have already exceeded his authority.

Simply put, he can no longer make the decision about this matter.

To put it bluntly, Tan Jincheng was no longer willing to play along with him. This was essentially an ultimatum: if they could talk, they could; if not, it was either over or they should find someone with more influence to negotiate with.

To be honest, Xu Xueming was quite angry. Despite the fact that this kid treated him to good food and drinks, he was unyielding when it came to the bottom line of cooperation, and Xu Xueming couldn't do anything about it.

His words implied that I am backed by Beicang City Investment and the Beicang District Government. I do want the production qualification, and I can raise the price and negotiate the terms, but nothing else is negotiable.

The other party did indeed have the confidence to say that. His company is now developing very well and is highly valued by the local government of Beicang. As its scale grows larger and larger, even if he invests back in Yicheng, he will receive certain preferential treatment.

Overall, I can still have some control over him if we cooperate, but if we don't cooperate with car manufacturers and instead purchase directly, I have no chance to control him at all.

That's probably why he's unwilling to cooperate.
Well, if they don't want to, they don't want to. Cooperating with such a spirited young man isn't necessarily a good thing. Let's wait and see.

"Since President Tan is interested in our intangible assets and has offered a very reasonable price, why is he unwilling to directly manufacture cars?" Xu Xueming still wanted to try.

"The timing isn't right. Automobiles are the crown jewel of industry. Car manufacturing is not just about manufacturing cars, but a huge industrial chain. We really don't have the capability to manufacture cars right now."

Product development is actually tiered; the higher you go, the harder it becomes.

At the very bottom is imitation. Take 3C products as an example, that's Huaqiangbei. Whether it's counterfeit mobile phones now or electronic watches in the future, Huaqiangbei can quickly organize the supply chain to handle it through its powerful imitation capabilities.

The next step is to develop your own products. To make your own products successful, you need to invest a lot of money and spend a lot of time.

The next level up is making mobile phones. Making mobile phones is actually a very difficult thing. A mobile phone has thousands of parts, and each part has a supplier behind it. You need to have your own supply chain.

The mobile phone supply chain is not such that if you buy a supplier's product, they will sell it to you. For example, my screen is exclusively supplied to Samsung, and my casing is exclusively supplied to Nokia.

If you are a new mobile phone brand and you want to get goods, you need a lot of cash to purchase from suppliers at higher prices. New players entering the market rely entirely on cash.

Without a large amount of cash, you can't succeed even if you try. A big reason why Luo Yonghao failed in his initial attempt to make mobile phones was that he had never run a large industry before, was not well prepared for difficulties, and didn't have enough money, which is why he failed.

It's not that his phones weren't good enough; on the contrary, his Smartisan phone sold quite well back then. But by then, his cash flow had dried up, and he had no choice but to give up.

Mobile phones are already difficult enough, but cars are even more so.

There are two major hurdles in making cars: the first is the brand, and the second is the engine assembly. There is also industrial design. Generally, top manufacturers like BBA (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi) will first make concept cars.

Concept cars must be at least five to ten years ahead of the market. Then they are put on the board to test the market response. This is a very large-scale survey. If the market response is good, the concept car is upgraded to a mass-produced car. The development cycle of a car is about 10 to 15 years.

The new cars you see now were actually sitting in their hangars 10 years ago, which is why you'll see why a 50 yuan car looks better than a 40 yuan car.

A car costing 40 yuan looks better than a car costing 30 yuan. A Sagitar doesn't look as good as a Magotan, and a Magotan doesn't look as good as a Phaeton. Why? Because they are manufactured using different processes.

He intentionally created different aesthetic levels in the car, which is an artificial separation of aesthetic levels in the field of industrial design.

Foreign manufacturers are already so far ahead in the gasoline-powered vehicle market that it's simply too late to catch up in 10 to 15 years. So, if you want to succeed in the gasoline-powered vehicle market and catch up with foreign manufacturers, the only way is to imitate them.

In the gasoline-powered vehicle market, almost all domestic private car manufacturers initially followed the path of imitation, which was a last resort.

Now that domestic gasoline car brands have developed, it's too late for FlashTech to start making gasoline cars. Not to mention brands like Chery, even Zotye can't catch up.

New energy vehicles are different. They have eliminated the engine, which has been the pride of automobiles for over a century. Sorry, we don't need the engine anymore. Four wheels and a sofa, OK, we have a car.

The emerging forces of later generations, without delving into the underlying principles, have clearly and thoroughly developed new energy vehicles, refrigerators, color TVs, and air conditioners. This is the fundamental key to achieving a leapfrog development. Although the term "leapfrog development" is not always a positive one, in the field of new energy, we have indeed succeeded.

If the automotive industry wants to achieve a leapfrog development, and if FlashTech wants to achieve a leapfrog development in car manufacturing, it can no longer waste time on gasoline-powered cars, but should focus on battery technology.

Before the development of new energy vehicles, we need to master battery technology so that when the entire industry chain arrives, we can quickly enter that industry chain and realize FlashDrive Technology's dream of building cars.

The reason for choosing Ningbo as the location for the company is not only due to past emotional ties, but also because the Pearl River Delta is the supply chain for 3C products and mobile phones, so the future automotive industry chain will definitely choose the Yangtze River Delta.

By separating the two major industrial chains to avoid competition, Tesla's decision to build its Gigafactory in Shanghai is also based on this strategy.

Take investment as an example. If making a product costs 100 million yuan, then making a mobile phone costs 1 billion yuan, and making a car costs even more. Without being fully prepared, Tan Jincheng would never cooperate with any local government.

People like Xu Xueming only think about gaining benefits through cooperation. They don't care whether your company can survive or will go bankrupt, because that has nothing to do with their own interests.

FlashTech is currently in the early stages of product development, having just emerged from the Huaqiangbei market and its brand image is not yet deeply ingrained in people's minds. If it were to launch a car project at this point, the difficulty would be no less than asking Tan Jinyue, who has just learned to walk, to ride a bicycle.

Don't even mention that Tan Jincheng doesn't want to do it anymore. Even if he really did, Beicang City Investment and even the Beicang government would definitely think that Tan Jincheng has become arrogant. Who would they rely on then? Xu Xueming, that big liar? Yicheng government? Forget it.

"Alright then, that's settled for now. I'll head back to the hotel to report to my superiors and let President Tan know when I have any updates." Xu Xueming didn't say anything more.

"Okay, thank you for your trouble, Mr. Xu. I'll come over to you at noon to treat you and your colleagues to a meal and to apologize for the neglect we caused you the past few days."

"Mr. Tan, you're too kind."

"Of course, of course. Putting aside the cooperation, you are still my elder and my fellow townsman. I should naturally treat you well when you come to Beicang."

"Haha, okay, then I'll be going now, so as not to disturb President Tan's work."

"Okay, I'll have the driver take you home to rest."

After seeing Xu Xueming off, Tan Jincheng was quite happy. It was good to have made things clear with this guy, so that he wouldn't keep giving him all sorts of hints and suggestions, and wouldn't think he was someone special.

I'll take you out for food and drinks, no problem. What else are you thinking?

FlashTech has been very busy lately. Not to mention himself, even Zhang Xuhui has a lot to do and no time to deal with him. He has been running around with him these past few days, which has caused him to miss a lot of things.

Gu Yanning had originally planned to bring her company's leaders over this week to discuss the development of an enterprise management system, but because of Xu Xueming's arrival, Zhang Xuhui didn't have time to deal with the matter, so it was postponed.

After Gu Yanning returned to work in Hangzhou on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, she quickly reported the matter to her supervisor, which soon piqued the company's interest.

Generally speaking, the price of a basic OA system needed by a small or medium-sized company, if bought off-the-shelf, is around tens of thousands of yuan, which is not a big deal. But from Gu Yanning's description, it is clearly a customized system.

That would be equivalent to a large company, which might require more powerful features, and its price would naturally be much higher, possibly hundreds of thousands or even millions. The actual price needs to be assessed and determined based on the specific needs of the enterprise.

ERP software management systems typically include modules such as procurement management, sales management, inventory management, financial management, human resource management, and supply chain management. These modules need to work together to achieve unified management and optimized allocation of enterprise resources, thereby improving the enterprise's production efficiency and management level.

Although computers are relatively common nowadays, computer talent, whether in software or hardware, is still quite scarce. Customized systems have extremely high profit margins, and anyone who doesn't know the industry can easily fool them.

It's easy for someone to sell something worth a few thousand yuan for tens of thousands. The price depends on your persuasive skills. Therefore, Gu Yanning's internship company naturally takes this business opportunity very seriously.

They also knew about Flash Technology, the electric car company that hired Chris Lee and Liu Yifei as spokespeople. It attracted a lot of attention in 2005, and their online popularity was very high. There were advertorials and advertisements everywhere on forums, just like viral marketing.

I wonder what kind of person the boss of this company is. It's amazing that a traditional enterprise can have an internet mindset.

Tan Jincheng called Zhang Xuhui over and instructed him, "Contact Gu Yanning and talk to her about the system development. I'm free these few days."

Requesting monthly votes!
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(End of this chapter)