2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 291 Zhang Xupeng’s Thoughts
The electrical company, established in July 2003, mainly deals in core components for all two-wheeled vehicles, including motors, controllers, instruments, and sensors.

Benefiting from the booming electric vehicle industry in the past two years, Bafang Electric's business has developed quite well. However, at present, Bafang Electric's largest customer is still FlashTech Technology.

Unfortunately, it's too young. Some established electric vehicle brands either have their own self-developed motors and controllers like Yadi, or they have their own fixed suppliers.

It is quite difficult to enter their industrial chain.

FlashTech was initially just one of Bafang Electric's small clients. Relying on the Suzhou Industrial Park, Bafang Electric had many small electric vehicle manufacturers like FlashTech as clients, and they were doing fairly well.
But no one expected that in less than a year, FlashTech would become Bafang Electric's largest customer.

At the press conference for Olympic sponsors, when FlashTech announced its future investment in self-developed motors and controllers, Wang Qinghua, chairman of Bafang Electric, felt a pang of anxiety. This big client, whom they had worked so hard to secure, was about to leave.

Who would want to be a small client if they can be a big client? Only big clients can increase output value and enable a company to transform itself.

Wang Qinghua is an idealist. There are countless motor manufacturers like Bafang Electric in the three major electric vehicle industrial zones of Jiangsu Province. He doesn't want his company to only take on small, scattered jobs and eventually fade into obscurity.

To grow a business in the supply chain, you need to get into the supply chain of large companies. A large company will drive several well-known supply chain manufacturers, just like Shenzhou Group in Beicang, where Flash Technology is located.

Shenzhou Group manufactures products for major international brands and has even gone public.

When FlashTech secured the exclusive sponsorship of electric vehicles for the Olympics, not only FlashTech itself was delighted, but also its suppliers of core components.

This not only means that higher sales volume will bring them larger orders, but also builds a reputation for parts suppliers.

It has been half a month since the Olympic Games press conference ended, and FlashTech has not made any moves since the Olympics ended, nor have we heard of any plans to build a motor and controller factory.

Even before construction began, there was an opportunity. Wang Qinghua wanted to go to Beicang to try and persuade Boss Tan.

"Don't build it anymore. Our motors are working perfectly fine. Why bother with ours? Right, Mr. Tan?"

However, according to an insider at FlashTech, their boss has been busy with corporate restructuring and frequently meets with government departments, so he might not have time to entertain President Wang when he comes.

Everyone knows that Flash will make a big move after April 28th. The corporate restructuring may be the first step in this big move. Wang Qinghua is unsure whether Tan Jincheng really doesn't have time to meet with him or is making excuses.

However, we had no choice but to postpone our trip to Beicang. Fortunately, our cooperation with FlashTech is going well so far. They still respect the contract and the payment is being made on time.

Among Bafang Electric's clients, Wang Qinghua personally prefers FlashTech, not only because it is the largest in scale, but also because FlashTech has a strong sense of contractual responsibility; whatever the contract says, goes.

This is actually a very obvious advantage among private enterprises in China, as there are many companies that do not abide by contracts.

It's quite a headache that many companies in our area are delaying final payments for various reasons.

"Boss, the assistant general manager of FlashTech just called and said he'll be visiting you on the 15th of next week."

Just as Wang Qinghua was considering whether to make another appointment to explore Beicang, his assistant arrived.

"Who's coming? The chairman of Flashpoint Technology?"

"Yes, Mr. Tan from FlashTech, his assistant just called to ask if you have time on the 15th, which is next Monday."

"Yes, of course! Tell Mr. Tan's assistant that we warmly welcome Mr. Tan's arrival," Wang Qinghua said happily.

It's good that they're willing to talk; as long as they can talk, there's a chance. The worst thing is if they're not even willing to talk and terminate the cooperation as soon as the contract ends. In that case, there's really no hope.

It seems that what their company insiders said earlier—that Boss Tan was busy with corporate restructuring and didn't have time to meet—was not just a deliberate excuse.
-
“I really don’t have time. I’m going to Suzhou next week, and I don’t know exactly how long it will take.” Tan Jincheng sighed to Zhang Xupeng, who was sitting on a single sofa, with his feet propped up on the coffee table without any regard for his image.

Zhang Suzhi disapproved of him putting his feet on the coffee table, and scolded and beat Tan Jincheng. Tan Jincheng had no choice but to take his feet off the coffee table, but then put them on the sofa and rested his head on Gu Qingqing's lap, who was sitting next to him.

This further angered Gu Qingqing.

Zhang Xupeng couldn't bear to look at Tan Jincheng like this. Who would have thought that the billionaire everyone talked about would be so lazy at home? He had only come back for a short rest and also invited Tan Jincheng to see if he had time to go to Wangjiang to see the factory under construction, since Tan Jincheng was also involved in the factory.

I thought the restructuring of FlashTech was over and Xiao Tan would have some time, but I didn't expect Xiao Tan to go to Suzhou again.

Of course, there was another layer of meaning that Zhang Xupeng couldn't say outright: Tao Qinian also wanted to invite Tan Jincheng to visit his hometown and his logistics base, which Tan Jincheng hadn't been to since construction began.

"You've been working way too hard. You haven't stopped since Yongkang in March, have you?"

"Yes, I've been really busy lately, traveling to quite a few cities, but I guess I won't be able to stop for a while."

Yongkang, Yiwu, Shanghai, Wuxi, and Beijing – I've traveled to five cities in just two months. Next, I'll be going to Tianjin. I've spent almost half my time away from home.

I also made a side trip to Hangzhou, and thankfully, it was a pretty good trip.

Zhongtai built a factory in Beicang, the Kaixin.com and Kaixin Farm projects were successfully launched, the Shanghai exhibition was successful, and the company obtained the qualification to be an Olympic sponsor. After returning, the company's restructuring work proceeded smoothly.

Next, we will go to Bafang Electric and Tianjin, and strive to complete the business layout for electric vehicle expansion this year.

The next steps are production, sales, ramping up production capacity, and then going public. Once the core business is established before the 2008 Olympics, the electric vehicle business will be largely taken care of; at most, it will just be a matter of market share.

It's worth noting that even though Xinri was overtaken by Yadi and Aima and lost its position as the leader in the electric vehicle market, it is still doing quite well. This is a company that can survive even if Long Ge (the founder of XRI) doesn't kill it, thanks to the foundation it laid during this period.

“Hey, I’m telling you, when you’re doing group restructuring, you could also put me, Jinpeng, in there. Don’t you think that would be better?” Zhang Xupeng suddenly said.

With its own garment factory in mind, Jinpeng Trading is now preparing to change its name to Jinpeng Industry. Before the name change, Zhang Xupeng heard about the restructuring of Shanchi, which is one of the reasons why he took the time to come here today.

"Hmm? Why would you have such an idea? Jinpeng Trading is your own business now. Wouldn't it be better to be a happy boss?" Tan Jincheng sat up and said.

Zhang Xupeng's words surprised not only him, but also Gu Qingqing.

This time, Orange Technology couldn't reach an agreement on valuation and will continue to operate independently. She didn't say anything about it, but she still didn't quite understand why her brother thought Orange Technology was worth 3 million.
With just that small website and its mini-games? She'd looked at the basic architecture of Kaixin.com and Happy Farm, and couldn't say they were particularly creative. Kaixin.com was similar to QQ Space, while she genuinely didn't understand Happy Farm.

Stealing vegetables online? What a pointless activity! Does anyone really find this game fun?
Gu Qingqing really couldn't understand what her brother was thinking. But today, she felt that she couldn't keep up with not only her brother's thoughts, but also Zhang Xupeng's.

The current restructuring, to put it bluntly, is to bring all enterprises under one overall framework. Although all companies operate independently and their businesses do not overlap, they have all become subsidiaries.

Why did Zhang Xupeng think of including Jinpeng in the list?

Zhang Xupeng smiled and said very frankly, "Actually, my idea is very simple: it's good to have a big tree to lean on."

You don't know the cost of firewood and rice until you're in charge of the household. Since taking charge of Jinpeng independently, Zhang Xupeng has learned the importance of connections. A significant reason why Xiao Tan's Flash Technology has been able to develop so quickly is that he has rapidly built his own network of connections.

Without the strong support from Beicang District, FlashTech could not have developed so quickly, including the Olympic sponsorship qualification. The behind-the-scenes battles were all thanks to Beicang's support for Xiao Tan.

No matter how well you design something, you might not be able to succeed without someone backing you up.

He has no shortage of funds or supply chain, but what he lacks is a network of connections, and his biggest network of connections is Xiao Tan.
Why bother using a perfectly good network of relationships?
Besides, each company operates independently, which doesn't affect his status as a boss. Mr. Zhang is still Mr. Zhang. In addition, it's not like he hasn't assisted Xiao Tan before. Assisting Xiao Tan is nothing shameful.

As soon as Zhang Xupeng spoke, Tan Jincheng understood his intentions. However, if he were to be incorporated into the group, Jinpeng would have to become a subsidiary of the group. The first condition for a subsidiary is that it must hold a controlling stake, meaning that Tan Jincheng's shareholding must exceed 51%.

After thinking for a long time, Tan Jincheng said, "If you're not joking, it's not impossible, but the problem is I don't have the money to buy your 21% stake. I only restructured because I was short of money."

“Of course I’m not joking, but I can also do what Beicang City Investment did and exchange this 21% stake for a portion of the parent company’s shares,” Zhang Xupeng said with a smile.

It seems he has already considered this matter. Tan Jincheng needs to take it seriously now, otherwise it could affect the brotherly relationship.

(End of this chapter)