Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 889 Two Balloons
In the Chinese business world, the special treatment given to entrepreneurs at major celebrations is like a mirror reflecting their strength and status.

The dividing line is this: some people can only sit in front of the TV to watch TV, while others can appear on TV.

The honors at the event were divided into two categories: the float parade and the viewing ceremony from the city gate tower. These two categories served as steps, measuring the weight of entrepreneurs in the tide of the times.

The float parade, as the highlight of the mass parade, showcases the industry's glory and collective honor.

The business leaders who make it onto the float are undoubtedly industry leaders, whose companies consistently deliver key value in areas vital to the national economy and people's livelihoods, such as high-end manufacturing, technological innovation, and green energy.

These enterprises are not only powerful engines of economic growth, but their entrepreneurs also need to set a positive example through their outstanding public image.

In comparison, watching the ceremony from the city gate tower is considered the pinnacle of the highest honor in the business world.

Those who receive this honor must have led companies that made irreplaceable, milestone contributions at crucial junctures in the nation's development.

Whether it's breaking through technological bottlenecks and building a technological barrier for national security, or pushing Chinese standards onto the world stage, their achievements have long transcended the commercial realm and become a symbol of national spirit.

The success paths of these "national-level" entrepreneurs precisely align with the direction of national strategy and serve as exemplary models that our times need to establish.

Simply put, the former is "shortlisting," which means you have entered the top circle of entrepreneurs recognized by the state.

He stated, "The industry you represent is of paramount importance."

The latter, "reaching the top," means that you have reached a highly respected pinnacle position in this circle.

It means: "Your personal contribution has benefited the nation."

The latter is a higher-order manifestation of the former!

At the same time, its influence on the entire Chinese business community is undeniable.

Chen Mo was actually more interested in the things that Lao Xu could find out in advance.

Lei Jun, Dong Zi, and other industry leaders are almost certain to ride on the float based on their corporate strength and social contributions, but Chen Mo is an entrepreneur who wants to make progress and wants to enjoy the view from the city tower.

Once he receives this honor, it will add an aura of authority to his implementation of the "Other Shore Model," and the originally difficult business transformation will become much smoother.

A while ago, he only issued five new guidelines internally, but those "demons and monsters" from the outside world jumped out to make sarcastic remarks. They were not only not malicious, but also annoying. If he hadn't appeared on TV and gained fame, it might have been another messy and complicated "verbal battle".

However, Chen Mo remembered that there were only three business representatives who attended the ceremony at the city gate in 19. The reason he remembered it so clearly was because all three of them had the surname Xu, and he didn't know if it was a coincidence.

Aside from Belt Guy, I can't remember who the other two are.

If he wanted to make outstanding contributions to the country, then his work goals became clearer.

Lu Qi handles most of the affairs of the Other Shore Group, assisted by several senior officials. He occasionally takes time to oversee things behind the scenes, and there are no major problems.

Chen Mo took out the black notebook again and wrote down a task list he had tailored for himself for 2018-2019.

First and foremost, the core mission is to expand the Beyond Group's business model across China's economic landscape as the group continues to grow. This is manifested in the nationwide promotion and implementation of the "Strengthening Plan."

So there are two obvious rivals: Lao Ma and Lao Xu!

Let's start with Lao Ma.

Ant Group's financing landscape is like a vast and unfathomable web. Although Chen Mo cannot see all the companies in this web, it is conceivable that financial institutions at all levels, from state-owned banks to private capital, are almost all involved.

On the surface, Ant Group is investing billions of dollars in an attempt to pry open a trillion-dollar capital bubble. This "get-rich-quick" game can be described as a "crazy experiment" in capital operation.

Ant Group's IPO plan, seemingly a glamorous celebration of "financial innovation," is in fact a meticulously designed capital feast.

Beneath the bright guise of "inclusive finance" lies a sophisticated and complex risk transfer mechanism.

Relying on massive user data, Ant Group has built a vast digital credit empire, packaging personal consumer loans into financial products through asset securitization, mass-producing them like a factory assembly line and pushing them to the market.

Every instance of increased leverage is like planting a time bomb in the financial system, and the potential credit risk has already been quietly transferred to the capital market and millions of ordinary investors through the flow of capital.

The true purpose of this capital game is obvious—to enable early investors to achieve exponential growth in wealth, to allow capital giants to divide the largest share of the profits, and ultimately, to pay the price for this carnival for countless ordinary people.

Just like Didi's surprise IPO, Ant Group also tried to get through to the capital market quickly, but encountered unprecedented resistance.

The spokesperson on stage, Lao Ma, went so far as to publicly rally supporters and deliver a speech that could be described as a death charge.

With his emotional intelligence and wisdom honed over many years in the business world, how could Lao Ma not know the consequences of those remarks? He knew, but he had no choice.

Otherwise, why would he, who treats giving speeches as instinctively as eating and drinking, be so nervous that he keeps looking at his notes, completely unlike his usual confident and eloquent self?
What's even more intriguing is that even though the IPO plan ultimately failed, this guy was still able to make a graceful exit.

The intricate web of interests and the unpredictable power struggles behind this are shrouded in mist, making it difficult to see the whole picture.

During that period, housing prices around Alibaba's headquarters skyrocketed, changing daily, becoming the most insane footnote in the memories of Ant Group's managers.

It wasn't until the regulatory "iron fist" suddenly fell that these "big ants" who had lost their way in the frenzy of capital woke up as if from a dream, but it was too late.

Chen Mo wrote in his notebook, "2020, Jack Ma fires his guns on the Bund, Ant Group's IPO attempt fails."

Old Xu, on the other hand, is another formidable and dangerous opponent on Chen Mo's path to the summit.

As the creator of a two trillion dollar debt empire, can you explain the scale of this concept?

It's like someone winning the lottery every day; they'd need to live from the Tang Dynasty to the present day to pay off the debt—it would take a full 1,300 years.
He and Evergrande, which he led, took the unspoken rule of the real estate industry—"using future money to build houses now"—to the extreme.

By using the pre-sale system, they collect payments from homebuyers in advance and then use financing methods such as bank loans and bond issuance to acquire land for large-scale development.

During the boom in the real estate market, this model enabled Evergrande to expand rapidly. In just a few years, Evergrande jumped from the middle of the industry to become the leader, with its land reserves and sales volume repeatedly reaching new highs, enjoying unparalleled success.

However, this model is like walking a tightrope high in the air; it may look glamorous, but it is actually fraught with danger.

Its fatal weakness lies in its high dependence on the cash flow, and once the speed of repayment cannot keep up, the risk begins to accumulate.

As the company continued to expand, its debt also snowballed.

In fact, it's not just Evergrande; the entire real estate industry is racing ahead in a wave of rapid expansion, only the leverage strategies employed by each company are different.

Taking Country Garden as an example, during the industry's heyday, it rose to prominence by virtue of its "high turnover" model.

The stringent, almost devilish, timelines are internally known as the "3456 model," which means that construction must begin within 3 months of acquiring land, sales must commence within 4 months, cash flow must be positive within 5 months, and full cash recovery must be completed within 6 months to start the next cycle.

When the market is favorable, this model allows Country Garden to rapidly expand its territory and become one of the industry giants.

However, when the industry entered a downturn, sales slumped, and housing prices fell, Country Garden's tight cash flow immediately sounded the alarm, facing the huge risk of breaking down at any time.

In comparison, Wanda's success was a lucky accident. Wang Jianlin, who was the industry leader and had been the richest man in China before Chen Mo, once boasted that he would "build an amusement park in China that would make Disney lose money for 20 years," and was at the height of his fame.

Subsequently, Wanda embarked on a frenzied overseas acquisition spree, acquiring a host of high-quality assets, including AMC Theatres in the United States, Sunseeker Yacht Company in the United Kingdom, the Spanish Building, and Legendary Pictures in Hollywood. With overseas investments totaling 2500 billion RMB, Wanda became a super buyer in the global cultural entertainment and real estate sectors.

However, the editorials criticizing Wanda for "investing in non-core businesses" and "blindly investing" were like a blow to the head. Coupled with the controversy surrounding the acquisition of the "Bandar Malaysia" project, Wanda found itself in a double predicament of public opinion and policy.

Fortunately, Wang Jianlin managed to sever ties with Wanda Group in time, sacrificing a pawn to save the king, thus allowing Wanda to escape disaster.

Interestingly, the changes in the songs that Lao Wang sang at Wanda's annual meetings over the past few years, from "Borrowing Five Hundred Years from Heaven" to "The Fake Monk" and then to "Nothing to My Name," seem to have foreshadowed the ups and downs of the company's fate.

In 2020, Jack Ma fired a shot at Ant Group on the Bund after its IPO attempt failed.
End of 2020
In 2021, Evergrande
Looking at the notes he wrote in his notebook, Jia Yueting probably knows that his debt is only one percent of the other party's. I wonder what he thinks.

These seemingly scattered events gradually connected in his mind, forming a web that seemed unrelated yet was intricately linked.

If the IPO had actually succeeded back then
This multi-layered impact was like a series of explosions.
This startled Chen Mo, and even sent chills down his spine.

Chen Mo understood that without his intervention, these crises would have erupted and been resolved sooner or later, but the time and cost would have been difficult to predict.

And now, it is precisely because of myself that I have found the other shore!

One is the richest man in China, and the other is the largest private technology company in China's internet sector, even surpassing Huawei in scale.

This can no longer be considered a butterfly effect; it's a hurricane effect, completely disrupting the original timeline.

Chen Mo worried that his presence and that of the Other Shore might actually unite the other side, potentially sowing the seeds for even more serious problems in the future.
If it is indeed the worst-case scenario, it will inevitably raise the difficulty of the Other Shore mode that he is about to promote to the level of 'hell'.

After all, the operation of the other side model depends on a stable and positive economic environment. Once the economy becomes unstable, the vicious cycle of bad money driving out good money will be repeated.

Then the rest is obvious; knowing it is one thing,
The most crucial question is what to do next.

Chen Mo drew two balloons below the text.
(End of this chapter)