After breakfast, Li Li stayed in the villa to accompany Zhang Yuzhen, and Ling Shizhe and Ling Zhigao went to the headquarters of Ling's Group.

Ambrera Company is in the group building, and when Ling Shizhe gets out of the elevator on the fifth floor, Ling Zhigao continues to go up. After getting out of the elevator and coming to the secretariat at the door of the office, Zhang Chaokai, his assistant in Hong Kong, stood up and said, "Ling Shaohao, Mr. Frank has arrived and is waiting for you in the living room." ”

Ling Shizhe nodded and said, "Let him come to my office." Then he walked into the office.

Sloan Frank is an architectural designer. The Hong Kong headquarters of Ling Shizhe and Ambrera Co., Ltd., modeled after the headquarters of the later Apple Company, selected a newly established Frank architectural design firm in Australia to be responsible for the design work through a global public tender, and Frank was the owner of the company.

Frank entered the office, along with two of his assistants, carrying a model of the Hong Kong company's headquarters.

After the model was put into the open space in the office, Ling Shizhe observed this famous spaceship model in later generations, and felt that it was exactly the same as the Apple spaceship headquarters seen in later generations, hey, didn't I design seven floors, how did it become five floors?

As if seeing his doubts, Frank didn't wait for Ling Shizhe to ask, so he spoke first: "Mr. Ling, first of all, let me introduce you, what you see now is the model of Ambrera's Hong Kong headquarters building, please forgive me for changing your original seven-story design into a five-story design, so the change is because the original seven-story design lacks the beauty of harmony, and the utilization rate of sunlight is too low, which cannot achieve the maximum environmental efficiency you require; And that would have a serious impact on the growth of plants in the building's large central courtyard, as well as on the overall visual impact of the building once it was built. ”

Take a closer look, in terms of visual effect, the five-story design scheme is indeed much more pleasing to the eye, the entire headquarters building adopts all the reinforced concrete structure, and the exterior walls are all made of special diffuse reflection glass walls, which are solid and will not produce light pollution, make full use of the sunlight and save energy to the greatest extent, and the top is solar panels to supply power to the entire building.

The headquarters covers an area of 190 hectares, which is 14 hectares larger than the original Apple headquarters; In each of the four corners of the Headquarters, there is a satellite building of the same height as the Headquarters Building, namely the Sales Center, the Auditorium Conference Building, the Restaurant, the Supermarket Shopping Building, and the Fitness Center Building. There is also a huge underground car park with more than 2,500 parking spaces underneath.

The central courtyard has a forest, an artificial lake, a long garden, a small bridge and flowing water, which has the charm of the Jiangnan Water Pavilion. From this point, it can be seen that the designer is very careful and fully considers the aesthetics of the Chinese.

"Is the seventh layer bad?" Ling Shizhe asked a little willingly.

Flack took two drawings from an assistant and spread them out, both of which were renderings of the ship's headquarters. Ling Shizhe stepped forward, one was exactly the same as the model in front of him, and the other was a seven-layer rendering; I looked at them separately, and the one on the seventh floor did not feel as good as the one on the fifth floor.

Listening to Frank's explanation, Ling Shizhe understood, after a long time, Shi Qiao helped the leader to design Apple's spaceship headquarters building into five floors, not six, four, seven or other floors, there is a scientific reason, the five-story scheme can not only present the best visual effect, the internal and external plants of the headquarters and each office area can make full use of natural light to the greatest extent, has met the best energy conservation and environmental protection requirements.

Frank finally came up with a solution that didn't have to remove any earth, and the main building, which covers an area of about 280,000 square meters, will be the world's greenest headquarters building, and will be famous even for generations to come.

"Cheng, five floors are five floors, so be it." Ling Shizhe agreed with Frank's main design plan.

Frank and his two assistants went out with the model, and it was not yet the final draft, and Frank and the others had to finalize the final details with the company's infrastructure department. The content of these details is fragmented, complicated, and long-term, and he does not need to personally review them, and all of them are handed over to the Ministry of Infrastructure to deal with. Finally, the foundation stone will be laid in June next year at the earliest.

Ling Shizhe looked at this rendering, except for some details of four more satellite buildings and built in Hong Kong, the others are not much different from the later Apple headquarters building. After putting away the renderings and processing some documents, Ling Shizhe began to move around the company.

The company occupies four floors, and the various departments of the company have begun to be enriched into the ceramics department, the semiconductor electronic components department, the chip components department, the CPU department, and the laboratory. The camera division and lens division were transferred to the newly formed Apple Inc. The company's laboratory: divided into three parts: basic laboratory, science and technology application laboratory and process laboratory, and new sub-laboratories will be gradually added according to needs in the future, only for research on ceramics and semiconductor related technologies. As for other chemistry, physics or something, forget it, Ling Shizhe doesn't plan to engage in cross-field and whole-industry chain development, which is not necessary at all.

After the company went around and communicated with the researchers in the laboratory about the direction of technical research, before returning to the office, Kuman Foster, CEO of Hong Kong Ambrera Company, called out to Ling Shizhe.

"Boss, do you have time, I'm going to take you out for a walk."

"Foster, are you going to take me there? I just went around the company up and down. ”

"I want to take you outside, not in the company." Foster explained.

"Okay." Ling Shizhe nodded, the two left the company, and after getting into the car, Foster instructed the driver to go to the Kwun Tong Industrial Zone.

After getting off the car at the place, Ling Shizhe saw that the place they were standing in front of him was on a hillside, and below was a factory, and Fu'an Battery Factory was written at the door. Looking at Foster, Ling Shizhe couldn't understand what he was bringing him here for. Look at the appearance of this factory is desolate, it should have been suspended for a long time; Across the door from the factory is a bicycle factory that is also desolate, and there is a factory in the distance that is also desolate. In the distance of the pole are other factories, where people come and go, and business is thriving.

"Boss, the two factories you see now have been abandoned for several years, and no one has taken over, and there is an umbrella factory over there that has also been shut down for a long time, and the total area of these three factories is more than twice the size of our current ceramic factory, boss, do you want to take down all these three factories?" Foster said, pointing to the three factories.

Ling Shizhe looked at it, shook his head, and said, "Foster, why do you want to buy here, do you want to build a chip factory?" It's not very suitable for building a chip factory, you see a chemical factory in the distance, their technology is very backward and primitive, and the factory building here will have a great impact on our chip factory. ”

"No, boss, there is no chip factory here, I mean we buy him and build a new battery production plant." Foster explained.

"To build a battery factory, Foster, you are not mistaken, the company has never conducted research on batteries, let alone has plans to do so, and now the company has begun to focus on the production of ceramics and semiconductors; Production of batteries, what kind of batteries, are those technologically backward sold to whom? ”

"BOSS, I did a survey on the battery market, since the company developed the computer camera, the market demand for dry batteries has been a significant upward trend, especially the introduction of the second generation of computer cameras and the rapid popularization of scientific function calculators, the market demand for batteries, especially the demand for large-capacity batteries.

At present, the vast majority of the market is carbon batteries, his limited capacity has become more and more unable to meet people's future needs, with the development of integrated circuits, it is foreseeable that in the future with the emergence of more and more electronic products, high-capacity batteries will become an indispensable part of people's daily life, Ambrera company is now beginning to involve the battery industry, I think the impact on the company's brand in people's hearts is huge, think about it, boss, When people buy two pairs of Ambrera batteries to use in their computer cameras, what happens and what kind of influence does the company's brand have in people's hearts? In Foster, he used exaggerated gestures to describe to Ling Shizhe the huge prospects of the future battery market.

"Foster, you must know that the semiconductor chips and various processors produced by Ambrera are not directly facing ordinary users, but enterprise users, which does not play a big role in establishing the company's brand." Of course, Ling Shizhe knows how huge the battery market will be in the future, but he doesn't think it will apply to Ambrera.

"How can it not **oss, when people buy the company's battery, they will think of Ambrella, and when they think of Ambrella, they will think of the company's ceramics and various semiconductor products, which will deepen the company's brand image for consumers, which cannot be bought by spending no amount of advertising money; Ambrera is not a simple chip manufacturer, he is also a manufacturer of ceramics and various semiconductor components and chip components, such as our company's newly developed PTC/NTC thermistor, PTC heater, capacitor diode, etc., our company's products are not simple, but give people a kind of industrial semiconductor manufacturer thought, in this case, why don't we produce batteries? In particular, civilian batteries directly give consumers the idea of an excellent semiconductor manufacturer.

In this way, when people think of our company, they will form the impression that our semiconductor products are the best, and only the electronic products that use our semiconductor components are good electronic products, which is how important it is for our company to compete in the future, boss you have to understand, our company's products are directly facing consumers in addition to the new ceramic products you invented, the others are directly facing manufacturers, they can purchase our products can also purchase products from other companies, Consumers don't know which semiconductor components are used in their consumer electronics, even if our products are good. Forster continued.

Ling Shizhe understood the potential meaning of what he said, although Ambrera has now succeeded in selling semiconductor chips by developing electronic products that are popular in the market, but in the future, those third-party manufacturers may not honestly abide by the agreement, the patent has a term, and once the deadline is over, they may not necessarily abide by the agreement.

Take computer cameras as an example, the patent term of computer cameras is 15 years, and within these 15 years, the company sells DigiId image processors and various electronic components by opening the relevant licenses of cameras, once the patent expires, will they still buy our Digid image processors, maybe they will use image processors produced by other semiconductor companies, or they will produce their own image processors, isn't this the case with Nikon and Canon in history?

What do you do then, do you stop them, obviously impossible, once you do this, they will sue you for monopoly, and then the loss will be even greater. Even if it doesn't expire now, maybe they will join forces to accuse you of monopoly, after all, there is only Ambrera company in the market that produces image processors, and now the huge market prospects of computer cameras are undoubted, and I believe that everyone can see how much demand for image processors is accompanied by computer cameras.

In the face of this huge market, there will definitely be many semiconductor companies entering the image processor market. But there is a camera patent that stands in the way, and they can only watch, will those third-party companies and other semiconductor companies be willing? They will not be reconciled, they will secretly join forces to appeal to the Ministry of Justice to invalidate Ambrera's camera patent, is there a better reason than a monopoly?

Kodak has been doing this for a while, and they will definitely come again, and then Ambrera will face not one but many. Thinking of this, Ling Shizhe began to have a headache, what should he do? This is a dead end, when the time comes, it's really not possible to just come to a technology development, open the relevant patented technology of Digid image processor to those semiconductor companies, to limit the number of people, not like the camera is that individuals can come, just open to one or two, but to charge royalties, it can't be lowered, and the future generations of ARM companies will charge standards, black you. Don't do it! You don't do it, someone else does it. Well, it is necessary to speed up the upgrade of integrated circuits, desperately launch newer, faster and better chips to eliminate themselves is to finally stand at the top of the market, Dawei's law can not be forgotten.

"If the company wants to produce batteries, it must produce advanced high-capacity batteries, otherwise it will not do the company any good, Foster, do you have any good suggestions for me?" Ling Shizhe, who has thought of countermeasures, now does not reject Foster's suggestion, the battery market in later generations is vast, and he is a good choice for the company's new profit growth point.

"In 1914 Thomas edison invented the alkaline battery; In 1949, Lewurry (Energizer) developed a small alkaline battery; Around 1960, unioncarbide was the first to develop a commercial production of alkaline batteries, and the price of alkaline batteries is still very high, even in Europe and the United States, there are relatively few people who buy alkaline batteries, but this phenomenon will not be long after. Most people are still using carbon batteries, and now we have an opportunity, a guy named Philips in New Zealand has invented a mercury-free alkaline dry battery, which is different from the alkaline batteries on the market today, it does not contain mercury and is very environmentally friendly, it should be the direction of the future; We can buy this patent, but the battery he invented is not yet mature, and we will continue to develop it after we buy it, and we don't know when it will reach the value of commercialization.

In addition, the Dutch Sneer invented a new type of high-capacity carbon battery, which is about 15% higher than the general carbon battery capacity, this technology is mature, we can buy this technology to produce, the cost will not be very large, now many battery companies have put their experience on the research and development of alkaline batteries, they are no longer interested in this kind of battery, we bought it and put it into the Southeast Asian market, alkaline batteries are still a luxury for them, this kind of battery is just right, although there is no alkaline battery profits, But we can make small profits and make quick turnover. ”

Ling Shizhe knows a little about alkaline batteries, and he knows that alkaline batteries, also known as alkaline dry batteries, alkaline zinc-manganese batteries, and alkaline manganese batteries, are the best performance and largest capacity in the zinc-manganese battery series, seven times that of ordinary batteries, and are the most cost-effective batteries.

"What is the reason for the high price of alkaline batteries now, and how much does that high-capacity carbon battery patent cost?" Ling Shizhe asked.

"There aren't many companies in the competition yet, all those companies that can produce alkaline batteries are shouting very high on the price, the No. 5 battery is now on the market for $7 a piece, and the cost is less than $1.3, but it won't be long before they cut the price, not that the battery companies will start to launch more alkaline batteries this year or next year. The sale fee for the patent for the carbon battery was $3 million. His bid is too high for companies to be interested in, especially at this stage where alkaline batteries will be phased out. "Foster did a lot of homework, and he was able to answer all kinds of questions about the battery.

Rely on, the price of a No. 5 battery is 7 US dollars, the cost is actually 1.3 US dollars, it seems that their process technology is not very mature, the market price of Nanfu alkaline batteries in later generations is only 2.5RBM, how low the production cost is. Even if it is put in Hong Kong to produce now, Ling Shizhe is sure to control his cost at about 1 Hong Kong dollar, and his computer seems to have the process technology information of Nanfu battery, go back and find it.

"Okay, Foster, you are responsible for taking these two patents, money is not a problem, I am asking how much it costs to buy all three factories, if the price is right, I will take it, and I will leave it to you."

"Boss, I promise to do this beautifully." Foster didn't expect to persuade Ling Shizhe to invest in the battery field so smoothly, he thought it would take a lot of time to persuade slowly, and he also planned to see if he could do the work with Allison, and let him help beat the side drum.