"An era is over."

When He Haifeng said goodbye to the political stage, Da Zeyan, chairman of Xihu Company, was also in the conference room, facing a room of directors and executives, and issued such a lament.

This is the last board of directors of the company, tomorrow, the company will officially declare bankruptcy, this large-scale equipment manufacturing enterprise with a history of 100 years, finally due to insolvency, was eliminated.

Two years ago, the failure to compete with Hanhua for an order for GM's stamping line was the biggest turning point for Xihu. After that, the Chinese machine tool companies led by Hanhua began to join forces to strangle the Xihu company, and they pried away the traditional customers of the Xihu company one by one with products that were basically similar to the Xihu company, and the price was more than half of the Xihu company, so that the market of the Xihu company gradually shrank until it finally collapsed.

In order to get out of the predicament, Osawa also took a lot of measures. He began by closing two underserved factories to reduce costs. Then, it squeezed out funds to strengthen the development of new products, hoping to use the technological advantage to niggle back the defeat. However, none of these means were able to get Sihu out of the quagmire. After two years of struggling, Sihu finally went bankrupt.

It is actually inevitable that Xihu Company has come to this point. Over the past decade or so, Japan's manufacturing industry has continued to move outward, and many companies prefer to let Chinese companies do OEM rather than keep their factories in Japan, where labor costs are extremely high. After the downstream manufacturing industry leaves, the machine tool equipment industry as the upstream will naturally decline.

In addition, since the collapse of the real estate industry in the early 90s, the Japanese economy has fallen into a long-term downturn, and the Asian financial crisis that began in 97 has made it even worse. In the past two years, the company's stock has been falling, investor confidence is low, and many of the self-help measures launched by Osawa have not been supported by investors, and the company's bankruptcy is inevitable.

When it really came to the point of declaring bankruptcy, Osawa felt relieved, he had a sense of relief, and finally no longer had to worry about his old rival Hanhua Heavy Industries again. In Ozawa's view, Lin Zhenhua is an opponent who never plays cards according to common sense, and he is more like a spoiler, destroying the order of the entire market. Now that Xihu is out of the market and the market belongs to Hanhua Heavy Industries, Dazeyan wants to know how Lin Zhenhua intends to continue to operate in this disrupted market.

"Everyone, thank you for all that you have done for the company for so many years, please forgive me, I have failed everyone's high expectations, please forgive me." Osawa stood in front, bent down deeply to everyone, bowed 90 degrees, and did not straighten up for a long time.

The directors and executives kept their heads down and remained silent, not knowing whether they were equally ashamed or if they were hurrying to think about their own way out.

"Is there anything else you have to say?" Osawa slowly raised his head, his eyes scanning the crowd, and asked.

"Chairman Daze, I heard that the Chinese are interested in acquiring our Xihu Company, but you do not agree to the Chinese's acquisition request, can you give us an explanation?" The old director, Kei Hashiguchi, asked.

Osawa said expressionlessly: "Mr. Hashiguchi, it's not that I don't agree, but the Japanese government has issued an injunction on this acquisition. Sihu has some very cutting-edge technology that can be used for military purposes. In order not to allow China to possess military technology sufficient to threaten Japan, the government did not agree to our sale of Xihu to the Chinese. ”

Hashiguchi said: "Chairman Osawa, if I am not mistaken, it is precisely you who asked the government not to sell Xihu to the Chinese, otherwise, the government would not have issued this ban." ”…,

Osawa nodded and said, "Mr. Hashiguchi, you're right. When the government asked me for advice, I did state my opinion, and I said that Xihu could not be sold to Chinese, especially Hanhua Heavy Industries, which could not be sold to China. As for the reason, I think Mr. Hashiguchi knows it. ”

"I think this reason is just a matter of the chairman's personal self-esteem, right?" Hashiguchi said disdainfully, "Under your management, Xihu lost to China's Hanhua Heavy Industries. You can't find the reason from yourself, but you put the blame on the Chinese, so you applied to the government for an injunction that prevented the Chinese from buying Xihu. In fact, if Xihu can be bought by the Chinese, the interests of shareholders will be better protected, and our workers will be better resettled than they are now. ”

What Hashiguchi said is not unfounded. When it was learned that Xihu Company was likely to go bankrupt, Hanhua Heavy Industries issued an offer to Xihu Company to acquire it. According to the conditions offered by Hanhua Heavy Industries, the original shareholders of Xihu Company will be able to get better returns, and at the same time, the production of Xihu Company may also continue, which can keep the jobs of a group of workers. However, due to the Japanese government's notice prohibiting Chinese companies from acquiring Xihu, the intended acquisition was closed. Japan is currently in a state of economic stagnation, and there are no domestic companies willing to buy Xihu, which makes it difficult for the original shareholders of Xihu to be compensated.

"Mr. Hashiguchi, you're wrong." "I have never thought that the reason for the failure of Xihu Company lies with Hanhua Heavy Industries, and I have always believed that the responsibility for Xihu Company to get to this point today lies with me...... And all of you. ”

Osawahiko first said that the responsibility was on him, and everyone was still indifferent, but after he took a breath, he put the responsibility on everyone here, and everyone didn't do it. The director of the Shaozhuang faction, Tanaka Yongji, was the first to ask: "Chairman, why do you think that we should be responsible for the bankruptcy of the company? Isn't it because of your bad decisions? ”

"In the past few years, our company's R&D investment has been shrinking, which has led to the gradual narrowing of the technological gap between Chinese and us, which is the root cause of the company's bankruptcy. The decision to reduce R&D investment is made by you, the chairman. Technical director Shoji Ryase also hurriedly pointed the finger at Osawahiko. Anyway, the company is about to go bankrupt, and the chairman of the board of directors is now a tiger in Pingyang, and everyone is not afraid that he will be unhappy.

Several other directors also stood up and began to blame Osawa. Osawa listened calmly and did not plead, until everyone had finished speaking, and then he continued: "The failure of Xihu Company stems from our pride. We have always believed that the Chinese cannot be our opponents. As a result, we put the opportunity in front of them again and again, and this led to our ultimate defeat. In this process, did any of you foresee this outcome? ”

Everyone looked at each other and said nothing, Osawa was right, before that, everyone really did not put the Chinese in their eyes, felt that they had a technological advantage, and they were rich and competitive. It is this arrogant mentality that has caused Sihu to miss many opportunities.

Osawa laughed self-deprecatingly and said, "As early as 10 years ago, when Nihon Heavy Industries was facing the threat of competition from Hanhua Heavy Industries, Mr. Ishikawa, the chairman of Nihon Heavy Industries, asked us for help. But at that time, we were not aware of the ambition of the Chinese at all, and we only regarded Hanhua Heavy Industries as a customer, a customer who could bring us profits, so we used the equipment we produced to help Hanhua Heavy Industries defeat Nihon Heavy Industries, which was the beginning of our whole mistake. "You can't blame us for this, can you?" Tanaka said sneeringly.

Osawa said: "It's all because of our arrogance and our selfishness. However, our selfishness was eventually retributed, and when GCA launched a competition with us, we asked KHN for help, but as a result, KHN's attitude was the same as our request for help from Nihon Heavy Industries, which was completely based on our own interests and did not take into account our situation at all. ”

"I think Khn will regret it one day." Sales Director Eizo Matsushita said.

"Yes, sooner or later they will regret it." Osawa nodded and said, "The Chinese are very ambitious, they will not stop at the current state, what they want to do is to squeeze our industries one by one, and eventually make Japan a second-rate country in Asia." It is precisely because of their ambition that I proposed to the government that Chinese should be prohibited from buying Japanese high-tech companies, including Xihu Company. ”

"Chairman Osawa, I think you're thinking too much." "Whether other companies will be competitive with the Chinese is not something we should consider. As a chairman, you should be accountable to shareholders, not to the government. What you are doing now has gone against the interests of the shareholders, and I will sue you in court on behalf of the shareholders. ”

Osawa smiled sadly and said, "Mr. Hashiguchi, you have your freedom, and I am ready to be investigated by the court at any time." However, the government's ban has been issued, and I am very relieved, and I don't want to see Xihu fall into the mouth of the Chinese, who will use Xihu as a platform to further collapse other Japanese companies. We are old, but we still have children, and I don't want them to live in the shadow of China. ”

"If so, then what else do we have to say? I'm sorry, guys, but I don't want to hear any more about this kind of meeting, so I'm going to take my leave. Hashiguchi stood up indignantly, bowed to his colleagues in the conference room, and then grabbed his bag and walked out.

Osawa watched Kei Hashiguchi walk out of the conference room, turned back to everyone and said, "Okay, since you don't have anything else to do, let's stop today's meeting, I'm sorry for you." ”

The directors stood up gloomily and bowed to Osawa in resignation. Matsushita Eizo walked at the end, and when everyone had left, he walked up to Osawa and said to him: "Chairman, please don't mind, there are some things that we can't change." ”

Osawa patted Matsushita Eizo on the shoulder and said, "Matsushita-kun, thank you, I don't plan to shirk my responsibility, I will make a statement to the shareholders." What you just said is very good, we have regretted it now, and KHN will regret it in the future, I believe that after defeating us, Lin Zhenhua will definitely attack KHN. ”

"That's not our concern anymore." Matsushita Eizo said.

Osawa said: "Yes, it's not something we care about anymore, our time is over. A new century is just around the corner, and in this century, the balance of Asia will tip in China's favor. ”

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