"If you can find someone who can do something better than you, then find someone to do it for you, that's the best idea."

To put it more concisely, it is "leave the specific affairs to professional people".

It's great to say that Woodruff, the current head of the Coca-Cola Company, was able to utter such a famous quote at the age of 18. Unfortunately, the background of his remarks was that he paid someone to do his homework on his behalf, and he was expelled from school for this......

After dropping out of school, Woodruff spent his days loitering, much to the disappointment of his father, Woodruff Sr.

The elder Woodruff ordered his son to find a job and use the earned wages to pay him for his wasted tuition, accommodation and living expenses. He arranged for his son to join the company as a sand digger, but his son made trouble in less than a week, so he had to let his son change his career to become an apprentice mechanic, and his son was fired a year later. Then, he asked his son to work as an assistant in a fire extinguishing equipment company, and was fired again without accident.

After being expelled from various places, the father and son broke up directly.

Woodruff gave up his purchasing job at his family company and went to work as a salesman in someone else's company, and he did a great job. This situation made the elder Woodruff feel that his son had finally become a talent, so he called his son back and placed him on the board of directors of the company.

From the above, we can see that it is not terrible to be expelled from school, it is not terrible to be expelled from the company, it is not terrible to be idle, and it is not terrible to be ambitious. Real talent is sure to succeed, provided you have a rich dad who is out there and can come back to inherit the family business.

Zhou Hexuan met this genius who inherited the family fortune in a country estate in New York State. When the two met, Woodruff was riding a horse, still on an incompletely tamed horse, and the Coca-Cola helmsman was nearly overturned.

"Hello, Mr. Woodruff." Zhou Hexuan greeted with a smile.

In the big winter, Woodruff was sweating, turned over and dismounted: "Chinese, I have heard of you, but I am only interested in making money." Are you going to solicit war donations from me? When Coca-Cola's annual sales in China exceed 5 million bottles, I will be very happy to do so. ”

Zhou Hexuan smiled: "Hehe, I just heard that Coca-Cola is looking for investment and wants to send you money." Since Mr. Woodruff doesn't need it, then I'll take my leave. ”

"Coca-Cola is doing well, and it doesn't need to be invested at all," Woodruffle said. ”

"Is that really the case?" Zhou Hexuan asked.

Instead of answering directly, Woodruff asked rhetorically: "Do you know how to ride a horse?" ”

Zhou Hexuan said: "It will be a little." ”

Woodruff asked the horse boy to bring a gelding to Zhou Hexuan, and he climbed on the horse's back and said, "Run a lap with me first." ”

Zhou Hexuan hadn't ridden a horse for a long time, and jumping on it was a wild run.

Woodruff gradually caught up, nodded and smiled: "Your riding skills are good, why don't you go hunting together another day?" ”

"Not interested." Zhou Hexuan grabbed the reins.

Woodruff just didn't talk about business, and said, "Do you know Sparta? I was educated in the Staba style since I was a child, but when other people's children were in middle school, I was sent to military school by my father. Although I was hostile to my father when I was younger, I now have great respect for him, and he has raised me to be a real man. ”

Zhou Hexuan smiled: "So you don't like to study, and you were expelled for hiring someone to do homework when you were in college." You still like to fight with people, and you have been fired from the company more than ten times because of fighting? ”

"Looks like you've looked into me." Woodruff raised an eyebrow.

Zhou Hexuan said: "There is a saying in China, it is called knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent, and one will not be defeated in a hundred battles. ”

"You don't need professional knowledge to do business, so I don't need to learn, I just need to know how to manage people who can do things," Woodruff said. Fights are fought because others are disobedient, and I don't like arguments, I just like absolute obedience. Either I obey others or others obey me, but no one has yet made me obedient. ”

Zhou Hexuan asked with a smile: "You mean that even if I invest in Coca-Cola, I can't interfere in the management and operation of the company?" ”

"Yes," said Woodruef, trotting down, "you are very clever, worthy of a scholar, and can hear my will at once." Say, how much money can you come up with to invest? ”

Zhou Hexuan asked rhetorically: "How many shares can you tolerate me getting?" ”

Woodruff laughed: "That's a great question, and it's very much to my liking." You can talk to other shareholders or you can buy from the stock market, but you can own up to 15% of the shares, which is the limit of what I can tolerate. ”

Zhou Hexuan shook his head and said: "Coca-Cola's stock price is too high, it is impossible to buy it in the stock market, except for speculators, no one will be willing to be a fool to take over." What I want to ask is, what is the minimum price you can give for a private equity transaction? ”

Woodruff laughed: "My shares will not be sold, you can go and ask those idiot shareholders." ”

"Really?" Zhou Hexuan said, "I heard that Coca-Cola is pulling investment everywhere. ”

Woodruff didn't bother to go around in circles, and said directly: "Coca-Cola does need financing, but you can't afford that price." Do you know how much my father valued the company when he bought Coca-Cola? ”

"$25 million." Zhou Hexuan said.

"Yes, $25 million, but that was 21 years ago, and now it's at least 20 times over." Woodruff Road.

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "Mr. Woodruff, don't use this kind of rhetoric to deceive investors to invest in the negotiation party." ”

When Woodruff's father bought Coca-Cola, he had only $1.8 million to mobilize, and Coca-Cola's buildings, plant and machinery combined were worth less than $2 million, and the rest was all brand premium.

How did old Woodruff swallow an elephant?

He first persuaded the son and nephew of the founder of Coca-Cola to sign a contract without telling the founder of Coca-Cola. Then the shareholding system was used to raise funds, and then it was prepared to go public, and it was successful after a lot of speculation.

Aisha, the founder of Coca-Cola, was old and sick all the year round, and found that her company was gone. His son and nephew became a monopoly and continued to control the company, and Woodruff Sr. became the second-largest shareholder — but the founder was still the real owner of Coca-Cola.

As for the now bullish Woodruff, he was only appointed to the board of directors by his father a few years later. He came up with a blind operation, clamoring to enter the European and Asian markets, but he lost a lot of money, and was completely deprived of administrative power by other shareholders.

Woodruff could only choose to forbear, spent nearly ten years dividing and co-opting, and used his strength to kill all the other shareholders, and now he has become the absolute controller of Coca-Cola. Woodruff's success is not only because of his strong skills, but also because the family of the founder of Coca-Cola was infighting, and the scenes of father and son cannibalism and brothers were staged one after another.

Woodruff is like a dictatorial tyrant in the company, resulting in other shareholders receiving dividends only every year (without decision-making power and no right to speak). If it weren't for Coca-Cola's good development momentum, the company would have broken up long ago, and the shareholders would have been very dissatisfied.

Now that the economic environment in the United States is in a recession, Coca-Cola's internal ills, which have accumulated for more than a decade, have also begun to flare up. The stock price is slowly falling, and when the annual dividends of shareholders are falling in line with the rising results, Woodruff's authority in the company has been shaken very much.

Hall and Diber, the two Gantt family shareholders, have been clamoring to sell their shares to cash out, and they did sell some of them, which is the main reason for Coca-Cola's recent stock price decline.

Zhou Hexuan smiled and continued to increase: "Mr. Woodruff, I heard that Coca-Cola's factories in Germany are all closed. That's a pity, after all, Germany is Coca-Cola's largest overseas market. ”

Woodruff's face was a little ugly, and the reason why Coca-Cola had difficulty in cash flow was because of the spread of war in Europe. In the European market, Woodruff has been laying out for 20 years, and the annual advertising expenditure is astronomical, but it is completely wasted because of Hitler's bastard.

The United States is imposing economic and trade sanctions on Germany, and Coca-Cola's factories in Germany and its occupied areas have been forced to close, and they cannot even get back the money that those factories have deposited in banks.

Woodruff had completely cut off contact with the German branch, and he didn't even know that there was still a Coca-Cola plant in Germany that continued to produce. Due to the lack of raw materials to make cola, the person in charge of that factory simply switched to orange-flavored soda and named it Fanta.

It wasn't until the end of World War II that Woodruff suddenly discovered: Oh Mom, why does Lao Tzu still have a branch called "Fanta" in Germany? And that branch also helped other Coca-Cola factories in Europe to resume production, and Nima picked up dozens of factories in vain!

Jokes aside, because Fanta helped the Coca-Cola factory in Germany to resume production, and has been singing the praises of Hitler in its advertising, the Germans thought Coca-Cola was its own brand. After World War II, a German prisoner saw a billboard of Coca-Cola in the United States and was very surprised and asked, "You also have Coca-Cola in the United States?" ”

Seeing that Woodruff didn't speak, Zhou Hexuan continued to stimulate him: "Since Coca-Cola is unwilling to accept investment, then I can only invest in Pepsi." ”

Woodruff was immediately furious: "Pepsi is a shameless pirated product, only lowly blacks can drink it!" I'm in a lawsuit with PepsiCo, and I'm going to sue them for closing their doors! ”

"Really?" Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "The scale of Pepsi is not too large, once I invest, I can at least become a top shareholder." I would suggest that Pepsi change its logo, and then bring in Vivien Leigh or Chaplin to endorse the advertisement, and presumably they will endorse it, and no one will think that Pepsi is a black drink anymore. You tell me? ”

Pepsi is really a copycat pirate, and now even the trademark is imitating Coca-Cola. In addition, there are a large number of copycats in the United States, such as Coffee Coke, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola, Feier Cola, etc., and Coca-Cola has no way to sue every year, because "Coca-Cola" and "Coke" are common nouns, and anyone can use them as product names.

Pepsi was Coca-Cola's biggest competitor, and Woodruff couldn't imagine the consequences of Pepsi asking Chaplin to advertise, not to mention that he really needed to invest. Eventually, Woodruff relented, saying, "You can send a negotiating team over and we'll discuss the details slowly." ”

"A wise choice." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.