In the business war, the various factors are not very clear and clear, and the relevant conditions are ambiguous, and only through careful investigation and analysis can the business activities be carried out smoothly. Therefore, it is more important to "know oneself and know one's opponent", and only by "knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent" can we "survive a hundred battles".

"Self" refers to its own conditions and internal environment, including finance, material resources, people, technology, business site, geographical conditions, commodity types, business reputation, commodity sources, etc. "He" can refer to both competitors and trading partners, in short, groups or individuals with whom they do business can be called "other". "Knowing the other" means to understand the other party's economic strength, business reputation, personnel quality, technical strength, management level, development trend and business dynamics through various ways, methods and means. If it is a competitor, "knowing the other" should also find out the strength and weakness of the opponent, the strength and weakness of the real and the strengths and weaknesses, so that we can avoid the real and attack the weak, make use of the strengths and avoid the weaknesses, and attack its weaknesses.

□ skillfully used "knowing the other" to make a windfall

"Knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent" is important to the success of business.

There are countless examples of using "knowing the other" to find out the details of the other party, so as to make a windfall.

In November 1894, the U.S. Treasury had a massive outflow of gold from its stockpiles, and there was a rush to buy gold in the market, and the situation was quite critical. The president of the United States had to turn to the big financier Morgan and the big banker Belmont for help.

After investigation and analysis, Morgan found out that the rush to buy gold is related to the efforts of workers in various places to fight for an eight-hour working day, and the government has reached the point where it has no way to do anything. So he and Belmont drew up a plan for the two of them to organize a syndicate to undertake the gold bonds, one to solve the financial crisis, and the other to exchange high profits.

Because the conditions were too harsh, neither Congress nor the president accepted them. So, Morgan used various means to find out that there was only 9 million yuan left in the treasury, so he threatened the president: "Mr. President: As far as I know, Mr. ×× has a gold check with a total amount of 12 million yuan due today, and if he wants to cash it today, then everything will be over!" "The president was desperate and had to agree to Morgan's offer.

Of course, Morgan took out a large amount of dollars and handed them over to the Treasury Department to help the government weather the crisis. But Morgan's government bond price changed hands with the market, earning $12 million.

Just trying to "know the other", Morgan tasted the sweetness.

□ showed his skills, and Morgan became famous

In the world, there is no easy road. Only by being good at seizing opportunities can we open up a way forward for ourselves.

Wall Street mogul John Pierponte Morgan earned his "first barrel" as a young man when he bought a batch of Brazilian coffee in New Orleans.

At the time, Morgan was interning at Duncan Firm, a friend of his father's on Wall Street, and had the opportunity to go on a business trip to Havana, Cuba. On the way back, he tried his adventurous spirit.

At that time, the steamer was moored in New Orleans. He walked through the romantic streets of Paris to the noisy docks. On the docks, a strange white man tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he wanted to buy coffee. The man introduced himself as the captain of a cargo ship between the United States and the West, and had been entrusted to bring a shipload of coffee to a coffee merchant in Brazil. Buyers who did not arrive in the United States were bankrupt and had to sell their own market. If anyone gives cash, he can sell it at half price.

Morgan considered it and made up his mind to buy the coffee. He took his coffee with him and went to all the customers in New Orleans who had ties to Duncan & Co. to sell it. The staff told him to be cautious, because the price was low, but no one could say whether the coffee in the cabin was the same, not to mention that there had been cases where the crew had deceived the buyer.

But Morgan had made up his mind, and he bought a whole shipload of coffee in the name of Duncan & Co., and sent a telegram to Duncan & Co. in New York saying that he had bought a shipload of cheap coffee.

However, Duncan & Co. called back and severely criticized him, and did not allow Morgan to take advantage of the company's righteousness! Ask him to cancel the deal immediately! Morgan had no choice but to send a telegram to his father in London, asking him for help. With the acquiescence of his father, he used his father's account in London to repay the amount originally used by Duncan's firm. He also bought coffee from other ships on the captain's introduction.

Lucky Morgan won the bet! Not long after he bought a large amount of coffee, Brazil's production was reduced by the cold, and the price soared by 2~3 times. Morgan made a fortune.

In the spring of 1862, Morgan, who had been married for less than three months, lost his beloved wife. With the support of his father, he founded his own company in a house across the New York Stock Exchange from Manhattan Island.

Morgan also has a seat on the New York Stock Exchange through connections. For Mo, a young financial speculator, the black market exchange, located in the basement of an old, old building on Wall Street, is of greatest interest to him. At that time, the lower room of the metropolis was usually used to store coal for heating in winter, and people jokingly called it the "coal hall".

At that time, a young speculator, Quecham, teamed up with Morgan to engage in financial speculation.

Quecham advises Morgan: "Let's say hello to Peabold and secretly buy $4 million to $5 million in Huang through a joint payment between him and his comptoir." Morgan pondered and said, "Yes! When the gold is in hand, half of it will be remitted to Lun, and the other half will be ours. If the remittances leak out and the north of Port Charles is defeated, the price of gold will inevitably skyrocket. When the time comes, let's sell off the half that remains. ”

Morgan and Quecham went as planned. Sure enough, the gold skyrocketed as they expected, and they made a fortune. The incident caused an uproar in New York and London. The New York Journal published an editorial saying that the current surge in gold prices is simply child's play on the life of the United States of America! The council should quickly build a guillotine and decapitate these guys.

The newspaper also published the results of an investigation that a young speculator in New York named John Pierpont Morgan was the manipulator of the incident.

Morgan finally became a Wall Street banker. He set his sights on railway speculation. Because at this time, railroads were built in various places, and it has become a hot topic in the United States. Before the north-south struggle, Morgan's speculative coffee first tasted sweetness. During the war, he bought broken guns and later engaged in gold speculation, which gave him a rich experience of speculation, and he was destined to defeat all opponents among the speculators gathered on Wall Street.

Although there is a 227-kilometer-long railway called Sacona, it has a very advantageous geographical location, and the coal, oil and steel around New York are transported by it. In order to fight for the right to operate this railway, several big bosses even did not use force, and fought a big fight, each with casualties, and relied on the army to quell the riot.

Morgan played a trick to disadvantage both competitors, and he snatched the operation of the Sacona Railroad.

In March 1871, a great revolution broke out in Paris, France, and the Paris Commune was proclaimed. In May of the same year, the Paris Commune failed, and the political situation in Europe fell into chaos again.

In order to support his rule, Thiers, the executioner of the Paris Commune and the head of the French bourgeois government, sent an envoy to meet Morgan's father, Genos Morgan, and asked the Morgan family to issue a 250 million franc treasury on his behalf. After bargaining, Genos agreed.

Morgan in New York received a telegram from his father. The telegram said: "Hopefully 250 million francs will be digested in the United States." Considering that you are overburdened, I came up with the idea of a new one, a syndicate, which is to bring together all the large-scale investment and financial firms on Wall Street to form a Treasury Bond Undertaking Organization. Morgan read the electricity and thought to himself, is this possible? But he knew that his father was scheming after all, and the purpose of establishing Diga was to let everyone take risks together; And once the French government bonds are successfully issued, the most profitable is undoubtedly Morgan and his sons. Morgan called his father back and promised.

Through the agency issuance of French government bonds, Morgan, a young financier, suddenly became a well-known figure in China and Canada. He made another big deal.

Morgan, whose career is booming, continues to shine. In 1890, he took advantage of the chaos of the American economy and the paralysis of the railroad system in the United States due to the competition for various boards, and constantly annexed others, and sat on the first position of the "Iron Alliance".

John Pierpont Morgan's fortune skyrocketed. There are 30,500 kilometers of railways directly under him alone, and in addition, there are nearly 70,000 kilometers under his control.

Morgan, who has deep pockets, also stretched out his hand to the American steel companies, and he set his eyes on the American steel king Carnegie. In the ranking of U.S. steel companies, Carnegie is the one who sits on the top spot; Morgan's steel companies can only rank second; Rockefeller in third place. Morgan has always regarded Carnegie as a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh. It's finally your chance! Due to the successive deaths of his mother, younger brother and most powerful assistant, Carnegie decided to hide and sell his entire belongings for $320 million. Morgan was afraid that Rockefeller would buy it, so he sent someone to negotiate with Carnegie. Carnegie raised it to $400 million. John Pierpont Morgan said, "We bought it for more than $400 million!" ”

April 1, 1901 was an unforgettable day for John Pierpont Morgan, and on this day, his US Iron and Steel Company was officially established. John Pierpont Morgan announced to the press that US Steel has $1.018 billion in capital and $301 million in new corporate bonds.

After entering the 20th century, the world's financial center gradually moved from London to New York, and Wall Street became synonymous with the world's financial center. The total capital of the John Pierpont Morgan family has reached $3.4 billion, including the Bankers Trust Company, First National Bank, and the Guarantee Trust Company. The capital of the Morgan Alliance is about $4.8 billion. The total value of the entire Zhilian "motorcycle system" is 20 billion US dollars! There is also $12.5 billion in insurance funds. The two big banks of the Morgan Alliance have total assets of $51 billion. Combined, total assets are equivalent to one-quarter of the assets of U.S. companies.

Morgan knew how to "know yourself and your enemy", and eventually won many battles and became a Wall Street tycoon.

□ gold jeans in the sand are all the rage

Everyone recognizes that a certain line can make money, and this industry is about to become a sunset industry. How to take advantage of various favorable conditions and create opportunities for profit is the magic weapon of a successful businessman. Among them, "knowing the other" and "knowing oneself" are inseparable, and only by knowing both their own characteristics and the external conditions can they ensure total victory. The following story fully embodies this business strategy.

In 1978, two novelists wrote a romance novel based on the life of Lévi Strauss. In this way, it has cast a veil of mystery on the denim king, making people almost obsessed with Levi Strauss's jeans, and wearing jeans has become a fashion for almost every young person, and for a time the world has set off a denim culture fever.

In 1850, American newspapers published a news that surprised the common people: "A large gold mine has been discovered in the western United States. Thus began the shocking Western People's Movement in American history, and those who had the dream of making a fortune flocked to the gold mines with their families, and the rolling flow of people flocked to the gold mines, and the scene was spectacular. Twenty-one-year-old Levi Strauss could not resist the lure of gold and joined the surging ranks of gold diggers. When he arrived in San Francisco, he saw the endless tents of the ant-packed gold prospectors, and his dream of making a fortune was quickly shattered.

He decided to give up his job of panning for gold from the sand, thinking that if he wanted to make real money here, it was not from the sand, but from the gold miners. In this way, Levi Strauss used all the money and goods on him to open a small shop specializing in the sale of daily necessities for gold diggers.

After the opening of the small shop, Levi Strauss was busy buying and selling goods all day long, and it was very hard, but the profit of this small shop was also very rich.

At that time, due to the large number of gold prospectors, the canvas used to set up tents and wagon canopies was also very good. Levi Strauss then took a boat to buy a large number of canvases and came to the Tao construction site, but he did not expect that as soon as the purchased goods got off the ship, the haberdashery items were sold out, and the canvases were not cared for.

One day, a gold digger asked him, "Why don't you bring some pants?" ”

"Pants? Why bring pants? Levi Strauss was amazed.

"Pants that are not worn are worthless to the miners," the gold digger continued, "and the pants worn by the miners are made of cotton, which is impatient and will wear out quickly." He suddenly suggested, "If you make it out of these canvases, which are strong and durable, you might be very popular." ”

After the gold diggers left, Levi Strauss thought carefully about the worker's words and felt that they made a lot of sense. If all these canvases are processed into pants, can't they all be bought? Levi Strauss had the idea of giving it a try. I went to the gold digger, took him to a tailor's shop, and made him a strip of canvas for free.

It didn't take long for the pants to be ready, and the gold digger was excited to put on the sturdy canvas overalls, and he talked about "Levi's pants" when he met people. Obviously, these pants are much more real than the others, and as soon as the gold digger advertised them, these pants became magical. So people came to inquire, and Levi Strauss immediately made a decision to process all the remaining tent cloth into cargo pants, which were quickly sold out.

After this success, Levi Strauss germinated the idea of producing a kind of "Levi's cargo pants" for miners, so he gave up the haberdashery store and opened the "Levi Strauss Company" with meager gold, and began to produce and sell this kind of strong and wear-resistant cargo pants in large quantities for gold diggers, and the sales volume was very good.

After careful observation, Livi Strauss believed that although the canvas was strong and durable, it was not soft and not so comfortable to wear; In terms of style, cargo pants are more toned, and obesity is indecent. With the characteristic sensibilities of a businessman, Levi Strauss developed and improved the fabrics and styles of cargo trousers.

Although Levi Strauss came to the United States with his family, he kept in touch with his relatives in Europe. He learned through relatives that a Frenchman named Nieman had invented a blue-and-white twill coarse cloth called "Nimes indigo twill cotton serge", which was very popular in Europe. Levi Strauss was so pleased with the news that he did not hesitate to import the fabric from France as a special surface for cargo pants.

After a bold imagination, Levi Strauss decided to make a change in the frock trousers. As a result, the pants produced by this new fabric are not only strong, soft and tight, but also much more beautiful, and are once again popular with gold diggers. For a time, this kind of cargo pants was widely spread among gold diggers, agricultural machinery workers and denim in the west. People also changed the name of this kind of pants, called IEANS, which became synonymous with cargo pants, and this name played a propaganda role for the further popularity of cargo pants; In addition, indigo is a color that is closely related to religious beliefs in the primitive era of Europe, so this color has played a potential role in helping jeans to become popular in Europe.

Levi Strauss also continued to improve the trousers in close connection with the labor characteristics of the gold diggers. In the process of labor, gold diggers often put samples of ore that they thought to contain gold into their trouser pockets, and the trouser pockets sewn with thread often broke due to severe wear and tear. On one occasion, a tailor named Davis noticed that the gold digger Ek's pants were torn by ore and reinforced his trouser pockets with brass rivets. The brass here, which is actually an alloy of copper and zinc, is strong and strong, nailed to the upper corners of the trouser pocket, which is not firm, and at the same time plays a decorative role, so that the cargo pants appear more beautiful and larger. In order to ensure that the trouser pocket will not break from the middle, Davis also used the method of leather trimming around the trouser pocket to further strengthen the trouser pocket, and the effect is very obvious. Levi Strauss valued Davis's invention so much that he approached Davis and asked him to add brass rivets to some of his cargo pants.

In 1873, Levi Strauss and Davis reached a cooperation agreement and patented his Rivi's indigo cargo pants with rivets. As a result of these improvements, the cargo pants invented by Levi Strauss gradually took on the unique look of today's jeans.

Levi Strauss's cargo pants are becoming more and more beautiful, and the company is getting more and more popular. When the gold diggers went to the city for vacation, the cargo pants they wore attracted the attention of the people, and for a time the cargo pants were not only popular with the gold diggers, but also loved by the general public in American society. Cowboys, college students, and urban youths bought Leevi's cargo pants, and gradually this clothing became a fashionable garment in the United States.

After World War II, various movements in American society surged, including the Women's Liberation Movement, the Student Movement, the hippie movement, and the anti-Vietnam War movement. In various movements, there have been many conflicts between police and young students, police and ordinary people, and in the confrontation, the convenience and flexibility of Li Wei's cargo pants have been fully demonstrated. Lee's cargo pants have gradually become a symbol of youth, popularity and youthful charm, and all walks of life have begun to accept Lee's cargo pants in terms of identity and status.

In the thirties and forties of the 20th century, American western movies were widely popular, and Levi's company took advantage of the overalls to wear to Hollywood movie stars, and these Hollywood movies played more handsome and chivalrous western cowboy images in the movies, so the name of Levi's cargo pants was gradually called "jeans", and through the introduction of movie stars, the eastern region of the United States also began to have a pair of jeans as a fashion; When refuting the accusations of the upper class for jeans, the Levi company made full use of newspapers, broadcasts and other media to justify the name of jeans. On the one hand, they advertise that jeans are sturdy, beautiful and comfortable, and are "the best dress"; On the other hand, in combination with various social movements in the United States, jeans are described as a symbol of democracy and freedom, and even packaged jeans as a kind of "jeans culture". Under the powerful propaganda offensive, jeans quickly became popular from the west to the south of the United States, and by the fifties and sixties of the 20th century, jeans were not only popular all over the United States, but also gradually went to the world.

If there is no deep understanding of the gold diggers, if there is no need for the gold diggers, perhaps, there would not be any "jeans" in the world.

□ "confidant" is a wonderful use of Zhou Qihong's fortune

"Confidant" is very important for a person's growth, because of "confidant", there are thousands of people.

Zhou Qihong, a businessman known as Hong Kong's "market tycoon", died when he was 11 years old. The family's already sluggish small southern goods store suddenly looked even more decayed, facing the danger of bankruptcy.

Zhou Qihong graduated from primary school, because his grades were not satisfactory and his family was short of manpower, so he went to school again and worked in the store. Delivering goods is a chore, and hiring someone to deliver it can cost you a lot of money. Zhou Qihong resolutely took on this work.

My mother is getting older, and it is becoming more and more difficult to take care of the affairs of the store.

At this time, Zhou Qihong's eldest sister returned to the mainland, the second sister immigrated to the United Kingdom, and the third brother studied in Australia and the burden of running the "Hongfu South Store" naturally fell on his shoulders.

The ambitious Zhou Qihong is determined to make a great deal based on this small shop!

However, when he saw the account books in the store, he couldn't help but gasp. It turned out that the store had long been unable to make ends meet, and it was almost bankrupt!

Zhou Qihong knows that it will not work without reform. He pooled the only funds he had in the store, increased the variety, and first set his sights on the rice that people needed for their daily lives. In order to do a good job, he went to almost all the rice shops in Hong Kong, and carefully pondered: Why are there many rice shops with customers, while some rice shops are deserted? In addition to the service attitude, the most important thing may be the quality of the rice. People who buy rice will grab a handful of rice and look at it carefully, from the fullness, uniformity, and crystal brightness of the rice to the presence or absence of sand grains, barnyard seeds, etc., and often run to several restaurants to compare. Zhou Qihong has the bottom in his heart, and he has a way to promote. He invited a skilled rice mixer, and specially made a large rice cabinet in the store and installed a rice blower.

Sure enough, the rice master used a rice blowing machine to blow away the debris in the rice, and then slowly dripped some raw oil into it, and under the rubbing of the wind, the raw oil gradually adhered to the surface of the rice, making the rice grains become clear and crystalline, moist like pearls. When the rice shop opened, the customers were amazed when they saw this beautiful rice and said, "This rice is like a pearl!" ”

Zhou Qihong had an idea, picked it up and said loudly: "This is the exclusive pearl rice of our store!" ”

When the news spread, residents of several nearby streets rushed to buy "pearl rice", which led to the business of other goods in the store.

Zhou Qihong's initial success, but he was not satisfied with this, and he always paid attention to the opportunities he was looking for. One day, a friend was entertained in a famous hotel, and the last dish came, and everyone cheered together, it turned out that this was a big crab produced in Yangcheng Lake in the mainland of the mainland! Zhou Qihong was moved in his heart at that time: "Big crabs are so popular, why don't I go through the crab business?" ”

He carefully weighed the pros and cons of operating a crab. It goes without saying that the profit is high, and the big difficulty is the problem of shipping time. Crabs will die after a long time out of the water, and no one wants to give them away for nothing. Today's operators mostly rely on cars and trains, and the mortality rate of crabs is almost more than half. If it is transported by airplane, the freight is of course, but the time can be greatly shortened, and the mortality rate of crabs can be reduced to less than 5%, and the profit can be much higher.

But that's only one aspect. The crabs that are shipped can only be made by selling them. What if the crabs could be sold as soon as possible? Zhou Qihong went to visit the well-run hotels in the downtown one by one, and finally found a boss who was good at management. The boss said:

"Crabs are a good thing, of course, but they're too delicate to stay alive. If you enter too much at once, I'm afraid that this small shop can't afford it. ”

Zhou Qihong confidently said to the boss: "There is a way to do this." As long as you agree, I will make a freezer in your restaurant, and I will bear the cost, do you think it will work? ”

It's a good thing that fell from the sky! The boss suddenly smiled and said, "It's really embarrassing to let the old man break the bank!" To be honest, as long as the big crab is alive, there are as many as there are sold in my wine! ”

After signing a supply and marketing contract with the boss, Zhou Qihong took out funds to rush to the mainland to purchase goods.

The first cargo was flown to Hong Kong, and he reaped the benefits. However, the crab business is very temperamental, so how can we do more business in a short period of time? Zhou Qihong had an idea again. He agreed with the owner of the restaurant to use the base of the restaurant to expand the amount of goods purchased and wholesale crabs to small restaurants and snack stalls. Those small shops lack the conditions for keeping them fresh, but they are also very happy to be able to get fresh crabs in time. As a result, Zhou Qihong and the owner of the restaurant made a lot of money from the crab business in the autumn.

In the past few years, "Hongfu South Store" has developed quite rapidly. However, Zhou Qihong felt more and more that this small shop constrained his ideals and talents, and he should be able to show his skills in a broader world. Finally, he sold the South Goods Store to someone else, and threw off his hands to find a new development base.

At this moment, a good opportunity luckily fell on Zhou Qihong's head.

There is a British businessman named Luo Xin in Hong Kong, in order to develop the Jardine's Hill shopping mall in Tai Hang, Hong Kong, he is looking for talents everywhere. Because he heard that Zhou Qihong was quite capable of management, he called and asked Zhou Qihong to "develop and develop" in his newly developed area.

Zhou Qihong readily agreed. He raised funds at that time and opened a southern goods store in Jardine's Hill.

However, Jardine's Hill is a completely new environment, and Zhou Qihong's past set of "business" cannot be carried out here. After a few months, Zhou Qihong lost a lot of money.

At this moment, Luo Xin encouraged the young Zhou Qihong and said: "Your defeat is because of the old experience and old methods of the past. According to the old saying of you Chinese, it is called 'what song to sing on what', and when you come to Mount Jardinek, you have to sing the 'song' of Mount Jardinek! ”

Zhou Qihong is a smart person, and he knows a little. He re-conducted an in-depth investigation of the business situation here, and found that this area is not a place to open small shops, and the bigger the mall, the better! He categorically decided to contract a large shopping mall. Luo Xin also actively supported his idea. So, Zhou Qihong bought the Yunjing Road shopping mall, and it didn't take long for the business to be very popular.

As soon as the things in the shopping mall were smooth, Zhou Qihong wanted to do bigger things. When he had free time, he wandered around the nearby street markets and studied the business status of each shop. He often wonders why some stores are located in the downtown area and have a good commercial location, but they have a poor image and a light business. Why are some shops located in the streets and alleys, the land is not good, but the customers are full? Why is it that some areas are becoming more and more prosperous, while others are always sparsely populated? Zhou Qihong couldn't figure it out for a while, so he went to visit experts, asked teachers, consulted information, and finally understood that these questions included university questions!

Immediately afterwards, Zhou Qihong made an astonishing decision - he wanted to contract the entire city! The shrewd Luo Xin applauded when he heard the news. He admired Zhou Qihong's talent and trusted his own judgment. Zhou Qihong's contracting of the market will definitely bring him greater economic benefits. Therefore, Luo Xin, through his own connections, managed to get Zhou Qihong to contract Fuhuayuan City.

Soon after, the renovated street magically changed.

During the day, the buildings are bright, the characteristics are distinct, and the advertisements are numerous, which is poetic and picturesque; At night, the colorful lights are colorful, confusing, and changeable, like a dream. Zhou Qihong's "big stroke" won the unanimous applause of the Xiang government and the people. As a result, Fortune Garden Street has become one of the most advanced markets in Hong Kong.

Zhou Qihong took advantage of the victory to pursue, and contracted the Ma On Terrace Market in Sha Tin, Ma Shan Hengyao Market, and Fengjia Market in Cheung Fat Village, Tsing Yi, and became a well-known "street tycoon" in Hong Kong.

Zhou Qihong is striving for progress because of his "confidant". It is precisely because of the "confidant" that there is an immortal "market tycoon".