A Marriott hotel in downtown Detroit, inside the Presidential Suite:

Henry Morgan poured the red wine in his hand and said, "This is a collection I got from a European nobleman, and it was preserved in the 10s, and I can't buy it if I want to." ”

"Good wine, good taste." Chen Zhiwen took a sip, nodded and said, "It's really difficult to buy this kind of antique wine now. ”

Lafite in 1982, many people know, but it is not yet 82 years, the best wine on the market at present, is from the 10-20s, during that time because of the food problem, many places have carried out alcohol bans, and the demand has decreased, resulting in a large number of wine merchants in order to obtain higher profits, have to make better quality wine, to gain the recognition of high-consumption people, and at that time can stay, naturally are also high-quality, especially after retaining enough time, the taste is better.

"In fact, it is not difficult to buy, many declining aristocrats in Europe have some castles in their hands, in these castles, in addition to historical feelings, there are all kinds of wine left, you know, over there, Europe has always liked to drink, and idle aristocrats like to hide wine." Henry Morgan said with a smile.

"You mean let me buy those ancient castles?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"If you are interested, you can go and see, just for the sake of wine is naturally not necessary, but this kind of ancient castle, like antiques, the number is always stable, and it may be less and less, so there is a strong value of hedging investment, since last year, after the collapse of gold prices, many European and American capitals have begun to speculate on these ancient castles. In addition, these ancient castles are also valuable in their own right, and many of them also carry large tracts of land, and like the farms in Europe and the United States, many of them are also well-established vineyard farms. Henry Morgan said.

"Then if I'm free, I'll take a look, and you bought it too?" Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, if you really come across something you like, it doesn't matter if you buy one, just buy a place to live in Europe.

"Yes, I bought a manor house in France, you see, here's the picture." Henry Morgan smiled and took a few photos out of his pocket.

"Very nice and great view." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, this castle is on the edge of a lake, surrounded by several paths, and many green plants climb on the walls of the ancient castle, which seems to have a unique flavor.

"Of course, it cost me $20 million." Henry Morgan said.

"It's expensive, it seems that your business is good during this time." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said.

"It's still up to you, I didn't expect it at all, but the sales of red and white machines and handheld machines in three states surpassed the arcade machines that used to be, which is incredible." Henry Morgan said.

"Normal, the civilian market is the world's largest market." Chen Zhiwen said. Whether it is supermarkets, electronic products, games, cars, etc., they are all docking end users, and even banks, most of the world's top 500 companies are such enterprises.

Henry Morgan has a long history of cooperation with Chen Zhiwen, and the family behind it is also very helpful to Chen Zhiwen, so the agency rights of Midea's red and white machines and handheld computers in California, New York and Maryland have been given to him, however, to exclude the big supermarkets, Midea and the big supermarkets in Europe and the United States are all direct cooperation, local dealers, the main focus is a variety of small stores.

"Eric, I heard that Midea launched a personal computer? Are you ready to make a big splash in this market? Henry Morgan asked with a smile.

"Of course, I can tell you that Midea's achievements in the field of games are far from the potential of the future personal computer market, and the future consumer electronics market will focus on computers." Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile, he already roughly understood the reason why Henry Morgan took the initiative to come to him, obviously because he was interested in the personal computer market.

"Is it really that powerful?" Henry Morgan's eyes lit up and said: "I also know that many people in the financial market are speculating about personal computers now, but I didn't expect that there would be such a large space. ”

"It's much more powerful than Wall Street can imagine right now." Chen Zhiwen said. When a technology product is born, no one will know how much potential it will have, not to mention the layman, even the insider, such as Jobs, who launched the Apple mobile phone in 2007, he said at the press conference The ultimate goal is to obtain 1% of the global mobile phone market, although this number is small, but it is already a big goal for Apple at that time, but the final result is also beyond his imagination.

The same is true of personal computers, no one could have imagined that the Internet will be born in the future, linking all mankind, and countless software and so on.

"Then can I get the agency of Midea's personal computer, anyway, now that I have opened up the channel, it is easy to add another computer." Henry asked.

"The highest price of the red and white machine is 699 US dollars, this price, in fact, for many American families, is not a small amount of money, but it is still affordable, Midea personal computers, the cheapest is close to 3 times this price, so your previous channel, it is difficult to work." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.

"So that's why Midea's personal computers are only used in large shopping malls and supermarkets?" Henry said with some loss.

"No, shopping malls and supermarkets will be one of the main channels, but not absolutely." Chen Zhiwen said: "With the gradual enrichment of Midea's product line, I am ready to launch a special channel system, 711 supermarket, Henry, have you heard of it?" ”

“711？ That little franchise store? I know, you mean, professional franchisees? "Henry Morgan was also a smart man, and he understood it in an instant.

"Yes, many big brands, especially civilian commodity brands, will adopt this model, small supermarkets, clothing stores, shoe stores, etc., I am also ready to let Midea adopt this model, which will be promoted in Hong Kong and the United States in the early stage, in addition to computers, all kinds of game consoles, handhelds, music players and other consumer electronic goods, will be stationed." Chen Zhiwen explained.

"So, you're ready to replace the current model?" Henry Morgan said.

"No, the coexistence of the two will become a norm, the expansion of franchise stores, is a real large amount of capital investment, not so easy to build around the world, however, it will definitely squeeze the interests of other small stores, besides, this has little impact on you, no matter what channel, you need dealers." Chen Zhiwen said. In the era of mobile Internet, it will take many years for Apple and Huawei to set up a nationwide franchise store, not to mention the inefficient era when mobile phones have not yet appeared, and besides, the brand monopoly of personal computers is far less than that of mobile phones.

"So, I need to convince a lot more people to join?" Henry Morgan nodded and said, sure enough, it is not so easy to make money lying down, and it has finally taken a lot of energy to reach channel cooperation with a large number of small stores, and now the customer is ready to form a franchisee channel.

"In the long run, the channels of franchisees have been opened, which is more dependent on the expansion of our brand, and in the future, Midea will launch other games, other models of computers and other electronic products, all of which rely on others, and it will not go long." Chen Zhiwen said again.

Although the franchisee is not their own, but to a large extent, it is possible to use the contract and interests for deep bundling, so that all channels are in their own hands, and they can better ensure after-sales service, etc., although in this sales system, dealers still exist, but all channels are clear and clear, the brand company is the most convenient, but also to obtain the maximum benefits.

"I know, I'll start preparing for this." Henry nodded and said, when the scale of Midea is getting bigger and bigger, and it is big enough to become a global-level electronic giant, he understands that he can no longer have a normal conversation with it as before, because the dependency relationship and the complete change, it is very good to be able to continue to enjoy the shade under this big tree.

In the future, Midea let him earn $100, and it is difficult for him to earn 110, but in general, when Midea is getting stronger and stronger, the products are becoming more and more abundant and best-selling, then even if his profit margin is low, he can still earn more overall.

"How to cooperate, you still need to make a decision according to the situation of the U.S. market, and the initial stage is only to test the waters, at least in two or three years, there will be no large-scale expansion, you still need to operate the existing channels." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said.

"Okay, understood." Henry nodded and said, "Then don't you put those household appliances together?" ”

"No, home appliances are another set of sales network, but I haven't built it yet, at present, it mainly relies on big supermarkets and some trading companies, and Midea home appliances do not have the ability to build other channels from themselves." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.

"It's a pity, there is no channel, and it is difficult to grow and develop just by relying on your own supermarket." Henry said.

"I know, in fact, I wanted to discuss this matter with you, but since you are here, it is just a coincidence." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Costco is its own, Wal-Mart has a good relationship with itself, these two supermarkets combined, it is not a problem to feed several medium-sized factories in Hong Kong or the mainland, for Hong Kong people, this factory is not small, but compared with the traditional home appliance giants, it is completely a drop in the bucket.

If you really want to become bigger, you can't rely on these alone, so Chen Zhiwen has long been thinking about how to break the game.

Of course, if in another ten or twenty years, Costco, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy will really become bigger, then only these few can become one of the home appliance giants, but this time is too long-term, and in the future, it is difficult to say what the relationship with Wal-Mart will be.

"What can I do?" Henry Morgan asked curiously.

"Your Morgan family has a good relationship with General Electric, right?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Yes, a few decades ago, the Morgan family was the majority shareholder of General Electric, and then they have slowly reduced their shares, but there are still some of them." Henry nodded.

"Do you know that the new CEO of General Electric, Welch?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

"I know, but I don't know him, I heard that when he used to be the vice president of General Electric, his grades were very good." Henry said.

"Of course, the one who can be selected to be the CEO of General Electric is, of course, the dragon and phoenix among the people." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile: "I know a little more than you, he put forward a [principle of one and the best] within General Electric, which means that in the future, if you can't do the first and second in the field of General Electric, then don't do it." ”

"So exaggerated?" Henry Morgan was taken aback when he heard this, and said, "The third is not good? ”

"It's an exaggeration, if it's really the third in the world, I don't believe that General Electric will not want this business, but how to say, this is Welch's governing principle, and as far as I know, GE's home appliance business, although it is also very good, but it is estimated that there is still a certain gap from the top ten in the world."

In the 21st century, the economic weekly of later generations screened out the world's top 100 CEOs, and General Electric's CEO Welch was one of them, including Lee Iacocca, who saved Chrysler.

In the 80s, General Electric, although it was unprecedentedly powerful in scale, Welch was well aware of the crisis, the whole company involved too many businesses, from complex aero engines to the simplest power tools, GE had more than 1,000 businesses, the entire company's management was bloated, hundreds of senior executives were responsible for different businesses of the company, and each business, there were several or even more than a dozen regional directors, etc., and even many senior executives themselves could not figure out how much business the company had.

In this case, a large amount of management resources are consumed, in order to sort out the business of the entire company, Welch put forward the principle of one of the best, as long as it is not the top three levels, or has the potential to become the top three levels of business, the rest, all sold, regardless of whether the business is profitable or not, the profitable ones will sell more money, and the unprofitable ones will sell less.

This strategy has encountered great resistance within GE, and the revolution is the most difficult for itself, and those groups who will lose their interests because of the revolution will desperately resist, these people will not care about the future of the company, only care about themselves.

And a powerful CEO, in addition to having a strategy, also needs to have the ability and courage to achieve this goal, Welch is such a person, it took ten years for most of GE's business to be sold, and what is left are the most cutting-edge top technology companies on the blue star.

"Are you looking to buy GE's appliance business?" Henry Morgan was shocked and said: "Eric, although General Electric's home appliance business is indeed not the strongest, the market size is not small, if you want to acquire, I am afraid that it will not be able to stop without a billion dollars." ”

"The more money, the happier your investment bankers are?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

In the original history, the home appliance business, GE sold to a European company a few years later, and even next year in history, Welch sold its own central air conditioning business, because this business only has a 10% share of the US market.

This share, in the management of bloated General Electric, is meaningless, after all, the competition in the field of household appliances has long been white-hot, the profit margin in this market is very low, but for the United States, it is a breakthrough, both technology and channels, as for the profit margin, production in the United States of course profit margin, but move to Asia, or a few years later, the route is clearer in the mainland, then there is no problem.

"Okay, then I'll make a phone call and discuss with the people at Morgan Stanley, they should be very interested in this acquisition, maybe they will send someone over in the next two days." Henry nodded and said, think about it carefully, although the purchase price may be around one billion US dollars, but it can be with the help of investment bank funds, with the development of Chen Zhiwen's several businesses, any investment bank will also lend him money.

"Alright, I'll wait for them here." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said that AMC wanted to cooperate with General Electric but was unsuccessful before, which reminded Chen Zhiwen that in the 80s, the giant sold a lot of business, and he was just lacking a lot, and the two could not be more perfect.

(End of chapter)