Japan, Sony Group.

"President, just came the news that Midea Group has acquired all of RCA's color TV business, including its factories, sales channels and technology research and development centers around the world." A man in formal clothes, about 30 years old, walked into the spacious office and said to Morita, who was sitting in a chair drinking tea.

"Okay, I got it." Morita Shaofu nodded, and the visitor immediately bowed again, and then retreated.

"President, what's wrong with you?" Seeing Morita Shofu's expression a little strange, Ichiro Tanaka, the vice president of Sony who was sitting opposite, asked a little strangely.

"Maybe I'm thinking too much, I'm worried that Midea will become our strongest competitor to Sony, this is what I've always felt, and now that they've acquired the RCA TV business, it may come true." Morita Shaofu said with some sorrow.

"Beautiful? Their scale is indeed not small, but they only started by relying on the market of video games, and in terms of technical research in the field of electronics, ten beautiful ones are not worth our Sony, is the president too worried? Ichiro Tanaka said.

"In terms of technology, it can't be compared, but Chen Zhiwen is a person who obviously has a strong pursuit of technology, otherwise, in the case of such a huge profit in the game industry, why should he insist on spending so much energy and money to invest in the home appliance industry, from factories to R&D to terminals, it is clear that he wants to break out in this market." Morita shook his head and said, "Even in Japanese shopping malls for decades, I have never seen such a rapid and successful talent. ”

"You mean he's going to threaten Sony? However, RCA's technology is also worse than ours, even if Chen Zhiwen acquires RCA's TV business, it will not be possible to surpass our Sony in less than 20 years. Ichiro Tanaka said proudly.

In the past,RCA is the world's top three TV giants,Dominate the market in the United States and South America,It also radiates Asia and Europe by the way,Until ten years ago,A new generation of color picture tube technology developed by Sony,Relying on higher pixels and the cost control ability of Japanese factories,Gradually beat the European and American TV giants in the market,It is the American market,Even if RCA has a local advantage,It was also defeated by Sony。

The research and development of technology is very difficult, Sony's color picture tube, the degree of technology is basically fast enough to reach the limit that the human eye can see, and then improve, it is basically impossible, plus the brand awareness has been opened, there is no disruptive innovation, it is impossible to have the opportunity to surpass Sony.

"Don't be overconfident, it's called pride, it's easy for us to be defeated." Morita Schov frowned and said: "The Americans were like this back then, and then what about now?" ”

"I'm sorry, Mr. Morita, it's my fault." Ichiro Tanaka immediately apologized and said.

"Midea has acquired the RCA TV business, what will happen in the future, you must always keep an eye on it, especially the tendency to prepare for large-scale investment in the research and development of new picture tube technology, you must tell me as soon as possible." Morita Schov said again.

"Okay, that's no problem, over the years, Midea has poached a lot of Chinese and even Japanese engineers from Japan, although these people can't get access to the top management, but if there is any tendency at the top, they can still know, and there are a few people who are willing to cooperate with us." Ichiro Tanaka said with a smile.

Theoretically speaking, it is very difficult to let the senior management of the other company serve themselves, but the middle level is different, there are too many middle levels of a large company, there will always be loopholes, although they can not access the core secrets, but they can also know many directions of the company, such as a company invests a lot of resources in a certain industry and a project, it is difficult to hide, after all, it involves a lot of manpower and material resources deployment, and may not be able to find specific information. However, there is still a general understanding.

"Hopefully I'm overthinking." Morita Schov frowned and said that although many of Midea's businesses in Japan have cooperation with Sony, the essence of the two is that they are natural enemies.

Midea tried to enter one of Sony's home pages, the home appliance business, and Sony has been constantly launching games, after all, who doesn't look at Midea's profits in the game field, even IBM has tried, but it didn't work out, and in the end, it didn't work.

RCA's TV business, in the past history, is the existence of the monopoly of the United States, its status is equivalent to the TCL around 2000, there is no monopoly, but it belongs to the first array.

However, the comfortable life was broken in a very small way, because the container was invented.

With containers, items such as TVs can be packed into tin shoes very well, and can be safely sent to all parts of the world after being fixed, and before that, it is necessary to be careful inside the sheet metal freighter, at most a small fixed measure, after the emergence of containers, the cost of cross-sea transportation has been reduced tenfold.

As a result, the home appliance industry has also ushered in the era of global trade, in the case of losing marine protection, the American TV brand, after encountering the Japanese counterpart, collapsed like a mountain, not only the technology is poor, the labor cost is also much worse, the expensive American labor, can not compare with the Japanese workers who are the most volatile in the 70s.

The home appliance industry is not as important as the automobile industry, and the U.S. government is unwilling to raise tariffs after being lobbied by the American auto giants many times, at most forcing Japanese car companies to build factories in the United States, and the home appliance industry, you can play how you like, and if you die, pull down, what the White House cares about most is the "free trade" they promote.

Moreover, one of the reasons for the outbreak of inflation in the United States is actually that its own labor costs are too high, and a large number of goods are imported from overseas and paper tickets are exchanged for goods in order to reduce domestic inflation.

In the end, the U.S. home appliance industry fell into a countdown to decline, and in this context, RCA moved the production of home appliance factories to Mexico, Gulf Bay, Eastern Europe and other places in order to reduce costs, which had a little effect, but it still couldn't compare with Japanese brands.

Now, in the hands of Chen Zhiwen, it's another matter.

He Guoyuan, who is in charge of Midea's home appliance business, also began to officially take over all the business of RCA, and after staying in the United States for half a month, after returning to Hong Kong, he came to Chen Zhiwen's office as soon as possible.

"Lao He, come and sit." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile, and at the same time, handed over a bottle of "Master Kong Green Tea".

Master Kong, naturally, is a brand name under Red Bull, when the instant noodle business was about to take a name, Chen Zhiwen directly used a more pleasant name in later generations.

"Master Kong's instant noodles, it's delicious." This sentence has been circulating in the mainland for a long time.

However, because the mainland market is very small at present, Master Kong's instant noodles are average, and they basically cannot be sold in Europe and the United States, and there are too many counterparts in Japan and South Korea, and it is difficult to squeeze in, so they can only be sold in Hong Kong and some Southeast Asian regions.

Some time ago, Master Kong also launched the "Tea Drink" series, which was well received by many Chinese, and it sells much better than instant noodles in Hong Kong.

Of course, this drink is only suitable for your own people to drink casually, and if you have guests, you still can't play like this.

"Thank you, Mr. Chen." He Guoyuan said politely.

"How does it feel to go to RCA headquarters in the United States?" Chen Zhiwen asked, although hundreds of millions of dollars were spent, Chen Zhiwen only met with some of the current senior executives of RCA in Hong Kong, after all, he is a big boss, what is it to go to the United States to meet them? It's not like a few years ago, when you had to go in person to buy a big American company.

In terms of technology, Chen Zhiwen didn't understand either, so he arranged for a team of dozens of people headed by He Guoyuan to go to the United States, and the most basic principle of acquiring large companies in the United States must be to maintain the previous operation, and sending people there also wanted to see what technology there was that could be used by Hong Kong, or whether the market could help Hong Kong.

"Chen Sheng, in terms of technology, RCA's CRT technology is still much stronger than our Midea factory in Hong Kong, however, there is already a large factory in Wanwan, where the industrial chain is complete, and there are a large number of workers, there is no need to build a factory in Hong Kong, and the labor cost in Hong Kong is higher, I think there is no need to increase the factory unless our sales increase significantly." He Guoyuan analyzed.

"What about the market?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"The market is very perfect, RCA has more than 10,000 retail outlets in the United States, almost all the large supermarkets in the United States, many small stores in small towns, there are also RCA TVs, and the after-sales points are also very well arranged, after we take over these, I think it will not take a year to serve all the home appliances of the United States, so that our products can be spread in the American market, after-sales, we only need to train more people, or directly transfer some people in Hong Kong." He Guoyuan said.

"If you transfer people from Hong Kong, it's not good to transfer too many people, right?" Chen Zhiwen thought about it and said, when he just started to put home appliances in the United States, he relied on Costco, and there were few Costco at that time, so it was naturally no problem to send dozens of people from Hong Kong, but now to cover the whole United States after sales, this requires too many people, not to mention whether there are so many technical professionals in Hong Kong, even the US government is unlikely to allow so many people to enter the country to grab American jobs.

"I discussed with Sean Walker, the current head of RCA's TV business, that the Reagan administration's control over this aspect is not very strict, as long as we apply in different states, dozens of people are admitted in each state, and the number is not large, and it is even more fine to enter at different times, but it still needs to be touched, but it is much more economical than directly recruiting white Americans or lazy blacks with low work efficiency." He Guoyuan said.

"That's okay, but we can't come forward, entrust a third party, let them bring people in, and we'll hire them." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, the locals in the United States do have a lot of problems, but this is the fate of developed regions, when the economy develops, no one wants to live a hard life, including the mainland a few decades later, everyone says that industry and industry are important, but how many people are willing to enter the factory by themselves? Or will your own children go to the factory to make screws in the future?

"That's no problem, I'll get some people with a bit of background to get involved, but there's another problem, which is that Hong Kong doesn't necessarily have so many professionals." He Guoyuan said again: "So I want to recruit from Wanwan, or domestic?" ”

"If you are in the mainland, forget it, if you are sent to the United States, at least your English should be good, this kind of person is rare in China, it is better to go directly to Wanwan." Chen Zhiwen thought about it and said, in the past ten years, some people in China have a persistent willingness to go overseas, once they really go, they can't be sure that someone inside will stay as a black household, it is said that some university professors and international athletes have had similar things, if this kind of thing happens to the people brought by the United States, it will be troublesome.

"That's good, anyway, there are enough people over there in Wanwan, and there should be a lot of proficient in English." He Guoyuan nodded and said, he went to the university in Wanwan, so he naturally knew the talent situation over there.

"Well, let's take it one step at a time, the RCA TV business has arrived, we need to slowly absorb their resources and technology, but the Wanwan factory, although Henry Morgan has reached a memorandum of understanding with the Wanwan official before, but the locals may still have a little trouble, you need to focus on this matter, try to let this matter pass as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen said again.

"Okay, in a few days, I'll go to Wanwan again, and after inspecting the factory, I'll observe the local situation." He Guoyuan said.

"Okay, if there's any problem, report it to me early." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, although the home appliance business, in terms of profits, it is absolutely impossible to compare with games and personal computers, but this market is too big, even if it becomes a sunset industry in a few decades, it can easily drive the employment of millions of people in the upstream and downstream, therefore, Chen Zhiwen is bound to win this, not only in the European and American markets, but also in the future of the mainland, and today's RCA is the first step to develop technology and win the American market.

It was April 1982.

Midea's smooth and gradual integration of RCA TV business,Together with many problems in the color TV factory in Hong Kong,Overcome by technical engineers from the United States after guidance,Greatly improve efficiency,However,The production capacity of the Hong Kong factory,Compared with RCA, it is far worse。

And several large household appliances under the United States,It has also begun to take advantage of RCA's channels,Sales have soared,This is just the beginning,After all, many channels are not willing to accept new things at will in the early days,But in the past two years,With the best-selling of home game consoles and handhelds,It has become quite famous in the United States,This is also a promotion for the popularity of the home appliance business。

In this way, the home appliance business will also embark on a rapid development route, the only thing to worry about may be production capacity, but Shekou and Yanjing are ready, and there are enough workers, there should be no problem.

"Knock knock." The knock on the door sounded, and Chen Zhiwen looked up to see that it was Li Haonan, the current director of the group headquarters, and said, "Please come in"

Since the beginning of the business, Li Haonan is Chen Zhiwen's side of personnel, Midea, Red Bull, Galaxy Trade and many other teams and talents are responsible for the recruitment and introduction, and later the scale of the company is getting bigger and bigger, the group general affairs office was established, responsible for coordinating various departments, Li Haonan became the head of this department.

The General Affairs Office has no specific business, but is responsible for coordinating various departments, supervising the personnel, finance, factory safety, etc. of each subsidiary, and the power is also very large.

And Chen Zhiwen is most concerned about the safety of so many factory employees under the group, after all, the economic loss can be earned back, but there is only one life, Li Haonan has also made great efforts in this matter, specially invited dozens of safety engineers from Japan, specially visited, audited the safety of the group's factories and some large supplier factories, it is said that the factories in the mainland were audited and complained, but the effect is very good, hundreds of thousands of people in the industrial chain before and after, and there are several safety incidents a year.

Of course, it may also be related to the fact that it is a light industry, and the safety of light industry factories is naturally much higher. The only exception is Galaxy Trading's textile suppliers, where small security incidents are always occurring.

"Chen Sheng, you look for me." After Li Haonan came to Chen Zhiwen, he sat down and said.

"Lao Li, there is one thing I need you to do." Chen Zhiwen said: "Our group has grown up to a large enough scale, but it still lacks a core industry: banking, so I am ready to choose to acquire one in Hong Kong." ”

(End of chapter)