It is actually not difficult to acquire Hutchison. The difficulty lies in how such a large group should take over.
It is impossible to take over directly by oneself. Even Li Jiacheng in history could not take over directly. You must know that Cheung Kong Industries had been in the real estate market for twenty years. The team of Cheung Kong Industries was also full of talents, but for Hutchison's different businesses, still no solution.
Therefore, it was necessary to find a professional to operate it. Chen Zhiwen had been choosing this person for a long time. First of all, he could only choose from celebrities who had left a name in history. Being able to leave a name shows that he has considerable ability.
Ma Shiming, the head cadre of Hutchison Whampoa in later generations, is naturally the most famous, but after Chen Zhiwen sent someone to investigate, he discovered that this person is currently only a middle-level manager of Jardine. Although he performed very well, by the time when Li Jiacheng invited him, he was no longer There is still nearly ten years left. Without these ten years of experience, it is impossible for Ma Shiming to manage a large group like Hutchison.
The second candidate is Wei Li, who was originally invited by Shen Bi of HSBC Bank. This man was born in Australia in 1932. He came to Hong Kong in 1964 and took charge of the Sherba Motor Company. Three years later, he successfully developed the company into The largest car sales group. In 1973, he was invited to take over Xinchang Enterprise, which was about to go bankrupt. In more than a year, he turned it around during the economic crisis. Since then, Wei Li has gained the title of "company doctor" in the business world. In the original history, Wei Li was invited by Shen Bi to take over the entire Hutchison Group. Three years later, Wei Li turned Hutchison's losses into profits.
However, in the context of a large-scale increase in land prices, Hutchison's turnaround may not be considered a great achievement. Maybe Wei Li is very capable, but the problem is that this person is too arrogant. When he took over Xiaba Automobile Company and Xinchang Enterprise , has had conflicts with shareholders many times, but because of his management ability, shareholders have calmed down.
In the original history, after Wei Li successfully rescued Hutchison, he became dissatisfied with HSBC's control of Hutchison, used various methods to dilute Hutchison's shares in HSBC's hands, and had many conflicts with Shen Bi, and even let Shen Bi in front of the media. Be in trouble.
Then Shen Bi transferred Hutchison Whampoa (the merger during Wei Li's period) to Li Jiacheng at a low price. In addition to wanting to recruit Li Jiacheng, the other reason was that Wei Li was too arrogant and ignorant of promotion. After confirming that Li Jiacheng had certain After gaining the ability, Li Jiacheng was asked to take care of him.
Most people can tolerate this kind of bad temper because of his ability to make money, but Shen Bi can't tolerate it. Chen Zhiwen naturally has no need to be so angry, and he naturally passed on Wei Li after finding out his history.
In the end, Chen Zhiwen locked in Richard. In the original history, Li Jiacheng drove away Wei Li in 1981, and Richard took office as Hutchison Whampoa's boss. He did things well, but he also had his problems. De also hoped that Hutchison would operate independently, and Li Jiacheng could just be a shareholder with peace of mind. Finally, in 1983, when Li Jiacheng's team became familiar with Hutchison's operating model, they also drove him away.
Hutchison now definitely needs to find a capable person to manage it. Relatively speaking, the best choice is Richard. At the very least, even if he doesn't want Chinese people to manage Hutchison, he is still very disciplined. , did not do everything possible to dilute the equity of major shareholders like Wei Li, and also gave Li Jiacheng face in public places.
Moreover, the Richard in history is the Richard six years later. He may have been seriously influenced by Wei Li, and it may not be the same now. At the same time, he is now one of the top leaders of Hutchison, whether it is for the business or not. His understanding or Hutchison staff's trust in him are both the best choices.
"Am I going to be a senior class member?" Richard was shocked. Although he had a little hope of this before, when Chen Zhiwen actually said it, his heart suddenly swayed.
"Qi Dezun has a certain ability, but his virtue is not suitable for him. All the problems in Hutchison now are caused by him. After I took over Hutchison, the first thing I did was to abolish his position. I am ready to remove this position from him. Hutchison selects suitable talents internally, and I think Mr. Richard is very suitable. I know that your idea has always been to slim down Hutchison. This is similar to my idea. The current problem of Hutchison is that it is too bloated and has a messy business. There are a lot of them, but not much is profitable." Chen Zhiwen said calmly.
"What about Hutchison's staff, Mr. Chen? Do we need to lay off employees?" Richard asked, this was something he was more concerned about.
"Of course, Hutchison has too many senior executives who are overstaffed. Those who should leave must leave. Below the middle level, I will not directly lay off employees, but because a large number of businesses need to be sold, these people will also leave with the business departments or the company. In the future, I can't control fate." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
"Then what are my responsibilities in the future operation of Hutchison?" Richard asked.
Chen Zhiwen took a sip of coffee and said: "I will decide the big business and investment plans. Of course, we can also discuss it. As long as you have reasons to convince me and prove that my idea is wrong, then I can also press your button." The specific implementation is done by you, but the process of your operation also needs to be reported once in a while. At the same time, in terms of finance, we can also determine a number based on the size of the company and your performance in the future. This number is tens of thousands. Expenses above Hong Kong dollars require my signature. You can decide below this number, but these expenses must be sorted out to my assistant every month. I need to keep abreast of the company's situation dynamically.
This number can also be changed in the future. If the scale of Hutchison becomes larger in the future, the number can also be improved. The premise of everything is that you can get Hutchison out of the debt crisis.
In addition, I need to arrange for people to come in for both human resources and finance, but as long as there are no major problems, they will only observe and not interfere with your behavior.
To put it simply, this is it. You should know that my request is not too much, right? "
"Such a request is indeed not too much." Richard nodded and said.
Normal companies actually follow this process. Even if it is a listed company, the management needs to report to the board of directors composed of several shareholders at regular intervals. In companies like Hutchison, it is the management that dominates the sky and is used to being unconstrained. .
"Any questions?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
Richard thought for a while and asked: "Sheng Chen, because now that Chinese capital has acquired Hutchison, the British staff within Hutchison are quite nervous now. If you are willing to make a promise to allow them to work with peace of mind, I think, This will be more beneficial to our work.”
"Then there should be more Chinese in Hutchison? Should I also make a promise to them?" Chen Zhiwen said lightly: "I don't care whether the people under me are British or Chinese, as long as they work hard, as for the British I don’t deny the staff’s concerns, but I can tell you that my future plans for Hutchison are not just to make money in a small city like Hong Kong, but also in the huge overseas markets in the future, including Europe and the United States. In many countries and regions, I naturally need white people to do things, so as long as I have the ability, I will not specifically target them. '
Hutchison's current main assets are a large amount of land, properties and a large number of company stocks in Hong Kong. It has very little overseas business. The port in Indonesia also caused serious losses. In the future, Hutchison will definitely expand in Hong Kong and at least copy the old The path Li took was not difficult, but it was the same overseas. In addition to ports, Hutchison also had many other directions in his plan. These places were the territory of Westerners, and sending British people to do things was relatively better than Chinese people. Quite a few.
Therefore, even though the labor costs of British people within Hutchison are now far higher than those of Chinese people, Chen Zhiwen is not prepared to make a heavy move. Of course, if it is sold along with any business, that is another matter.
(End of chapter)
