Technology in the computer field may be updated and iterated. Technologies or products that were once popular may be subverted overnight. The portal Yahoo, which once dominated the entire Internet traffic, was replaced by the Google search engine.
But there are also some that are difficult to replace, such as data management systems specifically for enterprise operations. This is not a high-tech or high-R&D project, but the accumulation of a large amount of data and experience, and then slowly optimizing the software to provide customers with the best The most convenient and worry-free service.
The biggest competitive advantage in this industry is not high technology, but rich experience and brand awareness. And the best thing is that this kind of software will generally not be greatly interfered by ZZ, as long as it does not involve national defense, military, finance and other special issues. In this situation, normal supermarkets, warehouses, and factories are completely dominated by the market economy.
Chen Zhiwen is also very interested in this field. Although his prophetic golden finger is not very useful in this aspect, if Yimei wants to develop in the long term, it cannot always rely on his prophetic ability to develop in the technical field. is the kingly way, and relatively speaking, database research and development requires more funds.
While the major giants have not paid attention to this area, ordinary people with vision such as Larry Ellison are limited by funds. Even if they can get venture capital, how much can they get?
If Midea can take the lead in developing a management system suitable for ordinary enterprises, and then use patents to block other latecomers, it can really charge in this field.
"By the way, Woz, you should have a lot of savings in the past two years, right? Why haven't you invested in Apple?" Chen Zhiwen suddenly thought of a question. Woz's annual income is generally close to 200,000 US dollars, although it is not enough for the development of Apple. , but there was no problem in the early stage.
"I only have tens of thousands of dollars in cash in hand. I have spent a lot of money testing computers before. We bought a lot of tools, chips and various electronic products." Woz replied.
"This shouldn't cost that much, right?" Chen Zhiwen asked curiously, "Did you spend a lot on this house?"
"This house cost one hundred thousand dollars, and for the rest, I have paid off my college tuition loan!" Woz seemed to be in a good mood and said: "I am still very happy to be able to pay off my college loan!"
"College loans, no wonder!" Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
It is said that domestic housing prices will be the biggest obstacle for everyone in their lifetime, but the same is true in the United States, except that it is not housing, but medical care and college tuition.
Medical care in the United States has never been free, but extremely expensive. An ambulance call costs a few hundred dollars, and a trip to the hospital to treat a common disease often costs thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. If you don’t buy relevant insurance, a trip to the hospital can cost a person Middle-class families were devastated. Insurance actually belongs to the same interest group as medical care. If you don't buy insurance, you'll be dead once you get sick. But if you buy insurance, you need to invest at least a dozen points of your monthly salary in it, unless the company has high benefits and will cover a larger proportion. of medical insurance.
Later generations of President O'Hei wanted to break this century-old insurance and medical monopoly, but their efforts for eight years were in vain.
College tuition is also a sharp sword hanging over the average middle-class family in the United States. Many families start saving money when their children are just born, and it takes more than ten years to save money. However, most families are unable to do so, especially when their children are born. If some children from ordinary families go to prestigious universities, the tuition fees are so high that even selling them is not enough.
Therefore, banks naturally launched student loans to provide these talented students with high tuition fees and high interest rates. As a result, many students from prestigious universities are still repaying their loans more than ten or twenty years after graduation. The same is true President Ohei, who became a lawyer after graduation, is considered a high-income group, and he has also paid off his student loans for more than ten years.
Woz said with some embarrassment: "I was not ready to buy a house and pay off the student loan in such a hurry, but my parents convinced me and I felt that it was useless to have so much cash in my hand, so I did it. Later, Jobs found I was planning to start a computer business, but I realized that I only had so much money. I originally planned to invest in it after receiving my bonus in a few months, but now that BOSS has invested in it, I don’t need it anymore.”
"So that's it!" Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
In the original history, Jobs and Woz had no funds. Later, Jobs went to Atari's boss. After being humiliated, he found a more successful senior from the same university and got investment.
In this life, Chen Zhiwen was worried that he had given Woz a lot of salary, which might change Apple's early stage. Because of this, he had already arranged for private detectives to keep an eye on Jobs, and then stepped forward to invest in Apple at the appropriate time. , otherwise, after a few more months, Woz has money, and if Apple Computer is built and gets a lot of orders, then he may not have anything to do. Even if he can still invest in shares, the difficulty will be related to the proportion of equity obtained. It will be much different.
Chen Zhiwen continued: "Then let's do this for today. After Jobs registers the company in two days, I will arrange for a lawyer to sign the contract."
"Okay, then Apple's management, why don't you invite someone from Midea?" Woz asked. Jobs was just here, so it was not convenient for him to speak.
"No, Midea doesn't have IT management talents with a lot of connections in the United States. You can only rely on yourselves in this area. And the most important thing for you now is to make the product first. With the right product, you can be more attractive." High-end management talents." Chen Zhiwen said with a chuckle.
Regarding the future development of Apple, he actually doesn't want to interfere too much, because what Apple is doing now will have a great impact on the future. It would be bad if it had too much impact due to his interference.
The best thing is to just invest, guide the direction, and provide various terminal sales channels, develop Apple as soon as possible, and then send it to Nasdaq.
"Suddenly, I'm so used to it. The inside of Midea. Basically, you were responsible for everything, BOSS. I only need to be responsible for the technology. Now it seems that I have to rely on myself." Woz said with a frown.
"This is the real test. You have to control the market by yourself. Even if you are a pure technician, you have to consider whether users can accept it. However, Steve Jobs is very capable in this area, so you can just work on technology with peace of mind." Chen Zhiwen He smiled and said that the test of many civilian software and games is never technology, but the research of the user market. In this regard, Jobs is naturally the best among people.
"Boss, are you so optimistic about Steve Jobs?" Woz asked curiously. He had never seen anyone so convinced by Chen Zhiwen.
"You will know later." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
It’s true that Jobs didn’t know much about technology, but his sensitivity to the market was really terrifying. Even a few years later in the original history, he insisted on a Mactonich computer that almost bankrupted Apple. The reason why there was no market was that Because many settings of this computer are too advanced.
…
Apple's investment was as expected. With the help of his lawyer Ron, Jobs quickly completed the registration of Apple. The three parties' shares were 33.3% respectively. Chen Zhiwen also quickly injected $500,000.
Everything else is left to Jobs. With sufficient funds, even if history changes, it should not affect Apple's success, and there is a high probability that it will be earlier and more successful.
Chen Zhiwen is naturally very happy to have obtained one-third of the shares of Apple in the future. Although it will still be diluted before going public, no matter how diluted this order of magnitude is, the future income will be in billions of dollars. Besides, as a big capital, he Fang, you can also increase appropriate investment, it doesn't need to be too much. As long as it does not affect the management rights of Jobs and others, the problem should not be big.
…
Perhaps it is good news that Midea's electrical appliance business unit in the United States also received good news. After a year of testing last year, the two largest retail groups in the United States: Kmart Supermarket and Sears Department Store approved Midea fans. quality and are willing to introduce larger quantities next year.
After Lei Shengli, who was far away in Hong Kong, learned the news, he immediately flew to the United States.
"Sheng Chen, I'm afraid we can't do the Sears department store business." Lei Shengli frowned and said after seeing Sears' requirements on the document in his hand.
"Sears is a department store market. We need to invest a lot of manpower and money to open a store, and we also need deposits and even rent. You should also know this. Why did you arrange to try Sears in the first place?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"I didn't expect that it would be so easy to pass the inspection of Sears, and they would invite us to open so many of their branches at once." Lei Shengli said with some embarrassment.
"There is still a certain market in the department store market. Sears' coverage is no less than Kmart. It would be a pity to give up. Why don't we discuss it with Sears and see if we can find a brand without fans? Specialty store consignment." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.
The department store market was once the most popular business model in the world. That is, the owners of the department store market provide the land and then allow various brands to come and open their businesses. Some use leasing methods, some use point-based commission methods, and the leasing model is General brands, well-known brands in the industry, generally adopt a commission model. With this kind of business model, all risks are not in the hands of the owners. The owners only need to make appropriate investments to stabilize the flow of people, and then they can make money.
But in any business, the risks are certain, and the demand for funds is also certain. When the owners of the department store market do not need to bear this risk, the ones who bear the risk are the merchants and the brands behind them.
Subsequently, the emergence of supermarkets actually means taking all kinds of risks. They first buy the goods and then sell them themselves. In this way, the merchants have no risk and the supermarkets bear it. But because of taking the risks, the profits are naturally higher. Coupled with the low-cost advantage of unified purchasing and a more reasonable layout, it is naturally more attractive than the department store market.
This is also the reason why the department store market was eventually eliminated. It was too unfriendly to merchants. Merchants of various products naturally chose supermarkets as their terminals with their eyes closed.
Of course, many supermarkets will also squeeze their suppliers as they become bigger, but this is another story.
Now to open a large-scale store in a Sears department store, you have to invest a huge amount of money. A few small fans may also require the rent of a small area and a labor force. That is not cost-effective. Although Midea currently has funds Things have improved, but there is still too much to spend. The research and development of new technologies alone is a bottomless pit.
"That's okay, anyway, our goal is to open up the market." Lei Shengli nodded and said.
PS: Let me ask a question, don’t we all like to spend too much time writing about the United States? If so, I will change it in the future.
The main reason is that I am not sure whether I should write in detail or just write quickly. But today I suddenly feel that I have spent too much ink on the United States, which is not good.
(End of chapter)
