The next day, Chen Zhiwen came to Midea's headquarters in Prince's Building and told Lei Shengli that he was going to find a separate office space for Midea.
"Thank you, Chairman, for your concern. During this period, Midea's personnel growth rate has indeed been too fast." Lei Shengli said awkwardly. After entering 1976, the entire Midea business began to grow on a large scale, and the arcade market exploded. It is said that in Europe alone, orders for three to four thousand Snakes are received every month, and the Magic Cube, which has just entered the US market, has shown the potential to be even more popular than the Snakes.
In terms of household appliances, after several years of slow development, coupled with Chen Zhiwen's investment in retail terminals, this year's market has entered into preparations for an outbreak. Many supermarkets in Europe and the United States have placed orders for fans and some refrigerators from Midea.
Although the production of terminals is in the factory, as the export business increases, the number of people connecting with overseas countries will increase, and the number of people connecting with the factory will naturally increase. This has led to a serious shortage of staff at Midea's headquarters. Now there are people every night Many people work overtime, and although they are paid overtime, it still doesn't fit in with Chen Zhiwen's business style.
"Stop complaining about the trouble of developing too fast. It's too late for others to envy you." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "How are the sales of Midea music players in Hong Kong recently?"
Over the years, Midea's products have been mainly marketed in markets such as Europe and the United States. They have not been sold in Hong Kong or Southeast Asia, but they have been developed incidentally. Until the recently developed music player S-1, it was mainly marketed in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. and other areas.
"The sales are pretty good. In one week, more than 2,000 units were sold. Although it is not much money, it also shows that this S-1 music player is quite popular. In the future, it will open up sales in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. , it should be very marketable." Lei Shengli said.
"Well, you should pay more attention to this aspect, but more importantly, this player is too big and can only be placed on the table. What I need more is a player that can be placed in my pocket. Even worse, It can be put in a backpack and the sound can be extracted through the headphone cable." Chen Zhiwen picked up a small player next to him, his hands shook, and he said, "This thing weighs 3 pounds."
"Each one weighs 1.42 kilograms, which is not very heavy, but the space is indeed a bit large and not suitable for putting in a backpack." Lei Shengli said that if the thing is small enough, putting 1.5 kilograms in the bag is not a problem, but this This music player, which is mainly made of plastic and mainly hollow, is too big, with a length of 25 centimeters and a width of 10 centimeters. It looks like a fat man. It is too big to put in a backpack, and it will cause discomfort.
"As far as I know, Japan's Sony is also researching this type of player that can be put in your pocket. We are not talking about surpassing them, but it is best to have one, even if it appears later. This market is huge." Chen Zhiwen He nodded and said.
Before the emergence of MP3, the portable music player market was measured in tens of millions worldwide. Chen Zhiwen naturally did not want to let go of this market, but it was unrealistic to monopolize it. It would be nice to just get a piece of the pie. The market is created first. If you are able to develop MP3 first in the future, you can take advantage of this first-mover advantage and a complete sales channel to explode quickly.
And it's just a tape player. With the assembly cost in Hong Kong, it has a certain low-cost advantage over Japanese brands. In addition, it can be moved to the mainland in the future, which can further reduce costs. As far as Chen Zhiwen knows, Sony's Walkman uses For the high-end route, it is not a problem to take the mid-range route by yourself.
"Japan has mastered a lot of tape analyzer patents. If we want to get around it, it will take a long time, and miniaturization will be even harder." Lei Shengli said with a frown.
"There are also a lot of patents in this area in Europe, but because the labor costs in Europe are too high, they can't compete with Japan. But if we cooperate with Hong Kong's labor, there may be a chance to make a comeback." Chen Zhiwen said: "Go buy some European and American ones. These patents are actually useless in their hands. Then based on their research and development, we can build R&D centers in Hong Kong, Bay Area, or directly in Europe and the United States."
When technology patents cannot compete with Japanese giants, it is a better choice to cooperate with European and American companies. Even if there will be profit sharing in the future, it is better than not having this opportunity. After all, high-tech things, especially It is difficult for outsiders to surpass the technology that others have been studying for a long time.
In this industry, Chen Zhiwen is not absolutely sure that he can develop technology in this area.
Except for some computer-related products, games, etc., he is not absolutely sure that any electrical appliance will be successful, but many times, he has to give it a try. After all, the Japanese electronics giant does not know what products will be best-selling in the future or what technology It is practical, so it is a wide-spread type of research and development. The investment in research and development is very high, and he knows what to research. This alone can save perhaps dozens of times the money.
If under such circumstances, we do not invest in special research and development, we might as well just forget about real estate speculation forever. Real estate speculation will be more profitable in the short term.
"Okay, let me try to communicate with Philips first." Lei Shengli nodded and said. As the person in charge of Midea, he actually knew very well that Midea's R&D capabilities were actually far behind those of foreign companies. Even if It is also difficult to open a branch in the United States.
The reason why we are able to achieve our current results is actually due to our success in the gaming field, but games are creative, and although they make money, they are not technology. As for home appliances, they actually mainly rely on the long-term investment of their bosses in retail terminals. Otherwise, a company would It is almost impossible for Hong Kong electrical appliance brands to enter Wal-Mart. Not to mention there are so many supermarkets behind.
"Are you sure? Can Philips cooperate with us?" Chen Zhiwen asked rhetorically. Philips has been a well-known large company since almost a hundred years ago. It invented the extremely long-life light bulb as early as 1900. However, due to special reasons, no big company Just launch it into the market on a large scale.
In recent years, Philips has achieved a successful position in many civilian and office fields. If there are Fortune 500 companies now, Philips will definitely be one of them.
"I have a certain degree of certainty. Although Philips' tape conversion technology is no worse than Japan's in terms of performance, because there is no market, if it continues like this, it will have no choice but to be eliminated." Lei Shengli said with a smile.
"Well, okay, then let's cooperate and continue to deepen research and development. Hong Kong will strive to have its own technology as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
The most appropriate research method is to sell the product while the funds are returned and used for research and development. Otherwise, technology without a market is just rootless.
No matter what, first find a way to gain market share. Even if you lose money, even if the core technology suppliers make most of the profits, as long as a closed market loop is formed, you can slowly research it, and one day you will obtain relevant technologies.
This is the model for later generations of mainland home appliances, such as air conditioners. In the 1990s, the air conditioner compressors of several major domestic air conditioning companies were imported. Most of the initial profits were obtained by overseas suppliers, but as the market was controlled, Several companies began to develop their own technologies and eventually made breakthroughs, and then swept the Japanese electrical appliance companies that had been making money into the long river of history.
First in the market, after seizing the terminal market, you will have the ability to reversely develop technology. In the entire history of human business, only a few industries such as the chip industry and automobile gearboxes + engines will have the largest suppliers. In others, Basically, whoever has the market is the boss. Even if it may be stuck for a while, there will always be a day when it can break through.
Of course, the prerequisite for achieving this is that there is enough research and development spirit, and there is no shortage of beauty. The first thing we need to do now is to find a way to gain market share and invest in the American retail industry. This is the purpose. In the future, when funds are abundant, it can still be Focus your investment on the European retail market. Anyway, several European supermarket giants are still in their childhood, so there are always opportunities.
(End of chapter)
