The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 791 China's Rockefeller!!!
During his first meeting with Google's founders, Schmidt realized that Larry Page and Sergey Brin held views that differed from his own on various aspects.

This left Schmidt somewhat confused about whether their views were refreshingly insightful or simply naive.

Of course, both Larry and Sergei possess aggressive shrewdness, but Larry's arrogant rhetoric of "trying to change the world" and Sergei's disdain for competitors may create strategic blind spots, exposing the "Google battleship" to the firepower of emerging forces, including some that have not yet entered the "Google radar screen."

Perhaps only someone like Schmidt, who possesses both technical and managerial skills, could truly win over two extraordinary founders.

Schmidt astutely pointed out that Google's biggest challenge right now is not technology, but how to manage the company's growth.

"...Server overload, insufficient resources, and increasingly demanding customer requirements—Google's problems are actually management issues," Schmidt said when reporting the situation at Google to his superiors.

Of course, the troubles are obviously not limited to management; balancing business interests is a huge challenge.

Google receives 1 emails every week from businesses, all asking the same question:
What should they do to improve their company's ranking on Google's search engine? Is it possible to pay for a high ranking?

Schmidt made it clear that it wouldn't work, but he also admitted that maintaining a balance between technology and business was indeed very difficult.

Last year, Google earned approximately $100 million, with only one-third of the revenue coming from licensing fees and the remainder from advertising.

Google has now been profitable for six consecutive quarters, a rare miracle amidst the dot-com winter.

Google's three leaders, like three charioteers, have propelled the company forward rapidly and steadily with an enviable harmony.

Schmidt oversees the company's finances and business strategy, Larry focuses on research and development, and 30-year-old Serge is primarily responsible for formulating company policies and is the helmsman of Google's ethics standards.

Therefore, it also provides an opportunity to instill one's own worldview in Google's users.

Sergi's job requires him to confront many contradictions and controversies surrounding the internet.

In a media interview, Schmidt said that Google learned two lessons from its peers: first, not to go public too early, and second, to focus on its search business.

"Some internet search companies always try to do many things at the same time, and they almost forget their core business."

However, it is precisely because of their "dabbling" that Google has achieved its current success.

Although Google is a technology-driven company, it is undeniable that it was Schmidt from "Liu's Overseas Capital" who helped it transform from a relatively simple consumer search engine into a provider of various search services for businesses and one of the largest advertising platforms on the Internet.

In other words, it was Schmidt who discovered Google's commercial potential, making it eager to make money.

If someone says that Google is "God," then "Liu's Overseas Capital" and Schmidt are the ones who created "God."

Schmidt made Google what it is today, and he will surely make himself what he is today as well.

Of course, the challenges he faces are also enormous!
When Google founder Larry Page saw the "New Wolf" company surge in value against the market trend after "Kingwest Capital" made a strong investment, he was immediately intrigued.

Larry Page shared the idea with Sergibrin, and the two had a heated discussion at Larry Page's home.

Sergi frowned, tapping his fingers lightly on the table: "Introducing new capital can indeed dilute 'Liu's' equity, but won't it bring more uncontrollable factors?"
What we need is not just funds, but the resources that capital provides…

Larry Page wants to bring in another capital institution to counterbalance the major shareholder, "Liu's Overseas Capital".

While the investments from "Liu's overseas capital" have enabled Google to grow faster and faster, Schmidt has become increasingly powerful, and Larry Page is worried about losing control of Google.

However, Larry Page was unaware of the intricate connections between "Jingxi Capital" and "Liu's Overseas Capital".

In fact, "Jingxi Capital" is a financial capital group formed with the people of Liujiazhuang as its core, and its main members are still the entire Liu family.

As for "Liu's Overseas Capital" and "Liu's Financial Investment Group" in Yanjing, they are capital groups led by direct members of the Liu family, with a clear division of labor: one focuses on overseas markets, and the other focuses on domestic business.

On the surface, these are three independent capital groups, but in reality, they all come from the same source; it's just that outsiders can hardly see their internal connections.

This kind of family capital layout maintains the professionalism of the business while safeguarding the overall interests of the family, making it a model of modern family capital operation.

Larry Page's plan to bring in "Jingxi Capital" to counterbalance "Liu's Overseas" would be a laughing stock if Li Xun of the North American branch knew about it.

This is no wonder Larry Page was confused; who would have thought that two seemingly unrelated companies would have such a complex relationship?

This is where Liu Zhiye's brilliance lay; he knew the principle of not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Therefore, at Liu Zhiye's suggestion, the Liu family's capital, including that of Liu Family Village, was divided into three parts, each developing independently.

Larry Page stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the night view of Mountain View, his coffee long since cold.

He turned to Sergi and said, “Perhaps we could consider bringing in other types of investors, such as sovereign wealth funds or pension funds, so that we can get financial support without excessive interference in the company’s operations.”

Sergi nodded thoughtfully: "But we must ensure that the new investors align with Google's values."

Remember that tobacco company that wanted to invest in us last year? No matter how high their offer, we couldn't accept it.

Meanwhile, Schmidt was reviewing the quarterly financial report in his office.

He keenly noticed that Larry and Sergei had been meeting much more frequently in recent weeks, and that they were deliberately avoiding him.

His years of experience in the business world made him realize that the two founders might be brewing some kind of plan.

“It’s time to strengthen communication,” Schmidt decided to himself.

He picked up the phone to arrange a dinner for three.

He knew that Google's success was inseparable from the tacit cooperation of the three, and any potential rifts had to be repaired in time.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, at the Liu family's annual meeting, more than a dozen core members were discussing the family's global investment strategy.

“The development of this Google company has exceeded our expectations,” Liu Mingxuan, Liu Zhiye’s grand-nephew, reported, “but Larry Page seems to have some concerns about our shareholding ratio.”

Liu Shudong gently swirled his wine glass, a meaningful smile appearing on his face: "So what? Little Google can't cause any trouble..."

This is by no means Liu Shudong's arrogance, but rather stems from his confidence and assurance.

Under Liu Zhiye's "foresight," the Liu family has grown into a formidable business and financial giant through decades of meticulous management.

Its business empire spans across Asia, extending into multiple core sectors such as finance, real estate, and technology, making it a benchmark in the Asian business community.

Just as the Rothschild family dominates the European financial world and the Rockefeller and Morgan conglomerates are revered in the North American business world, the Liu family, with its strong capital and far-reaching influence, is rightfully recognized as the "Rothschilds of Asia."

To the average person, this "abyssal behemoth" lurking in the deep sea may be little known, but within the international financial world, this "jungle predator" that has risen to prominence in the last thirty years has long been feared by major financial groups. The power of this mysterious family is comparable to that of century-old financial groups such as Rockefeller and Morgan, and its tentacles extend throughout the Asia-Pacific region, controlling an astonishing wealth empire.

Even more shocking is that the real mastermind behind the San Hing Group, which the "Kimchi Nation" claims to be "indispensable to its citizens from birth to death," is not the Lee family, but the "Liu Family Overseas" conglomerate from Hong Kong.

This astonishing fact is little known because the Liu family was well-versed in the principle of "keeping a low profile and not using one's talents."

They cleverly concealed their actual control over the "Sanxing" Group through a multi-layered offshore company structure.

Whenever the Sanxing Group holds a shareholders' meeting, it is always Li Jianxi and other members of the Li family who stand on the stage, while the representatives of Liu's Overseas, who actually control 49.3% of the voting rights, keep a very low profile.

When it comes to legendary figures in the business world of South Korea, the name Li Jianxi is most closely associated with contradictions and legends.

He doesn't like to go out much, like a lone wolf, and his office has almost nothing personal except for documents; but he is also the kind of reformer who can stir up the economy of South Korea, and he has personally transformed Sanxing from a small company that relied on OEM manufacturing for others into a rising star in the global technology circle.

Lee Geon-seok was born into a merchant family in Daegu. When he was born, his father, Lee Bin-jeol, was busy expanding his business, and his mother was in poor health, so he was sent to his grandmother's house in Busan to be raised when he was just one month old.

As a child, Li Jianxi was practically a professional school transfer student, changing schools five times in six years of primary school.

Whenever he arrived at a new place, he would sit quietly in a corner, like a sapling that had to find its own soil to take root, and he didn't like to talk.

When Li Jianxi was 11 years old, his family sent him to study in Japan.

Being abroad, with a different language and culture, makes the feeling of loneliness even stronger.

At that time, the only thing that could help Li Jianxi relax was going to the cinema to watch movies.

Over three years, Li Jianxi watched more than 1200 films, from the grand scenes of Hollywood to the slow narratives of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu. The images flowing on the screen quietly cultivated his sensitivity to details.

What's even more interesting is that Li Jianxi is also obsessed with taking things apart—radios, cameras, etc. He can spend an entire afternoon taking them apart, feeling a sense of control as his fingers wander among the parts.

Later, when he was in charge of "Sanxing", he always said that any problem could be broken down into parts and then put back together. It turns out that he had this habit since then.

Li Jianxi graduated from Waseda University in Japan and went to work for his family's "Sanxing" company.

However, at that time, his father Li Binjie did not consider him to be the heir—his eldest brother Li Mengxi was steady, his second brother Li Xianxi was clever, and he was considered a quiet and reserved person who was not good at sweet-talking.

It wasn't until one year, when his second brother, Li Xianxi, was ousted from his position for embezzling public funds, and his eldest brother, Li Mengxi, was injured in an accident, that Li Jianxi was gradually pushed to the center of power in the family.

When Li Jianxi first took charge of Sanxing, he discovered a problem: the company had a wide range of businesses, including textiles, insurance, and manufacturing, but it sold cheap goods that were manufactured for others, and was often referred to as inferior products internationally.

One year, Li Jianxi took his team to America. In an electronics store in Los Angeles, he saw a Sanxing color TV thrown in a corner, its screen covered in dust.
Meanwhile, a crowd had gathered around the Sony Trinitron TV next door, eager to watch it.

Li Jianxi's heart skipped a beat: "So our stuff is so insignificant in other people's eyes?"

What's even more disheartening is that during a meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, a European customer bluntly said, "No, no, no, your Sanxing products are like a bunch of parts put together; they have no soul at all."

After returning to China, Li Jianxi, devastated by the blow, shouted a phrase in the company that would later change the fate of "Sanxing": "Everything must change except for my wife and children!"

Li Jianxi implemented a new business strategy, cutting unprofitable businesses such as textiles and insurance, and investing all the money in core areas such as electronics and semiconductors.

But reform is never that easy.

At the factory in Gumi, Lee Geon-seo smashed 150,000 newly produced Anycall phones in front of more than 2,000 employees. These phones were deemed unqualified because the buttons were loose, resulting in a loss of 50 billion won.

Li Jianxi roared, "If we can't even make a decent mobile phone, what makes us think we can be number one in the world?"

The workers below all had tears in their eyes.

This setback marked the beginning of Sanxing's quality reform.

The core of the new business is change, and Li Jianxi's methods are like scraping the bone to remove poison.

Li Jianxi implemented a 7 AM to 4 PM work schedule, allowing employees to leave an hour early each day to free up time for learning foreign languages, exercising, and even organizing meditation sessions—he believed that a healthy body and a clear mind were essential for creating good products.

In terms of management, Li Jianxi also implemented a "catfish effect": regardless of seniority, young people directly competed with veteran employees for projects, and those who lost were eliminated.

Once, a long-time employee who had worked there for ten years lost a project bid to a new employee who had just joined the company, and he cried on the spot.

Li Jianxi patted him on the shoulder and said, "Eliminating you is not a denial of your past, but a chance for newcomers and also a way to push yourself to improve."

In the early 1990s, Sanxing's R&D investment accounted for only 3.8% of its sales revenue. By the year 2000, it had risen to 8.5%, much higher than its peers.

Li Jianxi personally oversaw core technologies, and in the semiconductor field, "Sanxing" transformed from a follower to a leader.

In 1996, Sanxing surpassed IBM to become the world's largest DRAM manufacturer; last year, it made a comeback in the NAND flash memory market.

Nowadays, when people mention "Sanxing" company, the first thing that comes to mind for many is probably the company's mobile phone products.

However, what many people don't know is that mobile phones are just a tiny, insignificant part of the many industries that "Sanxing" operates in.

Samheung is actually a super conglomerate that monopolizes hundreds of industries in South Korea, controlling the economic pillars and a quarter of South Korea's GDP.

Just how big is the "Three Prosperities"?
There's a saying circulating in the "Kimchi Country".

A person born in a hospital invested in by Sanxing grew up eating milk powder developed by Sanxing, wearing clothes produced by Sanxing, and using electronic products of the Sanxing brand.

Later, through his efforts, he got a job at a company under the "Sanxing" group. After he retired and grew old, he returned to the hospital invested in by "Sanxing" and breathed his last.

This statement may seem like a nonsensical joke, but it is true.

This is how millions of people in "Kimchi Country" spend their lives. The "Samheung" Group has thousands of subsidiaries and covers an extremely wide range of fields.

From high-tech military industries to civilian products such as food, clothing, housing, and transportation, the presence of "Sanxing" can be seen in almost every sector.

It is no exaggeration to say that once you set foot on the territory of "Kimchi Country", you will be surrounded by "Samheung" enterprises.

It can be said that the Lee family of "Sanxing" is the supreme ruler of the "Kimchi Country" people, and the major shareholder of "Sanxing", "Liu's Overseas", is the supreme ruler of the supreme ruler.

The Liu family's overseas capital is not only very powerful in South Korea, but also in neighboring Japan, as well as in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Borneo, the Kuril Islands, Myanmar, and Thailand.

If Liu's overseas capital were to catch a cold, a level 12 "financial" typhoon would sweep through the aforementioned regions.

(End of this chapter)