1988: Back to the human world for a few years

Chapter 264 Chapter 260: Trap and Counter-trap
"Chief Yang, regarding the [Lotus Royal Cream Chinese Herbal Mask], [Guizhou Loblolly Cream] for acne removal, and [Scar Cream] for freckle removal that your company invited us to visit, we have personally tried them and have to say that the effects are very surprising... Sankyo Co., Ltd. is willing to enter into in-depth negotiations on cooperation on these three projects."

Suzuki Jiken looked at Yang Mo and Mu Liya sincerely, like a peace messenger who was willing to make concessions for the overall situation of the two countries, and took the lead in expressing his goodwill.

Miss Mu glanced calmly at Bao Shuxian and another employee in charge of the early reception who were sitting at the last seat, and found that both of them couldn't help showing their joy on their faces, so she sighed silently.

Sure enough, it was necessary for Yang Mo to order these potential backbones to participate in and observe the several rounds of negotiations during this period as mute persons.

You guys... are really too young!
As the largest pharmaceutical company in this island country inspection delegation, the drilling company led Sankyo Co., Ltd. to visit far more than just three projects. The reason why the other party chose these three projects with very strong market potential right from the start has nothing to do with sincerity. It’s all about the origin of the main authentic medicinal materials such as the secret medicine eggs, trichosanthes powder (Trichosanthes powder), and salvia miltiorrhiza in these three Chinese herbal beauty products, right?
And the most important thing is, other projects are fine, but the other party did not mention a word about the two high-end products, Deer Horn Facial Cream and Yingjie Whitening Cream. It is obvious that they want to control us!

You know, unlike Tsumura Co., Ltd., Sankyo Co., Ltd., which has been deeply involved in the drugstore channels of the island country for many years, has far greater advantages than the former in prescription drugs, scarce raw materials and high-end beauty and skin care products. In today's drugstore channels, perhaps mid-priced beauty products like Lianxiangsan have reached their limit, but for Sankyo Co., Ltd., as long as they are willing to mobilize the pharmacists in the drugstore channels, selling high-end products like Deer Horn Facial Cream is a piece of cake... You know, today's urban women in the island country have three wallets for them to spend for free. With the current consumption craze in their country, as long as there is an authoritative third party to help them overcome psychological barriers, those women will buy anything expensive!
Anyone with a little marketing experience knows that high-end products are used to build image, mid-end products are used to make profits, and low-end products are used to drive sales. It is a very bad thing to have only one price range of products for consumers to choose from. At least a combination of high-end, mid-end and low-end products can form a relatively complete product system that guides traffic, value and cost.
Although the effects of the three products that Sankyo Co., Ltd. showed great interest in are indeed not to be underestimated, in the commercial environment of the island country where there are a wide variety of goods, without high-end products to compete for the minds of consumers, no matter how good your results are, it will definitely be a half-dead situation.

So, don’t underestimate Suzuki Jiken’s few light-hearted words, there are huge traps in them!
This is also the most commonly used method by island companies. They are good at forbearance, and the most common thing they do is to lay traps in the medium and long term, and then seize the initiative unknowingly, and finally give you a severe blow.

Yang Mo could see the problem that Miss Mu could see, but unlike what Miss Mu thought, Yang Mo did not argue with her. Instead, he smiled and said, "Okay, forget about the Lotus Royal Cream. Since your company is interested, we can only talk about the two projects, the Trichosanthes Cream and the Scar Cream... It just so happens that these two products are more effective and targeted, which is quite in line with your company's actual situation."

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of Morita Joe and another minister changed, and Suzuki Jiken couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

What about the Lotus Royal Facial Cream?

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that although the two products, Trichosanthes powder cream and scar-removing cream, are more targeted and more suitable for pharmacy channels, in terms of commerciality, the market potential of the Chinese herbal mask, Lotus Jade Face Cream, which is more inclined towards the beauty category, is far beyond the reach of these two products.

After staring down for a while, Kenji Suzuki suddenly said, "Since your company is willing to take us to visit the production workshop of Lotus Jade Cream, it means that your company is willing to cooperate with our Sankyo Co., Ltd. on this project... Chief Yang, I want to know why you suddenly want to take this product out of the scope of this negotiation?"

At this point, Suzuki Jiken showed a hint of displeasure on his face: "Could it be that your company is actually more inclined to cooperate with Tsumura Corporation? In order to promote Sino-Japanese friendship, our Sankyo Corporation has just shown its sincerity right from the start... I'm afraid your company's attitude is a bit inappropriate, right?"

Seeing this bald old man constantly accusing him of something, Yang Mo laughed and said, "Senior Managing Director Suzuki has misunderstood. In fact, I took the initiative to remove the Lotus Jade Cream project from the scope of this negotiation because I saw your sincerity just now. In order to take care of your company's interests, I proposed this initiative."

"To protect the interests of our Sangong Corporation?"

Suzuki Jiken raised his eyebrows, looking puzzled.

Seeing this, Yang Mo looked at him meaningfully, and suddenly said something that Zhu Tianrang and others could not understand: "As far as I know, your country's Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. has made great achievements in Western medicine for various chronic diseases, and also has great ambitions in the field of Chinese medicine clinical medicine;"

"Although your company is strong, Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is also a large-scale old pharmaceutical company... This cooperation with your company is limited to these two projects with more focused functions and close to the nature of Kampo clinical drugs. I believe that it will not only save your company a lot of money, but also provide a more convincing case for your future expansion and growth, right?"

At this point, Yang Mo showed a sincere smile on his face: "We Chinese people have always been strict about respecting others. Your company has shown its sincerity openly and honestly from the beginning. For the sake of Sino-Japanese friendship, our drilling company cannot but consider your company more...right?"

If someone respects me one foot, I will respect him one yard?
Thinking of how the young section chief had pointed out before that they already knew about the contact between Sankyo Co., Ltd. and Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Suzuki Jiken's pupils could not help but shrink... It seems that the other party knows more about this secret matter than he thought!

"Hmm... Sino-Japanese friendship?"

"Haha, since Section Chief Yang considers us, Sankyo Co., Ltd., as a friend, then we can't treat our friends unfairly... How about this, we don't need to pick out the Lotus Jade Cream project, we can just pack up all the inspection projects including the Deer Horn Facial Cream and the Bright Whitening Cream, and include them together, and discuss them as a whole, what do you think, Section Chief Yang?"

Suzuki Jiken expressed his praise and appreciation for Yang Mo without hesitation, and then generously more than doubled the number of cooperative projects.

Hearing this guy emphasize the word "pack", unlike the two rookies beside him who were full of surprise, Yang Mo showed a slightly indifferent smile on his face: "Okay!"

………………

Although the people from Sankyo Corporation felt that the drilling company was completely different from the Chinese companies they had come into contact with before in the brief ten-minute contact, they were still shocked by the difficulty of the other party in the next half hour.

"Chief Yang, Chief Mu, in order to better utilize the value of these products, I suggest that, in addition to the Lotus Jade Cream, the rest of the products can be developed in the name of Sino-Japanese joint research and development. We jointly set up a new company to adapt them into Chinese herbal clinical drugs. We only need to obtain enough clinical samples in a short period of time, and these products can be successfully approved for production in our country and then enter the channels of major pharmacies."

Suzuki Cijian looked at Yang Mo very sincerely: "Please don't be scared by the words clinical trial. You may not know that our country is currently vigorously promoting Chinese herbal medicine. As long as the original formula is supported by ancient books, although we still have strict requirements on the number of clinical samples of the adapted drugs, we have no requirements on the time... Believe me, this set of processes will not take long, at most 7 months, these products will definitely get production and sales licenses."

Zhu Tianrang also chimed in: "Yes, Chief Yang, Chief Mu, since you two know our country so well, you should know that after so many years of strong support, the scientific and technological personnel of our island pharmaceutical companies have accounted for 60% of the total number of scientific and technological personnel in the country... As a top ten pharmaceutical company in the country, Sankyo Co., Ltd. ranks among the top three in scientific research investment. We are confident that under the premise of sincere cooperation between the two parties, we can produce dozens of batches of clinical drugs with reasonable toxicity within a month, and then quickly conduct clinical trials!"

Yang Mo smiled softly upon hearing this: "I appreciate your kindness. I think it's fine to set up a new company based on these projects. However, I don't think it's necessary to make them into Chinese herbal medicine clinical drugs... After all, these are all products related to medical beauty. I don't think it's appropriate to classify them as Chinese herbal medicine clinical drugs."

Suzuki Jiken frowned, looking puzzled: "Chief Yang, why are you unwilling to adapt these products into Kampo clinical medicines?"

"You should know that in order to support Kampo medicine, our country has included Kampo clinical medicines, including freshly decocted medicines and finished medicines, into the medical insurance system; over the years, the sales volume of Kampo medicines in our country has increased by 15% every year, and currently about 69% (later increased to 89%) of Japanese doctors will give priority to prescribing Kampo medicines to patients;"

"As long as it can pass the review and become a Kampo clinical drug, there are many benefits. Chief Yang should know what it means that more than half of the doctors give priority to prescribing Kampo medicine!"

Yang Mo, who had seen the future, of course knew what this meant. He just smiled and said, "Of course I know that your country's current total medical budget has exceeded 35 trillion yen (46 trillion in the future), and I also know that under the promotion of your country's famous [Six Laws of Social Welfare], there is a huge market space for adapting these products into Kampo clinical medicines."

Leaning back casually, Yang Mo said in the same light tone as before: "However, I still refuse to adapt these products into Kampo clinical medicines. At the same time, these medicines must appear in the form of self-branded finished medicines... This is the basis of this cooperation." Sensing Yang Mo's dominance and even making this condition a prerequisite, Suzuki Jiken frowned and said, "Chief Yang, can you tell me the reason?"

Yang Mo glanced at the surprised and dissatisfied rookie on the other side's tail seat, and then glanced at the calm little apprentice with a hint of doubt in his eyes. Then he turned around and looked at Suzuki Jiken with a half-smile: "Suzuki, if I remember correctly, although your country's Kampo medicine is based on our traditional Chinese medicine, there is a big difference in the preparation method, right?"

As he spoke, he picked up the teacup in front of him and scraped the lid: "Unlike the current Chinese medicine in our country, most of your country's Kampo medicines are in the form of granules, tablets, capsules, oral liquids, etc.;"

"Although this Western preparation method breaks away from the traditional Chinese medicine method of decocting and boiling, in order to maximize the retention of the efficacy of the medicine, the drug extraction process also uses warm immersion extraction, reduced pressure concentration, spray drying, vacuum freeze drying and other technologies and equipment, which can be regarded as an attempt to combine Chinese and Western medicine;"

"but……"

"In this case, facing this kind of large-scale production, unless we have the financial strength to build a corresponding drug preparation plant locally, or are willing to bear the risk of breach of contract, we can only share our secret recipe for raw material preparation with your company."

Taking a sip of the lukewarm tea, Yang Mo frowned in dissatisfaction: "But unfortunately, we said at the beginning that we admit that there is a huge gap in funding, modern technology, and even modern factory management experience between our country and yours;"

"In this kind of cooperation, the only thing we can rely on is the advantages of authentic medicinal raw materials and the secret recipes for preparation... So, does Executive Managing Director Suzuki think that we are likely to eliminate our greatest advantage for the sake of a few new products that have not yet been recognized by the market and an opportunity that can be big or small?"

Unless you build a finished medicine manufacturing plant in China, or actively breach the contract, you can only share the secret recipe with the other party?

An opportunity that could be big or small?

Bai Mengmeng, Bao Shuxian, and another team leader who was silently investing all had deep doubts in their eyes. No matter how stupid they were, after hearing Yang Mo's almost explicit words, they understood that there was a huge pit in Sankyo Co., Ltd.'s proposal just now. However, they had almost no knowledge of commercial projects, especially international cooperation commercial projects with the main market in other countries. Therefore, they racked their brains but could not figure out where the trap was set by Sankyo Co., Ltd.

In fact, let alone these rookies, even Miss Mu hadn't figured out exactly where the other party had set the trap... Although she vaguely sensed that it might be a trap such as "supply and marketing breach of contract" or "quality standardization", she couldn't say anything more specific.

These rookies may not be able to figure out what Yang Mo meant by this, but as the one who set the trap, how could Suzuki Jiken not know?
Giving Yang Mo a wary look, the old man with a Mediterranean hairstyle smiled and offered a solution that could be either advanced or retreated: "If your company is afraid of problems but doesn't want to breach the contract..."

"How about this? Under the framework of the new joint venture, we can set up a new medicinal materials company to be responsible for the planting, acquisition, preparation, and preliminary extraction of authentic medicinal materials, and eventually supply the extracted Chinese medicine concentrates to us?"

"In this way, you can continue to maintain your advantages in raw material production and medicinal material processing, and these projects can also appear in major pharmacy terminals in my country in the form of Chinese herbal prescription drugs."

Upon hearing this, Bao Shuxian and others immediately thought that this was a good idea and could be considered a huge concession made for their own benefit.

Yang Mo just stared at the cunning old man and did not speak immediately.

After five full seconds, when the atmosphere in the conference room had become a little awkward, Yang Mo shook his head gently and said, "Excuse me, Executive Director Suzuki, we can discuss in depth the proposal of establishing a new medicinal materials company within the framework of the new joint venture;"

"However, I cannot accept the direct export and supply of concentrated liquid products of traditional Chinese medicine to your company!"

"Senior Managing Director Suzuki should know what we want... Let me reiterate, no matter what form of cooperation we choose, if these products cannot be directly exported to your country in the form of finished drugs under our own brand, I think there is no need to continue the subsequent negotiations!"

After hearing Yang Mo's extremely strong answer, everyone was stunned, but they really couldn't understand why he would reject such a sincere plan... The party holding two trump cards at the negotiation table can seek greater benefits for itself through various means, but when the other party has shown enough sincerity, you still keep pressing step by step. Isn't it a bit too much?
Yang Mo glanced at the confused rookies next to him and snorted in his heart.

The importance of a modernized entire industrial chain to the pharmaceutical industry, especially traditional Chinese medicine, a "new cake" that has begun to receive sufficient attention internationally, is completely unknown to the Chinese people today.

Later generations of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company relied on an improved "Qingfei Soup" to achieve annual sales of up to $1 million; after the merger and reorganization, Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. relied on this second leg of Kampo medicine to become a global TOP20 pharmaceutical giant... This is the power of adaptation technology and secret recipes of Chinese herbal medicines;

In later generations, Qi and Lu, with the strength of the entire province, selected 110 varieties of Chinese medicinal materials. While the cultivated area was expanded to more than 380 million mu, the total output value was only more than 200 billion yuan, totaling more than billion US dollars... This is the drawback of not having international competitiveness and being dominated by low-end source industries.

You should know that 80% of the Chinese medicinal raw materials used in Japan and South Korea in later generations came from China, and among these raw materials exported by China, the concentrated liquid of this single product accounted for at least more than half.

In Yang Mo's opinion, this primary processing cooperation model, whose economic benefits are just slightly higher than your psychological bottom line, is even more harmful than the pure dry medicine trade... Both people and institutions are path-dependent and inert. This form of cooperation, which is just feeding porridge and keeping people alive, is simply obliterating the driving force for the upgrading of China's traditional Chinese medicine industry chain.

………………

Seeing that Yang Mo rejected his proposal so forcefully, even though he was a veteran, Suzuki Jiken's expression suddenly became ugly. However, thinking of the real purpose of this trip, he instantly adjusted his expression and put on a regretful but understanding smile.

"Well, for the sake of friendship between China and Japan, we at Sankyo are willing to make concessions;"

"Chief Yang, our Sangong Corporation has already shown enough sincerity. Next, regarding the establishment of a joint venture GAP medicinal material planting base in your province, you should also show at least some sincerity, right?"

Hearing the words "GAP medicinal material planting base", Yang Mo finally put away the carelessness that had been on his face for a long time, straightened his body slightly, and then showed a smile that met everyone's expectations: "Of course..."

(End of this chapter)