Return to 1958 and build a century-old giant

Chapter 798 The First Glory Computer

Wei Zetao replied: "Currently, it's in Malaysia. There are too many competitors in this industry, and the overall market isn't very large, so in my report just now, I didn't list it separately, but rather included it in the first business."

In Malaysia, this business could create more than 4000 jobs, but labor costs there are also rising. It would be much more convenient for us to outsource production to inland China.

“That makes sense, but there probably isn’t such an industry in China, right?” Yang Wendong asked.

Wei Zetao said: "Yes, there are sticky mouse traps in China. After all, it was invented 20 years ago, and the patent has expired in many places. Anyone can copy it by hand, but it is a little difficult to do it on a large scale."
For many years, China has also been plagued by rats. People who have seen rat traps in Hong Kong will naturally want to produce them domestically as well.

"So you mean to purchase directly from domestic suppliers?" Yang Wendong asked.

Wei Zetao said, "That's right, it wouldn't make much sense for us to participate in this production ourselves."

“Alright, then you should contact China Resources and see if there are any domestic companies willing to do it,” Yang Wendong nodded.

Actually, this is because sticky mouse traps were the starting point of Yang Wendong's career, so he has continued to do it. Otherwise, this kind of peripheral business would have been highly competitive and could have been canceled or outsourced long ago.

These days, outsourcing production to the mainland would be a good option.

After the meeting, Yang Wendong also hosted a lunch for all the company's senior executives at the restaurant inside the Kang Le Building.
Around 1 p.m., Yang Wendong arrived at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong and met his subordinates in the luxurious inpatient ward.

"Old Zou, how are you feeling?" Yang Wendong asked with a smile, and his men placed the flowers and milk in their proper places.

Lying on the bed, Zou Wenhuai laughed and said, "It's nothing, just a minor ailment, a little dizziness."

"High blood pressure is no minor issue; it can cause serious problems if something goes wrong. Luckily, you only feel dizzy," Yang Wendong said after sitting down.
Before I got pregnant, I went to the doctor because of dizziness and was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I was then hospitalized for treatment. Fortunately, it wasn't very high, but it still needed to be taken seriously.

“I’ll be careful,” Wrinkle replied. “I’m sorry I can’t attend the company meeting.”

“It’s alright, I already know the film company’s performance,” Yang Wendong said. “You know that what I value most is not its current earning power, but its future potential.”

With its own cinema chain, Changxing Film Company's net profit last year exceeded HK$5000 million.
This number is really not much. After all, there are so many cinema chains and their own films, and they also monopolize the distribution of other films in Hong Kong. Even if it were three or four times more, it would be normal.

The reason it's so low is because the profits have been reinvested in cinema expansion.

“I understand,” Zou Wenhuai said. “It’s just that global interest rates are high right now, and our loan repayment pressure is increasing. This will affect us in the future.”

Yang Wendong laughed and said, "It's alright. The interest rate doesn't just affect our family. You can continue with the current model. If you need more funds, just let me know, and I will continue to support you."

Southeast Asia's economy is developing rapidly, but it is still far from its peak. In the early years, Changxing Film Company's cinemas had already opened in many first-tier cities. Now it is going to start conquering second- and third-tier cities, which requires sufficient funds.

The economic crisis in Europe and the United States triggered by the oil crisis led to interest rate hikes in order to suppress inflation. This also affected the world, including Hong Kong, Asia, and even mainland China, which has not yet opened up to the outside world.

“Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Yang,” Zou Wenhuai replied.

Yang Wendong said, "Okay, you should rest well. We can discuss the details after you've recovered."

Zou Wenhuai said, "No problem."

"Mm." Yang Wendong nodded.
After a while, Yang Wendong left with his men. Once in the car, Yang Wendong asked, "Aying, there's an important plan for the group to cultivate the next generation of successors. Old Wei and the others are all getting on in years."

I am indeed still very young, only in my thirties, and for a business leader, I am still a rising star;

But those who worked for me more than ten years ago were basically in their thirties or forties back then, which is the golden age for senior employees. Today, more than ten years later, although these people are not old, we need to consider replacing them with fresh blood. After all, taking over such a large company would be a complicated matter.

Moreover, there is a difference between a high-level employee and a boss. In my previous life, the world's most famous CEOs usually retired around the age of sixty, while bosses retired much later on average. For example, Li Ka-shing, Buffett, and Soros were still working normally in their eighties.

Ah Ying said, "I understand. The group has also been considering this, including our head office, which has already started promoting young people."

"Yes, we should prioritize finding suitable talent internally, and only resort to external candidates if necessary," Yang Wendong said. "Once we have a few suitable candidates, we can assign them certain positions and responsibilities and see how they perform."

For large corporations, the most important thing is to change the management team; many conglomerates have declined because they failed to do this well.
Fortunately, I still have plenty of time. No matter who comes to power in the future, as long as I can control the strategic direction, there shouldn't be any major problems.

The more serious factor is actually the cultivation of successors within one's own family. This is as important as the change of emperors in ancient times. However, this is something that will happen decades from now, so there is no rush. Even the current generation can still be used for nearly ten years. It's just that we need to be prepared for everything.

Ah Ying agreed, "Okay, I'll go and make the arrangements right away."

Yang Wendong nodded.
There is an old saying that conquering a country is easy, but ruling it is difficult. For Changxing Group today, apart from a few companies such as the electronics industry and Red Bull, other subsidiaries need to consider how to stabilize their huge assets while gradually expanding their scale.

Of course, the future reform and opening up will also bring a huge mainland market, which is beyond the expectations of most people. Apart from Yang Wendong, the time traveler, even the mainland's top leaders could not have foreseen how terrifying the potential of the mainland would be after the reform and opening up. The Spring Festival of 78 passed quickly.

TVB prepared a special Spring Festival Gala for Hong Kong citizens, and also held telephone lucky draws, New Year song requests and other programs, which made Hong Kong people celebrate the Spring Festival happily.

Following the Lunar New Year, Hong Kong's economy remained strong, with both the property market and stock market steadily rising, resulting in returns for countless investors and further boosting economic growth.

The three real estate giants, Cheung Hing Properties, Hutchison Whampoa, and Wharf Holdings, are operating their businesses in the Hong Kong market according to their own plans, while also gradually expanding into overseas markets.

Yang Wendong has largely delegated authority over this part of the business; he is only responsible for large investments, while his subordinates can make decisions on small and medium-sized investments themselves.

The same applies to other businesses such as shipping, movies, and supermarkets. Traditional businesses, once they reach a certain scale, can operate in a normal mode. His help as a time traveler is not significant, unless it involves strategic decisions, such as avoiding countries that may become politically unstable in the future.

The businesses he is currently focusing on are Red Bull and the entire Honor Electronics business.

Red Bull continues to spend heavily on advertising in Europe and the United States, with an advertising budget of over $5000 million this year. This amount is almost 20% of Coca-Cola's annual profit. Even Coca-Cola would probably find it difficult to make such a decision to spend so much money in this area, given the uncertainty of its future value.
The goal was to maintain the number one position during the expansion of sports drinks, while also using extensive advertising to open up new markets and gradually get non-athletes to accept the idea that drinking Red Bull could boost energy or restore physical strength.

Once this concept is formed, Red Bull's position will be secure, and even if there are still competitors in the future, they will not threaten its position.
The electronics industry will be the strongest engine of global economic development in the coming decades, and even the future automotive industry can be considered half of the electronics industry.

The root cause of all this was the personal computer;

Since Steve Jobs launched the personal computer and IBM followed suit, most electronics companies around the world have begun to enter this field, which is a huge market full of imagination.

Yang Wendong was naturally not willing to fall behind. Even though he invested in Apple, he would not give up on the industry. Moreover, Apple might undergo dramatic changes in the next few years, thus falling from its throne.

In the Asian market, there is also a lack of a computer giant. Japan's future performance in this area is not promising. It wasn't until after 00 that the domestic computer industry gradually rose to prominence. Otherwise, the global personal computer market would have been basically controlled by American companies.

On March 3, Yang Wendong arrived at a building in North Point;

Upon seeing the familiar computer in front of him, he remarked with some emotion, "This is Glory Electronics' first personal computer?"

Wang Zhiqun said, "Yes, we plan to name this computer the Glory V1 model, so that it will be easier for customers to remember."

"Show it to me," Yang Wendong said.

An engineer nearby immediately stepped forward and said, "Okay, Mr. Yang, please look here."

Yang Wendong watched the engineer operate the computer. Personal computers in this era did not have graphical systems, meaning that commands had to be entered to execute them. Therefore, those who could operate computers all had some IT knowledge.
However, it's not a big problem in the short term, because these were the people who bought computers in the early days.

Even the emergence of graphical user interface operating systems was a necessity because the computer market gradually entered the scope of ordinary people's needs;

Yang Wendong has no ideas for the operating system for the time being. First, Hong Kong's technology is not good enough; there simply aren't enough talented people. Even if it were developed, subsequent iterations and updates would not be able to keep up with the number of IT talents in Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, and the United States. That gap would be hundreds or thousands of times.
Secondly, even if it's technically feasible, an operating system cannot succeed without sufficient national backing. This is a political decision. In the past, the US almost completely controlled the global IT software and internet, mainly for this reason. Europe and Japan also had talented people; Japan almost developed an operating system, but that person suddenly died unexpectedly.
Only because Southeast University initially closed off the internet could BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) and ByteDance (ByteDance) have risen to prominence.
So in the future, it's best to invest in Microsoft when the opportunity arises. Trying to do it on your own will only lead to suppression, which could also affect other industries. Besides, we don't have the technical reserves to do it anyway.
After more than ten minutes, once the operation was finished, Yang Wendong thought for a moment and asked, "How does it compare to current computers in the United States?"

"It's still a bit lacking; it's not quite as good as HP and Apple's. However, our pricing will be lower than theirs," Wang Zhiqun said. "In the future, after we establish a computer research center in the United States, if we can develop a similar computer, we can switch to a different model series and set the same price."

“Okay, Apple and IBM are considered high-end, so we'll just position ourselves in the mid-range for now,” Yang Wendong nodded and said.
Technically, Hong Kong is indeed no match for IBM and Apple, which attracts countless tech elites.
However, the positioning of computers is not important now, because we are only in the early stages of personal computers. Today's Apple and IBM will all be out of business in the future, so the future will be very different. We don't need to consider brand pricing positioning many years from now.

“Yes, the V1 computer is currently being tested, not only in Hong Kong but also in the United States,” Wang Zhiqun continued. “Once it passes the tests, it can be sold directly in the United States. Best Buy is already preparing to set up a counter there.”

"Haha, that's our biggest advantage. Otherwise, just having a distribution channel would be a headache," Yang Wendong said with a smile.

Without Best Buy, it would have been extremely difficult for him to manufacture a computer in Hong Kong and get it into the US sales channels.
The more valuable the item, the harder it is to invest in distribution channels;
For example, if a supermarket in mainland China heard that an African brand of home appliances wanted to enter its store, it would be impossible. No matter what the quality was like, even if it was really the same as Midea, Haier and Gree, who would certify it for you?

Furthermore, after-sales service is extremely difficult.

Fortunately, I invested heavily in Best Buy in the early days, which enabled my electronic products to easily enter the US market today.

Wang Zhiqun said, "Yes, with Best Buy, as long as our product quality isn't too bad, we can basically enter the US market smoothly."

Yang Wendong said, "Yes, Best Buy can only lay the foundation. Whether we can succeed depends on the quality of our own products."

If the quality is too poor and problems arise, even if Best Buy expands tenfold, it won't be able to solve the problem.

Sales channels are only the first step to success. The more complex the product, the more it depends on the quality itself, unlike daily necessities, which are really determined by the distribution channels, since their structure is relatively simple.

"Understood." Wang Zhiqun added, "By the way, Mr. Yang, the Wubi input method is almost finished."

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)