Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 319 Already a Giant

As the year draws to a close, Masato Takeshita's desk is filled with financial reports from major companies.

The first company he looked at was Xinghai Life.

"Revenue of $82.5 billion, profit of $11.4 billion. Not bad. After acquiring so many companies last year, they still made more than $10 billion in profit."

Xinghai Life has a total of 4 subsidiaries.

The leader Matsumoto Manufacturing had annual revenue of over US$31.6 billion and profit of US$13.7 billion.

With the recession of the Japanese economy, the top brand Fuya is becoming increasingly difficult to sell, and the sales of the mid-range brand Shuying are also declining.

Only the low-end products are exquisite and the sales volume is increasing.

Of course, the low-end trolley suitcases manufactured by Matsumoto are also considered high-end products in the outside world. The factory price is US$30, which can be considered a luxury in developing countries.

As for the luggage factory jointly established by Matsumoto Manufacturing and Modou, in addition to manufacturing Linglong suitcases for Matsumoto, it will also produce lower-end trolley-type suitcases.

The average factory prices are US$5, US$10, US$15 and US$20.

In this way, Matsumoto Manufacturing has achieved full price coverage of suitcases, and annual sales have soared to 4500 million.

However, although the sales volume of suitcases increased, the profit decreased significantly.

There is no way. The mid-to-high-end market is sluggish, and most of the products are low-end products that are not very profitable.

If it weren't for the patent fees, the profits would probably be even lower.

"I didn't expect Xinghai Food to suffer such a huge loss. I hope there will be a good result next year."

The performance of Xinghai Food, the second subsidiary of Xinghai Life, was not very good last year.

With revenue of less than $10 billion, the company suffered losses of more than $2.2 million.

But this is normal. Last year, Pocari Sweat built factories all over the world and advertised a lot, so the losses were naturally serious.

Xinghai Clothing, which had revenues of $15 billion, made a small profit, but the amount was small, less than $5000 million.

Because Xinghai Clothing bought a lot of shops in popular neighborhoods, the profits were basically consumed.

The last company, Xinghai Real Estate, has annual sales of more than US$25 billion.

But those who understand the real estate industry will understand it.

Japan is now in a downward cycle, and China has not yet started, so it is also suffering losses.

However, companies will be more cautious in a downward cycle, so the loss was not much, probably tens of millions of US dollars.

After quickly writing down the important records about life in Xinghai in his notebook, Masato Takeshita took a short break, drank a cup of tea, and then opened the year-end data of Xinghai Technology.

Xinghai Technology is the largest, with revenue of 176 billion and profit of 17 billion US dollars.

Xinghai Electronics is the main subsidiary. Its Xinghai mobile phone-related industries had an annual revenue of 63 billion US dollars, which is almost half of Motorola, the current king of the mobile phone field.

The profit was $9 million, about two-thirds of Motorola's mobile phone division.

Another business, Xinghai Computer, is still in a dormant state, basically only supplying Xinghai Internet cafes, as well as China and Southeast Asian countries, with annual revenue of less than US$3 million.

The second important subsidiary, Xinghai Chip, achieved huge profits for the first time by relying on orders from its sister company Xinghai Electronics and Xinghai Telecom, which are of the same level as its parent company Xinghai Technology.

The annual revenue was US$23.6 billion and the net profit was as high as US$4.1 million.

It can be regarded as the song of the liberated serfs.

As for Xinghai Wafer, which is responsible for semiconductor wafer foundry, it is still in a stage where its income is not enough to cover its expenses.

Although the company's revenue exceeded US$30.4 billion and its gross profit was 15.1 billion, close to half of that, it ultimately suffered a loss of US$18 billion after accounting.

There is no way, wafer foundry is an industry that requires heavy investment.

An 8-inch wafer factory requires an investment of more than one billion or even more than two billion US dollars.

The little money that Xinghai Wafer earns is not enough to fill the hole created by building the wafer factory.

Of course, Xinghai Wafer can also learn from TSMC’s strategy and build a new wafer factory after saving enough money.

But there is really no need for that. Xinghai Wafer is backed by Xinghai Group and has sufficient funds for development. Naturally, it needs to seize more market share as soon as possible.

You should know that excluding the internal foundry of Xinghai Group, the global wafer foundry industry was worth 30 billion US dollars last year and is expanding rapidly every year.

As the leading company, Xinghai Wafer occupies 50% of the market share.

The second is TSMC. Although its technical strength is not as good as Xinghai Wafer, it has successfully won 30% of the market share thanks to Taiwan's lower labor costs and the support of the United States for Taiwan's semiconductor industry.

If Xinghai Wafer stays where it is, it will sooner or later be surpassed by TSMC, which is more popular in the United States.

He wants to continue to put pressure on TSMC by building more wafer fabs.

30% is still too dangerous and must be compressed to below 20%.

Similar to Foxconn in later generations, Xinghai Production, which is responsible for assembling mobile phones and computers, had good revenue and profits last year.

Sales revenue was US$36 billion and net profit was US$1.9 million.

A net profit of more than 5% is already a super high profit for the OEM industry.

And this is because the foundries are mainly in Japan.

If it were China, the net profit margin would probably be 10% or even 20%.

It is no wonder that after the devaluation of the RMB next year, multinational corporations will invest in China like crazy.

Anyone can make such an outrageous profit from a simple OEM factory.

Of course, as more OEM factories enter China, profit margins will continue to decline and eventually return to normal levels.

But at that time, people around the world will be able to enjoy the benefits brought by Chinese workers, and various products will be much cheaper.

The most typical examples are mobile phones and computers. Without the hard work of Chinese workers, they would still be expensive luxury goods.

As for Xinghai Hardware, which produces miscellaneous equipment such as mice, keyboards, and motherboards, its revenue and profits are also very good.

The company generated a net profit of more than $4.2 million on annual revenue of $1.4 million.

This is mainly due to the rapid development of the computer industry and the boost to motherboards from Street Fighter 2.

However, profits will drop significantly next year.

Because Masato Takeshita recently temporarily assigned the LCD display business to Xinghai Hardware. At that time, a large amount of R&D expenses would be invested, but it would be difficult to recover the costs in a short period of time.

The last project, Xinghai Rescue, is the subsidiary with the highest profit margin of Xinghai Technology.

With revenue of less than $10 billion, it has a net profit of more than $4 million.

All I can say is that the disaster relief business is really profitable.

There is a lot of information on Xinghai Technology, and Masato Takeshita spent almost the entire morning reading it.

He stretched and checked the time on his computer.

"Hey, it's already past 1 o'clock. Time flies."

Then, as if he remembered something, his expression changed.

"Oops, I guess Sakai-san didn't get to eat lunch either."

As Masato Takeshita's secretary, she naturally couldn't go out to eat alone when the president was busy with work.

Wouldn't it be terrible if there was suddenly an urgent matter that required the secretary's assistance?

He quickly stood up and strode to the president's secretary's office next door.

"Sorry, I was so engrossed in watching it that I delayed your lunch."

"It's okay, I'm not that hungry." Takeshita Masato waved his hand, "No need to be polite, let's go to the cafeteria and order something."

He used to be a corporate slave, and there was a time when he had to go hungry during a lunch meeting because his boss suddenly went crazy.

That feeling is really unpleasant.

"okay."

In order to stay awake in the afternoon, neither of them ordered much, just a little rice and a few small dishes.

The cafeteria was empty at this time, and the two found a corner to sit down.

"Sakai, you have been following me for a long time, right?"

Hearing the president say this, Keiko Sakai's heart moved, and even the hand holding the chopsticks began to tremble.

She felt her chance had come.

However, her ability to control her emotions was pretty good, and she didn't show it too obviously, and she still spoke in a capable tone.

"It's not bad, more than 5 years."

"Five years. How many five years can we have in a lifetime? I didn't expect so much time has passed. It's so fast."

Masato Takeshita acted as if he didn't notice, and his tone was full of emotion.

Then he said to his secretary-general seriously: "Sakai, I want to arrange for you to work at Xinghai Electronics. What do you think?"

Xinghai Electronics is the subsidiary with the highest actual status within the Xinghai Group. Arranging for their own secretary to go there will be beneficial to her future promotion and development.

After hearing this, Keiko Sakai couldn't help but take a deep breath. It had always been her dream to work for the company below, and now she finally had the chance to realize it.

But more importantly, the company I went to was Xinghai Electronics, and nothing could be better than this.

After more than half a minute, this cool white-collar lady finally calmed down.

"I'm sorry, President. I just lost my composure."

"It's okay, it's already fine."

It was rare for her to be able to control her emotions when she suddenly encountered such a happy event. After all, it happened suddenly and she was not mentally prepared at all.

Masato Takeshita didn't care about this at all and continued asking with a gentle expression.

"Keep calm and tell me what you think."

"Well, thank you, President."

Sakai Keiko nodded, and then responded solemnly: "I am willing to work at Xinghai Electronics."

"Ah, very good."

The young man smiled with satisfaction, and then continued: "You can only serve as a deputy in the finance, public relations, personnel, administration, marketing, and sales departments. Which one do you think is better?"

Masato Takeshita's secretary will indeed be promoted faster, but not too fast, otherwise the company's development will be misplaced.

Therefore, the best option is to be the deputy director of a subsidiary, which has certain power, but not too much. Even if there are mistakes in the work, it won't cause too much trouble.

If you are really talented, you can master the skills and abilities required for a full-time job during your time as a part-time job.

This way, there will be no serious problems when you are promoted in the future.

Of course, the company’s most important R&D department cannot arrange for a secretary to parachute in.

This department is related to the survival of the company, and people who are familiar with Xinghai Electronics must be assigned to the position.

In addition, the director of the scientific research department is also a necessary step to ascend to the position of president of Xinghai Electronics.

Masato Takeshita firmly believed in an old saying that prime ministers came from prefectures and counties, and brave generals came from soldiers and warriors.

There are indeed top talents who develop the company very well after being parachuted in, but their number is really small, and there are more ordinary talents.

Besides, with Masato Takeshita in the company, Xinghai Electronics only needs to move forward steadily in its development.

As for the director who comes from the scientific research department, what should he do if he is not flexible enough in his work?
It's very simple. Companies like Xinghai Electronics that are mainly based on scientific research have a second threshold. After the director of the scientific research department is promoted to the position of vice president, he will be responsible for managing the marketing and sales departments.

If you do well, then you are a qualified candidate for president.

If you don't do well, the company will not demote you, but will only ask you to change business and be responsible for the R&D position again.

This also means that you are no longer eligible to hold the position of president.

But don't be discouraged, there is still room for promotion within the company.

The parent company, Xinghai Technology, and the head office, Xinghai Group, have many vice president positions that specialize in a certain business.

All roads lead to Rome. One day, a worker who is not suitable for being a president may be promoted to a higher position.

Keiko Sakai thought about it again and again, and finally gave a firm answer driven by her ambition.

"I chose the sales department, hoping to help the company sell more mobile phones."

"OK, no problem. There will be a round of job rotations at the beginning of next year. I will arrange for you to go there then."

"Hi, thank you, President."

"Nothing, this is what should be done."

After talking about the work arrangements for Sakai Keiko, the young man casually asked, "Who do you think is more suitable to take over your position, Uchida-san or Nakamura-san?"

Of course, Masato Takeshita does not have only one personal secretary. He has a huge group of secretaries, consisting of 24 people in total.

Secretary-General Keiko Sakai has an overall view of the situation, Deputy Secretaries-General Uchida Miho and Nakamura Yoshiko assist in organizing it, and the rest are responsible for a part of the business.

In order to facilitate management and avoid mistakes as much as possible, the other 21 secretaries were divided into three-person teams, with one section chief and two team members in each team.

"Uchida-san, she's more experienced."

Keiko Sakai admires Yoshiko Nakamura more, but she knows that Miho Uchida is the more suitable candidate for the full-time position.

Therefore, she did not show favoritism and answered based entirely on the president's needs.

"Uchida-san is indeed meticulous."

Miho Uchida has a gentle but strong personality. She is serious and careful in her work and has the character of a typical good wife and mother in East Asia.

As for the other deputy secretary-general, Yoshiko Nakamura, she has a cold face but a kind heart. She is strict and meticulous in her work.

Masato Takeshita thought about it and finally decided to put it aside for the time being and make a decision after considering it for a few days.

"Who do you think is more suitable as the new deputy secretary-general?"

He was not very familiar with the seven section chief-level secretaries and sincerely hoped that Keiko Sakai could give appropriate advice.

"Secretary Aoyama Yuki is very good. I think she has the potential to be the secretary general."

"Oh, it turns out to be her. She is indeed a good choice."

Yuki Aoyama is an outstanding master's graduate in business from Waseda University. He is very sensitive to numbers and can complete the reporting tasks assigned by Masato Takeshita quickly and accurately.

Her only shortcoming is that she has a rather cold temperament, even colder than Lin Qingqian. She is a true iceberg beauty.

"Any more?"

"Also, Sato Nami is very good, and she is very capable of uniting colleagues."

Sato Nami is very friendly, and the atmosphere in the office is good with her around. But her talent is a little lacking, and she is only average in the president's secretary's office.

Of course, it is still much higher than that of ordinary people. After all, the 21 presidents' secretaries have a minimum education level of Zaoqing level.

Moreover, they all got in based on their real talents and knowledge, not relying on family connections.

(End of this chapter)