My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 474 The First Person Who Says One Thing but Does Another

This is a very real problem.

Just like later listed companies made huge profits, shareholders who held shares originally expected to receive profit dividends unless they sold their shares to make a profit.

But from a company's perspective, what will happen in the future if all the profits are distributed?

Most reputable companies will allocate a portion of their profits as development funds.

Even someone like Wei Dong, who never invests in stocks and doesn't understand corporate operations, is well aware of this trickery, given his background in the tax system.

Making money to buy a car or a house is considered an investment, but the point is to prevent any profit from being shown on the books, so retail shareholders naturally don't get any.

Not only do businesses avoid taxes by reducing profits, but the real estate they've purchased can also be a lifesaver in case of real problems.

Are you suggesting we raise funds from retail shareholders to save the factory?

Therefore, capitalists never lose out in their calculations.

State-owned factories are actually somewhat similar. If they make a profit and invest it, there isn't much left to hand over to the state, which actually gives the company more ability to withstand risks.

Previously, the government fully guaranteed the losses, and there was no concept of bankruptcy or loss.

It didn't matter; everything had to be handed over. In fact, each factory tightened its belt to compete for contributions, as this was considered a sign of achievement.

Now, suddenly being thrust into the commodity economy, it's like a dramatic shift in mentality, as if the mother's love has been lost.

Intelligent people will naturally figure out a solution.

Therefore, the frantic construction of housing and dormitory buildings by state-owned enterprises across the country reflects this change in mentality.

Since we have to hand it over anyway, we might as well use the money to repair the factory buildings and improve everyone's lives.

If this continues, it will lead to the vicious cycle described by the old leader: a surge in non-productive investment and a sharp decline in national revenue.

Others didn't understand, but the tax system later found out very well.

The solution is to vigorously develop a diversified economy and collect more taxes.

The country maintains its basic structure through state-owned assets, and then fills its treasury with various taxes. Of course, the fastest way to make money is by selling land.

Wei Dong was simply trying to keep his hands off the market and hoped that the manufacturers involved in computer production wouldn't go bankrupt. He didn't want them to get poorer the more they did with X Computer. At this point, keeping an eye on things and ensuring the survival of the companies was the responsibility of the factory leaders to their troops.

It's said rather subtly; those who understand will understand.

As it turned out, they misunderstood.

After touring the entire building,
The bustling commercial atmosphere on the third and fourth floors already creates a sense of temporal dislocation, with work clothes, Zhongshan suits, winter coats, and high-end office buildings all mixed together.

The fifth floor was filled with the Hong Kong-style white-collar atmosphere brought by the Hong Kong representatives, making it feel like being overseas or in a movie or TV series.

Everyone was dressed in suits, skirt suits, and trench coats, looking so stylish that it didn't seem like a city in southwestern inland China at all.

Upon reaching the sixth floor, one is awestruck by the grandeur of the "large company" with the entire floor open to the public.

This was completely different from the office space in the factory area, which was several times larger. There were uniform work uniforms, constant ringing of telephones (actually just two lines), five Macintosh computers, ten X-ray computers, and a 14-inch black and white TV.

After simple training, a group of telephone operators with only junior high school education were able to enter daily sales data into the computer.

The software engineers in the X Computer R&D team were able to customize all sorts of "business software," whether useful or not, for their own company, based on the vague requests that Wei Dong made.

Even a few words of terms like finance, warehousing, and inventory management, which Wei Dong vaguely knew, could inspire software engineers to rack their brains to create something.

Then the finance department, cashier, and receptionist use the feedback to make adjustments.

There is already a growing trend of hardware and software developing independently.

Looking at my colleagues busily working around these computers.

Who can compare to this?
They developed dozens of software programs, but after two or three years, they still hadn't produced any truly commercially viable utilities.

Most of them are educational programs for gamers.

They can't find a suitable commercial organization to nurture the software.

In an era where computer experts and actual users in various industries are completely different worlds, users without any computer basics simply cannot provide any professional advice.

The way X Computer is doing things now is so advanced that it has even surpassed domestic software development by a wide margin.

In particular, the software engineer surnamed Huang, who came from the Sichuan Third-Tier Research Institute, knew the R&D team of the Zhonghua Learning Machine before and had discussed his ideas for creating a Chinese character editing system.

It's being updated and improved almost every week now!
The text input software that was presented was designed to be as close as possible to Word in Wei Dong's mind.

I just hate that he doesn't know how to make spreadsheets or PowerPoint presentations, so he can't offer any advice.

At this time, even the Hong Kong representatives were not very familiar with "computer tabulation machines," so Wei Dong urged everyone to get one in advance: "On this trip to Beijing, I also acquired IBM's agency rights in Greater China. Lao Huang, you take the lead and prepare a few people to apply for passports and Hong Kong and Macau travel permits. Next time, come with me and have a go at IBM's engineers."

The computer engineers, who are all somewhat nerdy, were both shocked and delighted. Since they were tinkering with programming, they all had some basic English skills.

They repeatedly said yes.

This further motivated the learning machine team, who were almost certain that they would merge it in.

It's not about administrative or ownership ownership; it's purely a commercial community. Wei Dong even learned this term from the Economic Commission.

On the spot, someone took out a strange-looking connection card from their bag, which could be connected to a Macintosh computer. X Computer had omitted many interfaces in order to save money.

They also include a program that, once run, displays options for "Print Envelopes," "Print Letters," "Print Manuscripts," "Print Invitations," "Print Greeting Cards," and "Print Reports"!

That interface card would then connect to a dot matrix printer. Wei Dong immediately agreed to pay 500 yuan to buy the copyright, and then pay an additional 2 yuan for each printer used and installed.

One hundred thousand units a year, that's two hundred thousand!
Of course, X Computer would have to upgrade its motherboard and add interfaces, euphemistically called a "printed version".

Not all computers come with a printer, so there's no need to cram in all the features, or the cost will just go up.

The companies all nodded in agreement.

In Wei Dong's large office, which he used to visit less often and where there was always a lot of fighting, and which he now dislikes visiting even more, a seven-company collaborative computer community agreement was signed.

They jointly produced X-computers and related hardware and software components.

In other words, it means that 70% of all computing units that can be mobilized nationwide are working together to support X Computer.

Jiangzhou and Jinling simultaneously produced the exact same mainframes, while the factory in Xizhou was responsible for supplying most of the major semiconductor chips, with several other companies also actively contributing.

With the addition of the third-tier resources from Xishan Computer Research Institute, we were able to basically achieve self-sufficiency in 90% of the components and chips.

Even if the remaining main chip and memory chip are the most crucial components, we can still rush to produce them.

As a result, we were busy chatting about various things until noon. While we were upstairs having a buffet lunch, the factory manager from Jinling made two long-distance calls back.

She quietly pulled Wei Dong aside and said, "When you come to assist us with the technical upgrade of our computer production line, could you also help us lead the funding to build such a building?"

Commercial buildings are very different.

Now Wei Dong and his team are quite skilled at it. They can start construction on commercial and residential buildings, build a section, and then sell the units off-plan to get loan funds from the bank, so they don't tie up their own money.

However, Liujin Building still had to pay every penny out of its own pocket, just like Xishan Electronics Building and Television Production Building.

Rang Weidong, who used to earn hundreds of thousands in gross profit every day, is now mainly paying for the construction of these three buildings and the factory area himself.

The Shanghai-Hangzhou area is funded by dividends from Apple and investments from Hong Kong businessmen.

Would you build another one like this in Nanjing?
That would be a bit too tight.

Wei Dong didn't like to pretend to be rich, but he also couldn't show weakness: "Our funds are used in a planned way, and even if we can do it, it will probably be in the next fiscal year."

Unexpectedly, the other party was the big spender: "It's okay, as long as you claim to invest a certain amount, our factory will actually invest money to get things started first, and we'll complete it once your funds are allocated. It doesn't matter if it's sooner or later. In the end, we can divide the floor space according to the proportion of investment, okay?"

Another one where the land price wasn't factored in.

Wei Dong was given some pointers to avoid taking advantage of the situation: "I also built one in Pingjing. It was on land belonging to the Ministry of Railways. In the end, I occupied about one-third of it. That way, people wouldn't have any leverage to say that state-owned land was lost. The two factories on both sides were left with two-thirds. Okay, now the question is why we built it, where we built it, and what economic benefits it would bring."

He himself has explained that the building has eighteen floors, with one-third for a hotel, one-third for serviced apartments, and one-third for office space.

Because apart from future large companies' offices in Southwest China and Jiangzhou, there are unlikely to be that many companies in Jiangzhou that need office space. So one-third of the hotel apartments are flexible in allocation. If there are more guests, they will be used as hotels, and if there are many company offices, they will be used as office space.

But places like Shanghai, Beijing, and even Nanjing would never have considered this.

The other party also took out their promotional materials from their bag. Their main business was actually a telephone factory, producing hand-cranked telephones for the military and government units.

However, thanks to its strong technical capabilities and status as a leading electronics manufacturer in the Yangtze River Delta region, it received a lot of information and thus began its transformation into home appliance manufacturing early on.

The photos show more than a dozen products, including electric fans, televisions, horizontal computers resembling the Apple II, and dot matrix printers.

There are four different sizes of televisions.

So they have made money in the past two years, which is exactly what Wei Dong reminded them of—it's best to leave some assets in the factory to cope with changes.

Because they also keenly realized that the situation where all the electronics factories in the country were making TVs and electric fans seemed to be in short supply, but soon the competition would be fierce and many factories that blindly produced these products would go bankrupt.

That's why they were the main force behind instigating the development of learning machines.

Now, naturally, the idea is to build an electronics building and leave the money in the factory.

But you can't just suggest it yourself; a single word from the higher-level authority can decide whether it's acceptable or not.

The only way to succeed is for external "investors" to cooperate in the construction. This is a rare opportunity that should not be missed.

As he spoke, he took out a national map handbook, a must-have for business travelers, from his secretary's briefcase and marked out the current area for Wei Dong on it.

It's similar to the PyeongKyoto Automobile Manufacturing Plant, a super-large factory located in the city.

With over 7,000 employees and their families, the total easily exceeds 10,000.

The residential area has hundreds of dormitory buildings.

Although it's not in the most bustling city center, it's still a fairly livable old industrial area.

The main attraction is located next to the zoo and Jinling Railway Station, and only one and a half kilometers away from the famous city center lake.

In the words of this factory leader: "At the request of the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry, we have just formed an information industry company with the provincial radio factory, the printer research and development center, the municipal radio factory, and the municipal electronic equipment factory. Now we hope to lead the industrial wave of information industry. You are a private enterprise and a collaborating unit of the Fifth Ministry of Machinery Industry. Let us join hands to gain a foothold and strive to go global."

Such ambition is exactly what Wei Dong was thinking, and it can be considered as adding a strong ally.

The "printed" X-computers launched in this way are enough to officially push them towards government agencies, and the business volume can be considered to have stabilized.

Putting everything else aside, the tax-controlled cash register alone made Wei Dong realize that he could make a steady living for decades.

But before they knew it, another building was being constructed.

Now they've practically become a real estate behemoth with buildings all over the country.

What to do.

(End of this chapter)