Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 272 Finally, I Will Return to Henggang

The last time I went to Huawei's R&D building was at night, and I went through a side entrance, so I didn't get a good look around.

Entering through the main gate this time, I found it to be very large, at least 150 acres.

This was actually his third visit to the Bantian base. The first time was shortly after he arrived in Shenzhen, when he visited Huawei, Tencent, Vanke, BYD, and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

The last time I visited, the flowers at the park entrance had 15 petals, but this time they have eight petals, making them much prettier.

As you walk in, you see research and development areas, administration buildings, and many other buildings—a cluster of gray and white, square structures. There's a signpost for the production area, but that area is still barren.

I heard that in its early days, Huawei was located in a small building in Nanyou A District. There was only one room. In order to convince outsiders of the company's strength, Ren Zhengfei specially printed "8th-9th floor" on his business card address.

When I got to the interview, I almost couldn't find it. After counting for a long time, I realized that the building only had 8 floors.

It's developed now.

Four security guards passed by in a line, and all the employees entering and leaving were wearing name tags and walking quickly. The style of the whole park was somewhat like a military headquarters that Chen Xuebing's father had described to him when he told him a story.

Yes, at least the military.

His father joined the army around the same time as Ren Zhengfei in the 70s. He told him, "Back then, conditions were not good. The division headquarters was just one building. It wasn't until we entered the army headquarters that it looked like a large compound."

Before retiring from the military, Lao Ren was a deputy regimental commander, which means he was only in his thirties, a relatively young regimental commander. He must have had the idea of ​​becoming a high-ranking officer.

However, this courtyard does have a rather well-organized feel.

I called Cai Zhijian and was told he was still in the negotiation room. Soon someone came, gave him a conspicuous red visitor's badge, and then led him into a research and development building.

This security measure piqued Chen Xuebing's curiosity, and he looked around as he went inside.

This building is clearly of a higher standard than the last one, with open office areas where at least seventy or eighty people can work. The sounds of telephones ringing and keyboards clicking are constant, and an electronic scrolling screen displays "24-hour response to customer needs".

Along the way, there were slogans written on the walls of the corridor that Chen Xuebing could not understand at all.

"Survival is Huawei's minimum and maximum objective."

"When we win, we raise a glass in celebration; when we lose, we fight to the death to save each other."

"Learn from all that is advanced."

He didn't really like the slogans; they gave him a feeling of being on fire. Coupled with the square, gray-white building design and the rather silent office atmosphere, it was a bit too oppressive.

His technology headquarters should at least display quotes from famous scientists, have a circular, bird's nest-shaped open space, and be decorated with a variety of colors.

Technology still needs some visual stimulation to inspire creativity.

However, the Huawei base in later generations was very luxurious. He had seen videos of it, including one of a small European town with a miniature train, and the office building in Beijing was also shaped like a DNA helix.

He unconsciously compares himself to Huawei in the future, feeling that he can see the future from the current architecture.

He deliberately slowed his pace as he passed through the laboratory area.

Inside a glass laboratory room, disassembled base station equipment was piled up. The brand logos on the casings had been worn off and were carelessly tossed aside, suggesting that reverse engineering was underway.

Further inside, when he passed a "Red and Blue Army Confrontation Room," the still-uncleaned content on the blackboard on the glass wall made his heart skip a beat, and he immediately stopped to look.

Title: "Long-Term"

"4G→5G→6G"

Many of the English terms representing the technology below have been largely erased, and the dates are marked below them.

The final timeframe surprisingly extends to 2020.

You son of a bitch.
Chen Xuebing grinned.

The country only has a five-year plan, and you're talking about 15 years?
"Mr. Chen, this way." The female employee who was leading the way smiled as she saw him stop.

Chen Xuebing remained expressionless, inwardly cursing as he continued walking forward.

If they're going to talk about 6G in 2020, you guys can just keep guessing and making it seem like you're so smart.

At the end of the corridor, in a transparent office with glass partitions, Cai Zhijian and several others were sitting and talking with Huawei representatives. When Cai Zhijian saw him, he waved, and everyone inside turned to look at him, but did not stop talking.

Chen Xuebing didn't go in to disturb them; the female employee led him into a lounge across the street.

However, the nameplate on the door of the negotiation room, where the writing had not yet been completely erased, once again caught his attention.

After seeing it clearly, he chuckled.

Fine, fine, you're treating me like a Japanese person.

After sitting down in the office, Chen Xuebing lit a cigarette but didn't say anything.

The female employee asked, "Mr. Chen, shall I make you a cup of tea? Would you prefer Dancong or Bingdao?"

"casual."

Chen Xuebing exhaled a puff of smoke, his thoughts somewhat complicated.

This complexity was strange, seemingly without any reason. It was just some minor observations, coupled with a strange doorplate, which involuntarily sparked a lot of imagination in him.

Imagine yourself fighting against such a giant company, and then going out of China to fight against many other giant companies, which creates a lot of pressure out of nowhere.

He reflected on his own approach of "bypassing technical obstacles and heading straight for the destination," and wondered if it seemed a bit opportunistic in the face of Huawei's robust R&D.

"They really are building wheels." This thought kept echoing in my mind during my ten-minute visit to Huawei.

The casual remark on the reelection certificate, "It must be your own funds," echoed in his ears once again.

Upon reflection, he realized that this was actually an attitude—in the eyes of tech giants, capital is something that rises and falls in an instant.

Money is fuel, not the steering wheel.

Seeing his cold expression, the female employee made herself a cup of tea and cautiously left.

A short while later, the person from the other side came out and entered his lounge.

The square-faced man with glasses, who was leading the group, shook hands with him. He stood upright and his gestures were restrained. This was none other than "Little President Xu," whom Ren Zhengfei admired the most and often mentioned.

"Hello Mr. Chen, this is Xu Zhijun. We've spoken on the phone before."

Chen Xuebing stood up and shook hands.

Then, glancing through the doorway, he raised his chin slightly, a half-smile playing on his lips:

"Mr. Xu, we are competitors. We came here to discuss cooperation, and you've arranged to hold our negotiations here?"

"Huh?" Xu Zhijun was slightly surprised, turned his head to look, and then laughed as if he suddenly realized, explaining, "Oh, oh! Historical artifact! Don't mind it, President Chen! Xiao Liu, have someone clean the plaque on that door! If not, replace it! President Li is back now, why is the 'Hong Kong Fighting Office' still there?"

A man next to him hesitated for a moment: "President Guo and President Xu said to keep it."

“Then let’s change the negotiation office,” Xu Zhijun said immediately.

He was also somewhat surprised.

It was Mr. Ren who arranged for him to negotiate with the "Hong Kong Strikes Office." He didn't explain the reason when he made the arrangement. He could sense that Mr. Ren might not have done it on purpose. Perhaps it was just a subconscious arrangement out of concern and a hint of hostility.

The writing on the door had been mostly erased and was not very noticeable, but this young CEO Chen was so perceptive that he noticed it as soon as he arrived.

Chen Xuebing also realized from Xu Zhijun's quick reaction that the other party was not unaware of the situation. He had reason to believe that there was some kind of "Kirin mobile phone research office" or something similar hidden in a building at the Sakata base, which was relentlessly pursuing him day and night. So, he composed himself, smiled, and shook his head indifferently, saying:

“Just kidding, it doesn’t matter where we talk, Mr. Cai, how’s the technical statistics going?” “Hmm.” Cai Zhijian came over with a document: “This is the list and cost quote provided by Huawei.”

Chen Xuebing flipped through it and found that it was mainly divided into three parts.

MIMO technology package: Multi-antenna array design specifications (v1.2), channel estimation algorithm white paper (confidential), test dataset (laboratory data from 2004-2006).

The offer is 8 million.

OFDM Commercialization Kit: European 3G Trial Network Parameter Tuning Manual, Anti-interference Module Source Code.

The offer is 5 million.

TD-SCDMA Optimization Toolchain: Base Station Compatibility Test Report for Customized Algorithm Library in China Project Area (including Huawei Equipment Fingerprint).

The offer is 3 million.

It contains many details, spanning several pages.

16 million.

Chen Xuebing frowned: "The European 3G network doesn't belong to the TD part, does it?"

Xu Zhijun smiled and said, "President Chen, this is what you requested. You wanted to include the correlation adjustment technology to prevent obstacles in technology research and development. We also think this idea is very forward-looking and can avoid secondary negotiations during research and development, so we included any relevant research and development data."

Chen Xuebing pondered for a moment and said, "It's not appropriate to use the cost method for technologies that involve your mature technologies. We should use the market method and compare them with Qualcomm's technology to make a value assessment."

He wanted to say something more, but after thinking about it, he stopped himself, leaving room for his team to negotiate.

There were some things he didn't want to say in this building anymore.

"Never mind, I just came to take a look at the technology you provide, and I'll leave after I'm done. The team can handle the pricing. Could I have a copy of this technology sheet?"

“Sure,” Xu Zhijun replied readily.

Chen Xuebing nodded and shook hands with Xu Zhijun again: "Then I'll take it back and take a look. Lao Cai, President Cheng, can you two see me off?"

Spreadtrum's technical evaluation team was led by Cheng Kang, the deputy director of technology.

Both of them knew that Chen Xuebing had something to say, so they went out with him.

Xu Zhijun took a deep look at the young president who had "harassed" him with phone calls many times before. He used to talk a lot, but now that they were sitting down to negotiate, he left after less than a minute of conversation on their first meeting. It seemed too pragmatic, and Xu Zhijun felt very uncomfortable with his style.

Chen Xuebing looked at the documents as he walked out of the building, and only after he was outside did he ask:

"Have the channel coding and decoding and beamforming technologies that Huawei previously licensed to us arrived?"

“They’ve got it.” Cheng Kang immediately said, “Their distributed base station algorithm documents have been sent to our newly established Singapore company, and they’ve also sent several engineers to our BJ R&D center under the guise of personal leave to provide guidance. The technologies they’ve authorized are also very mature. They are genuinely trying to help.”

"If they can offer these technologies to help us, and they are highly mature, it means they are not cutting-edge technologies. We should try to include these two technologies in the negotiations. No, we should not try, we must. You can come up with the reasons yourselves. Don't bring them up immediately. Add some confusing clauses so that they don't realize our motives."

After Chen Xuebing finished speaking, Cheng Kang was stunned for a moment: "What motive?"

"Oh!" Cheng Kang quickly realized, "Got it! Base station!"

Chen Xuebing nodded: "Yes."

Spreadtrum's current technologies are all based on mobile phone basebands.

There are almost no mature products for base station baseband.

The core chips of mobile phone baseband and base station baseband are different. Base station chips are about the size of a credit card, have a discrete design, low integration of processing units, and require external FPGA dedicated expansion chips and DSP signal processor chips, as well as some high-speed serial communication modules, etc.

It is very different from the design philosophy of mobile phone chips. First of all, it does not completely favor high integration.

However, there are many commonalities. The key protocols and communication fundamentals are interchangeable, so the technical challenges that Spreadtrum needs to overcome are not very large. They are mainly processor units, RF interfaces, power consumption and heat dissipation, etc., and there are international cases to refer to for many of them.

Algorithm-based technologies like channel coding and beamforming are relatively independent, and each company's algorithms are not publicly available. It's important to keep as many of these technologies as possible to yourself.

Although Huawei has authorized this, it doesn't mean they can modify it independently. It contains their fingerprint password (encrypted binding), and the authorization can be revoked at any time.

If you buy it, then it's a different story.

“However, Mr. Chen, we’ve recruited so many telecommunications graduates and trained them in Shanghai. If they want to know, we probably can’t hide it from them. I think we can just bring it up and ask them to buy it. So many telecommunications companies in Europe and America have gone bankrupt in recent years; they can’t stop us from buying their technology,” Cheng Kang said after thinking for a moment.

Many of the communication technologies are old patents and not included in the Wassenaar Arsenal. It should be no problem for Chinese companies to gain entry through acquisition.

If you want to enter the high-end market, you still need to use some tricks.

Chen Xuebing grinned: "Let's not talk about it for now. Let's find a suitable reason so we don't get ripped off."

After saying that, he turned to Cai Zhijian and said, "16 billion is too expensive. There must be some high-priced hidden goods in it. Organize a thorough review and compare it with some international negotiation practices. The price should be reduced by at least 15%."

Cai Zhijian lit a cigarette, pondered for a long time, and nodded: "I will do my best."

Chen Xuebing lit another one.

Security guards quickly came over to remind people that smoking is not allowed in public places.

After stubbing out his cigarette by the trash can, Chen Xuebing said, "Old Cai, spend some time visiting Huawei these days and see what their office setup is like. I'm going to start building a bigger technology park soon."

Cheng Kang clicked his tongue in disapproval.

This industrial park must cost over a billion yuan.

Cai Zhijian laughed and said, "If you have that money, you might as well buy Shenzhen Bay first."

He remembered that Chen Xuebing had mentioned wanting to buy Shenzhen Bay when they first met.

He initially dismissed those words and didn't think there was anything good about that still-developing wasteland and port.

But now that the group is developing rapidly, he is taking this issue seriously.

Shenzhen's terrain is mainly mountainous and hilly, with plains concentrated in Pingshan, Kuiyong, Longgang, and Guanlan.

On the seaward side, there is only Shenzhen Bay, which was reclaimed in the central and southern parts.

Only on plains can there be large adjacent plots of land.

This area connects Qianhai, Shekou, and western Hong Kong. If land reclamation continues and development is carried out properly, it will become a rare piece of land in Shenzhen with a very complete commercial area.

He discovered that Chen Xuebing's seemingly casual remark about that piece of land was actually incredibly farsighted.

"Two different things. The base was built with our own money," Chen Xuebing said, waving his hand.

He had thought about it and said he wanted to do many things, many of which were much bigger than building a technology park. But when he made his plans, he wasn't just daydreaming. Most of his plans involved financial means, using other people's resources to generate profits.

For matters that require his own money, he would postpone them if possible. For example, regarding the Henggang Building, after much consideration, he decided that renting was better than buying, so he moved to the SEG Plaza.

But this time, he was determined to get serious.

To accelerate the development of Singularity, we should join forces with Spreadtrum to create a larger version of Huawei.

Technological development may seem to have little to do with the size of the industrial park, but from Huawei's development, he suddenly realized: without land, there are no people; if you're stuck in someone else's territory, you can only be a small company.

He wants to use a huge park to spread out the organizational structure of Singularity like a pancake.

Even if many holes are created during the pancake-making process, they can always be patched up while frying in the pan.

The story of Henggang Street needs to be brought up again.

(My father-in-law's birthday is tomorrow, and I'm preparing things, so I should be able to update as usual, just less frequently. I'll definitely catch up on a few chapters when I get back.)
(End of this chapter)