Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 319 Bi Yaxiong

Plans change.

The next day, Chen Xuebing was about to have lunch with Liang Naixing from Chongqing Jiaotong University when he suddenly received a call from Emerson.

He had asked Emerson to find an engineering management talent a couple of days ago, and he had very high requirements. Surprisingly, he contacted someone so quickly, and the person was available that same day. The person was also very close to Chongqing, so they could meet in person.

I soon received an email with the talent information.

He paused for a moment when he saw the name and photo, then looked at the resume carefully and immediately decided to meet with the person that afternoon.

The meeting was arranged at a relatively remote farmhouse in the mountains. Because the other party had a job and needed to keep a low profile, and their workplace was also very busy recently, they could only come on the weekend.

Since the other party was of a high rank, Chen Xuebing specially changed into a formal suit to attend.

This time, Jiang Yunzhou from Emerson personally served on-site, ordering a suckling pig to be roasted at the resort, and as usual, a bottle of champagne was prepared for him.

When Chen Xuebing and Yu Chunyin arrived, the people were already there.

"Hello, Mr. Bi!"

We got out of the car and shook hands. The other person was named Bi Yaxiong. He was a middle-aged man with a smile but a sharp edge in his eyes. He had slicked-back hair, a gray jacket, and his white shirt and leather shoes were impeccably tailored and looked brand new.

The other party takes this meeting very seriously.

Chen Xuebing could probably understand that after working in a state-owned enterprise for more than ten years, jumping to a private enterprise must be a difficult and solemn decision.

"Mr. Chen, you look so young!" Bi Yaxiong said with a smile. "You may not know, but Mayor Huang and I talked about you. You called Mayor Huang's secretary to ask about something, right? I was right there with him. He was quite busy and didn't answer your call, but he praised you, this financial entrepreneur, in front of us."

He finished speaking while shaking hands, and Chen Xuebing didn't feel that it had taken too long.

He speaks very fast.

Chen Xuebing suddenly realized and said, "Oh, around the end of May?"

"June 3rd, afternoon," Bi Yaxiong said with a light laugh, demonstrating his memory.

Chen Xuebing nodded, then shook his hand hard before letting go.

This person is indeed a powerful figure in state-owned enterprises.

He joined Gezhouba Power Plant in 1982 and worked his way up from technician to plant director, and then became the vice president of China Three Gorges Corporation.

It's important to know that Gezhouba Dam was the Whampoa Military Academy of China's hydropower industry. Their technological breakthroughs in the 80s were a hundred times more inspiring than any novel.

With a flow rate of 8600 m³/s, Soviet experts asserted that damming the Yangtze River was impossible. However, the dam was secured in 36 hours and 13 minutes, 54 times faster than the damming of the Dnieper River in the Soviet Union.

The gate was cast using a 10,000-ton hydraulic press and a red-hot quenching process. The intercepting bucket was made by welding the deck, which is not available in the West. The excellent concrete formula was made by replacing 30% of the cement with fly ash.

Worker Wang Maosheng jumped into the formwork to plug the leak, but his legs were permanently sealed by concrete. He left behind his last words: "Save the gate, don't worry about me!"

Technician Zhang Chaoqun lost permanent sight in his right eye after performing calculations continuously for 72 hours in 40°C high temperatures.

The talents produced here have solved the problem of temperature control for ultra-high-grade concrete, created a Guinness World Record for single-day filling strength, and pioneered the intelligent construction of 300-meter-class ultra-high arch dams.

These are just some of the more famous stories.

This factory is a spiritual symbol of the rise of China's industrial civilization.

Judging from Bi Yaxiong's personal abilities, he once directed the closure of the Gezhouba Phase II cofferdam, setting a world record for single-day throwing intensity, and mobilizing 217 ships for 48 hours of continuous construction with zero casualties.

Gezhouba Group was able to simultaneously command 78 subcontractors. This resource allocation experience was unprecedented in this era and served as a preview of future infrastructure general contracting.

Chen Xuebing also remembered this person in his previous life; at that time, Bi Yaxiong was serving as the deputy general manager of China Southern Power Grid.

From this perspective, Bi Yaxiong's career path should have been smooth sailing.

But coincidentally, in the recent debate over ultra-high voltage technology routes, Bi Yaxiong is a representative figure of the DC faction. Last year, at an energy forum, he openly stated that "the cost per kilometer of AC ultra-high voltage is 1.7 times that of DC, and its economic viability is questionable."

This was not originally a technical issue.

DC power transmission has lower losses, better safety, and more flexible dispatching than AC power, but AC power is a mature technology with a high rate of domestic equipment localization.

The "Southeast Shanxi-Jingmen 1000kV AC" project, advocated by the AC proponents, was approved as a demonstration project in August this year, while the "Xiangjiaba-Shanghai ±800kV DC" project, advocated by the DC proponents, has been temporarily shelved.

Just at the end of last month, Bi Yaxiong's position at the Three Gorges Dam was changed from "Director of Production Technology Department" to "Power Transmission Consultant".

This must have been a spiteful departure, and Bi Yaxiong was very determined. He had just met with a private energy company that makes photovoltaics last weekend, and now he's coming to see me again this weekend.

It should be compared under the same conditions.

"I asked around, and according to the 'Interim Provisions on the Management of Remuneration for Heads of Central Enterprises' issued this year, given Mr. Bi's level, his annual salary should be over 20 yuan, right?" Chen Xuebing said with a smile.

This is inherently a sensitive issue, but within this process, it is a core issue that cannot be ignored.

He certainly knew Bi Yaxiong's income, but he deliberately brought up the terms introduced this year.

Before this regulation was introduced, some state-owned enterprises offered exorbitant salaries and numerous hidden benefits, and even issued stock options.

With the regulations in place, red lines were set, and the salary structure was put in a tighter grip. The basic annual salary of managers in state-owned enterprises cannot exceed 12 times the average annual salary of employees, and the performance-based annual salary cannot exceed 3 times the basic annual salary, effectively locking the total compensation within 80 yuan.

Therefore, this year is also a turning point for state-owned enterprise executives to switch to private enterprises.

Bi Yaxiong was also changing jobs for the first time, so he didn't have so many worries in mind. Hearing this, he smiled bitterly and said, "More than 180,000. Before this regulation came out, the company's total benefits were higher, more than 200,000."

"Yes, I know that Mr. Bi is a person with career aspirations. Our Gu'an Construction also started with water conservancy. It is still relatively small in scale and does not do as much as the Yangtze River Hydropower. However, in terms of future planning, it has no less significance than it."

Chen Xuebing invited Bi Yaxiong into the private room and gave him a freshly printed document.

The content was similar to what Yu Chunyin said yesterday, but the difference was that some details were added regarding development funds.

Bi Yaxiong opened it and took a look.

Initially, upon seeing the "direction of digital technology infrastructure" and the technological development of its subsidiaries Singularity and Spreadtrum, he nodded slightly.

Then, seeing the billions of yuan in project funding, she glanced cautiously at Chen Xuebing and pursed her lips.

Seeing the total amount of funds exceeding 10 billion and marked "2007," I was quite shocked.

When he tried to flip to the next page, he found it was gone.

"Mr. Chen, is your detailed plan only for one year?"

Chen Xuebing smiled and nodded: "Two years is too long, one year is just right, seize the day."

"A year, it requires an investment of tens of billions?"

"Correct."

Where will the money come from?

“When I say tens of billions, I mean tens of billions.” Chen Xuebing tapped the table lightly with his finger. “It’s only a year. If President Bi comes, we’ll see each other soon.”

Bi Yaxiong was speechless, recalling the introduction given to him by General Manager Jiang of Emerson: a leading figure in China's investment community.

He thought this "army" was a regular army, worth hundreds of millions or even billions, but it turned out to be 800,000 Imperial Guards.
The Gezhouba Dam project cost over 7 billion yuan in its two phases, which, when converted to today's value, would only amount to 20-30 billion yuan. And that was a comprehensive project along the Yangtze River!
This private company CEO invests tens of billions a year?

He flipped through the list again and said, "I don't see many projects. Where do you plan to invest the rest of the money?"

"We'll see how the bidding goes next year," Chen Xuebing said bluntly. "We need to expand our team by next year, with major investment projects planned for the year after next and the year after that."

After the financial crisis, the real estate market experienced both a downturn and a turnaround. He probably had a plan for what to invest in. However, land prices across the country are fluctuating and have not formed a unified trend. Although everyone can make money, there are significant differences in how much they can earn. Moreover, real estate projects have long cycles, often lasting two or three years. So, it remains to be seen where to invest specifically.

"Next year, I want to focus my main efforts on quick and easy civil engineering projects and talent acquisition. The year after that, I'll focus on real estate, and then some large infrastructure projects can follow. Oh, by the way, next year there will also be some base station civil engineering work, mainly tower foundations, with a total volume of several billion yuan. We should be able to handle a portion of it. We need to establish a group of specialized construction teams. There may be a lot of coordination involved in construction, and the net profit may not be very high, but it will help us train our team, and the funding cycle will be relatively fast. I think it's feasible. What do you think?"

Seeing Bi Yaxiong's display of memory earlier, Chen Xuebing was now speaking fluently and fluently, revealing a wealth of information.

This confirms the communication method. If he can handle it and clearly understand the terms, it will save a lot of trouble in future communication. "You mean, with so much money, we have to find projects ourselves?"

Bi Yaxiong went back to the point: "With a project worth billions, is the city's infrastructure concentrated?"

"Six to eight cities, including the host and co-host cities of the Olympics: Beijing, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin, and at most Guangzhou," Chen Xuebing said.

Bi Yaxiong's speech gradually quickened: "That's too big of a span. It's best not to do projects in Shenyang and Qinhuangdao. I don't know the parameters of the base station tower, but towers are prone to tilting. Geological exploration should be done beforehand to avoid pouring during the freezing period. It's not advisable to have too many geological exploration teams, as they have to travel back and forth. In addition, it's very difficult to carry out construction in the Northeast region once winter arrives. If you have to maintain a project team, you will definitely be idle for half a year."

"If orders are concentrated in one area, can we increase profits through economies of scale?"

Chen Xuebing was also pondering this.

The profits from base station construction mainly come from equipment and installation. The civil engineering part is secondary to the contractor. It wouldn't be too difficult for them to take it over, but the profits are barely enough to support the team.

"That depends on whether we can develop our own technical standards," Bi Yaxiong said, then asked the crucial question:

"Mr. Chen, regarding the stability of this 10 billion yuan you mentioned, can it support the high-intensity, multi-line, and even potentially funded infrastructure operations throughout the year? Secondly, is the disbursement efficiency, especially when facing the rigid payment pressures from material suppliers and migrant workers' wages, can it respond quickly? In the infrastructure sector, cash flow is the lifeblood; a single instance of poor turnover could lead to a collapse of credibility."

Chen Xuebing grinned: "Our funding is long-term, and it's not a problem to keep it stable for three to five years. However, the wages of company employees and migrant workers are fixed. The cost of materials, equipment, and fuel is fixed at 50% to 70%. As for profits, we'll have to settle them later."

To be honest, if he can do this, he is already an absolute conscience in the industry. If he can maintain this payment method for two or three years, he can just say that he is providing pure advance payment and a lot of material and equipment suppliers will come and do it.

The construction of the Pang Donglai flagship store in Jiangbei is a case in point. Tens of millions were paid upfront, and there were people willing to cover the subsequent funding.

When you first enter the construction industry, you think about getting paid on time. Later, you think about delaying payment for two years as long as you get the full amount. Then, you think about breaking even. In the end, you just think about how the boss shouldn't run away, so you can at least give an account to your subordinates.

People have very low expectations of each other.

Whoever can truly lead everyone to make money in the long run is the one I'd call "godfather" if they don't abandon me.

In the civil engineering industry, financial thinking extends beyond financing to include reputation.

Chen Xuebing's idea was simple: start with the places where he was confident of getting payment. As long as the payments were made quickly and his projects went smoothly, he could quickly build up his reputation in the industry.

In this industry, how much money others think you have is very important, even more so than how much money you can raise.

Money that comes out of your hands will be transformed into reputation. The actual way to put it is, "Boss X paid X hundred million in one go for Project X in X year, very generously."

The effect of such a reputation is that once a project reaches the planning stage, it receives a great deal of support locally, and even unreasonable demands can be met as much as possible.

Mr. Xu took this tactic to the extreme. His suppliers not only provided him with advance funding, but also invested hundreds of millions of yuan of his money.

He's the eldest brother; people believe what he says.

There's nothing I can do if you don't believe me. Once your business gets big enough, other businesses can't handle so many orders, and your business will fail if you try to go out.

Chen Xuebing believes he has a strong presence and can be a leader.

So even if the base station construction project doesn't make money, he can still do it as long as it enriches those who follow him and helps him seize market share.

"This year, we have only one goal: to make the greatest possible resource integration with limited funds."

With just one sentence from Chen Xuebing, Bi Yaxiong understood.

"No problem, we can build the base station."

Bi Yaxiong's previous work was technology-oriented, but he also understood the operation of private projects. He understood Chen Xuebing's thinking and thought to himself that he was indeed a leading figure in finance. After a year of this, it would be hard for the scale not to be large.

However, whether he can make money once the scale increases is uncertain. After all, current real estate policies are inconsistent, with land prices rising and then falling back down, making it difficult to predict.

Although civil engineering doesn't involve much land price, everyone uses materials, equipment, and workers; when the real estate market moves, the whole industry moves.

Chen Xuebing was naturally clear about the trend. Seeing that Bi Yaxiong's expression was somewhat uncertain, he smiled and said, "I will grasp the investment trend. There is no problem with the cash flow. I am looking for President Bi, mainly for four aspects: management structure, team building, technical training, and supply chain integration. In addition to the information I gave you, I want to tell you something that is relatively recent. I plan to acquire a cement plant in Pengshui, with a planned annual output of over one million tons. If you are the president of the company, you will also be responsible for recruiting the plant manager and sales channels for this cement plant. I have high standards. The person you find must be worthy of my approval, otherwise I will doubt your competence."

“It’s easy to find a cement plant manager.” Bi Yaxiong didn’t seem to feel too much pressure. There are plenty of talented people who have come from Gezhouba, so recruitment isn’t difficult.

He frowned again at the title "President":

"President?"

"Uh, General Manager, it's a habit," Chen Xuebing corrected earnestly.

President is a position in international management companies, while in the engineering industry, it's called General Manager.

The general manager handles the matters; the president makes the final decisions.

For example, in terms of authority, the general manager can directly revoke the concrete supply qualification of a subcontractor, order a complete work stoppage on the spot, and order the freezing of all project funds.

This job is like a mud-covered axe.

The CEO, on the other hand, always wore a suit and tie.

Major events must be reported to the board of directors, and decision-making is subject to the governance structure and processes. In case of emergencies, a risk control meeting must be held first.

The position of general manager is a top-down system within China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC). Even though a company listed in Hong Kong is required to have a president, it's essentially a figurehead position, with real power held by the general managers of the 36 engineering bureaus.

When they go to the construction site, they talk about being the president, but no one understands them. The workers will complain, "What kind of leaders want to come and visit?"

When the general manager arrives, you immediately straighten your hat and make a louder sound when you knock on a stone.

During the conversation, Chen Xuebing sensed that this was the role he wanted, so he took out another set of materials from his bag and gave him the questions.

"I'm planning to discuss a technology cooperation company with Chongqing Jiaotong University, including research collaboration, to supplement our design capabilities and talent pool. I've had someone prepare a proposal, take a look and see what you think."

Bi Yaxiong took it, his eyes quickly scanning the title and frame, and soon his expression turned serious.

"Do you have a pen?"

Chen Xuebing looked around and was about to speak when an Emerson employee quickly entered through the door, handed him a pen, and then reminded him, "The suckling pig is almost ready. Would Mr. Chen and Mr. Bi like to eat and chat?"

Chen Xuebing laughed and said, "Bring out the champagne too."

The champagne prepared for Liu Chiping last time was not opened, but today, the power to open the champagne is in his hands. No matter how Bi Yaxiong answers, he has to take a sip to taste the saltiness.

Bi Yaxiong's eyes remained fixed on the documents, but a smile appeared on his face.

He was also very satisfied with Mr. Chen's charisma.

"This cooperation model may have hidden dangers," he said.

"Oh? What do you think is wrong, Mr. Bi?" Chen Xuebing leaned forward slightly.

"First is academic dignity and innovative vitality. Chongqing Jiaotong University is a century-old university, and civil engineering and transportation engineering are their flagship majors. Although the plan reserves profit sharing and technical service fees for them, the decision-making power is completely in our hands. Their top professors and senior researchers have essentially become technicians who execute our instructions. In the long run, top talents will feel that their talents are being wasted, and their creativity will be suppressed. This is tantamount to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs."

"The second point is the sustainability of technological accumulation. The plan emphasizes the protection of intellectual property rights for the results of cooperation, which belongs to our side, and this is perfectly reasonable from a commercial perspective. However, the problem is that the core value of universities is not only to produce patented technologies, but more importantly, to cultivate talents who can understand, master, and further develop these technologies. If you keep the core technologies firmly in your own hands, the students and young teachers involved in the university can only come into contact with fragmented application levels, making it difficult to form a systematic understanding and ability. In a few years, who will take care of the technological iteration? Will we rely entirely on poaching people from outside? Or will we start training them from scratch? The cost is too high and the cycle is too long! Technology is open and can be passed on! Everyone can learn and understand the entire system in practice!"

Chen Xuebing listened quietly, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table. "What do you think is the best course of action?"

Bi Yaxiong's gaze was intense: "The core R&D team must be jointly established and managed by both parties. We have the decision-making power for commercialization and application, but the demonstration and selection of core technology routes must have the veto power of the university's technical leaders! At the same time, a mandatory technical training and rotation system must be established in the cooperative project to ensure that our key personnel and university teachers and students can be deeply involved in the entire process of technology R&D! Intellectual property rights can be shared, but the university must be guaranteed full academic research and usage rights! These three points are the bottom line; otherwise, this cooperation may be effective in the short term, but in the long term it will become a burden, or even lead to a falling out!"

"Of course." He changed the subject.

“These conditions are not enough to motivate enthusiasm and ensure stable cooperation. If the school leadership changes and changes their mindset, we will be in a rather passive position.”

"We need to mix some sand into their mix."

Bi Yaxiong wrote a few lines of comments at the end of the document.

Chen Xuebing glanced at it and smiled.

He patted his thigh and stood up.

"Let's go and talk while we eat."

(End of this chapter)