Hong Kong Island Chronicles: From Electrical Appliances King to Business Legend

Three days later...

Mid-January 1978.

It was a little after nine in the morning.

On that morning, a torrential downpour began to fall in Hong Kong without warning, but it still couldn't stop people living in this fast-paced, developing city from going to work.

Cheung Sha Wan, Sham Shui Po.

On this day, Li Jiagang and his uncle Li Yongsen arrived at the factory in which his father had a stake in.

After three days of lobbying in Lijiagang.

Li Yongsen was completely convinced by him and finally made up his mind to hand over the factory to him to run.

Human hearts are made of flesh.

Over the past few days, his assessment of Lijiagang had greatly improved, which is why he agreed to hand over the company to him. He was willing to trust his nephew one more time, but he was also prepared for the worst: if his nephew remained incorrigible, he would no longer associate with him.

"Welcome, Chairman, to visit and inspect our work."

"Alright, Director Zhou, I brought my nephew here today to familiarize him with the factory's operations. The company will be managed by him from now on. You can go about your business and don't worry about me."

Upon hearing this, Director Zhou's expression changed slightly, and his eyes involuntarily swept over Li Jiagang. As a member of the management of one of the Li family's companies, he had heard rumors about the eldest son of the Li family.

He was shocked to hear that the company would be handed over to him, but he had no choice. It was a family business, and as an employee, he dared not protest, no matter how unwilling he was.

"Hehehe... Great! With Young Master Li managing the company from now on, it will definitely reach new heights."

This week, the factory manager's bitter smile, which was more like a grimace, was obvious to both Li Jiagang and Li Yongsen, who were used to seeing all sorts of people.

However, Li Jiagang did not say anything.

He knew that the original owner's name was definitely deeply ingrained in people's minds. If he wanted people to change their opinion of him, he could only wait until he took over the company and achieved good results, which would naturally change their perception of him.

"We will need Director Zhou's cooperation in the future."

Li Jiagang didn't say much, just exchanged a few polite words, and then followed Li Yongsen into the factory.

"Jiagang, this is the parts processing workshop."

"The most valuable things in the parts processing workshop are not these parts, but these three-axis machine tools. After you take over, you must maintain them regularly."

"I understand, Uncle."

Soon they arrived at another workshop.

"This is the workshop for the company's self-developed products. Currently, the factory only produces radios, and occasionally it also undertakes OEM manufacturing of tapes and other products."

"These are the radios we produce. Although they are not as good as those from overseas brands, the quality of our products is still quite good."

Li Jiagang walked over and picked up a radio.

Using his professional knowledge to assess these radios, what Li Yongsen called good was, in his eyes, utter garbage, the kind that was rubbish in every way.

However, he didn't say anything.

After all, it was 78, and the products produced were certainly not comparable to those of later generations.

Let's wait until he takes over before making changes.

"Hmm, it feels pretty good to the touch, and the materials are also top-notch, but the design is clearly inferior to overseas products."

Li Yongsen nodded in agreement.

"You were able to spot the differences between our products and those overseas, which proves that you are indeed exceptional in this area."

"Aside from the design, we still lag behind overseas brands in terms of technology, especially in areas such as signal source, mechanism, tape recognition, sound quality, and battery."

Li Jiagang did not refute this point.

He understands this better than Li Yongsen.

He also knew that overseas countries were much earlier than Hong Kong and China in developing various technologies.

Especially in Japan.

In the early years, it cannot be denied that they far surpassed many other places in terms of large machinery and heavy and light industrial technology.

Even when he was young and studying, he often referred to the technology of Japan for comparison in the development of many projects, and used their technical ideas as a reference to innovate his own new technologies.

"Uncle, as long as we pool our wisdom and learn and try more, we will definitely create our own brand that will surpass those overseas products."

"Jiagang, it's good that you have this confidence, but we who run businesses should prioritize efficiency. Don't just think about innovation and R&D. You need to consider the company's operations. Chuangying has enough funds to go into in-depth R&D." Li Yongsen's words were lecturing.

He didn't want Li Jiagang to focus solely on R&D after taking over the company, completely neglecting operating costs. If there were no profits then, how would the company survive and continue operating?

For industrialists like them.

Innovation is merely icing on the cake; profitability is the fundamental goal. As long as profits are sufficient, whether or not they innovate, or whether or not they develop their own products, is completely unimportant to them.

This is why, even though Hong Kong was one of the earliest places to develop electronics and electrical appliances, it has still been unable to fully develop the electronics and electrical appliance industry decades later.

Because almost all the bosses in this industry share the same idea as Li Yongsen: they only care about making money, and nobody cares about innovation.

Moreover, these industries require a huge amount of R&D investment, and even with such a massive investment, success is not guaranteed.

Therefore, the earliest entrepreneurs in the electrical appliance and electronics industry all preferred to make money by doing OEM manufacturing and agency sales, rather than burning money on research and development.

Otherwise, the island, which only began developing electrical appliances and electronic products in the 70s, would never have been able to surpass Hong Kong in the future, which led to the country having to beg for technology in this industry during its later development.

"Yes, Uncle, I'll remember that."

Just remember that.

"Let's go and take a look at the other workshops."

"Uncle, please..."

Then Li Yongsen led the team to visit and learn about each workshop in Lijiagang, from the production workshop to the testing department, from the assembly department to the finished product area.

Li Yongsen even took Li Jiagang to familiarize himself with the packaging workshop and warehouse.

The factory is quite large, covering more than 5,000 square meters, with a total of more than a dozen workshops.

This factory can bring the Li brothers more than one million Hong Kong dollars in revenue every year, which is a very good income in those days.

"Jiagang, this is the company's laboratory."

Finally, they arrived at the place Li Jiagang most wanted to know. For him, the laboratory was the most important part of the entire factory; he didn't care about anything else.

"Uncle, what products are they developing in the lab, and how many researchers are there?"

"What we are currently researching is innovative technology for washing machines. At the beginning of the year, your father and I went to Japan on a business trip and saw their fully automatic washing machine technology. After we came back, we decided to try to develop it."

"Unfortunately, more than half a year has passed, a lot of money has been burned, and we still cannot develop it. We can barely draw a conclusion, but the experiments always fail."

"A fully automatic washing machine?"

Li Jiagang nodded and muttered to himself upon hearing this.

In 1978, the washing machine was a good start. With social progress, people in all regions were living at a high speed. After a whole day of work, they were already tired enough, and no one wanted to have to hand wash clothes when they got home.

In 78, washing machines were mostly semi-automatic, meaning that the washing, spin-drying, and water volume control all required manual adjustment of the time.

He remembered that fully automatic washing machines appeared in 79. If he could develop a fully automatic washing machine now, it would be an absolute game-changer.

"Uncle, let's go in and take a look."

"Hmm, let's take a look."

Upon entering the laboratory, Li Jiagang looked around at the equipment. Seeing this equipment, even this research and development expert couldn't help but smile wryly. "Is this what you call a laboratory?"

A studio, perhaps?

In his view, it was even worse than the small studios of later generations. It would be strange if such an environment could develop products that would advance technology and be welcomed by the market.

"Chairman, you've arrived."

"Hmm, how's it going?" Li Yongsen asked the technician.

"I'm sorry, Chairman, there hasn't been any breakthrough yet. I need some more time."

"Sigh! Innovation isn't that easy. If it were, everyone would be innovating," Li Yongsen sighed.

"I'm not here today to inspect the work, but to bring my nephew here to familiarize him with the business. He will be in charge of this company in the future."

"Jiagang, this is He Jianmin, a technical engineer. He is a technical engineer that your father and I invited back from Japan. Please get to know him."

"Hello, Engineer He."

"Hello, Mr. Li."

The two exchanged only simple pleasantries.

"Alright, I hope you'll work harder in the future to develop the product."

"I'll take Jiagang out to hand over the duties first."

"Okay, Chairman, take care."

After leaving, Li Yongsen continued to show Li Jiagang around the factory until they had lunch before leaving.

After resting for a while, it was afternoon.

Li Yongsen continued to bring Li Jiagang to the company.

Since the company is to be handed over to him, Li Yongsen will hand it over to Li Jiagang without reservation.