The Industrial Giant Reborn - Chapter 637

c628 Hopes for the automotive industry

When the capital is not large, what a savvy investor needs to do is to choose the one with the highest profit among countless investment opportunities, or the one that can make a profit even if it is worse. And when the capital is large enough, there is no need to choose the most profitable one. First of all, when the capital is large enough, it is impossible to double it. There is almost no such market in the world. Occasionally, such as the oil crisis, it is rare in many years. Once encountered, as the person in charge of a large consortium, what he has to do is to be stable. Therefore, the operating logic of large enterprises and small enterprises is completely different.

With the current scale of the Chen family’s assets, of course there is still the pursuit of increasing wealth, but what we should consider more is how to better preserve it. The only way is to diversify the investment, invest a little in every place in the world, so that Even if there is a problem in one or a few places, it will not affect the foundation or destroy the overall situation.

Fortunately, Chen Zhiwen can understand the development trends in the next few decades, and therefore can make better judgments. He invests in infrastructure, factories, and commercial real estate domestically, invests in technology companies in the United States, and invests in new era telecommunications infrastructure in Europe. South America, Australia, and Southeast Asia invest in a large number of farms and pastures, and then indirectly invest in some potential companies through various means, thereby indirectly controlling some industries that they cannot fully control, such as minerals, oil fields, etc.

Time has entered the 1990s, and the Internet has also sprouted and grown. Although it is still very small now, the future growth rate will exceed everyone’s imagination. For this field, Chen Zhiwen has no intention of running it himself. In fact, there is no local market. , there is no chance at all. Even in Europe, there is no large Internet company. Whether the local market can cultivate giants is the foundation of whether a country can form Internet giant companies. On this basis, only the mainland and English-speaking countries, Only then can success be possible. Instead of working so hard, it is better to just invest like Sequoia Capital. Especially since I have invested heavily in many industries, I just need to do a good job in these industries.

In traditional industries, if you want to overtake in a corner, you must have a special condition, an advantage that others do not have. Only by taking advantage of this opportunity can it be possible to share a share of the pie with the traditional giants, such as the automobile market. In the field of technology, under the control of more than a dozen giants around the world, within a few decades, only Hyundai had a chance to rise. The rise of Hyundai was firstly due to the support of the Korean government in the early days, which used the power of the entire South Korea to support a car company. Enterprises, coupled with the convenience of purchasing various international technologies, have gained a firm foothold. The second is that they have a huge US market.

In the 1980s, the cars in the U.S. domestic market were beaten by Japanese cars. However, the Japanese consortium refused the large-scale investment control of the American consortium. Therefore, after determining that American cars could not compete with Japanese cars, American capital chose to compete with them. Generally speaking, Korean cars with better control allowed Hyundai Motor to enter the North American market on a large scale. With the cultivation of this market, and their own success, they eventually became the only automobile giant born after 1950. .

Of course, these do not include the mainland, but before 2000, the mainland’s automobile companies were just getting started and could not be ranked. It was not until the era of new energy electric vehicles decades later that they could be considered to have truly risen. .

If you want to suddenly emerge, a necessary prerequisite is to have a sufficient new market that can allow the company to develop normally and obtain enough funds for iterative research and development. At the same time, market feedback is also the basis for the improvement of the entire enterprise, and the mainland’s automobile market is A perfect collection, both in terms of talent and market, although it is currently not as good as a small developed country abroad, the potential in the future is endless.

On June 26, 1990, Chen Zhiwen came to Yanjing again. His first purpose was to go to AMC’s super factory, because after nearly seven years of hard work, AMC’s Jeeps and Gremlins were successfully realized. The domestic production rate requirement of over 80% is much higher than the original 60% for central customization. In addition, Wuling, as a local car that was originally almost 100% domestically produced, has also successfully relied on low price and high performance (relatively at the same price). , successfully became the best-selling car in the country, and because Chen Zhiwen invested a lot of money in Southeast Asia and South America to expand terminal car stores, he also successfully allowed Wuling to enter these markets. Last year alone, Wuling’s exports The sales volume exceeded 20,000 units. This is another industrial miracle after the mainland was reformed. Although the export destinations are all small countries in Southeast Asia.

As an outsider who doesn’t understand the industry, Chen Zhiwen doesn’t pay too much attention to the automobile production line and manufacturing process. These are all handled by professionals. He only needs to understand some of the most basic data, such as sales, sales and after-sales. Focusing on issues such as quantity, repair rate, failure rate, etc., after a brief tour of the factory, the group came to the parking lot next to the factory, which covers an area of ​​several hundred acres. At this moment, the parking lot was full of various types of cars. It does not mean that they cannot be sold. , on the contrary, it is too popular, there are too many turnover vehicles, and it also requires a lot of parking space.

“Sheng Chen, this batch of Wuling is going to be sent to Southeast Asian countries, mainly Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.” Wei Shihao, the person in charge of domestic automobile production, introduced.

“Are there thousands of cars here?” Chen Zhiwen asked.

“Yes, there are 3,312 vehicles in total. In a few days, they will be transported by ro-ro ship. This kind of transportation will basically happen once every month or two, but the destination may be different each time. .” Tian Xuecheng said with a smile.

“Okay, overseas, I will continue to use my resources to expand new sales points and expand the market. However, the basic principle does not belong to domestic companies, but an equal relationship, so they are also operating normally. This For other models, there will be additional resources to help with sales and after-sales support, but it cannot be guaranteed, so whether it can sell well or not ultimately depends on your own quality and technology.” Chen Zhiwen said.

In the first ten years of time travel, Chen Zhiwen’s main business logic was to use the golden finger of the prophet to make money quickly. In this process, real estate and finance must be the fastest to make money, and even the most profitable games cannot compare. , therefore, in the early days, real estate finance was still the main focus, and various other manufacturing and technology industries were laying the foundation. Ten years later, I had a large amount of funds in hand and had certain achievements in the real estate and financial fields. At this time, If we continue to expand, we will not be able to achieve the same doubling growth as in the early stage, but we can in the industrial field. This market is too big and endless, and there are a lot of new technologies and fields.

However, the development of industry is definitely not achieved by having money, but having money can also be of great help. For example, if you want to sell electrical appliances and cars well, a lot of advertising is necessary. The most important thing is to have A large number of after-sales points, because the biggest worry for anyone who buys a new brand is that there is no after-sales service if something goes wrong after purchase, so a large amount of funds are also needed to build after-sales points. Of course, they can overlap with the sales points. .

If electrical appliances can be handed over to other people in an asset-light operation model, because they are simple and after-sales points are common, cars are different. It does not mean that one person can only repair one brand. Some masters , can repair many kinds of cars, but there are too few such people, and the more people who do intensive repairs, the higher the efficiency will be, and it will improve the quality of after-sales service. Otherwise, the cause of the problem will not be found for several days, and the customer will not be able to repair it. It’s so annoying. Therefore, if you want to sell cars in one place, the after-sales service needs to be intensive, otherwise, it can only be a niche brand.

The high profits earned in the real estate financial market in the early days will come into use at this time. In addition, in this era, the real estate market in Southeast Asia is also developing rapidly. While direct investment benefits, it can also assist the development of its own automobile industry. , it can be said that it kills two birds with one stone, but no matter how luxurious it is, it cannot fully serve itself. Hundreds of automobile terminal chain stores throughout Southeast Asia accept cars of various brands, and at the same time, they will try their best to provide after-sales services of each brand.

Whether it is Wuling, Mini or AMC, they are just one of them. They have certain additional resources, but whether they can sell well ultimately depends on their own quality.

“Don’t worry, Chen Sheng, we understand this. Our Wuling is not a good car, but at this price, it is definitely very good.” Wei Shihao said confidently. Wuling is positioned as a commercial vehicle, not for enjoyment. Most people buy it to make money, just like a small truck. Therefore, it does not need comfort functions, so there is no need to spend on anti-vibration and anti-shake. There are too many costs and resources, as long as they are not outrageous, and coupled with the support and control of the entire industry chain, the costs for all parties have been reduced to very low.

“Well, the positioning of the Wuling brand is a low-price strategy. Taking this to the extreme is our goal.” Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

As long as the price is low enough, it is a good car. Just like in later generations, a 200,000 Citroen is industrial garbage, and a 120,000 Citroen is an industrial miracle. Not to mention, it is a commercial investment in itself. Of course, the lower the cost, the better. Of course, there will be some people who buy it and use it as a car. This happens in the Mainland and Southeast Asia. But isn’t the reason why these people buy it because it is cheap?

In the era of traditional oil trucks, if you want to compete for a new world, in fact, this is basically the only way. For example, Hyundai, or the mainland private car companies that emerged more than ten years later, initially adopted a low-price strategy. Bypassing areas that car companies like Volkswagen and Toyota look down upon, survive first and then slowly improve themselves. This road is difficult and it will take a long time to succeed, but at least you can survive first. Otherwise, if you directly launch a mid-priced car without any popularity, you will die within a year.

Only when the electric car era first appeared, and the market was completely blank, did we have such an opportunity. Tesla and several new forces in the mainland took advantage of this blank opportunity to directly position themselves as luxury brands and become an instant hit. What if? Oil trucks will all die if you play like this.

“Understood, we have also been thinking of ways to reduce costs and reduce fuel consumption.” Wei Shihao nodded and added: “But in addition to Wuling, Jeep and AMC can still strive to become mid-range or even high-end brands.”

“Well, you can indeed try. Their positioning is considered mid-range, but the pure sedan market is difficult. We still have to go off-road. This in itself is also Jeep’s strength.” Chen Zhiwen said.

“Off-road? What Chen Sheng means is that we need to increase investment in the off-road field?” Wei Shihao asked.

“Yes, and no.” Chen Zhiwen said with a smile: “I say no because off-roading itself is actually a small market and a niche field. It’s not that I don’t like it, but the price/performance ratio is very low. If you invest a lot of money, even if you can Success, at most, will only get some good reviews, which doesn’t mean much. Just like the sports car, it won’t reach a large scale, so this is not a priority for our resources. We will wait until the scale becomes larger in the future.

The reason why I say yes is because most people like big cars and cars with high visibility, especially men, so cars cannot satisfy them to a large extent, so we have to build models that this group of people need. , However, in terms of appearance, it does not need to be as boxy as a jeep, it should be similar to an ordinary car, and fuel efficiency must also be taken into consideration, otherwise high fuel consumption will be a big problem. ”

In this world, most people like big cars, just like houses. Who doesn’t like to live in a big one instead of a small one? Unless it’s really too big, the kind that will get lost at home may not be suitable.

In later generations, large models are more popular in the United States and Mainland China, while the opposite is true in Europe and Japan. But is it really because Europeans and Japanese like small cars? The answer is no, because the infrastructure and urban structure make it difficult for large cars to pass, and there is a lack of fuel. Therefore, the entire country’s policies and people’s car purchases favor small models. But in the heart, who doesn’t like bigger cars? That’s the United States. Compared with those selling small ones in the mainland, most likely they will not buy large ones because of budget or parking problems.

Furthermore, it can also be seen from the rise of private car companies in mainland China in later generations that SUVs were the first to gain momentum. CC relied on this to become the leader of private car companies in one fell swoop. Even if it were not for the rise of the electric vehicle industry, It is really difficult to challenge a joint venture in the car field.

“It doesn’t need the power of an off-road vehicle, but the size of the space must be consistent.” Wei Shihao thought for a while and said.

“Yes, that’s pretty much what it means, but the motivation shouldn’t be too weak, at least it’s about the same.” Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, “This is an idea of ​​mine. How to turn it into a project or even a product in the future will be discussed internally.”

“Okay, Chen Sheng.” Wei Shihao nodded and said. (End of chapter)