RPAGF #467 - Avoiding Traps
#467 - Avoiding Traps
"What are their conditions?" Ren Zhong asked, after sorting out his thoughts for a while.
"A 50:50 joint venture. We would inject all intellectual property rights of the product into the new company, specifically targeting the European market. However, the car brand needs to include the VW logo," Chief of Staff Ye said.
"That's absolutely unacceptable." Upon hearing this condition, Ren Zhong immediately felt there was no need to continue the cooperation. "If they want to annex our brand and also inject intellectual property rights, there's absolutely no need for cooperation. We can take off even without their involvement, it'll just take a bit more time. They shouldn't even dream of such a thing that would lead to loss of autonomy."
"This is completely incompatible with our automotive brand development strategy. We must continuously build our brand in the automotive field. Anything that weakens our brand is unacceptable."
Chief of Staff Ye didn't have much understanding of this aspect. After all, they experienced an era where these things weren't really discussed, so he was still somewhat confused after listening.
"Didn't we also give up brand development with Airbus in our cooperation with Rolls-Royce? Why is it okay for airliners, but not for cars? They said that switching to the VW trademark would lead to better sales volume and prices," Chief of Staff Ye sincerely asked for guidance.
"There's no choice regarding airliners. We need to obtain an airworthiness certificate, but cars don't require any special permits. Moreover, the customers are different. For airliners, it's mostly a small number of corporate clients. Their evaluation of an airliner product is completely different from ordinary customers buying cars. The influence of the brand has some effect on this product, but it's not decisive.
What airliners need is safety, reliability, and economy. Airlines can only truly make money with these two. Other things are not important to airline customers. Few people on airplanes care about what kind of plane their flight is on. Unless the plane has a major accident that makes people uncomfortable, they usually don't have much choice."
"Selling 4-digit numbers of airliners is considered a bestseller, but for cars, if you don't sell seven-digit numbers, it's not considered a successful model. So, the number of customers for cars is countless times more than for airliners, at least several orders of magnitude different. One is a consumer product, and the other is a production tool. These are two completely different fields."
Ren Zhong patiently explained for a while.
Chief of Staff Ye listened, seemingly understanding but not quite.
He hadn't experienced the era of explosive growth in commodities, and didn't have much awareness of the fierce competition in consumer goods. Therefore, his understanding of branding was very superficial.
Fortunately, Chief of Staff Ye had one good thing: he would consult Ren Zhong's opinion on major matters first. If Ren Zhong said no, then it was definitely no.
Therefore, in the field of economic development led by Chief of Staff Ye, there haven't been any major deviations in these years.
Whether it's industrial planning or the direction of technological focus, they are currently on the cutting edge of the times.
"So, are we directly abandoning this cooperation?" Chief of Staff Ye asked.
"It's okay to cooperate, but we need to renegotiate the conditions with them. A 50:50 joint venture can be considered, but instead of injecting intellectual property rights, we'll authorize the joint venture to use it by charging patent fees. The brand cannot be changed, and the strengthening of brand building is absolutely non-negotiable. We shouldn't be greedy for the short-term promotion of sales by the VW brand. Instead, we should consider making our own brand comparable to major brands like VW and FORD through long-term efforts. We should view this matter from the long-term perspective of a century-old brand. The future competition of products in the world is the competition of brands. The brand awareness of current consumers is not very strong, because current products are not rich enough. Now is an era of product shortage, so it seems that products of any brand, as long as the product strength is good enough, can easily stand out and become a hit. But this golden age will soon pass. Perhaps in a little over ten or twenty years, after the level of world industrial development rapidly improves, we will enter an era of oversupply in many products. In this situation where users have many choices, the added value of the brand will be reflected."
Ren Zhong continued, setting the tone for the cooperation method.
Brand and intellectual property rights are the soul of the independent development of the Dongda automobile industry, and these two points must not be lost.
"These foreigners are really full of tricks. They look very sincere and honest, but they are full of calculations," Chief of Staff Ye said after listening to Ren Zhong's explanation. He now had a better understanding of the traps in this cooperation.
Don't think that these well-dressed, blue-eyed, red-nosed people seem very gentlemanly, but they don't hesitate to set traps and deceive people.
"This matter still needs you, Brother Ren, to keep a close eye on it. We believe that if cooperation is still possible, we should try to facilitate a win-win cooperation. Otherwise, it's better not to cooperate," Chief of Staff Ye felt it was worth it to seek Ren Zhong's advice.
"We do need to be wary of being deceived by foreigners in our foreign cooperation. The most important thing in our commercial cooperation is to maintain the initiative, especially for products where the technology is in our hands. We must ensure that intellectual property rights and brands are firmly in our hands. Don't lose autonomy due to interference from foreign forces. Even if our strength is weaker at this stage, we have huge growth potential in the domestic market, and we will develop sooner or later if given some time," Ren Zhong said.
"Although we advocate that science and technology have no borders, in actual operation, what is ours must not be given away at all, and what belongs to others must also slowly become ours."
There are only so many resources in this world. If you don't fight for them, do you expect others to feed you?
Impossible.
Even after another hundred years, those who are too poor to eat will not be given a full meal.
"Yes, yes, that's right. What's ours is ours, and what belongs to others can also become ours," Chief of Staff Ye agreed. "By the way, Li Yunlong's deal with the Athens Navy, he negotiated a deal for 3 ships with installment payments, but without interest. It's estimated that we'll lose tens of millions of dollars in interest. Some people think it's a bit of a loss."
Ren Zhong wasn't just seeing this one opportunity.
“Once they use our stuff, frankly speaking, although our Jianghai-class is already third-tier in our Eastern Continent, its combat power doesn't follow the old frigate and destroyer concept. It's a brand-new concept of over-the-horizon strike and all-around defense, anti-submarine, and anti-ship capabilities! In the short term, I don't think European frigates and destroyers can catch up quickly. Perhaps only the Rogue Eagle side could follow suit, but their costs would be much higher than ours.”
“I believe that within ten years, our Jianghai-class and Luhai-class destroyers will be top-tier in the Mediterranean. Ten years later, someone might catch up, but by then, we can sell the first-generation Luyang-class. Our Luhai-class and Luyang-class can be updated to the second or even third generation, while the Jianghai-class will no longer be updated with new versions. Considering our maritime borders and the future role of the navy, destroyers starting at 6,000 tons are suitable for long-range combat needs, and 10,000-ton destroyers are likely to be the main force for future long-range operations, while the 4,000-ton class doesn't need further development.”
“Therefore, selling the first-generation Jianghai-class and Luhai-class won't allow opponents to grasp our true strength. Although the Athens Navy has some manufacturing capabilities, they definitely don't have the possibility of successfully replicating missiles and radar electronics. So, the possibility of our technology being completely understood is basically non-existent.
But it can increase the financial resources for our navy to build new ships. Selling 10 ships is equivalent to adding 5 ships for us. Missing this opportunity would be failing this era.”
“If that's the case, then we can rest assured. Let the negotiation team turn this intention into an agreement as soon as possible,” Chief of Staff Ye said, nodding frequently after listening.
No one has more say in the technological development trend of Eastern Continent than Ren Zhong. If Ren Zhong says these are two main battle equipment that will soon be outdated in Eastern Continent, then there must be new main battle equipment to replace them.
In fact, this is also true.
Currently, the radar on the Jianghai-class and Luhai-class is basically the initial version of the first-generation sea-based radar. It was updated to a new generation of sea-based radar on the Luyang-class. Both the transmitting and receiving modules have undergone generational updates, basically reaching 80% of the level of the initial top plate radar. Thanks to the improvement of computer computing power, it has begun to have preliminary three-coordinate positioning functions.
The air detection range is 150 kilometers, which can detect aerial combat aircraft targets 150 kilometers away, and the sea detection range is 30 kilometers. This is almost the strongest among sea-based radars at this stage.
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However, with the successful development of the Zhi-5 helicopter, after installing the shipborne helicopter early warning radar, the detection range of the ship still reaches about 100 kilometers. Both the Jianghai-class and the Luhai-class have helicopter pads, and the Luhai-class and Luyang-class are even designed with a hangar, which can be fully loaded with two shipborne helicopters taking off alternately for radar alert when necessary.
For destroyers, this is a crucial step in extending firepower and precision strikes. The current Eastern Continent anti-ship missiles support radar guidance.
Of course, the older models sold to the Athens Navy obviously don't have these functions, nor will they be equipped with shipborne helicopters.
“Although the displacement of our new generation of naval main ships, the Luyang-class II and Luhai-class II, hasn't increased much, the technological content will increase greatly. The most important change is the breakthrough in our personal computers. The computers of the new generation of main ships will all replace transistor computers and directly use the new generation of integrated circuit computers. This will not only greatly increase the computing speed, but also greatly reduce the space occupied on the ships, providing more living space for the crew on the ships.”
“At the same time, the degree of automation of our weapons will also be greatly improved. Computer-assisted aiming and control equipment will be more handy. The number of operators required on our ships will be further reduced, making it possible for the crew to live better, thereby making the ship's sustainable combat capability stronger.”
Ren Zhong said. “We make money through military trade to develop a new generation of ships. This is a very positive cycle, and we have no reason to refuse.”
With the intentions of these two, the military trade negotiations for the Athens Navy's introduction of ships entered the fast lane.
Just as Li Yunlong analyzed, after comparing the performance indicators of the Jianghai-class and Luhai-class destroyers with the surrounding navies, the Athens Navy confirmed that they were unique, and they couldn't refuse the temptation of naval leadership in the Mediterranean.
Although the budget was a bit tight, under the relaxed payment terms of a ten-year installment plan, the Athens Navy tried its best to fight for the budget in the cabinet. Even if they argued and quarreled several times, they didn't change their original intention. Finally, they got the budget as they wished and secretly signed a military trade agreement with Eastern Continent to introduce 3 destroyers.
At this time, Old Li had ended his global voyage and returned to Eastern Continent. Although he didn't continue to participate in the negotiation work, Old Li was very happy when the news of the final signing of the agreement reached his ears.
Old Li pulled Kong Er Lengzi to Ren Zhong's house for a small celebration.
Unfortunately, Ding Wei was not in the country at this time. As the leader of the new generation of grain giants, Ding Wei now looks like an international tycoon, often traveling between Asia-Africa, Black Africa, and Europe, running around for grain.
Now there are more and more plantations. With the hybrid technology from Eastern Continent, coupled with the fertile land of Black Africa and Eastern Continent's complete set of agricultural mechanization products, Ding Wei is getting closer and closer to his original goal of 100 million mu.
Of course, until now, EIC Company has not made back its capital. However, seeing its achievements, which now benefit nearly 100 million people, Ding Wei has deeply fallen in love with this industry and completely forgotten that he was once a resourceful and capable general!
He travels around, either negotiating with local areas to obtain arable land, or conducting commercial negotiations for the sale of plantation grain internationally.
Although most of the grain is taken by Daofu, the plantations are not only planting grain. Now, non-grain crops such as sesame, cotton, and soybeans have been added. EIC has embarked on a diversified development path and has begun to engage in new side businesses such as oil extraction, feed production, and food processing.
In the future, plantations will form an integrated planting and breeding model and begin to evolve into Plantation Generation 2!
After all, it is difficult to make back the capital by simply selling grain, but entering deep processing is another new world! (End of this chapter)