Chapter 1731 Toyota's Panic

Before Li Mu's private jet landed in Boston, the news that Makino Technology and Ford had reached an acquisition intention has already triggered the coverage of the entire Western media.

Although Makino Technology has a wide range of businesses, from social software to portal websites to online music, online games, hardware development, data services, etc., these are all 108,000 miles away from the auto manufacturing industry.

Such an Internet company suddenly wants to do a car, which surprises the public, just like NASA suddenly decides to do real estate, because these two industries are completely unrelated.

Moreover, what is even more incomprehensible to the public is that Li Mu bought three brands from Ford in one breath. This battle is indeed a bit amazing.

No one is more surprised than the people in the auto industry, especially the top executives of Japanese and German car brands.

At this stage, no matter Li Mu enters any industry, it is enough to make people in this industry nervous. He suddenly entered the auto industry with such a big battle, giving the industry the feeling that he is about to face an invasion.

What Li Mu is good at is breaking and standing, entering an industry, destroying the industry first, and then rebuilding his home from the ruins.

Just like an mp3 player, when mango-me came in, the whole industry was greatly affected. It is far less expensive than it is, and it is far less expensive than it is. The products at the same price are also more cost-effective than it. A lot lower.

In this way, whether it is a product stronger than mango-me, a product weaker than it, or a product with the same strength, it will be greatly affected.

Li Mu suddenly entered the auto industry, and no one knew whether he would use the mango-me style to make cars.

Among them, the only calm, is Germany's Daimler.

Daimler already knew Li Mu's intention to acquire these three brands in advance through Davidson of the goldberg family, and they also got Li Mu's motivation to buy these three brands from Davidson: feelings.

Knowing that it is feelings, Daimler and its most important brand Mercedes-Benz are not too worried.

But other brands are more or less worried.

Although BMW thinks that from the perspective of the three brands that Li Mu acquired, even if they do well, they can't be better than BMW, but they are afraid that Li Mu will do the price-performance ratio. Competitor models, that's really a headache.

The public is also a little worried that Li Mu will take the cost-effective route. Once Li Mu plays the way of "my things may not be as good as yours, but they must be much cheaper than yours", it will be enough to cause headaches.

Cars are like this. If Jaguar's mid-size sedan is not much different in price from BMW, Audi or Mercedes-Benz mid-size sedan, the German troika will never take it seriously.

Of course, they are not afraid of Jaguar's price reduction. No matter how much it is reduced, there must be a cost there. If the reduction is less, it is not enough to widen the gap between themselves and the troika. Can't live.

However, once Li Mu stepped in, the routine would be completely different.

Just like the people who used to do mp3, they all felt that no matter how much Li Mu lowered, he could never fall below the cost line. As a result, Li Mu had a way to control his cost to be lower than theirs.

For example, this guy directly set up a shopping website, set up a logistics company, put aside all the middlemen and channel costs, logistics costs, and sold mp3 directly to users online, who can play him?

Fortunately, the automotive industry is completely different from mp3, mp3 is an ultra-lightweight product, and a car is a heavyweight product, and it may be the most heavyweight industrial product in the civilian class. For most families with cars, the most valuable thing is the house. The second is the car. The complexity behind this heavy product is also exponentially multiplied. If Li Mu can sell mp3 online, can he sell a car online? impossible……

Here,

The biggest worry is the Japanese auto companies.

The Japanese are small and highly competitive, so Japanese entrepreneurs pay more attention to details and a sense of crisis.

Knowing that Li Mu wanted to make a car, the executives of Honda, Toyota, and Nissan were all anxious and sweating.

Especially Toyota, they have the largest stall and the most serious sense of crisis.

Regardless of the jet lag, the senior management of Toyota North America called the senior management of the Japanese headquarters in the early morning to hold a video conference. There was almost no time difference, and told the domestic senior management the news of Li Mu's acquisition of three auto brands under Ford.

The top executives in Japan were almost terrified.

Toyota is different from Ford. Ford's management model is to open up and close, so success is also it, and failure is also it. Toyota is taking a step by step, just like Li Mu planned for himself, one step at a time.

Looking back at Toyota for so many years, at any time and at any stage, there are best-selling hot models. They take the road of accumulating hot models, come up with a hot model, and then maintain the popularity of this hot model while developing new ones. The explosion of models, in this way, more and more explosion models.

Therefore, Toyota has many highly competitive models at any time. In other words, most of the models produced by this company are very competitive.

Ford's approach is far less steady than Toyota's step-by-step approach. Their route is to smash the stick, smash the stick, and throw away the previous achievements.

For example, Mondeo and Focus, these two models used to be extremely popular all over the world, but then they became cold. Look at Toyota's Corolla and Camry, the sales have never dropped for many years.

Yihu also had a good time for a while, and then it gradually cooled down, but look at rav4, one month's sales top Yihu for a year.

It is precisely because Toyota has always been extremely steady in walking, that it was cold at the back of Li Mu's sudden intrusion.

Although the aged Shoichiro Toyoda has gray hair, he still works hard. At five o'clock in the morning local time in Japan, he was sitting in his study, facing the computer and the seven or eight Toyota executives who were on video calls. With a worried look on his face, he said, "We must be vigilant about Li Mu's next move, and we must do whatever it takes to inquire about Li Mu's car plans, and we must always be prepared to deal with Li Mu's sudden attack!"

The CEO of North America nodded heavily and said with a solemn expression: "Please rest assured, Chairman, I will do everything possible to master Li Mu's every move in the automotive field!"

Toyoda Shoichiro sighed: "I thought Li Mu's next target was electronic appliances. Last month, I also reminded the chairman of Sony and Panasonic to be vigilant about Li Mu's actions. I didn't expect Li Mu to suddenly acquire Ford today. Three brands, this guy, is coming!"

Toyoda Akira, who has separated from Toyoda Shoichiro and is an executive at Toyota, said: "Father, Li Mu is very strong, but you don't have to worry too much. If Li Mu really has a strong destructive power in the automotive field, He has to pass five hurdles and kill six generals before he can stand in front of us."

What Toyoda Akira said is true. Toyota is the car brand with the strongest comprehensive strength and the highest profit margin in the world. If there is a natural disaster in the auto industry, those companies with weaker strength and lower profit margins will not be able to withstand it first.

However, Toyoda Shoichiro was worried, he said with a serious expression: "China is one of our largest markets, and it is too close to Japan, I am worried that Li Mu will pull these three brands back to China and occupy the Chinese market first. Then take China as the base camp and spread to neighboring countries, and then we will bear the brunt."

Akira Toyoda said: "Father, it is very possible that Li Mu will occupy the Chinese market, but it should not be possible for him to enter the Japanese domestic market. Over the years, except for a small number of luxury car brands entering the Japanese market, from the From the high-end to the low-end car market, no foreign brand has been able to threaten us locally.”

Shoichiro Toyoda shook his head and said, "Li Mu is young and very disruptive, no one knows if he can disrupt the auto industry, and he is the spiritual leader of young people around the world, and he is madly worshipped by young people. If a car is actually produced, without him taking the initiative to sell it to Japan, young Japanese people will also take the initiative to buy it. You should be very clear about the demand and obsession of our young people with idols."

Akira Toyoda fell silent for a while.

That's right, when it comes to Japanese young people's demand for and obsession with idols, it can be said to be the first in the world.

Even if there are no idols, the creation of virtual idols is crazy. Once an idol successfully captures Japanese fans, no matter what he or she sells to Japanese fans, there is a strong market.

Fans who are reluctant to spend a penny on themselves, but don't hesitate to go bankrupt to buy all the idols' peripherals, follow the idols everywhere to support, and throw money everywhere, are common in Japan.

Although Li Mu is a Chinese, he is the biggest idol in the eyes of Japanese young people. The Japanese media once did an interview. Among the Japanese young people between 15 and 25 years old, among the most admired modern celebrities, ranked first It was Li Mu.

The most frightening thing is that the proportion of young people who admire Li Mu is higher than that of college students.

Li Mu gave a speech at Harvard to Harvard and MIT students. That speech inspired young people all over the world, especially college students, and Japanese college students were even more shocked by him.

The Japanese after the war had a very serious mentality. While they felt that they were the super-elite in Asia, or even the entire yellow race, they also felt that they could not lift their heads in front of white people.

Japanese young people used to go to China, South Korea, and other Asian countries with a full sense of superiority, but when they came to the United States, they didn't even dare to speak loudly.

At a time when Japanese young people regarded it as their greatest honor to study in the United States, Li Mu, as a yellow race like them, was able to make the top students of Harvard and MIT pay homage at Harvard like Julius Caesar. The impact of young people is unparalleled.

Under this premise, if Li Mu publishes an autobiography and sells it to Japan, young Japanese people will definitely have one. If Li Mu publishes a car, who can guarantee that these fans will not give money to "support"?