Chapter 539: The Art of Trade-Offs

Because Fan Wubing had doubts about the Kodak acquisition, he began to collect more in-depth materials to conduct an in-depth analysis of the entire acquisition. The original six people involved in the matter also increased to twenty people to discuss the matter.

The conclusion is that the actual significance of this acquisition is nothing more than that Kodak actually spent less than 200 million US dollars to obtain a three-year monopoly in the Chinese film industry, in an attempt to completely destroy Fujifilm at the expense of this. Drive out of the Chinese market and make yourself the sole dominant player in the Chinese market.

"It's a bit unkind to do this." Fan Wubing had a relatively positive attitude towards this matter before, but after seeing the details of the actual acquisition, he became a little unhappy.

No wonder this matter has been discussed for several years, mainly because the conditions inside are so outrageous, and I don’t know what Boss Zhu thinks. This matter is really not a good thing. If you only look at the glamorous appearance, everyone You may think it’s nothing, but after you notice the inside story, you’ll feel disgusted with this matter and very disgusted with Kodak’s sinister intentions.

Fan Wubing investigated more information and found out that Ye Ying joined Kodak mainly because of Pei Xuede, the president of Kodak. Before becoming the president of Kodak, Pei Xuede was the president of Motorola. He once invited Ye Ying to join Motorola, but he was rejected.

At that time, Ye Ying had just been appointed as Minister Counselor by the U.S. government. She also had a smooth journey in the position of Minister Commercial Counselor and did an outstanding job. Her car could freely enter and leave major central government agencies in China, including Zhongnanhai. , its government relations are evident.

Later, Pei Xuede joined Kodak and was invited again, but Ye Ying did not refuse.

Although Ye Ying has repeatedly claimed that her joining Kodak has nothing to do with her government connections, her government connections obviously played an important role in the final issuance of the agreement, because the negotiation of the Kodak acquisition agreement itself is a classic. government relations operations.

So far, the negotiations have lasted four years, and the project involves six provinces, ten cities and four ministries. There are two main techniques for government public relations. First, with the efforts of Kodak, the central government set up a central coordination group for this project last year, composed of government officials from two committees and three departments. At the same time, a research report on Kodak's industry-wide joint venture model, commissioned by Kodak and written by the Transnational Corporation Research Center of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, has to a large extent eliminated the doubts of the political and academic circles about this model.

After discovering these two points, Fan Wubing took a breath of air-conditioning and thought that it was a stroke of genius for Pei Xuede to find Ye Ying. Only Ye Ying's in-depth and essential understanding of Chinese officialdom was able to accomplish this kind of industry-wide acquisition. case.

It is said that after Ye Ying joined Kodak, she set up a team of more than 20 people to specialize in government relations. In an internal working meeting, she listed the development of cooperative relations with the Chinese government as the most important one in her China strategy.

She knows very well that in China's progressive economic reform, if multinational companies want to successfully win the Chinese market, they must ask the Chinese government. And the government is not abstract, but is composed of officials who hold power. Government relations In fact, it is another kind of official relationship. To win over the government, you must first win over the main officials, or add some experts and scholars.

Of course, she is well versed in the Chinese way of doing things. Although she knows very well that government relations are the key to success in doing business in China, but many times what can be openly put on the table cannot be government relations. Otherwise something bad will happen. Multinational companies come to China with the first and only purpose of making money, but in many cases it cannot be said that they come to China for the purpose of making money.

Based on these understandings, she has repeatedly looked for opportunities and suitable ways to express her intention to be close to and serve China. For example, one time, Kodak's public relations department found six yellow-skinned Chinese scientists in all Kodak companies. Some were born in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, China, and some were even born in the United States. They could not even speak Chinese.

But Ye Ying arranged for them to all speak Chinese. It means that Kodak products are designed by Chinese people and produced in China. Kodak is the Chinese Kodak. What’s even more interesting is that in all Kodak’s factories in China, Chinese flags are planted, almost all employees are Chinese, and the slogan is that Kodak is a Chinese company.

After Fan Wubing read these investigation reports clearly, he couldn't help but rub his forehead. He already knew in his heart that if nothing unexpected happened, this case should be a done deal. Even though the entire Chinese film industry had been betrayed, No one will stand up and say anything that disagrees.

There are many reasons for this. First of all, the film industry is actually a useless industry. Although the market involved is not small, there are not many people involved, so the government dares to use it for experiments. Secondly, Kodak In-depth public relations have been carried out from both the officialdom and academia, and everything has been done flawlessly. There is no room for change.

Even though Fan Wubing knew the secrets behind this case, he couldn't help but show respect to Ye Ying. Being able to do business to this extent has basically reached the point where he can do things with ease and with clumsiness. Even if the talent is placed in one's own company, it can only be justified if it is given to a senior vice president.

Officials and businessmen, officials and businessmen, in China, officials always rank ahead of businessmen, which is the premise and the foundation. If you can't handle the officialdom, you naturally can't play the business world. In fact, if it weren't for my special experience, it would be a bit unrealistic to rely solely on business strength to build such a large industry in China.

"I guess my sudden intervention has made many people feel uneasy, right?" Fan Wubing touched his nose and was a little undecided.

If I want to ruin this matter, there are many ways, but doing so will not only do me no good at all, but also offend a large group of bureaucrats for myself and my father, which is really not worth it.

Besides, the reason why Ye Ying can be at ease in China is largely due to her grasp of China's political and economic situation, China's retreat from foreign opportunities, and the successful operation of government relations. In essence, Ye Ying is not a real strategic entrepreneur, but a brilliant red-top businessman and public relations activist. Her ideas and achievements are all blossoming on the flexible soil of opportunism.

Since the 1980s, in order to attract foreign investment and introduce advanced technology and management experience, the domestic government has provided foreign direct investors with more favorable treatment than domestic enterprises, namely national treatment, which has led to a large number of foreign-funded enterprises rushing in and quickly occupying large tracts of the Chinese market. Countless foreign managers have also stepped forward and become stars in the blind worship of foreign investment.

However, with the fundamental change in the domestic capital shortage, the technological spillover effect of foreign investment has not met expectations. While they have remitted a large amount of profits abroad, advanced core technologies have not been retained.

For example, since the establishment of the joint venture of China's automobile industry, no high-tech car has been launched, and all the cars running on the streets are branded cars. The open model of exchanging market for technology has not only failed to achieve the expected purpose, but has also brought concerns about the possible emergence of the Latin American phenomenon.

After a few years, looking back at those foreign managers who were once in the limelight, people will find that their pioneering journey in China is not as kind and beautiful as they claimed at the beginning. Monopoly, bribery, black gold marketing, problematic products, almost without exception, they have taken the biggest cake from the cracks of policies and the maximization of profits as their goals.

Of course, the domestic academic community or public opinion is also a very serious problem for the praise of foreign managers. Especially in recent years, due to the influence of the wealth effect, professional managers of major foreign companies have always been the focus of media pursuit. They use many young people's yearning for success to continuously promote their ideas, and put aside the honest management, and raise the role of various conspiracies in business operations to an unattainable height. It seems that all success is achieved under the operation of conspiracy.

This mode of thinking affects not only one generation, but also completely subverts the honest management of China that has lasted for thousands of years. In other words, the previous Chinese-style business management had some small tricks, but it was still based on the foundation of honesty. As for now, the ugliness of human nature is reflected everywhere.

So, what benefits can I get from it? Fan Wubing's thinking began to become active. Since he discovered Kodak's conspiracy, but it was inconvenient to stop it, of course he had to take advantage of it to get the most benefits. Kodak is making money with a black heart, and he can't just sit back and watch them take away all the money, right? He has to bite it hard.

Although the current digital camera technology is still in its infancy and the market size is not large, we can firmly grasp this direction and strive for a clever layout, so that Kodak can finally spit out what it has eaten. This is the best solution.

As for arguing with those people in the officialdom and those experts and scholars in the academic world, Fan Wubing has no interest in arguing with them about right and wrong. It would just be a waste of time for others to attack him.

After thinking through this, Fan Wubing made up his mind. The way to make choices is to take your long-term interests and give up your narrow-minded anger. As for a few years later, some people will always pay a heavy price for their short-sightedness.

Fan Wubing doesn't believe that Kodak's film industry plan can be popular for a few more years? By then, digital will dominate the world.