Chapter 398 Riding a Tiger and Being Difficult to Dismount
Jingnan, Wuying City, in the small reception room of Honghua Machine Tool Company.
The company's chairman, Xia Zhenfa, sat opposite Tang Zifeng and Han Weichang, who were visiting. The expressions on their faces could not be said to be enthusiastic or cold. In front of the two guests, there was tea and snacks, and the aroma wafting from the teacups could tell that this was very high-end tea. At least the host showed enough respect to the two guests.
“Mr. Can I speak out about my concerns?"
Han Weichang spoke first. He had been in contact with Xia Zhenfa several times before and was relatively familiar with him, so it was naturally more appropriate for him to do it.
Xia Zhenfa looked at Tang Zifeng, smiled slightly, and said, "I feel extremely honored that Mr. Tang can make a special trip to a small company like ours. I have heard of Mr. Tang's name ten years ago, but I never thought I would have the opportunity to sit and chat with Mr. Tang."
Tang Zifeng said lightly: "Mr. Once, because of a meeting in Yuyuan, Old Han told me about you, so I came to visit and asked Mr. Xia not to blame me for being too presumptuous."
"No, Mr. Tang is an honored guest that we can't even invite. How dare we say anything presumptuous or not?"
"I don't want to be a distinguished guest. As long as Mr. Xia doesn't say that I am a bad guest."
"Mr. Tang is joking, you are indeed an honored guest."
"Really, then I would like to thank Mr. Xia for the compliment." Tang Zifeng responded, then bypassed these polite words and went straight to the point, saying: "Mr. Xia, as Lao Han just said, I will go to Wuying this time I came here to show the sincerity of our Linji Group. I heard that Mr. Xia has some concerns about cooperating with our Linji Group. Is it convenient for me to talk about it here?"
"Actually, I can't say it's a worry. It's just that I personally have some stage fright about cooperating with a large company like Linji Group. Mr. Han knows me. I'm a worker, I have some skills, but I haven't seen much of the world. I This Honghua Machine Tool Company is not even ranked in Wuying, and it is even more insignificant in the entire Jingnan. Linhe Group is one of the top large-scale machine tool enterprise groups in our country. For a small company like us, it is really too high to reach. ." Xia Zhenfa said extremely low-key.
When Xia Zhenfa said these words, Tang Zifeng kept staring at his face. When Xia Zhenfa finished speaking, Tang Zifeng did not say anything immediately. Instead, he waited for a while, then smiled and said:
“Mr.
Xia Zhenfa was stunned: "Mr. Tang, where did you start talking about this?"
"Since Lao Han and I can come to your Honghua company, it is impossible not to learn about your company's situation in advance. Last year alone, your company produced an output value of more than 20 million, of which 30% of the products were sold to Foreign. Mr. Xia, you yourself have been abroad more than a dozen times, participated in many machine tool exhibitions held in the United States, Japan, and Germany, and you can also communicate with foreign businessmen in English.
“Mr.
Tang Zifeng asked. His tone of voice was very calm, with a hint of sarcasm.
"Well……"
Xia Zhenfa was choked. He said that he had never seen much of the world, which was of course just a self-effacing statement in order to tactfully reject Tang Zifeng's request for cooperation. If it were a person with some sense of authority, he would have retreated after hearing such words.
Linji Group had previously sent people to discuss cooperation with him, but the method he adopted was to simply ignore the other party and not talk to the other party at all.
Tang Zifeng is the general manager of Linji Group and is well-known in the industry. Xia Zhenfa said that he had heard of Tang Zifeng's name as early as ten years ago, which was not false. Xia Zhenfa could not directly give Tang Zifeng a cold reception. It was more appropriate to use self-deprecation to block Tang Zifeng's mouth.
But who would have expected that Tang Zifeng would not play any euphemism with him at all, but directly claimed that Xia Zhenfa's self-effacement was an insult to him and Han Weichang, which meant that he did not know how to chat.
"Mr. Tang, you misunderstood." Xia Zhenfa organized the words in his mind and defended in vain: "I have indeed been abroad several times. Compared with some private enterprise owners in our Wuying, um, I am indeed still I have seen a little bit of the world. However, in front of you and Mr. Han, the little bit of world I have seen is really nothing..."
Tang Zifeng interrupted him and said politely:
“Mr. Pretty smart, right? As for Mr. Xia, you are able to break through difficult technical issues such as superhard surface cutting, have applied for dozens of patents, and own a large-scale company, so you are naturally considered a smart person.
"Since we are all smart people, is it interesting to talk in a roundabout way like this? We are not filming a bloody TV series, so we are going to have some ambiguity. We three big men, talk half of the story and leave half of it, and guess each other's Xinxin, if you don’t feel sick, I still feel sick.”
"...Mr. Tang is really quick to talk, no wonder..."
Xia Zhenfa was defeated by Tang Zifeng. He mumbled nonchalantly and didn't know what to say next.
Xia Zhenfa was originally a worker in a small state-owned factory in Wuying, and he had some technical talent. When he was a worker, he made several innovations in the machine tools he used, which greatly improved production efficiency. Later, he resigned and went to work and set up the Honghua Machine Tool Company, which specialized in producing machine tools that he had improved, thus earning his first pot of gold.
Unlike other local small bosses, Xia Zhenfa has always believed in relying on technology to conquer the market. After the company made some profits, he recruited a group of college students to follow him in technology development, and then introduced the developed new technologies to the market, forming a virtuous cycle.
Because he firmly believes that technology is king, Xia Zhenfa is somewhat arrogant and is not very good at dealing with others. Of course, as Tang Zifeng said, people who can build a company to such a scale must be a little clever, but when meeting people like Tang Zifeng who make a career out of playing tricks, he is a little constrained.
"To be honest, we are interested in the super-hard surface cutting technology you are currently developing. Our group technology department analyzed the patents you applied for and believes that your research ideas are correct and have broken through many key breakthroughs. Technical obstacles, if there is sufficient investment in the future, mature technology should be able to fill the domestic gap.
"We want to cooperate with you because we are optimistic about the application prospects of this technology. This technology can also play an important role in the upgrading of several of our existing machine tool products. Therefore, we want to cooperate with Honghua Company seriously. Yes, Mr. Xia doesn't have to doubt this." Tang Zifeng talked eloquently.
"I have never doubted this." Xia Zhenfa responded in a low voice. He was somewhat shocked by Tang Zifeng's domineering attitude, and he didn't dare to talk nonsense anymore, for fear that Tang Zifeng would catch him again.
"As for the situation on your side, Mr. Xia, we are very clear about it." Tang Zifeng changed the subject and talked about Xia Zhenfa:
"Honghua Company had a net profit of more than 4 million yuan last year, but all of it was invested in the research and development of superhard surface cutting. You originally thought that this project could be completed with an investment of 10 million, but now the investment has exceeded 20 million, but it is far from Success is still far away. If you throw all the profits from this year, next year, and the year after that into it, you can’t say you can complete this research and development.
"Honghua is not the only institution engaged in superhard surface cutting in China, and others have very strong financial strength. It can be said that if there is no external investment and it is supported by Honghua's own profits, I am afraid it will not wait. When you succeed, other companies have already taken the lead, leaving all the technology you have worked so hard to develop in your own hands.
“Mr. Where did all the cleverness in technology go?"
"Well..." Xia Zhenfa looked ugly. He wanted to say something to refute Tang Zifeng and save his face, but he couldn't find the right words.
Tang Zifeng is right, there is no need to beat around the bush in a conversation between smart people. Although Tang Zifeng himself is not a technical person, he has a powerful Canglong Research Institute behind him. The technical details of Honghua Company cannot be hidden from Tang Zifeng at all.
Superhard surface cutting is a technology with great application prospects, and many domestic institutions are researching it. If Honghua Company wants to make money from this technology, it must complete all research and development before other institutions. If the research and development speed slows down due to funding problems, it is very likely that other domestic institutions will catch up and leave Honghua Company behind. By then, all the time and money Xia Zhenfa has invested in this subject will be wasted. .
Xia Zhenfa acted calmly in front of Tang Zifeng and refused to accept the olive branch extended by Linji Group, but in fact he was also very uneasy in his heart. Now Tang Zifeng has exposed this point and wants to force Xia Zhenfa to tell the truth.
"Mr. Tang, you are right. We are indeed in a difficult situation now."
After much hesitation, Xia Zhenfa had to admit defeat. Anyway, regarding cooperation, he had a bottom line in his heart. It wouldn't be a big deal to discuss the company's strategic issues with Tang Zifeng now, so why should he pretend to be calm?