Chapter 547: Joint Venture, but Not Comprador
After all, Torch Group is nominally a supplier, so Chang Haonan certainly cannot directly participate in the negotiations between Bingfei Group and AgustaWestland.
In fact, now he doesn't have as much time and energy as he did last year to personally battle with others about various details.
Under normal circumstances, it is good to set a general direction, and more specific operations can be left to other people.
Anyway, the design patent for the helicopter's low-noise rotor is in the hands of Torch Group, which means that it has the final say and final decision-making power no matter what.
What he was more interested in were actually the other Italian companies that came with Agusta.
They came to China with no specific purpose. Simply put, they were looking for business opportunities.
There's nothing we can do about it.
When Chinese people do business with foreign countries, especially in the first ten or twenty years after the reform and opening up, they actually rely heavily on inertia.
Whether it was a plan or a coincidence, Germany and Japan seized the opportunity at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, thus taking advantage of the dividends in the following decades.
Even until the time before Chang Haonan was reborn, the products and companies of these two countries still had a filter in the minds of many Chinese people.
The Italians missed that window of time, and by the time they reacted, there were only scraps left.
In the original timeline, they ultimately failed to replace Japan and Germany on China's side.
However, for Chang Haonan, who has knowledge twenty years ahead of his time, these businessmen from Southern Europe are indeed very good partners.
On the one hand, it is clear who is more likely to make concessions, a country that is eager to do business and open up its market, or a country that has made money in China for twenty years.
On the other hand, Italy is known as the "China of Europe". Although the two countries are thousands of miles (km) apart geographically, they have some similarities in cultural customs.
It is difficult to quantify how much impact this kind of thing will have on international exchanges, but what Chang Haonan knows is that in the future foreign acquisitions of Chinese companies, Italy will be the least obstructed.
So it’s absolutely right to plan ahead now.
When visiting the helicopter in the morning, Chang Haonan had already deliberately tested it.
When he talked about Torch Group's exclusive technology in finite element calculations, several people's eyes immediately became hot.
Therefore, he is very sure that quite a few of them have the intention to cooperate with him.
Therefore, after lunch that day, Chang Haonan went to Lin Hai, the deputy director of the International Cooperation Department of the Science and Technology Commission, who was accompanying him, and asked for a specific list of the Italian delegation.
He originally wanted to find a lucky person among them and induce him.
As a result, the initiative shown by the other party far exceeded expectations.
Lin Hai handed the information Chang Haonan wanted to the latter, and then reported:
"Mr. Chang, a member of the Italian delegation, Mr. Mattia Chiravadi, the representative of C.B. Ferrari, just found me and wants to meet with you in private."
Chang Haonan was stunned when he heard the company name.
But he knew that Ferrari, which built sports cars, was probably just a brand under the Fiat Group, and it had already cooperated with Jinling Motors.
So this company is most likely another company.
So Chang Haonan pretended to be steady and opened the information that Lin Hai brought to him, and soon found the C.B. Ferrari company.
It is a company specializing in high-precision CNC machine tools.
It seems to have little to do with Ferrari in the automotive world.
When it comes to cooperation technology, it certainly exists.
In the process of developing heavy-duty die forging presses, many patents were generated to optimize the machine tool structure and processing methods based on numerical calculations.
However, because the Chinese machine tool industry lagged far behind in more basic areas such as topology optimization, tool life and positioning accuracy, his patents could not be used for a while.
It can be used as a bargaining chip for cooperation.
Thinking of this, Chang Haonan closed the document in his hand, raised his head and said to Lin Hai, who had been waiting beside him:
"No problem, let's find a conference room nearby in No. 603. It's best if it's just the two of us."
…
It turns out that Italians can escape the free-spirited stereotype as long as there is business.
Soon, Chang Haonan met Mattia Chiravadi in a small but private conference room.
The two of them actually had relatively close contact when they were in the outfield, but the late winter in Hojing was not very warm after all, so everyone covered themselves up tightly at that time.
So, when the two met again, they were almost simultaneously shocked by each other's age.
The first thought that flashed through my mind was:
"Why is he so young?"
Fortunately, both of them have been through many battles and have rich experience, so they no longer easily show their inner activities on their faces.
So after just some opening remarks of compliments and compliments, we quickly got down to business.
However, it cannot be said that this content is completely meaningless at the beginning.
At least Chang Haonan knew that this C.B. Ferrari company was a combination of three surnames. The Ferrari among them was Giuseppe Ferrari, which happened to have the same name as Enzo Ferrari.
Mattia Chiravadi is the son of another company founder, Augustus Chiravadi.
It’s no wonder that he has reached such a high position in the company at such a young age.
"Dr. Chang, when I was outside, I heard you and Dr. Gambelli say that your company can solve the problem of unstructured grid generation efficiency and strong divergence caused by numerical oscillation in high-precision finite element calculations? "
Chiravadi wasn’t going to keep practicing Tai Chi, but would get straight to the point.
In theory, you cannot add a doctorate title when you are studying for a Ph.D., but don't slap the smiling face. In addition, with Chang Haonan's current situation, normal people would not think that he is at risk of not graduating, so in many cases, this title is directly Added to the loan.
"That's right."
Chang Haonan nodded:
"This involves a brand-new grid generation method. Our company currently has nearly a hundred patents in related application fields and is the world's leading solution provider. If you need it, you can go to Torch Group Contact our Numerical Computing Business Department on the official website.”
According to international practice, algorithms as rules and methods of intellectual activities cannot be directly patented. Therefore, many of Torch Group's patents rely on TORCH Multiphysics software and are registered in some specific application fields.
Having said that, Chang Haonan knew that if the purpose of the other party's trip was just to find Torch Group to solve technical problems in the field of numerical calculation, then there was no need to come over specifically to find him.
What I just said was just a hard-to-get trick.
Sure enough, seeing Chang Haonan's business-like appearance, Chiravadi further clarified his purpose:
"Dr. Chang, our company's next-generation five-axis linkage machining center plans to use a full linear motor driver and a new honeycomb structure to increase the tool feed speed and realize the quick-release and quick-change capabilities of the machine tool spindle."
Even Chang Haonan almost couldn't hold back his laughter when he heard this. He quickly lowered his head and took a drink of water to keep himself from losing his composure——
I was so sleepy that I had to throw my pillow away. These two requirements happened to coincide with a batch of new technologies recently developed by Torch Group.
After calming down for a while, he forced himself to answer calmly:
"Digital simulation of machine tool structure and machining process is indeed what we are best at and have a relatively rich number of patents. I think if the conditions are right, we can definitely cooperate in this area."
The words are very clear: if the conditions are right.
This is a hint that the other party can make an offer.
Of course Chiravadi understands:
"We hope to gain exclusive EU-wide rights to use this technology."
After finishing his request, he stared at Chang Haonan and paused deliberately.
But there was no emotion seen on the latter's face.
So, Chiravadi, who was a little unsure of the details, directly brought out the king bomb:
"As a condition, after the new MCL85 vertical machining center and MOL85 horizontal machining center are put into production, we will provide your company with the exclusive agency rights for these two models throughout Asia in the form of a joint venture, and Supply at a real price that does not exceed 20% of the cost price, and the account price can also fluctuate by 10% on this basis.”
"Of course, all models of machine tools involved will provide fully open permissions and will not restrict any functions or usage scenarios."
"What do you think of this condition, Dr. Chang?"
Although the other party spoke in English, Chang Haonan could still hear extreme confidence in his tone.
Obviously, in Chiravadi's view, the situation is already certain, and he is just waiting for Chang Haonan to nod. .
It must be admitted that the other party definitely did his homework before coming to China.
You know, that is the exclusive agency right throughout Asia.
In other words, in the future, all Asian countries that want to purchase machine tool equipment or after-sales services from C.B. Ferrari will have no choice but to go to the joint venture established by Torch and C.B. Ferrari.
Even the Italian parent company cannot directly conduct sales within Asia.
And it’s still available at super low prices.
High-precision machine tools, the cost price increases by 20%.
It's almost like giving it away for free.
As for the 10% between the account price and the actual price, let alone...
I have to say that this condition is indeed in line with the appetite of Chinese enterprises in this era.
As a dealer, you don't even need to invest in a factory, as long as you have a decent office location.
Then just place an order with Yingdao according to the customer's requirements, and you can make huge profits from the middle.
In fact, this move can be just a matter of procedure.
Just send the equipment directly to the customer.
You can make money just by lying down.
And if Chang Haonan is more immoral, he can even use the influence of Torch Group in the Chinese aviation industry system to make all Chinese aviation manufacturing companies use C.B. Ferrari products.
You know, in the past, China could not buy such high-precision machine tools with unlimited functions.
If he does this, not only will there be no risk, but it will also be a great achievement...
No wonder Chiravadi feels he can handle it stably.
If it were any other person, let alone nodding, it wouldn't be unusual to just kneel down and lick him.
Unfortunately, what he met today was the Torch Group.
Chang Haonan had no prejudice against establishing a joint venture, but the "cooperation" method proposed by the other party was too comprador.
If it really wants to agree to this kind of cooperation, although the Torch Group can make a lot of money in a short period of time, and it can also take the opportunity to let the whole of China use advanced equipment that was unimaginable in the past, but for China's industrial development itself, But it doesn't have much motivating effect.
This is to abandon the fundamental and pursue the inferior.
This kind of money is relatively hot to hold.
Therefore, after deliberately pretending to think deeply, Chang Haonan shook his head in Chiravadi's surprised eyes:
"Mr. Chiravadi, I support the idea of establishing a joint venture, but I cannot agree with the cooperation method you just mentioned."
"Providing exclusive rights to use patents and technologies is not in line with our company's business philosophy and is not conducive to fair competition in the machine tool industry."
Chang Haonan simply gave Chiravadi a high-sounding reason to stop him.
But immediately after, the former performed another trick:
"However, we can change the way of cooperation."
"The form of establishing a joint venture remains unchanged, but for the new machining center you just mentioned, both of us will jointly invest capital and technology to conduct joint research and development with a 50:50 ownership ratio. After the research and development is completed, it will be developed separately in China and Italy. in production."
"In this way, since the machine tool equipment itself contains the intellectual property rights of our Torch Group, it will naturally form an exclusive right to use it. It can be the only one in the world, not to mention the EU..."
"What do you think Mr Chiravadi?"