The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Chapter 757 Freshman Year
Chen Lu is finally a freshman. Although he is not in the same major as Su Xiaoxi, it's still great that they can go to the same university.

Su Xiaoxi didn't actually spend a single penny of that 2 billion yuan; Chen Lu squandered it all on her behalf.

The start of the freshman year was incredibly lively, with people coming and going, all energetic young people.

There are also many small restaurants and shopping streets outside the university.

This place is always busiest when school starts.

Chen Pingsheng then pulled Song Yanxi aside and said, "Wife, what do you think about us opening a large bookstore here in the future?"

"It's not a good business. Opening a bookstore doesn't make money, so what's the point?"

"You're still thinking about making money? Don't you think we have enough money?"

"No, it's just that I like doing things that make money."

"Fine, you're just obsessed with money, all you think about is making money."

Song Yanxi didn't want to open a bookstore here, but Chen Pingsheng himself really wanted to, since his son would be studying here for four years.

He opened a huge bookstore outside, which helped him pass the time when he was bored.

Being able to spend another four years with Chen Lu, there couldn't be a better arrangement.

He acted immediately, calling the group to arrange for someone to take charge of the matter, as storefronts outside universities are extremely expensive.

But this meant nothing to him.

The bookstore must be large enough to meet the reading needs of university students, and also to provide a place for them to drink coffee and chat.

It's about balancing work and life.

In a location like this, it would be unrealistic to build a two-story super bookstore of five or six hundred square meters without tens of millions of yuan.

If you were to buy the storefront, the initial investment would need to be around 300 to 500 million yuan.

It's just a little money, nothing to worry about. Once this place is finished, An'an will probably be back from the sea.

He was content to be a leisurely bookstore owner for a few years.

As for his wife, she'll probably be busy with the health industry for the next few years.

Song Yanxi is now not only running large-scale health directly-operated stores, but also conducting high-end medical research and development on large-scale health equipment.

Previously, these kinds of things were controlled by foreign countries, but things are different now. Domestic technology has developed very rapidly in recent years, in all aspects.

Previously, any high-end medical equipment had to be imported from overseas.

Many of these products are now fully domestically produced.

In the eight years following the real estate boom, China has been undergoing industrial transformation and upgrading, focusing on these high-end industries.

Instead of simply being a global contract manufacturer like before.

Once this sector develops, the profits will naturally be extremely high, and it may even create a monopolistic effect to some extent.

Just like Apple back then, relying on selling iPhones and the Apple tax.

Of all the mobile phone manufacturers in the world, Apple alone takes more than 90% of the profits of the entire global mobile phone industry.

This is an undeniable miracle in any country, including in the history of commerce.

Few groups have managed to monopolize over 90% of the profits in the global supply chain.

The further technology advances, the stronger the resulting monopoly effect becomes.

Because the underlying patents and core technologies are all held by one or two groups, they naturally have the highest say in the entire industry.

The same applies to medical devices, including health and wellness equipment.

Song Yanxi relies solely on the high-end instruments developed by her own group, including the tens of thousands of health and wellness centers under its umbrella.

They easily took away nearly half of the profits of the entire domestic industry.

This is not an exaggeration, but real data. The high-end instruments developed in her company all rely on the research institutes of Tengfei AI and Tengfei Mobile.

Later, it independently established six research and development centers in the major health fields.

Once an advantage is established, it's very difficult to break. After all, many people talk about how Nokia was defeated by Apple.

But it's important to remember that Nokia is still a world-class technology giant.

Samsung, which was once comparable to Samsung, still holds the top spot in global mobile phone sales.

Once a tech giant establishes an early advantage, it is very difficult for it to collapse in a short period of time, provided it doesn't make any major mistakes.

Patented technology is its best moat and industry barrier.

Samsung and Nokia are examples of this, and the same applies to Tengfei AI Group and Tengfei New Energy.

For a conglomerate like theirs, any attempt to penetrate a smaller sector would be a disaster for that industry.

When a tech giant makes a move in a small industry, it's basically a death blow to that industry.

Even the government has to step in to regulate this area.

The reason is simple: the annual R&D expenses are in the hundreds of billions, which is something small businesses simply cannot afford.

Giants have brands they want, traffic they want, and they can even open separate policies for them.

This is something that those smaller industry peers simply cannot compare to.

At Chen Pingsheng's age, if he doesn't try to find something to do, he might become so arrogant that he'll start thinking about messing with Zhengzhi.

Because money no longer holds any appeal for him, regardless of how his three children spend it, given the simultaneous operation of so many conglomerates.

Money only gets better the more you spend it.

Since he's no longer interested in money and doesn't pursue women, only power holds the greatest appeal.

Unfortunately... in this country, a business is a business, no matter how rich it is, it will try to interfere with too much of the political situation.

Those are all extremely dangerous signals.

One wrong move and you could lose everything.

He absolutely cannot touch anything too dangerous. It would take decades for the family to acquire this item, pushing the younger generation of the Chen family forward step by step.

Opening a large bookstore outside the university town in the future would be a good idea, at least there would be a few.

Firstly, to kill some boredom during their free time, and secondly, to keep an eye on Chen Lu and the others to make sure they don't go astray during their four years of university.

With these two points, it would be enough to keep him outside the university town for four years.

Chen Pingsheng was a man of action; he quickly went to An'an Group to handle official business.

Make time for yourself as early as possible.

If he wanted to hold meetings, the group would have endless meetings. Now that he doesn't want to hold meetings, he naturally has to delegate all the power he holds.

In fact, this applies to both those born in the 00s, 05s, and 10s.

In terms of logical thinking, they are far superior to those born in the 1980s.

Young people in the new era are mostly unconventional and have a lot of wildly imaginative ideas.

Managing them with the experience of the older generation will only backfire.

For people in the 1980s, as long as they could make money, they were basically willing to work hard without complaint.

There was some resistance in the 1990s, but people in the 2000s were completely different.

They're always talking about starting a business.

Being happy at work is more important than having a high salary.

People born after 05 no longer work overtime or listen to their bosses talk about dreams.

People born after 10 have to balance work and life.

This is actually what healthy social development is, and it is also a kind of progress for the whole society.

Young people are constantly changing, and so is group management; both need to keep pace with the times.

(End of this chapter)