The growth system comes at the age of 30

Chapter 236: A Vision for Building a Complete Industry Chain (4K)

"I feel there are quite a few problems, but these are just my personal subjective opinions. Also, without on-site verification, I can't make any hasty conclusions."

Chen Jingle said, "I plan to take some time to conduct on-site inspections of the company's various planting bases and even the cooperative planting areas. After all, you can't speak without investigation. Some things cannot be concluded correctly just by hearing rumors."

"Although I live in the countryside, there are still many things I don't know compared to those who actually do field research. After I understand the specific situation of vegetable and fruit cultivation in the countryside, I will write down everything I have learned into an investigation report and submit it."

Li Qiguang was somewhat surprised, then nodded: "Okay. But before that, I'd like to hear your opinion."

"Row."

Chen Jingle already had a plan: "I think the company can move towards building a complete industry chain. From upstream seedling research and development and breeding, and building new large-scale planting bases, to midstream processing and distribution, and downstream sales market development and marketing of our own brands, we should participate in all of them."

Li Qiguang frowned slightly, but did not interrupt, instead patiently listening to him continue.

"First, let's discuss why we need to build a complete industry chain?"

Chen Jingle said calmly: "First of all, the country proposed the concept of the whole industrial chain in 2007, and COFCO started to implement it in 2009. Fifteen years have passed since then, and it has been very effective. At present, state-owned enterprises, from industry leaders to local farms, are basically developing in this direction. Many large private enterprises are also trying this route."

"COFCO can be said to be an industry benchmark and trendsetter. Their approach is of great reference value to us."

“Hongqi focuses on the fruit and vegetable sector, so we can try to build a complete industrial chain in the fruit and vegetable sector. The complete industrial chain doesn’t have to be huge, but it must exist, because it’s about whether we will be held hostage by others. After all, even the strongest cooperative relationship can turn sour one day. We don’t need to invest a large amount of money at the beginning. We can pilot it in the early stage to accumulate experience. Once we have enough experience, we can then consider whether to expand the scale.”

Upon hearing this, Li Qiguang nodded slightly.

If it's just a preliminary pilot program, it's not unacceptable.

However, this needs a concrete plan; we can't just throw money at it rashly. If we pour millions or tens of millions in and it doesn't even make a splash, that would be bad.

Chen Jingle continued, "Take seedling research and development, for example. We still lag behind overseas companies in this area. Even Longping High-Tech, one of the top domestic companies in the industry, is far behind giants like Bayer in terms of both revenue and R&D investment."

“Taking last year’s data as an example, apart from major grain crops such as rice, wheat and corn, which can basically achieve self-sufficiency, China still needs to rely on imports for more than 15% of vegetable seeds, totaling more than 1.15 tons. Among them, the import rate of some vegetable varieties is even higher than 80%, such as spinach, onions and carrots. Of the imported portion, although Xida accounts for only 1% of the quantity, it accounts for 12% of the value, Chili accounts for 2% of the quantity and 23% of the price. This is the consequence of being held hostage by others.”

There's a saying in the agricultural breeding industry: "Breeding is not as good as buying seeds, buying seeds is not as good as stealing seeds, and stealing seeds is not as good as counterfeiting." Currently, more than half of the seeds on the market are counterfeit, using their own certificates and licenses to sell other people's seeds. However, the approach of "buying is worse than making" has been proven wrong. Sometimes, even if you want to buy something, they won't sell it to you. Or you can buy it, but at several times the market price. There's nothing you can do; after all, they have the technology.

"Therefore, since 2022, the government has been committed to building a national independent seed industry system, supporting multiple seed companies in the industry, and striving to revitalize the seed industry. There are 69 companies selected in the crop sector alone. Under these circumstances, we might be able to take advantage of this opportunity and see if the government can step in to help connect us with these companies."

"Among the world's two super-large and four top seed companies, only Syngenta is based in China. Moreover, the seed industry requires time to accumulate experience. Like many high-tech industries, there is no such thing as a shortcut to overtake. Space breeding is just a way to accelerate the catching-up process based on existing technologies. We started late, but that's okay. The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, and the second best time is now. Doing something is always better than doing nothing."

“Currently, there are only about 100 agricultural enterprises in China with seed research and development capabilities, but unfortunately, Hongqi is not among them. Hongqi buys seeds from other seed companies, and it can still do so for the time being, but I think we cannot rely on others completely. We need to have our own seed and seedling research and development center.”

"We can leverage our geographical advantage to collaborate with the South Asia Institute on research and development. We've already had technical exchanges with them before, and collaborations between enterprises and research institutions are becoming increasingly popular, allowing both parties to benefit. At the same time, we are sincerely recruiting talent from all over the country."

"It's well known that the job market for agricultural research professionals isn't great, especially given the current economic situation. But this presents a great opportunity for us. With an annual salary of 25 to 30 yuan, we can attract a large number of 985 university PhDs specializing in crop genetics and breeding. We're going to invest heavily! By investing heavily, we can quickly build a mature seedling research and development center!"

Chen Jingle talked for a long time, until his mouth was a little dry, so he quickly poured himself a cup of tea.

To be fair, the tea in Comrade Li's office tastes pretty good.

While Chen Jingle was drinking tea, Li Qiguang quietly pondered.

He had considered setting up a seedling research and development center before, but the return cycle was too long. In addition, the company was in a growth phase in the past few years, and other investments would have yielded greater returns, so he had not been able to make up his mind.

Looking back now, if I had done this a few years ago, I might be seeing results now.

But regret is useless. One cannot beautify the path one has not taken. What if one had invested too much money in seedling research and development, only to have it all go unnoticed?

No one can say for sure about these things.

As Chen Jingle said, the best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, and the second best time is now.

The company is currently in a stable development phase. With 2 to 30 yuan per PhD, if we get dozens of them, I don't believe we can't build a decent R&D team!

Do it! We absolutely have to do it!
Li Qiguang immediately made up his mind.

He may not be highly educated or technically skilled, but he knows how to respect technology and talent.

If the money is right, I'm sure someone will be willing to come!
……

"Anymore?"

Li Qiguang looked up and asked.

Chen Jingle nodded and continued, "The midstream processing and distribution—distribution is Hongqi's strength, so I won't go into detail—let's talk about processing. Take longan, mango, and other fruits as examples. From basic processing like drying them into fruit, to deep processing like making juice and jam, the peel can be used to extract pigments, and the pomace can be used to make animal feed. We can try to get involved in all of these. Moreover, these are excellent projects to help farmers and can create more rural jobs. I don't think any place would refuse such a processing plant. As long as we create enough jobs, our path will only become wider and wider."

"Let's talk about terminal sales. We need to continue expanding, to the whole country. It doesn't matter if it's slow, the key is to do it. We need to do wholesale, and we also need to do retail. Admittedly, Hongqi has sales partners all over the country, but that doesn't mean we can't do terminal sales ourselves. The real economy is not doing well right now. After several waves of store closures, now from first-tier cities to county towns and townships, the streets are full of all kinds of restaurants."

"For us, it's actually an opportunity. People are becoming more cautious about big-ticket items, but they're willing to spend a lot on food. Just look at the ubiquitous tea shops, coffee shops, snack shops, and the food stalls selling braised food, hamburgers, fried chicken, hot pot, and spicy hot pot. Vegetables and fruits are considered daily necessities, so there's no worry about finding a market for them."

"I suggest you take a look at two chain brands. The first one is Qian Dama. Their core strengths are precise market positioning, a clear brand slogan, 'We don't sell overnight meat,' coupled with an efficient supply chain including its own warehousing and logistics, loss control, and marketing tactics such as regular discounts to clear inventory, which have successfully garnered a group of loyal customers."

"In today's era of booming online grocery shopping, we keep pace with the times by expanding our sales channels through various online platforms and combining them with our own offline stores to cover more consumption scenarios. Currently, we have more than 2900 stores nationwide, with a valuation exceeding 120 billion yuan."

"Another one is Mixue Ice Cream. With its extreme cost-effectiveness, it relies on prices to break through the bottom line of its competitors, penetrate the lower-tier market, and take the strategy of encircling the cities from the countryside. It first occupies a large market share in non-first-tier cities, builds its own brand's price advantage wall, and forms the inherent concept of 'daily essential tea drinks' in the minds of consumers. Coupled with strict cost control through a vertical supply chain and viral store expansion, it has become the only tea drink brand with revenue exceeding 200 billion yuan. It has now entered the overseas market and is said to be planning to go public next year."

"Admittedly, the fresh food market is highly competitive right now, but we don't need to be number one in the industry. We just need to do better than most of our competitors. No matter what industry it is, it's all about comparison with our peers. As long as we do better than most of our competitors, we won't lack customers!" Chen Jingle wasn't just talking nonsense.

Whether from his entrepreneurial experience or from a consumer's perspective, this is indeed the case.

In business, you don't need to be the best; you just need to be better than most of your competitors.

For example, in a wet market, there are three cooked food shops. The other two prefer to use eight-ounce scales, while you weigh the food to the correct weight. Okay, customers will naturally choose to buy from you.

Everyone uses the eight-ounce scale, but your ingredients are fresher and taste better than the other two. Okay, customers will naturally choose to buy from you.

Everyone uses the same weight and uses the same ingredients, resulting in the same taste. If your attitude is better than the other two shops, customers will naturally choose to buy from you.

It's a very simple principle. Customers aren't stupid; these are things they can clearly see and experience.

In the early stages of his business, he managed to attract his first batch of customers by being slightly better than his competitors in every aspect. However, his idiot partner insisted on doing all sorts of crazy things, otherwise the company would have grown bigger and bigger by now.

Including Hung Kai, they actually built their fortune gradually through this.

Doing business isn't actually that difficult.

The reason why ordinary people find it difficult is simply because they cannot afford the cost of trial and error. The expenses and capital recovery period in the early stages of entrepreneurship are huge pressures for those with insufficient funds.

In contrast, those rich second-generation entrepreneurs have their families backing them up, so they can try anything. Anyone with a normal IQ and a decent project can succeed in no time.

If you really don't have any start-up capital, go to Qidian and write a novel. Make sure the title is more attractive than others, the synopsis is a little more eye-catching, the beginning is simple and straightforward to attract readers' interest, the golden finger design is reasonable, the main and supporting characters are normal, and the main plot is not messy. A novel like this will already surpass 95% of the flops of authors.

Chen Jingle ate it even though it wasn't popular!

……

Li Qiguang remained silent; he was deep in thought.

There's no doubt that Chen Jingle's promises were very grand and appealing, and he was tempted.

It does sound very feasible, and as mentioned before, it will be mainly a pilot project. If it doesn't work out, we won't do it at all, and we won't lose much money.

If possible, try to gradually expand the scale.

The seedling research and development center requires a high and continuous investment, and profits cannot be seen in the short term. However, in the long run, it is definitely the most worthwhile investment project.

Seedlings are a monopoly business, and it goes without saying how profitable a monopoly can be. Imported coriander seeds cost $800 per ton, which is relatively cheap.

By then, Hongqi will have completed the entire industrial chain from production to sales, and it's unimaginable how large its scale will be!
Just thinking about it makes my heart warm!
Of course, these are just ideas. To actually implement them, a concrete plan is needed. We can't just act on impulse and start doing it.

Moreover, the plan is often not the key; the key is execution.

We must select a capable and reliable person to do this, and ensure that every step of the plan is implemented in place before we can see the specific results.

Furthermore, Chen Jingle made it clear from the beginning that these were just subjective opinions, which had not been verified on the ground, and that he needed to go down to the grassroots level to investigate before making a report.

That being the case...

Li Qiguang asked, "When will the investigation you mentioned begin?"

"Let's do it tomorrow." Chen Jingle didn't intend to delay for too long.

Just add this project to the new subject and skills learning schedule; it won't affect his completion of system tasks.

Li Qiguang was surprised: "So urgent?"

Chen Jingle nodded slightly: "We can't just take 200 million for nothing. Let's get it done as soon as possible so I can get busy with other things."

Li Qiguang nodded: "In that case, I'll tell my subordinates to cooperate with your work."

Chen Jingle shook his head and said, "No need. I prefer the 'four no's and two direct' research method, because that's the only way to see the most authentic situation. Just send me two assistants."

Li Qiguang: "The four no's and two direct approaches... I can understand the others, but how can you know the specific situation of the crops if you don't listen to reports?"

"I have my own way of doing things," Chen Jing chuckled.

He's not ignorant of agronomy; he has master-level planting skills.

If he hadn't found scientific research too boring, with his current level of knowledge, he could have played a much greater role in establishing the seedling research and development center.

"alright."

Li Qiguang chose to believe Chen Jingle.

Anyway, if the final result is unsatisfactory, just deduct his salary.

(End of this chapter)