Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 385 Revisiting Texas
After inspecting Xinghai Investment, Masato Takeshita's next stop was the Pulse energy drink production line in Los Angeles.

"Great, our drinks are selling very well, aren't they?"

"Yes, Chairman, we expect sales in the U.S. to reach 20 billion cans this year."

Pulse energy drinks have become a mainstream beverage brand in the United States, occupying more than 80% of the energy drink market share in the country.

This product can be found in large supermarkets like Walmart, as well as small taverns in the countryside.

If we don't take into account the initial investment, it can earn Xinghai Group more than 10 figures in profit every year.

After all, the material costs for energy drinks are negligible, and the employee costs are not very high either.

If it weren't for the need for relentless advertising, profits could even double.

Xinghai Group's investment in the four major North American sports leagues is essentially an advertisement for Pulse beverage.

"Very good, thank you all for your hard work."

"No, it's what we should do."

Energy drinks have performed well, while the rest of the market has only performed so-so.

After careful consideration, Masato Takeshita tentatively asked Williams, the head of Xinghai Foods' US operations.

"How about potato chips for our next flagship food product?"

Among snack foods, potato chips are probably the most popular product worldwide.

If Xinghai Group can produce potato chips that are crispier and more palatable, and whose flavors are very much in line with American tastes, it will definitely drive the development of Xinghai Foods' other product categories.

"Potato chips are indeed very good, but the competition is too fierce."

“It’s okay, we have money, and we’re major shareholders in supermarkets like Walmart. As long as the product tastes average, we can easily get good shelf space.”

At this point, Masato Takeshita became increasingly excited.

"Furthermore, we need to develop puffed and fried snack foods such as French fries, rice crackers, and shrimp chips, and strive to reach the level of Yum! Brands."

Yum! Brands is the parent company of PepsiCo, and it owns a large number of food brands. Lay's potato chips, which later became popular worldwide, are one of its products.

Masato Takeshita didn't intend to completely crush Yum! Brands, but he wanted his own company to at least be on par with them.

"In addition, we should also accelerate our expansion into the Japanese, Chinese and Western European markets for puffed food products."

"If you think the taste is good, you can first conduct small-scale tastings in individual cities. If it is popular, then you can promote it to the whole state, or even the whole country."

In addition to its puffed food business, Youth Group then emphasized the development of its purified water and mineral water brands.

In short, Xinghai Foods' next focus will be on promoting these two businesses.

Once things are settled, we can then pursue further diversification within the food industry.

Of course, different countries have different national conditions, so we cannot simply copy them.

For example, in China and Japan, the priority is to develop the instant noodle industry, rather than products like potato chips.

After leaving the Pulse beverage factory, Masato Takeshita inspected the layout of Xinghai Mobile in the US telecommunications market.

As the second largest player in the industry, and willing to share profits, Xinghai Mobile has a number of impressive booths across various regions, second only to Motorola, the pride of the United States.

After a cursory inspection that revealed no serious problems, Takeshita Masato said to Mike with satisfaction.

"It's all very nice. Texas Governor George Sand has invited me to visit. Let's go together."

"Yes, President."

As soon as the private jet arrived in Austin, the capital of Texas, it was met by the future US President George Bush, who was waiting at the airport.

At this moment, he was all smiles, demonstrating that a politician's ability to manage facial expressions had reached a new level.

"Welcome to Texas, my best friend."

George W. Bush eagerly came forward and gave the young man a big hug.

"Me too, that's great, my best friend George."

The two exchanged cheesy, unbelievable words, but neither showed it on their faces.

It can only be said that once you reach a certain position, lying naturally becomes an instinct.

The formal welcome dinner will naturally be held at tonight's banquet.

Because George W. Bush hoped to leverage the fact that his friend was a great philanthropist to boost his domestic reputation.

Of course, some hints need to be added to this.

For example, writing indirect phrases like "one is influenced by one's company" in newspapers.

It is known that Masato Takeshita was a true philanthropist, which means that his friends were also passionate about charity.

Takeshita Masato = His friend, and thus an equation is formed.

It may not be able to fool the elites, but it is enough to influence some lower-class voters.

To be honest, despite the fact that George W. Bush's reputation abroad wasn't very high after he became president.

But in reality, he should be considered one of the few presidents who genuinely worked for the development of the United States.

During his tenure as governor of Texas, he paid close attention to basic and grassroots education, enabling Texas's public primary, middle, and high school education to even slightly surpass the private education system.

Later, after becoming President of the United States, he also devoted himself to developing education for the underprivileged.

Unfortunately, the inertia of the two-party system in the United States destroyed all his efforts.

After Obama took office, he promoted the idea of ​​fairness in basic education, requiring all public school students to maintain roughly the same level of scores.

It is indeed fair, because apart from a few wealthy families in Singapore, most ordinary people have lost the possibility of changing their fate by going to university.

Since then, the difficulty of exams in public primary and secondary schools has dropped dramatically, to the point that almost all questions are about 1+1=?

After all, there are only two relatively good ways to keep students' academic levels roughly in the same range.

The first is to reduce the difficulty of the exam, so that even those who don't study can easily get high scores.

The second approach is to not teach any content at all, so that no one will learn anything and the scores can be maintained within a certain range.

However, the second score might be quite poor, so it's natural to choose the first one.

On the surface, everyone's scores are high, but in reality, it's all a mess.

Thus, the ultimate form of joyful education was developed in the United States.

However, the efforts of George W. Bush in his previous life have not been forgotten by Americans, and Americans occasionally express their feelings about it online.

"President George W. Bush was the last American president to care about basic and underprivileged education."

The satirical effect is off the charts!

Although the main guest of the banquet today was Masato Takeshita, he wisely gave the center stage to George W. Bush.

Compared to him, George W. Bush needed this exposure more.

After about half an hour, the banquet moved to a time for free discussion.

George W. Bush approached the young man with a smug look on his face and asked, "Our investment environment in Texas is also excellent. Are you interested?"

"Of course, in addition to the expanding food processing plant, we also plan to invest in building an 8-inch wafer fab in Texas."

Political and economic resources need to be exchanged, and a wafer fab can better maintain the friendship between the two sides.

"Oh, really?"

"Of course, at least $10 billion in investment."

If Starsea Crystal wants to invest in and build a wafer fab in China, it needs to strengthen its relationship with the United States.

An 8-inch wafer fab is enough to serve as a pledge of allegiance.

"Oh, thank you so much, my friend."

George W. Bush was overjoyed; he had thought he could only attract a few hundred million dollars in investment at most.

After all, although the two have conflicting interests, the Xinghai Group's headquarters are in California.

Unexpectedly, the investment reached ten figures, and it was for a wafer fab that is of great importance to the world. This significantly boosted his political record and further stabilized his rule over Texas.

"That's only right, we're best friends."

"That's right, my best friend."

After a brief, insincere conversation, the two parted ways.

However, a familiar figure soon appeared in front of Masato Takeshita.

Michael Dell, president of Dell Inc., was once the youngest and best president in the United States.

"Long time no see. I heard Dell's sales have exploded again this year?"

Masato Takeshita frequently followed Dell's developments.

This is because Starsea Group is not only a major shareholder of Dell, but also the most important component supplier for Dell computers.

Dell sources its computer components, including keyboards, mice, batteries, motherboards, and displays, primarily from Xinghai Group.

Furthermore, even the final assembly of Dell computers is 60% completed by Xinghai Manufacturing, a subsidiary of Xinghai Group.

If Dell weren't worried about being controlled by Xinghai Group, it would be highly likely that all orders would end up with Xinghai Group.

However, Xinghai Group is already very satisfied with the current situation.

Besides, Starsea Technology has more than one customer than Dell.

IBM, Compaq, and HP have all placed huge orders with Xinghai Technology.

As a result, Xinghai Technology also captured 47% of the global market share for computer motherboards, 31% for computer batteries, 59% for computer mice, and 24% for computer keyboards...

It can be said that Xinghai Technology has become the world's largest supplier of computer components.

This is why, even now, Xinghai Computer remains a small-scale operation, primarily supplying computers to its own company and universities.

Xinghai Group does not want to lose these major clients from the United States.

It's important to know that Taiwanese component suppliers have always been eyeing Xinghai Technology's market share.

However, Taiwan's chances are destined to be slim, because Xinghai Group is continuously investing in related industries in China. Even if Taiwan engages in a price war, Xinghai Group can easily crush it.

Xinghai Group is no longer afraid to compete on price, production capacity, or capital.

"It's barely acceptable, but I don't know when we can surpass IBM."

Although Compaq was once the world's largest computer retailer, it was still the most important thing for the US computer industry to surpass IBM.

Because computers around the world still have another name: IBM compatible machines.

Yes, more than 90% of the world today was developed based on IBM computers.

Therefore, for the vast majority of computer companies, IBM is the only true god in the field.

"I believe in you, it will happen soon. You are the best CEO in America."

"Yes, thank you for your kind words, Chairman Takeshita."

Five minutes later, the two turned to each other in perfect unison.

This time, the person standing next to Masato Takeshita was the president of Texas Instruments.

"President Takeshita, your actions this time weren't exactly ethical."

"I'm so sorry, our company desperately needs help building the wafer fab. I really feel bad."

Although he realized that the Texas Instruments president was joking with him to bridge the gap between them, Masato Takeshita still wisely apologized.

There was nothing we could do; we were indeed in the wrong, having poached one of their key players.

"Okay, just kidding."

Jerry Jonkins smiled and shook his head, then casually asked, "Is there something you need to do in Texas all of a sudden?"

"We're mainly looking to invest in a wafer foundry. Do you have any plans to collaborate?"

"Wafer foundry?"

The president of Texas Instruments looked a little grim, because the company had just made a bet on the wafer fabrication industry.

"Don't worry, we are not competitors; we mainly target the PC market."

Masato Takeshita naturally knew that doing so was a bit like scolding a bald man in front of a monk, which is why he wanted to collaborate with Texas Instruments.

"really?"

"Of course, you can either agree to our request to jointly build a factory, then you won't have to worry."

"Yes, this is a big matter and needs to be addressed in a board meeting."

"Of course, but I hope that both sides can reach a cooperation agreement."

With the wafer fab matter settled, the two then discussed poaching talent.

"You must treat Minister Zhang well; he is a great contributor to our company."

"Don't worry, he will be the most important employee in our wafer fab."

Atsuyoshi Koike is indeed a long-time employee who has always been diligent and conscientious.

But in his mind, Zhang Rujing was still more important and better able to complete his strategic layout in the wafer industry.

The influence of memories from two lifetimes is not so easy to erase.

Next, Masato Takeshita chatted with two key figures from Enron for a while.

However, this time, the two sides only talked about very abstract things.

He didn't want to have too much contact with Enron, lest he get himself into trouble in the future.

The person in charge of this company is too wild; he's not on the same page as Masato Takeshita.

……

After the party, Texas Instruments President Jerry called a board meeting that very night.

"Xinghai Group is planning to invest in and build a wafer fab in Dezhou and has invited us to cooperate. What are everyone's thoughts on this?"

"Texas investing in wafer fabs?"

“That’s right. Xinghai Group has a close relationship with the governor and probably wants to use this to enter the Texas market.”

Jerry Jongins looked worried and didn't know what to do.

"We can't agree to that; our own wafer fabs aren't even operating at full capacity."

"Exactly, we can't just watch them build factories."

Some senior leaders were very dissatisfied and became hostile towards Xinghai Group.

Even if you manage to build a wafer fab in Texas, I'll sabotage it.

However, amidst the chorus of opposition, there were also those who supported the movement.

The old-fashioned Executive Vice President of Texas Instruments, Angell, calmly expressed his agreement.

"Our two companies do have overlapping businesses, but cooperation far outweighs competition."

"By collaborating on a wafer fab, we can secure more orders."

Texas Instruments was once the dominant player in the semiconductor industry, but its unlimited expansion of business caused the company to gradually fall behind the times.

Whether it's memory chips or microprocessor chips, they've been left behind by their competitors.

If a partnership is reached with Xinghai Group, it might be possible to make a comeback.

“I think that makes sense. Xinghai Crystal wouldn’t be so foolish as to offend us.”

"That's right, we're the local bullies."

(End of this chapter)