Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 409 A small test of one’s skills
January 15, 1996, Tokyo, Japan.

Masato Takeshita, along with Rogers and a group of employees from Star Ocean Entertainment, arrived at Haneda Airport.

"Good afternoon, President Kalinsky. I look forward to your guidance in the future. Xinghai Group welcomes you."

"President, you're too kind. I should ask you for advice more often in the future."

Kalinsky quickly stepped forward and bowed ninety degrees, in accordance with local custom, to show his submission to the youth.

At the same time, he also made sure to greet Rogers and others, demonstrating his good interpersonal skills.

After a brief introduction, Masato Takeshita personally escorted Kalinsky to a tower not far from Starry Sky Entertainment.

The facilities here are luxurious, and the living space is very large, making it suitable for leaders who come alone.

Kalinsky didn't have much luggage, and everyone quickly helped him move it.

Masato Takeshita didn't want to disturb his rest and jet lag, so he quickly left the room with his employees.

However, before leaving, the young man did not forget to say something with concern.

"If anything is not suitable, don't forget to call my secretary directly."

"Yes, Chairman, I am very satisfied now."

"Ah That's good."

The next day, Kalinsky, whose jet lag had almost completely adjusted, arrived at the Xinghai Group headquarters.

He wants to work right now and doesn't want to waste his time like this.

The young man was a little stunned, not expecting that another workaholic, the ultimate curl king, had joined the company.

He smiled and instructed, "Since you feel there are no problems, then fine. Your onboarding will be on the agenda at the all-hands meeting at 3 pm this Friday."

"Yes, I understand. Thank you, Chairman!"

Kalinsky was relieved; he didn't want to be away from work for too long.

The young man was speechless and could only laugh awkwardly and reply, "Hey, there's nothing to thank me for, it's just what the company should do."

"Also, well, the company has staff specifically for reception. If you're bored, you can have them show you around different areas of Tokyo."

Sega also has similar positions, but Kalinsky's interest in Tokyo is not as great as that of Starsea Group.

After all, while Tokyo's urban development is better than that of New York and Los Angeles, it's not by much; both are made of reinforced concrete.

He doesn't like to wander around these somewhat monotonous cities; he'd rather spend his time on something useful.

Therefore, he decisively asked, "Um, Chairman, may I look around the company?"

"Of course, this is your freedom."

Kalinsky has reached a preliminary agreement with Starsea Group and will be formally appointed as the president of Starsea Entertainment at the meeting tomorrow.

Such an important leader would naturally have a good understanding of the entire company.

Of course, even if he were to enter a few core research labs, he could only see the surface of them.

This isn't just directed at Kalinsky; the same applies to the other subsidiary chairmen.

You can freely visit and inquire about your own company's research labs, but you need certain conditions to gain a deeper understanding of other companies' labs and headquarters-affiliated labs.

It's important to understand that even high-ranking individuals in this world can potentially become corporate spies.

"Okay, thank you, Chairman!"

The next day afternoon arrived quickly, and Kalinsky followed Takeshita Masato to the plenary meeting, which had only four or five hundred participants.

Yes, although it's called a plenary meeting, only a few people can actually participate; the rest can only listen in on television.

There's nothing we can do about it; Xinghai Group doesn't have a large enough conference room, nor the energy to keep making changes.

The company is exhausted, the employees are exhausted, but no good results are produced.

Kalinsky's joining Starsea Entertainment is the most important thing for the Starsea Group at the moment.

So the first thing to do today is to formally sign the employment contract with him and then announce it to all employees via television.

Xinghai Entertainment, in particular, is of paramount importance, to avoid the embarrassing situation where employees don't know who their leaders are.

"Kalinski-san, Starsea Entertainment is now in your hands."

"Don't worry, President, I will definitely lead Xinghai Entertainment well."

Kalinsky accepted Takeshita Masato's decision with a solemn expression and great seriousness.

"Yes, I believe in you. You're the kind of genius who rises to prominence in any company you work for."

Without Masato Takeshita's early poaching, Kalinsky would likely have started his own business with the support of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and achieved great success once again.

How could he not trust such a brilliant economic genius?

"You flatter me, Chairman. It's mainly thanks to the support of the board of directors and employees."

"What's the big deal? Just admit it boldly, don't be too modest."

In addition to Kalinsky's onboarding, the staff meeting also discussed a series of important issues.

For example, the company's financial budget for this year, the funding for various research projects, and the main areas for business expansion...

In short, all the major events of this year will be released here.

Of course, the plan for the first plenary session after the New Year is not a set of rules. It can be changed at any time if there are any unforeseen circumstances.

Next, Xinghai Entertainment held a general meeting for all employees, mainly to deepen their impression of Kalinsky.

In this way, many unexpected things can be avoided.

"I won't bother you anymore. Take your time to sort out your thoughts."

"Yes, President."

After handing over Starsea Entertainment to Kalinsky, Masato Takeshita, along with Rogers, Kenji Ono of Starsea Communications, and others, arrived in the special zone.

This time, Xinghai Communications will formally sign agreements with two promising companies, Huawei and ZTE.

"Mr. Ren, I hope that under your leadership, Huawei can become the world's strongest telecommunications equipment manufacturer."

"Don't worry, Chairman Takeshita, Huawei will not let our investors down."

Ren Zhengfei himself doesn't really believe in the slogan that the future communications market will be divided into three parts, and Huawei will definitely be one of them.

But that doesn’t stop him from speaking out, nor does it stop him from striving for this goal.

What if it happens?

The current goal is to become the world's number one in the field of communications equipment manufacturing, which is only a small upgrade, but the goal is still just as ambitious.

For Ren Zhengfei, it's just that the slogan is a little louder.

"Yes, I have great faith in Mr. Ren; you possess extraordinary talent."

"President Takeshita, you flatter me."

Ren Zhengfei was very happy, but still waved with a smile.

I'm nothing compared to Xinghai Group.

Even deep down, a feeling of never being able to catch up arose within him.

Huawei's signing went smoothly, as did ZTE's.

However, Masato Takeshita's involvement at Huawei is mainly focused on Ren Zhengfei, while ZTE, in addition to Hou Wengui, also has to deal with the government.

After all, 49% of ZTE's shares are held by state-owned enterprises.

However, Xinghai Group has a strong reputation in China, so the signing went very smoothly, and a 30% equity investment contract was quickly signed.

After the signing was completed, Masato Takeshita did not leave immediately, but instead gathered Ren Zhengfei and Hou Wengui together.

"President Ren, President Hou, from now on we're all on the same side. I hope that when you compete in the future, you can compete amicably."

ZTE and Huawei are both companies focused on the manufacturing of telecommunications equipment, so clashes and competition are inevitable.

However, the young man hoped that the two companies could cooperate within certain limits and unite against external threats, rather than becoming mortal enemies. In his previous life, the competition between the two companies was so fierce that they practically fought tooth and nail.

Either I send spies to your company to steal intelligence, or your company poachs my key employees on a large scale.

As for sending employees to sabotage each other's communication equipment and spreading rumors and slander, that's commonplace.

This fierce competition later extended to overseas markets, where telecommunications companies would even deliberately pair up two companies to secure the lowest prices.

Masato Takeshita didn't want this to happen; it would only benefit the telecommunications company.

"No problem, the market is so big, we can definitely cooperate and develop together."

Ren Zhengfei acted very boldly, as if he had never regarded ZTE as a rival.

"That's right, we're working together to cut off the reach of foreign giants."

Hou Wengui has a gentle and refined personality, but under the encouragement of President Ren, he also develops a sense of ambition.

With the support of Xinghai Group, he is confident in surpassing Shencheng Bell, which holds a semi-monopoly in China's fixed-line telephone communication equipment market.

"Yes, that's exactly how it should be. The two companies will develop domestically first, and then cooperate to expand overseas."

Masato Takeshita was still worried, but there was nothing he could do.

I just hope that the two sides will not fight to the death in the future, out of consideration for him.

As for the two families being completely close and not competing, the young man wouldn't even dare to dream of it. He would be more than satisfied with just being superficially brothers.

After discussing the mutually beneficial cooperation, Masato Takeshita began to inquire about virtual shares.

"How do you all plan to allocate the 30% virtual shares?"

The reason why Xinghai Group gave Huawei and the center such a high valuation is not simply because it only wants 30% of the shares.

At Masato Takeshita's request, the two companies also had to split 30% of their shares to establish a company similar to Huawei's virtual shares in later years.

In this way, employees can benefit along with the company, which greatly inspires their sense of ownership and their fighting spirit.

Ren Zhengfei scratched his head and said in a casual tone.

"Nobody has ever seen this before. We hope Chairman Takeshita can help us find a suitable team to teach us."

"no problem."

Takeshita Masato readily agreed, seeing this as an opportunity to enhance the influence of the Xinghai Group.

He then looked at Hou Wengui and asked, "Mr. Hou, what about your end?"

"I'm in the same situation. I hope the president can help us resolve this."

Hou Wengui and Ren Zhengfei were aware of the young man's ulterior motives, but they didn't care.

The strategy of giving both companies 30% virtual shares is also aimed at enhancing their influence and control.

Yes, the virtual stock strategy does not weaken but rather strengthens the rights of the two individuals.

Because of this strategy, the two gained a lot of prestige in the company and received more love and respect from their employees.

Furthermore, the voting rights for the virtual shares are firmly in the hands of the two individuals.

In this way, no matter what happens in the future, it will not shake their influence.

Hou Wengui, in particular, has a large number of shareholders, but he does not hold a majority of the shares.

Gaining 30% of the voting rights represents a significant increase in control over the company.

Of course, Ren Zhengfei is actually quite similar.

Huawei has experienced multiple crises, and the company's stock has been distributed by Ren Zhengfei multiple times as employee salaries and loans.

Ren Zhengfei was able to completely resolve this issue of these shares through the investment opportunity with Xinghai Group.

From now on, Ren Zhengfei will own 40% of Huawei's shares, Xinghai Group will own 30% of the shares, and Huawei employees will own 30% of the shares.

However, the voting rights of the 30% stake held by Huawei employees are directly owned by Ren Zhengfei.

This strategy of indirectly strengthening their control over the company is one of the two main reasons why they support virtual shares.

As for the other one, it's naturally about wanting company employees to earn more money with the company.

At the same time, this also brings many benefits to Xinghai Group.

Virtual shares were a key factor in Huawei's growth in its previous life, and the concept was introduced to young people in advance and also promoted in ZTE.

Both companies will grow earlier and faster.

In addition, this is also an experiment.

Because Masato Takeshita will also introduce this strategy into the Xinghai Group in the future.

Once wealth reaches a certain scale, what remains are merely numbers. The extent of one's power is far more important than the control over those numerical wealth.

The founder of the Morgan family did not have much wealth; posthumous statistics showed only a little over $1 million, far less than the American tycoons of his time.

Even tycoons were astonished after his death, never expecting Morgan to be so poor.

Indeed, Morgan had less money than his competitor Rockefeller.

But he controlled Wall Street, so his influence far exceeded that of Rockefeller.

If it weren't for Theodore Roosevelt's strong suppression, the Morgan family would have truly had the opportunity to achieve their ultimate goal of permanently controlling the United States.

Masato Takeshita will likely follow the Morgan model in the future.

They control the voting rights of Xinghai Group and share most of the financial benefits.

After discussing the internal affairs of the two companies, Masato Takeshita suddenly changed the subject.

"By the way, I'm going to Beijing next, to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications."

"Is the matter in Beijing related to Xiaolingtong?"

Hou Wengui values ​​the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) base station business highly, far more than Ren Zhengfei.

Therefore, when the young man mentioned the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, he immediately understood.

"That's right. Minister Wu invited me to Beijing to discuss the introduction of PHS phones into China."

In his previous life, this official from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications neither approved nor opposed the use of mobile phones.

Because the PHS phone had technical flaws, but the people still needed it.

In this life, he had a more favorable attitude towards Little Smart.

On the one hand, GSM technology is not currently much ahead of PHS technology.

On the other hand, the PHS phone is currently very suitable for China's national conditions.

"This is great! It seems we should prioritize the development of the PHS base station project."

Ren Zhengfei was very happy, he did not expect to receive such a great gift so soon after accepting financing.

I wonder if the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) business can help the company achieve a leap forward.

In China, the fixed-line telephone communication equipment in counties and above is basically monopolized by foreign giants.

The rural market is also competing with state-owned enterprises such as Datang and Julong, making it far less promising than the PHS base station project controlled by Xinghai Group.

He has also been paying attention to the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) market in Thailand and Japan, and knows how much potential this thing has.

It's just average in developed countries, but it's an absolute game-changer in developing countries.

After all, Huawei, the culmination of its hard work, has been able to grow and thrive despite the blockade imposed by foreign giants by offering affordable prices.

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, that should be the case."

Masato Takeshita was very confident, but he didn't know how long the negotiations would take.

But it doesn't matter. Even if negotiations in China are slow, Xinghai Group still has the Latin American and Southeast Asian markets.

(End of this chapter)