Era: Starting from divorce from female college student

Chapter 329, Patented Technology

February 2, 1973, the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, New Year’s Eve.

At Villa No. 66, Deep Water Bay, Hong Kong Island, Zhao Huijun and her six children got up early in the morning to play.

They are full of energy and have lots of activities every day.

Zhao Mancang was sleeping soundly with Lin Wan in his arms, because he was busy until after two in the morning last night.

This is mainly because Zhao Mancang has been busy outside during these days in Hong Kong Island. There were even some days when he didn’t even go back to Deep Water Bay to sleep at night.

Lin Wan was very smart and had guessed something a long time ago, but she said nothing.

Seeing Zhao Mancang coming back, she asked him to pay the public grain tax.

Zhao Mancang was already feeling guilty, and Liu Baochan asked him for money crazily, so he felt even more guilty.

But there is no way, he chose the path himself and he must walk it well.

In addition, he is also learning about the development of many companies such as Causeway Bay Motors Group, Island Development Bank, Changda Group, and Wharf Group, and he has to visit these companies.

Take Causeway Bay Motors Group for example. The company's luxury car brand is developing so rapidly and has such good performance, so of course he likes it very much.

In fact, half of the reason for such good revenue is that Zhao Mancang personally gave orders to other companies.

For example, Hollywood giants such as Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, and MGM make so much money and their revenue figures are off the charts, so it is normal for them to spend money to buy a dozen or twenty Chinese zodiac cars, right?
Then there are Robot Computer Company, Aucma and other Wall Street Wolf financial companies, Mayflower Media Group, etc., as well as Rolls-Royce Group, etc., which can all contribute to sales.

The Rolls-Royce Group has its own luxury car brands, and even more than one. Rolls-Royce and Bentley are both car brands under the name of this company.

But Zhao Mancang is cultivating a luxury car brand in China, and the performance and driving experience of the Twelve Zodiac luxury cars have indeed reached the ultimate level in the current era.

So it's no surprise that it's so popular.

However, the average price of a Twelve Zodiac luxury car exceeded HK$3.97 million, which was beyond Zhao Mancang's expectations.

The Norinasun Group in Australia and Southern Africa can also contribute a large part of the sales, which is why the sales of Zodiac luxury cars are so high.

Otherwise, it would be very good if the sales volume could reach several hundred units.

After all, a car costing HK$3.97 million is indeed a luxury.

The current exchange rate between the US dollar and the Hong Kong dollar is one US dollar equals seven point two Hong Kong dollars, so three million nine hundred and seventy thousand Hong Kong dollars is equivalent to five hundred and fifty thousand US dollars.

Ten years ago, a Ferrari 250GT0 cost only 246 US dollars, and now a Ferrari Dino GTS costs only US dollars.

As you can imagine, a luxury Zodiac car at $550,000 is indeed too expensive.

Of course, there is a reason why it is expensive, otherwise its sales would not be so good.

Not to mention anything else, just look at the twelve zodiac animal statues in front of the car, which are indeed made of pure gold.

Therefore, many car owners will be extremely careful with the zodiac statue after buying it, for fear that it will be pried away.

In the mountaintop villa, Liu Baochan also has several zodiac cars. Liu Baochan and several of her children have cars named after their respective zodiac signs and names.

Today, there are several Chinese Zodiac cars in the Governor's Mansion throughout Hong Kong Island, and British groups such as the Keswick family, the Kadoorie family, and the Mays family all have Chinese Zodiac cars.

Not to mention the Chinese side, no one dares not to give face to Zhao Mancang.

In fact, many of them have never seen Zhao Mancang’s true face, but everyone knows who the uncrowned king of Hong Kong Island is.

So these people ordered the cars of the twelve zodiac signs with great pain.

But what Zhao Mancang never expected was that the Mitsubishi Group and others far away in Kimura also showed goodwill to Zhao Mancang.

Maybe they also discovered something?

No matter what Kimura wants to do, Zhao Mancang will always deal with them.

On New Year's Eve, Zhao Mancang accompanied Lin Wan and others to have a sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner, which they finished at around five o'clock.

But after that, he did not continue to accompany the children. Instead, he found an excuse to leave the villa and headed to the villa on the top of the mountain.

Lin Wan didn't say anything, thinking that she would just let him go this time.

At half past five, the New Year's Eve dinner had just begun at the mountaintop villa. The arrival of Zhao Mancang made Zhao Sihui and the other children very happy.

Then they all picked up food for Zhao Mancang. Wow, they were so enthusiastic.

"Dad, thank you for spending the New Year with us this year."

Just this one sentence made Zhao Mancang almost cry, and he felt extremely guilty.

They are all his children, but he can't treat them equally.

If they were really allowed to recognize Xiao Taozi and the others, I'm afraid things would get even more chaotic.

Forget it, just let nature take its course.

Zhao Mancang didn’t think too much about it. He just let the happy times continue to be happy, and what would happen in the future would be left to the future.

Zhao Mancang was in a very good mood after spending a very pleasant New Year's Eve dinner with the little ones.

The New Year is passing quickly and the remaining holiday time is getting less and less.

As the New Year atmosphere gradually fades away, Zhao Mancang is about to return to work.

He knew that Zhao Huijun liked music and she could even play instruments such as piano and guitar, but Zhao Mancang had no intention of letting her develop in the entertainment industry.

At her current age, she can indeed enter the entertainment industry, but Zhao Mancang did not take the initiative to talk to the little girl about this.

Zhao Huijun, who was born in 1954, is already 19 years old this year.

But she is still in college, so Zhao Mancang has no other ideas. If she had such ideas, she would definitely tell Zhao Mancang.

However, the Zhao family's current situation is very different, so there is no need for Zhao Huijun to go into the entertainment industry.

After the New Year, March arrived as expected.

After Xiao Shitou and the others returned to campus life, Zhao Mancang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

However, on this day, the leader called Zhao Mancang and asked him to come to Lingjing Hutong to chat.

After the greetings, the leader asked:

"Mancang, you're being dishonest. Why didn't you tell us about this when Causeway Bay Motors Group sold so many Twelve Zodiac luxury cars last year and earned nearly 30 billion Hong Kong dollars in revenue?"

Thirty billion Hong Kong dollars is equivalent to 4.14 billion US dollars, which is a very large amount of money.

As a result, Zhao Mancang did not mention it to his leaders. You know, there are also automobile factories in China, such as BAIC Manufacturing Plant, First Automobile Manufacturing Plant, etc.

No matter what, the car manufacturers here in China must be good, right?

Why doesn’t Zhao Mancang recommend producing luxury cars in China?
Zhao Mancang heard this and said with a wry smile:

"Leader, this matter is not that simple. Let me tell you one thing. If we were to use dozens of kilograms of gold to build each car in our country, would you be willing?"

"Real gold?"

When the leaders heard this, their eyes widened, their expressions full of disbelief.

"Of course!" Zhao Mancang nodded.
"This must be real gold, and it weighs dozens of kilograms per car. Otherwise, you wouldn't think those rich people are fools, willing to spend $550,000 to buy a car, right?"

"In addition to gold, there are other noise reduction technologies, animal leather seats, ultimate driving experience, shock absorber technology, etc. These are currently not available in our country. What suggestions do you have for me?"

"Even if we really proposed it, our domestic BAIC Motors and FAW Motors might not be able to put their heart and soul into building such a car, and they might not be able to deliver it so quickly!"

But the situation of Causeway Bay Automobile Group is completely different. The situation of this automobile company is much better than that in China.

Take automobile production technicians as an example. Even the lowest-level workers in Causeway Bay Automobile Group earn HK$2,300 per month.

And this is just the basic salary. If there are special circumstances such as overtime, it is no problem to earn more than 3,000 Hong Kong dollars a month.

In this regard, the wages are actually not much lower than those of the workers who mine in the Nolinasun Group.

If the workers have high technical skills, their monthly salary can even reach more than 4,000, close to 5,000.

With higher wages, workers will certainly have a better standard of living.

Although the inflation in Hong Kong Island was already quite high in 1973, the fact that the average monthly salary increased from a few hundred Hong Kong dollars to the current two to three thousand Hong Kong dollars in just ten years is actually very exaggerated.

The salary level of workers at Causeway Bay Automobile Group is already the highest paid workers in Hong Kong Island.

More than ten years ago, Zhao Mancang paid the editor-in-chief Bruce Chapman and deputy editor-in-chief Chen Liangsheng of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Daily a salary of HK$8,000. Their current salary is only HK$15,000.

This is the salary of senior management.

The salary of ordinary white-collar workers has increased from 1,500 yuan to around 4,000 Hong Kong dollars today.

It is already very impressive for the workers to get four or five thousand Hong Kong dollars.

Of course, as the Federal Reserve continues to flood the market with money, inflation in Hong Kong will continue to soar.

The global economy is the same, especially Hong Kong Island, which uses the US dollar as the underlying asset. There is no way around it and it will definitely be strongly impacted by the US dollar.

In Causeway Bay Automobile Group, workers are only the lowest level. Above them are engineers, senior technicians, and middle and senior management personnel. The lowest salary for these people is 8,000, and the highest-ranking general manager can even get a salary of around 50,000.

The general manager's salary is not very high, because every member of the Black Cross has a basic monthly salary of 50,000 Hong Kong dollars.

But the salary level depends on the company's performance.

Based on the performance of the Causeway Bay Automobile Group in 1972, if it could continue to maintain that performance in 1973, a salary increase would be inevitable. After Zhao Mancang finished speaking, the leaders finally sighed.

The capitalist world is profit-driven, and this is indeed different.

But in China, if dozens of kilograms of gold are spent on the production of each car, then according to the sales volume of the twelve zodiac cars, an average of 32 kilograms of gold is spent on each car.

The total sales volume is 7,532 vehicles, which will cost 241,000 kilograms of gold, or about 120 tons of gold.

That's a total of 4.25 million ounces of gold.

At the current price of $58 per ounce, a total of $240 million worth of gold was consumed.

Therefore, Zhao Mancang was able to sell so many Zodiac cars and earn $4.14 billion in revenue because he was willing to spend $240 million in gold.

There are also other cutting-edge technologies, as well as very powerful noise reduction technology. Otherwise, no one is a fool, so how could anyone be willing to spend so much money?

Isn’t a Ferrari worth $10,000 or $20,000 a great deal?
"Okay, then can we buy back the technologies you mentioned?"

The leaders had no choice but to settle for the next best thing. Zhao Mancang shook his head when he heard this.

"This is patented technology. If you want to buy it, you have to pay. And we don't produce such cars, so why would we enter this market? Besides, our market position has already been determined, so there's no need to enter this market."

"On the other hand, if you really want these technologies, you might as well hire people to develop them yourself. This way you can cultivate your own R&D talent and get the technology for free. Isn't that killing two birds with one stone?"

"There are so many foreign car brands, and their technologies are not exactly the same, so there is no need for us to take advantage of the brand cars of Hong Kong Island Causeway Bay Automobile Group."

After talking with Zhao Mancang, the leaders were somewhat disappointed, but they also had a clearer understanding of the development direction of domestic automobile brands.

Internationally, the luxury car market is highly competitive. Brands like BAIC can indeed enter this market, but they must be prepared for failure.

So, instead of doing this, it is better to focus on the current mid- and low-end markets.

Moreover, the profit margin in the mid- and low-end automobile market is not small, and coupled with the very low labor costs in China, the profits will be even higher.

On the other hand, improving car quality, engaging in price wars with foreign car brands, and seizing more market share are what domestic car brands should do.

Anyway, Sam's side is now connected with our country, and economic and trade exchanges have increased a lot.

In this case, we must make full use of it.

The opportunity has come, so of course we have to seize it.

After thinking about it, the leaders did not change their minds and continued to focus on the mid- and low-end markets and deepen their roots in this field.

Although the high-end luxury car market has greater profits, sales are average and the money earned is not that much.

As for the Twelve Zodiac luxury cars of Causeway Bay Motors Group, this is just an exception.

How can a real car brand have such high profits and sales?

With a selling price of US$550,000, the profit is at least US$200,000.

In short, Causeway Bay Automobile Group has made a lot of money in the past year.

Zhao Mancang walked out of the Lingjing Hutong compound and went straight to the Longxing Research Institute to continue inspecting these units.

The necessary scientific research projects must be carried out well.

The video communication project they started developing before the Spring Festival has not made much progress so far.

Zhao Mancang did not rush this project because there was no need to rush.

Nowadays, satellite communications have been stabilized and related signal stabilization technologies have been gradually improved, which makes Zhao Mancang very happy.

In the blink of an eye, June is about to come. This summer vacation, Xiao Shitou will be promoted from primary school to junior high school, which means that he will also go to Hong Kong Island to study.

"Dad, you won't let me stay in Beijing to study in junior high school, right?"

Hearing the little brat's nervous question, Zhao Mancang smiled and asked back:
"Are you that worried? If you're that worried, shouldn't you improve your scores? Okay, prepare for the exam first and focus on completing your primary school entrance exam!"

The child is just nervous, there is nothing wrong with him otherwise.

On June 20th, Zhao Mancang arrived in Hong Kong Island.

The Hong Kong film market has not yet ushered in prosperity, but because of last year's food movies, there are now several good food movies in Hollywood, counterattacking Hong Kong Island.

But people in Hong Kong are not very happy with it.

When it comes to food, Hong Kong Island is naturally better.

The reason why Zhao Mancang came here was certainly not to solve this problem, but to take a look at the situation of the film market, and also to understand whether this year's summer vacation schedule would have good results.

In the past few months, he has been staying in the capital and has not gone anywhere.

This is not a good thing.

Paramount Pictures filmed a movie about the Royal Hong Kong Police going undercover to fight crime.

It's a bit like a road movie, but not quite.

After the movie was released, it achieved certain box office results in the entire Hong Kong market, but not much.

Fortunately, in Sam's market, the movie grossed $280 million in its first week, which greatly encouraged Paramount and allowed them to prepare for the sequel.

For Hollywood giants, as long as the box office of a movie exceeds 300 million US dollars, a sequel can be prepared.

It is very easy to make money with sequels. In fact, if the sequel script is well prepared and filmed more reasonably, the sequel may even surpass the previous one.

After all, previous movies such as "Indiana Jones" and "The Originals" have already demonstrated this part of the market.

On June 2th, approaching the summer vacation season, the giant MGM was the first to release the movie "Jason Bourne" worldwide.

As one of the Hollywood giants, MGM attaches great importance to the sequel to "The Bourne Supremacy" and has invested 30 million US dollars in publicity for Sam alone.

Before the global release on June 28, all billboards around the world had been updated with related advertisements for The Bourne Supremacy.

The highly anticipated sequel to The Bourne Supremacy attracted a lot of fans on the first day of its premiere.

The box office of the movie on the 28th directly exceeded 100 million yuan, earning 128 billion US dollars.

Since June 28th was a Thursday, a working day, the box office revenue on that day was 128 million U.S. dollars. Even if it was only due to the support of many movie fans, it was enough to show that the movie was still very good.

The next day was Friday, and The Bourne Supremacy once again grossed $143 million at the box office, shocking the world.

"Fake!"

Jack, the major shareholder of Warner Bros., could no longer bear it. His beloved decorations, which he had just bought less than half a year ago, were once again killed by him and fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

It's been ten years!
From 1989 to the present, the four giants, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and MGM, have been making a lot of money in the Sam's movie market and have earned so much money in the market.

A full ten years!
The new giant structure in Hollywood has been completely consolidated. Paramount and the other four are the new giants, while Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Columbia, and United Artists are the second-tier established giants.

But the so-called old giants are just a fig leaf. The movies of the other four companies including Warner Bros. have no quality, no publicity, and no box office.

What awaits them is nothing but death.

It's just because Paramount and the other four are too domineering. There are several movies released almost every month. Even if not every movie has such a high box office, there will always be a movie that stands out and is higher than the movies of Warner Bros. and others.

Cinema giants are profit-driven and only look at box office results to allocate film screening resources.

hateful!

Nowadays, the sequel to "The Bourne Supremacy" has obviously become popular, which means that other movies released during the same period will definitely not be able to make a breakthrough unless a miracle happens.

Jack waited for ten years, and except for the follow-up work "Cretaceous Age" which got good box office, the other movies were not very good.

The market has been led astray by Paramount and the other four companies, and people's tastes have become more picky.

In the past, even if Warner Bros. fed the market shit and piss, the market would not resist and would still pay for it.

But over the years, the films produced by Paramount and other four studios are truly classics in their respective fields.

For example, this sequel to The Bourne Supremacy is a classic among classics, both in terms of fighting style and the brain-burning plot.

Otherwise, the movie box office would definitely not be so high.

"Find someone to film this, we have to hire someone this time!"

Jack growled after his anger subsided.

He felt that he could no longer sit idly by, otherwise, in a few years, Warner Bros. would really become a second-rate company.

So, Jack took out 150 million US dollars at the shareholders' meeting and prepared to invest in a movie.

They recruit talents with high salaries, recruit big stars to join the team, spend 10 million US dollars to create the movie script, and spend even more money on special effects, plot and other aspects.

The entire movie must not have any unnecessary shots, and the story must be told well.

From Paramount to MGM, take out all their movies from the past ten years and watch them frame by frame. You must grasp the details of their storytelling!
Learn to summarize and you will always find patterns.

Just when Warner Bros. Pictures launched a strong attack, The Bourne Supremacy 2 was already a huge hit in the film market!

Because June 30th and July 1st are weekends, the box office is much higher than on Fridays.

The market has also become even more heated due to the super high box office of Jason Bourne, because everyone is very excited. The movie is so good that they must watch it several times with their family and friends.

(End of this chapter)