America: My Time

Chapter 179 Japanese Real Estate

Chapter 179 Japanese Real Estate
As CEO Mary Barra pointed out Bentley Group's biggest challenge: building a factory in Mexico is easy, but finding qualified industrial workers is difficult. Mexico is neither Britain nor the United States, and there aren't that many qualified industrial workers.

"The workers aren't urgent. We have plenty of time to train them. I'd rather spend more time and energy training them than accept those ignorant and foolish industrial workers from Detroit. They may have the skills, but they lack professionalism! Let's act quickly. We don't have much time left. Our enemies are constantly attacking us. Contact Morgan as soon as possible and get them to step in and solve our acquisition problems!"

Entrusting the acquisition of Jeep and Polaris Industries to Morgan was the best choice. If Bentley were to do the acquisition itself, it would take much more time and effort. With Morgan involved, everything would be completely different. John had great confidence in Morgan's abilities, as Morgan had demonstrated strong professional competence in their past collaborations.

Mary Barra wholeheartedly agreed with her boss's suggestion. She wasn't good at acquisitions, but if she handed it over to Morgan, everything would be much simpler. Morgan had never failed in their collaborations with her boss, and Mary Barra felt very safe working with them, believing that no unexpected things would happen.

At this time and under these circumstances, Mary Barra did not want to create any unnecessary trouble. The Bentley Group was already in a difficult situation due to the impact of the United Auto Workers. If more trouble were to arise, it would seriously affect the future development of the Bentley Group, which was not something Mary Barra wanted to see.

Once such a situation occurs, people will not say that their own boss is at fault; they will only think that the responsibility lies with themselves, that they did not handle the Bentley Group's affairs well, which led to the series of accidents!
The changes in the United States did not affect John's mood. Compared to the many problems in the United States, Japan's development was on a fast track and operating rapidly. He was also accelerating the pace of expansion in Japan. The arrangements for Tokyo TV were going smoothly without any major problems. However, there was a small unexpected change in the hotel and property situation.

Many people in Japan didn't pay much attention to shopping malls, but as they investigated the entire Japanese shopping mall market, they discovered that everything was just as John had said: Japanese shopping malls were reviving and developing rapidly. This forced them to change their previous views and believe that John's shopping mall in Roppongi had great potential.

Where there's profit, there will naturally be more people tempted, and naturally some will want to act alone. However, building a shopping mall isn't something you can just decide to do; there are many problems involved, and not everyone can afford such enormous expenditures. They are well aware of how staggering the funds consumed by the Roppongi shopping mall are, and many companies wouldn't take such a risk. Not every company can gain the approval of Japanese banks.

It's not that no one wants to unite and cooperate, but the distribution of profits has become a major problem. Moreover, not everyone has John's abilities, let alone his reputation! In fact, these people are overthinking it. They don't need to waste their energy learning John's investment strategies or getting involved in shopping malls. They can develop in commercial real estate, but not everyone can see the potential of real estate. Japan hasn't entered a crazy bubble era yet!
Compared to shopping malls, Japanese companies have ignored the Mandarin Oriental Group's hotel layout in Japan. Apart from the luxury hotel in Roppongi Shopping Mall which is under construction, the other hotels are all hot spring hotels that large companies don't even consider. Moreover, each hot spring hotel is too small in scale. All the hot spring hotels that Japan is building are not even worth as much as the luxury hotel in Roppongi Shopping Mall. Most importantly, these hot spring hotels are all located in remote resort areas.

Nowadays in Japan, hot spring hotels are mostly family-run businesses with little scale. As a result, various forces in Japan are not concerned about the expansion of hot spring resort hotels. John was able to easily leverage the power of banks and conglomerates to acquire the locations he favored. He acquired Yukō Noya in Karuizawa without spending too much money, and the location of Yukō Noya in Kyoto was no exception. Everything went so smoothly.

It was precisely because of the Mandarin Oriental Group's expansion of its hot spring hotels that Japanese designers had the opportunity to put their skills into practice. Almost all the famous designers received invitations from the Mandarin Oriental Group to design the hot spring hotels that were expanding! Although John also offered some suggestions, the final planning of the hot spring hotels still had to be perfected by the Japanese designers. He was not a professional designer; he could offer suggestions, but he would rather not do the design himself!
Although John had previously mentioned the development of hot spring resort hotels, no one expected him to go so far as to simultaneously develop over a dozen resorts. If it weren't for the relatively small scale of each resort, people would have thought John was extremely bullish on the hotel industry and was planning a massive expansion! The expansion of resort hotels will indeed continue, but on a smaller scale. The reason for such a frenzied expansion in Japan is that John understands how insane land prices and how extravagant Japanese spending will become in the future. Now is the perfect time to invest. When the bubble economy arrives, wealthy Japanese will become the best guests for these resorts, and he might easily recoup his entire investment within the short bubble period. During the bubble economy, with Japan engulfed in a frenzy of consumption, his high-end resorts will naturally have no shortage of guests!
The number of rooms in a dozen or so hot spring resort hotels is only the same as that of a luxury hotel. In the planning, each resort hotel cannot have more than 50 rooms. This is a hard standard. Small and exquisite is the core of hot spring resort hotels, and it is an unshakable core!

The cost of more than a dozen hot spring hotels cannot compare with that of Roppongi Shopping Center. The gap between the two is huge. Roppongi Shopping Center will become an iconic landmark building, while hot spring resort hotels are merely places for the wealthy to vacation.

While John remained in Japan and continued to expand his hot spring resorts, the United States also faced numerous problems. Morgan was surprised by the changes at Bentley Group and shocked by the sudden acquisition offer!
"Boss, what should we do now? John is clearly hiding away in Japan, completely oblivious to the crisis in the US. I don't see a trace of pressure on him. He was just talking about his interest in biopharmaceuticals, and now he's sending people to discuss the acquisition of Jeep and Polaris Industries. I really don't understand what he's thinking. At a time like this, he's still thinking about expanding in the automotive sector. Doesn't he feel any pressure? Isn't he worried that such a frenzied expansion will affect the development of the Bentley Group? I really can't figure out what he's trying to do!"

“Jimmy, I know this whole thing has been unfair to you. The original plan was for you to take a vacation and rest, but Bentley’s invitation has arrived, and we can’t ignore it. As for the pressure you mentioned, he doesn’t care because he sees through someone’s scheme, and he wants to use that person to complete his own plan. Your concern is about the workers, but that’s not what John cares about.”

"Boss, does John want us to clean up the top executives of two companies? We can't take that job! These are car companies, and with those bastards from the United Auto Workers, we simply can't do it! One wrong move and it could trigger a strike, ruining Morgan's reputation!" Jimmy was getting anxious, afraid his boss would make such a decision and assign him this exhausting task!
"Don't worry, John isn't that stupid. He wouldn't make such a difficult request to us at this time and under these circumstances. His request is simple: we need a quick and decisive victory to complete the acquisition as soon as possible!"

"Could it be that John is trying to use Jeep and Polaris Industries to silence the United Auto Workers and prevent them from launching another attack on Bentley? That's crazy! One wrong move and Bentley could pay a heavy price. We have to warn him to avoid even bigger trouble after the acquisition is complete!"

"Heh, Jimmy, in your opinion, the biggest problem is the strike. The United Auto Workers will incite Jeep workers and Northstar Industries workers to strike, causing huge losses to Bentley. Actually, you're overthinking it. You can see it all, but John can't. Even if he can't, do you think Bentley's CEO can't see it, or the think tank people John has recruited can't see it? Don't worry, he has a complete plan!"

"Boss, are you saying that John wants to compete with those behind-the-scenes manipulators in the automotive industry? Has he gone mad? This is suicidal. Even if he's just entered the automotive industry, not even the automotive giants would dare to have such thoughts. There's absolutely no hope of victory!"

"No! Jimmy, you're wrong! You think this is crazy, with no hope of victory, but John sees it differently. Perhaps you think this acquisition won't be easy and will require a lot of effort. Jeep is an important asset for Chrysler, but I can tell you that this acquisition will be very easy, without requiring much of our effort, and Chrysler will offer a reasonable price!"

(End of this chapter)