America: My Time

Chapter 979 A Foolish Test

Chapter 949 A Foolish Test
Upon hearing John's words, the expressions of the Japanese guys changed slightly, especially those who had suffered heavy losses. They had originally thought that they could turn the tide through cooperation with John, but now they suddenly realized that even if John could provide them with the greatest assistance, it would be difficult for them to reduce their losses. They were not Toyota; the failure in the North American market had a huge impact on them, causing them to suffer enormous losses!
Some people now agree with John's statement, after all, their market in Europe has been affected, as has their market in North America. In the North American market, their biggest enemy is not Bentley Motors, nor GM and Ford, but others. Behind all this, there may really be the work of Youtai Capital!

"Mr. John, I wonder if Bentley has any interest in investing in us?" The Mazda guy quickly asked, as they were eager to accept an investment from the Bentley Motors Group to alleviate their own financial burden.

Unfortunately, John shook his head and said, "No, Bentley Motors Group has absolutely no such intention right now. We don't have the energy for it. Bentley Motors Group needs time to stabilize itself, not to acquire stakes in your companies. Even with Toyota, we don't have such an idea. After all, acquiring a stake requires a lot of effort, and we'd rather focus that time and energy on our own development. Bentley Motors Group's focus is on South Korea right now, and we need to digest everything from South Korea! If we're going to waste money here, we'd be better off expanding our retail network and taking control of sales ourselves!"

Is there anything wrong with it? Not at all, at least in the eyes of these Japanese guys. Although Japanese car shares are tempting, it's a bit early to invest now, and it would only be a waste of money and energy, which is something a wise person wouldn't do. Besides, they don't have much appeal, at least not on the surface. Bentley Motors' focus is currently on South Korea, which makes sense, since South Korea does have considerable capabilities!

Despite Mazda's seemingly eager inquiry and desire for John to invest, they still harbored a degree of resistance. After all, they weren't in dire straits yet, and these guys wouldn't compromise or accept investment from others until they were truly desperate. So, upon hearing John's answer, they secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Heh, do you really think I'm stupid enough not to see through your little scheme? You just want to test Bentley Motors' thoughts, inviting me now? You're being far too presumptuous." John could see through the thoughts of these guys from Japan and wouldn't be fooled. At least, John wouldn't make a move until these guys suffered huge losses. Besides, his target wasn't Mazda, but Nissan.

“Mr. John, actually, Bentley Motors’ investment in our company is complementary!” Mazda still tried to struggle and persuade John again, but their ridiculous tactics were in vain. John simply did not believe them and would not even get involved.

John smiled calmly and said, "No, Bentley Motors doesn't have the energy for that right now. And if you're going to focus on us, you should work on your own cost issues. If you can't control your costs, it will be hard to get out of this predicament. I know some people think Toyota is a good example, but I have to say that you don't have Toyota's capabilities, at least you don't have Toyota's influence in North America."

"Mr. John, how do you think we should control costs?" Nissan couldn't help but ask at this moment, his instincts telling him that John had the ability to help them control costs and turn the current situation around!
“I’m afraid you won’t accept what I’m about to say, since we have different positions and different ideas. In my opinion, you need to lay off employees, especially those with average abilities but high salaries. Only in this way can you ensure that your costs can be reduced significantly. Since external factors cannot be resolved, this is the only way.”

Upon hearing John's suggestion, everyone shook their heads and said, "Mr. John understands that this is something we cannot do!"

The existence of lifetime tenure and seniority-based promotion systems makes it impossible for these guys to achieve this. It is precisely because they cannot achieve it that John brought it up. If these guys could achieve it, they would have done it long ago and wouldn't have needed to wait until now.

"Then I have no way to help you. After all, labor costs are a considerable expense. Not to mention that with the appreciation of the yen, the prices of your exports are also rising, making you less competitive. So there's nothing I can do. That's why I'm unwilling to invest. I don't see any possibility of success. In comparison, South Korea is much better, and even Taiwan is much better. Even Europe is better than Japan."

John didn't mention the factories in China, but everyone present knew how crazy the situation was there. Those parts factories were frantically supplying the North American and European markets!

After learning a great deal from John and receiving some promises, the meeting ended. John didn't say anything more to these guys and left without further communication with Toyota Tatsuro. He had said what he needed to say; now it was up to the Japanese guys to decide. After John left, the Japanese guys huddled together again to discuss things; at least they needed to make some arrangements.

"Do you all think Mr. John's words are credible? Is it true that he has no designs on our Japanese car companies and is instead targeting the Koreans?" When the Japanese official representative raised this question, everyone's eyes widened in surprise.

"Toyota-san, what do you think?" At this moment, Mazda turned his gaze directly to Toyota Tatsuro, wanting to find out his true thoughts from him. After all, the cooperation between Toyota and John was quite good, at least on the surface. Moreover, unlike them, Toyota did not suffer serious losses and even made a considerable profit.

“I don’t think Mr. John has any reason to lie. Besides, everyone knows that Bentley Motors did try to acquire Daewoo Motors, but was rejected and the acquisition failed. The Koreans’ costs are indeed much lower than ours. Under these circumstances, do you think he has any reason to lie to us? And what he said is not wrong. Our costs are too high now!”

As soon as Tatsuro Toyoda finished speaking, everyone frowned. Their production costs were already high, and now that the price of iron ore was going to rise, it would make them even more uneasy. After all, another round of price negotiations would be coming soon. If they hadn't used some connections to find out what those guys were thinking in advance, they wouldn't be in such a hurry.

“I don’t know your situation, but Nissan will suffer serious losses this time. It will be hundreds of millions of dollars in losses in just one year, or even more. After all, those guys are really coming for us, and our situation is even more dangerous. So we need everyone’s efforts and the government’s intervention. Otherwise, we will not be able to hold on.”

Nissan's situation is precarious, as is Mazda's, and other companies are in the same boat. Now, it's not just cars that are affected, but also shipbuilding. With rising iron ore prices, their shipbuilding costs will also increase. Moreover, South Korea's shipbuilding industry has caught up in recent years, and even Taiwan has a strong shipbuilding capacity, all of which pose a threat to Japan's shipbuilding industry.

"Don't you all have a way to turn this situation around? The authorities can't do anything either, since we have no evidence at all. I know you'll mention the evidence Mr. John provided, but that's only acceptable to us. It's useless in the open. The Americans won't accept it, and neither will the Europeans. Now we need to consider whether we can accept their demands, whether we can accept high prices for iron ore!"

They refuse. Does Japan even have the right to do that? Although they have invested in those mines, they can't influence those guys' decisions at all. And if they refuse, where will the iron ore come from? Cooperating with John will probably cost them even more. At least if they accept those bastards' proposal, they can recoup some of their losses from the dividends.

Nowadays, these guys in Japan can't get much benefit from the mines. The reason is simple: the export of Australian iron ore doesn't bring them much profit. They export most of it to Japan. As for Quantum Mining, it's completely self-sufficient, so they don't have any pressure at all.

"Actually, I think you are all wasting your time and energy discussing this issue. We all know what Mr. John is thinking. Moreover, his investment in Japan is not in manufacturing. Don't be misled by his previous expansion. He is not willing to accept manufacturing in Japan. Cost is the biggest problem. No one would be foolish enough to acquire a company with no hope, let alone take a stake. If you all have this idea, I can only say that you are overthinking it."

"Well said. I also think you're overthinking it. Let alone Japan, even in the United States, Mr. John doesn't have much manufacturing industry. If you have to say there is, it's only military industry and aircraft manufacturing. Bentley Motors itself doesn't even have a factory in the United States; instead, it has its factories in Mexico. The entire US manufacturing industry is accelerating its relocation overseas. Do you still think we have any hope?"

(End of this chapter)