Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 142 The Starting Price of Dreams
The four young men stood there, like the blazing sun in the sky.

Chen Xuebing smiled and shook hands with them warmly.

"Breaking Technology welcomes you to join us!"

The four men looked at Chen Xuebing's even younger face with disbelief.

A question flashed through their minds simultaneously.

Such a young CEO, and such an empty piece of land.

This is quite different from the information they received when they arrived, such as "wealthy and powerful" and "with great potential."

This... isn't just a hobby, is it?

"Mr. Chen, aren't we here for an interview? We're not officially joining yet, are we?"

Chen Xuebing raised his hand and gestured towards Qi Guangming and Gao Shu, then smiled and said:

"Haven't they all already had interviews? I don't know much more than them. If they think it's okay, then there's no problem."

"But they were all asking questions about mobile phones. I studied semiconductor physics, which is different, very different. Without professional personnel to lead the team, it's very difficult to conduct research and development."

The person in front of me adjusted his glasses and said.

Chen Xuebing glanced at him, hesitated for a moment, and then said:
"I know your name is Zhang Hongbin. You have a master's degree in microelectronics and solid-state electronics from Jilin University and a doctorate in photonic devices and high-speed optoelectronics. Your university was among the first batch of universities to establish semiconductor physics and semiconductor chemistry, pioneering semiconductor device research in my country. It is praised as the best department in the industry. You worked at Factory 771 in Guiyang for two years. I only have one question: why did you come here?"

Zhang Hongbin's expression turned slightly serious.

Being able to memorize a file is nothing special to them.

This is the key issue that made him take it seriously.

"Regarding the compensation, 771 is a third-tier military factory with poor performance, and Shenzhen is relatively close to my home."

"Oh." Chen Xuebing nodded slightly: "If you want to stay close to home, you won't be going abroad in the future, will you?"

Zhang Hongbin chuckled: "We have a confidentiality period after leaving the company. We can't leave for two or three years. We'll talk about the future later."

"Hmm, Wu Rui, is your name Wu Rui? What about you? The School of Microelectronics at Jiaotong University has been incredibly successful these past two years. Why don't you stay at the university to work on projects?"

Chen Xuebing looked at the other person and said.

Chen Jin, a "returned scholar" currently working at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has not yet been implicated in the collapse of Hanxin No. 1 and is still making money like crazy, but it won't be long.

They got a chip from Motorola, had a renovation company grind off the serial number, and claimed it was their own research and development. The renovation company then claimed they had participated in cutting-edge technological research, making the Chinese people laugh until they cried.

When he explodes, it will be a disaster for the entire semiconductor industry, and many chip research and development projects funded by national funds will come to a halt.

Because of this, he never dared to consider chip hardware research and development. It is an incredibly large industrial chain, and with the overall environment drying up, he was powerless to reverse the situation.

Once the industrial environment improves and someone takes the lead, he can lend a hand.

Of course, if he can gradually localize the mobile phone industry chain, he can actually promote this matter.

"My name is Wu Qirui." He smiled wryly, "Such a big project, 863, it's not easy to get in."

“Not going in was the right thing to do; you’ll soon be glad you did,” Chen Xuebing said, patting his shoulder.

It's only been a few days since this happened, and he's been swindling project funds for over four years since 01. There are already signs of trouble, and Chen Xuebing doesn't shy away from asserting this, adding a layer of mystery to himself.

The four men couldn't understand what he meant and just felt that the boss was overconfident.

“Mr. Chen,” a tall, thin, short-haired, handsome young man spoke up: “We’ve seen your workshop. Counterfeit phones are not a good industry for long-term development. If you’re asking us to do this, I don’t want to.”

His accent is a bit distinctive.

"You're from Nantou County, Taiwan, right? By the way, regarding you, the new mainland employment management regulations were just implemented a couple of days ago. SMIC laid off some employees, so you need to apply for a new employment certificate. Gou Hongyi, besides him, there are also two technicians from Taiwan and Hong Kong coming over in the next couple of days. I'm putting you in charge of this matter."

This year, SMIC and TSMC reached an out-of-court settlement in their lawsuit, with SMIC paying TSMC $1.75 million in compensation. However, there has been some disharmony within the company, and some young people who came to the mainland with Zhang Rujing are considering leaving.

This young man named Xu Wenfeng was poached from SMIC with a high salary of 12,000 yuan. He graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology and had worked at TSMC.

Chen Xuebing didn't want to poach SMIC's employees, but since they submitted their resumes voluntarily, without a suitable and stable offer, they will probably return to their old employer in Taiwan.

This team will have many such high-paid employees from various major companies.

After the Chen Jin incident, there may be many more.

“Okay, I’ll go back and ask the community work station,” Gou Hongyi replied calmly.

Chen Xuebing glanced at Gou Hongyi. Today, he was wearing a blue shirt, dress pants, leather shoes, and a tie. His hair was slicked back, and he really looked like an elite.

This guy can pull off any role convincingly; he's incredibly adaptable.

Sometimes pretending is a skill, but Chen Xuebing is quite interested in whether he can keep up the pretense as the company rises in this life.

"I know the headhunting firm is talking to you about mobile phone R&D, not counterfeit manufacturing. The headhunter isn't lying to you. We're going to make a groundbreaking product, but things have to be done step by step. I brought you here today to show you the future factory area. Your R&D department will also be built here. Be patient. Once everyone is here, I'll explain. I won't let you down."

After saying this, Chen Xuebing walked forward with his hands behind his back.

The workshop was rather empty.

The two production lines are side by side, occupying only about half of the factory space, with various materials neatly piled up in the corner.

Chen Xuebing had been curious about why the two production lines had such low capacity, with each line only producing a dozen or so machines a day. After watching for a while, he suddenly realized why. Each line had only a dozen or so workers, dressed in blue work clothes, wearing hats and anti-static gloves.

The production process is very quiet.

Screwdrivers, pry bars, tweezers, heat guns and other tools were laid out on the table. The workers were very focused, and they had to maintain very precise operation and a high degree of attention to ensure that the parts were not crushed.

Assembling a motherboard, aligning the interfaces, fixing the motherboard with screws, and connecting the cables—each step was very slow, taking more than ten minutes to complete.

Meanwhile, the installation of the display screen and camera is also progressing slowly, while the installation of speakers and charging ports is waiting for work to be done.

The testing is also relatively slow; it requires a computer connection.

Chen Xuebing watched for a while, then walked to the side with his hands behind his back.

"Old Qi, training so few workers might not be enough. How about adding two more production lines?"

“We can’t add more for now.” Qi Guangming waved his hand: “Don’t worry, Mr. Chen. There’s no shortage of workers in Huaqiangbei. If you want to set up a large production line or even automate it, just give me a month to expand recruitment and training. We’ll have enough workers. Our main goal right now is to make money.”

After saying that, he pointed to a pile of boxes in the corner and said:

"Mr. Chen, look over there. The price of reference boards and molds is getting lower and lower, and the price of materials is also going down. Last week, the price of materials for Nokia counterfeits suddenly dropped, and we stocked up on a batch. But it dropped again this week. Now there are more and more reference boards and molds for branded mobile phones. If we continue to produce counterfeits of popular models, the homogeneous competition will become more and more serious. The profit is still okay now, but we may soon be undercutting each other, and the sales at the counter will also decline. Fortunately, you have a unique online channel, which is why I dare to purchase materials in large quantities for production."

"Oh..." Chen Xuebing nodded.

During this time, he studied continuously and learned quite a bit.

The so-called public molds and public templates are the foundation of the counterfeit system.

This thing has been around since the VCD era.

At that time, VCDs were extremely profitable, and some small businesses lacking funds, technology and production capacity flocked to the production process, which gave rise to new demands for industrial division of labor. A number of professional material suppliers, motherboard manufacturers, mold and shell manufacturers were established in Shenzhen and Dongguan to supply motherboards, molds and shells to these small and medium-sized enterprises.

Many downstream customers share motherboards and molds, making only minor modifications to the appearance, packaging, boot screen, and brand logo. They undertake very simple back-end assembly tasks, minimizing the costs and risks associated with technology development, material procurement, and inventory preparation.

These shared motherboard molds are called public board molds.

When MP3 players first appeared a few years ago, their average price was several hundred or even a thousand yuan. Now, the price has been reduced to one or two hundred yuan, thanks to the large number of generic and common molds and designs.

Some people buy MP3 players from different brands and find that they look and have the same configuration. This is because a popular model is produced by dozens or even hundreds of manufacturers.

Now, the counterfeit industry in Huaqiangbei has taken off. Self-made mobile phones have turnkey solutions with custom motherboard molds from MediaTek, while pirated phones have generic boards and molds. The cost of the entire mobile phone industry is getting lower and lower, and the technical threshold has been completely suppressed.

Looking at Zhao Wanping's most prized "pirated goods" from afar last November, it was clear that in the first half of the year, only factories of a certain size could afford the templates and molds, but now even a small workshop can produce them.

Counters and sales channels have once again become highly sought-after items.

The prices of many counterfeit mobile phones are about to drop again.

However, there is probably no chance for prices to rebound this time. The price war will continue until the small factories can no longer cover their production and sales costs, lose profits, and close down one after another.

"We need to add more production lines. With such a large space, we shouldn't waste it. Let's add three more lines. Also, we need to adjust the installation positions of the motherboards and screens, increase the proportion of positions, and increase production. Each line should assemble at least 20 units per day, with a daily output of 100 units. We should also increase the number of rotating workers and aim for a monthly output of 3000 units."

When Chen Xuebing said this, everyone around him gasped.

"Mr. Chen, it's easy to say, but I'm afraid we won't be able to sell them," Qi Guangming said with a bitter expression.

Lu Yiwen also spoke up: "Boss, Taobao customers are more discerning than before. We've only been able to gradually increase our business volume by adding more than a dozen new products to our store recently. Now we operate on a 'take the order first, then receive the goods' model, so there's no pressure to stock up. Production line molds have costs, so we mainly produce popular imitations. The sales volume of these phones is limited; we really can't handle any more."

Upon hearing this, Chen Xuebing couldn't help but laugh.

Everyone is focusing their attention on online channels.

Even he, a person from a later generation, didn't have such faith in the internet. But after he and a group of people made money on Taobao, everyone became steadfast in their belief in the internet.

"Don't keep staring at Taobao. What percentage of mobile phone sales are online? Less than 3%, right? Especially for high-end mobile phones, it's less than 1%."

The product we are about to develop is a high-end mobile phone priced above 3500 yuan. The internet is definitely not our main sales channel; we need to expand our offline channels.

Product development costs are high, and sales pressure will be immense. We need to negotiate with distributors and open our own stores, sales outlets, and experience stores. It's time to train a group of ground sales staff.

We need to proactively put pressure on ourselves and expand our sales capabilities. I see now as a good opportunity. Once the new president takes office, we'll establish an offline sales department. I'll give you at least 100 positions, plus funding. We'll start in Guangdong and rapidly expand to surrounding provinces, establishing distribution and sales channels.

Silence fell.

One hundred sales...

The Taobao business, including customer service and shipping, only has thirteen people in total.

The brothers often call each other to keep each other informed. Currently, they have fewer than fifty employees signed up in Shenzhen, a dozen or so at Changzheng Securities and twenty at construction labor services.

Including the new employees who joined in the last few days, there are only about a hundred people in total!
This department has doubled its staff?!
"That's too much." Lu Yiwen swallowed, recalling the accounts they had settled at the group meeting that day.

Chen Xuebing shook his head with his hands behind his back: "These 100 are just our sales staff and retail representatives. When we open stores in the future, we will also need sales guides and store managers. The process of training elite employees is very long. Be prepared. You will be very busy during this period. I am here this time to lay a solid foundation for you."

Xiaomi has sold 10,000 offline units.

Huawei has 20,000 offline sales staff.

Apple has over 70,000 retail employees worldwide.

The bigger the dream, the bigger the team it deserves; 100 people are just the starting point for his dream.

(End of this chapter)