Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 247 Crazy Expansion
Upon returning to Chongqing, I did not meet with any leaders.

I went to Yichang, Hubei for a meeting.

—On May 20, the Three Gorges Dam, located in Yichang, Hubei Province, was completed.

Many people think the Three Gorges Dam belongs to Chongqing, but it is actually located in Hubei Province and was jointly constructed and guaranteed by Sichuan, Chongqing, and Hubei.

Hubei resolved its flood problems, Chongqing reaped the greatest shipping benefits, and Sichuan's power grid secured 30% of its power supply.

This project has troubled the central government for a long time and can be said to be the most controversial project in history.

The Three Gorges Dam project, a public works project, was first proposed by Sun Yat-sen a century ago.

In 53, a teacher made a specific suggestion about the dam: "If so much effort is put into building tributary reservoirs and the goal of controlling floods is still not achieved, why not block the main outlet?"

In 55, Hu Gong convened experts from across the country to conduct comprehensive research, design, and demonstration on the planning and engineering surveys of the Yangtze River Basin.

Then, in 81, the chief architect stated: "Once you've made up your mind, make a decision and don't waver!"

When the project was initiated in 92, only two-thirds of the people voted in favor, barely passing the resolution.

An engineering marvel, an environmental nightmare.

A colossal engineering project, 2309 meters long and 181 meters high, with a gravity dam holding 1600 million cubic meters of water.

Shipping facilities, double-line five-stage lock: "Large ships climb stairs, small ships take elevators."

Small boats can be lifted directly by the ship lift of the five-stage dam, while large ships are lifted by the water level in the five lock chambers, passing through lock chambers at different elevations one by one, with a climbing height of up to 113 meters.

In the past, it was impossible to navigate the Three Gorges at night, during high water, during low water, or when the water level fluctuated drastically. Even on ordinary days, one had to proceed with extreme caution, stopping and starting frequently. With this sluice gate, the Yangtze River can now be navigated without worry.

In addition, its enormous flood control capacity has solved the flood problem along the Yangtze River.

The Yangtze River, stretching for thousands of miles, is most treacherous at the Jingjiang section.

In the drizzly summer of 98, tens of thousands of people guarded the Jingjiang Dike day and night, while tens of millions of people in the flood diversion area behind it couldn't sleep at night. With the Three Gorges Dam, everything was completely different.

When the Three Gorges Dam was first built, its power generation accounted for 16% of the national total. Later, as the country's nuclear power facilities gradually improved, its share remained above 10%.

When Chen Xuebing was a child, he heard that once the Three Gorges Project was completed, electricity prices would drop and power outages would stop frequently, which excited him greatly.

I never imagined that I would grow up so quickly while waiting.

Those who lived through that era mostly experienced the feeling of suddenly losing power while watching TV or just getting through a level on a Little Tyrant game console, and having to keep several candles at home.

Of course, the Three Gorges Dam has always been a negative example in environmental studies, having had a significant impact on ecology, fish migration, and geological issues.

There are pros and cons.

The project was ultimately completed because there was no better option. As for the controversies, Chen Xuebing's prediction in 2024 indicated that the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks.

It has played a crucial role in solving power supply, navigation, and even in controlling three flood seasons that could have caused floods in the 18 years from now until 2024, and has also solved several droughts. Rumors such as "the Yangtze River channel has been silted up for ten years" and "maintenance costs have increased significantly and income has exceeded expenditure for twenty years" have been debunked.

As for the losses incurred in operating the Three Gorges Dam, in fact, the benefits of being the world's largest electricity consumer yet having one of the world's lowest electricity prices have been distributed to every ordinary citizen, and the country's strategic confidence has been enhanced.

As a veteran civil engineer with 20 years of experience, Chen Xuebing heard that tens of thousands of people had gathered to watch the Three Gorges Dam project, and many engineering professionals had also visited the site. He suddenly recalled his dream from his past life of undertaking engineering projects all over the world, and he really wanted to go and see it for himself.

I've been so focused on 3G lately that I've missed some important news.

However, the Three Gorges Project costs 200 billion yuan, the TD3G project also costs 200 billion yuan, and there will be TD-LTE 4G and the expanded and upgraded 5G in the future. The impact of this series of projects on the country is no less profound than that of the Three Gorges Project.

Look around, but nothing beats the thrill of being involved yourself.

Now that I have money, I'll do something big!

The leader stayed at the Three Gorges Dam for ten days at a time, and every time he called, his secretary answered, saying he was in a meeting.

It wasn't until the end of May that they clearly stated that they wouldn't be able to return until after June 8th.

Time is so precious, so Chen Xuebing didn't sit idle in Chongqing. Hearing that it wasn't going well for Spreadtrum to hire Zhou Guangping, he asked Lei Jun, a local from Beijing, to find someone to help him persuade Zhou.

In addition, Cai Zhijian and Changzheng Capital were instructed to start collecting information on domestic R&D companies in the fields of communications and 3G to see if they could gather any useful technological fragments to help Spreadtrum race against time.

And sure enough, they found one.

Lucent!

This company has a remarkable background; it was spun off from AT&T (the second-largest telecommunications company in the United States) in 1995.

AT&T spun off its equipment manufacturing division and Bell Labs, a world-leading research institution, and integrated them to form this new company.

Bell Labs is a legendary institution in the fields of communications, computers, and physics. They invented the transistor, the semiconductor, and later invented the photovoltaic cell and the C programming language.

Over the decades, it has nurtured more than a dozen Nobel laureates.

The multi-touch technology that had previously given Chen Xuebing a headache was first proposed by Bell Labs.

Lucent's research and development capabilities are beyond doubt.

However, their management was a complete mess. In 2000, they were ranked 74th in the Fortune 500, but in the fourth quarter, they were exposed to bad debts of $45 billion. The following year, they continued to make large-scale acquisitions, just in time for the bursting of the dot-com bubble. In 2001, they lost $141 billion. In 2002, their stock price dropped from $82 to less than $3, and their market value evaporated by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Layoffs.

It was cut in half.

After several unsuccessful attempts, it was included in the list of companies to be acquired.

In March 2006, merger negotiations began with Alcatel.

In April, Alcatel announced that it would acquire Lucent for $104 million and form a new company.

However, there are two key approval processes: approval from the European Commission and approval from the US antitrust agency CFIUS+.

Lucent has two Bell Labs branches in China, one in BJ and the other in Shanghai.

There are also several branch offices.

The company has more than 4000 employees in China, of which nearly 2000 are R&D personnel.

Chen Xuebing's eyes gleamed with a predatory glint as he looked at the documents compiled by Changzheng Capital. They were about to be acquired, why weren't they poaching them?
Moreover, China has predecessors in poaching Lucent.

According to online reports, Huawei poached dozens of people from Lucent Technologies in Qingdao in 97 and tasted success. The following year, they went to poach again and found that Lucent's R&D staff salaries had doubled, rising to 3000-4000 yuan.

This also sparked a wave of wage increases for intellectuals at the time, which generated considerable controversy.

This time, with the right timing, location, and people, Chen Xuebing showed no mercy.

Qingdao Lucent? Wow!

We also need to cut off their lifeline, Bell Labs!
Senior chip designer at Bell Labs (7+ years of experience), starting salary 15,000 RMB per month!

Senior engineers, starting at 10,000!
Not only should we dig into Spreadtrum, but we should also dig into Singularity!

This salary standard is close to that of Singularity, but it exceeds Spreadtrum's original standard by almost 20%. Wu Ping immediately objected, and Chen Xuebing said he would help Spreadtrum attack Huaqiangbei within a month to suppress him.

Wu Ping suggested trying to contact their Shanghai lab through acquaintances, but Chen Xuebing couldn't wait. Fearing Alcatel's acquisition would succeed, he remotely directed Emerson, whose offices were spread across China, to take action.

Most of Bell Labs' R&D personnel are bound by non-compete agreements, but when is that?
Lucent has negative equity and is out of money.

Massive layoffs, elimination of various expenses, the elimination of free tea, and the recall of cell phones issued to employees.

When you're this poor, things become much easier.

A non-compete agreement isn't something you can just sign on a whim. It requires a hefty severance package, which Lucent certainly can't afford given its current situation. They'll just have to wait until they're released and then issue a written notice to terminate the agreement.

Emerson suggested: first, take in some of the laid-off employees, have them contact their former colleagues, spread the news that Alcatel would lay off more people after taking over, create panic, then secretly contact those senior researchers, those who agree to leave should first ask the company for a raise, try to get the company to dismiss them voluntarily, and try to avoid disputes, and those who are not dismissed should then leave voluntarily, and ask lawyers to help them urge the company to file a lawsuit, or file a lawsuit in court to invalidate the non-compete agreement.

Chen Xuebing then proposed a more direct pyramid scheme tactic: have those people go back and recruit colleagues, with a reward of 3,000 yuan for each successful recruitment.

A two-pronged approach.

Emerson headquarters experienced Mr. Chen's financial strength for the first time. After confirming Mr. Chen's past cooperation history with the Chongqing branch, they were more motivated and immediately mobilized the offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Qingdao to launch a full-scale attack on Lucent.

Headhunters are much more meticulous than HR professionals in regular companies. The entire recruitment plan was divided into two months. They arranged for employees to leave in batches and bribed two lab supervisors to temporarily refrain from reporting any unusual departures. In nearly ten days, they recruited more than 50 former dismissed employees and poached more than 60 others, who then went to Spreadtrum and Singularity in batches to work.

Even the seemingly innocuous American company Lucent Technologies failed to detect it.

Singularity's IC division, technology department, and software company have gained more than 40 senior industry employees. Spreadtrum's various departments have also expanded rapidly with the help of social recruitment, headhunters, and Chen Xuebing. More than 1100 training interns have filled an entire building.

On the morning of June 9th, Wu Ping called.

"That's enough! Several project teams are already full! If we keep hiring like this, our basic monthly personnel costs will exceed 15 million! That's 180 million a year! We still need to do R&D, and the extra staff will require management teams. How can we afford that?"

Chen Xuebing chuckled as he looked at the information on his computer screen: "Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications" and "Chongqing Vice Mayor Huang appointed to the Three Gorges Commission."
"There are still so many interns to teach. If the project team is full, assign them to mentor the interns. Opportunities to recruit talent from the world's leading companies are rare. Who knows when we'll be able to poach them again? This time, we need to poach at least 300 elite employees from Lucent. We'll take in all the ones who resigned voluntarily. There are also a few scientists from Bell Labs' US branch who have just dropped out and are interested in coming to work for a few years. We're in talks. Once we reach an agreement, Singularity and Spreadtrum will share them. If you don't need these people, wait a few months, and Singularity will take them all in."

Singularity is currently short-staffed. The IC department often works overtime and needs to hire more people. The network company is also expanding, and there is also a laboratory that is expected to need more than a dozen people. The personnel requirements are quite high.

The problem is that Qidian is not well-known right now, and its assets consist of only one factory. Even its office building is rented and cramped. For employees, regardless of who the shareholders are, the prospects and working environment of different companies are completely different. Many high-end talents are unwilling to work at Qidian, as it is impossible to offer double the salary to everyone.

That's why Chen Xuebing wanted to buy and renovate Henggang Building.

Now, by taking advantage of the opportunity to establish a touch lab and an internet company, we can recruit a group of people first. Once Qidian's products have gained a reputation and the overall office environment has improved, we can then let them go to Qidian, and they will have far fewer complaints.

Wu Ping also knew that the opportunity to recruit talent was rare, but the business was still far from being realized, and Chen Xuebing's expansion was giving him a big headache.

"After this, you can't expand anymore. You need to give me some time to integrate these people."

Chen Xuebing, however, pressed on with a relaxed expression: "Once you have business, you'll naturally absorb it. Everything depends on the progress of your R&D. Don't worry about the money for hiring people; I'll definitely earn it for you. But I'll launch a large-scale campus recruitment drive in six months. If we don't push forward the 3G process, think about how we'll settle these thousands of people."

When he spoke of the one-year window of opportunity he had in mind, he only gave half of it.

A long sigh came from over there.

"Mr. Chen, even when you're spinning a top, you don't need to use so much force, do you?"

Chen Xuebing laughed: "How big is the difference between a chip designer and a telecommunications equipment manufacturer? In the US stock market, it's the difference between a billion dollars and a hundred billion dollars. Huawei was in trouble in 2003, but it was still sold to Motorola for $75 billion. Datang Telecom lost 7 million dollars a year, but its market value in Hong Kong was still 50 billion dollars. Why? Isn't the title of telecommunications manufacturer worth our efforts? The future is bright, the road is in front of us, the gas is full, I won't interfere anymore, it's up to you."

If you want to feed a chairman a pie, the pie has to be drawn this big.

This pie in the sky, if presented to the shareholders' meeting, would smell just as good.

However, telecommunications equipment manufacturers are often companies with tens of thousands of employees. ZTE now has 7 employees, Huawei has 5, and Datang Telecom has nearly 6. If Spreadtrum wants to reach this goal, it needs an exceptionally large amount of business.

Wu Ping was under immense pressure and even regretted mentioning that day, "If we leave Datang, we'll have to become our own telecommunications equipment supplier." Now, looking back, it seems that Chen Xuebing's triumphant smile that day was already a trap.

"How long will it take to reach an agreement with Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications? If it really doesn't work out, we can contact them directly; we've had some collaborations before."

"No need, I'll take care of it right away."

After Chen Xuebing finished speaking, he hung up the phone and then dialed a new number.

Two beeps, and the other end answered quickly.

"Mr. Chen!"

Chen Xuebing teased, "Chairman He, have you been making a killing lately? You're not going to say we've made too much money this time, are you?"

In early June, the Shanghai Composite Index surged to a peak of 1680, but in the last two days it has fallen to 1590, fluctuating repeatedly. Changzheng Capital's position has been fluctuating up and down, and overall it has only performed slightly better than the market, without making much money.

Hudong Heavy Machinery, however, acted independently, ignoring the broader market trend and rising by more than ten percentage points.

"Sigh!" He Zhiya sighed like Versailles: "It was 20 yuan a couple of days ago! Yesterday it dropped to 18.8 yuan! And today it's only come back up to 19 yuan!"

"A month ago, you bought 250 million shares at 15 yuan, and then added another 100 million yuan when the price was 16.5 yuan. You must have made at least 70 or 80 million yuan by now, right? Aren't you satisfied yet?"

Chen Xuebing's tone turned unfriendly, and Chairman He immediately chuckled.

"Not at all, we're extremely satisfied! All thanks to Mr. Chen! We've already bought 150 million worth of Moutai, but the market seems a bit stagnant lately."

"Just take it. By the way, I need to see my boss in a bit. Will you come with me?"

"Meeting with the boss? What's up?"

"Don't ask anymore, I'll wait for you at the city hall."

(End of this chapter)