Chapter 226 Win-win (two-in-one chapter)

Li Weidong was not surprised that Bunta Takakura wanted the patent for the egg steamer. With Bunta Takakura's eyesight, he could certainly see that the egg steamer had market value.

The core function of home appliances is nothing more than to make human life more convenient and comfortable. From this point of view, the egg steamer is a qualified product.

Li Weidong knew Bunta Takakura well, and he had already guessed that Bunta Takakura would not pay too high a patent fee, and might just give Li Weidong tens of thousands of dollars.

Sure enough, Bunta Takakura said: "Mr. Li, if you are willing, our Xizhi Electric is willing to pay you 20,000 US dollars to purchase the patent for the egg steamer."

"Mr. Gao Cang, twenty thousand US dollars is not enough to apply for a PCT patent." Li Weidong replied with a smile.

"Well, then it's thirty thousand dollars. I think that's a very reasonable number."

Takakura Bunta paused and then said: "Your egg steamer is just a slight functional improvement based on the electric steamer. It is not a new invention. In other words

In other words, many electrical appliance companies can produce products similar to egg steamers with their existing technology, including us, Xizhi Electric, of course."

The last half of Mrs. Takakura's words were already equivalent to a threat. If Li Weidong does not accept the patent fee of 30,000 US dollars, then Xizhi Electric will directly produce a product "similar to an egg steamer". At worst, it will change its name, such as "egg warmer"

", "potato steamer" and so on, but in essence they are all egg steamers.

"This Takakura Bunta is just as I expected!" Li Weidong smiled calmly. Based on Li Weidong's understanding of Takakura Bunta, he had already guessed that Takakura Bunta would do this.

So Li Weidong asked: "Mr. Gao Cang, your Xizhi Electric wants to buy my patent, it should be to produce egg steamers, right?"

"That's right." Takakura Bunta said bluntly: "Under the current situation, I can't purchase products directly from your country, so I can only purchase patents and produce them in our country."

"Mr. Gao Cang, I have another cooperation model that you may be interested in." Li Weidong pointed to the egg steamer in front of him and said, "I can OEM this product for Xizhi Electric!"

"OEM?" Takakura Bunta frowned.

"I think Mr. Takakura must be familiar with the OEM production model, right? More than 30 years ago, many companies in Japan started by relying on OEM, and now in Japan, many companies have opened OEM factories in

South Korea and Southeast Asia." Li Weidong said slowly.

Gao Cangbunta narrowed his eyes slightly, as if thinking about Li Weidong's suggestion.

Li Weidong continued: "The structure of this egg steamer is not complicated and the cost is not high, so the profit is not that big. At least compared with other household appliances produced by Xizhi Electric, the profit is less or more.

Compared with telecommunications equipment and digital products, there is a huge difference.

If Xizhi Electric wants to produce its own egg steamer, it will need to improve the production line and train workers. These will increase the production cost of Xizhi Electric. The same production line should be used to produce TVs or printers than to produce steamers.

Egg machine, more profitable, right?

Therefore, it is not cost-effective for Xizhi Electric to open a new production line to produce small things like Xizhi Electric. It is better to directly adopt the OEM model, which can save a lot of costs. And my factory already has an egg steamer.

A complete production line, as long as Xizhi Electric is willing, we can OEM for Xizhi Electric at any time!

In addition, there is another advantage to adopting the OEM production model, because OEM is not a direct purchase. Strictly speaking, OEM is just your entrustment for processing and production, not a trading behavior of goods, so Xizhi Electric does not have to worry about certain

Limitations of objective factors.”

Takakura Bunta nodded: "Mr. Li, what you said makes sense. If we at Xizhi Electric set up a production line directly, the cost is indeed lower than finding an OEM. But once we successfully set up a production line, we can produce steam for a long time.

For egg cookers, as time accumulates, the cost of setting up a production line will continue to be reduced. From a long-term perspective, setting up a production line is cost-effective."

"Mr. Bunta Takakura, in addition to the cost of setting up a production line, the cost of parts and labor costs also need to be considered by Nishiba Electric. The parts produced in China are much cheaper than those in Japan. The labor force in China is also cheaper than that in Japan.

There are many. So the egg steamer produced in China is definitely much cheaper than in Japan." Li Weidong said,

Bunta Takakura shook his head: "If all Chinese parts are used, it is equivalent to purchasing directly from China, which violates the principle of OEM. This is fake OEM, and my superiors will not approve it."

Li Weidong immediately said: "I already have a plan in this regard. Mr. Gao Cang, please take a look. There is a stainless steel plate in this egg steamer. Water is heated through this stainless steel plate and turns into water vapor. This stainless steel plate

It should be regarded as the core component of the egg steamer.

So I plan that this stainless steel plate will be provided by Xizhi Electric, which is equivalent to the key core components provided by Japan, while our Chinese company only provides some non-critical components, so it does not violate the principle of OEM.

Aren’t most of the OEM production models around the world working this way?”

"Mr. Li, you are really a master at exploiting loopholes!" Bunta Takakura couldn't help but sigh.

"Mr. Gao Cang, I just proposed a more feasible solution, which happens to be beneficial to both of us! For Xizhi Electric, you get cheap products, but for me,

You can earn a little bit of hard work. It's a win-win situation!" Li Weidong said with a smile.

"Okay, I admit that Mr. Li's plan is indeed a win-win plan, and I will report it to the headquarters." Takakura Bunta said.

…

The first step of Li Weidong's Plan B is door-to-door sales. If Takakura Bunta is unwilling to purchase the egg steamer, then Li Weidong can only take the second step, which is to obtain OEM and sell the egg steamer in this way.

go out.

Due to the shortage of stainless steel in the country, Li Weidong simply took this opportunity to ask Xizhi Electric to provide stainless steel under the guise of providing core components. This can prove that this is a real OEM, and secondly, it can also solve the problem of shortage of stainless steel materials, so that

The egg steamer was successfully produced.

This kind of OEM only appeared in the 1950s and 1960s. The first companies to engage in OEM were Japanese companies. The following four Asian Tigers and Four Asian Tigers all started by relying on OEM in the early days, while China

OEMs also account for a large part of the manufacturing industry.

It is precisely because OEM is a new thing, and Western developed countries have not experienced the stage of OEM for others, so in the 1980s, the understanding of OEM in international trade was still relatively vague, even after the WTO

Within the framework, there are no clear provisions for the identification of OEMs.

As the OEM production model becomes more and more powerful, and even becomes a major production model in international trade, economists gradually define OEM as a kind of labor export with commodities as the carrier.

In other words, OEM is a kind of export, but it is not trade in goods or trade in services.

It is precisely because of the special nature of OEM that OEM can bypass many international agreements. Most unilateral or multilateral trade agreements have no restrictions on OEM behavior.

In many trade agreements, anti-dumping investigations can be conducted on certain commodities, tariffs on certain commodities can be increased, and even the import of certain commodities can be banned through administrative orders. However, these methods are completely ineffective for OEMs.

Because the core of foundry is manufacturing, while the core of trade is goods or services.

…

Two days later, Li Weidong received a call from Bunta Takakura and came to Xizhi Electric's office in Hong Kong.

After the two exchanged a few words, Takakura Bunta said:

"Mr. Li, I have already reported to the Japanese headquarters about the OEM. The headquarters agrees with this plan in principle, but the price must be within a reasonable range. So I invite you here this time to discuss the price.

matters."

Li Weidong knew that Xizhi Electric Appliances must have done a price evaluation on the egg steamer, so Li Weidong decided to quote first to take the initiative.

So Li Weidong said: "Mr. Gao Cang, our quotation at the Canton Fair for this egg steamer is US$25 per unit. It's about 3,000 yen!"

"Mr. Li, let's just talk about the US dollar!" Bunta Takakura said.

In 1989, Japan's per capita GDP exceeded 25,000 US dollars, and with the appreciation of the yen, this number will continue to rise. In 1994, Japan's per capita GDP exceeded 40,000 US dollars, followed by 25

There has been no growth in 2020, and Japan's per capita GDP in 2020 is thousands of dollars less than in 1994.

Therefore, for the Japanese in 1989, it was more cost-effective to talk about US dollars when buying things.

Li Weidong nodded and then said: "Okay, let's go by US dollars. If Xizhi Electric can provide stainless steel plates, then I can reduce the price of the egg steamer to 22 US dollars."

"Mr. Li, this is too high. We have calculated the cost of raw materials. Excluding the stainless steel plate, the cost of such an egg steamer will definitely not exceed 15 US dollars!" Takakura Bunta said.

"Mr. Gao Cang, what you calculated is the cost of raw materials. Don't forget there is also the cost of patents. I want you to pay a patent fee of US$1 for an egg steamer. Isn't that excessive?" Li Weidong said.

"That's only 16 US dollars!" Bunta Takakura said.

"There are also labor costs! I need to pay the workers, and in addition, I also need some profits! In the home appliance industry, gross profits of more than 25% are very common, so the $22 I want is a very reasonable one.

Price." Li Weidong said.

Bunta Takakura shook his head: "No, I'll give you up to 18 US dollars!"

"21 dollars!" Li Weidong said.

"19 dollars!" Bunta Takakura immediately countered.

"One price, 20 US dollars!" Li Weidong said immediately.

Takakura Bunta did not answer immediately, but fell into thinking.

Li Weidong immediately increased the price: "For the price of 20 US dollars, if Xizhi Electric orders more than 300,000 units at a time, I will give you an additional 5,000 units. Of course, you have to pay for the stainless steel plates."

Three hundred thousand units and five thousand units are given away, which is equivalent to US$19.67 per unit. This is an acceptable figure for Xizhi Electric.

However, the number of 300,000 units is a bit large, but it exceeds Xizhi Electric's plan. In Xizhi Electric's plan, they did not plan to buy so many egg steamers at one time.

"Three hundred thousand units? This is too much. Mr. Li, you are very optimistic about the market for this product!" Bunta Takakura said.

Li Weidong shook his head: "I think Xizhi Electric has underestimated the market for egg steamers. A mere 300,000 egg steamers have been put into the Japanese market and will be sold out soon. I'm afraid you Xizhi Electric will need it by then.

Place more orders.”

"I'm not as optimistic as you." Takakura Bunta shook his head.

"Mr. Gao Cang, you have stayed in Hong Kong Island for too long! You must know that Japan's consumption habits are different from those in Hong Kong Island." Li Weidong said with a smile.

Bunta Takakura looked disapproving, and said, "Mr. Li, I am Japanese, and I know Japan's consumption habits quite well."

"Oh? Then may I ask Mr. Gao Cang, when was the last time you bought daily necessities in a Japanese shopping mall?" Li Weidong asked still smiling.

"Well, well, because my workplace is always on Hong Kong Island, I don't usually have the opportunity to visit Japanese shopping malls." Takakura Bunta continued with a slight embarrassment: "But this doesn't mean that I don't understand Japanese people.

consumption habits.”
To be continued...