industrial overlord

Chapter 556 An Era Is Over
"An era is over."

When He Haifeng bid farewell to the political stage, the chairman of Xihu Company, Osawa Yan, was also in the conference room, and made such a lament to a room full of directors and executives.

This is the last meeting of the board of directors of Xihu Company. Tomorrow, Xihu Company will officially declare bankruptcy. This large equipment manufacturing enterprise with a history of [-] years was eventually eliminated due to insolvency.

The failure to compete with Hanhua for the stamping production line order of General Motors two years ago was the biggest turning point for Xihu.After that, the Chinese machine tool companies headed by Hanhua began to join forces to strangle Xihu Company. They used products that were basically similar to Xihu Company, and the price was more than half of Xihu Company, and sold Xihu Company’s traditional customers one by one. Prying away from the ground, the market of Xihu Company shrank day by day until it finally collapsed.

In order to get out of the predicament, Osawa also took many measures.He started by closing two underutilized factories to cut costs.Then, they squeezed out funds to strengthen the development of new products, hoping to use technological advantages to curb the defeat.However, all these means failed to bring Xihu out of the quagmire.After two years of lingering, Xihu finally went bankrupt.

In fact, it is inevitable for Xihu Company to come to this point.In the past ten years, Japan's manufacturing industry has continued to relocate, and many companies would rather let Chinese companies OEM than leave their factories in Japan, where labor costs are extremely high.After the downstream manufacturing industry leaves, the upstream machine tool equipment industry will naturally decline.

In addition, since the collapse of the real estate industry in the early 90s, the Japanese economy has fallen into a long-term downturn, and the Asian financial crisis that began in 97 has made things worse.In the past two years, the stock of Xihu Company has been falling continuously, and investors' confidence is insufficient. Many self-rescue measures launched by Osawa cannot be supported by investors, and the company's bankruptcy is inevitable.

When it came to the point of declaring bankruptcy, Osawa felt relieved instead. He felt a sense of relief, and finally no longer needed to worry about the tricks of his old rival Hanhua Heavy Industries all the time.In Osawahiko's view, Lin Zhenhua is an opponent who never plays cards according to common sense. He is more like a spoiler, disrupting the order of the entire market.Now that Xihu Company is out and the market belongs to Hanhua Heavy Industry, Osawa wants to know how Lin Zhenhua plans to continue operating in this disrupted market.

"Everyone, thank you for everything you have done for the company over the years. Please forgive me. I have failed everyone's high expectations. Please forgive me." Osawahiko stood in front, bowed deeply to everyone, and made a 90-degree bow bowed, and didn't straighten up for a long time.

The directors and executives all lowered their heads and remained silent. They didn't know whether they felt ashamed or were thinking about their way out.

"Is there anything else you want to say?" Osawa asked, raising his head slowly, scanning the crowd.

"Chairman Osawa, I heard that the Chinese are interested in acquiring our Xihu company, but you disagree with the Chinese's acquisition request. Can you give us an explanation?" the old director Kei Hashiguchi asked.

Osawa said expressionlessly: "Mr. Hashiguchi, it's not that I disagree, but that the Japanese government has issued a ban on this acquisition. Xihu has some very cutting-edge technologies that can be used for military purposes Yes. In order to prevent China from possessing military technology capable of threatening Japan, the government does not agree with us selling Xihu to the Chinese.”

Hashiguchi said: "Chairman Osawa, if I am not mistaken, it is precisely you who asked the government not to sell Xihu to the Chinese, otherwise, the government would not have issued this ban."

Osawa nodded and said: "Mr. Hashiguchi, you are right. When the government asked me for opinions, I did state my point of view. I said that Xihu Company cannot be sold to the Chinese, especially It cannot be sold to Hanhua Heavy Industries in China. As for the reason, I think Mr. Hashiguchi knows it.”

"I think this reason is just a matter of the chairman's personal self-esteem?" Hashiguchi said disdainfully, "Under your management, Xihu Company lost to China's Hanhua Heavy Industry. You can't find it from yourself. The reason, but put the responsibility on the Chinese, so you applied to the government for an injunction to prevent the Chinese from acquiring Xihu Company. In fact, if Xihu Company can be acquired by the Chinese, the interests of shareholders will be able to With better protection, our workers can also be better placed than they are now."

What Kei Hashiguchi said was not unfounded.When it was learned that Xihu Company might go bankrupt, Hanhua Heavy Industries issued a takeover offer to Xihu Company.According to the conditions offered by Hanhua Heavy Industry, the original shareholders of Xihu Company will be able to get a better return. At the same time, the production of Xihu Company may also continue, which can keep the jobs of a group of workers.However, because the Japanese government issued a notice prohibiting Chinese companies from acquiring Xihu, this intended acquisition fell through.Japan is currently in a state of economic stagnation, and there are no domestic companies willing to acquire Xihu Company, which makes it difficult for the original shareholders of Xihu Company to get compensation.

"Mr. Hashiguchi, you are wrong." Osawa said, "I never thought that the reason for the failure of Xihu Company was Hanhua Heavy Industry. I always believed that the responsibility for Xihu Company to come to this point lies with me... …and everyone here.”

Osawahiko first said that the responsibility lies with himself, but everyone is still indifferent. Who would have thought that after he took a deep breath, he shifted the responsibility to everyone present, and everyone would stop doing it.Eiji Tanaka, the director of the young faction, was the first to ask: "Chairman, why do you think that we should be responsible for the bankruptcy of the company? Isn't it because of your wrong decision that the company has come to this point?"

"In the past few years, our company's R&D investment has been continuously reduced, which has led to the gradual narrowing of the technology gap between the Chinese and us. This is the root cause of the company's bankruptcy. The decision to reduce R&D investment is yours, the chairman. Made it." Technical director Shoji Ryase also quickly pointed the finger at Osawahiko.Anyway, the company is about to go bankrupt, and the chairman of the board, Osawahiko, is now a tiger in peace, and everyone is not afraid that he will be unhappy.

Several other directors also stood up and began to accuse Osawahiko.Osawa listened with a sullen face and did not defend himself. He did not continue until everyone had finished speaking: "The failure of Xihu Company is due to our pride. We have always believed that the Chinese cannot become our opponents." As a result, we sent opportunities to them again and again, which led to our final failure. During this process, everyone here, did anyone foresee this result?"

Everyone looked at each other and remained silent. What Osawa said was right. Before that, everyone did not pay attention to the Chinese people. They felt that they had technological advantages, and were rich and powerful, and had strong competitiveness.It is this arrogant mentality that caused Xihu to miss many good opportunities.

Osawa laughed self-deprecatingly, and said: "As early as 10 years ago, when Nihong Heavy Industry was facing the threat of competition from Hanhua Heavy Industry, Mr. Ishikawa, the chairman of Nihong Heavy Industry, once asked us for help. But at that time, we We are not aware of the ambitions of the Chinese people at all. Our eyes only regard Hanhua Heavy Industry as a customer, a customer that can bring us profits. Therefore, we use our equipment to help Hanhua Heavy Industry defeat Nihong Heavy Industry. This is where our whole mistake started."

"You can't blame us for this matter, can you?" Tanaka Yongji said hesitantly.

Osawa said: "It's all because of our arrogance and our selfishness. However, our selfishness finally got retribution. When Hanhua Heavy Industries launched a competition with us, we once asked KHN for help. As a result, KHN’s attitude is the same as our request for help from Nihong Heavy Industry, it is completely based on its own interests, without any consideration of our situation.”

"I think KHN will regret it one day," said sales director Yongzo Matsushita.

"Yes, they will regret it sooner or later." Osawa nodded and said, "The Chinese people have great ambitions, and they will not stop at the current state. What they want to do is to take our industries one by one. Squeeze out one by one, and finally make Japan a second-rate country in Asia. Just because I saw their ambitions, I proposed to the government that the Chinese should be prohibited from acquiring Japanese high-tech companies, including Xihu. "

"Chairman Osawa, I think you think too much." Hashiguchi said, "Whether other companies will be competed by the Chinese is not something we should consider. As a chairman, what you should do , is responsible to shareholders, not to the government. What you are doing now has violated the interests of shareholders, and I will sue you in court on behalf of shareholders."

Osawahiko smiled sadly and said: "Mr. Hashiguchi, you have your freedom, and I am ready to accept the investigation of the court at any time. However, the government's ban has been issued, and I feel very relieved. I don't want to see Xihu company go down. If they enter the mouth of the Chinese, they will use Xihu as a platform to further squeeze other Japanese companies. We are old, but we still have children, and I don’t want them to live in China’s shadow.”

"If this is the case, then what else can we say? I'm sorry, everyone, I don't want to listen to this kind of meeting anymore, so I will leave first." Jing Hashiguchi stood up angrily, and told his colleagues in the conference room After bowing, he picked up his bag and walked out.

Osawahiko watched Takashi Hashiguchi walk out of the conference room, turned around and said to everyone: "Okay, since everyone has nothing else to do, let's end today's meeting here, and I'm sorry for the trouble."

The directors stood up sadly and bowed to Osawahiko one after another.Matsushita Yongzo walked at the end, and waited until everyone had left before he walked up to Osawahiko and said to him: "Chairman, please don't mind, there are some things that we cannot change."

Osawahiko patted Matsushita Yongzo on the shoulder and said: "Matsushita-san, thank you, I don't intend to shirk my responsibility, I will make a statement to the shareholders. What you said just now is very good, we have regretted it now , KHN will regret it in the future, I believe that after defeating us, Lin Zhenhua will definitely attack KHN."

"It's not something we care about anymore," Matsushita said.

Osawa said: "Yes, this is not something we care about. Our era is over. A new century is coming soon. In this century, the balance of Asia will be tilted towards China."

(End of this chapter)