Lion opens its mouth
Ford stayed in the room, and finally waited for working hours. He rushed to the workshop and intercepted Lin Zhenhua at the door of the workshop: "Lin, I have something to talk to you about."
"It's time for work now, and there are also training workers waiting for us." Lin Zhenhua put on a difficult expression.
"No, no, never mind. Let each of them first turn two flower-shaped shafts to get familiar with the performance of the machine tool, and we'll take this opportunity to have a good talk."
"Alright, I'll go make arrangements."
Lin Zhenhua went into the workshop to arrange something and then came out. Ford pulled him aside under a tree shade and said in a low voice, "Mr. Lin, the program patch you gave me has been tested by our company and it's completely correct."
"Ah, this is within my expectation." Lin Zhenhua said.
"Our company's chairman, Mr. Wilson, has a high appreciation for Mr. Lin's talent and specially had someone call me to ask me to express his gratitude to you."
"Ah, this is what I should do." Lin Zhenhua replied lightly, he heard Ford make so many preparations and knew that there must be something unsaid behind. On this matter, he was not in a hurry at all, just waiting to see how the Americans would perform.
"Mr. Lin, Mr. Wilson said that the company is willing to pay for the remaining patches in your hand, but the specific price still needs to be discussed with you."
"My demands are not high. My program can help you recover the economic disputes and reputation losses, you just pay me 10% of these losses as fees, that's all. You make a big profit, I make a small one, how about it?"
Ford felt a sense of unease: the young man in front of him was not a rookie at all, his demands were moderate and reasonable, no matter where he went to say them, they would be justified.
"Mr. Lin, so according to your estimate, how much loss should our company have? You said 10%, roughly how much money is that?"
"Your company's MK800 has currently sold around 1,000 units, with a selling price of $13,000 per unit, calculated based on the price sold to China, totaling $130 million. If it weren't for my patch, all these devices would need to be recalled, and your loss should also be this number, right? Out of friendly consideration, I won't count the shipping and labor costs."
"Maybe...not that many," Ford said with a smile, "Actually, our sales volume isn't that large either. Moreover, not all the machines necessarily need to be recalled, so..."
"As far as I know, your company is also planning to launch several other CNC machine tools, including a five-axis linkage machine tool that has invested more than 80 million yuan in R&D costs alone. If the news about MK800 having bugs gets out, will you be able to sell these machines? Don't tell me you don't know that the Japanese are competing with you for the machine tool market."
Ford was completely defeated: "Mr. Lin, you are simply too terrifying. Our five-axis linkage CNC machine is still in the research and development stage, and you actually know exactly how much we invested in R&D. I think that since you understand Spieser's company so well, you should also know that our company is currently facing severe financial difficulties. If you quote a price that is too high, I'm afraid our company won't be able to bear it."
The words have already been very straightforward, that is to say, the price you opened is indeed reasonable, but we can't afford it, so you see what to do. Poor Wilson still thought he could threaten Lin Zhenhua, but unexpectedly, the one who really needed to beg for mercy was his Spichler company.
"I won't haggle like a lion, so here's the deal: I'll give you another discount. You give me 10 million, and not only will I hand over all the patches to you, but I'll also throw in an upgraded version of the control program that can increase the production efficiency of the MK800 by more than 50%." Lin Zhenhua said with a big smile.
"To be honest with you, Mr. Lin, our deputy general manager called me this morning and said that the boss's intention is to only pay $2,000. The difference between your request of one million and the number given by the boss is really too big." Ford had no choice but to tell the truth. When it comes to business tactics, Americans are not a match for Chinese people. In those years, there were also many cases where Chinese people lost out in Sino-US trade cooperation, but that was only because they lacked understanding of market economics. Now, with Lin Zhenhua having experienced market economics, if he still loses to the Americans, it would be really unacceptable.
Lin Zhenhua nodded: "Your boss's idea, I can understand. In his eyes, Chinese people have never seen money, with two thousand dollars, it is enough for me to achieve four modernizations in advance, so he is determined that I will definitely accept, right?"
"That's right."
"Mr. Ford, then I'll trouble you to convey my message to your boss. I'm indeed very poor, but the amount of money I've seen is no less than his. If he's not willing to pay for the program in my hands, I can sell it to Nisho Corporation in Japan. Spending $2 million to buy a fatal weakness of their competitor would be a great bargain for the Japanese."
"Alright, I'll go make the long-distance call and tell them exactly what you said." Ford replied dejectedly, "As for the workshop... forget it, Lin. It's all up to you now. I just realized that your understanding of the MK800 far surpasses mine. You don't need to be my translator at all; you can directly teach everyone instead."
Lin Zhenhua smiled and said, "Mr. Ford, you're wrong. The same sentence, when spoken from your mouth versus mine, carries a completely different weight. I can tell you now that in these days of training, there were several places where you spoke incorrectly, which I corrected for you while translating, but everyone believed it was your original intention."
"Lin, you're too clever, I don't want to be your competitor in the future," Ford sighed.
Lin Zhenhua shrugged: "Mr. Ford, we will always be friends. But please believe that within 30 years, the Chinese people will definitely go to the United States to compete with you. This world cannot always be dominated by one family, and competition makes it more beautiful, doesn't it?"
"I didn't believe it in the past, but now I do. Maybe within 30 years, Chinese goods will defeat American ones, and at that time, the entire US market will be filled with Made in China, just like Japan-made today."
"You......" Lin Zhenhua wanted to say something but stopped himself, he almost asked: You didn't also come from crossing over, did you? How do you know about the legendary "Made in China"?
Ford ran to the post office, and the clerk was still the woman from yesterday. As soon as she saw Ford, she smiled with her eyes narrowed and hurriedly took out a long-distance call form for him to fill out. While filling out the form, Ford sighed: The gap between people is really too big. Looking at this kind-hearted Chinese woman, I only gave her $10, and she was so happy. And that greedy Lin Zhenhua, he actually asked for $1 million with one mouthful. He's a lion who opens his mouth wide, but he said he wouldn't be like that. His mouth is as big as an African hippopotamus.
When Ford's call went through, it was already after 9pm Eastern Time in the US, but Chairman Wilson had not yet returned home. He led a group of directors waiting for a call from China. Across the ocean, thousands of miles apart, a telephone conference began, and in the end, Ford successfully persuaded the bigwigs in the US that this Chinese kid who could write program patches was definitely not someone who could be bought off with just $2,000.
Wilson, after obtaining the consent of the board of directors, formally authorized Ford to negotiate with Lin Zhenhua within a range of $500,000. If it exceeded this range, then Lin Zhenhua would have to come and communicate with Wilson himself. In order to mobilize Ford's enthusiasm, Wilson also offered a heavy reward: within the range of $500,000, for every dollar that Ford could reduce, one-tenth of it could be used as Ford's bonus.
500,000, still half short of Lin Zhenhua's requirement, can Lin Zhenhua accept it? Ford was drumming in his heart and ran out of the post office to the workshop. For these two days, he had been running back and forth at a small pace, and his body was well exercised.
