Extraordinary Genius
Chapter 820 - Li Jingwei"s troubles
While Feng Yu was patiently waiting fornews, Lin Qishu had flown back to China to meet with Li Jingwei. He needs toreport to him about Feng Yu"s alliance.
After Li Jingwei heard the report from LinQishu, he started to make other plans.
Li Jingwei had built Jianlibao from scratch,but he got nothing to do with this company. He is only a worker in the company!
But Li Jingwei is not an ordinary worker.Without him, there will not be a successful Jianlibao. In his local area, hewas a hero!
Li Jingwei does not want to be known as ahero. He wanted ownership of the company. Everyone knew that without him, therewill not be Jianlibao. But as he got more authority in the company, he becameunsatisfied with the limitations imposed on him by the government.
The government forcefully imposed aregulation that Jianlibao must employ at least 40% of locals, and the middlemanagement is people related to government officials. These had affected thedevelopment of Jianlibao severely.
Li Jingwei felt that without these people,Jianlibao would be more successful! He had kept on emphasizing on developingtheir overseas and domestic sales distribution channels. Their internal distributionchannels cannot even be compared to Lehaha and Lebashi!
The company had spent a lot to developtheir distribution channels. Why are the channels still not developed? Theystill must depend on distributors. If anything goes wrong with the distributors,Jianlibao"s sales will plummet. If Jianlibao"s distribution channels aredeveloped like Lehaha, they can prevent other beverages from developing.
The government also takes away most ofJianlibao"s profits. This caused Jianlibao to have insufficient funds. LiJingwei had always wanted to develop new products. They should have investedtheir profits into their R&D in the first place.
Li Jingwei"s dream is to be like Coca-Cola.Jianlibao will be the main product of the company, and the other drinks willsupplement them. This way, the company will be more compet.i.tive.
But now, Jiaolibao only has one product.Those officials in the government say they do not need other products. Only oneproduct is sufficient and took away the company"s product development fund. Severalyears ago, Jiaolibao had planned to develop tea beverages. But because of thegovernment, Lehaha got ahead of them!
Li Jingwei can only let the branch companyin the US to develop new products to prevent the government from taking thefunds away.
Since the start of the 1980s, the Chinesegovernment had allowed private individuals to invest or acquire state-ownedenterprises. This policy gave Li Jingwei hope.
Li Jingwei thought that he had madesignificant contributions to Jianlibao, and the government will support hisproposal to have a clear definition of the ownership rights of the company.After all, many state-owned companies were doing this. They gave the people whocontributed the most to the companies some shares! His local government onlygave him some awards and increase his salary slightly.
Under the harsh circ.u.mstances, Li Jingweicontrolled Jianlibao"s growth. He knew that if Jianlibao were to become moresuccessful, the possibility of him and his team getting shares of the company wouldbe slimmer.
Li Jingwei had wanted to build a skysc.r.a.perin Shenzhen and move Jianlibao headquarters there. He wanted to move thecompany out of the small county. The county they are located in is out of theplace and had limited the company"s growth.
As for how to buy the company"s shares, LiJingwei had a plan. Get Jianlibao listed!
The government officials love to seecompanies under their charge get listed. Once Jianlibao got listed, the marketvalue will increase, and it will be their credits.
Li Jingwei felt he will be able to persuadethe government to let the top management team become the shareholders of thecompany!
But the reality is far from what Li Jingweiexpected.
Before New Year, Li Jingwei had proposedJianlibao to be listed and was rejected. The local government leaders evenreprimanded him for diverting away from socialism and does not want to makecontributions to the country.
Contribution my a.s.s! What I did over thepast few years is not considered contributions?
Li Jingwei was furious. He had put in so manyefforts and did not get anything in return. His "Listing and skysc.r.a.per" plans didnot get the approvals. There was no way for him to become a shareholder of thecompany. He was utterly disappointed.
At this period, a series of news reportsmade Li Jingwei even more furious!
TCL"s founder, Li Dongsheng, had signed anagreement with the local government. Li Dongsheng"s team will guarantee thecompany will grow by 10% annually, and the government will allow the managementteam to purchase the company"s shares proportionally.
In a city not far from Jianlibao, anelectronic appliances manufacturing company was sold to the founder and itsteam.
There were many similar news reports. Themanagement team of many state-owned companies was given shares of the company.Some teams got lots of shares and some got lesser. But Li Jingwei could not geta single share in Jianlibao!
The local government"s income was mainlyfrom Jianlibao, and Li Jingwei was the one who helped the leaders get theirpromotions!
But now, the government officials hadcrashed Li Jingwei"s final hope. What made Li Jingwei more furious was theinterference from the government officials a few years ago during the rise ofhealth supplement products. Those officials wanted Jianlibao to do the same.
The officials wanted to Jianlibao topromote as a health supplement product. They wanted Jianlibao to be marketed asa drink that "cures" all illnesses and ailments.
But Li Jingwei firmly opposed to this ideaat that time despite those health supplements" revenue increased several foldsand become companies worth more than 2 billion RMB within one year. He did notgive in to these temptations and still have his conscience.
After CCTV exposed those health supplementproducts and caused the downfall of that industry, those government officialsrealized Li Jingwei was right in the first place.
Li Jingwei felt if he let those peoplemanage Jianlibao, the company would have been gone years ago!
Only two health supplement companies,Lebashi and Lehaha, survived since the collapsed of the industry, and thesecompanies converted to manufacture beverages. Among the two, Lehaha had grownto become a threat to Jianlibao!
At this time, Lehaha"s main shareholderwanted cooperation to open up the overseas market. Li Jingwei did not wish toagree initially as both companies were compet.i.tors.
But Li Jingwei was considering. He felt heshould meet with Mr. Feng to discuss this. If he can get financial support fromMr. Feng, then…….
Translator"s notes:
TCL Corporation