Tokyo, Nishiba Electric Headquarters.

The main directors of Xizhi Electric are gathered together, and a small-scale board meeting is being held here.

The theme of the board of directors is to outsource Xizhi Electric's small home appliance production business to countries with lower production costs.

On this point, the board of directors has reached a consensus. After all, Xizhi Electric will move towards a high value-added technology industry in the future. The low-tech work of assembling small household appliances is no longer suitable for Xizhi Electric today.

However, which country's factory will hand over the small home appliance production business is a matter that needs to be carefully considered, because it is related to the future development layout of Xizhi Electric.

In the conference room, the directors expressed their opinions, and President Tanaka answered them one by one.

I saw one of the directors ask: "President Tanaka, I have a question. Our Nishiki Group has invested in a factory in Thailand, and our Japanese companies have a history of investing in Thailand for many years. Why don't we choose Thailand this time?"

But should we choose between Malaysia and China?”

Several other directors looked at President Tanaka, obviously this was also an issue they were concerned about.

President Tanaka smiled slightly and replied: "There is a saying that don't put all your eggs in the same basket, so what I did was based on the consideration of risk diversification. But this is not the most important reason. The most important thing is

, I am very dissatisfied with the production efficiency of the Thai factory.

Most of the directors have been to Thailand, right? I think you also have some understanding of the work efficiency of the Thai people. To be honest, the Thai people are too lazy and their work efficiency is too low! The working hours of Thai workers are

There are much fewer workers than our Japanese workers, and they are not willing to work overtime. They don’t like working and prefer to enjoy life!

In comparison, workers in China and Malaysia are much more hard-working. In fact, the Malays in Malaysia are not much better than the Thais, but the Chinese in Malaysia are still very hard-working. This time I want to represent us

The Malaysian factory where workers work is also a factory dominated by Chinese.

The profits of small home appliances are not high to begin with, and we also have to face competition from other brands. Currently, Xizhi's focus is no longer on home appliances. If we cannot reduce costs and improve efficiency, it may be difficult for us to maintain our position in small home appliances in the future.

business. That’s why I chose factories in China and Malaysia to OEM our small home appliances.”

"President Tanaka, I have a question, why don't we directly invest in building a factory, but instead cooperate with local factories?" Another director asked.

"Because if we directly invest in building a factory, we will have to pay additional management costs!" President Tanaka continued: "The production of small household appliances requires more manpower, and naturally requires more management personnel.

If we directly invest in building a factory, we have to spend time on management, just for small household appliances, it is not worth it! What’s more, the foundry model has also had successful precedents. Many of our labor-intensive low-end industries in Japan are not worth it.

Has it been transferred out?"

The directors asked several more questions, and President Tanaka answered them all clearly.

In fact, these directors can only raise some questions, but it is not their turn to actually make decisions.

Nishiba Electric was founded by the Tanaka family. The Tanaka family must have the most important say within Nishiba Electric. As long as the members of the Tanaka family reach an agreement, basically no one can stop it.

In addition to the Tanaka family, the most influential person is the representative of the Mitsui Foundation.

The Mitsui Foundation is composed of twenty-five large enterprises, including Nishiba. Therefore, the Nishiba Group is affiliated to the Mitsui Foundation, so President Tanaka still has to listen to the opinions of the Mitsui Foundation.

At today's board meeting, the representative of the Mitsui Foundation obviously had no objections. He had reached a consensus with President Tanaka.

Seeing that the directors had no questions, President Tanaka cleared his throat and continued: "Since everyone has no questions, let's discuss whether we should choose a factory in China or a factory in Malaysia.

Both have their own advantages. Malaysia's comprehensive business environment is better, but Malaysia's production costs are also higher. Although China's production costs are low, its comprehensive environment is not as good as Malaysia's.

The information we currently have is not enough for us to make a choice, so I plan to send people to factories in China and Malaysia to conduct on-site inspections. After the inspection results are available, we will meet again to discuss which one to choose.

"

President Tanaka turned to the secretary behind him and said, "Please come in, Mr. Watanabe!"

After a while, a middle-aged man walked in. President Tanaka pointed at the man and introduced: "This is Yu Watanabe, who used to be the person in charge of our factory in Thailand. All the directors should have heard of him.

Mr. Watanabe has outstanding abilities and rich experience. This time I plan to send Mr. Watanabe to inspect factories in China and Malaysia."

"Dear directors, please give me your advice!" Watanabe Xiong immediately bowed to everyone.

President Tanaka said: "Watanabe-kun, please introduce your inspection plan to the directors!"

"Yes!" Watanabe Yuo bowed to President Tanaka, and then walked to the conference table.

Watanabe Yuo said slowly: "Dear directors, I have inspected dozens of factories, including highly developed industrialized countries such as the United States and Europe, as well as moderately developed countries such as Brazil and South Korea. Of course, there are also some poor countries.

backward developing countries.

During all the inspections, I faced the same problem, that is, what I saw and heard was what the factory wanted me to see and hear. In layman's terms, what I saw and heard was what the factory wanted me to see and hear.

Everything that can be inspected has been arranged by the manufacturer in advance!

They will arrange all the steps, processes, contents, and even the walking route of the inspection in advance! Some attentive factories will even prepare several sets of work plans as emergency preparations.

Of course, this can reflect the manufacturer's intentions and the importance it attaches to the inspection. However, despite this careful preparation, I was unable to get real information. What I saw and heard was all prepared in advance.

And these are probably fake!

I believe that no one will expose their shortcomings to others. When the factory knows that someone will inspect it, they cover up all the shortcomings as much as possible and then show their best side.

This is a kind of fraud, and this kind of falsehood will inevitably affect our judgment and make us make wrong choices. This inspection of the foundry factory is related to our future strategic layout of Xizhi Electric, so we must get the truth

Effective information so that directors can make accurate judgments."

"Watanabe-kun, it seems you already have a strategy to deal with it!" a director asked.

"Yes." Mr. Watanabe nodded, and then said: "As you all know, when Michelin evaluates a restaurant's grade, it will not send out a large number of inspection groups to taste the food in the restaurant, but will send many

A so-called 'food spy' visits the restaurant several times over the course of a year before rating the restaurant accordingly.

The restaurant does not know when the food secret agents will arrive, nor does it know who among the guests is the food secret agents, so what they show are the most normal daily reactions, and therefore the results obtained by this method are the most realistic.

of!"

Another director immediately asked: "Watanabe-kun, are you planning to send people to make secret visits to factories in China and Malaysia?"

Watanabe Xiong bowed slightly towards the director, and then said: "Not only covert visits, but also overt inspections, I plan to do both!

On the one hand, I will lead the inspection team and conduct the inspection with great fanfare. I will also inform the factories in advance of what I want to inspect, so that they can prepare in advance, just like taking an open-book exam.

At the same time, I will look for suitable candidates to enter the factory as a worker and work on the spot for a period of time. The front-line workers will understand all aspects of factory operations, and there is no way to cheat in daily work.

The purpose of my grand inspection was to attract the attention of the factory. After I completed the inspection and left, they would never have imagined that our real inspectors had just started working! In this way, I could clearly understand

To see the actual operation of the factory."

Another director asked: "This plan sounds very good, but how do you plan to arrange the candidates who enter the factory? Are you going to hire local people?"

"No, I can't trust the locals!" Watanabe shook his head without hesitation, and then said: "In this regard, my plan to use Japanese people is related to the future strategic layout of Nishizhi Electric. Only I can trust it!"

"Do you already have a suitable candidate?" a director next to him asked.

"Yes, I did find two suitable candidates. They have already started to make preparations. After a while, when they are fully prepared, they can take action!" Watanabe said.

At this time, President Tanaka asked: "Everyone, what do you think of Watanabe-kun's plan?"

"I think it's feasible."

"I think it's pretty good."

Everyone expressed their support for this plan.

President Tanaka smiled slightly: "Watanabe-kun, the directors all support your plan. Next, I will work hard on you. I look forward to your inspection results!"

…

Li Weidong looked at the document in his hand and seemed a little surprised.

"Weidong, what does it say? When will the Xizhi Electric inspection team come?" Ma Zhongyi asked next to him.

"It doesn't matter when you come, the key is that Xizhi Electric has made a list of the inspection contents and written them clearly on it!" Li Weidong said with a pout.

Ma Zhongyi laughed honestly: "It seems that the Japanese are serious about what they do, and they told us in advance what they were going to inspect!"

Li Weidong frowned: "I always feel that something is wrong. The Japanese are very smart, but they are not stupid! How could they conduct an open-book exam? Tell us all the content to be tested, and let us prepare in advance.

, then what’s the point of this kind of investigation?”

Wang Kaiping next to him said: "Weidong, do you think the Japanese will try to trick us into attacking the west? Tell us the content of the inspection first, and let us only prepare what is within the scope of the content. When the on-site inspection comes, they will suddenly find out those who have not.

Prepared to catch us off guard!"

"That makes sense!" Li Weidong nodded: "So let's just pretend we haven't seen this list of inspection contents. We still have to prepare everything that needs to be prepared as before! Just in case it's an inspection by Xizhi Electric

If the group really comes to attack the east and west, we can handle it!"

…

Li Weidong had made some preparations, and the Nisshiba Electrical Inspection Group led by Watanabe Ou also arrived as scheduled.

After all, Nishiba Electric is a well-known brand, so the city leaders not only received it personally, but also sent a deputy mayor to accompany Watanabe Ou throughout the inspection.

So the first day Watanabe arrived in Qinghe was completely filled with all kinds of warm hospitality.

Leaders at all levels took turns to give welcome speeches, and then introduced the situation of Qinghe City to Watanabe Xiong. After that, there was a reception banquet. After taking turns to toast, Watanabe Xiong lay directly on the bed in the hotel and had no chance to inspect the electric furnace factory.

The inspection officially started on the second day.

After a period of training, militarized management has begun to bear fruit. All workers are uniformly dressed and sitting in front of the assembly line, which looks quite like a modern factory.

Watanabe looked at the uniformly dressed employees on the assembly line and said, "Mr. Li, your workers are very well dressed!"

"Mr. Watanabe, our factory adopts militarized management, and uniform dress is part of it." Li Weidong answered.

"Military management? I have never seen it in companies from other countries! Can you explain it to me?" Watanabe said.
To be continued...