Countercurrent 1982

Chapter 1236 Seven Kingdoms and Eight Systems
However, Ren Zhengfei's later experience was a bit tragic. He retired from the army and went to the south to work as a deputy manager of an electronics company. He was accidentally cheated in a business, which caused the company to suffer a loss of 200 million yuan. At that time, 200 million yuan was definitely considered a A huge sum of money, and he lost his job as a result.

In desperation, the 43-year-old Ren Zhengfei chose to come to Shenzhen to start a business in order to support his family and founded Huawei.

"Then you plan to sell electrical equipment in Shenzhen for the rest of your life?" Duan Yun asked suddenly.

"How is it possible?" After a few glasses of wine, Ren Zhengfei became more talkative, and only heard him say: "I have failed to accomplish anything in half my life, and this is my own fault. I have not grasped many good opportunities... I have always wanted to Turn Huawei into a real technology company, but nothing can be done without money, so now we can only rely on agents to make some money, let’s take it step by step.”

When he said this, Ren Zhengfei had a bit of emotion on his face.

In fact, Duan Yun can fully understand Ren Zhengfei's mood at this time. Just like in his previous life, after graduating from university, he spent a few years in the factory without achieving anything, and then started to take the exam again. Seven or eight years passed in a blink of an eye until he At the age of 35, I finally finished my doctorate and entered a research institute to work.

Although on the surface it seems that he is a winner in life, has a high degree of education and a decent job, but in fact, only Duan Yun knows in his heart that he is still a person who achieves nothing.

It is precisely because the two have some similar life experiences, so when sitting together drinking and talking, they can always find some sympathy, and they also start to reveal their hearts to each other, telling the truth buried in their hearts.

"Since you were a communications soldier and a college student, you must be good at electrical appliances, right?" Duan Yun asked suddenly.

"That's for sure!" When he said this, Ren Zhengfei showed a bit of pride on his face, only to hear him continue: "Let me tell the truth to Manager Duan. In fact, apart from doing some business, when I am free, are also designing their own digital switches..."

"Digital switch?" Duan Yun's eyes lit up when he heard this, and asked quickly, "How is the research going?"

Duan Yun knew that Ren Zhengfei started his career by successfully developing digital switches, but he did not expect that he would start the research and development of digital switches less than a year after he came to Shenzhen, which is very rare.

In fact, Ren Zhengfei is usually a taciturn person without any hobbies. He has a university degree and has been engaged in communication work in the army for many years. He is a veritable communication expert.

Therefore, Ren Zhengfei has always had a dream, which is to develop a digital switch of his own.

From the end of the 80s to the mid-90s in mainland China, China developed program-controlled switches. Since it did not have its own manufacturers at the beginning, the entire telecom market was almost monopolized by Europe, the United States and Japan.

At that time, seven countries provided switches of eight standards for the Chinese market.Switches of so many different standards from so many manufacturers resulted in extremely complicated communication network interconnection and low call quality at that time. This is the famous "seven countries and eight systems" in the communication industry.

Later, due to the rise of China's communication equipment companies represented by "Great China", the chaotic era of "seven countries and eight systems" was completely ended.Moreover, the price of communication equipment was more than 500 US dollars per line, and quickly dropped to 300-500 yuan per line.In this way, not only the country will benefit, but also the communication companies will benefit, and consumers will benefit even more.

Ren Zhengfei has been engaged in communication work for many years, and he has traveled between Shenzhen and Hong Kong for a long time in the past few years. He has already seen the "huge profits" that foreign communication companies sell to Chinese program-controlled switches. Therefore, Ren Zhengfei, who was born as a communication soldier, has never From the very beginning of arriving in Shenzhen, the communication industry was used as a breakthrough point.

But now Huawei has no technology and no talent, so it can't independently develop equipment, but Ren Zhengfei's mind is very active. After he figured out the principle of program-controlled switches, he designed the drawings by himself, and then planned to buy the simplest accessories to DIY switches.

Although DIY switches are a feasible way, in fact, they will face the problem of parts suppliers cutting off supply at any time, so if you want to have your own products, you must have a complete R&D team to develop products with completely independent property rights. .

But for Ren Zhengfei, who can't wait to spend a penny in half, the establishment of a research and development team is still very slim.

"Wait a minute..." Ren Zhengfei put down his wine glass, then walked to his desk, opened the bottom drawer, and took out a file bag from it.

"This is……"

"I heard that Manager Duan is also an expert in microelectronics technology. Take a look at the blueprint of the switch I designed..." Ren Zhengfei handed the portfolio to Duan Yun while speaking.

"Interesting..." After Duan Yun took the file bag, he opened the winding seal on it, took out a stack of drawings from it, glanced at it and smiled at Ren Zhengfei and said, "You are not afraid that I will give your company's secrets to you." Steal?"

"What kind of secret is this..." Ren Zhengfei shook his head with a smile, and then said: "I'm not afraid you will laugh, my blueprint is actually designed after the principle of the Swedish Ericsson program-controlled switchboard. I originally wanted to make a prototype. Several key components, especially the special chips for program-controlled machines, cannot be bought in China, and it is also difficult to buy in Hong Kong..."

"Then if you make this machine, can you guarantee to sell it?" Duan Yun asked.

"Sure!" Ren Zhengfei continued with a confident face, "You don't know how profitable this industry is. The things foreigners sell to us are too expensive. The same CNC switches, they sell in Hong Kong. The price is US$150 for the first line, but when sold in our country, the price becomes US$500 for the first line, and the price has more than tripled. It is simply a robbery. I estimated the cost before, if all the parts can be bought , I can reduce the cost price of each line to about 120 US dollars, which is cheaper than the price in Hong Kong. Moreover, when I was the leader of the Nanhai Group Electronics Factory, I also knew some leaders of our domestic post and telecommunications department. We have a price Advantages, fast after-sales response, those old friends should help me..."

"In this case, why don't you assemble the program-controlled machine yourself and sell it in China?" Duan Yun asked.

"Didn't I just say that other components of this program-controlled switch can be bought from Hong Kong, except for the protocol processing chip in it? Otherwise, I would have started assembling it a long time ago." Ren Zhengfei said.

"Then if I can help you produce switch chips, can you make the product?" Duan Yun asked.

"Does it need to be said? Sure!" Ren Zhengfei said without thinking.

(End of this chapter)