Countercurrent 1982

Chapter 1717 Pride and Prejudice

Another week passed in the blink of an eye, and Duan Yun received several international calls from the other side of the ocean, basically all of them were small and medium-sized electrical appliance dealers in the United States. They expressed a certain interest in the VCD products produced by Tianyin Group. I want to obtain the agency right of the product in the United States.

In the past, Duan Yun had a lot of dealings with foreign companies, the most important ones were companies in Southeast Asia. Most of the foreign distributors placed orders. Few companies would ask for international agency rights for products, because while obtaining agency rights , It also means that the dealer needs to bear certain responsibilities and obligations, such as sales volume and price, must be higher than other dealers, and if the sales volume does not meet the standard, this international agency right may be canceled according to the contract .

However, Americans seem to have a different way of thinking about doing business, especially when Americans do business with Chinese businessmen, they always have a condescending sense of arrogance. It seems that in their eyes, doing business with Chinese companies is a kind of gift, completely Failure to treat you as an equal business partner.

During the process of V CD expanding the US market this time, Duan Yun fully felt the arrogance of the Americans. Not only did they ask for a low price, but they also had a huge appetite. European agency rights, and in formulating the contract, completely ignored the responsibilities and obligations of the agent, requiring Tianyin Group not to set any minimum restrictions on the sales of VCD in the agent area, and also need to accept some strict conditions, such as In order to cooperate with the sales of products in the European and American markets, the price will be lowered at any time, and if Tianyin Group has any breach of contract, it will face high compensation.

What's more, some American distributors directly proposed to let Tianyin Group transfer the relevant patent authorization at a low price or even free of charge.

In fact, there are certain historical reasons for the emergence of such business transactions that seem to violate commercial principles, and are even somewhat unimaginable.

At the beginning of the reform and opening up in the early years, in order to obtain the foreign exchange needed for development, the country set very low both in terms of posture and price in terms of product export, and some were even lower than the domestic cost price. The state's subsidies can't make a profit at all, and in order to complete the task of earning foreign exchange through exports, the governments of all parts of the country also treat foreign businessmen as guests, so they almost set up an incense table to offer them. It is precisely because of this that they gradually let these foreign businessmen When importers face Chinese companies, they have a condescending attitude.

At that time, there was really no way. Compared with developed countries in Europe and the United States in the 20s, China was too weak. In order to quickly grow its national power, it had to take some realistic and feasible routes, so that the national leadership later put forward the idea of ​​"keeping a low profile" Development strategy, all of this is to enable China to become stronger quickly.

The strategy of keeping a low profile has indeed won China foreign exchange funds and space for the development of many countries, but it has also made Chinese companies an object of contempt and contempt internationally. In the eyes of Americans, Chinese products are synonymous with cheap and low-quality , any import of Chinese goods is more like a boon.

At that time, most of the domestic foreign trade enterprises that exported various resources and materials at low prices were some state-owned enterprises. They had the support of the state, so naturally they did not have to worry about the profit and loss of the enterprise. However, Tianyin Group is a private enterprise. This kind of arrogance and oppression is obviously impossible for Duan Yun to accept.

And after investigation, Duan Yun found that these American companies seeking VCD agency cooperation are basically small and medium-sized enterprises in the United States. The largest importer has a total asset of less than 1 million US dollars, which is not at the same level as Tianyin Group. But it is such a small and medium-sized American company that can still put on a condescending posture when facing Tianyin Group, which makes Duan Yun somewhat dumbfounded.

Duan Yun will not get angry with Americans because of their arrogance, because he is not a cynical youth. If it were a few years ago, he might be angry, but it is completely unnecessary now. After all, you are an entrepreneur with a net worth of billions , There is no need to argue with businessmen who are not at the same level, and the success or failure of buying and selling this kind of thing is a normal thing, there is no need to get entangled.

So in the end, Duan Yun didn't bother to entangle with these small and medium-sized American dealers. Whenever there was a call from an American dealer, his assistant was responsible for handling it. Turn around space.

It was difficult for VC D to open up the market in the United States for a while, but it suddenly became popular in China.

In mid-April, an influential domestic newspaper published a news on the front page, and the photo quoted in the news was taken in Times Square in the United States, on a building in the middle of the picture , the VCD advertisement was played impressively, and the Chinese logo of Tianyin Group was very eye-catching.

Duan Yun also thought that he would spend a lot of money to advertise in Times Square, which would definitely attract the attention of some domestic media, but he did not expect that the domestic media would respond so quickly, and he would appear in such a top newspaper with considerable influence in China. above.

The title of this article is: "China Red on Times Square". The article should be written by a senior editor, with a seasoned style of writing, full of pride and sensationalism. First, he introduced Times Square in the United States, calling it "the world's "Crossroads", and then began to praise Tianyin Group's ability to sell products to the United States, which is the pride of the Chinese people, and said that Chinese companies have already sounded the "charge" to occupy the international market.

But in fact, as Duan Yun has not sold a single VCD in the United States yet, Duan Yun has a thicker skin than a city wall. After reading the praise of himself and the company in this article, he couldn't help but blush.

And what happened next was completely beyond Duan Yun's expectations.

In just three days, this report and the pictures above were reprinted and reported by hundreds of domestic media in turn. In order to attract attention, some newspapers and magazines made national pride and sensationalism to the extreme, claiming that VCD was developed and produced by China. The first electronic product that occupies the pinnacle of international technology, and some media even claim that Tianyin Group has received orders for millions of V CDs in the United States, and Americans also praise this product as excellent, and it is not inferior at all. Audio-visual products in the United States and Japan...

(End of this chapter)