The Birth of the Hong Kong Island Family.

Chapter 320 [Pearl of the Orient]

"boss"

Ke Yanping, the general manager of Yangtze River Toys, brought a 27-year-old young man to Lin Zhichao's office.

"Well, let's sit down and talk!"

Lin Zhichao came to the conference table.

"Li Ziduo, I remember that you returned to Hong Kong as an overseas student, right?"

The young man Li Ziduo said quickly: "Yes, boss. My first job after returning to Hong Kong was to do design work at the Yangtze River Toy Factory. This is the fifth year."

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "General Manager Ke recommended you to me, saying that you know painting and are a management talent. I just need such a person and plan to establish a new company."

Li Ziduo's eyes jumped. He was promoted. Could he be the general manager of a subsidiary company?
Then, Lin Zhichao's words made him feel cold.

"I plan to set up a comic publishing house, so I want you to be the general manager!"

Even Ke Yanping was a little puzzled and said: "Boss, Hong Kong comics have gone downhill in recent years, and there is no market!"

Lin Zhichao smiled and said: "Of course I know! But do you remember that when we developed Beer Lily, we used comics to promote it, even though it was made by a German company?"

Ke Yanping nodded, and then he said: "Is the boss planning to develop a new toy product, and comics are just a means of publicity?"

Lin Zhichao said: "That's impossible. If that's the case, I can just find someone to do it. Anyway, you don't care about the market prospects. Just know that I plan to invest heavily in the comics industry, with a scale investment of millions or tens of millions. And investment The purpose is actually related to toys in the end. Anyway, I think toys and comics can be combined. Beer Lily and Barbie all have comics, and comics can integrate soul and stories into toy products."

Ke Yanping and Li Ziduo nodded quickly and asked the boss to explain. They were probably ready to get out.

Li Ziduo immediately said: "I am willing to join the new company!"

Investing millions or tens of millions, talking to the boss in person, these are high-level things he has never been exposed to; he is just a technical talent and middle-level manager of Yangtze Toys, with a monthly salary of more than 2000. I heard that the general manager level salary of a subsidiary is very High, even if you are the general manager of Sun Company, your salary will increase.

Lin Zhichao nodded and said, "Take a note of it!
First, a subsidiary company, Oriental Publishing House, was established in the name of Changjiang Toys;

Secondly, advertisements are placed to recruit painting talents across Hong Kong, and they are asked if they are interested in drawing Japanese comic-style comics. If they are willing, they will be accepted. After admission, they will study again, recruit Japanese cartoonists and become teachers, and refer to Japanese comic works.

Finally, when recruiting apprentice-level talents, they must have a certain foundation in painting and hobbies, and priority will be given to those with a certain level of education. After these people are admitted, they will join the Oriental comics training class and learn Japanese comics from the teachers.

In short, the style of local comics is not good and the market is limited. I want Hong Kong comics to learn from Japanese comics and compete on the same stage. "

As Li Ziduo memorized it, he felt really strange. Did the boss have too much money and no place to spend it?Or do you have your own bad taste after liking Japanese comics?

After recording, Li Ziduo asked: "What about the source of income?"

One recruits skilled workers and the other recruits apprentices, and they need to be trained, but there is no organized production. This is not a company, but learning.

Lin Zhichao said: "After the painting talents learned the essence of Japanese comics, they published the semi-monthly magazine "Manke World", which can be regarded as a source of income. Of course, with such a large investment, my idea is to cultivate it into IP, Intellectual Property in the future. For example, we If a publishing house can produce a classic comic, this comic will be an IP, and it can be developed into a movie in the future, and its peripheral products. In short, this is a risky investment, you follow what I mean Just do it. Let’s start by imitating Japanese comics!”

Although Li Ziduo still had some questions, he still chose to say: "Okay, I will do what the boss wants!"

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "As long as I am in Hong Kong, you can report to me if you have any situation. However, I hope you can make more decisions on your own. In short, I just want a group of excellent Japanese comic style cartoonists, and investment is not question."

"I see, boss!"

When this matter is handled, Lin Zhichao is equivalent to having a channel for comics and toys. In the future, together with Audrey Toy Company, he can even produce Hasbro's Transformers; of course, he is talking about toys and animations. , animation and other products, but the IP must belong to Audrey Toys Company.

Audrey Toy Company will become a huge toy company. When his son Lin Ruidong grows up (in the late 70s), he will take advantage of the trend to enter the media field.

Of course, the most important thing for Oriental Publishing House is to grab Japanese animation IPs - "Dragon Ball", "Conan", "One Piece", "Pokémon", etc., and cooperate with Yangtze Toy Company, which is a huge industrial chain.

Of course, Oriental Publishing House will eventually be separated and formed into a part of the media group.

Comics in Hong Kong originated very early. In the 40s, the Industrial and Commercial Daily opened a comics column. After the 50s, many cartoon masters from the mainland came to Hong Kong, so in 1959, Li Linghan, Chen Ziduo, Ou Qing, Huang Mengtian, Zheng Jia Zhen and others jointly founded and published the semi-monthly magazine "Comics World", as well as "Uncle Cai" created by Xu Guanwen in 1958.

Many of these cartoons are about the Anti-Japanese War. After all, the artists are from the mainland.

However, with the impact of the Western "60" series and the Japanese spy comic series in the 007s, "Uncle Guess" and "Manga World" ceased publication in 1963, and Hong Kong comics also fell into their first trough.

Although there are many comic masters in Hong Kong, Lin Zhishenshan will not recruit them to work. First, their painting style may have been finalized, and second, they are not willing to learn the Japanese comic style.

Therefore, Lin Zhichao asked Li Ziduo to advertise in Hong Kong, recruit painting talents to join, and switch to painting Japanese comic series.These people themselves have very profound painting skills. As long as they are willing to learn, they will be able to publish "Manke World" in a year.

After Ke Yanping and Li Ziduo left, the assistant also came in and reminded: "Boss, it's time for the meeting!"

"Okay, come right away!"

Lin Zhichao immediately stood up and came to the conference room.

Not all senior executives of the group participated in the meeting, but deputy general manager Wang Liang and members of the remuneration committee, including Tang Caiyun, rarely attended the meeting.

In fact, some senior executives of Yangtze River Industries hold concurrent posts on the remuneration committee. Tang Caiyun, the chairman of the committee, rarely participates in the work of Yangtze River Industries.

After Lin Zhichao sat down, he immediately said: "There will be a salary increase this year. Let's discuss how much and how to increase it today."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Liang reminded: "Boss, our salary is already among all the factories in Hong Kong, and we belong to the group above! I am not against salary increases. After all, I am also a beneficiary. I am worried about the same situation as Yangtze Plastics What happened to the factory and Yangtze Wig will mean that no one will even have to work!"

This actually makes sense. High salary is good, but if you shut down the factory, everyone will no longer have a job.Just like the labor unions in Europe and the United States, they were too strong and drove factories away.

Lin Zhichao said: "Plastic flowers and wigs are already on the decline, and we are taking the best from them and discarding the dross. Toy factories and zippers are both technical and high value-added industries and will not be affected. This salary increase will The goal is to make Cheung Kong Industrial Group the factory with the best pay in Hong Kong, not the one at the top."

Seeing Lin Zhichao's persistence, everyone stopped trying to persuade him. The money belongs to your boss anyway.

In fact, Lin Zhichao had a reason to add.

The Yangtze River Industrial Park, with more than 1.3 workers, is a big time bomb; due to the influence from the opposite side, chaos has easily occurred in the past two years.

Because of this, Lin Zhichao decided to raise his salary. Even if each worker's salary was increased by HK$20 per month, it would cost an extra HK$500 million a year. If he adds another HK$20 per month next year, he would spend an extra HK$1000 million a year.

The important thing is that Lin Zhichao knew that starting from 1968, the salary level of Hong Kong people would increase significantly. He only increased it two years in advance.

After 1968, Changjiang Industrial Group could also increase product prices to cope with rising costs.After all, costs will rise around the world, and product prices will also rise.

In short, the wages of Hong Kong workers are too low.

At present, skilled workers only earn 200 to 250 Hong Kong dollars per month, and most workers only earn 120 to 180 Hong Kong dollars per month. There are even many child laborers and illegal workers who only earn a few tens of Hong Kong dollars, and they may not even have enough to eat.

Pain too!

The 1.3 employees at Cheung Kong Industries have an overall salary ranging from RMB 150 to RMB 250 (including the worker team leader), which is considered a top-notch factory in Hong Kong. Importantly, they also enjoy double pay at the end of the year, three holiday benefits, overtime pay, and free lunches.Overall, there is no one better than Yangtze River Industry, but there is certainly no one with two hands.

"It is more reasonable to add 10%! After the increase, our factory will be almost the best-paid factory in Hong Kong, bar none." A senior executive suggested.

"If you add 10%, you will need to spend an additional 520 million Hong Kong dollars for the whole year, which is about 5.4% of profits." Group finance Guo Xinqin quickly came to a conclusion.

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "10% is no problem, I agree. Moreover, the group company will also develop some activity programs that can increase the cohesion of workers, such as sports activities and organizing blind date activities for single employees. In short, workers in the factory every day Time is actually more important than time with my family, and this is also their home.”

In fact, many people can only serve as workers throughout their lives, and at most they become small bosses of workers.The toys and zippers of Cheung Kong Industries Group could survive in Hong Kong until the mid-to-late 80s.

Wang Liang and others understood at this time that the boss was so kind and wanted to give the workers benefits!
Next, everyone expressed their opinions and quickly reached many resolutions.

A week later.

The Yangtze River Industrial Park is full of joy, with tens of thousands of workers smiling.

"There will be a 10% salary increase next month and double pay this month. The factory's benefits are great!"

"You forgot, there are Spring Festival benefits this month. According to the old practice, as long as you have six months of service, you will be given rice oil."

"The benefits are great! Some of our neighbors in the building are working in other factories, working more than 12 hours a day, and their monthly salary is only HK$150 per month, all year round!"

"What are you talking about? There are factories that work 90 days a month, but they are just female workers. No food included!"

A very simple comparison: workers are not stupid and would not unconscionably say that Yangtze River Industry is not good.

"It's a pity that both the Yangtze Plastic Factory and the Wig Factory have laid off workers! It is said that the wages were too high and the competition was fierce, so there was not much profit, so the factories were closed."

There are a lot of comments like this outside, saying that Lin Zhichao destroyed his plastic flower and wig factories because his wages were too high.

Of course, this kind of remarks is still very beneficial to Lin Zhichao. At least in the eyes of ordinary citizens, Lin Zhichao gets a lot of points. As for the bosses of other factories, some of them may think that Lin Zhichao is stupid. Why not squeeze those workers!
"That's it! I asked why Hong Kong's largest plastic flower factory and wig factory suddenly closed down overnight. By the way, will our toy factory be like that?" Some workers were worried.

"Yes, I heard that many factories were closed last year and this year. It will be difficult for workers to find jobs after they have no jobs!"

"Some of our neighbors are already unemployed and haven't found a job for a month. Even if they do, they only pay three yuan a day."

For the first time, they felt that raising wages was not necessarily a good thing. If the factory disappeared, they would be unemployed.

Someone said: "Impossible! I heard that both the Yangtze Zipper Factory and the toy factory are very stable. The zipper factory is the only zipper factory in Hong Kong, and the toy factory is the only factory in the world that produces Barbie dolls. How could it possibly go bankrupt?"

"That's it! It turns out that these two factories are so powerful, I feel relieved!"

At the end of January, after the Spring Festival.

Lin Zhichao and Sandus brought people to Kai Tak Airport to participate in the opening ceremony of Hong Kong Airlines' fifth 'Boeing 707'; after the operation of this aircraft, Hong Kong Airlines has five Boeing 707s and two Jazz aircraft in operation. airliner.

Among them, there are three Boeing 707s on the Japan route, one Boeing 707 and one Jazz on Taiwan Island (twice a day), one Boeing 707 on Manila, and one aircraft on Seoul.

In the 60s, it was almost enough; but in the 70s, there may be 7 to 8 more Boeing passenger planes.For example, these routes will operate twice a day, and there are also routes to new cities.

Although there are only three countries and one region, Japan and Taiwan are actually very closely connected with Hong Kong, and many people from South Korea and the Philippines will come to visit in the future.

"Eastern Pearl, how do you translate it into Chinese? Sir Lin painted the fuselage of all Hong Kong Airlines aircraft with this English word. There must be a profound meaning, right?" Sandus asked curiously as he looked at the passenger plane with the new skin.

Seven aircraft operated by Global Shipping Lines all changed their 'skin' this year and were printed with 'Eastern Pearl' to form a 'new look'.

Lin Zhichao smiled and said: "Eastern Pearl, translated into Chinese is 'Pearl of the East'. Hong Kong's economy developed rapidly in the 60s and 70s. I am optimistic that it will become the 'Pearl of the East' in the [-]s, so our Hong Kong Airlines passenger planes are printed with 'Eastern Pearl', Hong Kong is the 'Pearl of the Orient', and our planes are emblazoned with 'Pearl of the Orient'."

In this era, some airlines' planes were called "Stewardess" and some were called "Sky King"; but now, Hong Kong Airlines' planes are all called "Pearl of the Orient".

Sandus put his hands on his hands and said with a smile: "This name is very good!"

In fact, the media recently reported on this matter, and citizens responded very well.

Although Hong Kong Airlines is committed to Asianization, the 'Eastern' countries and regions also happen to include Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Originally, Lin Zhichao wanted to change the name of Hong Kong Airlines to "China Eastern Airlines", but various factors failed to materialize; firstly, the Hong Kong government did not want to change the name because Hong Kong Airlines wanted to become a local airline; secondly, Lin Zhichao later also believed that No matter how Hong Kong Airlines develops, it will remain a local airline in the future, and Hong Kong will definitely be the light of Asia in the future, so there is no need to worry.

"It's time to cut the ribbon!" the new president Gilbert reminded.

The original president Hill retired honorably, and the new president was a British senior executive recruited by Lin Zhichao himself. Although he was still British, he was recruited by himself after all, and he still trusted him very much.

Taking advantage of Hill's retirement, Lin Zhichao also began to train Chinese lower-level managers, opening up an opening first.In the 80s and [-]s, the Chinese people in Hong Kong Airlines and British management were gradually formed into co-workers.

"Please!"

Later, Lin Zhichao and Sandus cut the ribbon together, symbolizing the cooperation between the two major shareholders.

After the ribbon-cutting, Sandus asked: "Hong Kong Airlines' debt has increased to about US$700 million. Does Mr. Lin have any other plans?"

His tone was smiling and relaxed, not worried.

After all, under the command of Lin Zhichao, Hong Kong Airlines has developed rapidly, and its net assets have reached about US$2800 million; compared with six years ago, total assets have increased by about 150%.For example, it has grown from US$90 per year to US$300 million per year today.

A very impressive report card. You must know that the Hong Kong aviation industry in this era is not very profitable.

Lin Zhichao said: "Not yet! However, it is expected that in one or two years, we may consider adding another Boeing passenger plane to open a new one-day route to Okinawa, Japan."

There are currently two routes to Japan - Tokyo and Osaka, of which Tokyo has two flights a day.

There are really many Japanese people who come to Hong Kong for tourism and business. After all, Japan’s population and economy are there.

Sandus nodded and said: "The development is very stable. One thing I admire very much about Sir Lin is that you are always confident!"

"Ha ha"

Nonsense, Lin Zhichao must be very confident. The number of tourists visiting Hong Kong is increasing so fast. He is very optimistic about Hong Kong Airlines.

At present, Cathay Pacific is not as good as Hong Kong Airlines, unless they launch direct flights to Europe and the United States, but it is estimated that it will be in the late 70s, or 80s.

Hong Kong Airlines currently controls 90% of Hong Kong's aviation food and 50% of ground handling and security, but the mechanical maintenance engineering is occupied by Taikoo.

Originally, Hong Kong Airlines prepared the ground handling and security services first, but was eventually rejected by the Hong Kong government. It had to step back and form a joint company with Cathay Pacific before it was approved.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Lin Zhichao waited for a while at Kai Tak Airport before taking his own flight to Japan for inspection.

(End of this chapter)