Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1267: Morning in Nanyang (Third update, please subscribe)
"…Taiping Port Company plans to invest in the construction of two modern deep-water container terminals in Incheon and Busan, South Korea. This is the largest foreign investment project in South Korea's history. This is the biggest gain of President Park Jung-woong's trip to Southeast Asia…"

For some people, news is always just news, just a way for them to understand current events in the world.

But for some people, news means business opportunities.

Listening to the news coming from the radio, Ma Zhiwei was driving his four-door Volkswagen into the traffic on the road.

Volkswagen - this is not made in Germany, but in Southeast Asia.

The translation of the German Volkswagen "Volkswagen" in Southeast Asia is "Fuss", which is a direct translation according to the pronunciation of German.

"Volkswagen" is a newly established company in Nanyang five years ago. Unlike Wuling and Rongguang, which are famous for their two-door cheap cars, this four-door sedan with powerful power and spacious interior space was immediately sought after by all parties as soon as it entered the market.

It was another rainy morning, and the splashing rain from the wheels forced the few pedestrians to walk along the innermost edge of the sidewalk. Looking out the car window, Ma Zhiwei felt like he was in a city of the blind, groping his way to work.

In fact, what he was exploring was just the path to success. As a businessman, he hoped to achieve commercial success.

But in the past few years, his stumbling entrepreneurial journey has not been very smooth.

Listening to the news on the radio, Ma Zhiwei suddenly had a strange feeling, as if it was some kind of intuition - an intuition about success!

“Maybe, maybe we should go to Korea and have a look.”

The sudden decision startled Wang Kejian, who was driving, and he said:

"To Korea? Why?"

"Go there and take a look. There are definitely more opportunities there."

Ma Zhiwei took out a cigarette, lit it, and said:

"Now that big companies are investing in South Korea, there will definitely be more investment in the next step. If we go there now, we will definitely have the opportunity to make a lot of money. After all, there is nothing there."

As a businessman, perhaps out of intuition, Ma Zhiwei felt that there were many opportunities in South Korea.

"For example, for port construction, they will definitely need some small contractors. We are from Southeast Asia, and if we set up a corresponding company in South Korea, we will definitely have more opportunities than ordinary Korean companies..."

Listening to his friend's words, Wang Kejian thought for a moment and said:

"Your idea is good, but you have to think it through. If you go to Korea, you will have to resign first, which is very risky. Our income in the company is not low now."

Although they all have the dream of starting a business, they are sometimes always restricted by the current environment. Smoking a cigarette and listening to their friends' words, looking at the drizzle outside the window and the wipers moving back and forth, Ma Zhiwei said after a while:
"There are definitely risks. No matter what you do, there are risks. Even if you go to Saigon to do business, you may encounter a bomb attack. If we are content with the status quo, we will be like everyone else in the future, living a life of mediocrity!"

It might be the kind of life that you can see the end of at a glance - working in the company until retirement, and when you retire at 65, enjoying the rest of your life with your pension. Although the proceeds from the pension and the sale of employee stocks are enough to live a rich life, that kind of life was never what he wanted. Perhaps he should be told.

"I don't just want to work, I want to..."

He unfolded a magazine on the glove box of his car. It was Fortune, the most popular business magazine in Southeast Asia, which mainly published research articles on economic issues. Most of its readers were either business leaders or business people, and of course some people with dreams.

Then, Ma Zhiwei pointed to the cover character of the magazine and said:

"I hope that one day I can be on the cover of a magazine like him."

There was a moment of silence from Wang Kejian, who was driving the car, and then his voice was heard.

"It's not easy. In recent years, those who have made it to the cover of Fortune are basically entrepreneurs who have succeeded by developing new technologies."

After saying that, Wang Kejian glanced at the cover character on the magazine - Li Bingyan, chairman of Dahuang Kitchenware, who was holding a non-stick pan in his hand - ten years ago, when he was still studying chemistry, he had been researching "Teflon". This lubricant with a very high melting point and not afraid of heat, water or acid was invented by DuPont in 38. At that time, the patent protection period had expired, but the scope of application was narrow. Except for some military equipment, it was also applied to fishing lines as a non-stick material to prevent knots.

One day, Li Bingyan was watching his wife frying burnt eggs, and suddenly thought that if he could apply the coating on the frying pan, the effect would be very good. He immediately started to think about how to combine "Teflon" and aluminum, and thus the world's first "non-stick pan" came into being.

In the past decade, non-stick pans have become popular all over the world, and Li Bingyan's Dahuang Kitchenware has also become an internationally renowned company, producing various kitchen utensils. Fortune magazine chose him as the cover of this issue to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the birth of non-stick pans.

In Nanyang, as long as there is an invention, it will always be successful.

"Haha, things are not so absolute. After all, business is..."

After taking a puff of cigarette, Ma Zhiwei said: "It's not just innovation, ordinary businessmen can also achieve success, but they are often overlooked!"

In fact, this neglect is deliberate - Nanyang has always encouraged innovation, invention and research, with the aim of establishing a social atmosphere - an atmosphere of enthusiasm for invention and innovation.

Therefore, whether it is magazines, newspapers, or even television news, inventors and innovation are always particularly praised.

This also gives people the impression that inventors are more likely to succeed. In fact, inventors are often a minority. Most of the time, Nanyang’s innovation relies on corporate laboratories. It is the continuous investment of enterprises in technological research that has driven Nanyang’s technological research and development.

After all, this is no longer the era of individual inventors, but the era of laboratories.

Although he had no interest in the news on the radio, Zhao Youguang still listened to the news while driving and soon arrived at the laboratory.

KTJ Laboratory is a subsidiary of KTJ Corporation, a giant chemical company in Southeast Asia. Founded in the United States, this company became famous during World War II for its defoliants. It has long evolved from a simple chemical pesticide to a chemical giant. Its products are diverse and closely related to people's lives.

KTJ's most famous product is the Lycra elastic fiber launched in 1950. Lycra can be stretched to five times its original length and return to its original shape after relaxation.

This excellent elastic man-made fiber product was sought after by the market as soon as it was launched. Early nylon stockings were not elastic enough and did not fit well. Lycra solved all the problems. The Lycra and nylon blending method solved the problem of stockings fitting well, and elastic stockings were immediately welcomed by the market. In the first few years after the launch, brands such as Langsha launched elastic stockings with a general price of about US$6-8 per pair. Even at such a high price, hundreds of millions of pairs were still sold every year.

Precisely because of the sweetness of technological research and development, KTJ company has invested a large amount of funds in technological research and development, and the KTJ laboratory has also grown and developed in the process.

Zhao Youguang, who graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department of Yongning University, has been studying the materials of tire cord since joining the laboratory as a researcher. Radial tires are Nanyang’s flagship product, and the nylon cord used in tires is the most important raw material, which is related to the service life and performance of the tires.

“We need a stronger fiber.”

This is also Zhao Youguang's research direction. In the past few years, he has developed a variety of fiber materials, but all of them are unsatisfactory.

Today, as usual, after adjusting the formula, Zhao Youguang synthesized a light emulsion solution that can dissolve high-molecular polymers into a lighter and thinner solution.

This doesn't seem like a big deal.

That afternoon, he and his colleagues put the solution into the spinneret and eventually spun out fiber filaments.

"Du Wei, let's do a tensile strength test!"

In the following tensile strength test, Zhao Youguang was completely stunned - this new type of fiber has excellent tensile strength, and its tensile strength is usually above 3400 MPa!

It is more than 5 times that of ordinary steel!
Faced with such test results, everyone in the laboratory was shocked and realized that this was a disruptive change brought about by a new type of fiber.

"It will revolutionize radial wheels and even replace steel wire."

Listening to his colleagues' words, Zhao Youguang said:
"It's just that its price is too high. If it is used to replace steel wire, the cost is too high. However... it is quite suitable for high-end sports car tires, especially competitive racing cars."

It can only be said that sometimes when a new material is just invented, people are often in the exploratory stage for its application scope, and even don’t know where it should be applied. This also restricts the development of some materials.

This fiber, which is five times stronger than steel, is another world-famous "Kevlar"!
While Zhao Youguang and his colleagues were exploring the uses of Kevlar, in a factory in Taiping, Qian Fukang was inspecting the fiberglass cylinder that had just been made in front of him, asking about its strength and other data.

"Compared with high-strength alloy steel shells, the weight of fiberglass shells will be reduced by 50%, which means that with the fiberglass shell, the missile has a longer range and a faster speed under the same thrust..."

Listening to the materials engineer's introduction, Qian Fukang asked:

"Is the strength enough to meet the needs? In the past, we used it to make radomes for air defense missiles, but never used it on ballistic missiles."

"No problem at all, Mr. Qian. During the manufacturing process, we strictly control the wall thickness tolerance and material consistency of the cover to ensure its strength. The engine housing is made of new S901 glass fiber and RP-2 epoxy resin, with a nominal thickness of 4.07mm..."

After carefully looking at the information in his hand, Qian Fukang certainly knew the advantages of this new material - it can further increase the range of the missile.

After thinking for a while, Qian Fukang nodded and said:

"Let's make a sample first!"

Qian Fukang didn't know at the time that his decision led to changes in the missile casing. Before this, the first-generation missile casing material of Nanyang was high-strength alloy steel, which was strong but heavy. The second-generation missile casing material was made of fiberglass, which was light and had strength that met the requirements.

The application of this composite material has directly overturned the design of Nanyang's missiles and further improved their performance. In fact, all this is due to the progress of Nanyang's materials science, and materials science is part of basic science.

(End of this chapter)