Extraordinary Genius
Chapter 820 – Li Jingwei’s troubles
While Feng Yu was patiently waiting for news, Lin Qishu had flown back to China to meet with Li Jingwei. He needs to report to him about Feng Yu’s alliance.
After Li Jingwei heard the report from Lin Qishu, he started to make other plans.
Li Jingwei had built Jianlibao from scratch, but he got nothing to do with this company. He is only a worker in the company!
But Li Jingwei is not an ordinary worker. Without him, there will not be a successful Jianlibao. In his local area, he was a hero!
Li Jingwei does not want to be known as a hero. He wanted ownership of the company. Everyone knew that without him, there will not be Jianlibao. But as he got more authority in the company, he became unsatisfied with the limitations imposed on him by the government.
The government forcefully imposed a regulation that Jianlibao must employ at least 40% of locals, and the middle management is people related to government officials. These had affected the development of Jianlibao severely.
Li Jingwei felt that without these people, Jianlibao would be more successful! He had kept on emphasizing on developing their overseas and domestic sales distribution channels. Their internal distribution channels cannot even be compared to Lehaha and Lebashi!
The company had spent a lot to develop their distribution channels. Why are the channels still not developed? They still must depend on distributors. If anything goes wrong with the distributors, Jianlibao’s sales will plummet. If Jianlibao’s distribution channels are developed like Lehaha, they can prevent other beverages from developing.
The government also takes away most of Jianlibao’s profits. This caused Jianlibao to have insufficient funds. Li Jingwei had always wanted to develop new products. They should have invested their profits into their R&D in the first place.
Li Jingwei’s dream is to be like Coca-Cola. Jianlibao will be the main product of the company, and the other drinks will supplement them. This way, the company will be more competitive.
But now, Jiaolibao only has one product. Those officials in the government say they do not need other products. Only one product is sufficient and took away the company’s product development fund. Several years ago, Jiaolibao had planned to develop tea beverages. But because of the government, Lehaha got ahead of them!
Li Jingwei can only let the branch company in the US to develop new products to prevent the government from taking the funds away.
Since the start of the 1980s, the Chinese government had allowed private individuals to invest or acquire state-owned enterprises. This policy gave Li Jingwei hope.
Li Jingwei thought that he had made significant contributions to Jianlibao, and the government will support his proposal to have a clear definition of the ownership rights of the company. After all, many state-owned companies were doing this. They gave the people who contributed the most to the companies some shares! His local government only gave him some awards and increase his salary slightly.
Under the harsh circumstances, Li Jingwei controlled Jianlibao’s growth. He knew that if Jianlibao were to become more successful, the possibility of him and his team getting shares of the company would be slimmer.
Li Jingwei had wanted to build a skyscraper in Shenzhen and move Jianlibao headquarters there. He wanted to move the company out of the small county. The county they are located in is out of the place and had limited the company’s growth.
As for how to buy the company’s shares, Li Jingwei had a plan. Get Jianlibao listed!
The government officials love to see companies under their charge get listed. Once Jianlibao got listed, the market value will increase, and it will be their credits.
Li Jingwei felt he will be able to persuade the government to let the top management team become the shareholders of the company!
But the reality is far from what Li Jingwei expected.
Before New Year, Li Jingwei had proposed Jianlibao to be listed and was rejected. The local government leaders even reprimanded him for diverting away from socialism and does not want to make contributions to the country.
Contribution my ass! What I did over the past few years is not considered contributions?
Li Jingwei was furious. He had put in so many efforts and did not get anything in return. His “Listing and skyscraper” plans did not get the approvals. There was no way for him to become a shareholder of the company. He was utterly disappointed.
At this period, a series of news reports made Li Jingwei even more furious!
TCL’s founder, Li Dongsheng, had signed an agreement with the local government. Li Dongsheng’s team will guarantee the company will grow by 10% annually, and the government will allow the management team to purchase the company’s shares proportionally.
In a city not far from Jianlibao, an electronic appliances manufacturing company was sold to the founder and its team.
There were many similar news reports. The management team of many state-owned companies was given shares of the company. Some teams got lots of shares and some got lesser. But Li Jingwei could not get a single share in Jianlibao!
The local government’s income was mainly from Jianlibao, and Li Jingwei was the one who helped the leaders get their promotions!
But now, the government officials had crashed Li Jingwei’s final hope. What made Li Jingwei more furious was the interference from the government officials a few years ago during the rise of health supplement products. Those officials wanted Jianlibao to do the same.
The officials wanted to Jianlibao to promote as a health supplement product. They wanted Jianlibao to be marketed as a drink that ‘cures’ all illnesses and ailments.
But Li Jingwei firmly opposed to this idea at that time despite those health supplements’ revenue increased several folds and become companies worth more than 2 billion RMB within one year. He did not give in to these temptations and still have his conscience.
After CCTV exposed those health supplement products and caused the downfall of that industry, those government officials realized Li Jingwei was right in the first place.
Li Jingwei felt if he let those people manage Jianlibao, the company would have been gone years ago!
Only two health supplement companies, Lebashi and Lehaha, survived since the collapsed of the industry, and these companies converted to manufacture beverages. Among the two, Lehaha had grown to become a threat to Jianlibao!
At this time, Lehaha’s main shareholder wanted cooperation to open up the overseas market. Li Jingwei did not wish to agree initially as both companies were competitors.
But Li Jingwei was considering. He felt he should meet with Mr. Feng to discuss this. If he can get financial support from Mr. Feng, then…….
Translator’s notes:
TCL Corporation