Chapter 456 Nike's layout (7K chapter, please subscribe~)

  North American Fantasy Comic Club and North American Wolf Smoke Game have no problems, as long as they follow the established development plan and implement it.

  However, no plan can be perfect, and various problems will definitely be encountered in the process of implementation.

   And David Maxwell, the head of these two companies is to solve these things.

  So after communicating with the heads of the two companies, they were allowed to leave.

  The last ones to enter Chu Huan's office were Li Haojun, the general manager of Qingjin Clothing, and Taylor Smith, the deputy general manager.

  “What Nike will do is not just sports shoes, but all sports products including sports shoes, clothing, sports bags, various sports equipment, etc. These will be what Nike will do this year!”

  Chu Huan calmly preached to the two of them.

David Maxwell was sitting on the sofa looking at the situation about Nike, about the level, fashion and several low-end brands of Qingjin Clothing, when he heard Chu Huan's advice to Li Haojun and Taylor Smith, he looked up. A look at Chu Huan.

  David Maxwell believes that everyone's energy and ability should be limited. Someone who has shown a genius-like ability in a certain field may not have such a strong ability in his field.

But when he sat here and watched Chu Huan have a very detailed understanding of every company under his name, not only his own company, but the industry in which the company is located, and more importantly, he also discovered that Chu Huan Huan is always able to find the direction that his company needs to develop with the most accurate vision.

   At this time, David Maxwell will inevitably feel admiration.

  If someone told him a month ago that in the future he would have admiration for a 23-year-old young man in the business field, David Maxwell would have told him that this was nonsense.

   But now he had thoughts of admiration himself.

  It seems that Chu Huan just talked about the simplest future development trend of Nike, but in fact, after looking at Nike's business situation, it can be understood that this is an extremely important step for Nike's future development.

   Looking at the current sports brands, Adidas started producing and selling products other than sports shoes in 1972.

  Nike's current products are still too single, and the perception given to the sellers is that this brand is still only a relatively average brand.

  Sports clothing and sports bags are all products that can enhance brand value.

Chu Huan didn't know what David Maxwell was thinking, but continued to tell Li Haojun and Taylor Smith: "In addition, what you should pay attention to is to expand the diversity of products, not to let you expand endlessly. We should be very cautious about the expansion of those long-term products at this stage, and don’t touch this kind of products before the company has developed them!”

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Nike was known as one of the most successful companies in North America, but some people said that if Nike could reduce its production scope, cut off those long-term products, and concentrate on its advantages, its achievements would be greater. bigger.

   What Chu Huan has to do is to maintain the diversity of Nike, but not let Nike run wild in the diversified fields like a wild horse running wild.

  Li Haojun nodded and said, "Yes."

  Chu Huan continued: "The company's most important product this year is the sneakers with waffle-style new soles."

   The new waffle-style sole belongs to Nike's innovation.

On a Sunday morning last year, Bowman, one of the founders of Nike, fiddled with a urethane rubber in an iron mold for baking waffles, and used it to make a new type of sole. Small rubber studs are attached to the top, making the sole more elastic than other popular shoes on the market.

  This seemingly simple product improvement has become the starting point of the careers of Knight and Bowman, and for the first time, Nike's sales have had a qualitative leap.

  Last year, Nike's sales were 5 million, but this year, Nike's sales will directly increase to 14 million US dollars because of this improvement.

   It's just that Nike's Bowman can't see the situation like this anymore.

  Taylor Smith said: "Chairman, after we acquired Nike, I visited the company's directly-operated stores and some shopping malls, and found that this sneaker is indeed the best-selling and the favorite of buyers."

   "This shows that technological innovation is applicable to any industry!" Chu Huan said with a smile: "So I decided to let Nike set up a research and development department, a research committee, and an advisory committee.

The research and development department needs to hire researchers with various degrees in biomechanics, experimental physiology, engineering technology, industrial design, chemistry, etc., and requires them to develop the most technological sense and the most beneficial to the human body according to the existing technology. Sneakers, sportswear out!

  The research and advisory committee is to hire coaches, athletes, trainers, equipment operators, podiatrists and plastic surgeons, who meet regularly with the company to review various designs, materials, and improve the original sports shoes.

   And for all of this, the company will allocate 3 million US dollars for these three departments every year. What I want is the most advanced sports technology and the most humanized research. "

Li Haojun and Taylor Smith looked at each other. Adi's product innovation has already topped the top of the entire sports products, but it is only an annual research and development cost of 1 million US dollars. Now Chu Huan actually invests 3 million in Nike every year. Although there is also a research and advisory committee for research and development, it does not take up much money, at most it costs 500,000 US dollars per year.

   That is to say, Nike's pure research and development costs are 2.5 million US dollars per year, which is definitely the most among global sports brands.

   This also made them understand how much Chu Huan attaches importance to the development of science and technology.

Not only the two of them discovered it, but even David Maxwell, who was sitting on the sofa, also discovered it. It was precisely because of this discovery that Maxwell set his sights on technological products for his future. investment has laid the foundation.

  Afterwards, Chu Huan gave David Maxwell a greater shock, because Chu Huan not only gave a general direction of development, but also gave a more specific plan.

"According to the research of Xiangjiang Jiaku and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in North America, the air chamber of polyurethane rubber can increase the elasticity of the insole. The first project researched by Nike's research and development department is to make this technology successful. Put it on a Nike sneaker."

In the early development history of Nike, there were two researches and developments, which were very important. The first was the waffle-style new sole discovered by Bowman in 1975, and the second was the Shunfeng brand that used polyurethane-coated air chamber insoles. running shoes.

  In another time and space, this research and development was completed in 1979. In the same year, Nike launched the revolutionary Shunfeng brand sports shoes, calling it a new generation of sports shoes.

  The Shunfeng brand was developed by a former aerospace engineer of Rockwell International, and the sole is padded with polyurethane-coated air chambers for enhanced elasticity.

And this research took a full three years, that is, it started this year, but in this time and space, when Chu Huan wanted to acquire Nike, he had already thought of this technology, so last year, he It has already been researched by Jiaku and the research laboratory of MIT.

   It is still in the research and development stage. After Nike's research and development department is established, it will conduct joint research with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  In another time and space, after the development of Shunfeng brand running shoes, Nike advertised with the theme of "air travel".

   And during a 3-year research and development campaign, the company has mobilized many people, from police officers to podiatrists, to try out new products. The sneakers topped out at $50, the highest price in the industry.

   Despite this, the supply of products is still in short supply, so that Nike has to allocate quotas to various distributors.

It is also the success of this research and development that has made Nike the most popular sports brand in North America. It is also because of this research and development that Nike has surpassed Adidas to become the industry leader of North American sports brands, and its market share in North America has also reached At the same time, Nike was successfully listed. At that time, the market value reached 475 million U.S. dollars. Two years later, Nike's sales reached 694 million U.S. dollars.

   This is a very confident person!

  David Maxwell exclaimed in his heart.

  From Chu Huan's words just now, David Maxwell can understand that this research was definitely done before Qingjin Clothing acquired Nike.

   There is only one reason for Chu Huan to do this. He is sure that he will be able to successfully acquire Nike!

  Li Haojun said: "I will immediately arrange for people from the company to contact the MIT research laboratory!"

  Chu Huan took a list from Xu Yi's hands and put it in front of Li Haojun and Taylor Smith.

   "Also, the two of you told me earlier that some of the company's inactive high-level executives have been eliminated. Then explain to me, what is going on with these people?"

   Seeing Chu Huan's serious expression, the two carefully picked up the list and looked at it.

  When they saw the names on the list, the two instantly understood why Chu Huan was angry.

Taylor Smith said helplessly: "Chairman, these people are the problems left over from Nike's time in Phil Knight and Bill Bowman. After all, Nike is a new brand. Compared with these big companies, after all, it is a bit worse.

  So the two of them thought of a way, that is not only to pay the endorsement fees of these athletes, but also to recruit many retired sports athletes to become the management of the company and serve as the heads of various departments. "

This is already a Nike tradition. Even if Chu Huan did not appear, in 1983, Knight would hand over the position of general manager of Nike to a high jump champion named Robert Wooddale. 15 months later , Knight took back this power.

  This is almost unimaginable for a modern enterprise, and naturally it is not acceptable to Chu Huan.

  But this incident also reveals a little helplessness. After all, Nike is a new brand, and it is inevitable to come up with some strange and strange tricks when cultivating this brand.

   But now Chu Huan doesn't need such a strange move, strange move, but he can't expel all these people at once, otherwise it will create an image of Nike killing donkeys to those athletes.

   "Establish an independent department in the company, which does not involve any operation of the company"

   Having said this, Chu Huan suddenly stopped his thoughts, and then fell silent.

  Li Haojun and Taylor Smith saw Chu Huan like this and wanted to speak out, but Xu Yi stopped him with his eyes.

After a while, Chu Huan said: "Just when Nike re-established a new outreach department, all these athletes who retired and joined Nike were allowed to join this department, and their salaries were paid accordingly. In addition, they were told to let them contact various sports events. As long as the rookie athletes can pass the company's review and become the company's spokesperson, the company will also pay them a certain amount of fees."

  If someone can accomplish these tasks well, then Chu Huan will not despise them because of their background, and will also assign them important positions, but the premise of everything is that this person must be capable.

  When the rest of the people in the office heard what Chu Huan said, their eyes lit up. No one thought that Chu Huan would have the idea of ​​reusing resources.

   These people were born in the sports circle, and their contacts are naturally beyond the reach of outsiders.

  Furthermore, according to Chu Huan's intentions, the spokespersons they found needed to be reviewed by the company, which also prevented these people from finding a bunch of young people who didn't know the so-called joining the company for commissions.

  Tyler Smith said: "The chairman means let these people do sports agent work?"

  The earliest record of the profession of sports agent in North America was in 1925, when North American Charles Parley signed a labor contract of US$100,000 for baseball player Grange and the owner of the Chicago Bears.

In the following 40 years, although sports agents began to appear in professional boxing, rugby, basketball and other projects, and the number continued to increase. Their brokerage activities promoted the development and commercialization of these projects, but the collective sports Agents did not develop greatly in North America due to the existence of "retention clauses". Until the late 1960s and early 1970s, most athletes in collective sports still did not have sports agents.

  The retention clause stipulates that the original club has the priority to re-establish the contract with the player. Players can only transfer teams after the club gives the consent to leave the team. Players who do not get the consent to leave the team but do not get a contract extension are equivalent to the termination of their careers.

  Of course, another reason why there are no sports agents is because today's sportsmen don't make as much money as later generations.

  Up to now, the sports agent industry in North America has begun to flourish, and the entire late 1970s is also known as the period of rapid development of the North American sports agent industry.

  First of all, it was because, in the 1970s, the "reservation clause" was abolished, and the new free transfer system gave professional players the right to transfer freely and negotiate independently, which provided institutional guarantees for sports agents to intervene in the field of professional sports.

Secondly, from the 1960s to the 1980s, a number of competitive professional sports leagues emerged in North America. The new leagues competed with the established professional sports leagues. They used high salaries to attract players to join, which to a certain extent promoted the sports industry. Broker development.

Secondly, also from the end of the 1960s to the beginning of the 1970s, the athlete unions of many professional sports leagues gradually changed from informal and weak organizations to increasingly powerful labor organizations that represented the collective interests of athletes and had collective bargaining power. .

  Athletic unions give agents the right to negotiate wages, further enhancing the status of agents.

   Secondly, the income of North American professional players and coaches has begun to increase significantly, and there is a need to find professionals to arrange tax payments and financial management. The professional knowledge and services of sports agents cater to this demand.

Finally, with the expansion of the scope of professional sports TV broadcasting and the improvement of commercialization and entertainment value, various business opportunities have also come one after another. Professional leagues and athletes have sources of off-site income, which makes sports organizations, athletes and coaches must Hire a broker to develop and represent business activities to maximize your own value.

  But at this stage, sports athletes are still not very popular in the sports industry. These sports athletes don't want to share part of the money they earned with their youth.

  Chu Huan nodded slightly and said: "It's about the same, but they only have the right to be in the middle, and they don't have the ability of the agent, and they had better not take advantage of those athletes, otherwise, the company will have no way to keep them!"

If you want to be a sports agent, you need to verify it. Chu Huan doesn’t think that those people in Nike have the certificate of sports agents, so they can’t do many things, otherwise they will be targeted by the agent association. If you occupy it, you have to make a mess!

  Li Haojun, Taylor Smith nodded.

   "In addition, it's about brand promotion!"

  After clarifying the matters of the company's management, Chu Huan talked about another important issue of wanting to grow Nike beyond another time and space.

publicity!

  At this stage, what is the most popular national movement in North America?

  It is not basketball, nor baseball, ice hockey, rugby, these traditional sports in North America, but running.

   In 1972, the Olympic Games held in Munich should be the starting point of this exercise craze.

   At that time, millions of TV viewers watched Votel beat the Soviet athletes Aganov and Frank Short in the 800-meter race to win the title.

   At that time, the foundation work for the running craze had already been done.

  Before Kenyon: Dr. Cooper's enlightening book "Health Sciences" first brought public attention to health.

  The book, which scientifically demonstrates the health benefits of running (or walking) consistently, has sold millions of copies.

   James Fixx then wrote a seminal book, The Complete Book of Running, which sold millions of copies at the time and remained a bestseller for months.

  So throughout the 1970s, the number of people who insisted on walking in North America increased day by day.

  In the late 1970s, about 25 million to 30 million North Americans insisted on walking, and 10 million people wore sports shoes at home or on the street.

   Then there are various sports brands and sports shoe franchise stores that have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, which also gave birth to many magazines of this type in North America.

  Magazines such as Runner's World, Runner, and Running Times provide information on this topic for runners.

   It is precisely because of the current sports environment in North America that Chu Huan next told Li Haojun that Taylor Smith's goal is to try to sign contracts with this type of sports players.

  The most important are those who can participate in the Olympic Games in the future.

   After the publicity issue is finished, the rest is the sales issue.

   "Now the company not only has its own directly-operated stores, but also has its own flagship stores in major cities in North America, as well as franchised stores in major shopping malls!"

  Since rebirth in this era, Chu Huan has attached great importance to sales channels no matter what industry he is in, and now the acquisition of Nike is no exception.

  As sneakers with new waffle-style soles begin to sell well, Nike's sales and influence in North America are increasing day by day, so it is urgent to open its own flagship store and franchise store.

  Li Haojun said: "Regarding this point, I have already held a meeting with Taylor and the company's top management. Here is our plan. Chairman, please read it!"

   After finishing speaking, Li Haojun took out a document in his briefcase and prepared to hand it to Chu Huan.

  As a person who came out of Jiaku, Li Haojun is very aware of Chu Huan's habits, so after coming to North America, Li Haojun has already started to expand Nike's sales channels.

  Wu Shuhan took the document from Li Haojun's hands, printed another copy, first gave a copy to Chu Huan, and then gave a copy to David Maxwell.

  Looking at the document in his hand, Chu Huan showed an expression of approval, obviously very satisfied with Li Haojun's plan.

"I have no objection. I can proceed according to your plan. In the end, it is about production. Now Nike's only Nike shoe factories in New Hampshire and Maine are not producing enough. We need to find more factory OEMs, and it is globally."

  The problem of sales is solved, and the rest is naturally the problem of production.

  At this stage, Nike only has its own manufacturers in the two states just mentioned. Such a production scale is definitely not enough for Nike's future scale.

  So it is certain to find a foundry.

  The requirement for the OEM factory Chu Huan at this time is to have it all over the world, so that it can better meet Nike's global development strategy.

  Of course, in the 1980s, Chu Huan would definitely put the largest foundry in his hometown.

  Such a huge employment opportunity, for Chu Huan, is a good opportunity to gain a sense of presence in the country.

   In fact, in another time and space, Nike can successfully surpass Adidas and become the largest sports brand in North America not only because of the reasons mentioned before.

   There is another reason, that is, Adidas' sports brand miscalculated the market growth of sports shoes and sports clothing, which led to a shortage of goods for a long period of time.

  Although this happened to Nike, at that time Nike had already produced Nike products in 20 different countries and regions around the world, and these places hosted 85% of Nike's production scale.

  Now that he knows these problems, Chu Huan naturally wants to avoid them now.

   This talk is a day.

  When Li Haojun and Taylor Smith left Chu Huan's office, it was already dark.

   "David, how's your day going?"

  Chu Huan sat across from David Maxwell, while Wu Shuhan came to the refrigerator to get a bottle of Coke for Chu Huan.

  David Maxwell nodded with a smile: "It can be felt that the company's management is a team full of vigor and enterprising spirit. I am personally very honored to be able to join this company!"

  Chu Huan nodded in satisfaction and said: "Tomorrow your partner will come to New York, and I will arrange for the two of you to meet at that time!"

  David Maxwell has already known from Chu Huan that although he is the general manager of the North American Aku, there is a deputy general manager under him, and this deputy general manager came out of the Xiangjiang Aku.

  David Maxwell naturally knows what this means.

  However, he is not dissatisfied with Chu Huan's arrangement, because David Maxwell understands that trust takes time to cultivate.

  And David Maxwell also believed that it would not take long for him to completely gain Chu Huan's trust.

"OK!"

   On the second day, the person who took over as the deputy general manager of North America Jiaku came to New York. It was Jiang Zishan, the second group of the operation department of the original Xiangjiang Jiaku!

  After Jiang Zishan arrived in New York, he went directly to Chu Huan's residence.

   "Chairman, madam!"

   After seeing Chu Huan and Cao Yunshang, Jiang Zishan respectfully called them.

  Looking at Jiang Zishan's dusty appearance, Chu Huan said with a smile: "How is it? Have you explained clearly what happened in Xiangjiang?"

  Jiang Zishan nodded and said: "I have explained clearly!"

"Very good!" After Chu Huan nodded in satisfaction, he pointed to the document on the table and said, "This is the North American library, as well as some information about North American black and white media, fantasy comics, Qingjin clothing, and wolf smoke games. Get familiar with it as soon as possible!"

  Jiang Zishan said: "Please rest assured, Chairman, I will definitely get familiar with the business in North America as soon as possible."

Chu Huan said with a smile: "Since you are asked to come to North America to be in charge of the North American armor warehouse with David Maxwell, I naturally trust you. Both you and Wu Xiaoshi came out of the Xiangjiang armor warehouse, and I will not favor one over the other. Downstairs where I live, there is a property, which is your residence in New York.

   After you get used to the life here, you can bring your family over here. Although it is not as big as the upstairs, it is more than enough to accommodate your family of four! "

  Jiang Zishan is married and has two lovely children.

   "Thank you, chairman!" Jiang Zishan said gratefully.

Facing Jiang Zishan's thanks, Chu Huan just nodded his head, and then said: "You should know that I transferred you to be the deputy general manager of the North American A warehouse, not just for you to do the work of the A warehouse, right? "

  Jiang Zishan grimaced, and said: "Chairman, don't worry, I am in North America, and the various companies in North America will not be messed up, and I will not allow anyone to do something that is not good for the company!"

  Chu Huan laughed, and said: "People from the investigation department of North American Jiaku will cooperate with you, but you must understand your responsibilities in the company at ordinary times!"

  Jiang Zishan nodded again: "Understood!"

   Thank you everyone~ It’s the last few days, let’s have the cheek to ask for a monthly pass~~

  

  

  (end of this chapter)