Li Ziwei didn't understand why Li Mu had such high expectations for this matter.
Because in her opinion, Li Gouzi's dog food naming rights and twelve Weibo posts could allow Mars to offer a price of US$12 million. This in itself was already a bit unbelievable, but Li Mu actually felt that it was not enough.
Li Mu said to Li Ziwei: "Mars is so proactive in offering a price of US$12 million, which makes me think their minimum price must be more than US$20 million."
Li Mu talked about 20 million US dollars in an understatement. In Li Ziwei's view, 20 million US dollars seemed like 2,000 yuan in Li Mu's eyes.
Li Ziwei is very smart. She understands many of Li Mu's decisions and arrangements, but she doesn't understand Li Mu's confidence on this issue.
Li Mu has personally experienced the heyday of the domestic Internet, and witnessed the transition from Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent to the dominance of Baidu, and then to Baidu gradually falling behind, while Tencent and Alibaba both stood on the mountain of US$400 billion.
Although he is just a spectator, his perspective is different from ordinary people. He has been an Internet practitioner for more than ten years and can see the inner essence of the entire context with a professional eye.
It is precisely because Li Mu understands what Tencent and Alibaba did in the US$400 billion era that he dares to confirm in his heart that for a Fortune 500 company like Mars, US$12 million is far from their limit. price.
Li Mu saw that Li Ziwei seemed to still have doubts, so he smiled slightly and said: "Faced with companies like Mars, you cannot use the mentality of ordinary business owners to act on their behalf. They are not ordinary business owners, they are oligarchs."
As he spoke, Li Mu became serious and said, "Do you know what the free market oligarchic economy often represents?"
Li Ziwei shook her head slightly and said, "I seem to have a rough idea in my mind, but I can't tell..."
Li Mu smiled slightly and said: "The oligarchic economy in the free market generally represents extreme conservatism in strategy and extreme radicalness in tactics."
Speaking of this, Li Mu saw that Li Ziwei still didn't understand, so he smiled and said: "The so-called extreme conservatism in strategy means taking very few risks on a large level and seeking stability in everything. For example, we will only do it after we have developed." We will do spin-offs based on our main business, but we will never venture into a completely unrelated new industry, let alone shift the focus of our grand strategy to it. We started with the Internet. In the next ten or even decades, we will The development core of the company will not leave the soil of the Internet, which is extremely conservative in strategy."
"Extremely radical tactics are based on seeking stability at the large level, and fighting fiercely at the small and medium levels to ensure the stability of the large level. For example, when we fight against all competitors, we must do it at all costs, even if it is just a moment. It’s a local war. For example, if we are doing Weibo now, if another company makes a product of the same type and threatens us, I will give up Weibo’s profits for the next three years, or even invest a lot of money to lose money for three years. We will fight with each other to the end, strive to ensure that our Weibo will not be influenced or even surpassed by our peers, and try to ensure that we are the only one in the market. Even if we cannot be the only one, we must be the largest one and occupy the majority of the entire industry. This is extremely aggressive tactics."
"The oligarch's strategic conservatism is to stabilize the overall situation; the tactical extreme radicalization is to consolidate the overall situation. So if you look at Mars, as an industry giant, he must be extremely aggressive in this kind of tactics to reduce external pressure on himself. Threats, most of the time when such oligarchic companies do their daily work, they are not in a state of 'what I want to do', but in a state of 'I can't let you do anything'."
"For example, when ordinary companies consider our auction, they will only consider whether these resources are worth selling for five million US dollars and whether they can make money back if they buy them. However, Mars has to consider whether such resources can be used by themselves. If you don’t grab it, what should you do if a competitor gets it? Once it is obtained by a competitor, it will have an impact on their status and their market share. For them, they can accept spending money, but they cannot accept taking risks, so, Even if this resource is only worth five million U.S. dollars, or not even five million U.S. dollars, in order to prevent competitors from getting it, they are still willing to spend 20 million U.S. dollars to come in!"
"Exchanging various resources for money is the logic of ordinary business owners. Exchanging large amounts of money for status is the way oligarchs think about problems."
In later generations, the competition between Tencent and Alibaba has become so fierce, especially in emerging fields where neither company is good at and has no historical advantages. Both parties are trying their best to compete with each other, such as taxi-hailing, food delivery, mobile payment, etc. In the field, the scale of the competition between the two companies is in the billions. This is what the real oligarchs have to do.
If an oligarch hears that his competitor wants to invest $50 million to do something, he is willing to invest $80 million to fight against him. Even if he hears that his competitor wants to invest $50 million to do something, he is willing to invest $50 million to do something. Yi went in not to compete with him for the market, but just to prevent him from doing this.
In Li Mu’s view, Mars’ motive for directly wanting to buy out the company for US$12 million was that they wanted to get these resources directly from the source and completely eliminate all opportunities for competitors to get these resources.
Therefore, Li Mucai is even less concerned about the $12 million. He wants to bring Mars and his competitors into the arena he built and let them fight each other. The final figure will definitely far exceed this amount.
Li Ziwei thought for a moment and finally understood what Li Mu said about the huge difference between oligarchs and ordinary business owners. She nodded with a taught expression and said, "Mr. Li, I understand what you mean. It's like the great Red Army back then." During the Long March, moving as many large troops as possible to the Shaanxi-Gansu Soviet Area was an unshakable strategy of the Long March. At this level, stability must be the main priority; while climbing snow-capped mountains, crossing grasslands, skillfully crossing the Jinsha River, and forcibly crossing Dadu River and flying to seize the Luding Bridge, these bold and risky tactics are actually aimed at stabilizing strategic goals as much as possible."
Li Mu nodded and agreed: "Your metaphor is very good. This is strategic conservatism and tactical radicalness. Radical tactics are actually precisely to make strategic goals more stable."
After that, Li Mu added: "So if we apply it to Mars, its strategic goal is to maintain the leading advantage in the industry. Therefore, in order to ensure that this strategic goal is not affected, let alone 12 million, they will double it." Grit your teeth and do it.”
…
Li Mu came to the Rolling Stones' recording studio and discussed the arrangement of the entire song "21 Guns" with the Rolling Stones' recording musicians. Although Li Mu changed the original lyrics of the song, he didn't make much adjustments to the arrangement. Because the arrangement of the original song already made Li Mu think it was perfect.
Most war movie soundtracks like to use majestic arrangements such as symphony or orchestral music. However, Li Mu feels that occasionally changing the method will have unexpected good results. "21Guns" starts with just electric guitar strumming accompaniment. , after the end of the first verse, when the second verse enters, the guitar, bass, and drums start up again at the same time, and with the harmony, the melodious and solemn feeling of the whole song is vividly highlighted.
Working with high-end musicians is a very pleasant thing for Li Mu. He is like a product manager who knows a little bit about technology and finds a strong technical team. Then he outlines his product needs. , these technical experts can present the entire product in the fastest time, in the best and most satisfactory way.
After more than two hours of rehearsal in the evening, the musician team has sorted out the song. Li Mu decided to consolidate it tomorrow night and make some minor optimizations. The day after tomorrow, Du Wei will be directly asked to enter the studio to record. Du Wei herself He is also a very professional singer, so if everything goes well, the song can be recorded in one day, and then at most one or two days will be left for post-production, and the single will be completely finished.
It was almost 8:50 when he came out of the recording studio. Li Mu got in the car and Li Ziwei reported to him: "Mr. Li, the auction will start in ten minutes. The page and backend have passed the final test. There is no Find any issues.”
Li Mu nodded and said: "Notify the website and Weibo and let them prepare for real-time reporting. Once the auction starts, the follow-up reporting must be timely and attract the attention of all users on the Internet as much as possible."
Li Ziwei said: "Don't worry, the website and Weibo teams are on standby."
Li Mu asked again: "Is the public relations department ready? Keep all cooperative media informed of the progress of our auction."
"Ready." Li Ziwei said: "Our public relations department will publish our progress in real time through the data capture interface with our partner media. They are also paying close attention to this matter. After all, it is an unprecedented first time."
Li Mu said with satisfaction: "Now that everything is ready, let's wait for the final results of the auction with peace of mind."
Li Ziwei looked at Li Mu with a hesitant expression, as if she wanted to say something, but she hesitated and did not say anything.
Li Mu noticed her state and asked her: "What do you want to say? Just say it. Don't worry."
Li Ziwei pursed her lips and nodded slightly, and hesitated for a few seconds before saying: "I am worried that if our auction attracts too much attention and the transaction amount is too high, will it give the outside world the impression that we are very Feeling greedy for money? After all, Gouzi’s Weibo has only been open for one day, and it immediately started auctioning advertising resources, which may affect our image in the minds of users.”
Li Mu smiled and said: "Ziwei, you are becoming more and more comprehensive now, and you can also take this issue into consideration, which is very good."
Li Ziwei looked at Li Mu in surprise and asked, "Mr. Li, have you already considered this issue?"
Li Mu nodded: "I have considered it."
"Then..." Li Ziwei asked with a puzzled look, "Then why do you still do this?"
(End of chapter)