As the chairman of the board of directors of the world's top 500 companies and the top five private companies in the United States, Roland Maas has always been extremely arrogant. In his eyes, even the president of the United States may not be worthy of him coming to apologize, let alone a Mao in his early 20s. Head boy.
Mars, led by Roland Maas, is different from the IT industry, financial industry, energy, and military industries. The people in Silicon Valley are often exposed to various antitrust laws and are troubled by the U.S. government every day. They invest a lot of energy in government relations. We will always bow to Washington, and the same goes for the financial industry, not to mention the energy and military industries.
However, companies like Mars have really been living a life without fear of heaven or earth. The food industry is an industry that will never touch antitrust laws, so they never have to worry about U.S. government sanctions, and as long as the product quality is good Guan, the US FDA, also known as the Food and Drug Administration, will not have trouble with them;
Moreover, Mars is almost a private property of the Mars family. In order to ensure independent management and absolute control of the company, they only sacrificed a small portion of their shares to shareholders outside the family, but have never considered listing it. In this way, the extremely powerful Wall Street has no way to deal with them, and it is impossible to use capital means to confront Mars. We are not on the same dimension at all;
In addition, Mars has a rich product line, strong brand effect, global sales network and amazing profit margins. Although this company is not the most powerful among the top 500, it has always been the most stable among the top 500. of.
The Internet bubble will destroy IT companies, but it will not destroy Mars’ FMCG market;
The financial crisis will destroy financial companies and a large number of physical companies, but for food industry giants like Mars, the impact will be much smaller than other companies;
If the world's top 500 companies are compared to different countries in the lord period, Mars is not the one with the strongest force, nor the largest territory, nor the strongest financial resources among these countries, but it is
Definitely the strongest defense, it's like having a Maginot Line built on all sides, preventing any opponent from finding an opportunity to attack.
However, Mars did not expect that a company like its own would actually have a fatal weakness. This fatal weakness did not lie in the attitude of the government or the economic situation, but in propaganda and public opinion.
Mars, like companies like Coca-Cola, invests a lot of money in advertising every year and is a major financial backer in the eyes of the world's media. Therefore, Mars has always felt that its publicity resources are very strong and its market relations capabilities are also very strong. The media usually If you have to kneel down and lick your behind, even if there is some small scandal, the media can help you cover it up.
However, what I never expected is that their such powerful media resources actually have a hidden precondition. The reason why Mars’ media resources have been effective before is because this precondition was not triggered, and this condition That is: don’t anger Li Mu.
If Li Mu is not angered, Mars' public relations capabilities are indeed enough to support their strong defenses, preventing their opponents from finding a breakthrough for attack.
However, when Li Mu is angered and takes the initiative to attack Mars, he will bring a powerful Buff, which will make all the opponent's defenses useless.
Makino Technology itself is the portal media with the largest coverage and the strongest influence in the world at this stage, and it also covers the class who are exposed to the Internet every day. In the society of this era, the people who are exposed to the Internet every day are this society. The youngest and most communicative group, under such circumstances, Li Mu has almost become a being feared by the global media.
Mars itself took the initiative to confront Makino Technology, and even used such shameless marketing tactics as porcelain. When Li Mu went full force, all the media began to protect themselves, and their attitude towards Mars was no longer as ambiguous as before. In the past, the attitude of these media towards Mars was: As long as you put in ads, anything is fine; but now, the attitude of these media towards Mars has become: You can put in ads, and forget about the rest.
Without the help of these media resources, Mars suddenly realized that facing Makino Technology, he was like a defenseless child with a net worth of tens of billions of dollars, while Li Mu was a fully armed Rambo, who could not only fight, but also crucially It's much richer than him.
Now, Mars is being beaten by Li Mu in front of global public opinion, and Roland Mars, who has always been extremely proud, is on the verge of collapse.
When the board of directors made the decision to ask him to apologize immediately and plead guilty, he applied for a suspension of the meeting. He hid in the office and smoked more than half a pack of Marlboros. Then he returned to the conference room and said angrily in front of everyone: " I respect the decision of the board of directors. Next, I will ask my assistant to contact Makino Technology immediately. It is best to contact Li Mu directly and go to China as soon as possible."
Jimmy Mars, the vice president of the board of directors, suddenly said: "Roland, I think you'd better not try to contact Makino Technology or Li Mu himself."
"Why?!" Roland Mars looked at Jimmy Mars, who was smiling but not smiling, and couldn't help but frowned.
Jimmy Mars, who has always been suppressed by Roland Mars, is the number two person on the entire Mars board of directors.
He and Roland Maas are cousins, and their fathers are brothers. However, there is no family relationship between the two, because in the face of the tens of billions of dollars in business empires, family relationships have long been worth mentioning. Brothers may not be reliable, let alone cousins. What's more, a family that has been prosperous for decades has long since spread. Everyone with the surname of Mas has a large number of three-generation blood relatives. Nowadays, The younger generation is really hard to count.
With so many people competing for one pot of rice, it's strange that the relationship between them can be good.
Roland Mars has always felt that the person in the world who is most looking forward to his early death is probably his cousin Jimmy Mars, so he has always been very unhappy with him and is always on guard.
Jimmy Mars said with a serious face at this time: "Roland, Li Mu's original words were to ask you to 'please bear the thorns'. Unfortunately, I have carefully studied this little story in Chinese history. Lian Po came to Lin Xiangru's door wearing a thorn stick. Before apologizing, you didn't ask your housekeeper to go to Lin Xiangru's house to say hello first! It seems like you are not sincere. With Li Mu's temper, you might be even more annoyed, and then we will all be even more implicated by you."
Roland Mars was so angry at Jimmy Mars' words that his veins popped out. He shouted angrily in front of everyone: "Jimmy, it's not my fault that this matter has come to this day, but I decided to sacrifice myself for the benefit of everyone." Don’t you have any gratitude at all for your dignity?”
Jimmy Mars curled his lips and said: "How can I be grateful to you? You signed the appointment of the previous Silly Que CEO. Don't you want to be responsible for his mistakes? Besides, when Li Mu publicly accused us, it was You decided not to apologize and to confront him, but now you find that you can't do it, you just say that you are sacrificing your personal dignity for the benefit of all of us? You, the chairman of the board of directors, are too good at confusing right and wrong, aren't you?"
After that, Jimmy Mars looked at the people around him and instigated: "Everyone, tell me, am I right?"
Everyone agreed.
Some people even said: "Roland, please don't think that we owe you anything in this matter. Even if you really apologize and get Li Mu's forgiveness this time, you still can't completely make up for the harm you have caused us." !”
"Yes, Roland, do as Li Mu says and go to China to plead guilty to him. Otherwise, we will immediately request the initiation of extraordinary procedures to impeach you first!"
"Hey, if Roland is impeached and I volunteer to be the next chairman of the board of directors, I will be willing to go to China naked to apologize to Li Mu!"
Roland Maas looked at the people talking about it, and then he realized how unpopular he was in the board of directors.
The series of actions Roland Maas did this time that angered Li Mu and brought a huge crisis to Mars really angered most of the board members. Everyone was eating from the same pot. The person in charge of cooking made a mistake and the pot leaked. There is a hole in the pot, and the rice in the pot is still decreasing. It would be strange if everyone didn't hold grudges against him.
At this time, Jimmy Mars saw that most people were supporting him, so he smiled and said: "Roland, I also have good intentions. I hope you will correct your attitude, apologize to Li Mu properly, nod when scolded, and stand up when beaten." Well, only in this way can we win his forgiveness and avoid losses for Mars as much as possible, and only in this way can we stabilize your position as chairman of the board of directors."
Roland Maas was angry in his heart, but he still smiled slightly, nodded and said: "Please rest assured, I will definitely use my sincerity to exchange for Li Mu's forgiveness, and I will definitely find a way to reach an agreement with him that is most beneficial to us. At the same time, I also ask everyone not to worry. This matter may not be a bad thing for us. If I can bury the hatchet with Li Mu on behalf of Mars, maybe this will be a new development opportunity for us. maybe."
Roland Mars said this without any confidence. He did not dare to expect that Li Mu would really bury the hatchet with him and reach some kind of cooperation with Mars. The reason why he said this was just to draw everyone's attention. Lest these people, induced by Jimmy Mars, continue to criticize themselves for the mistakes they made in this matter.
Jimmie Mars naturally heard the meaning of Roland's words. He snorted disdainfully and said: "Roland, stop trying to criticize us here. With Li Mu's ability, status and temperament, I'm really afraid that you won't even see him." He doesn’t even have a chance, and even if you do have a chance to see him, I don’t think this matter will develop in a good direction.”
Roland Maas said angrily: "Jimmy, what do you mean
Jimmy Mars shrugged his shoulders and said calmly: "It's not interesting. Since you can be optimistic, why can't I be pessimistic? As for whether the final result is good or bad, it depends on your ability. Just say it with your mouth. There’s no point, we’re here waiting for news from you.”
(End of chapter)