Chapter 343: Booming Development
It was September when Ron returned to Mumbai, just after the monsoon.
The sunlight above the city pushes away the heavy rainy season clouds, turning the glass curtain walls into dazzling mirrors.
From a distance, the headquarters building of Suer Electric Appliances looks like a dazzling diamond, so bright that it makes people unable to open their eyes.
Ron looked down from the elevator and could see most of the city.
"The kids are starting school?"
"Yes, the holidays are over and now is a new semester."
On the north side of the Sur campus, children in white school uniforms were crossing the street in large numbers. They were playing and laughing, and their laughter seemed to be audible even from such a distance.
They filed out of the Kama compound and the Suer Electric Appliances employee community, and across the road were Suer Primary School and Middle School.
The teacher on duty maintained order at the school gate, and security guards in khaki uniforms were scattered on both sides of the road.
Passersby and cars passing by would give way to the children. They were extremely patient and never honked their horns because their children were in the cars.
Lazhu looked at the lively children with indescribable envy in his eyes.
She is already in her twenties and according to Indian customs, she should be the mother of several children by now.
But Ron was very strict in this regard, and he seemed not to want to have children too early.
"Well, wait a little longer. A lot has happened in the past two years." Ron comforted her.
"Then I have to have at least three children. One child is too lonely." Lazhu said immediately.
"Okay, okay." Ron waved his hand nonchalantly.
Lazhu is still serving as his assistant, even though Ron already has a secretariat consisting of eight professional secretaries.
But who made him used to Lazhu's service? She was more like a life assistant, responsible for Ron's daily life at Suer Electric Appliances.
Other work matters are handled by the real secretary.
Ron was nostalgic after all, and always kept Lazhu by his side.
Of course, her body is really flexible and she has never stopped practicing yoga.
He liked that feeling, just like kneading dough, which was both stress-relieving and free.
The feeling is hard to describe in words, it just makes you want to stop.
When the elevator reached the top floor, Ron did not go to his office first, but went to the conference center next door.
All important large-scale conferences of Sur Electric are held here. It is equipped with all kinds of advanced facilities and technological equipment, which is completely beyond the cognition of ordinary Indians.
The company's key management was present, including Ron's cousin Ash.
He studied in the United States, and his knowledge and vision are far beyond that of ordinary people.
A place like Uttar Pradesh is not suitable for him, and the cement factory and power plant cannot fully utilize his talents.
The consumer electronics industry like Sur Electric is just right.
He was exposed to various high-tech technologies in the United States, which is in line with the business philosophy of Sur Electric.
Ron had a selfish motive in placing him here, which was to allow family members to gradually participate in the management of Sur Electric.
In the past, there were almost no arrangements for people from my hometown to come to Mumbai, which was a bit inappropriate after all.
India is a family-oriented society, and outsiders can never be as reassured as family members.
Yash himself is very satisfied with this arrangement. He likes the modernity and prosperity of Mumbai.
Ron asked him to work as the executive director of Sur Electric first, so that he could become familiar with the company's management and personnel relations.
Other departments such as technology, production, and sales have higher requirements for business capabilities and are not suitable for people to be parachuted in.
This arrangement makes Ashish very nervous, as his status as "brother-in-law" is in jeopardy.
So recently he often talked to his sister Lazhu about things like children and the future.
Without a child, how can his identity as an uncle be confirmed?
He even gave Lazhu some bad ideas, such as making a hole in the small umbrella and secretly taking off the protective clothing in the middle.
In short, Ashish now has a strong sense of crisis. As soon as Ron came in, he ran to the main seat like a lackey, pulled out the chair, and rushed to do all the secretary's work.
Lazhu rolled her eyes at him and sat down next to Ron.
As Ron's personal assistant, she was qualified to attend such meetings.
"Okay, everyone, let's talk about what's been going on with Sur Electric during this period."
"Boss, our financial growth is more obvious than last year."
Harus, who was in charge of finance, stood up and reported that Suer Electric Appliances was already a mature enterprise.
Even without Ron, the departments continued to function well.
He is now consciously delegating power step by step. Except for major decisions, everything no longer needs his approval.
Production capacity adjustments, next year's budget, import and export trade, and new product development are all evaluated and calculated by a professional team.
According to Harus's report, Soul Electric's financial growth in 1996 was almost double that of the previous year.
The most fundamental reason is that branch factories in several states have gradually begun to be completed, and more and more production lines have been put into production.
There are 20 assembly lines for various models of televisions here in Mumbai, 15 of which have been built in Madras and the remaining are expected to be completed next year.
Gujarat has the most assembly lines in operation, with 25. These lines are primarily geared towards overseas trade, with demand surging this year from clients in the Persian Gulf and Africa.
The Sur Industrial Park in Gujarat is also the largest, and its full completion may not take until 1999. It took four years from construction to achieving 100% of the expected goals.
The smallest factory is Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, with only ten assembly lines and several parts production lines. Because it is landlocked, transportation is not very convenient.
Most of the televisions produced are absorbed by North India. At present, Ron does not plan to expand the production scale in Uttar Pradesh, as the cost-effectiveness is not high.
Adding up all these branch factories, Suer Electric has put into production a total of seventy television assembly lines.
According to the current production capacity, the monthly output of various models of televisions, including black and white, color, 14-inch, 18-inch and 21-inch, exceeds 1.2 million units.
There is no doubt that Sur Electronics is now the largest television manufacturer in India.
70% of the TV market is monopolized.
This proportion would be even higher if several other manufacturers had not also achieved localized production.
However, not all of the 1.2 million television sets sold each month are absorbed by the Indian market.
East Asia, Sri Lanka, Arabia, and Africa, with exports to these regions reaching 500,000 units per month.
It has to be said that overseas trade has broad prospects.
Even as the domestic and overseas markets continue to grow, Sur Electric's expansion plans have never stopped.
Now, just looking at the data on paper, Soul Electric's TV business alone makes a profit of 6 billion rupees per month.
This figure could have been higher, but due to the sharp drop in TV prices this year, Sur Electric's profits have also been diluted.
There is no way around it. As technology gradually iterates, televisions will become cheaper and cheaper in the future. This is the general trend.
To maintain profits, either expand production capacity or explore overseas markets.
According to the internal team's estimates, around the millennium, the profits of Sur Electric's TV business will reach its peak.
After that, it slowly fell back from the peak. Fortunately, Sur Electric's products are not limited to televisions.
The rice cooker and juicer businesses also saw significant growth this year. Adding to this the older products like water conditioners and electric fans, the profits are about one-third of those from televisions.
However, the profits seem to be high, and Sur Electric has made large-scale investments in the past two years and has also spent huge amounts of money.
The various factories and equipment totaled more than 40 billion rupees, half of which was paid with loans and the other half in cash.
There is no other way. All the equipment and other things were purchased from the University of Tokyo. There is no such thing as a loan.
It seems that there are profits of 800 to 900 crore rupees every month, but in the end most of the funds are invested in the real economy.
Ron currently has less than 20 billion rupees in his account, and if he pays off the bank loans, it might even be negative.
There are many places where money is spent. Not to mention the expansion of branch factories, money is also being invested in power plants in Uttar Pradesh and ports in Tamil Nadu.
According to conservative estimates, the combined shortfall of these two projects is tens of billions of rupees.
Bank loans can only cover one-third of the cost, and he has to pay the rest out of his own pocket.
Do you think this is the end? No, it has just begun.
"The business department is planning to open a branch factory in Kolkata?"
“Yes, boss, our production capacity in the east is relatively low. It is difficult to meet the demand in the central and eastern regions relying solely on Lucknow,” Ashish replied.
“How big is the projected scale?”
"It is expected that similar to Gujarat, Kolkata will also be a port city on the east coast, and part of its production capacity can be planned for export to Bangladesh."
Kolkata is also a big city in India. West Bengal is already wealthy and close to the seaport, making it a very suitable location for the Sur Electric factory.
Ron glanced at the plan and saw the investment was also around 30 to 50 billion. The factory's design took into account both inland and overseas demand, making it Soul Electric's second-largest production base.
"Each department will make an assessment and if there are no problems, construction will begin next year."
"Yes." Ashish accepted the order.
As the team became more professional, Ron was freed up of most of his energy.
For example, when it comes to new product development, he didn't ask about any details, but Sur Electric launched a multi-functional FM radio this year.
This was inspired by Sun TV and Radio. Since the radio station was launched, the audience has been more than expected.
There is a special survey company in Mumbai. Through a special sampling survey, it was found that the audience of Sun Radio may be more than three million.
Not only did advertisers flock to the company, but Soul Electric also decided to add radio to its product range.
This thing doesn't require much technical content and can be easily handled by the internal R&D team.
They made it smaller, added automatic FM tuning, improved the sound quality, and even added an LCD screen.
The price is not expensive, only six or seven hundred rupees, and it sells quite well.
As the rupee depreciated and prices rose, the wages of ordinary workers also increased significantly.
In short, there is no comparison between the hundreds of rupees now and the hundreds of rupees three or four years ago.
Radios are just affordable electrical appliances that really anyone can afford.
After fiddling with the new radio for a while, Ron was quite satisfied with the management team of Sur Electric.
At least they have strong initiative and know how to continuously develop new products.
"Boss Luo, I think we can also consider pagers. They are very suitable for India at this stage." Cousin Yash suddenly spoke.
"What?" Ron was stunned.
"Pager, a wireless pager system that allows users to know who is calling them even when they are outside."
This kind of thing is so common in the United States that it is even on the verge of being eliminated.
After learning that Ron had obtained a telecommunications license, Yash suddenly remembered this little thing. It is also a kind of mobile communication.
(End of this chapter)
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