Li Shufu, The Head Of Geely, Is A Persistent Forerunner.

In the spring of 2009, the national media went Auspicious At this point, many people asked Li Shufu a question. He heard that a Chinese company wanted to buy Volvo, a Swedish passenger car company. What did he think about whether Geely would take part in it? Li Shufu replied at the time, "no, because Sweden has too high labor costs, and this country is no longer suitable for automobile manufacturing."

At that time, industry Many Chinese auto companies, including Geely, Changan, Chery, Beiqi and so on, are being bought. Volvo 。 Although Li Shufu answered categorically, but in fact, Li Shufu had already obtained the support letter from the relevant departments at that time. He also asked the consultant team to do so. The acquisition was in the firing line. He just shot a shot in front of the media.

Persistent Zhejiang people

Two years later, Li Shufu no longer had to hide the intentions of the takeover to the outside world. Volvo has become a part of its assets. China's strategy has been steadily advancing, and the long chase has come to the end.

As a shrewd Zhejiang businessman, Li Shufu has many qualities on his hands with any businessman in Zhejiang. One of them is never to give up the goal of locking. In the process of acquiring Volvo, there are difficulties at any time and anywhere. Any one of them can push the transaction into a dead end. Now it seems that all these dangers have been overcome by Li Shufu.

Financing difficulties, he and investment banks almost everywhere domestic and foreign funds, banks, finally locked three local governments; intellectual property rights difficulties, they and Ford had a hard tug of war, both when making a table, singing red face, also emotional, white face; trade union difficulties, Li Shufu several times to Goteborg, meet with union representatives, he told them directly, "I love you". In the process of acquiring Volvo, Li Shufu was exhausted.

Li Shufu first revealed that the idea of acquiring Volvo was expressed in an internal conference in 2002, but a close to Li Shufu said that the chairman always had a lot of ideas. At that time, Geely was still very young and no one took the rhetoric seriously. It was the financial crisis and the declining US auto industry that gave Li Shufu the chance. In early 2007, Mulally came to Ford from Boeing as CEO, then put forward the strategy of "One Ford" and decided to sell many brands including Volvo.

Li Shufu paid close attention to Volvo's immediate launch. In September 2007, Ford headquarters received a registered letter from Li Shufu. Ford explained Ford's idea of acquiring Volvo through public relations firm. Therefore, the whole industry has always been keen attention, at the same time, full of passion and imagination, this is Li Shufu in this acquisition battle to win the final key.

Many of the members involved in the acquisition invariably described Li Shufu, a man of great energy, a person who was willing to adopt all kinds of opinions, a very smart and determined man.

After a dense business visit, only one person can talk freely about the dream with the team. After a boring negotiation, there is only one person who is still persuading people to go further. This person is Li Shufu. Therefore, when the acquisition of Volvo was finally carried out, Li Shufu turned the business of "one person" into a "400 person" business. The world included investment banking, law firms, financial and public relations, etc., and 400 people were serving the M & a transaction. It has become one of the most complex M & A transactions in China since the beginning of history. {page_break}

Government public relations capability

In addition to that persistence, like many Zhejiang businessmen, their good use of government resources laid the foundation for success.

Geely, which entered the automobile manufacturing industry in 1997, has made great efforts in maintaining the relationship between the government and the government. As the industry with high entry threshold, Geely's growth and development process is almost the process of public relations, negotiation and communication with all levels of government. Of course, according to Li Shufu's words, "it is a constant process of confrontation."

The above process has created Geely's excellent government operation capability, which is evident from many automobile industrial bases built in China. Geely has bases in Chengdu, Ji'nan, Xiangtan and Lanzhou. In Chengdu and Daqing, the future Volvo production base is also planned.

In 2010, Chinese auto companies pushed the production and marketing to the peak of 18 million vehicles. Under this background, the new national automobile industry policy plan was very strict for the new automobile projects, and the examination and approval of the expansion of the capacity were more prudent. Geely has gained more understanding and support in various aspects such as financing channels with solid government relations. At the same time, local governments choose support for the automobile industry, the automobile industry chain is long, the driving effect is good, the number of employment is large, and the added value is large. From this stage, the auto industry is an obvious "good" project.

Race against the industry cycle

This year, Geely received the new year's ceremony. The largest acquisition in the history of China's automobile industry has been announced. China's strategy has already announced that Volvo's factories in China have already landed, and Volvo has even become the "two sessions" car in China, and has achieved a status comparable to Audi.

However, this is just the beginning. For Volvo, it is the most important question how to become a lucky man after all.

Ford has lost 30 billion US dollars over the past 3 years since 2006, and perhaps this opponent is a lucky mirror. 10 years ago, Ford was expanding its own product line for the sales scale. At the same time, for the European market, the US manufacturer was not prepared enough, and the European automobile consumption was in decline. Ford did not bring any new business ideas.

The same thing happens to Chinese auto makers who want to expand their scale. However, Geely can be relieved that they have found a rapidly expanding market for Volvo, China, where thousands of cars are owned by only 23 vehicles, seemingly uncultivated virgin land.

From the point of view of brand, technology and channel, Geely's acquisition of Volvo is a good business. However, the digestion problem of snakes is still a secret worry. After experiencing a brief downturn in 2008, China's automobile market has entered the rising cycle. However, with the volume of 2009 and 2010, 2011 is generally considered to be a year of adjustment.

In communication, Li Shufu mentioned the most word is "let the tiger return to the mountain", that is to use China's huge demand to hold up Volvo's global profit expectations.

From the perspective of the auto industry's economic cycle, it is about 5 years in China. The last adjustment can be traced back to 2004, and then upward to around 1999. At the beginning of an industry cycle, it shows a lot of investment, capacity layout, brand remolding, new product acceleration, and a long period of investment return. {page_break}

Such a long industrial cycle is the ultimate test of enterprise strategic planning ability, the ability to anticipate the market, and the ability to resist variety. On this point, Geely and Li Shufu are both old athletes in China's automobile market. They are well versed in the laws here.

Geely started with economic products, and although its profits were small, the fast growing Chinese market made it very rich in cash flow. But in 2007, Geely put forward a transformation from the dilemma of price fixing, which ensured the financial crisis after Geely and accumulated funds for the subsequent acquisition of Volvo.

Although it will take time for Volvo to become the mainstream luxury brand in the domestic market, but with everything Li Shufu has prepared for Volvo, this race with the industrial cycle should be able to last.