Reborn 92's Business Tycoon

Chapter 578: Next big game of chess

This reputation and capital are still not quite enough, Feng Yiping thought.

In the eyes of most Americans, he is just a domestic university student. As everyone knows, he has written a best-selling book on business management, but his identity as an entrepreneur really doesn't attract much attention.

If he had a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, Professor Jiang would never have had that attitude just now. He might even have been flattered, even if the flattery wasn't directed at Feng Yiping but at the listed company behind him.

So the money-making must not stop. So the next destination, although it can be predicted that there will basically not be any good results immediately, still has to be visited. It's also good to establish contacts, and it's a start after all.

'Hello Feng, welcome to our company,' Feng Yiping and Jacob, who had once again flown to New York, arrived in Corning, a small town in upstate New York with beautiful scenery and lush vegetation, and were warmly received by Ms. Joanna from the Corning Company's administrative department.

Joanna was also present when Feng Yiping gave a speech at the New York Economic Club, and she still had some respect for him.

'Thank you for your thoughtful arrangements,' Feng Yiping said, shaking her hand and smiling.

'We are honoured to be the first company you visited in the United States,' Joanna said.

'It should be I who is honoured,' the two exchanged pleasantries and entered the conference room at the Corning headquarters.

Like JDZ in China, Corning Township in New York has become a famous glass capital in the United States because it is the location of the Corning company of the same name.

In the era of smartphones, Corning Gorilla Glass can be said to dominate the world, and before that, some people in China may still know that Corning's tableware is very expensive, such as its unique Crystal Clear cookware.

So most people's impression of Corning is that it is a company that produces glass, but in fact it is not.

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For example, it was the first to invent and popularise the television picture tube, and it was also the first to invent and manufacture optical fibres.

It also has outstanding achievements in automobile engine emission control. This year, a company in Shanghai has already started production, producing ceramic carriers and filters for catalytic converters used in automobile emission control systems.

Therefore, it is actually a high-tech enterprise focusing on glass and related products, covering several fields.

'According to your schedule, in the afternoon I will take you on a tour of the company and the glassware art exhibition hall. Tomorrow morning, some employees from various departments of the company hope to communicate with you. Is this okay?'

'No problem. However, I also have the intention of exploring cooperation during this visit, so I look forward to having the opportunity to meet with the senior management of your company,' Feng Yiping revealed his purpose.

'What kind of cooperation is it?' Joanna asked.

'I hope to purchase a patent from your company for use in the furniture production of my Chinese company,'

'Meeting with company executives is no problem, hehe, not just me, many of the company's top executives are looking forward to meeting you, but our company generally does not sell patents, so I hope you are prepared for that,' Joanna said with a smile.

For these Fortune 500 companies, they are generally the only ones who buy patents, and they would not casually sell their own patents, even if they are useless.

'I understand. Please help coordinate,' Feng Yiping said.

Corning is a small town, quaint, with a total population of just over 10,000. Half of them work for Corning Incorporated, so during the day, the streets are sparsely populated, and all you can see are the elderly and children.

The most commendable thing is that the town has very good greenery. The surrounding mountains are full of vegetation, and the town is the same, full of trees and giving Feng Yiping the feeling that he is in a park back home.

The Corning Museum of Glass, also known as the Corning Glass Centre, is a venue that combines a museum, glassblowing demonstrations and the sale of glass crafts. It is located at the foot of a hill, and the exhibits inside are truly dazzling. However, the most attractive part is the glassblowing demonstrations. Watching a ladle of molten glass being blown, pulled, stretched and cut into a piece of art is truly amazing.

The next morning, Feng Yiping and some employees of Corning had a lively and fruitful exchange. In the afternoon, he finally had the opportunity to meet one of the vice presidents at home, Mr Benjamin.

This was an old comrade, with a clearly hunched back and slack facial muscles.

'Feng, please sit down,' Benjamin led Feng Yiping to sit in the meeting area of the office. This is a good place, you can even get some sun sitting here.

'I heard you were a young man, but I didn't realise you were this young,' the amiable-looking old man said with a smile. "You've already started a new management strategy, no mean feat!'

'You're too kind!" I'd heard that a lot in the past few days.

'They say you want to buy one of our patents. What is it?' After the pleasantries, the host got down to business.

'It's like this. I have two furniture factories. The company has designed some furniture that requires the use of glass, such as coffee tables. This requires not only good performance of the glass, which is not easily broken, but more importantly, the surface should not easily leave scratches. We have looked for many glass manufacturers, and there are some with good performance, but few that do not leave scratches.

Finally, I finally learned that your company once produced such glass, but that project has now been closed, so I would like to know if your company has the possibility of transferring the patent for that glass?'

What Feng Yiping was talking about was the predecessor of Gorilla Glass, the future mainstay of Corning's revenue, which they called Chemcor glass.

This glass was developed from the glass that Corning itself named glass-ceramic.

The birth of glass-ceramic was actually a coincidence, just like the discovery of penicillin. In 1952, an employee of Corning accidentally obtained a type of glass that was lighter than aluminium but stronger than high-carbon steel due to a control error.

Based on the glass-ceramic, they finally developed a new product with 15 times the pressure-bearing capacity of ordinary glass, Chemcor glass. At that time, the main target market was public phone booths, prison windows and glasses, but sales were very average due to its high price.

They turned to the automotive windshield industry, but still couldn't find a partner. In the end, Corning closed the project in 1971.

It was reborn once again and became the revenue support of Corning. Before Steve Jobs launched the Apple smartphone in 2007, within half a year, they reduced the originally 4 mm thick Chemcor glass to 1.3 mm thick without affecting performance, and it eventually became popular in the era of smartphones.

However, at this time, neither the people at Corning nor Steve Jobs could have known the future market for this type of glass. Nowadays, feature phones don't have glass screens; they use high-strength plastic.

Benjamin thought for a moment, 'You're talking about Chemcor glass? When it was discontinued, I was still far from being able to do research in the company's R&D department. However, Feng, although it was just as you predicted in your magazine Frontier, the first quarter of this year saw the internet industry usher in a cold winter, and our optical fibre business has been greatly affected. However, the company has not yet reached the point of transferring patents to increase revenue,'

This is the biggest difference between a century-old company and a start-up. Over the past hundred years, many patents that seem to have no practical use have been developed. But when the opportunity arises, a quick rummage through the old papers may just reveal a technology that can shine.

'I didn't mean it at all. It's just that your company has given up on this project, and it happens to meet the needs of my company, so I took the liberty of making this proposal,' Feng Yiping explained.

As with previous visits, he always tries his best, regardless of the chances of success, mainly because of the future income from this glass.

How high is the future income from this glass?

The screen of a smartphone has turned a migrant worker into the future self-made richest woman in China and a top ten Hong Kong wealthy family.

The two companies purchase key raw materials for the production of mobile phone screens from Corning, which are then processed into protective glass for smartphones.

The profits of these two companies are far from being comparable to those of Corning, yet they have created such huge wealth. Feng Yiping now wonders, what a good investment it would be if he could obtain this technology that Corning no longer wants.

And this kind of leak detection is very cool, he says.

'Why don't you do it this way? Your company submits a purchase request and we restart the production line? We have no problem with this,' Benjamin asked.

'Your company's restart of the production line will definitely require a high purchase quantity, and at the beginning, I may not be able to meet it. In addition,' Feng Yiping said with a smile, 'the production costs here are too high, and the final purchase price will definitely be unacceptable to us.'

Benjamin was well aware of these problems, and his question was really a test.

For these big companies, they all believe in 'patient capital,' the idea of betting on unproven technology. A new technology may lie in the corner and collect dust because it cannot find an application field, until an opportunity comes along and it shines immediately.

Corning itself also has such precedents. For example, the glass used in their now-popular heat-resistant kitchenware was originally designed for railway signal light covers.

'I fully understand your request, and will faithfully report your proposal to the company. I will definitely get back to you if I hear anything, and I hope we will have the opportunity to cooperate.'

'Thank you, Mr Benjamin,'

Feng Yiping was in no hurry. Just because they weren't selling it now didn't mean they wouldn't next year, and if they didn't sell it next year, it didn't mean they wouldn't sell it the year after that.

The Internet bubble will last until 2002. Corning will have a hard time in the next two years, and every year will be worse than the previous one. They have a lot of time and opportunities to consider trading an already shelved and useless technology for a considerable amount of cash.

By the way, Li Ruiyuan should pay extra attention to the stock price of Corning.