Chapter 116: Progress in the Rubik's Cube Promotion and a Call from a Pretty Girl
Liao Liewen replied, "Yes, I originally thought that after Yang Wendong had secured $500,000, he wouldn't borrow much more—at most, he'd take out loans gradually, step by step.
But after chatting with him just now, I realized he not only wants to rapidly expand production capacity in the short term, he's also planning to move upstream in the supply chain and get involved in the adhesive industry.
What's more, it seems like 3M is willing to support him by providing technical assistance. However, as far as funding goes, 3M obviously won't bankroll everything indefinitely. So he'll still need to rely on loans.
Some of the detailed information is included at the end of the file in your hands. If all of this really comes to fruition, then Yang Wendong's achievements could be beyond measure."
After listening, Liao Baoshan took another careful look at the latter half of the document in her hands, then said, "His plan is solid. If it succeeds, the future potential is indeed immense.
But as a bank, we can't just be optimistic about someone just because they've made a good plan. When it comes to large amounts of funding, we need to thoroughly investigate everything.
That includes his overseas resources and the rationality of his industrial investments. Otherwise, if something goes wrong later, such a large loan—no matter how big we are as Liao Chong Hing Bank—we could still suffer major losses."
"Yes, I'll follow up and investigate everything thoroughly," Liao Liewen nodded.
For ordinary loans, banks typically don't do much in-depth investigation. Often, they just look at the collateral—it's not worth the trouble for small loans.
But for large projects and clients the bank is optimistic about, collecting relevant information is a must. Decisions like this absolutely cannot be based on subjective judgment alone. There must be concrete evidence.
Otherwise, with all the so-called "once-in-a-century" scams out there, it's easy for people to cook up ambitious-looking schemes. Even many banks in Europe and America have fallen for such cons, becoming case studies and cautionary tales for others.
Liao Baoshan smiled and said, "Mm, I trust your judgment. If the data checks out, the loan is worth considering.
It's just that with this much money involved, even for us, it's not something we can pull out immediately. There's going to be a bit of a wait."
"Understood," Liao Liewen nodded again.
Although Liao Chong Hing Bank was one of the top Chinese banks, it still couldn't compare to the major British-owned banks. Its total deposits at that point were only around 200 to 300 million HKD. A 4-million-dollar loan would account for about 2% of their total deposits.
Not to mention that a large chunk of the bank's capital was tied up in real estate, so they'd need to either free up funds or attract new deposits to support the loan.
It would take time, so investigating first was a good use of it.
—
The next day, after arriving at the office, Yang Wendong went straight to Wei Zetao's office.
"Old Wei," Yang Wendong said with a smile as he sat down. "I just got a call from Liao Liewen. Liao Chong Hing Bank has preliminarily approved our loan application. If their board agrees in a few days, we'll enter the formal process."
A $4 million loan in the present day was worth more than several hundred million in the future.
If it weren't for 3M providing long-term purchase orders, prepayments, and multiple rounds of capital transactions, then without adequate collateral, even the relatively risk-tolerant Liao Chong Hing Bank wouldn't have agreed to this.
They were only willing to gamble because they saw the potential for a big profit. But if they didn't have enough confidence, the bank wouldn't take the risk.
Wei Zetao poured a cup of tea and smiled. "I know a bit about how the upper management at Liao Chong Hing works. When they say 'board of directors,' it probably just means Liao Baoshan makes the final call."
"Yeah… that makes sense. Probably just following procedure," Yang Wendong agreed.
In Chinese companies, especially in family-run businesses, the founder usually holds absolute authority—even after going public. Fast forward twenty years, there will be dozens of large-scale acquisition cases in the Hong Kong market, most of them involving British-owned companies being bought out.
It wasn't just because Chinese capital was on the rise or due to political reasons. British firms followed Western business models too strictly and didn't prioritize control. That opened the door for Chinese capital to take over during the 70s and 80s.
Wei Zetao continued, "As for the U.S., Qiansheng has already visited the 3M adhesive factory in New York State. His initial feedback is that the production line looks pretty solid."
"That fast? He's working hard," Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Once he's compiled the data, have him send it over to us via express air courier."
Wei Zetao responded, "Got it. But he also wanted to ask if you plan to go there yourself. After all, this is a production line worth over $100,000. He doesn't want to make a final decision on his own."
Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "Mm, let him know next time you talk to him—I will go to the U.S., but only after he finishes compiling all the documentation and thoroughly researches the production line and related patents.
If I go, I want to settle everything in one trip—or at least reach some kind of agreement with 3M's higher-ups on key issues."
Traveling to the U.S. in this era wasn't as easy as it would be in his past life, but considering how far the business had come, it was only a matter of time before he had to make the trip.
It wasn't just about the production line either. They had been cooperating with 3M for a while now—it was only proper to pay a visit. After all, 3M was a Fortune 500 company. It would be unrealistic to expect their executives to come all the way to Hong Kong to meet him.
Wei Zetao nodded. "Alright, I'll give him that update next time."
"Since I'm going to the U.S. anyway, I've got a few other things I need to take care of," Yang Wendong added. "By the way, how's the Rubik's Cube doing at HKU?"
Wei Zetao replied, "A couple of days ago, I got word from Professor Yang. The Rubik's Cube has been doing quite well at the University of Hong Kong.
As of the day before yesterday, over 200 people had already bought one. And even those who didn't buy are borrowing them from friends, which means the cube's gaining a solid reputation on campus."
Yang Wendong nodded. "That's pretty much what I expected. The Rubik's Cube might be a toy, but it doesn't belong in the traditional children's toy category. To be more accurate, it's more for adults—or at least teens aged twelve or thirteen and up.
The market for it actually can't follow conventional toy distribution channels. That's what's been giving me a bit of a headache—I don't know what kind of distributors to work with for the Rubik's Cube."
Anyone who's played with a Rubik's Cube knows: little kids aren't interested at all. Even among adults, only a small portion find it appealing. Most people will try to solve it, realize they can't get it back to its original state, and give up entirely.
That said, entertainment options were quite limited in this era, so the Rubik's Cube might actually attract more attention than one might expect.
Among all demographics, university students were the easiest group to get invested. They had strong learning capabilities, a desire for challenges, and were naturally more curious than middle-aged folks when it came to unfamiliar things.
Wei Zetao added, "The Rubik's Cube has already begun spreading out from the University of Hong Kong. A few people from off-campus have even come to our small stall at the university just to buy one. That's a good sign."
"Mm. Tell the colleague running the stall to keep an eye on patterns in the customer base," Yang Wendong nodded.
In truth, selling Rubik's Cubes on campus could have been handled by the university store or even by a professor. But Yang Wendong insisted on hiring someone specifically for the job and renting a stall space on campus. The purpose was to allow the stall operator to observe the buyer demographic and purchasing trends.
This kind of information—firsthand, raw consumer behavior data—was invaluable.
Even though the Rubik's Cube had been hugely successful in his previous life, it was still a non-practical toy. Trying to promote it to the point of global recognition, especially in an era without the internet, was extremely challenging.
That's why he had to approach it as if it were an ordinary product being introduced to the market. His memories from his previous life didn't offer much in the way of practical strategies for how to market a toy from scratch.
As for things like speedcubing competitions? That was something for much later—after people had cracked the methods for solving the puzzle.
Besides, organizing those kinds of events was relatively easy. Offering prize money didn't require much. The real challenge lay in generating enough hype to make the competition popular. Even in the age of mobile internet, launching a hot competition required astronomical traffic and attention.
In this era, it meant relying on TV stations—and even then, there was no guarantee they'd be interested unless the Rubik's Cube was already a popular trend with a solid viewer base to pressure the broadcasters. It was the classic chicken-and-egg dilemma.
"No problem. He's already collecting data on that," Wei Zetao replied. After a pause, he added, "Yang Sheng, actually, I have an idea for how to promote it."
"Let's hear it," Yang Wendong said.
Although the Rubik's Cube market couldn't compare to that of Post-it notes, this product was his first entry into the toy and plastic manufacturing industry. If this succeeded, it could pave the way to capturing a larger share of the toy market.
Even a fraction of the toy industry would outshine the Post-it note business in scale.
Of course, profitability was another story. Post-it notes had incredibly high profit margins. Unless the toy side also established strong cultural relevance at the consumer end—or unless he managed to control distribution channels the way Li Ka-shing did in his past life—it would be hard to match the margins of sticky notes.
Still, the two businesses didn't conflict with each other. In fact, toys were going to become one of Hong Kong's major industries over the next twenty years and could provide employment for a massive number of people. Naturally, Yang Wendong placed great importance on it.
Wei Zetao smiled and said, "Actually, it's a bit inspired by what you did before. I know that when you were promoting Post-it notes, you sent free samples to a bunch of big companies.
Now that the Rubik's Cube is becoming popular at HKU, why don't we do the same—just send them out for free to universities in Europe and the U.S.?"
"Casting a wide net, hoping to catch some fish, huh?" Yang Wendong chuckled, then countered, "But don't forget—Post-it notes are highly practical. They're simple to use. Anyone who gets one knows how to use it right away. Office workers are very likely to fall in love with it fast.
But the Rubik's Cube? It doesn't offer any practical value. If it did, I wouldn't have had to put up a reward at HKU. Without incentives, students might just play with it a bit and then toss it aside."
Wei Zetao asked, "Then why don't we also offer a reward at the European and American universities?"
Yang Wendong spread his hands and said, "Offering a reward isn't the issue—even ten thousand U.S. dollars is fine. But how do you convince them it's legit? Without a trustworthy commitment, it's as good as nothing."
Wei Zetao thought for a moment and said, "That's true. It's a tricky problem. A commitment letter with our company seal carries weight here in Hong Kong, but it wouldn't mean much overseas."
Yang Wendong nodded. "Exactly. That's why our first priority is to lock down the Hong Kong market. It may not be huge, but if we can sell well here, there's at least a chance we can make it big in places like Europe, the U.S., or even Asia.
If we can do that, we might not even need to go hunting for distributors—they might come to us instead."
Even in future decades, with all kinds of viral products, very few were instant hits upon launch. Scenes like people lining up overnight to buy the first iPhone were rare in business history.
And that only happened because of the internet, which slashed the cost of information distribution by tens of thousands of times compared to earlier eras.
Post-it notes were already considered lucky in that regard. While not a consumer good in the traditional sense, their user base was at least well-defined. With 3M's powerful distribution channels, promotion became much easier. Otherwise, Yang Wendong wouldn't be facing such severe production shortages already.
As for the Rubik's Cube, its future was bright—but that didn't mean it would explode in popularity within a few months. In a world without TikTok or similar platforms, it was unlikely to go viral overnight.
Wei Zetao thought for a moment and said, "In that case, I'll stick to the original plan. Once the Rubik's Cube becomes well-known at HKU, I'll run an ad in the Hong Kong newspapers."
"Sounds good. Let's focus on conquering the Hong Kong market first," Yang Wendong agreed with a nod.
Historically, even after the Rubik's Cube was invented, it still took years to spread internationally. While his current resources, capital, and network were far superior to those of the original inventor, it was still something that had to be built step by step.
First Hong Kong, then the rest of the world. Or maybe, if luck struck and he found a channel partner like 3M was for Post-it notes, things might take off faster.
But unlike the convenience and instant appeal of Post-it notes, the Rubik's Cube couldn't rely on the same hook. Even if a powerful distributor took interest, if they couldn't even sell it in Hong Kong, what leverage did they have to negotiate cooperation? At most, they'd get a small piece of the action.
—
The next day:
Ring ring ring...
The phone on Yang Wendong's desk began to ring.
He picked it up and said, "Hello, this is Yang. Who's calling?"
A gentle voice came through the line: "Is this Mr. Yang? This is Bai Yujie, from the University of Hong Kong. We've met before."
"Bai Yujie?" Yang Wendong instantly recalled—one of the twin sisters. Not only was she stunning, but there were two of them.
Hard to forget that kind of thing!
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