Chapter 84 Chapter 19: TOP dream once every ten years

In March 1992, newspapers all over China reported the news of Deng Xiaoping's southern talks with great excitement. The 87-year-old once again blew the clarion call to speed up reform and opening up.It was in this unprecedentedly enthusiastic atmosphere that Song Ruhua, a 30-year-old associate professor in the Department of Applied Physics at Chengdu University of Electronic Science and Technology, suddenly resigned and went into business. Before this, Song Ruhua hadn't shown any talent as a businessman.He was born in a small mountain village in Shaoxing County, Zhejiang Province. His family was poor. His mother died at the age of 7. He had never seen an airplane before he was admitted to university.When he was studying in university, he set himself an "Eight No Principles": 1. Don't go abroad, 2. Don't do business, 3. Don't smoke, 4. Don't drink alcohol, 5. Don't sing, 6. Don't dance, 7. Don't watch movies, 8. Don't go shopping garden.Relying on this hard work, he stayed in school to teach after graduating with excellent grades.In those years, the classes he taught were the students' favorite. Ding Lei, who later founded NetEase, once attended his public classes. In 1991, he was exceptionally promoted to associate professor, and was awarded the only "Special Award for Youth Teaching and Educating by the Ministry of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering" in the whole school.It was this young professor who seemed to have a bright future who decided to start his own business.

Song Ruhua later recalled that one detail that made him make up his mind was: this year on New Year's Day when he went home to visit relatives, on the train, an upstart with a "brick-style" mobile phone took up two seats. Song Ruhua politely invited He stepped aside, and the man glanced at him with disdain on his face. Unwillingness to a poor fate and longing for a fiery business era made Song Ruhua, who is beautiful but stubborn, walk out of the campus.He and a friend pooled 5,000 yuan and registered a company called "Top Electronic Technology Development Company". Top's English is TOP, which means "peak, top, excellence".Song Ruhua said to his companions: "We want to be the best. Our goal is Bill Gates."

Song Ruhua majored in astrophysics, and the knowledge he learned was far from business.So at the beginning, he wanted to be like Bill Gates, but he could only start by reselling computers.In those days, he rode a tricycle around the city all day long, cheering himself up while pedaling: "One pedal is 10 cents, two pedals is 20 cents, and 100 pedals is 10 yuan." Among the university professors across the country at that time, how many people were willing to ride a tricycle in the sea, besides Song Ruhua? Top's first big deal fell from the sky.One day, Sichuan Construction Trust and Investment Company called the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, hoping that someone would install an electronic display screen for them.It happened to be an acquaintance of Song Ruhua who answered the phone.So he casually told his old friend who was looking for business everywhere.Song Ruhua actually knew nothing about this project, and the commissioning party asked to complete the installation and commissioning within 15 days, but when he heard that the contract value of the project was 320,000 yuan, he agreed immediately.In the following days, Song Ruhua only slept for two hours a day. From raw material procurement to printed circuit board processing, to installation and commissioning, he actually completed the delivery in only 12 days.

The project that really allowed Top to complete the original accumulation also fell from the sky. In October 1994, Chengdu Jinniu District Taxation Bureau bought several computers from Top.During the conversation, when the director learned that Song Ruhua was a professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, he inadvertently asked, "Can you develop computer software that automatically prints invoices?" At that time, it was a time of business boom, and the tax system was overwhelmed with the ever-increasing tax calculation matters.The State Administration of Taxation has also issued a special document, requiring that "by the end of this century, all tax bureaus and offices across the country must realize computerization from declaration, registration, invoicing, and accounting."However, almost no computer company in China has mature products to provide.Before the director of the tax bureau asked questions, Song Ruhua had never been in contact with software development business, and there was no software engineer in Top Company. However, Song Ruhua, who "had eaten the last meal and never stopped," said, "Of course I can." Just like making a display screen Like the single business deal, Song Ruhua boldly signed the contract first.Then, he turned around and went back to his alma mater to recruit 3 college students, and locked them into a small room to develop day and night. Three months later, version 1.0 of the top computer automatic tax calculation system was born. After inputting the taxpayer's information, the computer can automatically print out the invoice.Jinniu District Taxation Bureau is very satisfied, and Top's software system has really helped them a lot.Soon, other districts got the information and came to see Top on their own initiative.Song Ruhua discovered that a large gold mine was suddenly exposed in front of him.

Top used to sell computers and could only earn a meager agency fee, but with the tax calculation software system, hardware and software are sold together, and the price is decided by Top.Song Ruhua calculated that there are more than 40,000 large and small tax bureaus across the country, and each bureau invested 100,000 yuan, which is a big market of several billion yuan.Song Ruhua immediately decided to put down all other businesses and concentrate on the market development of tax calculation software.In more than half a year, he took over more than half of Sichuan Province, and at the same time set up a marketing network to reach the Northwest and East China provinces.By the end of this year, Toppo's tax software sales revenue reached more than 40 million yuan, and the largest project was the Xi'an City Local Taxation Project, with a contract value of 15 million yuan.

It was an era full of windfall profits.The market's huge desire for office automation and the mystery of technology in this field have created an unimaginable profit-making space.With his amazing business intuition, Song Ruhua seized this once-in-a-century opportunity.A strategy that appears to be very successful in the future is that when Song Ruhua discovered market opportunities, he did not focus on large and medium cities such as Beijing or Shanghai, but attacked everywhere in the county-level taxation system.It was a market with high demand and relatively low PR difficulty.An old member of Topu, who fought with Song Ruhua in the early years, recalled: "As long as Topu's software system is demonstrated, it is almost inseparable. The next job is to drink with the tax bureau chiefs. How much wine did I drink at that time? Mr. Song can drink a catty and a half of liquor by himself, and the whole company is drinking it."

The Chinese computer market around 1995 was not optimistic. The continuous depreciation of the renminbi caused the cost of imported parts to increase greatly, and international brand computer manufacturers aggressively hit the market, making Lenovo, Great Wall and other domestic manufacturers only rely on price wars To take a breath.Against such a background, Top, which has no technical and manufacturing advantages at all, has become a rare bright spot. At that time, the only one who could stand shoulder to shoulder with Song Ruhua was Ren Zhengfei of Shenzhen Huawei.Like the tax system, China's telecommunications market only recovered in the mid-1990s. With the promotion of program-controlled technology, the national telecommunications network is facing a comprehensive renovation.Huawei, which has just independently developed the program-controlled switching technology, has seized this opportunity. Ren Zhengfei, who is also unknown in the industry, is exactly the same as Song Ruhua. Relying on the strategy of "surrounding the city from the countryside", he broke through from some remote town telecom bureaus and quickly snatched them away. It has created a big "cake" that big companies have not had time to discover.