Chapter 17. Who said that greed creates poverty ?!

One day my partner, Alex, called me from Tokyo. “Volodya,” said the partner, “for the current week I was able to talk with key players in the Japanese mobile market.” “These are very serious companies,” he said, “because they own about 90% of Japan’s mobile market. All mobile subscribers in Japan are their customers. And in general, in Japan it is customary to buy mobile phones and smartphones through these key operators, after concluding a subscription contract with them. After all, this is not Russia, where you can buy a mobile phone in any supermarket, store or clothing market from under the floor. ” I did not mind.


“This is a monopoly,” thought to himself, after the first phrases of the partner. Probably, my question seemed to Alex naive. And where is the free competition ?! Where are small businesses selling mobile phones, smartphones, SIM-cards and other useful items!? To this, my highly experienced partner replied that the free market was to blame for everything, that the majority of competitors had risen. Only three mobile operators survived, during the long years of uncompromising battle over the tight wallet of the Japanese consumer.

Then I gently asked Alex: “But what about all sorts of yakuza and samurai !?” His answer was: “Samurai appeared in the late 19th century, since they did not sell smartphones. Well, the yakuza more and more real estate, forex, but stocks traded. In general, wherever you throw, so a wedge is just the three main communication operators. That’s what we should strive to bow to, ”my Tokyo partner made an unequivocal conclusion!
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“And how did your study of monopolists on the DO-RA gadget (dosimeter-radiometer) end?”, I clarified. The weekly result of the negotiations was mathematically simple. In his opinion, each of the operators is able to implement at the start, through its extensive networks during the period of consumer research, a batch of 10,000 DO-RA units. If all goes well, the next batch of the network can order 100,000 each. And if such a volume, the retail swallows without hiccups, then in Japan the market capacity is such that each operator can digest about 1-2 million units of DO-RA per year !!!

"Yes, interesting arithmetic," - suddenly burst out of my mouth. “And at what price could our DO-RA product for smartphones and local mobile phones be sold in a chain store?” I wondered !? Evaluation of specialists for the Japanese market was such. "If the DO-RA device really has the declared characteristics and options ...", - the partner pulled rubber, - "while Your device is much smaller in size and much more convenient than a conventional dosimeter-radiometer ..., then its estimated price can be within 12.000- 13.000 yen apiece. That is about $ 150! ”

I responded instantly and enthusiastically. In mind, multiplying $ 150 by 1 million of potential buyers is not so difficult, even if you forgot the multiplication table! Out of my mouth burst out: "Is this as much as 150 lemons bucks for each operator !?" To which my partner reasonably remarked with the saying: "A riddle is never rich!" And told me the following news at the end of the conversation. According to him, if operators will buy DO-RA in large quantities, then no more than 1,500-2,000 yen ($ 20-25) per piece.


“This is the 7 ends and shaped weaning of profits, but where is the profit?” - indignantly burst out from me. “What kind of not fair, extortionate pricing?” - the merchant would not let up on me. The partner was silent for a while, and then calmly said: “Perhaps it is necessary to achieve a reduction in the cost of the DO-RA device. For example, the same Chinese. It is even better to automate the process so that around the clock, soulless robots stamped inexpensive DO-RAs at 10 bucks apiece. Then the margin of $ 10-15 with a do-ra device will seem fantastic to you! And in its predatory, but already in relation to your setivik robbers, ”he said at last.

After thinking for a while, solely out of economy, and maybe out of greed, I gave birth to the already well-known and easy way of sales. “So, sales of future gadgets”, - I thought, “it is quite possible to carry out through usual automatic machines, as cigarettes. Packaging DO-RA in practical and beautiful boxed packaging, the type of cigarettes SLIM. And it is convenient for the customer to purchase pre-packaged goods, and predatory requisitions from the retailers can be avoided. And the most important thing of the machines is that neither a sit-in strike, nor trade unions, nor demands to raise wages will turn out! It is possible to install automatons both in the metro and in supermarkets, and even in communication shops. They can be installed in other public places where there is electricity to connect the machine. It's good that there is electricity everywhere in Japan. ”

And you say that greed breeds poverty !? Sometimes everything happens and vice versa!