The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master.

In fact, in the past few days, when colleagues from all walks of life were beating the losers and accusing NSK Group of fraud, NTN, which is also a Japanese company, was at the forefront and the loudest group.

The main reason for this behavior is of course because of a guilty conscience. Now shouting louder can slightly reduce the suspicion.

But apart from that, it also gained them a lot of attention.

Even many customers who were originally NSK Group started to contact NTN.

After all, the premiums for these first-tier bearing brands in Europe are indeed higher.

If there were alternatives with suitable quality and price, no one would be stuck with the money.

After all, both are Japanese companies and have similar product cost-effectiveness, performance calibration, and usage habits, so the handover should be smoother.

It cannot be that if one Japanese company has a problem, another Japanese company also has a problem, right?

Then you might as well say that the entire Japanese manufacturing industry has problems?

How is that possible?

If there is such a big problem, shouldn't it have been discovered long ago?

Therefore, under the guidance of such simple logical deduction, NTN Group's stock price and performance actually experienced a rise against the trend in the past few days.

Of course, at such a critical juncture, they did not dare to commit crimes too arrogantly and quietly carried out a product upgrade.

In fact, the performance that was falsely marked in the past is reduced, then downgraded by half a grade, and sold at a lower price.

Since the purchase price from China is low enough, even so, there is still a quite exaggerated profit margin.

As for Volkswagen, Peugeot and other companies that had not included NSK in their supplier list, they all breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time they were a little gloating.

After all, although Fiat's initiative to expose its shortcomings this time has earned a wave of reputation, the compensation is still heavy enough.

Even if we can get the money back through litigation later, it will take a lot of time, and this does not include the production that is bound to be affected in the short term due to changing suppliers.

……

Turin, Italy.

Fiat Group Headquarters.

Andrews Guarino, director of procurement and supply chain, is working with his deputies on a daunting list of suppliers.

A month ago, the group suddenly received a piece of information from its partner Jinling Motors in China, indicating that NSK Group, one of its important suppliers, was suspected of falsifying quality inspection data.

At first, Guarino didn't really believe it.

However, after seeing the evidence submitted by China, he immediately realized that the word "suspect" was still too euphemistic.

This is simply the real deal.

Although so far, NSK brand bearings are still only installed on non-European models, and Fiat's market outside Europe is not large, so it has not caused any irreparable impact.

But according to the original plan, a large number of European and global models that will be updated next year will be put into use.

Once handled improperly, this black swan event may even directly disrupt the replacement schedule of the entire group's brands.

If NSK Group was an Italian company, I'm afraid the people in charge would have been taken over by the mafia.

In short, from that day on, Guarino hardly slept well.

"Director, according to the report from the Jinling Fiat joint venture, they have been using two Chinese brands of bearings in the field of commercial vehicles to replace the NSK Group's models in the field of commercial vehicles."

Deputy Director Robert Gianni opened a folder and handed it to Guarino:

"Judging from the feedback data in the past six months, no problems have been found, and all data meet the requirements."

"Moreover, they will sample each batch of goods and randomly hand them over to different third-party agencies for testing."

Obviously, the last sentence is very targeted.

Guarino, who always frowned, did not respond immediately. Instead, he took the folder and quickly browsed the contents of the report with his head down.

"Half a year...I'm afraid it's a little short, right?"

He hesitated:

"If something goes wrong again, then next year's replacement of our new models may really have to be put on hold..."

The usage environment of commercial vehicles is generally worse than that of passenger vehicles, but even so, just a few months cannot be regarded as passing the market test.

Now Guarino is already a bit afraid of being bitten by a snake for ten years.

"Two days ago, NTN also sent us their supply orders. I think they are all Japanese companies, and the transition will be relatively..."

He stopped mid-sentence.

Because I saw the price column in the report appendix.

If he didn't trust his deputy's ability, Guarino would even wonder if he had clicked the wrong decimal point.

It is true that this data is the domestic price in China. Considering that Jinling Automobile and this company called Luoyi Bearing Group are state-owned enterprises, it may even be an internal price.

If exported to Italy, there will definitely be other costs involved, and the arrival price of the terminal will definitely be higher.

But he has been working hard in this industry for more than ten years. In just a few breaths, he can roughly estimate that even taking into account the intermediate costs and the profits that the other party must set aside, the profit will be better in his own hands. The quote given by NTN was about one-third cheaper.

Considering that millions of cars are sold every year, this is obviously not a small amount of money.

"Otherwise, we can consider using Huaxia Enterprises as an alternative supplier, and have them provide 5% or 10% of the products for trial use. If no problems are found within a few years, we can gradually expand the scope of application?"

Giani obviously saw where his boss was struggling and came up with a compromise.

"On the contrary..."

Guarino's brows finally relaxed a little, and just as he was about to nod, he heard the sound of rapid footsteps on the floor with high heels from outside.

Immediately afterwards, there was a knock on the office door, and an anxious secretary stood at the door and poked his head in.

"Simone?"

Guarino and Gianni turned their heads together.

"Director, the TV news... is broadcasting about several other Japanese companies. I think... you should take a look."

Secretary Simone was breathing heavily, and she had obviously come running all the way.

The two people who were sitting next to the coffee table looked at each other.

Obviously, judging from Simone's appearance, this is not something that can be explained clearly in a few sentences.

So, the three of them rushed to a conference room downstairs as quickly as possible.

A TV inside was showing business news.

"Two Chinese companies sued a Japanese company for infringement of their goodwill rights..."

The right to goodwill should be studied more by the legal community.

In common law countries, there are some relevant cases, but in civil law countries, there is not much that can be used for reference on how to define, confirm and protect goodwill rights.

Therefore, when he saw this title, Guarino was confused for a moment.

However, after all, he had been in a high position for a long time and could not lose his composure over such a trivial matter. He quickly understood the meaning of the news.

Without the knowledge of the Chinese company, the two Japanese companies put their own labels on the products produced by the Chinese company and sold them all over the world.

Therefore, the plaintiff believes that although there is no economic problem with this process, the intangible assets such as the brand image brought about by the product sales process have been deprived by the defendant company, so it requires compensation, an apology, and a formal statement of events to restore its reputation. .

"Ah……"

Guarino sneered and shook his head:

"Which two Japanese companies did this? It's really..."

The disdainful words stopped abruptly mid-sentence.

Because the next scene on the TV was cut to an interview with the legal personnel of the defendant company.

The subtitles below clearly read——

(Defendant) Legal Counsel of NTN Co., Ltd.

"what?"

Guarino, who just now had the mentality of eating melon, immediately became numb:

"These Japanese companies...don't think they are just the same thing, right?"