Top of the big era

When you come to the UK, you can't help but go to watch the game at home.

However, there are no home games in the near future.

On March 27, Manchester United played against Bolton in an away game. This was a relatively easy game. If nothing else happened, Ferguson would make every substitute appearance to prepare for the Champions League in midweek.

On March 31st, the highlight is coming, Manchester United will challenge Bayern Munich away from home.

To say that Manchester United's luck this year is a bit bad, they faced Serie A giant AC Milan in the quarter-finals, and they bumped into Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.

Come April, Zhou Buqi will definitely go to Old Trafford to watch football.

On April 3, Manchester United played Chelsea at home. If this game can be won, Manchester United can almost lock in the league championship this season in advance.

On April 8, Manchester United returned to home to play the second leg against Bayern Munich.

Zhou Buqi was not in a hurry to go to Manchester and stayed in London. Ning Yaxian arranged three things for him.

First, go to the artificial intelligence laboratory that Ziweixing cooperates with the University of Cambridge to show that the big boss cares about innovation and technology;

2. Participate in a summit forum organized by the Financial Times and the British Digital Economy Council. Many well-known British and American venture capital institutions and entrepreneurs will be present;

Third, visit the high-tech industrial park in East London, which has just been built.

This is the UK's new technology strategic plan, which is known as "Mini Silicon Valley" and has high hopes. Technology giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Cisco, and Qualcomm have already responded and will establish branches here.

Zhou Buqi should go there to learn about the preferential investment policies and show a friendly gesture that cooperates with the British authorities' industrial policies.

First we went to the University of Cambridge. There were many Chinese students in the tour guide team arranged by the school. We went around in a circle and walked along the famous Cam River. We deeply experienced the atmosphere of Xu Zhimo's famous poem "Farewell Cambridge" -

So Zhou Buqi subconsciously sang out: "The golden willows by the river are the bride in the sunset; the beautiful shadows in the waves are rippling in my heart..."

Some international students joked: "President Zhou's style is exactly the same as Xu Zhimo's back then!"

Zhou Buqi was quite happy at first, but then he realized what he was doing and quickly explained, "That's different. Xu Zhimo is a scumbag, but I'm not."

Everyone burst into laughter.

School activities last approximately 3 hours.

For one hour, Zhou Buqi was going to attend a simple small forum and give a small speech. The speech notes are all prepared, mainly focusing on the topic of "innovation".

Then have a simple interaction with the students.

But the interaction is really not nutritious. Many of them are about finding a job.

However, after the forum, I had a more interesting chat with Dean Miebach of the School of Economics and Management. This man is over 60 years old this year. He once served as the Minister of Commerce in the Cabinet in the 1990s and was a very high official. Later, when I stopped serving as an official, I went back to school to do academic work.

Dean Miebach listed a set of data, saying that it was the total investment ranking in the field of venture capital financing around the world in the past five years. The first place is undoubtedly the United States, the second place is China, and the third place is the United Kingdom.

India ranks fourth.

The reason why India ranks fourth is because it was not doing well in the past few years. Since the year before last, India has gradually entered a new global perspective, and major capitals have entered the market and begun to invest in India.

Looking at this trend, I am afraid that within a few years, the UK will not even be able to maintain its third position, and may be overtaken by India.

But even so, the amount of venture capital financing received in the UK is more than twice that of Germany, the largest country in Europe.

As expected, he is the dean and his level is very high.

Capital pursues profit and will go wherever the most profit is made. Wherever there is more money, the economy will be more active and the development will be better.

Just one set of data expresses the trend of global economic development.

The United States is really a giant. The United States has received more venture capital financing than all the countries in the world combined. It is a vampire country, constantly attracting funds and elite talents from all over the world.

Then there are China and India in Asia. They have great stamina and are developing at a very fast pace.

Zhou Buqi complained somewhat, "This is normal. The big reason is that in Europe... on the one hand, the labor force is too high, and on the other hand, the taxes are too high. Well, I am mainly talking about other countries in the European Union. , Britain is actually pretty good, many policies are very similar to those of the United States, Europa is really a bit too..."

This is true, otherwise Ziweixing Digital Media’s headquarters and Ziweixing International’s European headquarters would not both be located in London. Recently, the European debt crisis is erupting in the European Union. All countries in the Eurozone are basically having a break. They can only rely on the continuous blood transfusions of Germany and France and the continuous borrowing of hundreds of billions and tens of billions of euros from other countries. But it was no use, the Greek government soon went bankrupt.

This is the inevitable result of the high welfare policies of the democratically elected government.

In order to win votes, we can only continue to provide high benefits to the people. If the people are provided with high welfare, no one will be willing to work. Even if the salary requirements are extremely high, capital will not be willing to invest, and a series of vicious cycles will be formed.

Dean Miebach said with a smile: "Britain's reform policy has been advancing, and the rotation of political parties has not changed the inherent general direction."

"What's the general direction?"

"Develop the financial industry and digital industry."

"oh."

"The speech you just made was very good. Innovation is the only way out for global competition in the future world. In fact, the UK has also gone through many detours in this regard."

"Yeah?"

Zhou Buqi is very interested in this, because in his opinion, the biggest gap between Ziweixing and technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Oracle is the lack of innovation capabilities in hard-core technology.

Dean Miebach said: "After the end of World War II, Britain and the United States were both victors, and their economies were not destroyed by the war and developed very well. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Churchill stepped down at that time, and the United Kingdom embarked on a completely different path from the United States. path to economic development.”

"what?"

"nationalization."

"What?"

Zhou Buqi felt a little familiar.

Dean Miebach is very old and must have come from that era. He has worked in politics, business, academia and other fields and has a strong voice. “At that time, the Conservative Party in the UK respected... Well, in fact, so did France. , also pursued the road of nationalization, hoping to learn from the Soviet Union in quickly revitalizing the national economy and emerging from the shadow of the war. At that time, the United Kingdom nationalized almost all large and medium-sized enterprises."

Zhou Buqi asked: "What happened next? How did you change it later?"

Mibach said: "Because the rise of Japan has touched us too much."

"ah?"

Zhou Buqi didn't quite understand.

Dean Miebach said: "After the Industrial Revolution, the UK has always been the most innovative country in the world. Even after the rise of the United States, the UK is not bad at all in the field of innovation. The Turing machine was invented by the British. . However, after the British invented the Turing machine, they soon began to implement nationalization. Such a great innovative product, the British failed to make good use of it, and only then did the Americans learn from it, and then there were later semiconductors industry, the computer industry and the internet industry. It all belongs to the UK."

Zhou Buqi smiled politely.

The British are very arrogant and arrogant. They look down on Europa and even less on the United States. The president's argument is obviously too much.

Mibach sighed, shook his head repeatedly and said: "It's fine if it is surpassed by the Americans. But in the 1960s and 1970s, Britain's innovation capabilities were surpassed by Japan. Britain fell to the third place in the world, and the number of innovation patents has already Less than 30% of the original amount.”

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "Yes, Japan's semiconductor industry has developed so rapidly. If it were not for the mandatory policies of the United States, the industry structure might have changed. The collapse of Japan would also be beneficial to the interests of the United Kingdom."

Miebach actually admitted, "Yes, this was the arrangement of Prime Minister Thatcher. At that time, due to the impact of decades of nationalization policies, the UK had seriously lost its ability to innovate. In computers, semiconductors, biopharmaceuticals, energy extraction, machinery Manufacturing has fallen behind in all aspects. After Mrs. Thatcher came to power, she was determined to reform."

Zhou Buqi stopped laughing and looked serious, "If you want to change it back, it will be difficult. State-owned enterprises mean the wealth of the whole people. If they sell high, no one will buy it, and if they sell low, it will damage the national wealth. This Things are not easy to do.”

Mibach said: "Yes, so she is a great prime minister as famous as Churchill. She is known for her iron fist and is known as the Iron Lady. She withstood the pressure and resolutely reformed. In only 7 years, Britain surpassed Japan and once again It has become the second largest innovative country and continues to this day.”

"Oh." Zhou Buqiquan just listened to the story. This was not the point. "Mr. Dean, in your opinion, what is the core of innovation? Is it really simply the difference between state-owned and private enterprises?"

Mibach was silent for a moment and said slowly: "Yes, and no. Innovation comes from human inspiration, and inspiration comes from human nature. In the final analysis, innovation must be in line with the most basic human nature."

“What is basic humanity?”

"Selfish, egoistic."

"Um."

Zhou Buqi took it seriously.

Mibach said: "If a poor person wants to become rich, he can stimulate his business innovation; by keeping dying people alive, he can stimulate innovation in biomedicine; in order to protect his family and country, he can stimulate innovation in military preparedness. Objectives The pursuit of regional visibility can stimulate regional innovation; the goal is the pursuit of global visibility, influence or business capabilities, which can stimulate world-class innovation."

Zhou Buqi felt inspired, "So if you want to stimulate the innovation of R\u0026D teams, you must teach students in accordance with their aptitude and treat them differently. Understand the needs of each R\u0026D team separately, and then set a result that meets their needs."

Dean Mibach smiled and said, "That's probably the logic, refined management."

In the past, scientific research teams were given money and options.

Simple and crude.

But the problem is that those top scientists are all multi-millionaires at least. A bachelor's degree graduate in semiconductors can even find a job with an annual salary of US$5 million relatively easily in Silicon Valley.

These people are not short of money.

However, if there is no shortage of money, there will always be a shortage, right?

Some people may lack love, so they promise to help them solve their marriage problems; some people may admire Bill Gates, so they promise to take them to meet Bill Gates after the project is successful; some people want a house; Some people want to have a capital registered residence and want to help their parents solve their pension problems...

Some people may be very vain and want a prestigious title and want to be an academician. With the strength of Ziweixing, this can also work. If you cannot become an academician of the domestic Academy of Sciences, you can become a foreign academician of the American Academy of Sciences.

Zhou Buqi thought it made sense and discussed it with Shen Xiangyang and Xu Liangjie. Strong innovation ability does not necessarily mean strong technical ability, and poor technical ability does not necessarily mean poor innovation ability.