webnovelfull Chapter 63 Introspection
Chapter 63 Introspection
mid-December.
In the conference room of Tianying, Lu Weimin sat at the head of the long table, his face even more unpleasant than it had been three months ago.
A stack of reports lay on the table.
The Falcon Industrial Edition has sold 3,500 units in the four months since its release. GG's total investment exceeded 4.5 million yuan. The customer acquisition cost per unit exceeded 1,200 yuan—while the Falcon Industrial Edition is priced at only 1,700 yuan.
Simply put, for every Falcon Industrial Edition unit sold, Skyhawk loses approximately 500 yuan.
Meanwhile, the F3 achieved cumulative sales of over 20,000 units during the same period. GG's investment was almost zero.
Lu Weimin closed the report.
"How's the selection process going?"
Wu Qun's voice was somewhat low.
"Zhang Lei refused. His stock options were too valuable. We also contacted two engineers on his team, and they both refused as well. The reason was the same—stock options."
Lu Weimin remained silent.
"What about the patent issue?"
The general counsel chimed in, "Hongyuan has filed a countersuit. They're using a patent for an 'adaptive environment flight control algorithm,' claiming that our Falcon Industrial Edition's parameter adjustment method infringes on their patent. It's a clever angle. Our lawyers believe this countersuit is quite threatening."
Lu Weimin clenched his fists.
"So, all three initial attempts failed?"
No one answered.
The room remained quiet for a long time.
Lu Weimin spoke slowly.
"I made a mistake."
Everyone looked at him.
"I thought Hongyuan's problem was scale. So I used tools focused on scale to attack it—GG, selective personnel, patents. But Hongyuan's problem wasn't scale. Its problem was flight control. And flight control isn't something these tools can solve."
Wu Qun wanted to say something, but Lu Weimin stopped her with his hand.
"So next year we'll change direction. We won't fight Hongyuan anymore. We'll fight ourselves."
Hitting yourself?
"I'm developing my own flight control system. I want to establish a flight control R&D department. I'm hiring. From scratch. I won't pick people from Hongyuan—I'll pick people from other companies in the industry, or from universities."
Wu Qun's expression changed.
"Mr. Lu, developing our own flight control system will take at least two years, and the investment will be substantial."
"I know. But this is our only way out. If we continue to use the general-purpose flight controller, we'll never beat Hongyuan. Because the gap in flight controllers is widening every day. If we don't start now, it will be four years in two years. And we'll never catch up in four years."
The room fell silent again.
Lu Weimin stood up.
"That's all for now. The first thing to do next year is to establish a flight control R&D department."
He walked out of the conference room.
Wu Qun and the others looked at each other in bewilderment.
No one knows whether Lu Weimin has truly come to his senses or is just trying anything as a last resort.
But one thing is certain—Tianying has finally begun to shift its focus from "how to defeat Hongyuan" to "how to become Hongyuan."
And this in itself is Hongyuan's greatest victory.
Because it takes two years for Tianying to develop its own flight control system. And Hongyuan will not be where it is today two years from now.
At the end of December, Su Chen sat in his office and opened the draft of the three-year plan.
This document has been updated since the beginning of this year. He adds a note next to each milestone he completes.
It looks like this now:
[Consumer-grade]
F2 → Its historical mission is complete, inventory is zero.
F3 → Total sales of 20,000 units, leading the county-level market.
F4 → Codename confirmed, design to begin in Q3 2018
[Plant Protection Grade]
SDK customers > 23
Toyota's exclusive distribution channels in four provinces are operating stably.
Overseas: AgriWing's second batch of 50 sets has been confirmed; negotiations are underway in Indonesia.
Xiangtian Xiaozhou → Technical Coordinator for Four Provinces is operating smoothly
[The Third Curve: Industrial Inspection]
RTK fusion algorithm → Verified
Visual obstacle avoidance → Basic principle research
Independent route planning → Pending
Southern Power Grid Smart → Technical Feasibility Assessment Scheduled
Chen Hongyuan's research project → Collaboration is possible
Shen Yumeng → In the process of connecting with industry resources
Team → Expand to 20 people by the middle of next year
Timeline → Officially launched in Q2 2018
【compete】
Tianying: Price war ✗ Positioning war ✗ Talent selection ✗ Patent war ✗ → Announcement of self-developed flight control system (estimated to take two years)
DJI: The Mavic Pro reshuffle continues, with a wave of bankruptcies among small and medium-sized manufacturers persisting; Hongyuan remains unaffected.
Shenzhen's drone industry: Survival rate <30%, Hongyuan is one of the few companies that have bucked the trend and grown.
【finance】
Annual revenue of approximately 6000 million RMB, and net profit of approximately 1500 million RMB.
Completely self-sustaining, without any financing.
Equity: Su Chen 71.7% (safety threshold above 67%)
System gain halo: Effective
Su Chen looked at the document.
Two years ago, when he was reborn, he only had a small, dying factory and a system that he himself wasn't quite sure how to use.
Now he knows.
The value of a system does not lie in dismantling someone else's product—although that is important.
The true value of the system lies in the fact that it allows him to accomplish in one month what others need a year for; to rely solely on himself where others need a team; and to validate what others can only guess at.
This is how the F3's flight control breakthrough was achieved.
AgriWing's adaptation solution was implemented as follows.
The RTK fusion algorithm is verified as follows.
The basic principle of visual obstacle avoidance is studied as follows.
And all of these—each one—were done in a virtual disassembly lab late at night.
Nobody knows.
Zhang Lei didn't know. Zhou Ming didn't know. Meng Xiaosui didn't know. Shen Yumeng didn't know. Fang Xu didn't know.
Even Chen Hongyuan—the person who knew Hongyuan's flight control quality best—did not know the true birth process of these flight control algorithms.
All they knew was that Su Chen could always come up with a solution at crucial moments.
They don't know why.
Su Chen didn't need them to know.
All he needs is their trust.
Trust is built on results.
Su Chen closed the document.
He stood up and walked to the window.
In late December in Shenzhen, night falls early. The lights in Longhua District are denser than a year ago. In the distance, several new buildings are being topped out, and the red lights of the tower cranes flash in the night sky.
Two years ago at this time, he had just been reborn. Lying in a hospital bed, staring at the ceiling, he didn't know what the future held.
Now he knows.
The future is clear.
For the consumer market—the F series will continue to be iterated. The F4 is already in the planning stages. Our leading position in the county-level market will continue to expand.
The crop protection SDK ecosystem will continue to expand. Overseas growth will continue. Toyota's distribution channels will expand from four provinces to more regions.
Industrial inspection – the third line will officially launch next year. Southern Power Grid Smart is the first customer. Chen Hongyuan's research provides academic support. Shen Yumeng's resources open doors to the industry.
And flight control is always the core of everything.
It's not marketing. It's not scale. It's not capital.
It's a flight control system.
The flight controller was written line by line of code.
The flight controller was tuned parameter by parameter in the virtual laboratory.
The flight control system has been validated simultaneously at three test sites.
The flight control system has been tested in real combat on 20,000 F3s.
Flight control system flying over rice paddies in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Flight control system that will soon be flying under the high-voltage lines of the Southern Power Grid.
This flight control system is the soul of Hongyuan.
But the soul cannot be bought with money. It cannot be copied by imitation. It cannot be destroyed by lawsuits. It cannot be stolen by taking someone's place.
It is the culmination of time, talent, and countless iterations.
Su Chen turned around and returned to the table.
He added a line at the very bottom of the three-year plan:
[2018 Goals: Operate three lines simultaneously. Consolidate consumer-grade. Expand agricultural-grade. Launch industrial-grade. Team of twenty people. Continue self-sufficiency.]
Then he turned off the light.
2017 has come to an end.
In 2018, Hongyuan will enter a brand new phase.
Three lines. Three markets. Three types of customers.
But there is only one core principle.
Flight control.
It's always the flight control.