That year the flowers bloomed 1981

Chapter 673 Losing his wife and losing his troops

Although Wang Lie had already started cursing in his heart, he still said calmly: "6 million % is not a reasonable price, but in order to express our sincerity in cooperation, we can also pay a premium.
And Mr. Bosak, you should know that we just won a big order from the Air Force, so the development prospects of cooperating with us cannot be measured only by money. "

Bosak hesitated and said nothing, but his wife asked bluntly: "Since you are willing to pay a premium, how much can you offer?"

[Am I here to raise the price for you two? ]

Jeff offered 10 million. What? You want me to offer 1,200 now, and then ask Jeff how much he will offer?

Ever since he took over the company, Wang Lie has hated these science and engineering people very much. They speak bluntly and directly, which is very irritating.

However, before Wang Lie could figure out how to answer, he heard Li Ye speak.

"Before Mr. Wang makes his bid, we would like to ask a question for the benefit of shareholders and the company's development prospects. Can you guarantee that you will not use Cisco to engage in unfair competition in the market?"

"After all, the original purpose of the multi-protocol router is to connect all incompatible computers. We don't want to see all computers being able to connect to each other, but IBM being left out."

"."

"Excuse me, sir, who are you?"

Wang Lie frowned and was about to ask who Li Ye was, but halfway through his words he remembered that he had already asked this question when he was in his own company.

This young man is an "intern" at Hong Kong Wind Language Company.

But now, meeting for the second time, Wang Lie finally realized that Li Ye did not look like an intern.

Have you ever seen an intern speak freely in front of the boss? Have you ever seen an intern speak and the boss listen carefully?
[Is he the same type as me? ]

Wang Lie frowned slightly and pondered.

Although Chambers praised Cisco's "Internet" to be magical, Wang Lie was not very optimistic about it. He just wanted to use Cisco to "disgust" IBM.

When Bosak saw Wang Lie remained silent, he immediately stood up and said, "I'm sorry, I don't think it's a good idea to cooperate with your Wang An Company. Please go back!"

"."

Wang Lie wanted to say something else, but the Bosaks had already stood up and left.

Wang Lie was stunned. He was now certain that this Bosak had the same bad habit as the technical staff in his company.

Normally, they can't do anything and look like wimps, but once they have an opinion of you, you're done for, and even eight bulls can't pull them back.

An attendant beside Wang Lie couldn't help but say, "It's so disappointing. Don't you even care about basic courtesy?"

But just as he finished speaking, he heard a faint voice.

"How can you say it's rude? At least he wasn't half an hour late!"

"."

Wang Lie managed to keep his expression calm with great difficulty, but he was annoyed and angry in his heart.

At the beginning, he left Pei Wencong, Li Ye and others alone for half an hour, but he was a big company and the other party was a small company. Isn't this normal?
Cisco today is at best just a "company". What qualifications does it have to be rude to itself?
. . . . . . . . .

"Chambers, I don't care what method you use, you must deal with that Bosak, and also find out what's going on with Pei Wencong. The American business cannot tolerate a Hong Kong Islander interfering.

Wang Lie arrived in San Francisco in the morning and bought a plane ticket back to Boston in the afternoon, but before leaving, he kept John Chambers behind.

He was going crazy.

He flew from East Coast to East Coast in person with sincerity, but he never expected to be treated so embarrassingly.

Chambers hesitated for a moment and said to Wang Lie, "Mr. Wang, I don't think we need to involve Cisco in the industry competition.
Because it is a brand new industry, I think Cisco's prospects may not be weaker than ours."

Wang Lie said sullenly, "So what you mean is that I should pay $100 million to buy the shares held by GF directly, and then wait for it to grow into a behemoth like our Wang An Company?"

"Don't you know how much IBM has suppressed us over the years? If we don't compete with it, are we going to be bankrupted by it?"

"."

Chambers sighed and said nothing more.

Once a large company has formed a business philosophy, it will not be easy to change it, especially when the previous philosophy has achieved brilliant success.

But now IBM has changed. They have started to be compatible with other small and medium-sized companies. If Wang Laboratories does not change, what will be the final result?

Chambers returned to the hotel full of worry, racking his brains to figure out how to complete the task assigned by Wang Lie.

But just a few minutes after he arrived at the hotel, he received a call from Jeff.

"Hey, Mr. Chambers, would you like to chat privately?"

. . . . . . . . .

Half an hour later, Chambers met Jeff, Pei Wencong and the two ridiculously young "interns" again.

After some simple pleasantries, Li Ye asked Chambers directly: "Mr. Chambers, how did you notice Cisco? After all, it is still a small company."

Chambers said calmly: "Wang An Computer has always had orders from the military, and the military's information network has been around for several years. If it can be popularized in civilian use, I think it's an opportunity."

Li Ye smiled and asked, "What kind of opportunity do you think it is? An opportunity to change the world?"

"."

Chambers was stunned.

He has been telling Wang Lie these days that Cisco's innovation is epoch-making, but Wang Lie doesn't believe it at all.

But now, he heard what he wanted to hear the most from the mouth of an "intern". Chambers hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, I am very optimistic."

Li Ye smiled, tilted his head slightly, and winked at Jeff.

So Jeff smiled and said to Chambers, "Mr. Chambers, are you interested in working as a manager at Cisco?"

"."

Chambers was stunned again, then asked, "Isn't the current manager Mr. Bosack? Why do you want to change him again?"

[Of course it’s because someone recommended you! ]

Jeff smiled and explained: "Bosack is good at technology, but not good at managing a business, so when we injected capital, we agreed to send a business manager."

Chambers nodded slowly and fell silent.

Silicon Valley is different from the mainland. In the mainland, the founders of a company will definitely hold management power and will never let go.

But in Silicon Valley, it is normal for founders and managers to coexist in a company.

Because the founder likes innovation and is willing to take some risks.

Managers, on the contrary, are good at managing and coordinating a business, and in most cases, they are unwilling and unable to take too much risk.

Although there is a case where a person is both an entrepreneur and a manager, for example, the two entrepreneurs of HP are very good managers.

But in most cases, it is not easy for a person to have the qualities to be both an entrepreneur and a manager. A good entrepreneur may be a very bad manager. This is one of the reasons why the founders of startups are often fired by shareholders later.

This is the case with the Bosaks.

So when Jeff invested, he made sure that the Bosacks would be the major shareholders, but GF Venture Capital would choose another manager.

Chambers' silence made Li Ye a little worried.

He didn't know whether Cisco would still be able to achieve the glory that once surpassed Microsoft as it had done in its original historical trajectory if Chambers was no longer there.

The Cisco of today is not the Cisco that Chambers joined a few years later. At that time, the company had already developed quite well.

So will Chambers be interested in this "small company"?

As it turned out, Li Ye's worries were unnecessary.

Because although the Cisco today is not the Cisco of a few years later, the Chambers today is not the Chambers of a few years later. The Chambers today is also a small figure.

After a moment of silence, Chambers asked seriously, "I want to ask, how do you treat Cisco? Do you wait for it to appreciate in value before selling it?"

Jeff and Pei Wencong shook their heads together but said nothing.

Chambers subconsciously looked at Li Ye, because this "intern" left such a deep impression on him.

Sure enough, Li Ye said calmly: "We want to make Cisco the number one in the industry, not the number one in Lighthouse, but the number one in the world. If we can't do that, we will cooperate. If we can't cooperate, we will merge."

"."

Chambers stared at Li Ye in a daze, totally confused as to why this intern would say such touching words.

Chambers did not understand technology, but he was able to bring Cisco, a large-scale technology company, to glory. The reason for this was, firstly, his keen business acumen and superb management skills, and secondly, his simple and crude strategy.

His strategy is what Li Ye said - cooperate if you can't do it, and kill them if they don't cooperate.

After a moment's silence, Chambers smiled comfortably, and the depression that had been pent up in his heart for days disappeared.

"Well, can we talk about my annual salary?"

Jeff and others laughed.

As long as you're willing to talk about money, it'll be easy.

. . . . . . . . .

Chambers didn't return to his room until the evening, and after returning to the room he started calling his colleagues.

"Tom, do you know Cisco? Are you interested in learning more about it?"

"Jerry, you told me a few days ago that you were going to quit your job, right? Are you interested in developing in Silicon Valley?"

Since he was going to change jobs, it would be best to bring a team with him. Chambers was ruthless in poaching people from his own company.

Because of the transition between the old and new CEOs of Wang Laboratories, Chambers gained a lot from the one-hour phone call.

Chambers remembered a proverb among flower growers - to lose both the wife and the army. He didn't know whether Wang Lie would regret his "disdain" for him all these years when he had kidnapped a group of colleagues.

But just as Chambers was about to fall asleep, Wang Lie, who had just returned to Boston, called.

"John, I thought about it on the plane, maybe your idea is a good one, you can talk to the Bosacks or Jeff tomorrow."

"."

Chambers was silent for a moment, then said calmly, "We've been talking about it and it's going well."

Although Wang Lie changed his mind, Chambers still knew the difference between being a boss and a subordinate.

Although Jeff offered Chambers a price that Wang Lie could never offer, Chambers felt that some things were more important than money.

(End of this chapter)