Restart life

Chapter 436 0426 [Chen Guiliang's Outrageous Remarks]

Wu Dahuzi walked into the studio, shook hands with the host Chen Weihong, and then sat down.

Professor Lang was the first to challenge: "President Wu, as the chairman of Starcom, weren't you fired by the company a long time ago? I'm very curious, why are you back?"

The entire audience burst into laughter.

The main reason is that I find the idea of ​​the chairman being fired ridiculous.

Wu Ying said politely, "Although I was fired from the company, I still have my shares. The foreign CEO made Starcom insolvent, so the board of directors invited me back."

Professor Zhang praised, "President Wu is truly remarkable for accepting this critical mission."

The actual situation is more complicated.

When Wu Ying was chairman, he had a very strained relationship with the CEO (co-founder) and the board of directors. Firstly, he insisted on focusing on PHS (Personal Handyphone System), and secondly, he adopted a paternalistic management style towards the listed company, both of which greatly dissatisfied the CEO and other shareholders.

The reason given for firing him was also absurd: he was accused of donating money to build a school in the company's name without authorization, which was suspected of violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

After Wu Ying left, the CEO (co-founder) also served as chairman, shifting the business focus to IPTV. This business suffered huge losses, and the co-founder resigned to take responsibility.

Last year, they brought in a foreigner to take over as CEO in China. His disastrous management led to Starcom becoming insolvent and forcing them to frantically sell off assets to cover losses.

The board has been trying to sell Starcom as a package deal, but no one is willing to take it on as a whole. Last year, they sold everything they could, and this year they are planning to sell off the headquarters building and global R&D center separately.

The long-term employees who haven't left yet, especially the company's management, are very dissatisfied with the foreign CEO and have even started to miss the Wu Ying era.

The board of directors also felt that Wu Ying had done a decent job back then, so they called her several times to invite her back to take charge of the overall situation.

Wu Ying also has a temper. Do you think I'll just leave because you tell me to? Do you think I'll just come back because you tell me to?

I refuse to serve you!
It wasn't until Chen Guiliang announced the fully open-source HarmonyOS system that Wu Ying came to the meeting with a "let's see what happens" attitude, and was immediately elected as the leader by Chen Guiliang.

Wu Ying immediately had the idea of ​​making a comeback, so she presented her smartphone solution and took the initiative to call Masayoshi Son of SoftBank.

He and Masayoshi Son originally had a very good relationship, but due to differences in development strategies, Son supported another founder and voted to remove Wu Ying from Starcom's management.

Now, Masayoshi Son called Tiger Fund and other shareholders, and finally decided to bring Wu Ying back, and agreed to Wu Ying's request.

any request?
Wu Ying seized the opportunity to demand more shares!

Starcom's shareholding structure is very dispersed, and Wu Ying, as the founder, only has 3% of the shares left.

The company is currently insolvent, and its stock price has plummeted. The major shareholders dare not make a move. If they were to sell their shares to cash out, they would not only fail to recoup much money, but could also bankrupt Starcom.

After discussing it, the major shareholders surprisingly agreed to issue new shares to Wu Ying through a private placement. Wu Ying only needed to pay $1 to receive them (through an employee stock ownership plan, which is legal and compliant).

However, there was a very strict performance-based agreement: Wu Ying had to pull Starcom out of its loss-making situation within 18 months. If the target was not met, all of these new shares would be repurchased by the company.

Therefore, Wu Ying is now more concerned than Chen Guiliang and is eager to get the HarmonyOS Alliance up and running.

If this thing goes wrong, Chen Guiliang has other businesses to do.

And what about Wu Ying?

If the betting agreement fails, he will lose all the new shares Starcom gave him. His previous 3% stake will also disappear if the company goes bankrupt.

"I believe that Mr. Chen Guiliang is the most strategically visionary entrepreneur in China. Despite his young age, he is a true hero, and his business acumen always amazes me!" Wu Ying began to lavish praise on Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang is awesome, then the HarmonyOS system is awesome, and his betting agreement has a higher success rate.

In order to focus all her efforts on manufacturing mobile phones, Wu Ying has already begun to cut off businesses such as PHS (Personal Handyphone System) and basic communication equipment in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

He was even more ruthless than foreign CEOs, selling off overseas businesses at rock-bottom prices, which benefited companies like Huawei and ZTE by providing them with readily available basic communication equipment customers and channels.

Even if they didn't sell, they couldn't compete. Huawei and ZTE were developing too rapidly, aggressively expanding overseas. In the basic telecommunications equipment markets of Latin America and Southeast Asia, they drove Starcom back step by step.

Wu Ying is here today to brag, and she's been praising Chen Guiliang and HarmonyOS for a long time.

After he finished playing, it was finally Chen Guiliang's turn to perform.

Sudden change in painting style.

A programmer in the audience jokingly shouted, "Chen Sheng, Chen Sheng!"

A college student also shouted, "It's Old Master Chen!"

"Hahaha!"

Those in the audience who understood the joke burst into laughter.

The rest of the audience was completely bewildered, not knowing what they were shouting about.

After all, it was CCTV. Chen Guiliang suppressed the urge to give the middle finger and went to sit down on the red sofa in the studio with a smile.

Host Chen Weihong laughed and said, "It seems that Mr. Chen is very popular among young people."

Chen Guiliang said, "Like attracts like, and I'm young too." Chen Weihong: "Some people say you're China's Steve Jobs. What do you think?"

Chen Guiliang: "Apple's system is closed source, while HarmonyOS is open source, so I am not Steve Jobs."

Chen Weihong: "What about Nokia? Some people say that your open-source HarmonyOS and the establishment of the HarmonyOS Foundation are just like Nokia's open-source Symbian and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation."

Chen Guiliang: "That was an insult to me. Nokia only opened Symbian to some manufacturers and did not relinquish control of the foundation. I, on the other hand, opened HarmonyOS to everyone and immediately appointed Mr. Wu as the chairman of the foundation."

Chen Weihong: "Professor Lang just said that your complete openness and relinquishment of control over the foundation will lead to the Hongmeng Alliance falling apart in the future."

Chen Guiliang: "All alliances are driven by profit. As long as I can help the majority of people make money, this alliance will never fall apart. I am confident."

Professor Lang interjected, "Why do you have such confidence?"

Chen Guiliang said, "With Nokia's current approach, the Symbian camp is bound to fall apart. Samsung, as the second member of the Symbian camp, launched an Android phone this year. Don't you find that strange?"

Professor Lang was slightly surprised: "Samsung makes Android phones?"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "This Samsung Android phone and my HarmonyOS phone have chosen the same display supplier. Those guys online who say that HarmonyOS phones are all garbage, even the components are garbage, probably don't know which component HarmonyOS phones use."

"If HarmonyOS's components are garbage, then Samsung's new phones are garbage too, because we share the same supplier. This supplier is very supportive of the HarmonyOS Alliance and has officially joined the HarmonyOS Foundation... ah, I mean, the Harmony Foundation."

"Also, we chose Qualcomm processor chips. You don't think Qualcomm is garbage, do you?"

Qualcomm China President Meng Pu said, "Qualcomm's chips designed specifically for smartphones are top-notch in terms of design philosophy and solutions. In fact, it's fair to say they are unparalleled. If Qualcomm chips are garbage, then you won't find any decent chips anywhere else in the world!"

Chen Guiliang said, "Did you hear that? Top in the world, without exception."

Professor Lang reminded him, "Mr. Chen, you've gone off-topic. My question was, how can you be so confident that you can consistently lead everyone to make money?"

Chen Guiliang said, "If the Symbian camp has internal strife, all the phone manufacturers currently using Symbian, such as Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, etc., will abandon Symbian and choose other camps. At that time, Nokia will instantly become an application island."

Professor Lang said, "You say Nokia will decline? Apple is also an app silo, but everyone is willing to develop apps for Apple. Nokia is much larger, so there will only be more third parties making apps specifically for Nokia."

Chen Guiliang said, "Apple doesn't lack apps; they have a first-mover advantage and have created groundbreaking products. What is Nokia doing? Utterly outdated. This year, Nokia's smartphones have captured more than 70% of the market share in China. But despite selling so many smartphones in China, Nokia hasn't sold a single one with a full touchscreen."

Chen Guiliang took out his phone: "I've always used Nokia. From my first phone until now, I've always used Nokia. I'm a long-time Nokia fan, and I'm very critical of them. Nokia, the sales champion in the Chinese smartphone market, has actually fallen behind in all aspects of the smartphone industry."

Host Chen Weihong jokingly reminded him, "Mr. Chen, won't Nokia sue you for defamation for saying that?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Telling the truth is slander? Full touchscreens are the future trend, and capacitive screens are also the future trend. Nokia's smartphones are still using semi-touchscreens and resistive screens. I really don't understand why they do that."

Professor Lang said impatiently, "President Chen, please get back to the main topic."

Chen Guiliang said, "Nokia's decline was inevitable. When one whale falls, everything else springs up. In the future, users will choose whichever camp has the most applications. Countless third-party companies and studios have already begun learning the HarmonyOS system and will soon develop applications for it. At that time, all programmers in China will be on the HarmonyOS side. Anyone who tries to dismantle the HarmonyOS Foundation will not be allowed by millions of programmers, nor by the other members of the foundation!"

"Clap clap clap clap!" Wu Ying and Meng Pu clapped together.

Chen Weihong said, "An audience member wanted to speak and kept raising his hand. I saw that he had been holding back for a long time, so I handed him the microphone."

The audience member stood up: "I'm a high school sophomore. I've always admired Mr. Chen, but today I think he's too arrogant and conceited. Nokia is the best mobile phone brand in the world. Their phones are of excellent quality and currently have the highest sales volume. The host just said that 7 out of every 10 smartphones sold in China are Nokia. Yet Mr. Chen says that Nokia will decline. I think he's lying through his teeth and groundlessly slandering his own competitor."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "The Qin, Sui, and Yuan dynasties were powerful, weren't they? When they were at their peak, who could have guessed that not many years later, Liu Bang, Li Shimin, and Zhu Yuanzhang would seize the world?"

The student said, "These three dynasties had tyrants, and the people couldn't make a living, so they rose up in rebellion. Nokia has a great user experience, and users have always trusted Nokia."

Chen Guiliang said, "By the time you realize that the user experience of your Nokia smartphone is completely incomparable to other phones in the same price range, it will already be too late for Nokia!"

The student said, "President Chen made a bet with the CEO of Tianyu before. Why don't you make a bet with me today?"

"Hahaha!"

The audience around him laughed.

Chen Guiliang chuckled and asked, "What kind of bet?"

The student said, "If Nokia doesn't decline within three years, Mr. Chen will give me a set of autographed collectible 'Three Kingdoms Kill' cards."

Chen Guiliang asked, "What if it declines?"

The student said, "Then I'll go work at Mr. Chen's company from now on and work for you to earn money!"

Chen Guiliang said, "I suspect you're trying to trick me; your real goal is to get into my company."

"Hahaha!"

The whole place burst into laughter.

Despite the laughter, this program's broadcast today will likely spark another wave of public discussion.

Wu Ying couldn't help but sigh to herself: Chen Guiliang really knows how to create hype. Just by making negative comments about Nokia, he can incite online and offline arguments.

The attention it garnered instantly reached its peak!
(End of this chapter)