Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 245 Recruiting Talents from All Over the World
Strike while the iron is hot, and mix the mud while it's still wet.

After finally persuading a group of people, Chen Xuebing's first act was to spend money without hesitation.

Trouble people.

"Hey, Mr. Lin! Do you know any hardware engineers?"

"Well, I'll wait for your news."

"Hey, Mr. Jiang, it's been a long time."

"Hehe, what development? I'm in Shanghai now. I need a lot of talent for something, so I'd like to ask Emerson for help."

"President Lei!"

"That's right!"

Chen Xuebing sat in the conference room making phone calls everywhere.

In the high-tech industry, whether it's software or hardware, the most important thing is a group of talented people.

Spreadtrum is now launching several projects simultaneously:
Research on the three-mode chip required for singularity.

Delve into the TD communication standard technology.

We will recruit a group of senior communication hardware engineers, lead the recruitment and training of a new engineering team, and become an equipment supplier.

These projects will gradually be divided into many groups, each heading in a different technical direction.

From mobile phones to chips to communications, most ordinary people don't even understand the different categories of engineers. Many people think that a single outstanding talent can drive the development of an industry.

As Chen Xuebing gained a deeper understanding, he realized that these three industries were typical examples of one person's efforts being insufficient. A highly skilled individual could only provide a ladder for the attack, and to truly succeed, many brothers were needed to rush forward one after another.

Mobile phones: people who work on circuits, radio frequency antennas, embedded systems, screens, and software.

Chip engineers: architects, digital IC (front-end and back-end) engineers, analog circuit engineers, verification engineers, packaging engineers, and materials engineers.

Communications: Systems engineers, signal processors, network optimizers, and fiber optic engineers.

This is just a broad category; there are many subcategories within it.

Different categories also have commonalities:
Radio frequency engineers can work on both mobile phones and communications; embedded software engineers and semiconductor materials engineers can work on both mobile phones and chips; signal processing engineers and fiber optic engineers can work on both communications and chips.

Electromagnetism and semiconductor physics are the common academic foundations of the three fields, EDA and simulation software are also common in the three fields, and satellite communication technology requires the joint research and development of talents from the three fields.

Besides learning, Chen Xuebing had unknowingly acquired many connections.

When Rong Xianwen, Zou Jiasheng, and Goto Miki came out after finishing the call, they were handing over the office outside.

He summoned three people, and then summoned Wu Ping, Chen Datong, and the three vice presidents.

"I've now found about 30 people for you, all of whom are senior professionals in the industry. I'll send you their information, and I'll explain the composition and arrangement of the personnel to you."

"At Emerson's headhunting headquarters, there are two Chinese Americans, two Hong Kong engineers, and ten mainland engineers. Be careful with these people; their contracts must be for more than five years. Emerson's agency agreement must specify high compensation for information leaks. Meishu will handle the legal and security matters. If there are any problems, you will be held responsible."

“Leave it to me.” Goto Miki nodded.

Chen Xuebing hesitated for a moment, then said, "It would be best to let these people be in charge of recruiting and training engineers first, and not let them participate in specific scientific research."

Seeing Chen Xuebing's cautious attitude, Wu Ping's approval of him increased considerably.

"Okay, I'll arrange that."

"Yes, there are about a dozen more people. They were recommended by my friends and the company's management. Most of these people already have jobs and may not come. We may have to call them one by one to discuss the terms. You can verify their information. I didn't hire anyone who wasn't a top-notch technical expert. If these people sign contracts, they can be assigned to front-line positions based on their technical skills. In addition, you also need to make your own arrangements to expand recruitment. The baseband business needs to be expanded to more than 200 technicians because, in addition to 3G R&D, you also have Huaqiangbei business going forward."

"No problem. What are your specific plans for Huaqiangbei?" Chen Datong asked.

Chen Xuebing led everyone into the conference room and explained MediaTek's backdoor and his network of connections.

The five people from Zhanxun listened, their eyes gradually brightening.

Sales Vice President Zhou Chengyun slammed his hand on the table excitedly: "That's fantastic! This is a huge opportunity! So how do we coordinate?"

"You just focus on the technology; I'll handle the planning." Chen Xuebing waved his hand. "How many chips do you have left?"

"220 million!"

"That's enough for now, but you need to quickly upgrade and replace your chips, reduce costs, and produce a large number of chips. Be prepared to fight a price war with MediaTek. Also, the software environment is important. People in Huaqiangbei don't understand performance. Their core competitive strategy is to be flashy, cool, and have many functions. You need to develop several system public version solutions and let young people do it as much as possible. I will have Qidian also help you develop a public version. These competitions are temporary. The longer we take 3G, the longer we will achieve complete victory and completely overwhelm MediaTek."

After Chen Xuebing finished speaking, he raised a crucial question.

"Singularity Technology takes 20% of the final sales profit of chips from Huaqiangbei."

Now, the five of them were restless.

"The commission is so high?" Wu Ping asked hesitantly.

At this moment, Zou Jiasheng began to argue for Qidian: "Chairman Wu, Qidian controls the terminal market and also found the back door. 20% isn't high, is it? President Zhou, who is in sales, should know that it's normal to get a 20 or 30% commission when you find an intermediary company to promote a business, right?"

Zhou Chengyun coughed awkwardly.

Chen Xuebing banged on the table and shouted, "Zou Jiasheng, watch your backside! You're working for Spreadtrum now, and Spreadtrum pays your salary. You need to think from Spreadtrum's perspective more often."

Despite the criticism, it was merely to appease Spreadtrum's emotions. His purpose in bringing Zou Jiasheng was to secure this profit and gain control of Spreadtrum's Huaqiangbei sales channels.

He went on to explain:

“This 20% isn’t free. Singularity will invest manpower and resources to help you maintain and expand the market. You just need to focus on R&D, and Singularity will handle the sales. Zhou Chengyun and Zou Jiasheng will be responsible for connecting with Singularity to handle orders. There’s no need to expand the sales team. Once 3G arrives, Spreadtrum and Singularity will also have a lot of business cooperation. You will see the role of Singularity then. I am the major shareholder, and there is also a performance-based agreement. I won’t cheat you.”

"Okay, let's divide it like this for now, and then we'll do a final accounting at the end of the year to see if it's worth it, and then we'll discuss it further."

Hearing this, the people at Spreadtrum felt much better, and after some discussion, they accepted it.

"Xianwen," Chen Xuebing addressed Rong Xianwen with a more intimate tone. "You are the vice president of Gu'an Group, and you can mobilize the group's resources. With you here, you are equivalent to me. You need to fully supervise the progress of the things I need to do, and at the same time, you need to handle the relationship between Gu'an and Spreadtrum. After you get things done, I plan to hand over the trust company's affairs to you. Learn more about Spreadtrum's various businesses. If Spreadtrum needs money for expansion in the future, whether it's through additional share issuance, loans, or products issued by the trust company, you will also be responsible for coordinating it."

Trust business requires setting up a company, and the framework is completely different from private equity. It will definitely be a separate team in the future. Since Rong Xianwen is familiar with banking business and his family has a financial heritage of over a hundred years, Chen Xuebing will certainly not let go of this talent.

In finance, the most valuable thing is connections and reputation within the wealthy circle.

Regardless of Rong Xianwen's status in his family, he is still a member of the family. As long as he develops on his own, his family's connections and resources will definitely be tilted towards him.

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at Rong Xianwen.

Is it the God of Wealth?

Rong Xianwen was also very surprised.

Are we really going to entrust him with such a huge responsibility?

Although he knew he would be leaving with Cai Zhijian in three years, after learning about the rapid development of Gu'an in the past few days, he seriously doubted whether Cai Zhijian needed to leave.

Now, Gu'an is about to partner with a well-known domestic high-tech company, becoming its largest shareholder and directly taking over its business.

The chairman is insightful and skillful, and has a steady stream of hot money flowing into the stock market behind him. Now he is also showing interest in promoting and cultivating him, which makes him feel conflicted.

I'm mostly happy.

As a professional manager, he should also serve the company well during his tenure.

After careful consideration, he calmly and firmly stated his position:
"Don't worry, Chairman, I will get things done as soon as possible. However, I don't know much about semiconductors, so I'll have to wait for your instructions on what to do next."

Chen Xuebing nodded; that was enough.

Rong Xianwen's management skills will soon be tested in this rapidly expanding company. He thought for a moment, then smiled and said:
"President Wu, Professor Chen, since Shanghai is treating you so well, it shouldn't be a problem to add an emergency campus recruitment drive for you at Fudan University, Tongji University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and East China University of Science and Technology, right?"

Wu Ping was taken aback: "Campus recruitment this year?"

"Yes, and it's a full-scale campus recruitment drive, especially at the School of Microelectronics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Dean Chen Jin has even taken charge of it. I doubt any other companies would be recruiting there. We should be there to help them out. We need telecommunications majors, radio engineering majors, semiconductor physics majors, and all of them. We also need engineering master's students and the top 10 engineering undergraduates. We need all the Shanghai graduates who slipped through the net. After we eliminate some, we'll have a six-month internship, and everyone will be studying intensively. We'll assign positions based on their academic performance. We need to arrange this immediately. Graduation season is just over two weeks away. If we don't go now, it will be too late."

Chen Xuebing sounded somewhat envious as he spoke.

Only Spreadtrum has these advantages: it has projects and a reputation.

If Singularity Technology were to recruit students from these schools, it would likely be met with a complete lack of applicants.

No, you might not even be able to get through the door.

"Sss, shouldn't we wait until the project is finalized before hiring?" Wu Ping hesitated. "What if we hire people but still don't get the base station project? What if they don't have the capability to do it?"

"That's why we need to step up the work of all departments!" Chen Xuebing slammed his hand on the table.

"Go all in! Singularity has solved the redundancy in your sales work. From now on, Spreadtrum will only keep one department responsible for the 2G chip business in Huaqiangbei. Everyone else will have to shift to 3G R&D! There is no upper limit to R&D expenses!"

"As long as we have the key technological accumulation, Spreadtrum will naturally be indispensable in the 3G business! If Spreadtrum ultimately fails to achieve the leading R&D position in the TD business, you don't need to worry. All the recruited personnel will be transferred to Singularity, and Singularity will cover the training costs for you!"

"However, Rong Xianwen won't need to stay here anymore. You can make a living from the Huaqiangbei business. You should be able to live quite well. Your US listing will go very smoothly."

Chen Xuebing spoke of a result they had always longed for, but his tone was full of disdain.

It seems that taking over the Huaqiangbei business and listing in the United States is their last resort.

Wu Ping gritted his teeth, but couldn't come up with any rebuttal.

Chen Xuebing has too high a standard.

But they've provided them with ample funding and talent; if they don't achieve results, it's simply a matter of incompetence on their part, and there's nothing to argue about.

"HSDPA!" Wu Ping glanced at Chen Datong: "As long as we conquer TD's HSDPA, we'll have a dominant position!"

Chen Xuebing frowned: "What does HSDPA mean?"

"Um... it's a 3G optimization technology that can increase downlink traffic by optimizing downlink transmission efficiency. In data usage, download volume is generally much higher than upload volume. As long as downlink traffic is optimized, the user experience will be greatly improved. You can think of it as a 3.5G technology. The theoretical peak value of a single carrier in TD can be increased to over 1.6 Mbps. This technology can be used in both base stations and mobile terminals," Chen Datong explained.

Chen Xuebing understood.

"Any idea?"

"We've been researching this technology for a long time. The EU proposed it, and WCDMA has been commercially available for several years. We've already developed this technology, but TD hasn't been commercially available yet. The domestic TD alliance is also developing it, but we haven't been able to overcome it yet... Theoretically, we will definitely overcome it."

Upon hearing this, Chen Xuebing immediately channeled his inner copycat: "Can we disassemble it and study it?"

“No, no.” Chen Datong waved his hands repeatedly: “WCDMA and TD have different theoretical approaches, and there are patents applied for by others. If we research in this direction, we will run into obstacles.”

He finished speaking, his eyes brightening slightly: "However, if you have connections in Chongqing, you could help us contact Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Last October, they developed a chip called 'Tongxin No. 10,' which supports TD-HSDPA. However, the process generation is relatively low, and the technology is not very mature, only supporting a transmission capacity of 1.1M. We judge that they are probably out of money, and the university's commercialization capabilities are also relatively poor. If we could buy the technology, it would be of great guiding significance to us."

Chen Xuebing was stunned.

Wow, so the technology was right at home?
The university with this name, Posts and Telecommunications University, should be a university jointly managed by the city and the Ministry of Information Industry.

"Good, good, that's good! I'll handle this! But you need to continue to improve your filtering technology to solve the problem at its root!"

Before setting off, Chen Xuebing had reviewed Datang's core technologies and learned about their "smart antenna," which had taken several years to develop.

HSDPA is a modulation enhancement, while filtering technology enhances the network by reducing interference, and can even double the network speed. Datang uses traditional antennas to enhance the base station signal, which is costly, complicated to deploy, and may cause tracking failure due to excessive signal reflection.

Thinking of this, he frowned and said, "Can't we think of another way to overcome that smart antenna? What era are we living in? Still using traditional antennas? It's laughable!"

Chen Datong smiled.

Wu Ping also laughed: "This is our strength. Our idea is to simulate antenna beamforming on the chip side, but it requires a lot of time and manpower, as well as money. Since you said there is no limit to the R&D expenses, I will bring people to give it a try."

Chen Xuebing clapped his hands: "That's more like it! That's what we should do!"

Wu Ping hummed in agreement and nodded slowly, seemingly conflicted.

Chen Xuebing's lips curled up slightly: "Developing so many projects at the same time, you're finding that you don't have enough talent?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Datong smiled and said, "Mr. Chen hit the nail on the head, but I will find a way to solve it. I have a few friends in the United States who will be coming over next week."

“You have friends, and so do I.” Chen Xuebing chuckled, took out a document from his briefcase, and placed it on the table.

“Zhang Hao, a professor at Stanford University, is an expert in filter chips and a top-notch chip architect. I have already contacted him, and he is willing to come back to help you. However, the conditions are not low: an annual salary of $120 million. Qidian will pay half of the salary, and you will pay the other half. Let me make it clear first: this person has to return to Qidian after helping you complete the technology development. My IC department will be handed over to him.”

Chen Xuebing spoke with some emotion.

Zhang Hao, the scientist who was imprisoned in the United States for nine years in his previous life, had been kept in touch by Lu Weibing ever since they met in Shenzhen last year. Lu would call to greet him every month and send him some things. However, this old man was very aloof and would not come unless there was a big project. It wasn't until a few days ago that he decided to invest in Spreadtrum and found that filtering technology was very important to Spreadtrum. So he contacted him again, offered a high salary of tens of millions, and after several days of persuasion, he finally agreed to come back.

To attract talent at this level, money alone is not enough; you also need a platform.

Wu Ping was also surprised when he heard this: "Zhang Hao? Dr. Zhang? You invited him too?"

Zhang Hao, also a graduate of Tsinghua University, was someone he had heard of in the 90s.

Zhang Hao was a few years younger than him, but his achievements in the United States were far greater.

If he hadn't returned to China to found Spreadtrum, he wouldn't be comparable to Zhang Hao at all.

"It's enough that you know this person; I don't need to introduce him further."

Chen Xuebing smiled and said, "There's another person, Zhou Guangping, a PhD in Electromagnetism and Wireless Technology from Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States. He is a global technology advisor for Motorola and has developed many star products for Motorola. He is currently working at Motorola's BJ Research Center and is thinking of switching jobs, but he hasn't agreed to come over yet. I still need to send someone to invite him. This person is also mine. We'll split his salary in half and lend him to you for now."

This person was mentioned by Lin Bin when he called earlier, and that's when he suddenly remembered him.

One of the founders of Xiaomi.

Later, it was this executive who offended Samsung that led to Samsung cutting off the supply of screens. Lei Jun went to Samsung to drink and apologize, then had a big argument with him when he came back and fired him.

However, Lei Jun had previously stated that without Zhou Guangping's involvement, Xiaomi would not have dared to make mobile phones.

Lin Bin met Zhou Guangping when he attended his child's kindergarten parent meeting in the United States, and they have kept in touch ever since. When Chen Xuebing asked about it, Lin Bin immediately mentioned the name, saying that he had recently chatted with Zhou Guangping and they talked about how Motorola has become less and less focused on the research and development of new products after the RAZR series sold well in 04. They said that relying on past successes would eventually lead to difficulties, and they were thinking of continuing to make mobile phones elsewhere.

I'm planning to go to Dell.

Chen Xuebing immediately ordered Lin Bin to intercept the deal.

However, when he mentioned Zhou Guangping, Chen Datong surprisingly said he knew him.

"He was the chairman of the China session at the 99 IEEE Wireless Technology and Electromagnetism Conference! I met him!"

Chen Xuebing clicked his tongue and said, "This person may have a bad temper and is unwilling to take a pay cut. We need to provide him with sufficient compensation and try to let him take charge of a research project on his own."

Wu Ping shook his head and sighed, "President Chen, it's fortunate that you are a shareholder of Spreadtrum. You have so many cards to play. If you really started a company to compete with Spreadtrum, we might not be able to beat you."

These words expressed both感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of deep emotion) and 畏畏 (wènwèi, a feeling of apprehension).

Chen Xuebing walked to the window, put his hands behind his back, and looked at the towering buildings outside. Zhangjiang, representing Shanghai's high-tech industry, has 2500 high-tech companies, 70% of which are foreign-invested.

"How much? I don't think it's enough."

Once 3G is launched and the internet begins to move, the real technological race will begin.

Technology patents and high-end equipment can be restricted, but talent is the lifeblood that can be tapped at minimal cost.

(End of this chapter)