Chapter 630 Do You Think People in the Mainland Can’t Afford a Computer?

The reaction of Li Ye and others was beyond Wang Lie's expectation.

He had just taken over as the president of the company from his father not long ago, and his understanding of the cooperation project of Pei Wencong and others was limited to the cold introduction and data in the cooperation materials.

Hong Kong Island Wind Language Computer Company - established four months ago, registered capital of 20 million US dollars,

Proprietary technology: none.

Proprietary products: none.

Technical team: none.

Cooperation goal: jointly develop, manufacture and sell a new generation of personal computers.

To be honest, Wang Lie has no expectations and desires for cooperation with such a "three-no company".

Although the registered capital of Hong Kong Island Wind Language is 20 million US dollars, which is not too big, but look at what Pei Wencong does?

He was born as a publishing house owner, and later resold clothes. I don't know what he did in the past two years. He barely gained some fame in the Hong Kong Island rich circle as a "nouveau riche",

but this is also not suitable for high-tech enterprises like Wang An Computer Company!

Wang Lie did not understand why his father had brought this cooperation project to the final stage.

[Could it be that his father was getting old and his "hometown complex" began to take effect, and he wanted to make a good relationship with the hometown he had been away from forty years? ]

[Or did he think that this company, which was obviously speculative in nature, could make up for the shortcomings of our company? ]

Wang An's shortcoming was software. They did not have any of their own flagship software products. In the past, it did not seem to be a big deal, but in recent years, it seemed to be dragging its feet more and more.

Moreover, Pei Wencong's proposed purpose of cooperation - developing a new generation of personal computers - also made Wang Lie feel uncomfortable.

At this point in 1985 and 1986, there were some deviations in the development paths of Wang An Computer Company and IBM.

Wang An Computer Company chose the expensive high-end computer route, and IBM, which had always been conservative, resolutely decided to open up its policy after suffering a lot of torture, united a group of small PC equipment manufacturers, and chose to focus on economical personal computers that were easier to popularize.

Even now, some people in the industry have already believed that Wang An Computer Company has made a "fatal mistake".

So Pei Wencong came to seek cooperation in R&D and manufacturing at this critical juncture. Wang Lie thought that he was actually imitating IBM's development path.

His father had fought with IBM all his life, so why did he have to learn from them secretly now?

Even if he wanted to learn from his opponent, IBM also cooperated with small manufacturers such as Microsoft, Apple, and ARM. Those small manufacturers have their own software development capabilities, and what capabilities does Hong Kong Fengyu have?

Wang Lie looked at the joint venture information left and right, and could not see what software development capabilities Pei Wencong had. Instead, there was a conspiracy of "stealing skills" everywhere.

There is an old saying in the flower-growing family - teaching the apprentice to beat the master, so Wang Lie believes that either don't accept apprentices, even if you accept apprentices, you can't teach real kung fu, just let him do odd jobs for you.

But now look at Li Ye, Pei Wencong and others with cold faces in front of you, they don't look like a group of obedient and easy-to-use apprentices!

[No, you are a small company in Hong Kong Island, come to seek cooperation with my top 2 company in the world, don't you have any awareness of who is the master and who is the follower? 】

"I'm glad that everyone can come to Boston today. Now there are not many days left before the Spring Festival.

In order to save everyone's precious time, we hope to abandon some factors of disagreement and sign a cooperation agreement as soon as possible."

Wang An said some polite words in a cold manner, and then said to the second employee on his right in English: "Mr. Chambers, you come to explain our willingness to cooperate to our friends in Hong Kong Island."

"Okay, gentlemen and ladies, I am Wang An's sales manager in Asia. I have made the following cooperation suggestions for the computer market demand in East Asia in the next ten years."

The employee named John is a middle-aged man in his forties. He speaks slowly and clearly. I think he is used to communicating with customers in non-English cultural areas to avoid unnecessary communication misunderstandings due to language problems.

"We are very optimistic about Hong Kong Wind's strength in market sales, so we are very much looking forward to reaching a sales cooperation project with you.

These are the latest products we recommend this year, which have received very good feedback in the Japanese market. Hong Kong is an important transit point for flower growers. We hope to better develop the mainland market through cooperation with you."

John Chambers distributed several product leaflets to Li Ye and others, which showed the latest computer equipment of Wang Laboratories.

Wen Leyu also got one. She just took a look and couldn't help but take a deep breath.

This price is too high. The cheapest personal computer costs 6,000 US dollars, and the rest cost more than 10,000. And this is the purchase price. If it is sold...

Wen Leyu frowned slightly and looked at Li Ye quietly.

Because she started doing homework on this cooperation project many days in advance, she knew that Li Ye's original intention was to jointly research and develop a new generation of computer equipment.

But now looking at Mr. Chambers's approach, why does he seem to treat himself as a regional distributor? Otherwise, why would we give a product quotation in such an occasion?

But did so many of us fly across half the world just to obtain the qualification of a regional distributor?

But when Wen Leyu looked at Li Ye, he found that Li Ye was staring at that John Chambers, with a slight glimmer of light in his eyes.

Judging from the experience of Wen Leyu and Li Ye getting along closely in the past few years, Li Ye's eyes seemed to be looking at something good.

After hearing what John Chambers said, Pei Wencong's reaction was much greater than Wen Leyu's.

He immediately said: "I'm sorry, Mr. Chambers, if I understand correctly, are you discussing with us the issue of the agency sales rights of your company's products?"

Chambers showed a hint of helplessness in his eyes, and then nodded slowly.

Pei Wencong looked at Wang Lie, and then said seriously: "Mr. Wang, this is not the cooperation goal we discussed before. What made you suddenly change your mind?"

In the business world, it is important to be kind and polite, but Pei Wencong's tone was already very unkind at this time. After all, his big boss was sitting next to him, and the big boss's girlfriend was said to be even more extraordinary.

As a result, he has made such a big mistake now. How incompetent is he? If this were in the workplace, he should take the blame and resign, right?

"Mr. Pei, I understand your feelings very well. Although we discussed joint research and development before, the prerequisite for the development of any new product is market demand."

When Wang Lie saw Pei Wencong angry, he also lost his temper and said very bluntly: "Your main market is the Mainland Flower Planter, but we have doubts about the market consumption capacity of the Flower Planter Mainland.

Therefore, we believe that we should cooperate with sales agents first, test the acceptance of the mainland market, determine the specific market demand, and then more accurately determine the R&D positioning of new products. "

"."

Pei Wencong was stunned.

What does Wang Lie mean by this?

Wang Lie suspected that mainlanders could not afford computers! No wonder they come up with a quotation list on such an occasion!

[Look, look, look, the cheapest computer costs $6,000. Can those hungry mainlanders afford it? 】

Pei Wencong wanted to yell and scold him on the spot: "Open your little eyes and look at this mainlander sitting in front of you. The money in the bank can buy two Wang An companies. You actually doubt the purchasing power of mainlanders?"

Pei Wencong looked at Li Ye anxiously, fearing that Li Ye would be impulsive and angry when he was young.

But Li Ye was not angry at all, but chatted with Chambers with great interest.

"Hello, Mr. Chambers, I would like to ask a more presumptuous question. Is your full name John Chambers?"

"Oh yes, how did you know that?"

"I heard from a friend at IBM that Mr. Chambers, you once worked in marketing and sales there."

"Oh yes, but I am now an employee of Wang An Company"

"Mr. Chambers, since you are the sales manager in Asia, you should know about flower growers and the technological miracles created by flower growers. So don't you think joint research is a good win-win idea?"

"Sir, although I am only responsible for marketing, I also have some understanding of the direction of computer development. Hong Kong Island's R&D capabilities are not as good as those of Japan. The mainland is too mysterious for us to discuss."

Li Ye is interested in Chambers, but Chambers doesn't want to talk to Li Ye.

Because Li Ye talked about his old employer IBM in front of his new employer Wang Lie, it was a bit taboo in the IT world of Lighthouse in this era.

Before the Internet fully developed, many IT people in Lighthouse would work in a company for many years, or even for life.

Many employees regard themselves as part of the company, and this phenomenon was even more obvious in the IT industry in the 1980s.

Various companies are constantly emerging, and many companies are start-ups in a field. Most of their employees are proud of what they do and regard it as their own career and hard work.

Why is Microsoft so annoying to many IT people during this period? It is because during this period of rapid development, Microsoft continued to expand horizontally, eroding the market of various companies through bundled competition, resulting in many companies being forced to lay off employees, and the hard work of IT personnel was destroyed.

So much so that employees of some companies that were defeated by Microsoft during that period refused to join Microsoft even if they died, and even later continued to attack Microsoft's products and reputation in various ways.

So now Li Ye told about John Chambers' job change. How could he have a good impression of Li Ye?

And more importantly, Li Ye emphasized that Chambers is a "salesman."

In Beacon's high-tech companies, employees who only have sales capabilities but do not understand technology can hardly reach the top management position.

The people at the helm of most computer companies are technical experts, and at worst they are professionals.

But John Chambers is not. This is his natural shortcoming.

What they discussed today seemed to be a sales issue, but in fact they still didn't believe in Hong Kong Island Style's R&D capabilities. It was a technical issue.

Therefore, Li Ye repeatedly emphasized that he was a salesperson in front of Wang Lie, which really made him think that Li Ye was being sarcastic.

But Li Ye really didn't mean to ridicule John Chambers. After all, this sales manager was an outstanding person who led Cisco to a market value of US$444 billion a few years later.

"I'm sorry, sir, what is your position at Hong Kong Island Wind Company?"