The Goddess Shines on America

Orlando Bryan has served in Lucent Technologies for many years, and he just succeeded his predecessor as CEO not long ago. On his first day in power, he held a meeting and announced that he would let Lucent Technologies make great strides into the field of network communications.

With the development of the computer Internet, as an industry elite, he clearly realizes how huge the business opportunities are. Just look at the development of Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Microsoft. With the increasing computing power of CPUs, the overall production cost of computers will definitely be lower and lower. It is only a matter of time before personal computers become popular in millions of households.

So in this way, the equipment needed to build the Internet has become a major source of money. Lucent realized the importance of technology a long time ago, so it established a partnership with Bell Labs many years ago. close partnership.

Bell Labs is one of the few research and development institutions in the industry. Its research and development is divided into three stages: one is Bell Labs' own invention or innovation, the other is to evolve and update its own products, and the other is to Europe and other regions absorb new technologies and products through mergers and acquisitions.

In the past entire century, it has brought countless innovative technologies and products to the world, including fax machines, touch-tone phones, electronic speech synthesis devices, data-based networks, even transistors, mobile phone technology, solar cells, lasers, There are even UNIX operating systems. It can be said that with such a laboratory as a backup resource, Lucent's development potential is beyond doubt.

However, when Orlando, who just took office, turned his attention to the field of routers, he immediately found trouble.

Few companies have done so thoroughly like Cisco. Orlando went through all the technologies of the product, and was shocked and helpless to find that the other party had applied for patent protection for all the technologies that constituted a single item. With this layer of magic weapon, any rash imitation behavior will undoubtedly become a big death. The other party only needs to send someone to go to the court easily, and the other party has to wait for the summons.

"And, the registrant of these patents is...Alice Wang?"

A completely unfamiliar name, Orlando thought about it again and again, but he didn't know which stone she jumped out of to get in the way.

Obviously, as long as any of these patents has not been applied for, with the help of Bell Labs, and with the help of Lucent's many years of experience, the same type of products can be easily developed. But when the patents of all known technologies become exclusive to others, there is too little room left for Lucent.

Fortunately, Orlando received a piece of good news. After the people from Bell Labs played tricks, Cisco really sent over the re-patched IOS system!

Even if it's just a program patch, there must be core technology in it!

However, there was nothing about this good news that would last, not even to the point of letting the news stay overnight.

"What did you say!?"

In the CEO's office before get off work, Orlando stared angrily at the opposite side. An executive from Bell Labs was standing in front of him, with a wry smile on his face since he entered the room.

"The technology used in this patch...is also patented!?"

Orlando tried his best to resist the trouble caused by the headache: "It took five days from when we submitted the customer service complaint to when the other party sent the patch back. You mean, in such a short period of time , the other party not only made a patch, but also had time to apply for a patent!?"

God, are you kidding me! ?

"Cisco Systems has only been established for a year!? How can such a young and small company be so good at patent wars? Moreover, in five days, they are making patches and applying for patents. How can their efficiency be so high? Is the company busy with this matter? Could it be that their company has so many people that it can be wasted casually!?"

Seeing the crazed appearance of the CEO, the person in charge of Bell Labs... really wants to nod, the last two words to him.

According to market research, the only product of Cisco Systems at present is the router, and the IOS is attached to the hardware product as a gift. Of course, it may have been included in the price of the product. One hardware and one software. When a company with a total headcount of no more than 50 finds out that one of its only products, the entire IOS crashes, it is normal for the whole company to make a patch, okay? good?

"Bastard bastard bastard!"

Orlando smashed the table cursingly, looked up suddenly, saw that the person in charge was still standing there, waved his hands and said, "You go back first, let me be quiet..."

After the man left, Orlando sat back on the chair and sighed deeply.

router.

Orlando understood that this word had definitely become his nightmare.

Easily connect to networks of different protocols, both in size and cost, are a fraction of the current mainstream dedicated computer in the market, and the low price of two thousand dollars can be described as extremely brutal. But Orlando is clear that there is a company that is definitely more anxious than himself.

That is IBM.

As the world's largest information technology and business solutions company, IBM is absolutely impossible to let go of the Internet hardware market. Although I don't know how big the market is for this small company that has only been established for a year, Orlando is very confident. With the strength of the blue giant, even if the opponent's strength is ten times stronger, it is useless, no, it is helpless .

You know, as early as 1967, IBM set a peak market value of 192.3 billion U.S. dollars. In that year, the GDP of the entire United States was only about 830 billion. Although today is different from the past, there is no suspense at all if a majestic giant crushes an ant!

"A new challenge has begun."

At the dinner table at night, after Alice stated the cause and effect solemnly, Sophie concluded: "Actually, this is a very normal thing. A company has different challenges at different scales, and the time has come for Cisco."

At the end of the table, both Oscar and Hannah listened to their mother's speech very carefully. Discussing business development at dinner is not something that every child is lucky enough to meet. Oscar is okay, he is good at propping his chin with his hand, and Hannah is listening with his back straight, not generally well-behaved.

"For most start-ups, the first priority is to survive, that is, to achieve profitability. Don't underestimate this point. Anyone can have an idea of ​​starting a business, but they can afford the cost. After paying all the costs, there will be net profit. That’s enough to wipe out 90% of entrepreneurs.”

Seeing that the other two children in the family were also listening carefully, Sophie was also happy to start with the basics. Of course Alice didn't care, James looked at Oscar with a face full of relief, although the latter was trying to act as if he understood, at least he was working hard, wasn't he?

"You know, the so-called competitor is a relative term. A certain company is our competitor, but it also means that we are also their competitor. For many start-ups that are still struggling to survive, even for other companies People are not qualified to be competitors. Oscar, Hannah, this principle is applicable in many ways, so remember."

Oscar nodded, and Hannah interrupted: "For example, if Oscar's grades are the bottom one in the class, then the top one in the class will not take him seriously at all, but the bottom two will feel a sense of crisis, right?"

"Hannah! What kind of bullshit is this!?"

"Oscar! Why are you talking to your sister!?"

"Hey~ Hannah's example is good~"

After a burst of relaxed laughter, James, who was sitting at the top, said, "Well, Weiwei, since that Lucent Technology intends to compete with Cisco in the router market, what countermeasures do you have?"

Alice pondered for a moment and said: "With the patent protection, the other party has to go around a super big circle, or simply develop other types of products in the same field, so I also told Posak and them a while ago that they are going to start preparing for the switch. research and development."

"The opponent's advantage is the mature market size, abundant capital and talent reserves, and the existence of Bell Labs. Our first advantage...well, don't laugh, it's the existence of my little superman... cough cough! Don't laugh, don't laugh!"

At the end, even Alice herself got up silly, and after everyone finished laughing, she went on to say: "The second advantage is patent protection, which can at least bring us a time advantage. So on this premise Next, we should start to develop more advanced models, speak with dry goods, and defeat Lucent's products in terms of performance."

"But there are only these two advantages."

Sophie concluded to her: "Whether it is market background or capital background, you can't compare with Lucent. If the other party has made achievements in this field, we have to admit that it will always be our company for a long time. most competitive opponent."

Alice raised her chin with her hands and looked around. In her heart, countless historical decisions that linked the past and the future were emerging from the depths of her memory.

"This..."

She was blinking, her eyelids lowered, her bright blue eyeballs had turned pitch black in a position to avoid being seen by her family.

"It's easy to say. Before the 1990s, their achievements must have been limited..."