The Goddess Shines on America

"Mr. Benjamin is very welcome. Please take a seat."

In Redmond, Washington State, in the conference room of Microsoft headquarters, a group of well-dressed IBM negotiators entered the room. As a representative of Microsoft, Gates got up immediately and asked the head of the delegation, Benjamin, IBM's marketing director, to sit down.

After Benjamin took his seat, he smiled directly at Gates, the chief of the long table: "Mr. Gates, we originally thought that you would have to discuss it for a long time before making a decision. But if I remember correctly, it seems that the cooperation was submitted from us. After the proposal, it has only been three days. This project is not easy, and the efficiency of your company is really amazing."

As he spoke, he looked at the conference representatives on the Microsoft side.

Chairman Gates, Paul Allen, who is also the founder, and Steve Ballmer, whom Benjamin is familiar with, led by the three of them, and Microsoft sent a total of five people. but……

"There is still a chair here. Is there anyone who hasn't arrived yet?"

Benjamin was also very surprised when he raised his hand to look beside Gates. It was the opposite of Paul Allen, the first position on the left under the chief. There is no doubt that the third person in the management of Microsoft must be qualified to sit. But he looked at the current number of attendees, and everyone he knew had already arrived. Could it be that Microsoft has a new investor?

Gates crossed his hands and smiled calmly: "Miss Wang's flight has been delayed due to the weather, and she may be late for half an hour. But it doesn't matter, we can start directly."

Benjamin was even more surprised now. On the one hand, the "Miss Wang" that the other party suddenly said was definitely a strange person, and judging from the pronunciation of the surname, it might be Chinese. Also, what does it mean that a flight is delayed? Although it is one o'clock in the afternoon, is it possible that the other party came here by plane in the morning for such an important cooperation meeting?

He said with a smirk: "It seems that this Miss Wang must be a busy person. Since Mr. Gates has said so, let's start."

For this cooperation, Benjamin is full of confidence. In his view, it is of course an objective fact that the reason why Microsoft can rise is entirely dependent on the early cooperation with IBM. If there is no bundled sale of IBM's computers as a platform, Microsoft's DOS system will definitely face serious market problems. It is not an exaggeration to say that IBM is Microsoft's guide.

And recently, Microsoft's new products have indeed been recognized by IBM's board of directors. Although that Windows 1.0 is not the industry's first operating system with a graphical user interface, it is far better than that of the peer's products by many times. And with Gates' promotion a year in advance and a strong company foundation, its market share expansion speed is also extremely gratifying.

It can be said that the potential is unlimited.

Cooperating with a company with unlimited prospects, of course, the results can be expected, but the distribution of benefits needs to be adjusted. After all, compared to the strength of IBM, although the current Microsoft has nearly a hundred engineers, it is still far from the strength of Big Blue. If it weren't for the fact that the other party is indeed a leader in the software field, and this is exactly IBM's weakness, I am afraid that the so-called cooperation was unnecessary at the beginning.

It's just that now, although the talks are going in a very good direction, Benjamin can't help but want to look at the chair that has always been empty.

"Since it is a cooperative development, we at IBM plan to transfer about 100 engineers to develop our part of the system. Then, Mr. Gates, how many people can Microsoft provide?"

Gates didn't answer right away.

His eyes were lowered, as if he was looking at the empty desktop, and even the documents handed in by Benjamin were just put aside. During this period, Benjamin quietly looked at Paul Allen and the others, somewhat feeling something was wrong.

He had long heard that Gates had a habit of leaning forward slightly and shaking when thinking. In the conversation just now, Gates would indeed make this kind of action whenever he needed to think. Allen, Ballmer and others waited silently for him to speak.

But now, Gates "should" not be thinking, because he is not shaking his body. The executives at Microsoft seem to hesitate to speak, obviously, they are also a little puzzled by Gates' "abnormal" behavior.

Benjamin could guess what this confusion was about: whether Gates was thinking, or waiting for others to speak.

However, Gates obviously didn't keep everyone waiting for too long. After this abnormal situation lasted only half a minute, he could be regarded as speaking.

"A group."

"We'll send people to form a team," he said.

Benjamin took a long breath: "Mr. Gates, of course we have to form a team, but the question I want to ask now is how many people do you plan to take out?"

"Numbers don't matter."

Gates said: "The important thing is professional ability, isn't it? For our IT industry, the role of an elite is definitely stronger than a hundred freshmen, isn't it?"

Benjamin suddenly felt dumbfounded: "Mr. Gates, no matter how strong manpower is, there is a limit, right? You, you, are you kidding me? Why did you suddenly tell me... about the elite?"

While saying this, Benjamin also noticed that the executives of Microsoft all took it for granted, and even looked at himself with an expression of wanting to see a joke...

Something was wrong, and Benjamin instinctively noticed that, just as his gaze hadn't ignored the empty chair from the very beginning, he had also noticed early on that the confidence of Microsoft's top management in this cooperation was simply overwhelming. Indeed, Microsoft is very powerful. A company with an annual turnover of 100 million US dollars is not an ordinary existence, but they are now meeting with the dignified number one in the industry, Big Blue. How can they be so confident?

"Mr. Gates, please tell me the exact number of people. After all, I will report to the board of directors after I go back."

Benjamin said with a smirk: "Or is it that the company really can't get a team of the same size as IBM? If that's the case, we don't recommend taking on more jobs. After all, cooperation is about mutual cooperation." Helpful."

So, this sentence is the point.

What is the concept of a team of one hundred people?

The IT industry is not a labor-intensive industry. One hundred engineers can create too much wealth. You know, this is not just "an IT company with 100 employees", but a real 100 engineers, the core members of an IT company.

It can be said that if a company can really provide this number of engineers, the number of people in the whole company must not be less than two hundred.

So, what is the size of an IT company with more than 200, or even 300 or 400 employees?

Microsoft currently only has a total of 100 people, and the number of engineers is only 60 or 70. It is impossible for IBM to be unaware of this. Therefore, in a cooperative relationship that is obviously unequal in strength and weakness, it is IBM's wishful thinking to expand the proportion of future dividends on the grounds of the uneven number of people.

However, Gates and his colleagues looked at each other, and all of them twitched the corners of their mouths, smiling secretly.

"Mr. Benjamin, this question is easy to discuss. We can just set it like this in the contract."

He still lowered his head and stared at the empty tabletop in silence for a long time, and this time he remained silent for a full minute. Just when Benjamin felt a little impatient, Gates raised his head confidently.

"We speak directly according to the results. If Microsoft's progress can be consistent with IBM's, then the future profit distribution is a number; if it cannot be consistent, we will naturally reduce the share. Draw up the share and progress standards in advance, and make it Write it into the contract, what do you think?"

"Oh my God, Mr. Gates, what are you kidding?"

Benjamin felt more and more wrong: "What kind of benefit distribution and reduction, how can we let you suffer? Oh, at most, we are responsible for more work, what to say to reduce..."

"That is the case, Mr. Benjamin."

Gates rested his hands on the table, smiling and showing his big white teeth: "I am the second largest shareholder and technical advisor of Microsoft, although Ms. Wang was late, she called me earlier because she knew she was going to be late. In other words, this resolution was passed by the entire board of directors of Microsoft."

Benjamin's eyelids really jumped up. He looked at the members of the passing delegation, and someone immediately answered for him.

"Speaking of which, Mr. Gates, you feel that Ms. Wang... With all due respect, does she really exist? We have never heard of the reorganization of Microsoft's board of directors. If you say that this resolution was proposed by her, then she At least I should be there, right?"

This question is very reasonable, after all, the reason for being late is too unreasonable. Even if the flight is delayed by the weather, for a meeting like this that must be notified many days in advance, don't the participants have time to read the weather forecast?

Just at this moment, the phone in the middle of the conference table rang.

Gates' eyes lit up: "Ah, just right, Ms. Wang called, let's see what she said."

Benjamin's eyes suddenly widened.

Not for any other reason.

Instead, when he first entered the room, he noticed that this phone...

It is not connected.

Dear~

The fifth update is completed~

The sixth more arrived on time at 16:00~