1991 Starting from the core

"What medicine is IBM selling in its gourd?"

In the business car heading to the airport, Zhou Xiaohui, dressed as a professional female elite, looked more mature and calm than before.

It is planned that she will not come to this Shanghai meeting, but will sit in the special zone as the assistant to the chairman. On the one hand, she will keep an eye on the actions of various business units under Yuanxin, and on the other hand, she will continue to lead Sony, Unisplendour and Yuanxin. The office equipment business promoted by Xin Sanfang.

But very early in the morning, the president's office called and said that it had received a business letter fax and synchronized email from IBM, indicating that Mr. Gerstner's plane would arrive at around 8:30 pm, East Eighth District time. Shanghai Stock Exchange.

After receiving the news, Zhou Xiaohui notified Su Yuanshan immediately.

Then Su Yuanshan thought about it and decided to let her go to Shanghai first and go to the airport to greet her with him - as the head of a giant like IBM, Mr. Gerstner, who later became the legendary CEO, deserves to be welcomed by Yuanxin Go to the door.

"I don't know. I'll have to ask in person." Su Yuanshan said with a smile as he closed his eyes and rested his mind.

He had been guessing for a day, and even asked Ken Kutaragi and Zhou Boguang to help him get the details. As a result, no one knew what medicine IBM was selling.

On the contrary, it was Gerstner's arrival that made many corporate technocrats feel uncomfortable.

"You really want to ask?" Zhou Xiaohui couldn't help but be startled.

"Of course."

Zhou Xiaohui couldn't laugh or cry - she knew that when Su Yuanshan's temper got the best of him, she would actually be able to ask people's intentions face to face.

"Don't worry, Sister Xiaohui, although Mr. Guo and I...well, Mr. Lewis missed the chance to meet him last time, I still know about him...Lao Guo...you know what he has been doing in the past few years since he came to power. What happened?"

Zhou Xiaohui nodded.

As the Secretary to the Board of Directors of Yuanxin, which has gradually become more and more worthy of its name, it is a required course for Zhou Xiaohui to understand the leaders in the semiconductor industry and even the entire technology industry. She even knows everything about the private gossip of certain business leaders—well, Mr. Gates, for example.

"Gerstner was born in engineering, and later switched to business management. From McKinsey to American Express, to the CEO of a tobacco company...he is a purely professional manager. Moreover, Mr. Lewis has always been known for his pragmatic, strong and courageous style. Three Years ago, he joined IBM as chairman and CEO. With such power under his control, he laid off more than 40,000 people within six months, reducing the number of more than 200 information executives responsible for the world to just one..."

"At the same time, IBM also began to transform from mainframes to enterprise services. At the same time, it made peace with Intel and Microsoft and entered the personal computer market."

After listening to Zhou Xiaohui reveal Gerstner's "great achievements" in one breath, Su Yuanshan laughed: "Yes, since President Guo came to power, the PowerPC Alliance has basically disappeared."

"So do they want to continue in the semiconductor industry now? Take advantage of our flash memory alliance opportunity - generally speaking, they should form an alliance with Intel and SanDisk, right?" Zhou Xiaohui was puzzled.

Su Yuanshan nodded: "So, our invitation this time is just a courtesy... to avoid giving people a strong sense of confrontation. Who knows he will come here in person... It's a bit difficult now."

This is indeed difficult... After all, Gerstner's position is too big, and this time the pattern was deliberately suppressed by Su Yuanshan to be a bit small.

Su Yuanshan is the kind of person who doesn't use his "privilege" easily. Even when meeting a business leader like the chairman of IBM, he politely asked the driver to park the car in the parking lot, and then went with Zhou Xiaohui and another car. Li Mingliu and his secretary in the car were waiting at the door.

A few people chatted casually, and soon, news came that the late flight would land on time. Not long after, the tall Louis Gerstner and three entourages appeared at the door.

…

"Is this your first time in Shanghai, Mr. Lewis?"

After getting in the car, Su Yuanshan told the driver to go directly to the Hilton Hotel - now that he was here, Su Yuanshan no longer thought too much and just followed the reception procedures.

"Well, it's my first time here, and it's different from what I expected." Gerstner is in his early fifties. Because of his years of hard work, he looks a little older, but he is full of energy. He has a Chinese character face, and his smile is particularly contagious.

"Su, I missed the meeting with you last time, which made me regret for a long time." Gerstner looked at Su Yuanshan with a smile and said meaningfully: "So I can't miss it again this time."

Su Yuanshan remained calm and smiled slightly: "It's a great honor, and it's also a bit of a surprise."

"Haha! As long as you have a pair of observant eyes, life can be full of surprises."

…

On the plane, the IBM team had already eaten the in-flight meal, and now they had no appetite to eat. So after settling a few people in the room, they ordered some snacks in the cafe downstairs, and then Zhou Xiaohui and Li Mingliu The person was responsible for greeting Gerstner's entourage. A quiet booth was left to Su Yuanshan and Gerstner.

After all, Gerstner seemed to be "coming hastily" this time, and both parties need to conduct a round of friendly testing before further cooperation or negotiation.

Now that both parties have sat down and there is no one else around, Su Yuanshan is really rude now.

"Mr. Lewis, to be honest, I really didn't expect you to come here in person. So I'm really curious..."

Gerstner put three sugar cubes into the coffee, stirred it, and looked at Su Yuanshan with a smile: "Don't you have confidence in your flash memory technology? The flash memory technology alone is enough for me to come here."

"Of course I have confidence...but let's put it this way." Su Yuanshan said with a wry smile: "You are one of the corporate predecessors I respect. IBM has been reborn like a phoenix after you took over...It's hard for me to imagine that if you are just a Flash memory technology allows you to come and negotiate in person when you are busy - this should be the business of the technical director."

Listening to Su Yuanshan hating himself, Gerstner just smiled. There is no such thing as humility in his living habits, but there is no doubt that it is extremely useful for him to be recognized and appreciated by an outstanding and talented entrepreneur like Su Yuanshan.

After two seconds of silence, Gerstner took a sip of coffee and said casually.

"I'm coming here to do three things."

"First thing, I want to meet you."

"The second thing is, I want to see if your foundry can meet our business expansion."

"The third thing is, in addition to the flash memory business, we may have common goals in terms of fab process technology."