Faced with Bill Campbell's surprise, Zhang Chen said as a matter of course: "Don't look at me like that, Jobs is indeed a legend." I'll admit that his leadership is the strongest I've ever seen. ”

Zhang Chen asked the chef to dig him a spoonful of Almas caviar, feeling the saltiness of the simply marinated fish roe bursting in his mouth, "I said he was doomed because of his choice, not because of his ability." Frankly, if Jobs had listened to Ellison's persuasion to buy Apple instead of re-owning Apple as the acquiree, the outcome could have been different. ”

"Of course," Zhang Chen shrugged, "for Jobs, this is the least financially risky approach." After all, Apple's current situation is too bad, and Jobs is not completely sure that he can save such a terminally ill company. Even though he now has a billion-dollar fortune, he hasn't injected a penny into Apple. ”

Bill Campbell thought for a moment: "It's unfair for you to say that, now that Apple's financial crisis has eased, the inventory turnover period has dropped from 75 days three months ago to 52 days, and Steve has proven how important he is to Apple." ”

The layman looks at the bustle, and the insider looks at the doorway. Insiders like Bill Campbell pay more attention to Apple's inventory turnover, which is a more indicative of corporate management problems, than how many copies of OS8 are sold, how much money they make, and what their profitability is.

Zhang Chen smiled slightly: "Bill, do you know what the inventory turnover period of Matrix is?"

Bill Campbell silently calculated in his heart: "Now iCom is in short supply, and the speed of inventory turnover should be fast. The company that does the best job in supply chain management is now Dell, and their inventory update time is three weeks. For Matrix, the three-week inventory turnaround period is excellent data. ”

Zhang Chen said quietly: "32 hours, average." ”

When Bill Campbell heard the number 32, he thought that Zhang Chen was talking about 32 days, and he wanted to comfort Zhang Chen that this was also a good data. Just wanted to say it, but reacted, and said in shock: "You mean 32 hours?"

Zhang Chen nodded with a smile.

Bill Campbell was so surprised that he couldn't keep his mouth shut for a long time, "This—this is incredible." ”

Zhang Chen met Bill Campbell when he just earned his first pot of gold, and the two have maintained a relatively close relationship since then, and Bill Campbell has seen his entire development process.

Zhang Chen's previous achievements are already very dazzling for his age, but in the eyes of outsiders, most of them will sigh, this kid is too lucky!

Bill Campbell knows Zhang Chen well, and he will not attribute all the reasons to Zhang Chen's luck, he knows very well that this young man's vision and courage are at the first-class level at that time. But running a company, especially running a company well, and doing a good job in fine management is not something that can be done well only by talent.

Inventory management, information management, and cost management are the three most important aspects of supply chain management, and inventory turnover rate is the most important data in inventory management, which directly reflects the company's supply chain management level.

The management level of managers, even if they are geniuses, but also after several years of tempering and even setbacks to be truly improved, just to read a few "effective managers", "five levels of leadership" such bestsellers are completely useless, only the combination of theory and practice, summed up a set of their own management models and methods is the only way to improve management ability.

How old is Zhang Chen? He is only twenty years old, even if he has been cultivating since his mother's womb, he can't understand so much, right?

Is there really a genius in the world who is born to know?

"It's incredible. Bill Campbell exclaimed, "McDonald's has the fastest inventory turnover in the industry, and they also have an inventory turnover period of 60 hours. And they are the fast food industry, and the high turnover is understandable. Your turnaround time is only 60 percent of McDonald's, which is unbelievable. ”

Seeing Bill Campbell's expression, Zhang Chen shook his head and said, "Bill, it's not that I'm better than Jobs's management ability, but because I have absolute power in Matrix. That's what I just said, one of the reasons why Jobs lost from the day he chose to return to Apple by being acquired. ”

After all, Jobs was kicked out of the board of directors by Apple before, although now Apple's board of directors is forced to let Jobs go out to save Apple, and also gave him the maximum authorization. But beware, compared to Scully, who bought sugar water, Ed Woolrad, who was born in DuPont, is more of a pure capital animal. As far as I know, while Apple's financial performance is much closer to safety than it was a few months ago, he's still looking around for a possible potential buyer for Apple. ”

Bill Campbell nodded, "I also heard about this, Steve had a big fight with Ed about it, and threatened to resign, so that Ed dispelled this idea." ”

Zhang Chen sneered: "I'm afraid that Ed Woolrad will compromise with Jobs if he doesn't find a suitable buyer after taking a turn around and not finding a suitable buyer, right?"

In any case, Jobs sold all his Apple shares six months ago in order to get rid of Amelio. To be precise, he's not even a shareholder of Apple right now. Even if Apple's board of directors gives him the highest authority, his current status will inevitably have less influence and deterrent power on employees than the real owner of the company. ”

"In the absence of absolute power, any improvements that Steve Jobs made to Apple were made with considerable resistance, and they were bound to be half the effort. ”

Bill Campbell nodded silently, and this is indeed one of the major problems that Jobs is currently facing. Jobs's personnel and structural changes to Apple were not all smooth sailing, and the resistance within the company was also very strong. The board of directors nominally did not interfere in any of Jobs's decisions, but with such a emperor as Ed Woolrad, how could he really care about nothing?

"You say that's one of the reasons, but are there other reasons?" said Bill Campbell, who asked for another whiskey with ice cubes, and drank it down.

Zhang Chen said lightly: "Of course, the second point is relatively simple. When I make Matrix, it's a blank sheet of paper that I can scribble as I like. With excellent companies like Apple and Dell in front of me, I just need to extract their successful experiences. ”

Bill Campbell snorted, "You're really the most modest young man I've ever met." ”

Zhang Chen showed an indifferent expression on his face: "Thank you for the compliment, but Bill, you don't have to say anything back." The premise of all this is that I have money. ”

Bill Campbell's tears of laughter almost flowed out, and Zhang Chen said helplessly: "Look, I told you the truth, but you told me a bad joke." When Jobs and Woz founded Apple, their entire family had only $3,000, and Mike Dale had to use his college dorm room as his production workshop. As for Matrix, I invested $30 million in the first three months of existence, and I invested $170 million in the first batch of iComs. ”

Bill Campbell stopped laughing and looked at Zhang Chen in shock.

Zhang Chen continued: "Every enterprise has many chronic diseases that cannot be eradicated, and many of these problems are accumulated by the lack of funds in the early days of the company's establishment, and over time, it has become the company's inflamed appendix that cannot be cut off. But Matrix is different, since I am optimistic about the consumer electronics market and have enough money in hand, I can build this company with first-class standards from the beginning. It's like two boxers with similar congenital qualities, one has paid attention to diet and scientific training since birth, while the other has had problems even eating since he was a child, and he can't afford to spend training money. When you get in the ring, who are you betting on will win?"

Bill Campbell stopped laughing and looked at him, "I've always wanted to ask you, who are the investors in Matrix, so it's all your own capital?"

Zhang Chen smiled: "The management also holds a part of the shares, but there are not many of them. ”

Bill Campbell immediately asked, "No other source of funding?"

Zhang Chen nodded.

"Fxck!" Bill Campbell couldn't help but burst into a foul mouth, almost everyone in Silicon Valley thinks that there must be capital injections from several large capital groups behind Matrix, and there may even be the shadow of China's state-owned capital, who would have thought that the Matrix that was born out of nowhere was completely Zhang Chen's private enterprise?

Zhang Chen understands Bill Campbell's doubts very well, the United States has always been very uneasy about companies with Chinese backgrounds, and if Matrix Huaxia's background is too deep, it is easy to be hindered by all kinds of obstacles.

Both the C.I.A. and the FBI have investigated Matrix before, but they have all failed. Zhang Chen nodded faintly, Matrix is not afraid of any organization's investigation at the moment. No one knows what will happen in the future, but for now, Matrix is a completely Western capitalist company.

Bill Campbell nodded silently and breathed a long sigh of relief: "Zack, if Steve knows that Matrix is really your own company, I'm afraid that you will be the first on his list of people he hates the most." ”

Zhang Chen's expression did not show the slightest surprise, "Hehe, this is the third point that Jobs must lose." ”

Zhang Chen raised his eyebrows, "Jobs is indeed great, he is the best at dislocation competition, and under his leadership, Apple may really be able to find a way out and become the great company that changes the world again." But now ... ”

Zhang Chen paused, and his tone revealed absolute confidence, "With Matrix, Apple's only fate is to be acquired!"

(End of chapter)