"Ms. Whitman, I understand you've been offered a job at Hasbro, but I think an eBay job is one that can't be missed. Zhang Chen stared at Meg Whitman in front of him, the woman with a serious face in front of him was undoubtedly one of the best professional managers in the world.

If eBay wants to develop faster, it must find a good enough CEO, which is not only Zhang Chen's idea, but also the common perception of Ebay founder Pierre Omidia.

Pierre Omidia and Zhang Chen, along with Goldman Sachs' Gretchen Clayton (Jay Clayton's wife of Sulliven Cromwell's and a former colleague of Bellankefen at Goldman Sachs, Jay Clayton once helped Tinder Buffett's Ajit Jain) put together a three-page list of more than 50 candidates for CEO, and finally they decided that Meg Whitman, who is currently president of FTD, the world's largest flower company, is the most suitable candidate.

During her time at FTD, Meg Whitman successfully established FTD's popularity, reorganized the complex management process within FTD, and turned a loose organization that was only an association into a profitable company.

Gretchen Clayton helped Zhang Chen make an appointment with Meg Whitman through his classmates at Harvard, but Meg didn't seem to be interested in joining eBay, her husband had just been transferred to Boston, and Hasbro's place of work was in Rhode Island, which was only a little more than an hour's drive from Boston, and it only took 40 minutes by train, making it very convenient to get back and forth from Boston.

Meg Whitman smiled: "Mr. Zhang, thank you very much for your kind invitation, but my husband and I are in Boston now, and we don't want to come to live in California. ”

Meg's pronunciation of Zhang Zi is very accurate, and there is no weirdness at all that Westerners can't pronounce zha sounds.

Zhang Chen said sincerely: "Ms. Whitman, I am very aware of your concerns. But IMHO, the position of general manager of Hasbro's children's toys division is not at all comparable to the position of CEO of eBay. ”

Whitman smiled silently.

Zhang Chen was not discouraged, like Meg Whitman, explained the operation mode of eBay in detail, and opened the laptop to log in to the eBay website on the spot, and did a small auction.

Meg Whitman showed a look of interest: "It seems that you need an experienced manager to help you expand your visibility." ”

Zhang Chen nodded: "That's right, but in addition, I hope that eBay can be listed on the NASDAQ in the second half of this year, so I need a leader who can lead eBay to victory." ”

Meg Whitman looked skeptical: "It's going to be listed on the Nasdaq in the second half of this year? It's hard to believe, after all, eBay has only been around for less than two years." ”

Zhang Chen smiled slightly: "Yes, Amazon has only been established for two years, and now it is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and its stock price rose 40% on the first day." By the way, Amazon is also invested by Tinder. ”

Meg Whitman was really surprised, even if she is a business elite, it is impossible to understand the movements of any company, but she has seen the listing of Amazon twice, so she has some impressions, it turns out that this online bookstore is also invested by Tinder? It seems that it is indeed necessary to pay attention to this conversation in front of her.

This world is like this, if you don't have any achievements, even if you offer the other party no matter how good the conditions are, the other party will listen to it, but if you have a certain degree of popularity in your own field, and then do things, the difficulty will at least change from hell mode to medium mode.

Meg Whitman straightened her already upright seat, "Zack, I'd like to talk to Omidia in person." ”

Zhang Chen's spirit was shocked, and he was afraid not to talk about it, as long as he talked, it showed that the other party already had an intention, "Of course, like me, Omidia is very much looking forward to your joining, if you can talk to him personally, of course it would be great." ”

Meg Whitman was originally going to return to Boston that night, but after Zhang Chen made an appointment with Omidia, Meg Whitman had to change her ticket to the next day.

Omidia was met at eBay's office in Santa Clara, Bay District, which now has only 14 or 5 employees, and the company's first CEO, Jeff Skerr, has limited management capabilities, and although he is small in number, he often feels overwhelmed, so he himself is the strongest supporter of the re-appointment of the CEO.

This is also the situation that will occur in small start-up companies, like Amelio at Apple, no matter how much he thinks that Steve Jobs is the most suitable CEO candidate, it is also impossible to voluntarily step down and make way for Xian.

Omidia is the quintessential Silicon Valley engineer, wearing a pair of thick nearsighted glasses and a cotton hoodie. When I met Meg Whitman, I scratched my hair embarrassedly, making it hard to believe that this was a multimillionaire who had successfully started two companies.

"Well, Mrs. Meg, I can grant your request, I trust Goldman Sachs and Tinder's choice. But again, you have to show that you're worth the price. Although Omidia seems shy, she will not give in when it comes to business.

"Of course. Meg Whitman was categorical, with a bit of the Iron Lady's style, "If my work doesn't meet the board's expectations, I don't want a single one." ”

Omidia nodded, but the two young men in their thirties next to him were anxious, "Pierre, are you really going to hire a flower shop owner as the CEO?

Another young man also nodded: "We are an emerging industry, and Mrs. Meg has always been engaged in a traditional industry, and the Internet industry has no precedent for a successful transformation from the management of a traditional industry." ”

Omidia looked puzzled: "You are?"

The two young men looked at each other and resisted their anger: "We are the management consultants you hired from McKinsey, I'm Jerry, and he's Tom." ”

Zhang Chen almost laughed out loud, cat and mouse.

Omidia gave a look of realization: "Oh, I remembered. Mrs. Meg, if I hire you, will you be able to get this bunch of bombastic idiots out of the company?"

The cat and mouse were inexplicably angry, Omidia was really crazy, and it didn't take long to ask McKinsey to come over as a management consultant for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he was about to terminate the contract?

Meg Whitman couldn't help but laugh, but she didn't expect Omidia to be quite funny, "Of course, I worked as a partner at Bain & Company, but there's a question, they should have been hired by you, right? Why did you want to get rid of them?"

Omidia spread her hands: "They have been consultants for four months, but they can't do anything about eBay's management improvement, they just know to follow the script." ”

Meg Whitman nodded: "I see,"

Omidia blinked, "Just a reminder, you're also hired by me." ”

Meg Whitman's face changed: "I need full management." ”

Omidia shrugged: "Of course, as long as your performance is qualified." ”