Half a year ago, Redmond, on the edge of Seattle, welcomed a large taxpayer, and Microsoft, a well-known company in the IT industry, moved its headquarters here, becoming another local god after the NB Nintendo Americas branch. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Mr. Gates chose a building of average height, which is only a few floors, but the area is really small, and it also leaves a large area of open space for greenery. This is normal, after all, for a big company in a small city like this, there is really no need to build any skyscrapers like Manhattan. With Redmond's permanent population of less than 50,000, if Microsoft's headquarters were really a building dozens of stories high, it would have to be laughed at.

One morning in mid-April, a bicycle came slowly from a distance, and the cyclist had a happy bare head, and he was relatively blessed. A discerning person can recognize from afar who else is this style other than Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's executive vice president of sales support?

"Yo, Steve, it's been a very early day. ”

Tom, the doorman, said hello, but Ballmer's tense face showed that he was definitely going to work with emotions today. After waving to Tom, he walked briskly into the elevator.

The elevator door went straight to the top floor where the company's executives were located, and when there was a clang, Ballmer still strode out of the elevator.

"Hey, Steve. ”

At the time, Eric, who was the head of the technical department, was standing in an open space with a coffee: "Bill is waiting for you in the office. ”

"Thanks, Eric, give me some coffee. ”

Picking up a large cup of coffee from Starbucks, he drank two-thirds of the coffee left before Ballmer had finished the hallway. After casually throwing the paper cup into the trash, he pushed open the door of the chairman's office with his front and back feet.

"Steve, you're here!"

In the office, Gates and Paul Allen were discussing something, and when he saw Ballmer enter the room, he immediately got up and said, "Is the result out?"

Ballmer took out a stack of documents from his purse, threw them on the coffee table, and then lay down on the sofa and let out a long breath: "I'm tired, there are too many fragmented documents, I stayed up until four o'clock in the morning to finish it, you guys take a good look." ”

Not a word was written on the cover of the document, but all three people present knew what it was.

"Semi-annual Sales Performance Report".

It's highly classified.

Time passed in silence, the room could only be heard ticking the clock, Ballmer was closing his eyes and pretending to sleep, and Gates and Allen were reading the investigation report together. The brows of the two are tightly locked, but their expressions are very complicated, and there is obviously a sense of joy, but the worry between the eyebrows is even more obvious, and there is a trace of jealousy hidden in everyone's eyes.

A full half hour later, when the documents bottomed out, the two of them let out a long breath simultaneously.

"Awesome, awesome. ”

Alan patted his thigh and kept shaking his head: "This girl is really a complete genius, although it is only half a year, but it is this half a year of hard work, and the profit we get from this system is simply equal to the total profit of all the past years combined!"

Gates patted the stack of A4 paper, which was neither thin nor thick, and his eyes were constantly flashing: "According to this result, we can go public directly at the end of this year, and at that time, everyone's shareholding ratio will change dramatically, and the number of orders will be more ......"

After a moment of silence, Gates said to Ballmer, "Call Eric in." ”

The technical director arrived on his feet, and after he closed the door, Gates said: "Eric, you did a research report at that time, if you let the whole company employees develop it themselves, it will take at least a year to make it, right?"

Eric didn't know what was going on, but he had already seen that Ballmer's mood was wrong, thought about it, and said cautiously: "That's right, but the number of programmers in the company has also increased, and if you develop another one with the same difficulty, it will definitely not take that long." ”

Gates didn't answer immediately, but pondered silently.

In the timeline, it was about August 1983 to May, July, and August 1985.

If there is no Alice, the whole cycle from R&D to finished product is probably like this.

In August '83, when he boasted about the Las Vegas Computer Expo, he vowed that Microsoft's new system would be released next spring in an attempt to suppress another competitor.

If Alice had learned the news immediately from that time, it would have been eight months since the spring of '84, when she came to find her.

Eight months, how far has the company progressed at that time?

They were fifty-five senior engineers, and the other party had not yet graduated from elementary school, and now he is only in the seventh grade.

After thinking about it, Gates said: "Then Eric, you can do another feasibility analysis for me now, if the company's current sixty-seven engineers are the main force, not counting Miss Alice, the company will develop another ...... How long will it take for a 1.1 system, or a 2.0 system?"

Eric's eyebrows jumped hard.

Even if he is a technical person, he is also an executive, and he immediately guessed what Gates was thinking.

"Well...... It mainly depends on the degree of improvement. ”

Eric sat down and said, "I've had ideas for the next generation of systems for a long time, and I thought we might be able to take advantage of the speed of Intel's latest processors to maximize system performance, with increased processing speeds, expanded memory, and the ability to communicate between applications with dynamic data exchange technology." If it's this level of improvement......"

He thought for a moment: "Half a year?"

Alan raised his eyebrows and said: "The improvement in efficiency alone is not enough, after all, scientific research institutes only account for a small part of the customer base, and our main buyers are major enterprises." For those people, it's useless to overemphasize computing power, and they don't do that kind of work. ”

"So it's the evolution of efficiency, and the optimization of the interface?"

Eric thought for a moment, "That's probably going to take eight to nine months." Two bosses, do we have a new job?"

Gates smiled slightly: "Of course, the competition in the IT industry is so fierce now, there is no room for us to relax." Just like Steve Jobs, Apple's recent big moves are endless, and if we don't keep up, the market will be snatched up by others. ”

In this way, there is nothing to do with Eric. But after he left, all three people in the room sighed deeply.

Ballmer, as a senior at Gates University, leaned on the sofa without sitting down, and was the first to smile bitterly: "Eight to nine months, believe it or not, if you let Alice do it, this time will be saved by at least two-thirds." ”

Alan nodded slowly, frowning: "Indeed, after all, she never told us about her R&D cycle. Even if it's from the earliest days, it's just that long......"

And now she has experience in developing 1.0, if she optimizes her old work, it is estimated that she may not be able to use it for two months. ”

Gates leaned back against the couch, his blonde hair visibly disheveled, he kept shaking his head and smiling wryly, and kept holding his glasses with his hands.

Alan silently watched the scene of his friend and did not say a word.

He can obviously feel that his whole person has changed a lot since his old friend experienced the kidnapping incident of drug dealers. Of course, it's understandable to propose moving the company to the Seattle area, whether it's the employee's hometown factor, the potential for computer education in the area, or the trigger for the drug dealer kidnapping case.

What Allen noticed was the change in Gates' attitude towards Alice.

For some reason, Gates has a ...... every time a member of the company normally mentions that one shareholder An expression similar to fear. As someone who's been with him since elementary school, no matter how well Gates hides this emotion, Allen can detect it.

Then the question arises.

At that time, something special must have happened.

Alan had carefully recalled the case many times, but he was not a police person after all, and it happened to be the time when the company and Alice were negotiating a technical shareholding, so of course he didn't have the energy to observe the details of the case, especially the specific details about those police officers.

For example, the police's briefings to reporters were very brief and idealistic, and the policemen, for example, seemed to have a look of fear and a sense of doubt. Moreover, when Allen went to the police station to meet with Gates in person, he obviously felt that the atmosphere around him was very tense, but it was not a normal tense atmosphere, but like a kind of panicked tension, and they all seemed to try not to show this tension in front of Allen, so they seemed even more nervous......

It was a really strange situation, and Alan clearly felt that he was also a nervous part of the equation when Gates kept saying "let me rest".

Is there a story he and Alice have to tell?

Or does Alice have some ulterior secrets?

Alan scratched his head and couldn't think of a reason, although he had a high IQ, but it was really difficult for him to guess what was going on when Gates, who was both a friend and a client, was silent.

"Anyway, try as hard as you can. ”

Gates, who didn't know what he was thinking, said in a firm tone: "Don't let Alice be left alone and completely replace the company's technical department." ”

Alan looked into his eyes, hiding the doubts and worries in his heart, and nodded happily.