"Mr. Benjamin is very welcome, please be seated. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info"

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

After Benjamin sat down, he smiled directly at Gates, who was the leader of the long table, and said, "Mr. Gates, I originally thought that it would take a long time for you to make a decision. But if I'm not mistaken, it seems that it has only been three days since we submitted the cooperation proposal. It's not an easy project, and your company's efficiency is truly impressive. ”

As he spoke, he looked at the conference delegates on Microsoft's side.

Chairman Gates, as well as fellow founder Paul Allen, and Benjamin knows Steve Ballmer, led by the three of them, Microsoft sent a total of five people. But......

"There's still a chair here, isn't there anyone who hasn't arrived?"

When Benjamin raised his hand like Gates, he was also very surprised. That's across from Paul Allen, the first position on the left under the chief, and no doubt it's certainly a third person in Microsoft's management who is qualified to sit down. But he looked at the current attendance and realized that everything had arrived, could it be that Microsoft has a new investor?

Gates crossed his hands and smiled calmly: "Miss Wang's flight was delayed due to the weather, and she may be half an hour late." But that's okay, we can just get started. ”

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

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

Benjamin's confidence in this cooperation can be described as full. In his opinion, of course, it is also an objective fact that the reason why Microsoft can rise is completely 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, and it is not an exaggeration to say that IBM is Microsoft's guide.

Recently, Microsoft's new product has been approved by IBM's board of directors. It wasn't the industry's first graphical user interface operating system, but it was many times better than its peers. And with Gates' propaganda a year in advance and a strong corporate base, its market share expansion rate is also extremely gratifying.

The potential is limitless, so to speak.

Working with a company with unlimited prospects, the results are of course expected, but the distribution of benefits needs to be adjusted. After all, compared with IBM's strength, although Microsoft currently has nearly 100 engineers, it is still far from the strength of the blue giant. If it weren't for the fact that the other party is indeed an industry leader in the software field, and this is IBM's weakness, I am afraid that the so-called cooperation would have been unnecessary from the beginning.

Only now, although the talks are going in a very good direction, Benjamin can't help but look at the chair that has been empty.

"Since it is a collaborative development, we at IBM plan to bring in about 100 engineers to develop our part of the system. So Mr. Gates, how many people can Microsoft come up with?"

Gates didn't answer right away.

I saw that his eyes were lowered, as if he was looking at the empty table, and even the papers handed in by Benjamin were just put aside. During this period, Benjamin quietly looked at Paul Allen and the others, and felt that something was wrong.

He'd long heard that Gates had a habit of leaning forward slightly and shaking when he thought. In the conversation just now, whenever he needed to think, Gates did make this kind of action, and Allen, Ballmer and others were silently waiting for him to speak.

But now, Gates "should" not be thinking, because he is not shaking. And Microsoft executives seem to want to stop talking, obviously, they are also a little puzzled by Gates's "abnormal" behavior.

Benjamin could guess what was going on: whether Gates was thinking or waiting for someone else to speak.

However, Gates apparently didn't let everyone wait long, and after only half a minute of this anomaly, he was able to speak.

"A group. ”

"We're going to send people into a group," he said. ”

Benjamin let out a long breath: "Mr. Gates, of course we are going to form a group, but the question I want to ask now is, how many people are you going to come up with." ”

"The number of people doesn't matter. ”

Gates said: "It's the professional ability that matters, 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 like he couldn't cry or laugh: "Mr. Gates, no matter how strong manpower is, there is a limit, right? You, you, are you kidding? Why did you suddenly talk to me...... What's the problem with the elite?"

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

Benjamin instinctively sensed that something was wrong, and just as he didn't ignore the empty chair from the start, he had already noticed that the confidence of Microsoft's top management in this cooperation was simply overwhelming. It is true that Microsoft's strength is very strong, and companies with an annual turnover of $100 million are not ordinary existences, but they are now also the number one in the industry, the blue giant, how can they be confident like this?

"Mr. Gates, please tell me the specific number, after all, I will have to report to the board of directors when I go back. ”

Benjamin said with a smile: "Or is it that the company really can't get together a team of the same size as IBM? If that's the case, we don't recommend taking on more work, after all, cooperation is meant to help each other." ”

So, that's the point.

What is the concept of a team of 100 people?

The IT industry is not labor-intensive, and the wealth that can be created by a hundred engineers is simply too much. You know, this is not just "an IT company with a scale of 100 people", but a real 100 engineers, the core members of an IT company.

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

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

Microsoft currently has a total of 100 people, and there are only 60 or 70 engineers at full, and it is impossible for IBM not to be unaware of this. Therefore, in a cooperative relationship with obvious unequal strength, expanding the proportion of dividends in the future on the grounds of uneven numbers is IBM's wishful thinking.

However, Gates and his colleagues glanced at each other, and the corners of their mouths were slightly raised, and they actually smiled covertly.

"Mr. Benjamin, that's a good question, let's just set it in the contract. ”

He still lowered his head, staring at the empty table for a long time, and this time for a full minute. Just when Benjamin was feeling a little impatient, Gates looked up confidently.

"We speak directly by the results. If Microsoft's progress can be consistent with IBM's, then the future distribution of benefits is a number, and if not, we will naturally reduce the share. What do you think about the quota and schedule criteria that are drawn up in advance and written into the contract?"

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

Benjamin felt more and more that something was wrong: "What kind of profit distribution is lowered, how can we let you suffer? Oh, at most, we are responsible for more work, what to say to reduce the ......"

"That's the case, Mr. Benjamin. ”

Gates propped his hands on the table, smiling and showing a mouthful of white teeth: "Although Miss Wang, the second largest shareholder and technical advisor of Microsoft Corporation, was late, it was precisely because she knew that she was going to be late, so she had a phone call with me earlier. In other words, the resolution was passed unanimously by the Microsoft Board of Directors. ”

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

"Speaking of which, Mr. Gates, you feel that Miss Wang in your mouth...... With all due respect, does she really exist? We've never heard of a reshuffle of Microsoft's board of directors, and if you say she proposed this resolution, she should at least be there, right?"

This question makes a lot of sense, after all, the reason for being late is too much to say. Even if the flight is delayed by the weather, will the attendees not have time to read the weather forecast for a meeting like this, which is bound to be notified many days in advance?

Just then, the phone rang in the middle of the conference table.

Gates' eyes lit up: "Ah, it just so happens that Miss Wang has called, let's see what she says." ”

Benjamin's eyes widened suddenly.

Not for any other reason.

Rather, he noticed the phone as soon as he entered the house......

There is no connection. (To be continued.) )