Qian Dan flew from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Cairo, Egypt, where the headquarters of Weizhong's "North Africa and Middle East Regional Department" is located, which will be the base camp of Qian Dan in the next few years.

In the afternoon, "Emirates" flight EK923.

He lazily half reclined in his chair, fixed the TV in front of him to the route map, and watched the small plane slowly fly over the Arabian Peninsula sky.

Four hours is a short time, and he has reached the city of Cairo thousands of years ago!

"He who has not seen Cairo has not seen the world, her land is gold, her Nile is a miracle, her women are like black-eyed saints in heaven, her house is a palace, her air is as soft as aloe vera wood, sweet and pleasant. How could this not be the case in Cairo? Because she is the mother of the world. ”

This is the Cairo in "Arabian Nights", and the Cairo that Qian Dan saw that day seemed to be a city in Chinese mainland ten years ago.

Compared with the modern Dubai airport, the concrete floor and narrow staircase of Cairo Airport look much older, and the whole impression is like returning to the old big railway station in China.

On the way into the city, the road is spacious, most of the cars come and go are dilapidated, and they are all rampage with a posture of not accepting the old, the rear car is always running against the butt of the car in front, changing the line at will and never turning on the lights, which makes Qian Dan tremble.

The road is very empty, and it is strange that many houses are clearly inhabited, but the exterior walls are bare, unpainted, or the roofs are bald and unadorned. Later, I heard Lao Xie say that it was because Egyptian law stipulates that once the house is completed, it must pay a high property tax, so the locals like to keep a little tail when building a house, and they can avoid taxes until it is not completed.

Qian Dan doesn't know if this statement is true? But Arab traders have long traveled along the Silk Road, and the Egyptians have always guarded the main transportation routes connecting Asia, Africa and Europe, and they must have been calculating.

The driver who came to pick him up was a sturdy bald man, and he walked like a hero in a Hong Kong police movie in the 80s of the last century.

During that time, China and Japan had a quarrel because of the history textbook issue, and the driver's eldest brother said that he had just watched the news while driving left and right, and the Japanese prime minister apologized. After the Egyptian brother firmly expressed that he stood with China, he said that China and Egypt have ancient histories, similar cultures and traditions.

The office buildings and dormitories of "Weizhong" are concentrated near Digra Square in Maadi District, which is an area where foreigners gather, with three steps, one post and one sentry on the roadside. There is a simple guard box made of iron frame and cardboard downstairs in the Qian Dan dormitory, which is always guarded by four or five policemen with long guns and short guns.

At first, he felt a sense of security, because he had never enjoyed such guard treatment, and soon heard that the reason why this guard box was set up was because there were many Westerners living in these apartments, and Qian Dan was a little worried that he would be "lying down" one day?

Lao Xie's name Xie Guolin, a native of Chengdu, slightly chubby, wearing a pair of eyes, looking loyal, was standing lonely on the side of the road downstairs in the office waiting for Qian Dan.

When Qian Dan got out of the car, there were two drops of rain in the sky.

Lao Xie said happily: "It's rare to rain!" Old money, God welcomes you over, you are in time for the rain! Now I am the only one in the regional ministry of software services, and I can't stand it! Leave your luggage in the office first, and I'll take you to 9th Street for dinner. ”

Not far from Digra Square, 9th Street is the busiest place in the area with its many restaurants and shops.

They hailed a taxi from Digra Square to Dragon House, a Chinese restaurant on 9th Street, called Long Xin Zhuang in Chinese.

The taxis in Cairo are old and dirty, looking like police cars from the cartoon "Sheriff Black Cat". When he got in the car, as soon as Qian Dan pulled the car door, he heard a "quack", and the door fell half of it, so frightened that Qian Dan hurriedly held on to it, at a loss.

The driver looked back and shouted at him nonchalantly, "Come on in, no problem, no problem."

Lao Xie smiled and his face was like a flower: "Get in the car, it's very close, you grab the car door with your hand, don't fall down!" ”

Qian Dan hesitated for a second, got into the car, put a hand out of the car door, and honestly clamped the car door with his arm, and the car roared away on the quiet and winding boulevard of Maadi.

It's past dinner time, and there are not many people in the restaurant, except for a couple from the West whispering in the dim light of the red lantern.

Running this Chinese restaurant is a warm, talkative woman from Hong Kong, who is said to be the leading sister of the "Chinese Women's Club" in Cairo.

THE WAITERS, ALL EGYPTIAN AND DRESSED IN RED TANG COSTUMES, WERE SOON SERVED A SUMPTUOUS CHINESE MEAL AND EGYPT'S LOCAL "SAKARA" BEER.

Qian Dan did his homework before coming to the "North Africa Middle East" and asked a little strangely: "Isn't alcohol forbidden in the Arab world?" How can there still be beer produced in Egypt? ”

Lao Xie said: "The situation in each country here is different, several countries on the Arabian Peninsula are the strictest, Egypt is okay, it is a secular Arab country, there are many Christians, as long as the restaurant has a liquor license, you can sell alcohol." ”

Among the attendants was a handsome Egyptian boy who knew Chinese and ran up and down diligently.

Qian Dan asked him curiously, "How long have you been learning Chinese?" ”

The guy smiled sincerely: "I've just been studying for three months, how is it?" I'm good at Chinese, right? ”

Qian Dan was impressed by him, because his level was far more than just being able to speak "mapo tofu" and understand "kung pao chicken".

Lao Xie became a smiling Buddha on the side: "Routine! When I came to Cairo, he was at this level, and he told me that he had only studied Chinese for three months. ”

Qian Dan wondered: "What kind of routine is this?" ”

Lao Xie said: "This is a persona, do you know what a persona is?" ”

He pulled the orange T-shirt that Qian Dan was wearing: "You can go and buy five of these clothes and wear the same one every day, this is called a character design." In the future, when you talk about Qian Dan, everyone will remember that the one who wears orange clothes. This buddy, when everyone said that he was the Egyptian waiter who liked China very much and was very talented in learning Chinese. ”

Qian Dan had an epiphany: "It makes sense, everyone is in the service industry, and setting a unique brand image is also a trick." ”

In Cairo in April, the sun is scorching during the day and the cool breeze is blowing at night.

After being full of wine and food, Qian Dan and Lao Xie did not take a taxi again, but walked to the office together.

The moon hangs high in the sky, and there are not a few pedestrians on the boulevard. The roadside houses are dimly lit and silent. From time to time, I would bump into a simple sentry box in the darkness, and from time to time a few armed policemen would appear in my sight.

It is said that the Arabs use cats as spiritual creatures, and Digra is also a paradise for wild cats, and they always encounter cats of all colors, sizes and expressions along the way.

The dormitory is located on 200th Street, which is less than 10 minutes' walk from the office, with an area of 13 or 40 square meters, with three bedrooms, two living rooms and two bathrooms, which is similar to the common house types in China:

After entering the door, you will walk to the right-hand side of the living room and dining room, where a set of leather sofas, a long coffee table, and a TV cabinet are placed; In the middle of the dining room is a rectangular table for six, with two floor-to-ceiling glass doors opening onto a balcony; Once inside, walk to the left-hand side, and along the aisle is the kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom.

One of the two roommates is Lao Xie, and the other is Lu Wentao, all three of whom were 30 years old that year. The day of Qian Dan's arrival happened to be a local public holiday, and on the liberation day of Sinai, Lu Wentao went to Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea for a vacation.

Lao Xie said that Lu Wentao has been resident in the "North Africa and Middle East" since 2001, and was just transferred from the subsidiary to the regional department at the beginning of the year.

On the living room table was the company's internal newspaper "Weizhongren Daily", on which there was an article signed "Lu Wentao", Qian Dan took the newspaper into his bedroom, lay on the bed and read the past in Tehran written by this roommate who had never met:

"At 10 o'clock in the evening of the snowy Chinese New Year's Eve, after completing customer visits and presentations with local employees, I finally returned to Ferenjak from the province after 12 hours of mountain travel.

The snow was knee-high, the snowflakes were still falling, and cars of all sizes were lying across the road, not moving. I jumped out of the car and staggered up the mountain, usually twenty minutes away, and it took me an hour to finally reach Building 3, where everyone gathered for Chinese New Year's Eve.

In the welcome, I toasted three glasses on an empty stomach, and immediately the wine surged, and the rest of the things were vague, I only remember telling people a lot of prideful and heart-to-heart words, and climbed to the top of the building in the snowstorm in the direction of home to kowtow to the old lady three times.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, I was awakened by the dazzling lights in my sleep, and I was surprised to find four strange men in strong suits standing in front of the bed, with pistols and micro charges in their hands. Robbery? If I looked closely, I saw that they were all wearing uniforms, and when I saw them searching house by house, I motioned for me to go downstairs with them, and I went downstairs in a cold sweat.

Downstairs, there was a little English talking and talking about the tape for a while, and I realized that they found that our garage door was unlocked when they were patrolling at night, and suspected that someone had burglarized and robbed, so they mobilized the mobile forces in this area, and a total of two pickup trucks and a police car came, full of twenty people.

When I was sending them out, I heard the bolt of the gun pull in a ruffle, and I realized that the guns in their hands were all safe.

Another night, it was nearly midnight, and I was discussing the materials for the next day's meeting with customers with local employees, when suddenly there was a violent shaking, an earthquake! Everyone crawled downstairs with a roll, looking at each other's embarrassed appearance of lack of shoes and clothes, and couldn't help laughing. On the street, while watching the locals drag their families and mouths all over the street, while waiting for the dawn, who knew that the house leak happened to rain overnight, and it really rained again.

Why are my memories always related to the night? Could it be that the memory of the night is particularly easy to touch the heartstrings? In the war against Iran, we have matured, become more sober, and become more sophisticated. Xu Wei sang, 'The other side of the ideal, maybe it doesn't exist, I will still walk on this road', yes, life is not perfect, but I still have to move forward. ”

The rented office building of "Weizhong" is next to the Plaza de Degra, which used to be the office building of an American company called "Lucent".

"Lucent's creativity, the driving force of communication", once what a bullish slogan, but unfortunately, the construction of the world's telecommunications network is in full swing, but the former scenery of "Lucent" is gradually disappearing in the rivers and lakes.

The office was empty on holiday. The day after arriving, Qian Dan and Lao Xie locked themselves in the conference room for a whole day, analyzing the top problems faced by the team and coping strategies.

The problems they encountered in the UAE's "ES Telecom" project were not just because of Lao Mo's cunning, but typical of the common problems they encountered throughout the region and even overseas.

The common problem of "TOP1": before 2004, "Weizhong" has been in the stage of silent cultivation in North Africa and the Middle East, the business volume is very small, and the technical service engineers responsible for after-sales are purely based on the project as a unit in several countries, once there is a new project to be delivered, the only thing to do is to call for artillery fire to the headquarters, that is, to ask people.

In 2004, the company's overseas market was soaring, and the business volume of various regions and departments was suddenly blowout, and the competition for "people" on each hill was like a wolf and a tiger, which made the entire technical service system under great pressure.

The "North Africa Middle East" software service department is suddenly faced with several times the previous business volume, and the human resources of the headquarters are being pulled by various regional departments in turn, highlighting the biggest problem is the lack of human resources and capabilities, and the lack of flexibility.

Coupled with the poor matching of resource plans from front-end sales to back-end delivery, the needs of engineers who need technical services after the project is signed are often like a smoking grenade suddenly thrown in the trenches, which catches everyone off guard and shouts.

The common problem of "TOP2": everyone is anxious to seize the opportunity to break the existing market pattern of overseas markets, but the ability to understand the needs of overseas customers is insufficient, resulting in always making random promises to customers before sales, and failing to complete the delivery in strict accordance with the promise after sales.

The customer here described Weizhong's marketing staff as "Mr. Yes", and he only said "Yes" to all the needs put forward by the customer; The R&D staff is "Mr. Delay", and always says "Delay" to the needs that the salesperson has promised to the customer, and the version plan cannot match the delivery plan promised by the contract; The service engineer is "Mr. Sorry", who always says "Sorry" to customers on the spot because of version delays and delivery delays.

Whether it is the lack of human resources and capabilities that are agreed by two people as "TOP1", or the disorderly demand management of "TOP2", it takes time to solve the problem from the "root", and it is necessary to promote the three-tier organization of the company, the regional department and the subsidiary to establish a talent supply mechanism and optimize the process of demand management.

But they can't wait for the company to improve, if the project fails, they will not be exempted from responsibility for the company's flaws, they must first come up with a "quick win" plan to treat the "symptoms".

They re-combed through the plans, schedules, risks, human resource matching, unclosed needs and issues for each project in the region, and made a tracking table.

The two discussed that Qian Dan would be responsible for the management of all delivery projects in the region, and the focus at the moment was to manage people and demand against the tracking table.

The office has five floors, and during recess, two people went up to the rooftop deck.

Lao Xie said: "The view above is good, I come up to look into the distance every day when I am tired of sitting below, and rest my eyes." ”

He stretched out his hand to the sky and pointed, "Tomorrow we will also rest, and I will take you there to play." ”

Qian Dan looked at his hand, and saw a plane crossing the blue sky, the weather was good, the view was very good, and the plane was far away, so it looked as if it was stationary, and it was very slowly crossing the sky.

He wondered, "Where to play?" ”

"Don't look at the sky, you can't go up to the sky, look over there!"

Qian Dan followed Lao Xie's finger again, lowered his gaze a little, and looked at it, and the Pyramid of Khufu suddenly appeared at the intersection of heaven and earth.