King of Technology: A Fresh Start in 1983

"I have to record and organize a lot of data from newspapers and radio broadcasts; there's a wealth of information in there."

He Fan continued, "By the way, I heard that the post and telecommunications bureau is setting up a DDN data leased line. As soon as they launch it, I'll apply for it immediately."

"If you connect directly to the securities company's computer system, it's real-time. With this powerful tool, it's hard not to make money."

After excitedly envisioning his future, He Fan asked, "Since you two both work in the computer industry, could you give me some advice? Should I buy an IBM or a Tiangong?"

Zhan Yiling did not speak.

Zhang Wei assumed she didn't want to promote herself, so he said, "If we're talking about performance, IBM is definitely better."

"If we consider the price, Tiangong is definitely more cost-effective."

"Then what about cost-effectiveness? Which one is better?" He Fan pressed.

Zhang Wei laughed and said, "That's hard to say. Rich people will think IBM is better, while poor people will think Tiangong is good."

He Fan pondered for a moment, then looked at Zhan Yiling and said, "How about I just buy Tiangong instead?"

"You IBM are a large and powerful company, you don't care whether I have a mere machine or not."

"If I were to buy IBM, Zhang Wei would probably be cursing me for prioritizing my girlfriend over my friends and neglecting his business."

Zhan Yiling chuckled: "He Fan, you're so funny. Why would I care whether you buy an IBM or not?"

"Honestly, even if Tiangong sells a thousand [Xuanyuan] units at once, IBM will remain the same and will not be affected in the slightest."

"But for Zhang Wei and his team, even if they sell a hundred fewer units, let alone a thousand fewer, that would be a different story."

She immediately realized that what she said was inappropriate.

He hurriedly said to Zhang Wei, "Zhang Wei, please don't misunderstand. I didn't mean anything by it. I was just expressing my feelings about my work recently."

"I'm increasingly finding that IBM's mechanisms are problematic; they're too rigid and inflexible. No wonder some people call it a state-owned enterprise among foreign companies."

"For example, I painstakingly conducted a lot of market research..."

"We conducted a correlation analysis on the price changes and sales trends of IBM, HP, AST, CPQ, Lenovo, Inspur, and Great Wall."

"Then I sent the analysis results and my suggestions to the headquarters in the United States, hoping that they would help IBM develop its pricing system in China."

"But can you imagine what the headquarters' reply was?"

"Two points. First, IBM has never considered Chinese domestic brands as competitors."

"To put it simply, they don't take Chinese domestic brands seriously at all."

"Because IBM's prices are globally uniform and they do not set separate prices for the Chinese market."

Therefore, in IBM's benchmark, only international brands such as HP, AST, and CPQ are included, and the few Chinese companies are not even listed..."

"What is Benchmark?" He Fan interrupted.

"You could understand it as something like a reference axis or a frame of reference!"

"When deciding how much to sell our product, we always need to refer to how much our competitors are selling it for."

Zhang Wei couldn't help but ask, "So, what models and prices Lenovo, Inspur, and Great Wall launch in China will have absolutely no impact on IBM? Am I understanding correctly?"

"That's right, that's the truth."

Zhan Yiling continued, "Secondly, headquarters told me that while taking competitive factors into account, IBM's personal computer prices depend on two indicators: cost and profit."

"To put it bluntly, headquarters first calculates the total cost and expenses."

"Add the money you plan to earn this year, and then divide it by the number of computers you plan to sell this year to get the price of each computer."

He Fan immediately laughed: "That's too naive! Is this some kind of wishful thinking scheme?"

Zhan Yiling gave a wry smile and asked Zhang Wei, "Zhang Wei, Tiangong doesn't use the same method, does it?"

At this moment, Zhang Wei was thinking about something...

When asked by Zhan Yiling, he quickly replied, "Oh, almost, but a little more flexible."

"Our department can set the market price, and we can give our agents a relatively large fluctuation range. That's about all we can do."

"IBM won't do that; we don't allow agents or distributors to make any changes to the price."

Zhan Yiling continued, "Once discovered, the agent's qualification will be immediately revoked, and all rewards and rebates will be cancelled."

"It makes me feel like a market vendor wearing a red armband all day long..."

"We inspected each stall to see if anyone had adjusted their prices without authorization. Honestly, it was pretty pointless."

He Fan then joked, "Pretty boring? Can you tell me which farmers' market manager earns 10,000 yuan a month? I'd like to go there too."

"Ugh! I was just using an example."

Zhan Yiling sighed, "I think IBM's mechanism is very problematic, but there's nothing I can do. I'm just a nobody with no influence."

Zhang Wei laughed and said, "Then your job must be pretty easy, you don't have to constantly notify the distributors to adjust prices, right..."

"Prices are only adjusted a few times a year. When a new model comes out, the price of the older model will be lowered."

Zhan Yiling continued, "Then there's the year-end sales boosting, where they offer rebates and discounts."

At this moment, Zhang Wei was rubbing his hands together, and he seemed to be in a very good mood.

Just then, the stir-fried beef noodles were served.

He repeatedly invited He Fan and Zhan Yiling to share it, saying it was his favorite.

Using both chopsticks and a porcelain spoon, he picked up a large mouthful and stuffed it into his mouth.

Squinting my eyes to savor it...

As he chewed, he frowned and muttered in disappointment, "Isn't Da San Yuan supposed to be a top-tier Cantonese restaurant? Why does their stir-fried beef noodles taste like this?"

"It wasn't as good as the little shop at the alley entrance that Zhao Xiaobo took me to eat at when I first came to Shenzhen..."

Upon hearing Zhang Wei's words, He Fan immediately became unhappy: "You are only fit to eat at those small shops on the street corners; you are not fit for such a high-class setting."

...

On Monday, Zhang Wei excitedly went to Chen Jianghe's office as soon as he started work.

As soon as he entered, he said, "Mr. Chen, it seems our previous concerns are no longer a problem. We can go all out and get things done."

Chen Jianghe gestured for Zhang Wei to close the door and asked in a low voice, "Which one are you referring to?"

"Last time we discussed how Tiangong Computer opened up the market with ultra-low prices, everyone was worried that if international brands, led by IBM, also lowered their prices in response..."

Zhang Wei continued, "We might end up losing money and just getting publicity for others."

"Because at roughly the same price, consumers prefer brand names; a discount of two or three thousand is more attractive than a discount of ten or eight thousand."

"All the popularity we managed to generate has gone to them."

"They can find another excuse to raise the price afterwards."

"But it will be difficult for us to launch a second wave of attacks with low prices."