"It will definitely take a long time to do this. Your approach is actually right. It must be commercialized first. If it doesn't even have commercial value, how can it be used for civilian use, unless you just want it to be used for entertainment purposes? , that can avoid competition from commercial computers." Chen Zhiwen continued.
"No, a personal computer has many uses and must not be turned into a gaming device." Jobs shook his head quickly.
"The idea is right, then we need to continue working hard." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, although even in later generations, the main function of mobile phones and computers is entertainment, but it is absolutely impossible to only have entertainment. If you choose this route, it will basically be I can only show off my strength for a while.
Jobs's eyes shone brightly and he asked: "Mr. Chen, I don't know, would you like to invest in my company?"
"Investment is not a problem, the problem is that you need to make a suitable product that can truly be regarded as a personal computer product." Chen Zhiwen said.
Jobs asked: "What Mr. Chen means is, let us make a suitable product and you will invest again?"
"That's not true. It's okay to invest today, but you have to form a company. The Apple name you just mentioned is enough. Then you need a complete development plan, R&D plan, goals, etc., and you must have a development route for a modern company. Then there’s recruiting, Woz is considered a part-time employee, and you need to go out to find business, so it will be too slow if this continues." Chen Zhiwen said calmly.
Since you have decided not to grab Apple's slogan of "the first company to propose personal computers", you will naturally choose to invest. And since you have invested, you will naturally need to help them, at least in the early stages, to develop faster. In theory, , you can go public earlier, and you can get returns earlier.
"Okay, then I will register the company tomorrow, no, this afternoon." Jobs said with a happy smile.
"Have you ever thought about how much funding is needed?" Chen Zhiwen then asked.
"At least 500,000 US dollars." Jobs thought for a while and said: "No matter what type of computer, it must rely on large-scale mass production to reduce costs. This is the same as the automobile industry, and this requires a large investment, plus The cost of developing new computers and promoting them.”
"It's about the same. I guess 500,000 US dollars may not be enough, but let's invest this much first." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. In fact, Jobs didn't know much about computers. Compared with Woz, Bill Gates and others, he More like Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, this type of person is not strong in technology, but has a keen sense of the market, and then they have very good talents to promote this project.
"Have you determined your internal shareholding ratio?" Chen Zhiwen then asked.
Jobs replied: "We haven't registered the company yet, because we wanted to wait until we found stable customers before registering the company, but we have already thought about the share ratio. Woz and I each have 50%. If Mr. Chen If we invest, how about 33.3% for each of the three of us?”
"The same ratio for three people?" Chen Zhiwen smiled inwardly, but still said: "Okay, after you register the company, I will transfer the funds into the account. In addition, you need to find a suitable manager to manage the company. "
Woz is a technology expert, while Jobs is a market-sensitive and good at developing the market. For a start-up company, the only thing it lacks is an excellent management talent. If this person is in place, he can build the framework of the entire company. In the early stages of development, this may not be important, but once it reaches a certain scale, it is necessary.
"Okay, let's discuss it together then." Jobs said very excitedly. After receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment, his business plan could finally develop normally.
Although the first-generation Apple computer is of great historical significance, its use value is not very high. Chen Zhiwen is naturally not interested in this and said: "If you develop a suitable new computer in the future, I will let Costco buy it in bulk." , this will be good for you and me."
Costco definitely needs to gradually go electronic. Although the current electronic technology is relatively low-level, it is much better than manual data recording. As long as the electronic management system can further reduce logistics costs, storage costs, and labor costs, it will It is an extremely effective new development method, and Costco can also rely on high-quality cash flow to expand more rapidly.
"That's great." Jobs said with a smile. He had obtained another big customer in the future. This was a stroke of genius for Apple.
After watching in the study for a while, Chen Zhiwen and Woz came to the balcony on the second floor. The sun was not bad today. Although it was a bit cold, it was bearable.
"Eric, it doesn't seem right for me to do two jobs at the same time, right?" Woz said a little embarrassed.
"It's nothing. You know that Midea is not very busy. There are no new games to be developed at the moment. You are just giving guidance on Costco's supermarket management system development plan. The database processing is not yours. Hardware development is my strength. You can arrange your time reasonably. If Apple needs you, just come over. Besides, I am also a shareholder of Apple. If you make Apple computers, I can also benefit from it. "Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
Regarding the computer age, his prophet is very useful, but it is also a computer after 1985, not the ancient computers of today. He does not know any of the problems, technology and market changes, etc., and besides, this era itself It is also the beginning of many giants competing for the personal computer market. Falling into it will only cause you a headache.
Instead of doing this, it is better to use your current capital to appropriately purchase shares of some famous brands. For example, Apple now can get hundreds of millions of dollars in returns in a few years. And when Apple falls into crisis, Dell should also start Started a business.
The computer itself is only a small part of the computer industry chain. Desktop control systems, various office software, entertainment software, and signal equipment were the bigger players in the 1980s. It is actually very simple to profit from them. Just wait for these giants to appear. Just find a way to invest in the company, or wait until they go public before acquiring shares on the secondary market.
The premise of all this is that the golden finger of the prophet is still useful. The beginning of the entire computer industry chain was when Apple began to propose the concept of personal computers. Therefore, no matter what, Chen Zhiwen will not compete for this reputation, because once he gets it, history will change. Yes, completely changed.
Let’s not talk about the various side effects, and let’s not talk about whether we can compete with giants such as HP and IBM in the future. The most likely outcome is that new companies such as Weisoft, Cisco, and Dell will not appear again, so the loss will be too great. Well, most of the technology cheats of the 1980s have expired.
It is also for this reason that even though Chen Zhiwen knew that the graphical interface system was the best reason for the popularization of personal computers, he did not tell Jobs and others that what he needed was for history to develop along the original route as much as possible, and that he would make profits through investment in the process. Give it a push.
Woz nodded and said, "That's okay."
"I have long said that you will become a multi-millionaire, and maybe you will become a billionaire soon." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
He is not a stingy person either. To the Costco team, he distributes shares once a year, which is basically about 2%. This is what they deserve. For Woz, the same is actually the case. Giving shares is not a problem. But in his plan, he just needs Woz to start a business for Apple. In this way, Chen Zhiwen can also profit from it, and Woz can also get hundreds of millions of dollars in return. This is what capable people deserve. .
And if Chen Zhiwen is asked to give him so much money, it is really impossible. Even if Midea monopolizes the arcade market in the next few years, it will only be able to earn a few hundred million US dollars at most. Then with the development of the market in history, it can be controlled by itself. A good direction is to let the market provide benefits to its employees for itself. Even for employees in Hong Kong, Chen Zhiwen also encourages and supports interest-free loans to let them buy houses. The market gives him bonuses, which is still very good.
"Apple's future is so good?" Woz asked.
"Apple's future may not be certain, but personal computers must be. Whether you can catch it or not depends on your ability." Chen Zhiwen said with a faint smile.
For the trillion-dollar market, it is impossible to say that there is no interest, but we need to stabilize our prophetic advantage and not overly change the history of recent years. When the computer market changes in Apple, IBM, HP and other new companies, After rolling it into an interface he is familiar with, Midea will naturally join in. Not to mention other things, just investing in Apple now and getting hundreds of millions of dollars in return in a few years will be enough for him to develop new technologies on a large scale and promote it on a large scale. .
Moreover, in the terminal retail market, Costco and Wal-Mart are still weak at present, but in a few years, they will be completely different.
"Jobs is very capable, I think he will succeed." Woz nodded and said.
"He is indeed capable, but you are not bad either. One of the three parties provides funds, one provides technology, and one provides market. In addition, this is a new market that has not yet appeared. It is indeed not difficult to succeed." Chen Zhiwen smiled. Said: "Christmas is coming soon. After the new year, your main job is to make Apple's new computer first. For the supermarket management system, you can help recruit the right talents. They will not differentiate the interview candidates. Ability."
"Will the supermarket management system be considered Costco's or Midea's from now on?" Woz then asked.
"For Midea, this system is actually not technically difficult. It mainly requires constant optimization based on the actual situation, which takes a long time. So now we use Costco to gain relevant experience. When it matures, Midea can use this experience to Creating a management system suitable for global supermarkets is also a very good market, but the development time will be in years, so there is no rush." Chen Zhiwen said.
The enterprise management system, also known as ERP in later generations, is Oracle's top software. A piece of software can easily cost millions of dollars, but it is very effective for all types of enterprises. However, the research and development time is too long and consumes a lot of resources. In an era when various technologies have not yet reached the requirements in Chen Zhiwen's mind, it is a good choice for Midea to spend a little energy on this kind of data, especially by borrowing Costco's platform, which does not cost money and can also save Costco. Cost, kill two birds with one stone.
"I understand, then I have to recruit enough talents." Woz nodded and said. Although he doesn't understand management and marketing, he understands technology. Maybe he is not very proficient in databases, but how many people are needed? , he still knows, after all, he has worked at HP for several years.
"You don't have to save money on hiring. You can hire as many as you need. The same is true here at Apple. Only when there are people can we develop new computers as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen said.
(End of chapter)
