Chapter 154: The Longest Road Walked Is the Routine

Bruce Zhou, a name that sounded like it came from where in America, Zhou Hualiang was considered the second generation who immigrated to America.

Zhou Hualiang's father was from Hong Kong, and after coming to America, he met Zhou Hualiang's mother, a Mexican woman.

Over the years, Zhou Hualiang had returned to Hong Kong several times with his father, and had also been to the mainland several times. His Cantonese and Mandarin were average, but he could understand them.

Zhou Hualiang's father lived in New York's Tang Renjie, and it took Zhou Hualiang a full fifteen years to move out of Tang Renjie.

In terms of ethnicity in America, although it wouldn't be explicitly stated, basically everyone hugged together. Chinese Americans had gathered in Tang Renjie in previous years, Koreans lived in Koreatown, Italian Americans lived in Italian communities, African Americans piled up in slums, etc.

Not only in life, but also in work, it was the same. Like the Indian Americans who had climbed very fast in these years, as long as one Indian became an executive, if they didn't manage it, then it wouldn't take long for this company to be occupied by Indian Americans, and other ethnicities would also be the same, tending to recruit people of their own ethnicity.

Of course, breaking ethnicity and circles was not impossible; it required success and a lot of US dollars. Just like the founder of Wang Laboratories, who was once one of the top ten richest people in America, and those African American singers, ball stars, etc., after they became famous and had net worth, they would also be recognized and flattered by different ethnicities in America.

Because at that time, what Americans recognized was no longer their skin color, ethnicity, accent, gender, or belief, but the US dollars in their hands!

Zhou Hualiang felt that he could enter the Dongling Gao Ke America office, which was probably also related to his ethnicity. After joining the job, Zhou Hualiang made up for the information about his new employer, Dongling Gao Ke, and knew what kind of company this was.

To be honest, after reading Dongling Gao Ke's information and watching the interview Li Dongling once accepted on New York TV in America, Zhou Hualiang had no doubt that if Dongling Gao Ke was in Silicon Valley, it would have been blown up by the media long ago, becoming the darling of the tech industry in America, and even becoming the second super-rich Chinese American in America after Wang An was possible!

Of course, it was also possible that before it grew up, it was swallowed clean. As a professional manager, Zhou Hualiang was no stranger to the ways of those investment banks and venture capital companies on Wall Street.

"I have already made an appointment with President Lei Mengde!"

After entering the Atlantic Bell company, which ranked in the top three in the American telecommunications industry, Zhou Hualiang said directly to the front desk.

After being led into a lounge, Zhou Hualiang recalled the call from the headquarters on the other side of the Pacific last night. For this trip to the Pacific Bell company, Zhou Hualiang was confident.

Although Zhou Hualiang was only one of many ordinary professional managers in America before and had not worked in a Fortune 500 company in America, yesterday he talked to the Dongling Gao Ke headquarters, and Li Dongling gave Zhou Hualiang quite a few temporary rights to act on his own. And this time negotiating with Pacific Bell, the headquarters also gave Zhou Hualiang multiple chips.

Recalling Zhang Ao's fame in Europe, Zhou Hualiang couldn't help but have a few expectations. This was not Zhou Hualiang flattering Zhang Ao or anything, but the battle between Shenzhou and Ximen in Europe was indeed listed in quite a few business school cases for study!

Quite a few international giants were referring to and learning from Shenzhou's strategy in Europe, and some brands had already achieved results, which made Zhang Ao also have quite a bit of fame in the circle of professional managers in America.

Now, the opportunity was placed in front of Zhou Hualiang. If he could defeat Ximen in America, then he said, he might also have the opportunity to leap into becoming one of the famous professional managers in America. High annual salary, power, and status would all be within reach!

Just when various thoughts were turning in Zhou Hualiang's brain, an assistant lady led Zhou Hualiang into the office of the President of Atlantic Bell.

"Bruce Zhou, you came on behalf of Shenzhou telephone?!"

The forty-something Lei Mengde was exceptionally energetic; anyone who met him could sense his irrepressible, surging ambition at first glance.

Closing the information about Zhou Hualiang in his hand, Lei Mengde said directly to Zhou Hualiang after seeing him, "You have fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, I have to take a plane to Washington to attend a telecommunications industry meeting hosted by the President's advisor!"

"I came this time because there is a very important matter to discuss with President Lei Mengde..."

"Fourteen minutes!"

Looking at Lei Mengde who was only staring at his watch to time, Zhou Hualiang cursed inwardly, then said directly, "Shenzhou telephone wants to reach a cooperation with Atlantic Bell company, letting Atlantic Bell sell Shenzhou, Coolpad, and Simon's three digital cordless telephones on behalf of them!"

"Oh?!"

Hearing this, Lei Mengde became interested. The war of digital cordless telephones was of course also being paid attention to by the telecommunications industry, but to tell the truth, it was not paid too much attention to. No matter how digital cordless telephones played, they were still telephones. The impact on telecommunications operators was limited.

"How does Shenzhou telephone want to cooperate?!" Lei Mengde asked. Telecommunications operators selling telephones, big brothers, mobile phones, was not a rare thing; it had started long ago.

Zhou Hualiang looked at Lei Mengde. "Like the cooperation between Shenzhou telephone and Best Buy, Target, and Costco, Atlantic Bell company can get 20% of the revenue for every Shenzhou, Coolpad, or Simon telephone sold!"

Hearing this profit sharing, Lei Mengde was a bit surprised. The profit of digital cordless telephones was a bit higher than he imagined.

But Lei Mengde didn't agree at the first time, but said with a smile, "This sharing is indeed not low, but to tell the truth, if Atlantic Bell finds Ximen, I think the other party will also give such profit sharing!

After finishing, Lei Mengde took a look at his watch. "I am a bit interested in this cooperation. You can go to the Atlantic Bell sales department to discuss this matter. But now, I need to go catch the plane. Making the President's advisor wait is not a gentleman's thing!"

"President Lei Mengde, the cooperation between Shenzhou telephone and Atlantic Bell is not just that. We have another set of cooperation plans!"

Seeing that Lei Mengde was about to leave, Zhou Hualiang hurriedly called him back again. Seeing Lei Mengde turn his head, Zhou Hualiang said directly, "Shenzhou telephone, besides the revenue sharing with Atlantic Bell,

Lei Mengde looked at Zhou Hualiang in surprise. Hearing this strategy of giving away phones for topping up airtime truly stunned him, and he put back the coat he had been preparing to put on.

"Tell the flight crew that today's departure is postponed!"

Lei Mengde picked up the phone on the desk and watched as Zhou Hualiang called his assistant outside. "Also, have the people in Washington explain the situation to the President's advisor!"

"All my activities for today are canceled, including a meeting with Mr. President. I hope you won't let me down!"

Lei Mengde said, looking at Zhou Hualiang, and then asked, "What do you mean by the 'give away a phone for topping up airtime' you just mentioned?!"

There was excitement in Lei Mengde's tone. He hadn't been interested when it was just mentioned that Atlantic Bell would sell phones for Shenzhou, but as soon as it involved airtime and opening new accounts, he became immediately interested—this was something that concerned Atlantic Bell.

"It is just as it sounds. Shenzhou can cooperate with Atlantic Bell for its two brands, Coolpad and Simon. As long as a user opens a new phone account with Atlantic Bell or tops up a certain amount of airtime, we can install a Coolpad or Simon digital cordless phone for the user for free, based on the amount topped up!"

"Hiss."

Lei Mengde couldn't help but hiss. This was the first time he had seen this kind of play. Taking advantage of a bargain was the nature of all ethnic groups worldwide; it wasn't just certain special groups that liked it. In a few years, there would even be 'zero-dollar shopping' here...

If they really gave away digital cordless phones for opening new accounts and topping up airtime, Lei Mengde could imagine the scene: in a short period, Atlantic Bell's user base would see an explosive surge, and they could recoup a massive amount of cash flow all at once!

Zhou Hualiang could see the look of excitement in Lei Mengde's eyes. The reason he chose to cooperate with Atlantic Bell first instead of other telecom companies was partly because of Lei Mengde; in the American telecom industry, Lei Mengde and Atlantic Bell were currently the most active players.

Staring at Zhou Hualiang, Lei Mengde smiled and said, "A very genius idea. Shenzhou Telephone being able to defeat Ximen really wasn't just empty talk. But if we hold such an event, cost is the key. If Shenzhou Telephone's pricing is too high, the risk will be entirely on us!"

"So," a strong sense of pressure emanated from Lei Mengde, "at what price can Shenzhou Telephone supply us with the products?"

Enduring the pressure brought by the other party, Zhou Hualiang met Lei Mengde's gaze. "Shenzhou brand phones must be sold at the original price; they cannot be discounted!

But for Coolpad phones, we can supply them to Atlantic Bell at a price of... 70 dollars, and Simon appliances at 45 dollars!"

Lei Mengde gasped again. This price was truly ruthless, far exceeding his expectations. He even wanted to ask if the parent company of Shenzhou Telephone had gone crazy. At such prices, could Shenzhou Telephone even recover its costs? Unless all the components were self-produced by Dongling Gao Ke.

Thinking of this, Lei Mengde's expression suddenly changed. When he looked at Zhou Hualiang again, his look was somewhat suspicious and uncertain. He suspected that Dongling Gao Ke was truly capable of self-producing the key components for digital cordless phones; otherwise, they wouldn't dare to play like this!

However, with this being the case, by stocking at such prices, Atlantic Bell could definitely sell the units. Holding the 'top up airtime, get a phone' event felt very promising to him.

"Happy cooperation!"

Lei Mengde reached out his hand toward Zhou Hualiang. No matter what Dongling Gao Ke wanted to play at, the 'top up airtime, get a phone' event was definitely beneficial for Atlantic Bell. "You will soon see Shenzhou, Coolpad, and Simon phones appearing in Atlantic Bell's retail stores!"

"We hope that Atlantic Bell can settle the payments for Shenzhou's goods on a quarterly basis!"

"Deal!"

(End of this chapter)