Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3145 Red Lantern Effect

Cook finally couldn't bear it anymore.

Although iPhone 6 was a global hit, creating an unprecedented sales myth, Cook breathed a sigh of relief under the heavy pressure of changing product concepts. But he did not expect that something went wrong with the cloud photo album, and it even offended Hollywood!
If it just offends Hollywood, there is nothing to worry about.

In the past few years, Hollywood has been submissive. Facing the tech giants in Silicon Valley, Hollywood doesn't even have the courage to get angry, and dares not confront them head-on. And Robert Iger is a director of Apple, which is like planting his own people in Hollywood.

But unexpectedly, something strange happened!
An uninvited guest showed up!
This led to Robert Iger's betrayal, resignation, and he even led Hollywood to set up a crappy rights protection committee to demand an explanation from Apple.

What the hell is this?

The photos were stolen because the female stars set overly simple passwords, which led to them being easily cracked by hackers. What does this have to do with Apple?
What a trouble!

Cook called Robert Iger several times, but the communication was ineffective. Iger was determined not to get involved and would not change his decision to resign from Apple's board. He had no choice but to bite the bullet and go to Zhou Buqi, the instigator of this incident.

Zhou Buqi returned to the headquarters of Ziweixing International in Silicon Valley and waited for Cook's visit.

"Yaxian, Cook is here. Can you help me go and greet him? Bring him to see me in 15 minutes."

Zhou Buqi is having a meeting with several senior executives.

Ning Yaxian smiled gently and walked away. Her slender waist, perky buttocks, slightly permed curly hair, and charming back made several executives linger. They were all older people and had little interest in the beautiful secretaries in their early twenties around the big boss. They felt that Assistant Ning's charming beauty was really irresistible.

Kurian suggested, "How about we stop this meeting first?"

Zhou Buqi said: "No, let him wait for a while. Where were we talking about just now?"

Kurian smiled and said, "You were talking about the 'Red Lantern Effect' and that it was related to a movie."

"Oh yeah, a movie. I don't know if you've seen it. It's a classic movie, Raise the Red Lantern."

As soon as Zhou Buqi came back, he held this executive meeting, and the main topic was the ideas of technology marketing.

Ziweixing International attaches great importance to the development of technology, and its R&D budget this year has reached US$70 billion.

What is the concept of 70 billion US dollars?
It is three times that of Facebook, twice that of Amazon, more than Qualcomm and Huawei, only US$3 billion less than Microsoft, and US$20 billion less than Google.

If we can make good use of technology marketing strategies, we can convert at least 20% of R&D funds into marketing value.

"Raise the Red Lantern?" Xu Liangjie was a little amused. "What does this mean?"

Lu Qi also felt that Boss Zhou really had a comprehensive understanding of the matter.

Foreigners have not seen this movie, but Chinese people have basically seen it. Zhou Buqi briefly introduced it: "This movie mainly tells the story of a large family, an ancient polygamous family. Every night, when the male owner goes to a wife's room to rest, he will hang a red lantern in front of her door. In ancient times, the biggest resource for women to win favor was giving birth to children, so they all wanted to hang red lanterns to attract men. At this time, women would come up with a way to show off."

Lu Qi had seen the movie and said, "Yes, pregnancy. Some concubines are not pregnant but say they are. When the good news of pregnancy comes out, the male owner will be very happy and will often hang red lanterns in front of her door and go to her room at night. Over time, even if she is not pregnant, she will eventually become pregnant."

Seeing that some foreigners didn't quite understand, Xu Liangjie explained it to them in more common language.

A technical executive named Nord said, "Oh, this is just like when I applied for project funding in college. It is impossible to complete the project first and then apply for funding. You have to express your beautiful vision of the product first, and then the funding will be approved."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Yes, that's what I mean. Technology marketing is to make better public expressions of our technology products. She is obviously not pregnant, but if she keeps shouting about it, maybe the fake will become real and she will really be pregnant. This is what I call the 'red lantern' effect."

"Inspiration comes from the bursts of energy. Today's social platforms are a great place for gathering inspiration because they bring together talented people. We can announce some scientific research projects at the project establishment stage. If they spark public discussion, maybe our product team and technical team can draw nourishment from everyone's discussion."

Tang Binchen quickly understood what Boss Zhou meant.

Zhou Buqi said: "Yes, now many technology companies are making products in secret. If it is a low-threshold purely creative project, it makes sense to keep it secret and develop it secretly to gain the first-mover advantage. But many scientific research projects have very high thresholds. If you ask your competitors to do it, they won't do it. No one else is doing it, only we are doing it, this is a unique opportunity to show ourselves!"

Tang Binchen said: "Sharing and interacting with the public is actually a great boost to the confidence of the scientific research team. The times have changed, and obscurity is no longer the mainstream of the times. Showing the achievements of scientific research talents and letting more people know about them can also help enhance their sense of accomplishment."

This is very important. Xu Liangjie said solemnly, "Good! This is a good idea! It is indeed the case. The main reason for the conflict between many scientific research talents and company management is that their work results have not been effectively recognized. Many projects were killed in the laboratory stage, and some projects have been completed but were abandoned on the eve of going online. For the company, this is certainly a huge waste of costs, but for every project participant, it is actually a bigger blow. The project they have worked hard on for a long time has been abandoned, which is also a denial of their work results."

Zhou Buqi agreed, "That's true. Share it and let more people know about their achievements. Even if it's an abandoned project, they have worked hard without any credit. This expression in the name of the company is itself a recognition and praise of their work results. If they receive good reviews and compliments from the outside world, it can resolve their sense of failure and give them spiritual satisfaction. This can effectively resolve conflicts within the company."

In a technology company, the most difficult people to manage are the technology people.

The higher the level, the harder it is to manage.

Many technology professionals consider issues from a technology perspective and fail to analyze the pros and cons from a higher level of the company, which often leads to conflicts in concepts. Many excellent technical talents therefore leave and go to other companies.

By using the company's means to allow them to gain praise, expectations and recognition from the outside world, this inner hostility can be alleviated.

Lu Qi pondered and said, "If that's the case, we have to express some projects that the public can understand. Projects that are too professional will not be understood by the outside world even if they are expressed. Just like Musk, the biggest topic is going to Mars, not the modification of rocket thrusters, engine upgrades, or the replacement of aerospace materials."

Zhou Buqi said: "Let's try it out first. No one has any experience on how to do it. If this path is successful, Ziweixing International will be a pioneer in the marketing field and explore a better development path for the industry."

……

The meeting was over and Cook came.

His face was full of sorrow.

There was a hint of resentment in the look he gave Zhou Buqi.