Top of the big era

Masayoshi Son pondered and said: "No matter what, if you cooperate with Michael Bloomberg to promote the adjustment of New York's economic structure to the technology industry, this is likely to become an industry adjustment worth 10 trillion US dollars."

Zhou Buqi thinks the figure of 100,000 US dollars is scary, but his thinking is right. "Technology needs innovation. The industrial structure in the Greater Bay Area is too single, which means the innovation structure is weak. In terms of innovation intensity, there must be It has to be a metropolis with a rich and diverse industrial structure such as New York, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Paris, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.”

Son Zhengyi said with a smile: "Compared with those Silicon Valley giants, Ziweixing's entry... is a little late."

If it comes to a deep understanding of the Internet, Masayoshi Son is certainly far inferior to Zhou Buqi, but his macro judgment on the industry's general trends and economic structure is not bad at all.

If Ziweixing International wants to become an Internet giant in overseas markets, it must have its own territory.

The West Coast is already in total darkness.

MSI entered the market late to begin with, and it would be extremely difficult to catch up and surpass the technology overlords on the West Coast such as Microsoft, Google, and Oracle.

Maybe it can compete in terms of market value.

But a powerful dragon cannot overwhelm a local snake.

At this time, there is really no need for Ziweixing to compete with these local snakes in this bloody market. It is better to jump out of the west coast and go to the east coast to open up a new world!

Ziweixing International takes the lead, together with Changyou, Spotify, Yammer, Ziweixing Global, Pinterest, Netflix, Airbnb, Tumblr, Ziweixing Digital Media and other companies in the "Zwei Galaxy", to jointly promote the development of New York's technology industry!

As long as the technology industry in New York develops, Ziweixing International will be the local industry leader, the overlord, and the local leader!

Zhou Buqi said: "If the west is not bright, the east is bright. It is too tiring to struggle on the west coast, so it is better to go to the east coast to open up a brand new market and become the boss."

Son Zhengyi smiled and said: "Then you have to work hard, focus on New York, and invest in more start-up companies. Take advantage of the fact that New York's technology market is just growing, start early, and make arrangements early."

"Well, we're working on it." Zhou Buqi nodded. This idea was surprisingly consistent with his, and then he frowned slightly, "You're not talking about WeWork, are you? I will definitely not participate in this project. As I said just now, this Sharing economy platforms like this must transform from channels to self-operation. If WeWork wants to be self-operated, it must spend huge sums of money to acquire enough commercial office buildings and office buildings. How much will it cost?"

Son waved his hand and said, "These are all trivial matters."

Zhou Buqi said: "How fast the Internet is developing. Not to mention other companies, Ziweixing is developing several online collaborative office products. It can be foreseen that under the general trend of digital office in the future, working from home will It is likely to become a trend. WeWork’s shared office model is completely contrary to the mainstream of technological development.”

"Work from home?" Son Zhengyi shook his head and did not think this was an option for business development. "Working from home is not possible. The disadvantages are too great. The company's management should not be too loose. This is why I did not invest in Netflix." reason."

In the past few years, Zhou Buqi has become the big boss behind Netflix.

Son Zhengyi has long been interested in his talent and has been keeping an eye on him.

Including the Ziweixing Global project.

This is an entertainment group.

At that time, SoftBank prepared a large sum of cash. The plan was to acquire the American operator T-Mobile, copy SoftBank's successful experience as an operator in Japan to the United States, and lead T-Mobile to recovery.

At this time, Zhou Buqi appeared.

He wants to set up an entertainment group. This is not a business, but a formation. He must rely on buying and buying along the way to continuously acquire some entertainment assets. Through continuous mergers and acquisitions and business reorganization, he will create an entertainment group comparable to Time Warner and Disney. Entertainment empire.

This is a very bold plan.

Zhou Buqi, an Internet person, wants to cross-industry into the entertainment industry. For ordinary investors, this plan is simply unscrupulous and the risk is too high.

So much so that no large investment institution was willing to follow up.

But Masayoshi Son was just so "sightless". He had been staring at Zhou Buqi for several years. After some weighing, he gave up his existing plan to acquire T-Mobile and invested the money he saved in Zhou Buqi. Tools, let him take risks in the entertainment industry.

Then, it achieved unexpected and unprecedented success.

Ziweixing Global Group will go public next year, and its market value is likely to reach US$100 billion!

However, Son also has his own judgment. Not all projects that Zhou Buqi participates in will be followed up. There is one very important project that he has not followed up on, and that is Netflix.

In fact, for a while, SoftBank was on the sidelines and wanted to buy Netflix stock in a big way, but later gave up.

The reason is that after due diligence, it was discovered that Netflix's management philosophy is "unsociable".

"Nafli? What's wrong with Netflix?"

Zhou Buqi put down the tea cup, a little surprised. His investment in Netflix was completely foresight, and there really was no complicated due diligence.

Masayoshi Son was surprised, "There are big problems with Netflix's management system, don't you know?"

"Is it big?" Zhou Buqi really doesn't know. He is just the big boss behind Netflix, but the voting rights are all with Hastings. His right to speak is limited and he is too lazy to understand so many details. " I know Netflix has a loose management structure."

Son Zhengyi said: "Not only is it loose, Netflix is ​​completely a negative example and is anti-Silicon Valley culture."

Zhou Buqi now understands better. He has been to Netflix too many times. “Well, Netflix is ​​really different. Technology companies in Silicon Valley are full of fitness equipment, game consoles, and coffee machines. Netflix has nothing, and office is office.”

Son Zhengyi said: "That's okay. The key is Netflix's management model. They put work benefits on loose management. Employees don't clock in and out, they can leave when they want, and they can take their own vacations at any time. , do not require leadership approval.”

“Performance Management Approach.”

Zhou Buqi also knew a little bit about it and didn't find it too strange.

The main reason is that foresight plays a huge role. He knows what great achievements Netflix will achieve in the future. Pushing forward from a correct result, it is easy to assume that all previous derivation is correct.

Masayoshi Son didn’t know the results. He could only deduce the results through the process, which could easily lead to different opinions. “During the Internet bubble period of the 1990s, a large number of performance appraisal-led management models emerged. Later, these companies All dead."

Zhou Buqi is relatively young, and he really doesn’t know much about what Silicon Valley looked like in the 1990s.

Masayoshi Son is different. During the Internet bubble in the 1990s, he was the biggest trendsetter in Silicon Valley. Relying on the Internet bubble, he even briefly became the world's richest man.

However, relying on the biggest advantage of foresight, Zhou Buqi already knew the results, so he would look at the derivation process easily and said with a smile: "If other companies can't do it, it doesn't mean that Netflix can't do it. Netflix is ​​now The world’s most valuable streaming media company.”

Masayoshi Son shook his head, with a relatively firm self-understanding, "Management must be centralized. The more centralized it is, the easier it is to manage. This is consistent with the development law of the Internet. The early Internet had a strong decentralization attribute. ...Well, Netflix’s performance-based management model is a decentralized management concept. But this is not possible. Look at the current Internet landscape. It is the same all over the world. It is highly centralized. Only centralization Only by doing so can it be more easily managed and constrained. Freedom and supervision must have limits. If it goes to any extreme, trouble will easily occur."

This is a look at Netflix from a higher perspective. No matter how good a company is, it is impossible to withstand the general trend of the times. It must go with the trend rather than sail against the current.

Internet giants are constantly engaging in mergers and acquisitions, becoming stronger, larger and monopolistic. This is the general trend.

For regulators, the decentralized model is simply too difficult to manage. In this case, it is better to follow the trend and integrate these decentralized technology companies into centralized technology giants.

This makes supervision much easier.

The same goes for company management. If you want to reduce management complexity, you must design the system in a centralized direction, rather than letting yourself go too far like Netflix.

Performance-based management means that the company sets a target for employees.

As long as the employee completes the quota, it will be fine.

As for when employees come to work, when they get off work, when they work, when they take vacations...it doesn't matter, let employees decide for themselves.

Just complete the tasks assigned by the company on time and on time.

There is no doubt that this is a more avant-garde, better and more advanced management concept, which can truly be people-oriented and show the greatest respect for employees.

But as Masayoshi Son said, this loose decentralized model will greatly increase the difficulty of management and even cause the collapse of the entire management system.

Zhou Buqi was silent for a long time.

He thinks more.

Netflix’s model really has big management risks!

Son was even alarmist, saying, “Many great companies have failed due to improper internal management.”

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "Great companies are inseparable from continuous internal reform and self-correction. Netflix's 'governing by doing nothing' does have risks. But I believe they can do a good job in internal risk control, and if they find signs, they will Adjust quickly."

Having said that, Zhou Buqi was very concerned about it.

The next day, he made a special trip to Netflix to conduct research.

The results of the survey are similar to what Son said.

Netflix is ​​indeed very "free" in its management system, with very few constraints on employees, and a loose and disorganized organizational style from top to bottom.

Due to the success of the past few years, Hastings seemed very confident and said with a smile: "Many consulting agencies and financial writers have already conducted research. It is estimated that there will be many business management types in the market about interpreting Netflix culture. books."

The emergence of so many books introducing Netflix is ​​actually a kind of publicity for Netflix, which will further strengthen the Netflix brand. Brand is goodwill, the largest intangible asset.

Zhou Buqi doesn't want to be too strong, because he can't judge whether Netflix's culture is good or bad.

Different companies have different management concepts and corporate cultures.

Netflix has its own characteristics.

It is impossible to ask Netflix based on the standards of MSI or SoftBank.

Moreover, Netflix's "governing by doing nothing" model also has a great competitive advantage in talent competition. Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "Our country has an ancient traditional culture, which is that when the emperor bows his head, heroes will emerge in large numbers all over the world. . It probably means something similar to Netflix’s culture, which is to attract the best talents by delegating enough authority to the lower levels.”

Hastings is very happy, "Yes, in terms of competition for talent, Netflix will not be worse than many large companies even when it was very weak in the past few years. The more fierce the competition in Silicon Valley, the more Netflix can stand out. . I believe that more and more companies will imitate Netflix’s management model in the future. Weishu developed by Ziweixing is a very good online collaborative office product, which has been unanimously praised by our employees, who all say it is Best office product they have ever used.”

Zhou Buqi was even happier.

Weishu belongs to the Ziweiyun business group, and the overseas version is managed by Kurian. This is what he is best at and is worthy of trust.

However, Weishu’s online collaborative office model also has drawbacks.

Combined with Netflix culture, the disadvantages will be more obvious.

Zhou Buqi invited Hastings to the office, avoiding other people, so that he could be frank and honest, and said very cautiously: "There is a management hidden danger. You must be vigilant and prepare a solution in advance."

"Huh?" Hastings's expression suddenly became serious, "Okay, you say it."

This is Boss Zhou.

Who in the entire technology industry dares to turn a deaf ear to his words?

Zhou Buqi said: "In recent years, the Internet industry has developed very fast. Especially in the past ten years, Internet talents have exploded, and this industry has been called the hottest industry in the past ten years."

Hastings nodded, "Yes, talent is blowing out."

Zhou Buqi said: "The most numerous of them are Asian talents."

Hastings hesitated for a moment, but said sincerely: "This has something to do with the absurd and outdated social background and racial environment here in the United States. White people can be lawyers, doctors, and bankers on Wall Street, but for For Asians, their range of choices is very limited. Many people say that Asian students are good at math, but I don’t think so. This is determined by the general environment. Because the industry most chosen by Asians is technology, and their families have been nurturing it since childhood. Learn math well. For white families, math is not that important at all, they have more choices.”

This topic is very complicated. Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "Not only in the United States, but also all over the world, Asians are working hard to learn mathematics well, especially China and India, the two most populous countries. This is mainly related to the employment situation. In our case There is a saying in the country, 'Learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well, and you will not be afraid of traveling all over the world.' The main reason is that it is easier to find a job in this field. This is determined by the economic foundation, let alone this... we will not discuss this. I want to say What’s more, in the past ten years, China and India, the two most populous countries, have produced too many or even a surplus of Internet professionals.”

Hastings is convinced, "Indeed, half of the computer talents in Silicon Valley are Asian, and the proportion of Asians in Netflix has even reached 55%. And I can boldly judge that the proportion of Asians in Silicon Valley will become higher and higher. ."

Zhou Buqi said: "For Netflix, this is the biggest hidden danger!"