Top of the big era

Zhou Buqi's two collaborations with Carl Icahn were both pleasant, but the man's reputation was so bad that he kept him at a distance and tried not to get too close, lest his reputation be affected.

Carl Icahn is different.

He already regarded Zhou Buqi as his old friend.

He even made a surprising proposal.

"Zhou, what do you think of Icahn?"

Carl Icahn has returned to New York. He is too old to be able to travel for a long time. He mostly handles work by phone or email with the help of a secretary.

Zhou Buqi didn't know what he meant and said with a smile: "Of course it is a great company. I know the data. As an investment company, Icahn's annualized return is higher than Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway." Be high.”

Carl Icahn asked: "Would you be interested?"

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi was slightly startled, "What are you interested in?"

Carl Icahn said: "I am already old. What I worry about most is not future generations, but my life's hard work. Over the years, I have been hoping to find someone who can do this job."

Zhou Buqi was shocked, "Huh? You are qualified for...which job? Karl, you are in good health. I think you are no different from a guy in his twenties."

Carl Icahn smiled and said: "It looks fine, but there are many minor problems. The doctor said that I should pay attention to my diet. If I accidentally suck a mouthful of saliva into my trachea, I might suffocate to death."

Zhou Buqi was a bit broken.

Depend on!

Is there such a person?

Not only is he cruel to others, he is also cruel to himself, and he curses himself like this.

Carl Icahn smiled and said: "You don't have to be too hasty to make a decision. I'm just giving you an idea. For now, I can still live for a few years. When it really doesn't work out in the future, I am more inclined to put Icahn The company is entrusted to you.”

Zhou Buqi quickly refused, "That's really not possible. I suggest you put more energy into finding other people. I'm already busy enough, you know."

"I'm just a chairman. You can be in charge of the board of directors." Carl Icahn tried his best to fight for it.

"No, no, I have to manage several businesses now, and I am already very stressed. I have already made a promise to PayPal that as long as PayPal's market value exceeds 300 billion US dollars, I will submit my resignation."

"Zhou, you are too modest."

Carl Icahn laughed.

Zhou Buqi said seriously: "I'm not joking, it's true, I don't have that much energy...and you know, my interest is the Internet, and I am not very interested in financial investment."

Carl Icahn settled for the next best thing, "How about joining the board of directors? Be an independent director?"

Zhou Buqi thought to himself that maybe this was his true intention.

Still, he refused.

At first I was not interested.

Secondly, I don’t want to have too much involvement.

Carl Icahn knew his notoriety and the status of the other party, so he could only sigh and change the subject, "By the way, do you have a candidate for PayPal's new CEO?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Not yet, we may ask McKinsey Consulting for help. If we really can't find it, we can let David Marcus serve for a while."

"This..." Carl Icahn hesitated.

"What's wrong?"

"Better to replace it."

"Um?"

"Last time at Pierre's house, I didn't give him a good look. I criticized PayPal, which he runs, and said some unpleasant words. I guess... it might have some impact on his psychology."

Carl Icahn really has such a deterrent effect.

A few words can send chills down the spine of a company's executives or directors.

Then, he explained, "I thought you had made up your mind to replace me, so I took action in advance. I will bear the bad reputation, I don't care. You go and be a good person, this will allow you to better handle the dispute with the management." relation."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Okay, I understand, thank you."

When it comes to selecting a new CEO for PayPal, Zhou Buqi will definitely not do it by someone else. There is also a human touch here. The new CEO will listen more to whoever elected him or appointed him.

The position of chairman seems very high-level, but that's because there are shares behind it.

Most of the time, the chairman owns a lot of shares.

It relies on shares to strengthen power.

If the transcendent power cannot be demonstrated in the shares, the chairman can easily become a decoration, the organizer of the board of directors, and the senior secretary of the CEO or president.

Just like when Steve Jobs founded Apple.

After bringing in some investors, he lost absolute power over his shares.

He also lost control of the company.

Apple hired a new president, and Jobs was only chairman and vice president of engineering. Later, the president even removed him from his position as vice president.

Jobs became a chairman with no real power at all.

He begged hard, hoping to be in charge of a small project, but the president didn't trust him and refused.

Jobs was completely on the bench.

There was really no other way, so he left Apple with the title of Apple's chairman.

Another example is Apple in the post-Jobs era.

This is known as the "Cook era."

But Cook is only Apple's CEO, he has never been Apple's chairman. The chairman of Apple has no power at all. Cook can remove him and even reorganize the entire Apple board of directors with just one sentence.

Zhou Buqi is not the founder of PayPal and does not have many advantages in terms of shares.

If he wants to control PayPal, it is best to obtain the support of the chairman and management.

Power should be obtained through "democratic" means, not through "dictatorship". This is different from other companies under Zhou Buqi, so you have to be more cautious when handling it.

Fortunately, Carl Icahn is quite loyal.

It's up to him to offend management.

Then Zhou Buqi comes out as a good guy and cleans up the mess, and he can gain wider support.

On this day, Zhou Buqi went to the Oracle Arena to watch a game in the morning.

Really not interested.

I feel that NBA games are like performances, the ball is not played well, the music in the stadium is like a nightclub, and the atmosphere of the game is far inferior to that of a big party.

Still enjoy watching football.

He has already made arrangements to go to Manchester to watch Manchester United's Champions League game in the next few days. The opponent is the powerful Barcelona.

Now it’s time to select people for PayPal.

That afternoon, Zhou Buqi went to the company and asked Lu Qi whether he needed to purchase consulting services from McKinsey or find a well-known headhunting company for help.

After Lu Qi heard this, he smiled and said, "No! No need at all!"

"Do you have any idea?"

"I have a list here."

"Inappropriate! Inappropriate!"

Zhou Buqi shook his head repeatedly.

He had already planned to send current Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson back to PayPal and let him resume his role as PayPal's CEO.

However, this is a last resort.

First of all, Yahoo needs to develop now. Thompson has done a good job, and his cooperation with Zheng Xiaoli has sent out many positive signals. Yahoo's development cannot be delayed for the sake of PayPal.

Another more important point is the vigilance of eBay and PayPal's board of directors and management.

Many people have a worry.

PayPal will be a listed independent company, but don’t become a subsidiary of Ziweixing International!

Although both companies have the same chairman, their businesses are clearly separate and on the same level.

Cooperation is possible, but there is no distinction between superior and inferior.

If PayPal is short of people, it will be delegated from Ziweixing International... After a long time, wouldn't PayPal become Ziweixing International's territory?

Then it loses its independence and becomes like a subsidiary of Ziweixing International.

This is not okay.

Zhou Buqi said: "Ziweixing wants to strengthen cooperation with PayPal, especially Helo. But the two parties must be independent entities and cannot be mixed together."

Lu Qi smiled and said, "You don't want to send people from our side. I am short of manpower here. If you ask me to send people, I can't send them out!"

"Oh?" Zhou Buqi was very interested, "What's going on?"

Lu Ji said: "When doing Helo payment, because this product is very important and will become one of the core functional products of Helo in the future, the company attaches great importance to it. In order to select a qualified person in charge of Helo payment business People, we’re doing a very broad search both inside and outside the company.”

Zhou Buqi was very happy, "Is there anyone from outside?"

Lu Qi smiled and said, "Yes, I met a lot of outsiders at that time, maybe a dozen or so. Some were recommended by friends, and some were recommended by headhunting companies. But in the end, everyone thought that we should promote internally, with people who know better about the Internet. To make financial products, rather than having someone who understands finance make Internet products.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "This idea is correct."

Lu Ji said: "I think it has something to do with the positioning of the product. Helo payment is just a tool product and a subordinate product of Helo. If PayPal wants to develop more Internet financial services, it must have a financial understanding of the United States. It needs to be led by people who know enough about the industry. After all, we don’t know much about it.”

Zhou Buqi said thoughtfully: "PayPal should also be based on the Internet."

Lu Qi had a different opinion, saying: "I think it's different. Helo payment is just a tool, which is mainly based on the Internet and supplemented by finance. PayPal will be a listed company and wants to comprehensively develop Internet financial products, but the Internet is simply Yes, the difficult thing is to open up the relationship between the Internet and the traditional financial industry. Especially in the European and American markets, the financial industry has been developed for hundreds of years and is stable and strong. We still have to start with cooperation and promote it slowly. The Internet lacks the foundation for subversion."

"Well," Zhou Buqi didn't insist, "Do you have a good candidate here?"

Lu Qi smiled and said, "There are three of them that are pretty good. I can help you contact them. You go and meet them."

"I..." Zhou Buqi didn't want to participate in this round of interviews, "Give me the list and I'll handle it."

Boss Ma has returned to China.

Gotta call him back!

He will be responsible for this.