Chapter 46

Part two: The Allure of Business. Chapter 46: Still bluffing

The original plan had been to recruit an office clerk, a cashier, and two salespeople, and that was what the recruitment advertisement had said. But all four people who stayed had applied for sales positions.

Liu Minghui, the youngest of the four, was a 1993 marketing graduate of East China University of Science and Technology. His previous employer had not paid wages for more than six months. He had no intention of staking everything on that one job; he simply had not found a suitable alternative.

Zhou Yiping had graduated from Haizhou University's mechanical engineering department in 1991. He lacked the patience to keep doing technical work at his previous company, and when he saw the recruitment advertisement in the Haizhou Daily offering generous pay and benefits, he came to try his luck.

Yang Yun, who had graduated from Haizhou Business College in 1990, had the most marketing experience of the four. Because of that experience, Zhang Ke had talked with him a little longer during the interview. He felt that everything Zhang Ke said struck a chord with him, and he was also the one who persuaded the other three to put aside their doubts.

Jiang Wei was the only woman among the four, with a figure even more pronounced than Xu Si's. A few pale freckles around her eyes and brows only added to her mature charm, and her eyes were captivating. She was only thirty-one, but she had already taken internal retirement from her former workplace, much to the envy of Xu Si and the others. Zhang Ke, however, found nothing unusual about it. With connections higher up, someone fresh out of kindergarten could arrange retirement and collect a pension. Only later did he learn that her father-in-law was a deputy director of the Municipal Health Bureau, and that she had previously worked at the Chengnan District Finance Bureau. This year, while competing with someone for a full section-chief-level post, she had been the target of rumors that she was having an affair with a district leader. Her husband had forced her to take internal retirement from the finance bureau, threatening divorce otherwise. She did not care much about the pay; she simply did not want to sit at home collecting a pension and waiting to grow old.

Zhang Ke called all four into the conference room and had them sit around the table. "We've more or less filled our staffing needs. There's no time set aside for sales training. We have things that need doing right away..." He nudged Xu Si by the shoulders, seating her beside him, and said, "Xu Si will handle the office's day-to-day affairs. I generally can't get away, but I'll make time to attend all your marketing meetings until you can all carry out the business independently..."

Xu Si tilted her head up to look at Zhang Ke and saw his confident expression. From his manner, words, and actions, it was impossible to believe he was still a boy who had just started high school. From the recruitment interviews until now, Yang Yun, Jiang Wei, and the others had never once questioned his age. It was truly hard to believe.

Seeing Xu Si looking up at him, Zhang Ke smiled at her. This was no time to show uncertainty. He pulled the mobile whiteboard from the corner of the conference room to the front. This whiteboard, along with many of their office supplies, had been wheedled out of suppliers on the pretext of a trial. He used magnets to attach pictures of the Ericsson GH388 to the board, pictures he had cut out of telecommunications magazines. "We'll soon secure the agency rights for this digital mobile phone, but at present, we don't have a complete distribution network in Haizhou..."

Xu Si froze for a moment. The actual situation was that they would only have a chance of securing Ericsson's agency rights in Haizhou after establishing a complete distribution network and obtaining some funding to stock it. Zhang Ke had no intention of telling their four new recruits the truth.

Leaning against the back of her chair, Xu Si turned to look at Zhang Ke. Leaving his age aside, he had handsome, well-defined features and a firm, sharp gaze, a face she could keep looking at. Xu Si was startled by the thought that had suddenly surfaced in her mind.

Zhang Ke did not explain the technical characteristics of analog and digital communications in detail; that was not something he could make clear in a short time. He simply told them, "China Unicom and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications' Mobile Communications Bureau are both building digital communications networks this year. The 'brick phones' everyone commonly sees now are analog mobile phones, and they'll soon be phased out by digital ones. At present, Motorola sells its telecommunications equipment through local post offices and holds the overwhelming majority of the telecommunications equipment market. For international manufacturers like Ericsson to enter China, they can't compete with Motorola through the postal system's purchasing and sales network. Their only option is a multilevel agency system with a master distributor and regional agents, using distributors' control over retail outlets to quickly get their products into major and medium-sized cities across the country. Ericsson's Chinese branch has already adopted this approach and appointed its East China agent early this year. We're about to become Ericsson's distribution agent in Haizhou City, so the four of you here need to work with Xu Si and me to establish a distribution network throughout Haizhou City in the shortest possible time."

The office not only lacked distribution channels, but also the funding needed to stock them. Even an ordinary brick phone cost twenty or thirty thousand yuan these days, and digital mobile phones would not be much cheaper. Even if they could establish distribution channels in a short time, the money needed to stock them would certainly be no small sum.

Watching Zhang Ke's calm, confident face, Xu Si was swept up in his enthusiasm and seemed to believe these difficulties would all be readily resolved. Of course, given his family's connections in Haizhou, finding another well-funded organization to work with would not be too difficult.

Zhang Ke turned his head and noticed the gentleness in Xu Si's gaze. "Did I say something wrong?"

Xu Si shook her head. "We don't know the first thing about digital communications. Should we ask the company to send an engineer over to give us a basic introduction?"

After several days of Zhang Ke's explanations, Xu Si had developed a relatively complete understanding of digital communications. But she did not have much confidence in Zhang Ke, so she was unsure of what she had learned so far. She felt she would be more certain if an engineer from Haiyu Company explained it.

"Oh, I've already spoken to Wanqing. The engineer will arrive tonight, but can only stay in Haizhou for two days."

From Zhang Ke's tone, Xu Si gathered that he had long been certain Liu Minghui and the other three would not be scared off by the five-thousand-yuan employment deposit, and had therefore contacted Haiyu Company in advance to send a training engineer. Remembering his confident expression yesterday when he had said, "I never considered the possibility of failure," she smiled.

Zhang Ke restrained himself from looking into Xu Si's bewitching eyes and continued, "We have very little time to establish our distribution network. I want to secure half of page three in the Haizhou Daily for advertisements on three consecutive days, at the lowest possible cost. Through the ads, we'll get retailers to come to us."

Xu Si pressed her fingers against her forehead. Yang Yun, who had extensive marketing experience, asked, "Even the few of us have only a very superficial impression of digital mobile phones. If we want to make a strong impression on ordinary people and attract them to become Ericsson retailers, I'm afraid three days of advertising won't have much effect."

"Then we'll have to put some thought into the advertising copy!" Zhang Ke decisively dismissed Yang Yun's doubts. They had no resources at this early stage; if they lost confidence too, the whole thing really might fall through. "Right now, we need to secure the page-three advertising space in the Haizhou Daily from Wednesday through Friday... We're a little pressed for time. Who's confident they can negotiate it?"

Zhang Ke looked at Liu Minghui and the other three.

The Haizhou Daily might already have filled all its pages for the following week. Squeezing in half a page of advertising on three consecutive days would be difficult to arrange even at a very high price, let alone when Zhang Ke had said from the outset that they needed to secure the space as cheaply as possible.

Xu Si knew they only had the twenty thousand yuan in employment deposits that Liu Minghui and the other three had handed over that day, yet there was so much to do.

"How about I give it a try?" Jiang Wei said. "My husband works in the Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department. He might be able to find someone he knows at the Daily."

At the Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department, Zhang Ke only knew its head, Yang Wenqing. Yang Wenqing was a little old man in his early fifties, clearly not Jiang Wei's husband. The two deputy heads seemed quite old as well; Zhang Ke had toasted them, but had not remembered their names. Having only just met Jiang Wei, he could hardly ask too many detailed questions. He thought she must have been fairly confident to offer. Otherwise, he would have to drag Du Fei into this ahead of time or go straight to Wanqing for help to resolve the problem.