Chapter 48

Part two: The Allure of Business - Chapter 48: The general agent's representative

The first class on Friday afternoon was Li Zhifang's Chinese class. As soon as the bell rang, Zhang Ke clutched his stomach and left the classroom. After making a quick circuit of the restroom, he returned and asked Li Zhifang, who was leading the class in reading the text aloud, for sick leave. Outside the school gates, he hailed a taxi and headed straight for the Xinhaitong Building.

The office was packed with people, all holding copies of that day's Haizhou Daily. It seemed the half-page advertisement had worked well. The students hired as temporary help were struggling to cope. That day's advertisement had revealed the answer to the mystery, and those still coming to make inquiries were no longer merely curious residents. There were potential retailers, as well as plenty of wealthy and influential people interested in digital mobile phones.

Although the advertisement was intended to attract potential retailers, they also needed to compile complete information cards for the wealthy and influential people who called to inquire. If they could bring end-user resources directly under their own control as well, it would undoubtedly strengthen their position in negotiations for the agency rights.

Following the agreed procedures, they identified the potential retailers and first gave them a basic introduction to the technology. Then Yang Yun, Jiang Wei, and the others met with visitors individually to discuss their intentions for further cooperation, while Xu Si coordinated the overall operation.

When Zhang Ke entered the main office, he saw Liu Minghui escorting a middle-aged man out of the conference room, saying goodbye with a broad smile. Zhang Ke waved to him in greeting. Liu Minghui hurried over in quick, short steps and leaned close to his ear. "Shengxin Company's sales representative arrived around noon. She's in Manager Xu's office."

Zhang Ke had not explicitly told Liu Minghui and the others that he was still a student. Xu Si handled most of the office's affairs. Only after school could Zhang Ke come over to join them and discuss and review the day's work.

Liu Minghui and the others had not given it much thought. After all, they knew they could not match the ability Zhang Ke had shown when he first approached them. Age was not an issue, and it had never occurred to them that Zhang Ke was only sixteen at the time. When they later learned this fact, they all said in astonishment, "If you didn't look at Mr. Zhang's face and just listened to the way he spoke, how could you think he was under thirty? Oh, right, his voice did sound a little young..."

Back in 1994, far more illiterate and semi-literate people had made their fortunes than educated intellectuals, leading people to place little importance on education. In Haizhou, it was not uncommon to see wastrel sons who had dropped out of secondary school and been given money by their families to start companies. Besides, universities had not yet begun expanding enrollment in 1994. Young workers who had gone straight to work after vocational secondary school or high school were everywhere, and Zhang Ke looked somewhat more mature than they did.

Hearing that Shengxin Company's representative had arrived, Zhang Ke headed toward Xu Si's office. Behind him, Liu Minghui added, "Shengxin's representative looks rather stern."

Zhang Ke smiled and pushed open the door to Xu Si's office. Shengxin Company's sales representative had her back to him, her long hair tied behind her shoulders, exposing a fair neck. She wore a cement-gray pinstriped blouse and had sloping shoulders, a narrow waist, and a slender figure. Below it she wore a straight skirt, with a stretch of white, jade-smooth leg showing between her stockings and the hem. Zhang Ke remembered from their previous contact that this woman was called Ye Xiaotong. Unaware that he had entered, she was saying to Xu Si, "You're not Ericsson's agent in Haizhou. Who authorized you to run an advertisement like this in the media?"

Zhang Ke saw several newspapers lying on the desk beside her. That day's Haizhou Daily was on top.

"Do we need authorization to run an advertisement?" Zhang Ke knocked on the door.

Xu Si looked up with a charming smile. Clearly, this woman had been troubling her for quite some time, and she was a little tired.

Ye Xiaotong turned around warily. She was twenty-three or twenty-four, with delicate, attractive features. "Who is he?" she asked in surprise.

"It was my decision to become Ericsson's agent in Haizhou. I was the one who spoke to you on the phone last time."

"Zhang Ke..." Ye Xiaotong looked at him doubtfully. He was very different from the impression she had formed. From his voice and choice of words over the phone, she had pictured a man in his early thirties who ought to be outstanding in every respect. Why did he look so young in person?

Zhang Ke walked over and picked up the newspapers on the desk. They were the last three days' editions of the Haizhou Daily, all folded open to page three. "I'm Zhang Ke-the Ke meaning to scrupulously uphold good faith. Xu Si and I are jointly responsible for affairs here. I'd like to ask you something, Miss Ye: do we necessarily need authorization to run an advertisement like this? There's no explicit legal requirement for authorization. Motorola could sue us for defamation, though, because our advertisement states quite categorically that their 'brick phones' will soon become obsolete."

"Authorization... Anyone who sees this newspaper will assume you're Ericsson's agent in Haizhou, when in fact you aren't," Ye Xiaotong said hesitantly. "This is similar to certain plots you often see on television..."

"Fraud?" Zhang Ke laughed and spread the three newspapers out on the desk. "Analog communications technology is backward and poorly standardized. It's destined to be replaced by advanced digital communications technology with a higher degree of standardization. We firmly believe that, and it's the main message this advertisement conveys. We also believe Ericsson has the potential to surpass Motorola in the digital communications market. That's another message the advertisement conveys. We're simply promoting digital communications technology. You could even call it a public-service advertisement."

Surpass Motorola? Ye Xiaotong was taken aback by Zhang Ke's confident tone. Even within Shengxin Company, Ericsson's general agent for eastern China, no one thought Ericsson could surpass Motorola in the communications market. After all, Motorola held more than 90 percent of the domestic communications market in 1994.

Ericsson did not surpass Motorola in the domestic communications market until 1997, while Motorola's market share had still exceeded 70 percent the previous year. The industry called it a miracle of the communications market.

These things could not be explained yet. Nor was Zhang Ke saying this to daunt Ye Xiaotong. The key was to persuade her that the office was capable of serving as Ericsson's channel distributor in Haizhou.

"Our purpose in running this advertisement isn't fraud, but to find partners," Zhang Ke said. "As I told you during our previous phone conversation, we're only Haiyu Company's Haizhou office. The funds available to us are limited, and we can't meet your company's capital requirements for stocking large quantities of goods. But we don't want to give up this opportunity, so we ran this advertisement to seek partners throughout Haizhou..." He pointed to the crowd standing in the main office. "Do you see them, Miss Ye? This advertisement has made them aware of the business opportunities digital communications will bring. Many of them are small business owners who sell pagers, and they're sensitive to opportunities like this. But either they lack the resources to secure Ericsson's agency rights on their own, or they feel entering the digital mobile phone market now is a little too risky. Our aim is to bring them together as our partners. Together, as partners, they can both provide the considerable funds needed to stock goods and form the final sales network..."

Recalling the scene later, Ye Xiaotong said, "It never occurred to me then that Zhang Ke was just a kid who'd only just started high school. After listening to that grand speech of his, I was completely bowled over..."