Chapter 195 The Sweet Date Is Yours to Give
"Besides establishing the Brand Development Department, it's also necessary to set up an independent Public Relations Department. As Old Wan said, the carrier sales channels are still very important right now. We can't abandon them, nor can we afford to," Su Yuanshan said, his tone calm and steady. "But this raises another issue—cooperating with carriers inevitably means participating in their promotions and discount campaigns."
"This would harm our brand image. It would easily cause consumers to misunderstand and think Yuanxin phones are discount products."
"That's why, when we first proposed the cooperation, Senior Brother Wang Rui and I suggested setting up a separate subsidiary and sub-brand to work with the carriers. This new brand would take the mid-to-low-end route, while Yuanxin's main brand stayed positioned as high-end," Su Yuanshan explained with a wry smile. "But now, the market has changed faster than our plans. There's less than a month before the official rollout of GSM in China."
The benefits of a market-driven approach had immediately become apparent in the speed and planning of base station construction.
Yuanxin had signed extremely favorable deals with the newly formed Mobile Communications Company, which allowed them to set up base stations in twenty-five cities simultaneously and complete them before the Chinese New Year.
Launching GSM service before the New Year was clearly a political task.
But as Wan Yongliang had said, while Yuanxin was working hard building the network, foreign competitors were already sneaking in to reap the benefits.
At the moment, Yuanxin's production capacity was not enough. They had only about 100,000 phones in inventory.
And yet, the domestic mobile communications market had grown from 18,000 subscribers in 1990 to an astonishing 1.2 million.
Based on market projections, that number would quadruple in the next two years.
This was also why, in his previous life, the Postal and Telecommunications Bureau clung so tightly to analog networks and didn't want to let go.
(Note: The number of "big brother" mobile phones at the time was truly staggering—ordinary people had a lot of money! By 1996, China's domestic mobile phone production had reached 4.6 million units.)
These 100,000 phones would sell out in minutes once released.
Wan Yongliang laughed. "Looks like I'll be spending my New Year's holiday at the mobile factory."
"Heh, it's not that bad," Su Yuanshan said, smiling. "You'll still get to celebrate New Year. We're about to double production lines."
The moment Su Yuanshan got the news, he had immediately contacted Wang Chaoxin, asking him to prepare the Special Zone's pager production line for conversion into mobile phone assembly.
Wang had been eagerly waiting for this.
After all, he knew Yuanxin was developing a caller ID system.
Once caller ID became standard, pagers would lose their last advantage and be phased out.
There would be nothing left for them but price wars at the very low end of the market.
Only now did Wang fully understand why, two and a half years ago, when Su Yuanshan had invited him to build a pager factory, Su had already said they would one day eliminate the pager business.
This was Su Yuanshan's understanding of technological trends—something that only a true genius could predict.
"Although we were caught off guard, it's really just that they'll grab a little more money from the mainland market," Su Yuanshan said, looking at his two senior brothers. "Senior Brother Qin, Senior Brother Tian—Yuanxin's future depends on you two. Can you give me a more accurate timeline for the integrated baseband chip?"
After the meeting ended, Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing stayed behind in the conference room.
"Jingjie, you don't mind me stepping on your toes, right?" Su Yuanshan pulled his chair a little closer to her.
"I wish you'd chair meetings every day," Chen Jing said with a grin. She stretched out her hand. "Let me see the notes you took."
"It's just a few ideas," Su Yuanshan said, handing her his notebook.
Inside, in tiny, dense writing, he had filled page after page, yet when he summarized, he had reduced it all to twenty characters: brand management, capacity expansion, market deployment, channel management, future R&D.
Chen Jing was genuinely surprised. "Your summarization skills are really strong... did you study sales management?"
"I studied nothing," Su Yuanshan said, leaning back in his chair and stretching. "But even if I never ate pork, I've seen pigs walk. Hanging out with you every day, I'm bound to pick up a few things."
"You little rascal! Who are you calling a pig?" Chen Jing picked up the notebook, threatening to throw it at him.
"I was wrong!" Su Yuanshan said quickly, pretending to surrender. "NullReferenceException!"
Chen Jing dropped the notebook and huffed.
But soon she put away her playful mood and turned serious.
"You stripped Old Wan of the advertising department. Shouldn't you give him a sweet date too?"
Su Yuanshan nodded.
He had noticed it too.
Although Wan Yongliang had hidden it well, it was clear that after suggesting the importance of advertising and public relations, his department had been immediately stripped away and elevated to a director-level unit.
Of course he would feel a bit bitter.
"He deserves it," Su Yuanshan said. "Old Wan's talent was wasted doing pure marketing. He actually has good strategic vision. I'm planning to promote him to vice president, in charge of marketing, sales, and brand management."
Chen Jing blinked in surprise, then smiled knowingly.
A month ago, she had already advised Su Yuanshan that Yuanxin's corporate structure was maturing, and it was time to elevate a few vice presidents.
Back then, Su Yuanshan had said to wait until the shareholding structure adjustments were complete.
Given that most of Yuanxin's growth units were semi-autonomous business divisions destined for future spinoffs, it made sense to keep the headquarters lean until now.
"And now you're willing to promote people?"
"I've always been willing," Su Yuanshan said, grinning. "But back then, promoting a bunch of idle generals would've caused resentment. Now that they're heading into battle, promotions will be justified."
He smiled even more brightly.
"And besides, Sister Jing, you're the one who gets to promote him."
"Hmm?"
"As the board representative, I trust you completely," he said.
"There's no need for me to personally adjust your team. Old Wan's position as VP will make him your deputy—your right hand. You handle it."
Chen Jing looked at Su Yuanshan, blinked slowly, then smiled softly.
"Okay!"
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