Chapter 316 Business Leader (Two in One)

September 3rd, Monday.

Sina CEO Wang Yan walked into the newly decorated president's office. When he saw President Fang making a phone call, he put down the documents in his hands, sat on the sofa and poured himself a cup of tea.

Wang Yan sipped her tea and looked at the newspaper that had obviously been read on the coffee table, a little funny.

The pages of these newspapers are all about Sina reports.

Some are reviewing the battle for control, some are worried about Sina's future development, some are reprimanding Fang Zhuo for a hostile takeover, and some are speculating on insider trading... Anyway, there are all these, and it's exciting to watch.

"Brother Wang, what's going on?" Fang Zhuo put away his phone and asked the CEO who came in.

Wang Yan was not in a hurry, picked out a newspaper and said with a smile: "Mr. Fang, this report lists you as the Internet representative of the year. You will be attending the China Business Leaders Annual Meeting next week."

Fang Zhuo shook his head: "I saw it, there are Zhang Chaoyang and others, they are all suffering, haha, the market value of the listed companies has dropped by 90%, and the unlisted companies are wondering where to make money all day long."

"The company's situation here may only be as good as a penguin's, but Ma Huateng is under a lot of pressure. His money burning in recent years has left a psychological shadow."

Wang Yan nodded, Penguin is indeed developing very well, and their portal has also gained some scale. This is a future competitor.

"Mr. Fang, you are going to New York in the middle of the year, right?"

"Well, there is an important negotiation with Yi Ke. I'm afraid I will have to stay for ten days and a half. Logically speaking, I have just taken over Sina, so this is not good." Fang Zhuo looked at Wang Yan, "Fortunately, Brother Wang is here , I am still very relieved.”

Wang Yan slandered a few words and asked about the itinerary: "Are you going to New York after the annual leaders' meeting?"

"After the meeting, I will go back to Shanghai first. Yike has sponsored a scholarship at Jiaotong University. This is the first year for me to show up." After Fang Zhuo said this, a big smile appeared on his face and he said proudly, "My sister did well in the exam this year and was admitted to Jiaotong University. She just happened to go back and give her some advice."

Wang Yan didn't feel anything. He was from the University of Paris, and he was usually surrounded by people who had restored diplomatic relations with the Qing Dynasty. He said slightly perfunctorily: "Congratulations, it's great."

Fang Zhuo laughed "hehe" twice and was in a very happy mood.

The two chatted for a few more words, and the atmosphere in the office was very relaxed.

Wang Yan felt that the heat was enough, so he mentioned the business of his trip and said as casually as possible: "Mr. Fang, I heard that you asked about the situation of Sina.com and want to make some changes to the website?"

"Yes." Fang Zhuo said, "The company's third-quarter financial report will be released at the end of September, which will basically turn losses into profits. We will also do some new things on our website to see if it can stimulate the stock price in the secondary market."

Three things to do when a new official takes office!

Wang Yan can understand this. He truly realized the power of a CEO after the extraordinary shareholders' meeting, and also made some similar actions in the department. But Fang Zhuo is different. Sina.com is the foundation of Sina...

If this is done randomly...

Wang Yan doesn’t want to be evaluated by future generations as “the CEO who led to the company’s decline after the power struggle at Sina.”

"Mr. Fang, please be cautious when making changes to the website," he advised. "Our Sina hotline has been able to inject enough momentum. This is a good thing and a new trend. After all, Sina is the main business that everyone has been used to in the past few years."

Fang Zhuo's face turned serious.

He asked a little sensitively: "Is this what you mean?"

Just as Wang Yan was about to speak, he suddenly realized the second half of the question - is this what you meant or what you meant?

He was shocked and replied: "I heard about this and came to ask, but no one else came to me to respond."

"What kind of company is Sina?" Fang Zhuo nodded slightly and said seriously, "It is a content-driven company. The reason why Sina hotline can develop revenue so quickly is because it can reach us through the operator's text messages. Promote good content to users.”

"The Internet is developing so fast. Let alone a year, it can be completely transformed in half a year or a few months, especially at this stage."

"Content has two sides, one is to obtain good content, which Sina has always been good at, and the other is to receive it from users."

Fang Zhuo explained his intention without saying a word: "I don't want to take a drastic action against Sina, but I want to improve the user aspect."

“When users see the content, their reactions, thoughts, and tendencies, Sina has room for improvement.”

"I talked to a few deputy directors the day before yesterday, and they still agreed with my point of view. Sina is now making a small attempt to change the comment area to a 'post' function."

"If the effect is really bad, we will change it back immediately."

Fang Zhuo has a low profile. As for the current portals, he found that they were generally rough before he even thought about Sina. The once-famous "NetEase Post" has not yet been launched.

However, "NetEase Posts" is not only a functional promotion, but also requires more product design and community adjustments, which should be determined based on the actual situation.

Now, everyone is focusing on the front end, and user experience has not been paid attention to. This is an opportunity to further expand Sina's brand position.

"In this way..." Wang Yan hesitated, hearing Mr. Fang's firm attitude, and had to say, "Mr. Fang, be careful. Many people are watching Sina now."

"That's just a good time to show them Sina's new scene." Fang Zhuo said with a smile.

Wang Yan stopped saying anything and started thinking about how to make this change together.

Sina's president and CEO discussed the position of middle and senior management for a while, which involved Duan Yongji's original supporters. However, unlike before, it was better to maintain a tolerant attitude when the overall situation was determined.

In the first week of September, Sina, whose control was changed, did not fluctuate much, and the outside world's curiosity about this portal website and speculation about the popular power struggle gradually faded.

Sina's internal structure remained unchanged. Fang Zhuo still served as the president of Sina Hotline after getting the position of Sina's president, indicating his strong support for this new business.

Sina Hotline did not lose face, and quickly brought a large amount of revenue to Sina from China Mobile and China Unicom. However, compared with TOM.com, which had already laid out its layout, Sina could only rank second in the market.

At the same time, Sohu and NetEase also paid more attention to wireless value-added services.

On September 13, the day before the annual meeting of Chinese business leaders, Sina's new president, Mr. Fang Zhuo, published an open letter to all employees within the company.

"During this period of time, Sina's internal and external environment has changed a lot."

"Externally, the Internet has gradually recovered, and new revenue businesses have been vigorously expanded and have achieved good results. This quarter, we have determined to turn losses into profits."

"Internally, the company has ushered in a new management team, and will fully cooperate with each other at the strategic and execution levels."

"Sina's goal is to provide users with the best information content and give users the best user experience."

"We should not take the timid cross-media path."

"We Sina are the new media in the Internet era."

"All Sina employees, I will face the challenges of the new era with you."

"I firmly believe that we can make history together."

An open letter from the new president spread throughout the company, triggering huge discussions and support.

Everyone likes the confidence, passion, and handsomeness of the new president, and everyone supports the new president's business, goals, and strategies.

Of course, this has a little to do with the 20% salary increase he announced at the same time.

Why the salary increase?

Sina Hotline is making money.

Who else can you give the money to if you don't give it to yourself?

As for the management's small voices in this regard, Fang Zhuo suppressed them with the promise that "If the options in your hands do not satisfy you by the end of the year, I will resign immediately."

Satisfaction is a subjective feeling, and no one can take it seriously to force the president to resign, after all, he is still a major shareholder.

But the stock price must have some improvement to match this, right?

The day of Sina's third quarter financial report is not far away, and many people are looking forward to the reaction of the secondary market.

On September 14, the 2002 China Business Leaders Annual Meeting was held in Beijing, and it was organized by China Entrepreneur Magazine.

This year is the first year of preparation and holding, and the magazine has spent a lot of effort to invite many important guests to attend.

For example, the famous economist Mao Yushi, the famous economist Wu Jinglian, the dean of Tsinghua School of Economics and Management Zhao Chunjun, and the president of China Economic Reform Research Association Gao Shangquan, etc.

There are also representatives of domestic enterprises, such as Lenovo's Liu Chuanzhi, Fosun's Guo Guangchang, ZTE's Hou Weigui, TCL's Li Dongsheng, Alibaba's Jack Ma, Wanda's Wang Jianlin, and China Merchants Bank's President Ma Weihua.

And foreign guests, Sony CEO Nobuyuki Idei, Morgan Stanley Asia Chairman Stephen Roach, and Spain's IE Business School Dean Santiago Iniguez de Ozono.

It can be said that more than 100 guests who have confirmed their attendance are well-known business leaders in various industries.

Sina originally decided that Duan Yongji would represent the event, but he was fired before the event was held, so he had to change to the new president Fang Zhuo.

However, the organizers learned about this situation and called Duan Yongji to ask if he would attend as the president of the Stone Group, but the latter declined.

Duan Yongji didn't want to see Fang Zhuo's young face for a while.

The annual meeting of Chinese business leaders will be held from 15:00 to 22:00 on the 15th for guest registration, the opening plenary meeting will be held the next day, and the leadership class and closing keynote speech will be held on the third day.

Because the venue is in Beijing, it is very convenient for Fang Zhuo.

There was a small episode when he signed in for registration. The receptionist did not recognize the president of Sina, who was recently caught in the vortex of public opinion. When Fang Zhuo was about to take out his ID card, Ma Huateng also came to sign in and confirmed the identity of the new president of Sina.

"Mr. Fang, belated congratulations."

Ma Huateng walked into the banquet hall, picked up a glass of wine, and said with a smile.

"Hey, Pony, you also know that my sister was admitted to Jiaotong University?" Fang Zhuo also took a glass of wine, "I'll raise a glass."

Ma Huateng was stunned and drank a glass of wine.

"Just kidding, the term Sina's president has been gone for a while." Fang Zhuo said with a smile, "Don't mention it anymore, and don't ask me what's going on."

Since becoming Sina's president, Fang Zhuo has received many calls, many of which are curious.

Ma Huateng smiled slightly: "I saw the open letter you sent yesterday. The wording is very interesting. Sina wants to become a new media?"

The exploration of the Internet always requires a process. The "cross-media" mentioned in the open letter to be abandoned is the strategy of the former president Mao Daolin. Although it is a succession of power on the surface, it still stops the original policy in the inside.

The cooperation between Sina and Sunshine Culture is part of "cross-media", which is a combination of the Internet and traditional media.

Now, with the failure of the cooperation between the two, Sina has called out the slogan of becoming a new media in the Internet era. This statement is still quite eye-opening.

Many people who pay attention to Sina's situation think it is very novel.

"Portal websites have more information, faster response, and deeper interaction. There is no need to think that traditional ones are so good." Fang Zhuo talked freely, "Tradition has its own advantages, and Internet media also has its own wonders. At the current stage, the latter still needs to expand based on itself."

Ma Huateng thought thoughtfully. Tencent is also doing portal websites, but its scale and influence are far less than the three major portal websites.

In particular, the current TOM website has called out a slogan that they want to be the fourth largest portal website in China.

"Pony, what do you think?" Fang Zhuo took a sip of wine and asked.

Ma Huateng nodded immediately: "Mr. Fang is the president of the largest portal website, of course you are right."

Fang Zhuo smiled: "How about our cooperation?"

Ma Huateng hesitated for a moment, and declined without listening to the content: "Tencent has to focus on its own business now."

He could probably guess what Mr. Fang was going to say about the cooperation.

"So decisive? So cautious?" Fang Zhuo was speechless, "Can I still harm you?"

"It's not that I'm afraid that Mr. Fang will harm me, but I'm afraid that Mr. Fang will tempt us Tencent to move in a new direction. The instant messaging business still needs to be consolidated, and there will definitely be opportunities for cooperation in the future." Ma Huateng explained seriously.

Fang Zhuo shrugged and asked a meeting question: "What will you say on stage tomorrow? Globalization or corporate personality?"

The theme of this year's annual leadership meeting is globalization and Chinese corporate personality, and Fang Zhuo was invited to speak on stage.

Ma Huateng shook his head and gave Fang Zhuo an unexpected answer: "I was not invited to give a speech, and I will study in the audience tomorrow."

"..."

Fang Zhuo was really surprised.

What do the organizers think? Tencent has developed quite rapidly this year.

Do they decide who will go on stage based on appearance?

That's the right thing to do.

Fang Zhuo shook his head repeatedly.

Just as he was about to comment, Ma Huateng suddenly signaled with his eyes that something was happening behind him.

Fang Zhuo turned around and saw a group of people surrounding another person walking towards him.

His first reaction was that Lao Duan's brothers came to seek revenge in person.

A moment later, he heard a greeting in English.

"Hi, hello, Mr. Fang, I'm Nobuyuki Idei from Sony." The person in the middle walked up to him and introduced himself and shook hands. It was Sony's CEO Nobuyuki Idei.

Fang Zhuo was surprised to shake hands with the CEO of a company with a market value of tens of billions of dollars and exchange business cards.

Nobuyuki Idei politely expressed his interest in Yike player, saying that it brought new vitality to the field of music players.

Fang Zhuo's mentality did not drift, but he quickly changed from Sina President to Yike President with some vigilance, and talked about the problems Yike encountered, especially the lawsuit with the US RIAA.

The two had a friendly exchange, and the people who came with them watched from the side.

Ma Huateng of Penguin walked out silently. Only then did he remember Mr. Fang’s other identity. He felt deeply moved. He was Sony’s Nobuyuki Idei, a true industry leader.