American History 1988
Chapter 305 - 295: Poaching

Chapter 305: Chapter 295: Poaching

Although the board of directors had already decided to establish the consumer division and unanimously approved the request to set up the "Toktok" project,

the actual product might not be seen until next year, as the formation of the new division would take time, and even the simplest product development required a few months’ cycle...

Taking all these factors into consideration, one year was already quite fast.

This was because Byte Company was young enough to make major decisions with astonishingly high efficiency.

A single board meeting essentially set the general direction, not to mention that Byte Company’s scale was already aiming for tens of billions of US Dollars.

If this were IBM, just discussing this decision could take a year.

Dean planned to personally follow up on the consumer division matters later.

In the face of the internet wave surging towards them, Byte Company couldn’t just defend its own patch of land.

It must enter the fray itself, then scoop up enough benefits to continue ensuring its status as one of the software giants.

Dean was very clear that Byte Company was still too young; it didn’t have the talent or technological foundation of Microsoft or Oracle.

It needed to develop new divisions, new businesses, to attract talent and then gradually strengthen itself.

After the board meeting ended, Dean went straight back to his office, where he had been studying the plans for Byte Company’s headquarters.

With the company’s scale growing ever larger, and with the establishment of the new division, it was time to build a headquarters that truly belonged to Byte itself.

But before Dean could even sit down, Valentine knocked on the door and came in.

"I smell ambition in here," said the burly man, making himself at home on the sofa before taking out his cigarettes.

"If I had no ambition, perhaps the board would have something to say about it."

Seeing him light a cigarette, Dean also opened the office blinds in silent agreement.

"Ha-ha, Dean, a cigarette is a man’s business card; it’s a necessity for networking," said Valentine, laughing as he beckoned with his fingers holding the cigarette.

He knew Dean didn’t like the smoky atmosphere, but his first act each time he came to Dean’s office was to light up.

Then he would wait for Dean to open the blinds with a frown on his face, and he relished it every time.

"Alright, Valentine, what is it this time?

Just so you know, there’s nothing I can do about Intuit, the train has already left the station."

Intuit was set to go public next month, and Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists were already on the move.

However, it was clearly too late; the small company that they had previously disregarded had quietly taken on a unicorn’s aura.

It was evident that it no longer needed venture capital, as it was doing well enough on its own.

So those who missed the boat began turning their attention to Byte Company.

To be precise, to Dean—they knew that he had played a key role in Intuit’s growth.

Of course, not just anyone could call on that favor, and the only person Dean would personally receive was Valentine.

"This time it’s not about Intuit; I admit I missed a home run there."

Intuit’s founder Cook and his team had visited over thirty venture capitalists at the inception of the company,

but without exception, they had been rejected, including Valentine, who was currently sitting on the sofa.

Back then, no one thought that an accounting software could have any market prospects.

A calculator and a notepad were enough.

With hindsight, they weren’t wrong, but venture capitalists need to focus on the future.

Unfortunately, even Valentine, known as "Rocket Man," was focusing on Apple, a hardware-based company at the time.

During those years, he favored hardware companies; he liked tangible products.

Atari, Apple, Cisco—all followed this pattern.

Only after scoring a grand slam with Byte Company, did Valentine start to change his mind in the past two years.

Then Intuit came into his sight, but he didn’t get an entry ticket through Dean because it was too late.

"Since it’s not about Intuit, then what is it for?" Dean leaned on the window, sipping his coffee slowly.

"I want a person from you," said Valentine, exhaling a puff of smoke that rolled forward into the air.

Dean blinked, then instinctively asked, "Who?"

"John Chambers," Valentine said with certainty, clearly having a definite target in mind.

"Oh, buddy," Dean raised his eyebrows, "John is the global vice president of Byte Company! Are you sure?"

"Of course," Valentine stood up, stubbing out his cigarette, "Cisco needs him more right now."

Dean spread his hands, "John has been doing very well in the last two years under his efforts, Byte Company has not only risen to fame in Europe.

He even got Byte Company into East Asia, you know how difficult that is, Valentine."

"It’s precisely because I recognize John’s talent that I want him to become CEO of Cisco."

You could tell that Valentine had thought this decision through.

"Give me a reason, Valentine," Dean’s gaze undulated uncertainly.

"Because Cisco needs him more, because the internet is accelerating its spread.

This is an excellent opportunity for Cisco to capture the market; the whole world needs routers and gateways.

If people want to go online, they can’t do without these essentials!

Dean, don’t forget, you are also one of the major shareholders of Cisco."

Compared to Byte’s software, Cisco’s routers were more likely to form a monopoly.

This was determined by the inherent features of the products, unrelated to technology superiority.

Without office software, people could still work; it would just largely reduce efficiency.

But without routers and gateways, they definitely couldn’t go online.

Watching the federal government’s "Information Superhighway Project" proceed apace and the NSF’s network privatization gradually accelerate,

even Valentine, who was not sensitive to network issues, realized that Cisco’s business might soon enter a period of rapid growth.

To not miss this rare opportunity, he had to find a pioneering CEO for Cisco.

The current CEO of Cisco was more than adequately defensive, but he fell short in expanding the business.

At that moment, Valentine thought of John Chambers, who served as the Global Vice President at Byte and had made an outstanding contribution to the company’s overseas market.

From a blank slate two years ago, today the overseas sales accounted for one-third of Byte’s total revenue.

John Chambers had almost singlehandedly completed the establishment of channels, market layout, and marketing promotion for the overseas market.

He was a bona fide golden career manager with a significant reputation throughout Silicon Valley and had even been featured in Fortune Magazine for these achievements.

Now Valentine felt that Chambers was the best candidate for the CEO of Cisco, as Chambers had come to Byte based on his own recommendation.

Indeed, Valentine had recognized Chambers’ talent two years ago.

At that time, Byte urgently needed someone to steer its overseas market, which is why Valentine had recommended Chambers to Byte.

Now that Byte was firmly established in the global market, a pioneering talent like Chambers would be more suitable at Cisco.

Honestly, Dean was a bit reluctant to let go of John Chambers, the Global Vice President, who was almost the number three person in Byte.

After Dean and Jimmy, it was Chambers. Jimmy goes without saying, as he was one of the founding members who joined Byte when it was established.

But John Chambers had joined Byte only two years ago as the senior executive officer for Europe.

In two years, Chambers had risen through the ranks. Now as the third in command at Byte, this was proof enough of his abilities.

But just like Valentine said, Cisco was about to hit a significant opportunity, and it needed a helmsman like Chambers even more.

Furthermore, Dean also owed Valentine a favor since Chambers had come over on his recommendation.

"Valentine, I originally planned to promote Chambers to CEO of Byte in another two years.

However, you’re right, Chambers would be able to make a better impact at Cisco, and I’m also a major shareholder there.

So, we’ll leave the decision up to him, whether to choose Cisco or to stay at Byte."

"OK, I have no problem with that, but don’t tell him about your plan for him to take over as CEO of Byte just yet."

Valentine played a little trick, as currently Cisco’s scale couldn’t compare to that of Byte.

Dean shrugged and then picked up the phone to call Chambers directly, for he had also returned to the Silicon Valley headquarters for this strategic board meeting.

A few minutes later, the tall figure of John Chambers walked in with documents in hand.

"Boss"

"John, there’s something you need to decide on now..."

Dean introduced the situation roughly, and then Valentine began eagerly persuading him.

Besides painting a grand vision of Cisco’s future, naturally, there were various benefits involved.

Valentine promised more stock options and greater power compared to what was offered at Byte.

You could see Chambers was torn, between a company with a nearly US Dollar 90 billion market cap and an up-and-coming star with unlimited potential.

But he didn’t take long to make his decision resolutely.

"Boss, the hardest part of the overseas market is over, so I want to give Cisco a try."

Dean was taken aback, as he hadn’t expected Chambers to make his decision so quickly.

Suddenly it seemed he realized something and glanced at Valentine, who was as calm as ever, and at Chambers, who was focused and intense.

Dean asked almost subconsciously, "Did you two sort this out privately beforehand?"

"Hehehe~" Valentine chuckled heartily, while Chambers seemed slightly embarrassed.

Shit! This guy had been swinging his hoe early on!

"Valentine, you owe me a favor!" Dean said, half-exasperated, half-amused.

"OK, I owe you a favor~" Valentine knew he had been slightly underhanded, but after all, Dean was also a director at Cisco.

Oh, and in case I forgot to mention, Valentine also served as a director at both Cisco and Byte.

So, when wielding his hoe, Valentine felt justified in his cause.

Seeing the issue had been settled, Chambers also breathed a sigh of relief.

"By the way, Boss, this is a proposal I’ve recently put together; I think it might be useful for Byte."

Nice, he had even prepared his farewell speech.

Dean took the documents, flipping through them casually, "MicroPro?"

"Yes, I suggest we acquire it as soon as possible." Chambers’ approach was as straightforward as ever.

"And your reasons?"

"I’ve studied the ’Vision Plan’, and out of the five major types of collaborative office software, the only one Byte hasn’t entered is the document collaboration category.

Whether it’s because of the market or strategic considerations, now is the perfect time to acquire MicroPro.

Their Wordstar and PlanStar products could save Byte a significant amount of research and development time in the document and spreadsheet fields.

Most important is that MicroPro is likely to go bankrupt soon, and acquiring them now would be a great deal."

Chambers believed that Byte would eventually introduce document collaboration software, so why not start accumulating technology sooner?

Moreover, that time wouldn’t be far off since software collaboration requires a network, and network development was booming.

This was also exactly why he wanted to go to Cisco – everything would complement each other perfectly.

"John, I’m starting to regret letting you go to Cisco."

Dean kept the proposal, recognizing that Chambers was indeed a top-tier CEO.

"Come on, Byte is in good hands with you, but now I need to talk to John a bit more."

As if afraid that Dean might change his mind, Valentine started to lead Chambers out of the office.

"Take John, no problem there, Valentine.

But in exchange, you must find suitable candidates for Byte, including the soon-to-be-formed consumer division."

"What?" Valentine looked helpless, "I’m just taking John, but you want me to find someone for an entire division for you?"

Dean shrugged, "John is worth it."

"Fine, give me some time." Valentine’s voice trailed from down the hall.

Good, this would save Dean the trouble of headhunting elsewhere.

Speaking of which, he should also pay more attention to Intuit, which was about to go public.

And Netscape. He wondered how Explorer had been doing over the past two months.