Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 268 The Future First Family
Wal-Mart's business is not a must, but based on the demonstration effect brought by model customers during this period, this hard bone really has to be gnawed down.

Because after the microcomputer database information management system, Zheru and Fangyuan have launched a new application solution. The second generation of Electronic Cash Register - the electronic cash register system or ECR, needs to actively develop retail stores like Wal-Mart. business customers.

With the establishment of product barcode specifications in the 1970s, IBM took the lead in launching the 3650/3660 transaction system in the ECR field, that is, one host can control up to 128 IBM 3653/3663 point of sale - POS terminals.

The technical strength of Big Blue is truly admirable. For the first time, this system realizes server/client architecture, point-to-point transmission, LAN synchronous backup and remote initialization in the commercial field.

By 1974, an ordering cashier system using the microprocessor Intel 8088 appeared in some McDonald's restaurants, but each terminal was independent.

Today, Tang Huan has advanced this technology application solution to the second generation, serving as a second-generation Fangyuan computer host for the POS terminal, plus small customer displays, cash registers, cash drawers, scanners, printers, and POS keyboards. And other peripheral equipment, forming a functional and powerful integrated system.

This business is very long-lived. In the original time and space, even in the 21st century, you can still see such IBM products in supermarkets of all sizes.

The marketing teams of Zheru and Fangyuan are currently launching a sales offensive targeting the retail industry.

Obviously, if a few influential companies adopt such a system and achieve good management results, other practitioners will have no choice but to follow suit and rush to purchase it.

In 1979, total sales exceeded 10 billion US dollars for the first time, and Wal-Mart, which was growing at an alarming rate, naturally became the first target of research.

"It is estimated that Sam Walton treats us as his suppliers, and three sets of quotation proposals have been rejected." Chambers was a little helpless.

"So domineering." Tang Huan couldn't help being a little amused, thinking that Shennong Fund had already bought Wal-Mart's stock. From a certain point of view, I am also your shareholder, and it was too embarrassing.

"Make another plan. I'll take the team to talk to Sam Walton." Tang Huan pondered for a while, "By the way, how is the progress of the AFL-CIO?"

AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, is the largest trade union organization in the United States, with nearly [-] million members.

With the barcode technology of the microcomputer database system, it can not only identify products, but also manage personnel information, bank accounts, etc. Tang Huan naturally fell in love with this potential customer.

"The talk is okay, but it still needs the interaction of the highest level to pry it." Chambers spread his hands, "So, I have to ask you to come forward again."

"Okay, let's arrange it in my itinerary." Tang Huan glanced at the calendar and said thoughtfully.

……

Tang Huan's trip to Florida this time is more low-key. After all, even if this kind of unexpected wealth does not belong to him personally, he has the right to control and build his reputation. Therefore, it is unrealistic to completely detach himself from the conflict of interests. In order not to attract criticism, It's better to make a fortune silently.

Inside the heavily guarded exhibition hall, it can be called resplendent and jeweled.

This magnificence, of course, does not come from the decoration of the room, but from the large amount of gold and silver jewelry.

All the exhibits are placed on the first floor, mainly because there are too many gold and silver precious metals. If placed upstairs, the floor will be overloaded, which may cause the risk of collapse.

This reason seems exaggerated, but it is true, and the results of plundering in the colonial era are so amazing.

Due to the limited opening, there are very few people in the exhibition hall, so Tang Huan can easily see everyone's amazed and dazzled expressions.

Presumably, those parliamentarians who have visited here, big and small, can't calm down.

Tang Huan walked around casually. All kinds of exaggerated gold and silver ingots no longer aroused his interest, but those bright gemstones were somewhat attractive.

There should be quite a few people with the same idea, among them were two young white men who looked like a couple, standing in front of a glass cabinet, admiring the various natural gemstones inside.

As Tang Huan approached, a man on the other side looked over and happened to meet Tang Huan face to face. The two of them couldn't help but be stunned at the same time.

"Isn't this Bush Jr.?" Tang Huan murmured in surprise, and glanced at the others. He saw that it was Laura Welsh, Mrs. Bush Jr.'s wife, and his younger brother, Jeb Bush, the future Governor of Florida. The next woman should be Jeb Bush's wife.

Tang Huan thought about it for a while, and then it dawned on him that after Bush Sr. successfully ran for vice president in 1980, his family moved from Houston, Texas to Miami-Dade County, Florida, which is not far from here. .What's more, isn't Bush Sr. arriving tomorrow?

"Are you Don from Silicon Valley?" Bush Jr. asked tentatively.

That's right, now Tang Huan has become an iconic figure in Silicon Valley. If Silicon Valley and Tang are linked together, it can only point to one person, Tang Huan, who was awarded the title of 20 billion US dollars by Wall Street.

"It's me." Tang Huan nodded, then pretended to be curious and asked, "You are?"

"George Bush." ​​After Bush introduced himself, seeing a look of confusion on Tang Huan's face, he continued bluntly: "My father is the current vice president."

For people like Tang Huan and Bush Jr., some customary habits are not important, and telling one's own background is not showing off, but an expression of sincerity, not to mention that everyone will meet tomorrow.

Seeing Tang Huan nodded suddenly, Bush Jr. introduced the other people around him.

At present, the Bush family is still in the stage of accumulating strength. As the vice president, Bush Sr. is extremely low-key and tries his best to cooperate with Reagan's work.

In the original time and space, during his eight years as vice president, Bush Sr. attended many large and small public occasions, including several state funerals, which were used by the media as material for comedy.

But Bush Sr.'s connections were accumulated step by step and passed on to the next generation.

After losing his election for the Texas House of Representatives in 1978, Bush Jr. continued to run the oil industry and became a partner or president of several companies, including Arbusto Energy, the Bush energy company he founded himself, and Spectrum 7, Harken Energy and other companies.

Jeb Bush, on the other hand, helped his father Bush Sr. campaign in 1980 and began to get involved in politics, accumulating experience for his future political career.

All in all, the father and son of this family are accumulating a lot for the goal of becoming the first family in the future.

"After learning the news that the vice president is coming, I came here to arrange the relevant reception matters." Tang Huan raised his hand and made a gesture, "Is there anything that is not thoughtful here, please give us your valuable opinions .”

"We are just visiting, but we don't have the ability to provide opinions." Bush shook his head and smiled. "But I think everyone must be very curious about the treasure hunting ship that can discover such a huge treasure."

After being modest, Bush Jr. sold a favor and confided a bit.

Since he met these people by chance, Tang Huan naturally tried his best to persuade them to stay.

Before he stopped drinking, George W. Bush acted very boldly at the dinner table. He clinked glasses with Tang Huan and quickly became a pair of fair-weather friends.

This is not surprising, both sides have a lot of use value, and after making friends with each other, it is natural that they hit it off.

Tang Huan soon discovered that George W. Bush was really unflattering in some aspects of his intellectual performance, but his younger brother Jeb Bush was quite talented in politics.

……

The next day, Bush Sr. arrived as scheduled.

Tang Huan personally acted as a guide, leading him and his staff around the museum, and frankly admitted the effectiveness of everyone's candy distribution plan.

In this regard, Bush Sr. was noncommittal, and asked enthusiastically what the treasure hunting fleet looked like.

Naturally, Tang Huan was already prepared. After answering "Today is just a day off", he took them to the beach and boarded a boat for a visit.

The level of scientific and technological equipment of Fisher's treasure hunting fleet made everyone's eyes shine.

After listening to the explanation of how satellite phones, GPS, sonar, submarine cameras, diving robots, and personal computers that execute data statistics programs work together, Bush Sr. joked, "Why do I have the feeling of being on a warship?" , these search methods can be said to be advanced enough.”

Tang Huan replied in a euphemistic way. Outsiders just watched the fun, but they didn't know that these technologically advanced equipment were all piled up with a lot of money.

Bush Sr. laughed disapprovingly, "Don, I have heard of your ubiquitous and watertight way of selling computers. When most of the media reported on the process of discovering this treasure, they all mentioned your second son." Replacing the Fangyuan computer, how does it help statistics. Almost all the media in the United States are advertising for you, and this investment in equipment is just an advertising fee."

For this point, Tang Huan really can't deny it, the popularity of the second generation Fangyuan computer has indeed benefited from it.

"I heard that the four major leagues have been persuaded by your sales team to use the second-generation Fangyuan computer to collect game statistics." Bush Jr. added with a smile.

"I didn't expect you to pay attention to the developments of the major leagues. When you have time, go to San Francisco to watch the game. I have two teams, one in the major league football and one in the major league baseball." Tang Huan glanced at Bush Jr. and sent out an invitation .

"Then make an appointment to watch a baseball game together." Bush Jr. readily agreed.

Tang Huan was not too surprised to see the other party so happy.

You must know that every move of these characters is often not useless.

In the original time and space, George W. Bush purchased part of the shares of the Texas Rangers baseball team and served as the team's co-manager for five years.

During this time, he handled public relations matters on behalf of the team and also managed the construction of the new stadium.

Bush is actively involved in the team's training program, and often participates in team games, watching the game with fans.

It can be said that the relationship between Bush Jr. and the Texas Rangers has gradually increased his media exposure and reputation, and won the support of more and more public and business groups, thus laying the foundation for his future election for the governor of Texas. established a solid foundation.

When sending Bush Sr. and his party away, Tang Huan quietly said to Bush Jr.: "Although the treasures in front of me cannot be disposed of or traded for the time being, my fleet also found many treasures during the previous two treasure hunts." There are few natural gemstones, and they are now stored in a bank in San Francisco. When you go to the football game, you can drop by to see if there is anyone you like.”

Hearing what Tang Huan said, Bush Jr. smiled and nodded slightly.

……

Everyone has their own way to success, but there is basically one thing in common - hard work. This is the case for Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. Whether in life or in career, he insists on With strong fighting spirit.

Sam Walton often drives his own twin-engine plane from one branch to another, spending at least 4 days a week on such visits, sometimes even 6 days.Before the morning meeting on weekend mornings, he usually arrives at the office at 3 o'clock to prepare relevant documents and materials.

In the 1970s, Sam Walton visited each branch at least twice a year. He was familiar with the managers and many employees of these branches, listened carefully to opinions, and usually put forward some of his own opinions directly.

After entering the 1980s, Sam Walton was over 60 years old, but he still started working at 4:30 in the morning every day, thinking and planning in a quiet environment, and occasionally visited a company at 4:00 in the morning. At the distribution center, have breakfast and coffee with the employees.

As the company got bigger and bigger, it was impossible for Sam Walton to visit every branch, but he still ran as much as possible.

Tang Huan met such a high-spirited and stingy old man at the Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.

When the other party was still shaking his head after reading the plan, Tang Huan said calmly: "The second-generation ECR solution we developed is definitely in the leading position in the industry. For such a product with high intellectual value, you can use traditional It is inappropriate to use opinions to lower prices.”

"If I don't have an advantage in terms of price, why should I choose a small company like yours, and go directly to IBM." Sam Walton retorted disapprovingly.

American writer Friesen once pointed out in "How to Become a Billionaire" that one of the secrets to becoming a billionaire is to have a thick skin.

And to explain the secret, Friesen uses the example of Sam Walton.

The founder of Wal-Mart often disrupts market prices. Once he catches the opportunity, he will wait for the opportunity to bargain with suppliers.

Therefore, suppliers all know that doing business with Wal-Mart is not easy.

In other words, if you want to be a good man, you'd better give up your dream of being a rich man. None of these people are good men and women.

Tang Huan, who was familiar with Sam Walton's style of work, just laughed it off after seeing this style, "IBM's system is still based on the mainframe architecture, which is outdated, and my system uses microcomputers. Computers belong to the latest generation of products. This difference is reflected in many aspects, such as follow-up maintenance. You must know that the price of personal computers will only get lower and lower, and you don’t think your Wal-Mart stores will stop there. "

Speaking of this, Tang Huan waved his hands, and his subordinates immediately brought over two exquisite and small card readers, and two bags of colorful and eye-catching cards.

"Barcodes are used to manage a large number of commodities, and information such as customers and accounts must rely on my magnetic stripe card and chip card system."

The reason why Big Blue is often prefixed with "great" is that it has done a lot of pioneering work in the field of technology from 0 to 1. Magnetic stripe card - magnetic stripe card was developed by IBM in the 1960s Engineer Forrest Parry - Invented by Forrest Parry.

In essence, magnetic stripe cards are the same as magnetic tapes and disks used by computers to access data, and process information through magnetic tracks.

integrated circuit card——IC card was invented by Frenchman Roland Moreno in 1974. Compared with the low-cost magnetic stripe card, the difference is that it integrates a semiconductor chip.

Due to the size of these identification cards, the number of magnetic tracks of the magnetic stripe card, the electrical characteristics of the chip card and the communication protocol, etc., there is no standard such as ISO to uniformly stipulate, so the manufacturers in this field are still at this stage. Each fights.

Another secret to becoming a billionaire is to "invent great ideas into the vastness", and Tang Huan, after missing the link of invention, naturally has to focus on how to further optimize this application to be close to the original space-time function maturity level of the period.

Today, the card reader for contact data transmission can already satisfy Tang Huan with its performance in reading magnetic stripe cards and chip cards, while the card reader for non-contact data transmission operating chip cards is still in the process of optimization and adjustment middle.

Tang Huan's team has begun to vigorously promote their own magnetic stripe cards and chip cards, and turn them into specific products such as membership cards, bank cards, credit cards, driver's licenses, bus cards, phone cards, etc. Sales of own computers.

(End of this chapter)