Chapter 250: No Honor in War
Wang Rui, though from a technical background, had long since become a savvy political and organizational player. When it came to the current attempt to "bring the brothers of the warrior nation into the service of Yuanxin," his exact words were: "You'd need ten social scientists to explain this mess."
And he wasn't wrong—it really was that complicated.
This attitude stemmed from a mix of national pride, the aloofness of a fallen elite, a sense of pity for the weaker party, and of course, the bad reputation set by exploitative traders from China. Altogether, it created a mindset that made it incredibly difficult to actually integrate them into Yuanxin. Even if they did agree to work, it was questionable whether they would commit wholeheartedly.
Su Yuanshan had worked alongside them before—he knew their mentality.
There was a way, of course: be better than them. Overwhelming them with pure technical strength. Because in the end, tech folks only truly respect one thing—skill.
But who in their right mind would dare say they could technically "crush" the Russians in mathematical computing?
Even Xi Zong didn't dare say that. Su Yuanshan definitely wouldn't—it wasn't his strength.
And to make things worse, the failure of shock therapy had pushed most of Russia's national wealth into the hands of oligarchs, leaving the government broke. Even the newly formed Mobile Telecom Public Joint Stock Company (MTS), established just last year, had to lean on German firms to survive. Four Russian companies owned 53% of the company; two German firms held the remaining 47%.
Naturally, that meant their GSM infrastructure was basically locked down by Nokia and Siemens.
Moreover, Russia's political and economic goals at the time were laser-focused on joining the EU.
For Yuanxin to break into that market? Practically a fantasy.
...
"The situation up north is too complicated. If it doesn't work out, we'll have to slow down and expand our influence bit by bit," Su Yuanshan said, frowning and shaking his head. "Let's wait until Wang Rui gets back at the end of the month and have a proper discussion. Plus, we'll need to hear what our diplomatic contacts think."
"Mm," Chen Jing nodded. She smiled faintly.
"In my opinion, instead of trying to poach talent from the north, why not target the island to the south? UMC is too close to us, so it's tricky—but TSMC should be fair game."
"Huh?"
The mention of TSMC made Su Yuanshan's eyes light up as he remembered a certain up-and-coming team leader there: Liang Mengsong.
"You have a way in?"
"It's not about having a way—it's about offering the right price. In the semiconductor industry, there's always a hunger for experienced talent," Chen Jing said softly.
"But if we go down that road, we'll have a new problem: employee relations."
"Even though Yuanxin pays top-tier salaries within China, on the international scale, our pay is still at the bottom."
Su Yuanshan fell silent.
He knew Chen Jing was right. In a tech company, payroll should be the biggest expense. But at Yuanxin, the biggest line items were infrastructure and research.
That was the blessing of the times—a window of opportunity.
It was why Su Yuanshan had the confidence to spend freely and hire recklessly.
But if he brought in engineers from Taiwan with high salaries, it would create a stark contrast.
Everyone could see what would happen next—resentment would boil over.
He had already discussed this openly with Zhang Rujin. Even Zhang found the issue thorny. Like Chen Jing, Zhang wanted to bring in a team of veterans from Taiwan to get the fab running properly, scale it up, and eventually lift China's semiconductor industry.
But that kind of "discriminatory salary system" was a problem.
You couldn't have engineers from Taiwan pulling in 30,000 to 40,000 yuan per month while mainland engineers were earning 3,000 to 4,000.
"Why should they get more?"
"Ugh…"
After a few seconds of silence, Su Yuanshan sighed.
"We'll revisit this. I need to talk to Old Zhang again. Besides, our main reason for going north is to access talent in mathematical computing—especially for protocol development."
"But yeah, we'll also need to approach some of the top engineers from the island eventually."
Chen Jing nodded.
...
The next day, Chen Jing resumed the marketing meeting focused on mobile phones. They finalized the promotion strategies and future development direction.
During the meeting, Duan Yongping suggested continuing to sell the YX1201, but to do so via gradual price reductions. However, its lifespan had to be limited—the Vidoo brand was now the main focus, and all resources should go toward its promotion.
Duan also said that while maintaining a premium launch price helped the brand's image, Yuanxin needed to avoid launching just one model at a time. Ideally, even within a single model, they should introduce tiered variants for better segmentation.
Every phone should receive price cuts after newer models were released, but should also have a longer lifecycle. For example, two years from now, the first-gen Vidoo phone could drop below 3,000 yuan.
By using different generations to target various price points, Yuanxin could dominate the entire spectrum—without damaging the brand through price cuts.
Another major decision: design must now produce a new model every 3-6 months. This aggressive release schedule would flood the market and crowd out the competition.
This idea actually came from He Wei, the new hire from the front lines of sales.
At her first marketing strategy meeting, He Wei introduced the concept of "option advantage"—that is, under the same brand, offering consumers more choices increases success rates in sales pitches.
Especially when those models come at different price points—it's a game changer.
The moment she presented this concept, Wan Yongliang practically leapt out of his seat.
When he shared it during the executive meeting, it won immediate praise from the leadership—particularly Duan Yongping.
After all, Yuanxin's original plan was to release just one finely polished phone per year.
This new idea meshed perfectly with the Special Zone industrial park's expansion plans.
After the meeting, Chen Jing handed the finalized strategy to Su Yuanshan, who was genuinely impressed.
He realized this was exactly why Nokia had once dominated the entire feature phone market.
Sure, it was durable. Sure, it had some hit models.
But its real secret?
It didn't play fair.
While other companies released a few models a year, Nokia dropped a new one every single month.
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