Tragic Hero Wang An
After World War II, the world entered the era of the third industrial revolution with electronic computers as the core technology. Computer research and development became a pioneer technology. Who has mastered computer technology? , who stands at the forefront of the times. As the saying goes, as long as you stand on the wind, pigs can fly.
Computer giants such as Microsoft's Bill Gates and Apple's Steve Jobs are standing at the center of the storm, but there is actually a Chinese standing in front of them, his name is Wang An.
He once dominated the world's computer industry with his own computers and storage hardware. In 1986, his peak wealth reached 2 billion, ranking fifth in the United States. Wang An's company was world-renowned and created the Chinese market in the United States. A technological marvel. But Wang An is like Don Quixote, who has been fighting against the IBM computer giant on his own. In the end, he was completely defeated due to poor decision-making, and ended in an extremely tragic way.
Bill Gates admitted that if Wang An could make the right decision and seize the opportunity to transform successfully, nothing would happen to Microsoft. Wang An is like a meteor streaking across the technological night sky. He is gorgeous and gorgeous, but short-lived. He is a tragic hero.
The Genius
Wang An was born in Shanghai in 1920. He spent his teenage years in his hometown of Kunshan. Since ancient times, heroes have emerged from youth. Wang Antian is a genius. At the age of 16, he was admitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University with the first place. As soon as he entered college, he encountered the Battle of Songhu, and Shanghai fell completely.
In 1941, Wang An was forced to go into exile in the southwest rear area. Not to be outdone, he and seven classmates used their professional knowledge to design radio equipment for the national army, which was considered a contribution to the suffering country. force. After the end of World War II in 1945, the Republic of China government sent Wang An to the United States as a government-sponsored student to study technology in order to support post-war construction after graduation.
Wang An found a different path after arriving in the United States. Other international students chose to work as employees in American technology companies, but he chose to go to Harvard as a graduate student to learn more advanced technologies. Vision and thinking determine a person's height in life. At this time, Wang An only had an undergraduate diploma from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, but he set his sights on Harvard University, the world's top prestigious school.
God likes to favor those who are well prepared and courageous. Wang An carefully prepared an application for a graduate degree in computer science at Harvard and found Harvard University with the attitude of giving it a try. God was kind and he was admitted.
Inventor of magnetic core memory
At Harvard, Wang An met the biggest talent in his life - Howard Aiken, the designer of the world's first universal computer. Wang An successfully obtained his doctorate with his extraordinary wisdom and continued to work in his mentor's laboratory. Later, he had his own patented invention-magnetic core memory.
This is an epoch-making invention. The original computer storage used vacuum tubes. Vacuum tubes consume electricity and can easily cause the computer to crash. Once the power is cut off or the computer crashes, all the original computer storage will be lost. . Magnetic core memory perfectly solves this problem. Even if the computer is powered off or crashes, the stored data is still intact.
Magnetic core memory quickly became standard in new computers. Wang An is not only a technology geek, but also has a great business acumen. He immediately thought of registering a patent for his invention. However, because its experimental project is funded by the U.S. Air Force, Harvard University can only apply for public health patents.
Furthermore, Wang An’s research results also belong to his mentor’s research project. His mentor did not agree with his application for a patent and advocated that computer inventions should be made available to the public. For this reason, Wang An did not apply for a patent rashly, but hired a professional lawyer to help him operate it. In the end, he obtained a partial patent for the use of magnetic core memory.
Wang An’s company was born, challenging IBM
After receiving the patent, Wang An resigned from the laboratory and rented a small office with a monthly rent of $70 with $600. , formed his company, named it Wang An Laboratory, and started his road to technology entrepreneurship. Wang An wants to change Americans' traditional impressions of Chinese people, and must make a career at the forefront of science and technology, proving to Americans that Chinese people can do more than just open restaurants and laundries.
But Wang An was not a rookie. He negotiated with IBM for more than ten rounds, but could not agree on the price. IBM used its trump card and threatened Wang An with a "pending patent application" lawsuit. Wang An was forced to sell his patent rights to IBM for US$500,000. Wang An was forced into a corner by IBM. He would not be a gentleman if he refused to retaliate. This became the beginning of their fierce fight.
Wang An's company reaches its peak
Through this confrontation, Wang An grasped IBM's weakness. Large companies were slow to respond to the ever-changing computer industry. Wang An realized that his Small companies have the opportunity to defeat their opponents. Many people think that Wang An's competition with IBM is undoubtedly a joke. IBM is the world's number one computer giant. The combined market value of all other computer companies in the world is less than 1/4 of IBM's, let alone the small company founded by Wang An with hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Wang An is so talented. As the chosen one, Wang An finally turned this joke into reality after more than ten years of hard work. The rapidly expanding Wang An Company relied on the issuance of 2.5 million G-tickets, relied on Wang An's prestige in the computer industry and the quality of Wang An's computers, and its market value soared. It not only repaid its debts, but also expanded its scale dramatically.
In 1975, Wang An Company pioneered the world's first system with editing and retrieval text functions. It was this core technology that allowed Wang An Company to compete with IBM. Since then, Wang An Company has been cheating and launched new products such as card recognition machines, automatic typewriters, and wireless printing machines. Each product can quickly become popular around the world and occupy the market.
By the early 1980s, Wang An had branches in 105 countries and regions around the world. The number of employees in the U.S. headquarters reached 30,000, and the annual turnover reached 3 billion US dollars. At this time, Microsoft, led by Bill Gates, was just a little brother in the computer industry. It was far behind Wang An. Apple, founded by Jobs, only sold more than 400 computers per month. Both of them regarded Wang An as the industry boss.
In 1986, Wang An reached the peak of his life. When he returned to China, he was received by the chief architect of reform and opening up. Deng Gong held Wang An's hand and said, "You started from scratch, and your family is big and your business is big, all because of yourself." "Strive!" Wang An was already the richest man in China.
Wang An, who is in the limelight, has also published a book called "Lessons". The most famous sentence in it is that as long as you pick up a stone and don't hit yourself in the foot, over time you will be able to succeed. would be considered a genius.
The first mistake Wang An made
Who would have thought that the title of Wang An’s autobiography would become the biggest irony of the outcome of Wang An’s company, and it became a prophecy. The computer industry in the 1980s was a hot spot in the industry, but market changes in the industry were fleeting, and a single wrong decision could plunge the company into an abyss. Bill Gates, who has been the world's richest man for more than ten years, often says that Microsoft is only 18 months away from extinction.
It only took 6 years for the prosperous Wang An Company to go from its peak to bankruptcy. Wang An’s two major strategic decision-making mistakes brought the world-famous Wang An Company into a place of no return. Lifting a rock really shoots yourself in the foot.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, computers produced by both IBM and Wang An were used by enterprises and the military. After the 1980s, personal computers became a new trend, and IBM and Wang An Company are both facing transformation problems.
IBM, which has always been conservative and slow, took the lead in opening up this time, uniting a group of small personal computer manufacturers to produce in a group.
Although these small manufacturers have limited technical scale and business scope, their advantages are that their equipment is compatible, easy to use, and they have their own software development camps.
Among these small and inconspicuous cerebellum manufacturers back then, one was Apple, one was Microsoft, and the other was ARM. IBM has gained a firm foothold in the new wave of computer market innovation by working together to stay warm. However, Wang An misjudged the direction. He believed that there was no future in developing personal computers. He positioned the company strategically to develop high-priced machines that were incompatible with personal computers.
The computers produced by Wang An's company were incompatible with computers produced by IBM, Microsoft and other companies, and even the monitors were not compatible, which immediately caused complaints from Wang An's customers. This wrong decision directly caused Wang An to miss the opportunity. High costs and a gradually shrinking market seriously damaged Wang An's company.
What’s even more fatal is that Wang An’s company does not have its own software team. Wang An just missed the popularity of personal computers. Wang An, who was severely beaten by the market, finally gave up the Lossai desktop computer made of transistors that he was proud of his whole life, followed the trend, and began to switch to personal computers.
Wang An’s second mistake
With Wang An’s strong influence in the computer industry, the sales of personal computers produced by Wang An’s company are still good, and the company is gradually recovering. . Wang An, who is blindly optimistic, believes that it is only a matter of time before the company reaches its peak again, and he will fight to the end with IBM.
IBM is a behemoth that is officially supported by the United States and involves the lifeline of the technology and economy. How can a small Wang An technology company compete with a giant with terrifying strength? Wang An is indeed a bit overestimated. Wang An went so far as to encourage Bill Gates and Grove, who were cooperating with IBM, to leave IBM.
This is a bit too whimsical. Bill Gates’ mother is an IBM executive. Grove was once humiliated by Wang An, and the two rejected Wang An. To make matters worse, Wang An was suffering from cancer and found it difficult to continue at the helm. Wang An had a lot of computer talents under his command, but he committed the old habit of Chinese people focusing on family blood. Regardless of everyone's opposition, he resolutely let his son Wang Lie take over.
This was the second and biggest mistake Wang An made in his life, which directly brought his company to the end of the road. Wang Lie is a top student at Brown University with solid skills. He once advised Wang An to decisively switch to personal computers. This shows that he still has a certain vision. However, compared to Wang An, what he lacks is the means to control people and the ability to revive enterprises. management capabilities.
After Wang Lie took over, rough management forced a large number of computer elites headed by Chambers to resign. The market value of Wang An's company plummeted, with a loss of US$400 million in one year. After that, Wang Lie adopted the strategy of killing the goose to obtain the eggs. The product price has been significantly increased, and customers are charged US$175 for a consultation call. This move directly killed Wang An Company, causing its credibility and reputation to fall to the ground.
Wang An’s Lessons
On his deathbed, Wang An replaced his son and appointed Edward Miller, known as the "corporate repairman", to take charge of the company in a desperate attempt. After Miller accepted the offer, he reduced the company's debt from nearly $600 million to $12 million, which was a remarkable feat.
However, Miller did not understand computer technology. While he was cutting losses, he did not organize manpower to develop new products. In addition, the Wang family took extra precautions against Miller and concealed key information. As a result, Miller Due to constraints, the company was always one step behind in new initiatives, which eventually led to the complete bankruptcy of Wang An's company in 1992, two years after Wang An's death.
Wang An is undoubtedly the most likely person to become the richest man in the world and to be arrogant among others, but in the end he fell on the road to attack.
Wang An is a genius and a hero. He has no background and has entered the American technology industry alone. He has prospered and become one of the world's richest people and top inventors. But he is also a tragedy. The main reason is that he is self-willed, does not know his own capabilities, insists on hitting the stone with eggs, fails to grasp the pulse of the market, and takes the wrong path. If he misses the next step, his entire step will be out of rhythm and he will never catch up.
If you take the wrong path and make timely adjustments, the company will not go bankrupt. However, Wang An is limited by the Chinese family concept and cannot boldly choose outstanding managers to take the helm, resulting in the loss of a large number of scientific and technological talents. This is Wang An's company The biggest lesson learned from being beaten to death on the beach by a back wave.