Chapter 17
But weighing the two choices, Sean Qiao chose to give in and have breakfast with them.
Vera Qin reluctantly prepared breakfast, and after Luna washed her hands, she sat on the sofa in the living room and chatted with Sean Qiao.
“Uncle, I’m in the same class as Brother Tommy, and Brother Tommy takes care of me very much.”
“Yes, he is older than you, isn’t he?” Suddenly, Sean Qiao thought of something. “How old are you, Luna?”
“Five years old.”
“The same year as Tommy,” Sean noted. “When is your birthday?”
“This...I forgot, Mommy knows. My birthday has just passed, my birthday was before the new year.”
Sean Qiao asked suddenly, “Before the New Year? Then your birthday should be similar to Tommy, his birthday is also just before the New Year.”
After a pause, Sean continued asking the child. “Who gave you your name?”
“It’s Mommy,” Luna said happily, and raised her arm at Sean. “It’s because I have a crescent-like birthmark on my right arm.”
Sean suddenly frowned. He looked at the birthmark on Luna’s right forearm, it was indeed like a half moon.
“Luna.” Sean repeated her name, and seemed to think of something, but Vera interrupted the conversation between the two. “Time to eat.”
Sean Qiao immediately proceeded to the company to work after breakfast. Before leaving, he told Vera to go to his office first thing after she gets to work.
So Vera was the first person to come to the president’s office today.
“What is it that you’d like to speak about, sir?” Vera was very formal.
“Director Hao reported to me on the results of your meeting yesterday. He also conveyed your opinion, that this high-end phone is too unoriginal, and that initially, the product line must be launched without a high-end offering.”
Sean’s face was very serious whenever he talked about official business. It would be nice, however, if his voice was a bit warmer.
“I understand what Mr. Qiao said. Your starting point is to build YB into a high-end brand, so the positioning cannot be too low.”
Vera Qin does take her work very seriously, and she’s very adept at keeping work and her personal feelings separate.
“Correct.”
“Would you like to hear my opinion?” Vera asked calmly.
“Yes.”
“Mr. Qiao, I think this machine can use the second set of configurations I gave you. The price should not be too high. This can be your promotional product, aimed at businesses that will buy in bulk. Get your foot in the door, so to speak. Later, after you’ve penetrated the market, that’s the best time to introduce a high-end offering with exciting new features.”
Vera Qin spoke confidently, from having extensively studied the competitive landscape of the mobile phone market.
“A good business machine should ideally be able to work smoothly and be as fast as possible, in addition to having a good set of applications pre-installed. However, business-specific phones available on the market today, are often lacking in performance, due to the need for a reduced price . As long as you improve this point, you will definitely be able to capture the business sector mobile phone market. Take the top spot first before maximizing profit.”
The things Vera Qin said was beyond the scope of her work, but she was very serious about her job.
“I understand what you mean. If you want to make the business machine perfect in every aspect, then the cost will increase. Once the cost increases, there will be no advantage for our newly listed brand.”
Sean combed through what she’d just said, and he had to admit that she made a very good point, but he found some flaws in her reasoning.
“This is inevitable, but people who can use business jets don’t care about the price. They care more about operating performance.”
“Mr. Qiao, I also studied two brands of business jets. They were both designed for power as well as aesthetics. As long as the configuration is changed, this high-end phone can be offered as a business phone, and later on reconfigured as an actual high-end phone. It will then be very easy to modify it very superficially, on the outside. We should be able to create our own style, and save money on production costs later on.”
“Of course this is just my own opinion, for reference only.”
Vera Qin didn’t forget to add something to soften her words. Simply giving her point of view was, apparently, seen by Sean Qiao as an attack on his masculinity.
“I'll consider your opinion.” Sean Qiao spoke calmly, and he met Vera’s deep gaze with his own.
“Director Qin, I found that you're also well-researched on the appearance of mobile phones.”
“Yes, but that is purely a personal hobby. Mr. Qiao, if there is nothing else, I'll go back to work.” Vera smiled warmly, turned and left.
From the president’s office, Vera Qin went straight to the elevator.
When the elevator door opened, she was greeted with a truly unexpected surprise.
In the elevator was a graceful and luxurious woman. She was both familiar and distant to Vera Qin.
Once her friend, Vera has long considered her an enemy. Vera did her best to recover from the shock of meeting her in such an unexpected place. She tried to act as though she hadn’t seen her. But the woman had no intention of letting her go.
“Long time no see.”