"I can't really give any pointers," Beers said, "But if you don't mind revealing business secrets, I can take a look for you."
"There are none. Since I'm willing to show you the plan, of course it means I have absolute trust in you."
"In that case, I won't decline either. Since I can't work with Miss An this time, consider this a bit of compensation from me."
"Thank you," An Nuan nodded, "Let me borrow Mr. Beers' projector for a moment."
"Go ahead."
An Nuan had Tan Yufei connect the computer.
Beers and his assistant sat on one side, while An Nuan, Tan Yufei, and Luo Si sat on the other. With An Nuan leading the presentation, she began, "This is our concept for developing an e-commerce platform. In my opinion, within 10 years at most, online consumption will become the mainstream, taking at least 60% market share from offline brick-and-mortar stores. Within 5 years, we'll only need a cell phone to support all of our daily needs, including meals, transportation, payments, and so on. So the transition online is very important, and we need to act quickly."
Beers nodded in agreement with An Nuan's viewpoint.
An Nuan went on, "This is our plan for the e-commerce platform we want to build. In our view, building a comprehensive e-commerce trading platform is crucial, including the convenience of the web interface, the speed of logistics, merchant onboarding rates, after-sales service supervision, and so on. For these points, we've made the following series of plans..."
An Nuan presented the plan for building the entire e-commerce platform point-by-point, covering every detail down to the visual appearance of the website.
Beers had started off listening to An Nuan's proposal with a critical ear, looking for problems. But later, he was truly impressed by the comprehensiveness of the plan. It had indeed surprised him again.
It took An Nuan nearly 2 hours to finish briefing the proposal they had worked on overnight.
She asked, "What does Mr. Beers think?"
Beers looked at An Nuan. He was silent for a long time.
An Nuan didn't disturb him either, quietly waiting.
Beers took a deep breath before speaking. "I have to say, this is the most perfect plan I've ever seen, not just in North Wen Country, but the whole world. The forward-looking planning, even for future prospects, makes me admit inferiority. Miss An, you've given me the feeling that I would suffer a huge loss if I don't cooperate with you."
An Nuan smiled, "Mr. Beers flatters me."
"I'm now hesitating whether I should abandon the Gu family and choose to cooperate with you instead," Beers said regretfully, "Unfortunately, your plan is indeed very good, but you started too late. What we need now is scale. We don't have time for you to build your e-commerce business. I'm sure I'll regret it someday, but now, I have no choice."
Beers seemed very helpless.
An Nuan actually understood.
A company couldn't lose the race against time.
Building an international e-commerce platform within the allotted time couldn't be delayed.
Once delayed, it would miss the best period, and the losses would be unbearable for anyone.
"Actually, Mr. Beers doesn't need to regret." An Nuan proposed.
Beers frowned.
"Since Mr. Beers appreciates our plan, and needs the Gu Corporation's scale, why can't you have both at the same time?" An Nuan raised her eyebrows.
Beers was taken aback. He looked at her in surprise, "You mean, I can use the Gu Corporation's scale, but adopt your marketing plan?"
"Why not?"
"Would you be willing?" Beers was puzzled. "The An family has enough capital to build their own e-commerce industry. And with such a perfect marketing plan, success is just a matter of time.
"Since it's just a matter of time, why don't I choose to make it happen sooner?!" An Nuan retorted. "Mr. Beers is the godfather of global e-commerce. Being able to work with you would be a success in itself for me. There are many ways for businessmen to profit, not just money alone. I can learn a lot more from Mr. Beers, which I believe will greatly benefit my future development. So I'm willing to cooperate with Mr. Beers and build international e-commerce together with the Gu Corporation."
With such a win-win proposal, Beers certainly wouldn't refuse from his standpoint.
"It's just that..." Beers was still worried, "Would the Gu Corporation agree?"
"They have no reason to disagree." An Nuan stated plainly. "You choosing to partner with the Gu family to build an international e-commerce platform, while outsourcing the e-commerce project marketing and planning to a third party, is actually a very common marketing model in today's business. To use an analogy, for the residential communities built by our An Corporation, we have partners that undertake the sales, and these partners will hire professional sales teams to make the sales. As we say in North Wen Country, this is called specialization for efficiency. Each party focusing on what they do best to share the workload will surely double the results."
"Good!" Beers didn't hesitate further and agreed at once. "I'll negotiate cooperation with the Gu family as you suggested. I'll notify you if there's good news."
"Mr. Beers, I think I need to remind you not to reveal that the third party is our An Corporation during the negotiations. Gu Yan Sheng and I are not on good terms. Once it's exposed, he's very likely to reject it. But I assure you, when it comes to work, I will definitely maintain a fair stance. If our An Corporation can become the marketing planner for the entire e-commerce project, we will certainly fulfill our duties and do our utmost."
"I trust you," Beers said. "I did some specific research on your business performance yesterday. I have faith in your character. Don't worry, I have my ways to negotiate with the Gu family. You can go back and wait for notice."
"Then I'll take your auspicious words." An Nuan stood up.
After shaking hands, An Nuan left with Tan Yufei and Luo Si.
An Nuan and Tan Yufei were quite calm.
The idiom "unperturbed by unexpected events" was perfectly interpreted by these two.
But Luo Si was a little excited.
She had thought this project was doomed.
But now, she didn't expect Miss An to have negotiated it in another way.
She really felt that as long as Miss An made a move, everything would be fine.
The three headed for the elevator.
The elevator door opened.
Gu WenQuan appeared with Gu Yan Sheng, Gu YanXuan and another Gu Corporation executive.
The Gu family's faces clearly changed when they saw An Nuan.
"What a small world," Gu YanXuan said viciously. "Some people are like sticky plaster, lingering like ghosts."
An Nuan glanced contemptuously at Gu YanXuan. "Some people don't even qualify as sticky plaster. They keep trying to cling on when no one wants them!"
