"… Ah, I feel like I missed out on the whole world."
Chen Yushan was in an office at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She laid on the table with a lifeless look on her face.
It had been two weeks since New Year's Day, and it would be Chinese New Year in two weeks. However, she was still upset about not being able to attend the Christmas party.
Compared to her master's supervisor at the University of Yan, the supervisor at the University of Pennsylvania was as strict as a Spartan to his students. Ever since she came here, there were endless research projects waiting for her, and she never had a break.
At first, she felt that this kind of life was quite fulfilling. After all, she did learn a lot.
However, as time went by, even though she was passionate about management, she began to struggle.
Chen Yushan believed that her situation was definitely an exception. This was because most of the international students at the Wharton School of Business expressed sympathy for her.
Even though everyone was doing free labor for their supervisor, very few people were as exaggerated as her.
Suddenly, the office door was pushed open, and Ms. Michelle Parsi walked in wearing a fur coat.
This delicate and strong woman cleaned herself up very well. Her professional makeup concealed the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes very well.
She looked at the student on the table and spoke with a blank expression.
"I'm going to meet with a client in a bit. Have you prepared the China lithium battery anode materials market chart?"
Chen Yushan, who was lying on the table, opened the drawer and took out the USB. She said, "It's basically done."
Management was a very broad discipline, which meant that the scope of its business could be very narrow or very broad.
One day, they might be working on the company's organizational structure, and the next day, they might be collecting data for the China lithium battery anode materials market. According to the different requirements of the customers, they would provide different types of services.
Even though AM only outsourced the former, Ms. Parsi was keenly aware that the cooperation agreement between Star Sky Technology and Umicore did not include the vast China market.
This was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise for her. A professional like her was needed to conduct market research and formulate a strategy to maximize the benefits of intellectual property licensing.
Providing "value-added services" to customers in this way could be said to be one of her ways to expand her business scope.
After all, business wouldn't come to them by itself. For an outstanding Wall Street elite, not only did he need to be able to meet the needs of his clients, but he also needed to be able to help his clients discover what they needed.
Ms. Parsi took the USB from Chen Yushan's hand and put it in her bag. She spoke with a blank expression.
"I will check your homework. As for now, you should go to sleep. By the way, tell Ross to hand in the report as soon as possible. The deadline is tomorrow. "
Of course, Chen Yushan would not take her words as sympathy. The subtext of this sentence was nothing more than a good rest to be able to work better.
"Yes, Professor. I'll go now."
With a feeble response, she stood up from her desk and staggered toward the door.
…
At the same time, in a small research institute on the edge of Silicon Valley, Professor Sarrot was facing the most difficult moment of his life.
He looked at the man sitting in front of him. He was already in his fifties, and his neck was flushed. He spoke in a fierce tone.
"… Our team is world-class in the field of organic synthesis! We are provided with technical support from Cornell University. Do you know what this means? You want to buy my team for US $10 million? Why don't you go rob a bank? "
Woolf sneered at the professor's words. He smiled and said in a joking tone, "Of course I know Cornell University is one of the Ivy League schools that has produced 54 Nobel Prize winners. There are countless professors there … But what does that have to do with you?"
Woolf looked at Professor Sarrot, who was frozen on the spot, and he spoke slowly.
"And as far as I know, professors at Cornell University usually don't worry about funding, and they wouldn't open their company in Silicon Valley. Then, Professor Sarrot, did you get your salary for this month? "
The client's target price was 20 million USD. The lower the price, the higher the commission he could get.
If it weren't for the fact that he still had a few valuable pieces of equipment, he wouldn't even want to pay a single cent.
Serves science?
No, that's just an advertisement.
Of course, the AM firm served the rich.
Sarrot's face turned red, and he didn't say anything.
If he was trying to fool people who didn't know anything about the industry, he would be able to convince them. Even if he was arguing with his peers at the MRS Conference in front of investors, he would not be at a disadvantage.
But when it came to an investor like Woolf who had some understanding of the industry, his little bit of cleverness would not work.
After all, when his professional knowledge was useless, Woolf's negotiation ability was enough to defeat a "layman" like him in the business world.
As a matter of fact, Woolf did poke Kieran's weak spot.
The reason why he opened his company in Silicon Valley instead of Ithaca, New York, was because it was easier to get funding.
In the materials science field, famous professors usually wouldn't do this. This was because funding wasn't a problem for them. A lot of companies were willing to cooperate with them. They needed talent more than funding.
Materials science was different than the computer industry. The talent density in Silicon Valley was definitely not comparable to Cornell University.
As for Sarrot …
A few years ago, he was still able to get funding. After all, it was the golden age of lithium-air batteries.
Microsoft, IBM, Tesla, and even the US Department of Energy almost jumped in … There seems to be no shortage of funds in this area. Even if a tycoon gets scammed, there will be new tycoons lining up to follow.
However, in the past few years, the situation had taken a turn for the worse.
Especially when P.G. Bruce, the big name in the lithium-air battery field, published a paper in Nature Chemistry two years ago. No one could replicate his results, and in the end, Professor Bruce almost lost his reputation.
Although most people believed that it was an "honest mistake", they had long labeled Bruce as an "old liar". The entire lithium-air battery field suffered a heavy blow.
Sarrot was only a small player in the field of lithium-air batteries. He used to be able to get some benefits from the big names, but now that the big names couldn't even protect themselves, he had to come out and scam investors.
Honestly, with the current financial situation of his research team, forget about doing experiments and publishing theses, they couldn't even pay the researchers' salaries.
"Looks like you still need some time to think about it …" Woolf shrugged and stood up from the sofa. He said, "I'm going to walk around."
Sarrot saw that the opportunity was about to slip away from his hands, and he suddenly had a lot of thoughts.
Finally, he couldn't sit still anymore and spoke.
"Wait a second."
Woolf stopped walking and turned around. He said in a relaxed tone, "You changed your mind?"
Sarrot whispered, "You scoundrel."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
