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The Victoria's Secret team responsible for casting the cast did not make any concessions or demands.

Just like Hollywood actors, the fashion industry also lacks beautiful women.

Moreover, this big show is a grand publicity for the Victoria's Secret brand, and for the models participating in this big show, it is a rare introduction from the fashion circle to the general public.Because the Victoria's Secret brand and Victoria's Secret Angels are a mutually beneficial relationship, Victoria's Secret has also specially designed a promotion plan for the Victoria's Secret Angel team.

Still the same sentence, the model circle tries every means to catch up with celebrities and singers, but in the final analysis it is just for popularity.

The Victoria's Secret show is equivalent to giving a group of models a dazzling platform to stand directly in front of the public.

When the two walked to the gate of the studio, a series of proactive greetings sounded in their ears, and many girls looked at Simon with a bit of eagerness in their eyes.However, probably because there were too many people, until Simon passed through a group of beauties, none of them dared to step forward.

Simon also saw a lot of familiar figures in his memory, but it was difficult for this kind of thing to cause any waves in his heart now.

After several rounds of selection in advance, there are a total of 30 candidates for the final 100 spots.

The waiting area inside the studio couldn't fit, so the queue went all the way to the gate.

Entering the studio, the space of thousands of square meters has been divided into several work areas, including a dressing room, a changing room, and space for the design and production of angel outfits.A 20-meter-long catwalk lies across the most spacious space in the innermost part of the studio, where the upcoming auditions will be held.

The audition process has already been designed.

Change clothes, log on to the catwalk to show your figure, communicate simply, and then the next one.

Therefore, in just one afternoon, the 100 people passed quickly, and many models who were looking forward to 'interacting' with Westeros failed to find any opportunities.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, in the brightly lit studio, the audition ended, and Simon continued to discuss with the preparatory team of Victoria's Secret about the remaining 10 spots.

Of the five spokespersons, Cindy Crawford was the first one. This supermodel, who is already biased towards commercialization, immediately accepted the invitation of Victoria's Secret's three-year endorsement contract. Of course, the endorsement fee is also expensive. $500 million over three years.Of course, this part of the expenditure is the responsibility of Victoria's Secret itself, and it is not included in the budget of the Victoria's Secret Show.

Subsequently, Yasmine Gary, whom Simon accidentally promoted last year, was the second.

This 'waist fine' was once one of the spokespersons of Victoria's Secret in the original timeline. Yasmine Gary is a very suitable candidate in terms of appearance and body and the diversity of the spokesperson's race.

Although there is already Yasmin Gary, an Asian mixed race, but the five spokespersons, if there is no black man, it must not be justified. This year, 19-year-old Tyra Banks was selected.This black model has already debuted at the age of 15. For a model, 19 years old is already considered old, and the other party's reputation is enough.

In fact, someone recommended Naomi Campbell.

Although the black supermodel was fired by the Elite agency last year due to various bad deeds, but because of his solid foundation, he is still active in the fashion circle after changing another agency.

However, as we all know, this black supermodel is really difficult to deal with. Short-term cooperation is no problem. If it is a long-term endorsement, it is conceivable that there will be endless troubles.

With Cindy Crawford, Yasmine Gary and Tyra Banks remaining, Simon chose Helena Christensen and Stephanie Seymour.

Compared with Cindy Crawford's three-year endorsement fee of US$500 million, the endorsement fee of the last four angel spokespersons is exactly reversed, and the five-year US$300 million.

In addition to the five spokespersons, the remaining five supermodels who will attend the show are also basically determined, and they are also the most famous supermodels of this era, such as Linda Evangelista and Claudia Schiffer.

The next day was another Friday.

It's already July 7rd, and this year's Independence Day holiday just happens to be Saturday.

As the most popular schedule in July, on July 7, a total of three heavy-weight films were released in North American theaters, namely Daenerys and Warner Bros.'s cooperation project "The Last of the Mohicans" Sci-fi family comedy "Honey, I Grow the Kids" and "Patriot Games" from Paramount Pictures.

"The Killing Moment", which started painting the previous week, finally had a box office of 2373 million US dollars in the first week.

Due to the subject matter, such opening results are not high, but they have met expectations. The key still depends on the follow-up box office trend of the film.

Although this Independence Day holiday falls on Saturday, American salaried workers generally arrange their annual leave during this time, so this schedule is still popular.

After spending the whole afternoon preparing for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show yesterday, Simon flew to San Francisco again this morning.

After half a year of preparation, Blockbuster's online platform was launched just in time for the Independence Day holiday. Nancy Brill hoped that Simon could attend the press conference today.

As the largest video chain in North America and even in the world, the press conference of "Blockbuster Online" naturally attracted a lot of media attention.The conference was also held in the conference hall of the Marriott Hotel in downtown San Francisco.

Simon arrived at the Marriott Hotel, and the press conference was about to start.

Just simply greeted today's guests, and everyone began to enter and sit down.

At 10 o'clock, the press conference officially began.

Blockbuster's executives introduced in detail the development process of "Blockbuster Online", the application process of the website and the prospect of online business prospects, etc., while Nancy Brill discussed Blockbuster with Simon in the audience. The problem faced by Star at this time.

After taking over Blockbuster for a few years, the video chain company now has more than 4300 chain stores worldwide. Nancy’s ultimate goal is to have 5000 chain stores worldwide, including 3500 in North America and 1500 overseas.

This goal will probably be achieved by next year at the latest.

Compared with the 9000-plus chain stores of Blockbuster in its heyday in memory, the 5000 chain stores seem to have shrunk by half, but now Blockbuster, under the operation of Nancy Brill and the Blockbuster team, Through the continuous optimization of the operation model and warehousing and logistics system, it is stronger than Blockbuster, which was only a pursuit of scale in the original time and space.

However, in Nancy Brill's view, Blockbuster still faces many problems that need to be changed.

Chapter 491 Solution (Revision)

For a chain store like Blockbuster, which mainly deals in video tape rental, the most expensive part of the cost is the cost of warehousing and logistics of video tapes.The purchase price of a box of video tapes for rental may only need 15 US dollars, but the cost of warehousing and logistics during the operation cycle is as high as 50 to 60 US dollars.

In order to speed up the turnover of videotapes among users as much as possible, thereby reducing the purchase quantity of videotapes and the pressure on warehousing and logistics, and at the same time, in order to obtain more profits, Blockbuster launched a late fee system.

The videotapes rented by users usually have a usage time of 7 days, and if they exceed 7 days, they will start to pay late fees on a daily basis.

In the original timeline, one of Netflix’s repeated attacks on Blockbuster was the late payment fee system that consumers hated by this video chain store. For this reason, it also made up a founder who paid $13 for a box of “Apollo 40” Late fees resulted in the creation of Netflix.

In fact, the story was so completely fabricated that Blockbuster almost sued Netflix over it.For Netflix, this has worked out very well.

Because the late fee is indeed a weakness of Blockbuster.

After taking a stake and taking control of Blockbuster, Simon reminded Nancy Brill and Blockbuster's management of the problem of late fees.

However, in the early stage of Blockbuster's development, late payment fees did play a very effective role, so this system has been implemented all the time.

However, as the competition in the video tape industry in North America became more and more fierce, Blockbuster's late fee system became more and more outdated.

"In the past few months, I have done various experiments on canceling late fees in three cities on the east and west coasts. The results show that after the cancellation of late fees, the frequency of users renting video tapes has increased significantly, and the revenue of chain stores has not only not decreased, but has increased. of."

The Blockbuster executives on the stage were still introducing Blockbuster Online, and Nancy Brill whispered to Simon about it in the audience.

Blockbuster's second quarter financial report has not yet been released, but Simon knows that in the first quarter of 1992, Blockbuster's overall revenue of 7.3 million U.S. dollars, 6100 million U.S. dollars of revenue came from late payment fees. Revenue accounted for 8% of total revenue.

In my memory, Blockbuster's late fee income exceeded 10% of the total revenue. Such a "huge" income was almost equivalent to Blockbuster's annual net profit. Before the bankruptcy, the video chain giant failed to completely eliminate the late fee system.

Even people who don't know how to run a company at all can probably understand that a company that relies on fines to support its revenue is absolutely abnormal.

Of course, Blockbuster can understand this, but the company on the original timeline is too big to lose, and at the same time, it lacks a strong shareholder, which ultimately leads to hesitation in many strategies that should be changed, not only failing to completely give up from the beginning to the end. In fact, the late payment fee system is full of negative impacts on enterprises. Under the general trend of physical leasing shifting to online leasing, Blockbuster reversed the car and completely cut off the online leasing business that had already been established, which eventually led to The world's largest video chain has evaporated.

Simon thought about this and asked Nancy, "Have you discussed this matter at the Blockbuster board meeting?"

Nancy nodded and said: "Many people have concerns, and there is also the problem of franchising chain stores. Self-operated stores are not a big deal. Franchising chain stores may be even more unwilling to give up late fees. We can't expect these franchisees to have too long eyes."

Among Blockbuster's more than 4300 chain stores, a total of about 20% belong to franchise chains.

This ratio is also much lower than the Blockbuster in Simon's memory.

After completely controlling Blockbuster, with the support of Simon, the management made a very important move, which is to gradually cancel the franchise system and only develop self-operated stores. Reasons on the original timeline.

However, Blockbuster cannot immediately cancel the franchise of the chain stores that have already joined.

Moreover, these franchised chain stores have a much higher degree of freedom of operation than self-operated stores.

For example, the late payment fee, Blockbuster head office made a decision to cancel the late payment fee, these franchise stores do not have to absolutely obey.

"If you can guarantee that your experimental data is okay, then go ahead and implement it," Simon thought for a moment, and said, "I'll help you with the board of directors and shareholders, but for franchise stores, you need to solve it yourself. However, I suggest that you better not do it overnight, but carefully consider and come up with a reasonable plan."

Nancy nodded and said: "I plan to use this opportunity to further expand Blockbuster's membership system. In addition, I hope to be able to distinguish Blockbuster's franchised stores from self-operated stores, such as conspicuous Add the label 'franchise' to distinguish it from self-operated stores. After all, this time Blockbuster Online, franchise stores also do not participate."

Blockbuster's online plan is gradually integrating with Blockbuster's physical stores. If franchise stores are also brought into this system, there will inevitably be problems in the distribution of benefits.

"So, if you do this, how do you deal with the dissatisfaction of franchise stores?"

"I plan to give them a higher degree of freedom in operation, and at the same time reduce the franchise fee appropriately."

Simon smiled and said, "You want to strip these shops directly, don't you?"

Nancy had a bit of helplessness on her exquisite and small face: "Yes, it's a pity that it's too difficult."

Stripping off the franchise stores is like canceling the late payment fee, which is tantamount to giving up a large amount of market share and company receivables, which will definitely have a serious impact on Blockbuster's stock price.

The two had been whispering and discussing Blockbuster's abolition of late payment fees throughout the press conference. Until the end of the press conference, Nancy had been by Simon's side and kept chatting about various issues.

Nancy's "entanglement" inevitably caused the female assistant who came with Simon to have some kind of instinctive vigilance.Even Nancy could see the look of wanting to follow Simon step by step but worried about being rejected.

In the end, Simon simply sent the female assistant to chat with the C girl Claire who also came over today, and then looked at Nancy with a playful expression: "Is this fun?"

Nancy raised her face, with a mischievous smile on the corner of her mouth: "It's very interesting."

"Be careful that Jenny will wear small shoes for you in the future. You know, men's ears are very soft. If she speaks ill of you a few times in front of me, maybe you will lose your job."

Nancy said: "Are you the kind of person who is easily influenced by women?"

Simon nodded seriously, and said, "Yes, the more beautiful a woman is, the more I can't control it."

Nancy choked for a moment, then rolled her eyes and said, "So, I'm pretty sure Jenny won't do that."

"why?"

"Since you know that you are easily influenced by women, you will definitely not choose the kind of woman who likes to influence and manipulate you by your side."

Simon thought for a moment, took a sip of the red wine from his glass, and said, "It seems to make sense."

Nancy took another step forward, as if she was going to make persistent efforts: "So, I guess, you're actually wary of women?"

Simon lowered his head and looked at the small senior executive in front of him, ignoring her argument just now, but said: "You have broken through the comfortable distance between me and people."

"Are you not feeling well?"

"No," Simon's tone turned dangerous, and he said quietly, "You gave me the desire to hunt."

Nancy and Simon looked at each other for less than a second, but they still stepped back a little.

The housekeeper happened to come over to say hello, breaking the little embarrassment that had just started.

"What are you talking about?"

"Blockbuster's late fee thing."

Simon said, not shying away from admiring Alice's capable and elegant appearance in a white professional suit.

After that night last time, although they met several times, the two never found a chance to be intimate again.

On the one hand, Simon is indeed a relatively restrained person. On the other hand, there are not many women around him, but he can basically keep Simon under control.For example, when she came to San Francisco, the female assistant would not give Simon any chance to steal.If Janet is in Los Angeles, Simon rarely stays out late.

Simon's eyes fell on her body, and Alice inexplicably remembered the scene of the man's big hand caressing him with a little bit of roughness that night. She couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable, so she had to turn her attention to Nancy, and said: "Speaking of it, Nan Xi, have you considered what I told you?"

Nancy turned her eyes between Simon and Alice, nodded, and said, "I've considered it, but although I also think this is feasible, if we really do this, we will face a class action lawsuit from shareholders." gone."

Simon stood by, heard what the two women said, and asked, "Is there anything I don't know?"

Nancy glanced at Simon and said, "Alice hopes that Blockbuster Online will cancel the videotape sales business."

Simon understood immediately.

Amazon's online shopping mall has developed rapidly in the past six months. Therefore, in addition to books, it is also an example to increase the variety of products.In addition to books, the most suitable type of online sales at this stage, video tapes must be included.

Housekeeper presumably wants Blockbuster Online to eliminate videotape sales to avoid competing with Amazon's planned online store.Of course, there should be a corresponding exchange of benefits, and it is impossible for Amazon to simply let Blockbuster cancel this part of the business.

Although Blockbuster's chain stores focus on videotape rental, they have also been involved in videotape retailing.

Simon looked at Nancy and asked, "What do you think?"

"I think this is a good suggestion," Nancy said honestly: "Cancelling online retail, Blockbuster and Amazon can carry out promotion cooperation to guide each other's user groups, and Blockbuster can also reduce a large part of retail business expenses. .In fact, Simon, I’d like to eliminate the brick-and-mortar chain’s retail business so that Blockbuster can focus more on leasing. It’s just that it’s not going to work.”

Late payment fees may only account for 8% of Blockbuster's revenue, but video retail revenue accounts for more than 20% of Blockbuster's total revenue, and it is indeed impossible to cut it off.

As for Blockbuster Online, the site has only just launched, and the future of online retailing is strictly in the air, and cancellations don't seem to matter.

However, if this is really done, the other shareholders of Blockbuster will definitely be dissatisfied. It cannot be justified to harm the interests of Blockbuster shareholders for the benefit of another company in the Westeros system.Therefore, other Blockbuster shareholders will likely file a class action lawsuit by then.

This is the key to running a company, especially this kind of listed company, which often fails to make the most correct decisions.

In the final analysis, it was because Simon failed to completely buy Blockbuster.

If 100% shareholding is realized, then, of course, the boss can do whatever he wants.

Nancy quickly added: "However, in addition to canceling the late fee, I am also considering cutting off some corner businesses of Blockbuster such as movie peripheral sales."

Simon smiled and said, "You proposed this part of the business yourself."

"Yes," Nancy did not deny it, and said, "However, after recalculating the cost and return ratio of this part of the business in recent quarters, I think it is best to cut it off and return to the core videotape retail. In this way It can save a lot of human resources, and it is more convenient for Blockbuster’s management and further expansion.”

After Nancy finished speaking, she glanced at Simon with great interest, and there was even a hint of whether you would ask me or not in her eyes.Blockbuster's peripheral product retail mainly sells film and television peripheral products related to Daenerys Entertainment.

Simon really wanted to pinch Nancy's delicate face: "Hey, do you remember who your boss is?"

Of course, it was impossible to do so at a reception where everyone was watching.

Nancy realized something, and instinctively shrunk her neck, and then looked over, not to be outdone, with a look of confidence that you can pinch, pinch, pinch if you have the ability.