最不可思议的父女档

    鲁梅尔特：晚餐的时候朱迪跟我讲起这个，我就告诉她，我在1985年写过一篇关于软件盗版的研究论文。对于某些类型的软件，有人盗版也许更好，因为那样会建立起用户群，从而培育来自公司的需求。公司不会用盗版软件……我在1981年建议某家公司免费赠送他们开发的数据库软件，结果那家公司的CFO看着我说：“天啦，这个软件售价700美元。要送出1万份，你看我们会损失多少钱。”就得和这种目光短浅的想法做斗争。

    你可以去做毒品贩子和剃须刀厂家的咨询顾问了。

    鲁梅尔特：他们（精于此道），并不需要咨询。CFO们倒是可以听听我的建议。

    克莱尔：我又想起我和父亲探讨过的一个想法。我的第四本书叫《堕落天使之城》（ City of Fallen Angels），出书的时候我们（在出版公司）召开营销会议。他们对实体书的销量不断下滑不无担心。我说：“我们试试新想法，在书中增加一些在电子书里无法得到的东西。”我们在封底附上了一封信，由书中的一个角色写给另一个角色。看起来就像真的信件，而且还有蜡印，可供粉丝收藏。而在Kindle（亚马逊的电子书——译注）上就无法找到这样可以拿在手中的实物。

    后来呢？

    克莱尔：我们【在邦诺书店（Barnes & Noble）】进行尝试，获得了巨大成功。他们追加了订单，结果还是一售而空……我正好应邀在邦诺的董事会会议上演讲。邦诺的CEO对我说：“你知道吗，你们在《堕天使之城》上的营销战略真精彩。大获成功之后，我们还要求其他作者跟进。我们把这个叫做《堕落天使之城》策略。”

    理查德会在电影里客串吗？

    克莱尔：不会，但电影里确实有一个邪恶老爸的角色。

    鲁梅尔特：我宁愿自己拍电影。其实我已经开始一个计划，想和CEO讨论战略问题，录制采访视频。

    克莱尔：我特别要求让我的猫咪出镜。

    RUMELT: I told Judy over lunch when she mentioned this that I wrote a research paper back in 1985 about software piracy and how for certain kinds of software it's probably better to let people steal it because it builds the user base, which then creates corporate demand. Corporations aren't going to steal it…The CFO of one company I advised in 1981 to give away copies of a database program looked at me and said, "Jeez, we're going to sell this for $700 times 10,000. Look how much we would lose." That's the kind of myopic logic you're fighting.

    You could be advisor to drug dealers and razor-blade manufacturers.

    RUMELT: They don't need that advice. It's CFOs who do.

    CLARE: I'm thinking of another thing that I also ran by my dad. When my fourth book came out, which was called City of Fallen Angels, we were having our marketing meeting [at the publisher]. And they were saying they were concerned about dwindling print sales for all books. And I said, "Let's something experimental—put something in the books you can't get in ebooks. In the back of the book we'll affix a letter written by one of the characters to another character. It'll look like a letter, with a little wax seal, a thing fans will want to collect. And as an analogue object you can hold in your hand, it's something you can't pull out of a Kindle.

    So?

    CLARE: We tried it [at Barnes & Noble]. It was hugely successful. They had to reorder. Eventually they ran out of them… I was just at the board of directors meeting for Barnes & Noble (BKS) as a speaker. The CEO said to me, "You know, that thing you guys did for City of Fallen Angels was a brilliant piece of strategy. It was so successful for us that we've now gone and asked dozens of other authors to do the same thing. We call it City of Fallen Angels treatment."

    Will Richard have a cameo in the movie?

    CLARE: No, but there is an evil dad in the movie.

    RUMELT: I'd rather have my own film. I'm actually beginning a project of trying to video CEOs about certain strategy issues.

    CLARE: I have asked specifically that they include my cat.