manhattan.
Gisele Bundchen and Alexander Ambros got out of the taxi, walked arm in arm into the apartment building where they lived, and came to the mansion on the top floor, talking and laughing, only to find that Miranda Kerr had returned and was in the kitchen. prepare for something.
Putting on her high heels, she glanced at the figure in the kitchen, and Giselle couldn't help curling her lips. This kind of situation is really rare. Alexander even complained quietly: "Is what she cooks edible?"
"Hi, you are back," Miranda turned her head when she heard the movement in the living room, and greeted the two girls warmly.
The two women responded indifferently, and Miranda didn't mind, she turned her head and continued to work.
Eric was coming over today, and she made up her mind to perform well and try to impress Eric to let her go back to Los Angeles.
Driven to New York by Eric in March, Miranda was full of little emotions. She didn't want to live with Giselle and Alexander, nor did she want Cindy Crawford, who was entrusted by Eric, to be like a child. watch.
However, afterward, even though she knew it might be on purpose by Cindy or Eric, she was still frightened.
Miranda was unwilling to live with Giselle and Alexander, so Cindy temporarily let her live in her own apartment and took good care of her.
However, since you want to be a model, you can't talk about it.
So Cindy took her to the Elite Modeling Agency for an interview, with dozens of girls scouted by Elite scouts from all over North America.
Since Cindy took her there personally, at the interview site, she noticed that dozens of girls looked at Cindy like a queen, and she felt quite proud in her heart, and she would definitely be able to easily reach Cindy's status in the future.
It may be because of Cindy. During the waiting process, many girls deliberately struck up a conversation with her. Some people even recognized her as one of the four tennis girls in "007: Casino Royale", and she was also shown in the TV series of Disney Channel So I asked her why she came to Elite's modeling interview.
Naturally, Miranda couldn't say that she was driven to New York because she annoyed Eric, so she said arrogantly that she was not interested in acting and wanted to try modeling.
Then she felt that some girls looked at her like idiots, and one girl said half-jokingly, 'I've only heard of models trying to become actors'.
Of course Miranda knew the truth, but she couldn't show it on her face, so she was naturally depressed.
After taking photos with a group of girls and walking around the stage, she struggled for a long time, but finally she got some "special" treatment. The Elite manager who participated in the interview personally explained to her the results of her interview: her height is low, her face does not have a three-dimensional effect, Her steps are average, she has no professional training, and her overall qualifications do not have the potential of a high-street (High-Fashion) model at all, so she can only take the route of a purely commercial model.
Before the Victoria's Secret show, a model, if you want to reach the level of a supermodel, you must first be able to get the recognition of high-street fashion brands such as Prada, Tiffany, and Chanel. Only by cooperating with these brands can you improve yourself. Only with unique style can you gain further recognition from the fashion circle, and step by step to the status of a sought-after supermodel.
However, Miranda's appearance and height qualifications basically have nothing to do with high street fashion.
This means that without any background opportunities, Miranda will never be able to become a supermodel in this life, and can only be an ordinary commercial model, which is actually the kind of clothing display, print advertisement, auto show business performance, etc. The kind who can do everything but basically have no chance to get ahead. Of course, it is not impossible for commercial models to be perfect, and Cindy is one of them. Moreover, in the original time and space, although there was a gap of twenty years, the upper trajectory of Cindy and Miranda was almost exactly the same.
In view of Miranda's situation, Elite can only give her a training contract similar to an intern. The company provides accommodation and a fixed salary of US$1,000 per month. After signing the contract, Miranda must receive regular training from Elite and complete the work provided by the company.
Miranda was even angrier at the time, realizing that it might have been intentional by Cindy or Eric, and the girl felt a sense of rebellion.
Well, whatever you say, so be it.
After signing the contract, Cindy and an agent from Elite took her around where she might work in the future. Ten sets of clothes were tossed to tears at the fitting scene, and the live props in the new season of "Project Runway" that were being recorded were being swayed like dolls...
In the evening, when Cindy and Elite's manager brought Miranda to the West Village of Manhattan, she saw that she was going to live in an old building less than 60 square meters with seven other girls whose looks were not much worse than hers. Miranda finally broke down in the old small apartment.
Cindy took her home to sleep, and when she woke up the next day, Miranda didn't say a word about Elite's work, and neither did Cindy, as if nothing happened yesterday.
After breakfast, Cindy took Miranda to the IMG model agency where she worked, took out the contract she had prepared, and signed the girl to the same agency as her own. And then helped her move to Gisele and Alexander's apartment.
Due to the age limit, Miranda can't get too many jobs now. In the past few months, Cindy has not treated her like a child at all, and often takes her by her side. After listening to and watching too much, Miranda The more I felt, the way those girls looked at her in the lounge waiting for the interview was so right. If possible, she wanted to look at herself with the eyes of an idiot.
Therefore, hearing from Cindy that Eric would be here today, the girl hurried back to the apartment in a hurry, wanting to please Eric so that she could return to Los Angeles. Anyway, she has no interest in being a model now.
After a week of rest in East Hampton, when he came to Manhattan, the first thing Eric faced was the internal personnel problems of the ABC Group.
This time the problem has nothing to do with infighting, layoffs, etc., but it is also quite difficult. As the ABC Group has become stronger and stronger in recent years, some companies have naturally begun to be interested in the management of the ABC Group. After all, even if Eric can come up with countless brilliant ideas, if there is no excellent management team to execute them, It is impossible for the Firefly Group to develop so rapidly.
The party that wants to pry the corner is Comcast, and the target is Steve Bernstein, the CEO of ESPN TV.
After signing a huge US$9 billion broadcast rights contract with the American Football League, ESPN's operating conditions have not been dragged down at all, but it has become more and more popular. With the increase in cable TV revenue and advertising revenue, this year only ESPN TV station will be The entire group provides a net profit of over US$500 million.
Steve Bernstein has been in charge of ESPN TV station for more than ten years. It can be said that Steve Bernstein has single-handedly turned this small TV station with less than 300,000 subscribers into North America's largest basic cable station with more than 90 million subscribers.
Getting promoted is a must in any company for doing such a great job. Eric will not let the company's talents be lost like this.
However, the current situation of Firefly Group is that the entire management system is very stable.
Under Eric, Katzenberg and Frank Wells are in charge of the entire Firefly Group, and are mainly responsible for the group's film and television entertainment business. In terms of TV business, after Tom Murphy retired, Robert Iger and Stephen Burke, a veteran of Metropolitan ABC, served as the CEO and president of ABC Group respectively, responsible for the TV business of Firefly Group. Further down, there are specific branch managers, such as Kenneth Horn of New Line Films, Robert Thompson of Bowei Distribution, Stan Winston of Digital Domain, Anne Sweeper of AE Television Network, etc. Ney, ESPN's Steve Bernstein, Firefly's Barry Weiss and more.
The various departments and subsidiaries managed by the top executives of these companies together form the Firefly Group with more than 120,000 employees worldwide.
Leaving aside other things for the time being, according to Steve Bernstein's achievements and his current level, if he moves up, he must at least reach the position of ABC president. However, none of the people above him are replaceable mediocrities, and it is impossible for these people to leave and retire in the short term, which is rather embarrassing.
Eric is not a king, so it is impossible to give you an official title, so he will give you a title. Simply increasing salary is not very attractive to managers like Steve Bernstein who want to gain more room to play.
On the other hand, Comcast also has a very enticing offer of Steve Bernstein, chief operating officer.
Control of Comcast remains in the hands of founder Ralph Roberts and his son Ralph Roberts, who serve as the company's chairman and CEO, respectively.
Steve Bernstein's COO position is equivalent to the president of Comcast Group. He is directly responsible to CEO Roberts and his son, and controls the operation of the entire Comcast cable TV network, although it cannot be regarded as monopoly , but Comcast, which is in a period of rapid rise, has much more room to play than ESPN, which has almost developed to the extreme.
Firefly does not have the position of chief operating officer. According to the management authority, the functions of the chief operating officer are respectively in charge of Katzenberg and Frank Wells.
It is also impossible for Eric to suddenly create such a similar position in order to retain Steve Bernstein. The stability of the management system of Firefly Group means that the distribution of power is in a very harmonious and balanced state. Depriving power from the original manager and giving it to another new manager will only cause the original management system to become unbalanced.
However, if you zoom in on the entire Firefly system, there may just be one soon-to-be vacant position suitable for Steve Bernstein, and that is America Online. The management talent shown by Steve Bernstein is enough to be the CEO of AOL. The two companies also have many similarities, and there is no such thing as a mountain of separation.
In fact, most of the managers of giant companies in the United States cannot be regarded as "professional counterparts". When the scale of the company reaches a certain level, the requirements for managers are no longer professional skills, but a person's management philosophy.
Of course, everything has not been settled yet, and it is still unknown whether the control of AOL can be taken back from Steve Case's team. But in order to prevent Steve Bernstein from being poached, Eric still has to stabilize the opponent in advance.
At the ABC headquarters on the Upper West Side, it was almost closing time, and Eric and Steve Bernstein, who came here from the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, had been chatting for an entire afternoon.
Steve Bernstein is already excited about the position offered by Comcast, but at the same time, he is somewhat looking forward to controlling America Online, a new Internet technology company with a faster rising momentum. Therefore, the two discussed in great detail, and Eric's setting of AOL's future development direction was also approved by Steve Bernstein.
Finally, Steve Bernstein said: "Eric, in this case, I can wait a month to reply to Comcast. But if you can't get control of AOL, I'm afraid I will I have officially submitted my resignation letter."
Eric nodded, all he could say had been said, if he couldn't keep it, there was nothing he could do. But he still couldn't help but said: "Actually, Steve, even if you fail this time, if you are willing to wait another two years, I can guarantee that Firefly is destined to acquire a telecom operator, and I can still give it to you." You manage."
Steve Bernstein shook his head slightly with a smile, and said: "Eric, I am very grateful for your trust in me, and I also know that you will definitely be successful in the future. However, it is impossible for me to do this now A promise without any clue, giving up the opportunity in front of you."
Eric can only regret that, in fact, with the departure of Jorma Ollila from Nokia, there is another Nokia president who can be handed over to Steve Bernstein.
However, the span of the two industries of media and telecommunications is a bit too large. Eric did not take the initiative to bring up the lesson that Apple once hired John Sculley from a beverage company as CEO, which led to the decline of the company. What's more, Nokia's headquarters are in Northern Europe, and it is unlikely that Steve Bernstein will accept this position.
After agreeing on this, Eric got up and reached out to Steve Bernstein again: "Then, let's have dinner together, I have already made a reservation."
"Of course," Steve Bernstein reached out and shook Eric tightly.
The two greeted several other senior executives at the headquarters, left the ABC headquarters together, and rushed to a top restaurant in the Rockefeller Center in Midtown for dinner.
After dinner, Eric personally asked the driver to take Steve Bernstein to the Plaza Hotel where he was staying, and then rushed back to the penthouse of the three girls on Madison Avenue with a hint of alcohol.