35 Lamborghini (2)

The development of Atari in the first month of 1971 was even smoother than Red Bull. Tetris proved to be a generational game and opened selling channels all around the world for Atari. The demand was so large that they couldn't even supply the North American Market. 

Tanja made the strategic decision to supply 80% of their production capacity to the United States and left the rest to Europe and Japan. With only a very small amount for the rest of the world.

This caused the demand to skyrocket even more around the world, like hunger marketing.

In January 1971 Atari sold a total number of 23500 Arcade machines with a profit of nearly 1980 dollars per machine. This increased profit margin was a result of Simon's investment into logistic specialists, whose sole task was to optimize the Supply Chain of Atari. Supply Chain Management was far from reaching the important role of the 21st century in a world full of globalization.

This resulted in a very quick result of positive effects after Simon advised Dennis and Tanja to invest in this point.

With an overall profit of 46,5 million US dollars in January Atari proved to all spectators that even in the new year they would continue to be extremely successful.

After gaining a large part of the 5-million-dollar bonus Steve Wozniak and his team started the development of Space Invaders full of enthusiasm. After some first feedback Steve expected to produce a trial version around July of 1971. There have been a lot of technical difficulties developing a first-rate shooter from scratch while trying to keep the amount of chips as low as possible.

Simon wasn't going to pressure his technical team into developing Space Invaders faster, as their production capacity wasn't even enough to supply Tetris and Snake around the world right now.

He first wanted to enclose the rest of the market before being able to focus all his capacity on Space Invaders on conquer the market by storm. While all his possible competitors were creating games like Snake and Tetris, he wanted to deal them a heavy blow with a new shooter game like Space Invaders.

The management team of Atari never expected to be without any rivals for a couple of years. There have always been people trying to imitate a successful person or enterprise in the past and there certainly will be in the future. Only constant innovation and improvement will be able to cement Atari as the future game overlord. While innovation was never going to be a problem for Simon in the next few decades, he always insisted on quality control as very important in his companies. This was an aspect Gunpei Yokoi, and his Japanese colleagues were solely responsible.

They caused a lot of stress for Dennis Watson especially but having no large quality problems so far showed just how much of a correct decision Simon made.

Full of confidence with the recent developments of Red Bull and Atari Simon and Sarah were going to the meeting with the current owner of Lamborghini, Ferrucio Lamborghini.

When the young couple finally met the creator of Lamborghini, Simon was very surprised. Because he didn't meet a spirited middle-aged man like he expected, but a 55-year-old man that looked dispirited and well into his 60s.

To some extent Simon could understand how this situation was created.

The end of the 60s marked the beginning of a new era inside the factories of Ferrucio Lamborghini. For the first time, 'Lamborghini Trattori' was hit with a serious crisis that affected many sectors of the Italian economy. In the earlier years 'Lamborghini Trattori' carried out a radical transformation of the product that engaged most of the company from both a financial as organizational point of view. The number of employees doubled and a very large order from the Bolivian State was approved. But the political situation in the Southern American country suddenly changed following a coup-d'etat and the new government cancelled the order. As a result, in 1970, there were 5.000 tractors ready and held still on the factory ground.

The company was strongly marked by the presence of the trade unions and by strikes: Ferruccio became very disoriented.

He was in the worst situation of his life right now. Even though Simon knew he would relieve his financial situation in the next few months, because he would sell many buildings to Fiat, he would never become the high-spirited innovative entrepreneur ever again.

This gave Simon great confidence to convince the man in front of him with a generous offer and a promise to keep his dream alive.

Sarah was very helpful during the initial conversation with the old Italian man, as her charm and hospitality greatly increased his favor for the two young Americans. When they finished eating the traditional Ragout Bolognese Simon slowly started to get down to business.

"Ferruccio, my secretary already explained the cause for todays meeting with you before, but I would like to once again tell you that I am very interested in the car company Lamborghini and that I would love to further improve your dream and to build truly sensational cars. I am sure to make the superiority of Lamborghini well known around the world.

I am also fully capable of financing this dream, whether now or in the future, as my company in the United States just made record profits last month, close to 50 million US dollars of pure profit.

You might think it is completely stupid of me to announce my deep interest in your company and that I am quiet rich in cash right now, which from a business perspective is certainly true. I just catapulted myself in a very bad position when it comes to further negotiations.

I did this because I am not here to steal from you or make a bargain. I don't want to take over Lamborghini and have people 20 years later talk about how Ferrucio Lamborghini could sell his car company undervalued and how this young American boy ripped Italy of their national fortune.

I am here because I sincerely want to acquire a great dream. The dream of Ferrucio Lamborghini to create the most superior luxury car on the planet.

And I don't want to exclude the founder of this idea from the future of the company."