Dr Chen, the CEO of Mandarin Telecom, was a dark-haired man in his sixties with heavy-rimmed glasses, dressed in an immaculate, handmade, charcoal-grey suit. The two men shook hands very formally, Quartano investing their greeting with due ceremony. ‘May I present the Principal of the Ptarmigan Team, Mr Tahm Nazar?’
Moving forwards, Nazar shook hands with Dr Chen.
Quartano continued: ‘And this is my Marketing and PR Director, Mr Bernie Callom.’ The artistic communications specialist walked forward and bowed deeply to greet the Mandarin Telecom chief executive. ‘I’d also like you to meet Colonel Matt Straker, our Competition Intelligence Director, who’ll be helping me look after you and your colleagues during your stay in Monte-Carlo.’
In turn, Dr Chen introduced the three members of his board. All hands were shaken before Quartano invited their guests into the yacht’s saloon where he offered them a drink. Small talk ensued for several minutes before the Chinese visitors were invited to sit in the nest of elegant art deco armchairs. Monaco’s harbour, yachts, hillside, and morning sun were visible through the picture windows all around them.
‘Dr Chen,’ said Quartano running a hand through his mane of silver hair. ‘We are honoured that Mandarin Telecom is prepared to consider sponsoring the Ptarmigan Formula One Team. Mr Callom has prepared a presentation to indicate the benefits we feel this would bring your company. Before he elaborates, I’d very much like to offer you a few preliminary observations of my own.’
Dr Chen took a sip of his orange juice and gave a perfunctory nod.
‘Mandarin Telecom is exceptionally well placed to break out of China and establish a global presence. Your mobile phone technology is leading-edge, while your distinctive style — embodied in your eye-catching handset design — resonates well with younger consumers all over the world. China chic, we would call it. We’ve conducted extensive market testing which we’re keen to show you,’ said Quartano as he looked over his shoulder as the cue to one of his aides. A weighty, bound document, emblazoned with Mandarin Telecom and Ptarmigan logos, was soon handed forward. Quartano took it and smiled his thanks.
Dr Chen’s attention appeared to lock on to the research document, seeming surprised that Quartech should have done so much work — unprompted — in advance. The effect was not lost on Quartano.
‘Formula One fits your brand and markets — almost perfectly,’ he went on, deliberately placing the document in clear view on the armrest between them. ‘Sponsoring Ptarmigan will give you immediate access to the global television audience — put conservatively at 400 million — who watch each race. And, with twenty Grands Prix now on the calendar, the geographic spread of the season would give you a significant advertizing presence in every key consumer market around the world.’
Dr Chen placed his glass on a table decorated with heavy marquetry beside him. ‘Mr Quartano,’ replied Dr Chen. ‘I’m impressed by your appreciation of our marketing needs. However … The 400 million you mention is appealing, hence our interest. But that is for Formula One as a whole. The question we have to answer is why we should sponsor the Ptarmigan Team, and not one of the others?’
Quartano smiled warmly and added with conviction: ‘You should sponsor Ptarmigan, Dr Chen — precisely,’ he said deliberately pausing for effect — ‘because you were … impressed by our appreciation of your marketing needs. We do offer something different. Quartech acquired Ptarmigan for business purposes. We see enormous crossover benefits of the team’s technological innovation to our other companies — and, most importantly, we see huge value in the marketing reach of this sport. We understand — we would say better than any of the teams — that you need to see a substantial commercial return on any sponsorship money you might invest.’
‘Ptarmigan was bankrupt at the beginning of this year, Mr Quartano,’ offered Dr Chen — verging on a challenge. ‘It suffered financial failure, collapsing with sizeable debts.’
‘Quite so. Except all that happened before Quartech bought the team. Since then I have replaced the management, bringing in Tahm, here, as one of the world’s most respected team bosses in motor racing. I’ve written off the debt you mentioned and provided the team with a substantial budget — £100 million this year. I’ve built Ptarmigan a new factory in Oxfordshire. I have made all Quartech’s leading-edge technology and management expertise available to the team. We’ve signed a four-year deal with Benbecular, to supply Ptarmigan with engines. And, with the recruitment of Remy Sabatino as our number one driver, not only have we risen close to the top of the Constructors’ Championship, but in Sabatino we have a phenomenal communicator and media personality to front the team — widely acknowledged as a major benefit to the sport as a whole.’
Quartano waited until he met the visitor’s eye directly. ‘Dr Chen,’ he continued authoritatively, almost sternly: ‘Ptarmigan is going to win this year — because of Quartech. Our backing — technical and financial — sets Ptarmigan apart. We’re ready to offer Mandarin Telecom a unique opportunity to be part of this turnaround story — and to help you grow your business around the world on the back of the ground-breaking publicity we are going to generate.’
Quartano, the master negotiator, chose this moment to stop talking.
The yacht’s saloon fell silent.
The Melita gave the slightest hint of movement in the wash of a passing boat.
Dr Chen looked straight back at Quartano for several seconds. For all his intended Chinese inscrutability it was obvious the power of the message had struck a chord. ‘I would be interested to hear more of what you propose,’ he said.
Quartano smiled genuinely but with restraint — realizing they had just moved the relationship significantly on. ‘Excellent. I’ll ask Mr Callom, now, to go through his joint marketing proposal with you.’
‘Thank you,’ said Dr Chen. ‘However, we will want our own marketing department to do an assessment of the television impact of this potential relationship. We have brought a freelance journalist with us. We would ask that he film a test interview with your star driver — and we, ourselves, would like to meet Remy Sabatino.’
THREE
Matt Straker was looking forward to that meeting too. While only a casual motor racing fan, he was well aware — through mainstream press and television coverage — of its more prominent figures. Getting to meet someone he had only known through the media was an intriguing prospect. What would Sabatino be like in real life? he wondered.
Within the hour, Straker and Quartano were walking the Mandarin Telecom directors along the Monaco pit lane towards the Ptarmigan garage. Bernie Callom’s presentation seemed to have gone down well; the Chinese businessmen had not flinched when — at the end of it — Quartano put a price tag of $750 million on their proposed three-year deal.
For Quartech, given the capital it was risking to back Ptarmigan, the Mandarin Telecom sponsorship would be a sizeable payback and represent a substantial — and rapid — return. But that wasn’t Quartano’s “deal”.
Quartano had been trying to break the Chinese defence market for years. Commercially, of far more value to him was the access this relationship could afford his company to the highest level of the Chinese business community: Mandarin Telecom’s client list included every organization that meant anything in China. And of those, Quartano’s holy grail was the PRC’s Ministry of National Defense. Through the Mandarin relationship, and Ptarmigan’s corporate hospitality, he expected to find himself in a unique position to promote the full range of Quartech’s defence equipment and satellite services to the largest military organization on the planet.