From its humble beginnings as a small and medium-sized enterprise manufacturing TV parts to a global manufacturing empire with a revenue of NT$700 billion, from computer accessories to mobile phones and other hardware, the Hon Hai system spans almost the entire global IT manufacturing landscape. In the industrial chain, although the stock price of Hon Hai Group has fallen during the financial crisis, it does not affect Mr. Terry Gou's status as a leader in the Chinese business community. His every move has attracted attention from all walks of life.

But in Terry Gou’s own opinion, he does not think he is successful. If a person thinks that he is very successful and has reached the peak, then when he gets up tomorrow, he will go down instead of up; your first step tomorrow will be to go downhill. Persistence, self-discipline and Diligence is the industry's unanimous evaluation of this 59-year-old entrepreneur.

On the evening of September 6th, I was still in Taiwan to participate in the disaster relief and reconstruction activities held by the Taiwan Executive Yuan. On the morning of September 7th, I flew to Beijing to attend the launch of Kai-fu Lee’s creative workshop. He traveled to the mainland so frequently. With Taiwan, Terry Gou jokingly calls himself Chinwan (China + Taiwan).

Afterwards, Mr. Terry Gou accepted interviews from three media including this newspaper.

This is his first exclusive interview with mainland media.

Terry Gou admitted frankly that he has been working in business for more than 35 years. Except for the year or so when he was looking for his second spring, he has been working an average of 15 hours a day for 34 years without interruption.

Why do you have to be so diligent?

If you are good at Taekwondo, you must have a solid horse stance. Do you know that the Shaolin Temple monks’ kung fu is ever-changing, and it is based on the water and mountains they have picked over the past many years? ? This is a classic saying in Guo's quotations.

In addition to love, what is more important is responsibility, Guo Taiming said in an interview with reporters on September 7. He quoted the ancient Chinese proverb "You will reap melons if you sow melons, and you will reap beans if you sow beans" to describe that the success of Hon Hai series is not accidental. Spending time and money buys experience, no experiences, no judgment (without experience, there is no judgment).

What we can guess correctly is that in the weird and unclear business environment, Foxconn, which is in adversity, will definitely plan to make great achievements in e-commerce. Terry Gou told reporters that Foxconn has been paying attention to and researching the network economy for many years, and there will also be new product initiatives in the software and network fields.

Reporter: Mr. Li Kaifu’s creative workshop will focus on investing in e-commerce, mobile Internet and cloud computing. As one of the investors, what are your views on these three areas? What are Foxconn’s plans for e-commerce?

Terry Gou: Today’s e-commerce C2C model is like Alibaba’s model, including B2C. Today’s real Internet economy has not yet begun in China. Because what is the most developed network economy now? Young people are killing time, killing time. But if young people spend their time killing time. This is possible in the early stages, which is called the initial entrepreneurial stage. In order for China's economy to take off in the future, it must be equipped with the wings of the Internet. The operation of business, the interconnection of companies, and e-commerce will grow very fast in the future.

We have been paying attention to e-commerce for a long time. Our entire Foxconn Group's revenue will continue to grow this year despite the recession, and will exceed US$60 billion to US$65 billion. Of course we are all hardware. But we have been developing software and network for a long time. We have many experts in the Internet field and have been paying attention to it for a long time.

(Internet economy) needs to go through a test and the rules of the game need to be established. For example, we must issue invoices; small companies can sell copycat phones, but we cannot sell copycat phones; they can sell without going through testing, but we can't go without testing.

Now we think the time is ripe. In the past, the Internet was a paradise for opportunists in China, but in the future it should be an opportunity for realists. Whether it’s e-commerce, the cloud, or the mobile Internet. Each of these three are Foxconn’s strengths around the world. We just don’t have a brand.

Although many network companies and Internet companies are very successful now, they can be said to be very successful at present. But in the next wave of fierce competition, who will win is still undecided.

Reporter: You just mentioned that you don’t have a brand. Looking back now, do you regret not building your own brand?

Terry Gou: I don’t feel sorry at all. Everyone, Toyota Motor Company is so successful and good, but it also lost money last year. There must be three supports behind the brand, one is technology, one is service, and the other is the support of credibility.

Today, many solar companies in China are poaching people from me. Why? When solar products are sent to Europe, they break down within a year or two, and the quality is not up to par. A large number of returns come back, and they come to the same conclusion: When it comes to poaching people from Foxconn, Foxconn’s products are good. So I have recently seen a lot of people switch to solar energy.

In this way we say: OK, we also enter solar energy!

Although he is the OEM king of the manufacturing industry, Terry Gou has always paid close attention to the industrial opportunities brought by the Internet and new technologies. He has been studying e-commerce for a long time. He believes that the e-commerce market was still in its infancy two years ago, but now it will enter the stage of real market opportunities.

The time for e-commerce has matured

Reporter: However, when making investments, especially early-stage investments, it is quite difficult to choose projects and the right people.

Terry Gou: Yes, the problem is choosing people. How to choose people? These people want to start a business and are risk takers. Among these venture capital investors, how many actually understand technology and make real contributions? In the choice of Kaifu, every investor must have value. Regarding the commercialization of this idea, how will the talent be responsible in the future? Maybe we can also cultivate another Yahoo and another Google in the future. Kaifu started from player to coach.

We also hope to take over the second, third, and fourth businesses in the future, maybe through acquisitions, and maybe through growth. Our experience is that we have 700,000 employees in 12 countries, in-house software engineers, and a cloud-based general manager, which can quickly implement his ideas and shorten the time from idea to product.

Reporter: In your opinion, what kind of person is considered an innovative person?

Terry Gou: I think there are three characteristics of an innovator’s personality. The first one must be down-to-earth and not opportunistic; the second trait of an innovator must be integrity; the third one must dare to take risks. Is there a contradiction between taking risks and being down-to-earth? I don't think it's contradictory at all. Because those who dare to take risks must have martial arts skills before you dare to take risks. There is an old saying in our hometown, Yantai, that those who drown are those who know how to play with water. So you must work down-to-earth first before taking risks. When entering the Shaolin Temple, you must first learn the squatting horse step well.

Reporter: How do you evaluate Foxconn’s innovation?

Terry Gou: Seven of the top ten best-selling products in the United States last Christmas were made by Foxconn. I think everyone has seen this report. For example, no other company can make this camera or telescopic lens you have. This mold needs to be very precise. (If anyone can do it) Just tell me and I will buy that company right away.

Foxconn has always been innovating in manufacturing technology. We believe that in the future, the Internet and design will especially adopt e-commerce or B2B business models. We are building a platform that can help many small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs how to use the Internet and computers today. You can also give him a complete set of software, and he doesn't even need his own IT department when selling his products. We can help him solve the whole problem. As long as he puts his creativity on it, he can sell it quickly. We are already doing all of this.

We are currently working on virtual reality. Now we are already designing something that will let you smell the pizza when you buy it online in the future. This is called innovation. This current technology can basically be done within a few years. But in the future, Cable will be delivered directly to you, and it will turn into a pizza when soaked in water. You said that was impossible. As long as you think it's impossible it never will be. But if you think it's possible, it might at least become possible one day. This is an innovative feature.

Terry Gou believes that entrepreneurs must maintain innovation, dare to imagine, and dare to explore ideas that make people laugh, but at the same time they must have down-to-earth basic skills.

Guo’s Entrepreneurship Tips: Innovation requires imagination

Terry Gou has a widely reprinted famous saying: How a person views himself and the people around him determines his own success. pattern. If a person takes a longer-term view of himself, his space will be wider, and he will not take gains and losses too seriously.

Terry Gou once recalled that in the early days of his business, he also faced the dilemma of being unable to borrow bank funds and having no policy support. Even if he had the money to hire the best talents, he was unwilling to submit to the dilemma of a small company.

These situations seem to be no different from those of most small and medium-sized enterprises we see today; but 20 years later, Hon Hai operates throughout the entire IT foundry industry chain.

As we see today, there are countless small businesses complaining about similar problems and difficulties, but what will happen in three to five years? Perhaps the gap cannot be seen in three to five years, but in a few decades, how many of these small companies can become big businesses? What makes the transition from small company to big business?

At least, after 35 years of business, Terry Gou has worked diligently for 34 years, working more than 15 hours a day.

After the Hon Hai Group encountered the challenges of the financial crisis and economic downturn in 2008, Terry Gou returned from his planned retirement plan for the second time, and once again worked 15 hours a day with the energy of 59 Standing guard at an advanced age.

Hon Hai’s 2009 semi-annual report showed that the net profit after tax in the first half of 2009 was NT$28.4 billion, surpassing TSMC by NT$26 billion.

For this year, he confidently estimates that even in a recession, the entire group's turnover will be between US$60 billion and US$65 billion.

When being interviewed by reporters, he kept reminding reporters that Foxconn still has new dreams. In E-commerce, cloud, and mobile Internet. Each one is Foxconn’s strength, we just don’t have a brand. Terry Gou said.

In the next step, Kai-fu Lee will incubate and spawn five start-up companies in these three fields every year. It is conceivable that Terry Gou will find the next winning point in the transformation and transition of TV parts, molds, connectors, casings, etc. as in the past.

Start small: Cockroach-like survivability

In 1974, 24-year-old Terry Gou and several friends established Hon Hai Plastics Enterprise Co., Ltd. in Taiwan to take orders for plastic parts. .

Soon after Hon Hai was established, it encountered an economic crisis. The price of raw materials rose and operations were very difficult. The partners in the partnership decided to give up, but Terry Gou refused, so he borrowed money to buy the company.

This was the beginning of the Foxconn empire. Terry Gou’s first business was mainly engaged in the manufacturing of television-related parts.

At the beginning, Terry Gou encountered technical difficulties: the factory technology relied on the mold master.

With the funds of several hundred thousand that he had just accumulated, Terry Gou began to consider whether to invest in a mold factory.

At that time, Taiwan’s economic environment had changed. Many other entrepreneurs are taking advantage of Taiwan's economic boom, some are speculating on land, and some are hoarding raw materials, all waiting for good prices to make a fortune.

Like all entrepreneurs who have accumulated a small amount of capital for the first time, should this capital be used to make quick money or to start an industry?

However, Terry Gou gave up the land purchase opportunity, which later increased several times, and chose to invest in building a factory, introduce new equipment, and explore production techniques and processes with his trusted employees. This process is very hard, and I work overtime until late at night every day. So much so that in the first few years of starting his business, Terry Gou was asking himself: Is my decision correct?

Relying on the first batch of mold machines and technology accumulation, Hon Hai began to have business relationships with the top ten manufacturers in Taiwan and opened up the first batch of business.

As a result, Guo Taiming lived frugally, and another batch of accumulated capital was continuously invested in purchasing more sophisticated equipment. In 1984, Hon Hai introduced high-end equipment from the United States, which cost one-tenth of the company's annual income.

Not only that, in the following years, high-end equipment was introduced from Switzerland, Japanese consultants were hired, and Japanese precision machinery technology was introduced. The company has less than 1,000 employees, but Terry Gou generously provides large sums of money to send employees to study abroad.

Hon Hai’s first ten years of entrepreneurship relied entirely on Hon Hai’s cockroach-like survivability.

Like the majority of domestic small and medium-sized enterprises, they neither receive much government support policy nor bank credit, and only rely on small amounts of capital to continuously promote enterprise development.

Learning ability: Finding opportunities amidst great changes

In addition to his hard-working spirit and strong concentration, Terry Gou also has a strong learning ability, and through practice he has become more aware of industry trends. judgment ability.

While managing the factory, Terry Gou made friends with all important customers, understood their thoughts, and grasped the evolution trends of the global IT industry of first-line manufacturers. He even had an in-depth understanding of the management of the customer's company.

In 1983, Hon Hai used imported equipment from Japan to develop the first batch of connectors and officially entered the PC field. Hon Hai entered a stable period of 20% annual growth.

In another five years, Hon Hai has grown into a company with 1,000 employees and 250 million yuan in revenue.

Terry Gou did not slow down. He observed the investment opportunities in mainland China and began to make a big move. He used Shenzhen's land and human resources to set up the most important production base for Hon Hai's future development.

In the next ten years, Hon Hai’s large production capacity, low cost, and high-tech competitiveness gradually stole Apple orders from LG Group, becoming Cisco’s largest network equipment supplier in the world, and taking over Sony. Play Station game console orders, Intel Pentium Quad connector orders. Incredibly, in 2003, Hon Hai also won orders from Nokia and Motorola.

Competition: Do your best if you want to do it

In the field of mobile phones and TFT-LCD, Hon Hai is far from being a first entrant.

As early as 1999, when major manufacturers were already crazy about mobile phones, Terry Gou believed that the cost of manufacturing mobile phones was too high and kept doing nothing.

Waiting until the price of mobile phones was enough for the public to accept, Terry Gou won huge orders from several leading international mobile phone manufacturers. Two years later, Foxconn International was separated from Hon Hai Group and listed in Hong Kong, becoming the world's largest mobile phone foundry.

Similarly, when the gross profit margin of mobile phones was declining, Hon Hai began to advance into TFT-LC and nanotechnology, investing more than 20 billion yuan in one fell swoop, and then changed from the last entrant to the first camp.

What is Terry Gou thinking about next? His next industry layout is gradually unfolding. In the past few years, Hon Hai announced that it will invest US$10 million to establish Shanghai Anxingou and restart its IT channel expansion plan.

Previously, Hon Hai invested in Cyber ??Digital through its subsidiary Guangyu to lay out the mainland retail channel market. It has now grown into one of the three major 3C product retailers in the mainland. At an internal senior executive meeting at the end of last year, Terry Gou emphasized that in 2009, he would make every effort to attack the mainland IT channel market.

Also this year, Terry Gou invested NT$100 million to establish Kanglian Biomedical Technology Company with Xunlian***, suddenly entering biotechnology.

There is also a future secret weapon, nanotechnology. Terry Gou revealed that the first commercial product of nanotechnology took nearly 10 years of research and will be announced in a very short time.

Terry Gou’s big industry picture is slowly unfolding.