Foxconn is on the left, Huawei is on the right
2018 is a special year for Huawei and Foxconn. This year we saw Huawei’s strength and Foxconn’s anxiety. Foxconn and Huawei live next to each other. The headquarters of the two major corporate giants are located on both sides of the Meiguan Expressway. Foxconn is in the west and Huawei is in the east. One road, two worlds. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, although the two major taxpayers are close to each other, they belong to two districts in Shenzhen: Huawei belongs to Longgang, and Foxconn belongs to Longhua.
Thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi. Foxconn is a subsidiary of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, which invested in mainland China in 1988. It has been established for 30 years now. Huawei was established in 1987 and is now 31 years old. Both companies have benefited from China's reform and opening up. The policy of special economic zones benefits from China’s vast market.
People often compare the two companies and say that ten years ago, Huawei mostly chose to recruit people from Foxconn because Foxconn, as a cooperative customer of many electronic products, understands the manufacturing process and production of the most advanced mobile phones in the world. Requirements, presumably this is why Huawei is willing to accept people who switch jobs from Foxconn, and now Foxconn and you are happy to accept people who switch jobs from Huawei, because this aircraft carrier needs to replace its blood and motivation.
As the world’s manufacturing giant, Foxconn has manufactured mobile phones for many first-tier brands, from the original Nokia, Ericsson, and ZTE to this year’s more popular Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung, Google, VIVO, and OPPO. etc. This is enough to prove Foxconn’s world-class manufacturing and production capabilities. I heard that Mobike is also manufactured by Foxconn. (Compared to other luxury bicycles, the quality of Mobike is quite good). Although Foxconn has set up factories and invested in many cities in mainland China as its business has expanded in recent years, its parent company Hon Hai's ranking in the Fortune 500 has also improved year by year (ranked 24th in the Fortune 500 in 2018, and ranked 24th in the Fortune 500 in 2017). (No. 27 on the Fortune Global 500), it can be said that only a few central enterprises are ranked ahead of Chinese companies.
However, the situation has changed, and Foxconn is now facing difficulties in moving forward. As the head of the group, President Terry Gou is also thinking hard about the future transformation of the group. But the ship turned around in a disaster, and Foxconn's transformation path was not smooth. The online shopping platform Feihu Tesco was established in 2010. At that time, the JD.com platform had just officially begun operations. In 2016, it spent a huge amount of money to acquire Sharp, a century-old Japanese brand, and began to use Sharp to achieve breakthroughs in its own brands. However, its "noble but not expensive" operation strategy, It goes against the image of Sharp's high-end brand. Therefore, after winning a certain market share with its low-price strategy, Sharp has a long way to go before returning to a high-end brand. Therefore, although these two transformations cannot be said to be failures, they are indeed not considered successes. Foxconn is now focusing its energy on the industrial Internet. Its subsidiary Industrial Fii also listed on the A-share market this year. While the outside world generally praised the "unicorn" and "the largest technology stock in the A-share market", it broke through shortly after the market opened. The outside world's understanding of Foxconn still remains in the impression of "jumping off buildings" and "OEM". But OEM also has technical content, and it is not something that can be done casually. If other companies can do it, Apple's strategy can further reduce the cost and let other companies do it. Nowadays, the Apple series is not accepted by the market, and trade frictions between China and the United States continue. Foxconn has been pushed to the forefront of public opinion from time to time and cannot escape its consequences. Foxconn’s transformation journey is more difficult than imagined.
? On the other hand, Huawei is slowly rising on the world stage, but its rise has not been smooth. Western countries have obstructed it in every possible way, and have been criticized again and again. Ren Zhengfei accepted reporters’ questions. The implications revealed in the interview prove that Huawei is so powerful that its opponents need to use illegal means to get their hands dirty. All this is due to Huawei's wolf corporate culture and the wisdom of its leaders. In this era of strong players, the wolf culture lives at the top of the food chain with fast, ruthless and accurate means, and the same is true for Huawei.
In the eyes of most people, Huawei is known for its high welfare. Every year at the end of the year, the news will push information that Huawei's per capita annual income is hundreds of thousands or millions. High remuneration naturally requires high efforts. Huawei's overtime culture is also well known. , every evening, the busy figures in the brightly lit building also cripple the bodies of Huawei people. Many people say that as long as the money is in place, they can accept endless overtime work. But is it really so?
The 5G era must belong to Huawei. Although the world outside is full of ups and downs, this is an era where strength speaks for itself. Huawei's preparedness for rainy days can finally shine in the 5G era, but the process is difficult. The arrival of a great era is bound to be difficult. As the saying goes, a country thrives through suffering, and a country thrives through hardships.
Both Huawei and Foxconn are respectable companies; both Ren Zhengfei and Terry Gou are respectable entrepreneurs. They are kings belonging to different eras. The decline of one era must be the rise of another. Their success also indicates that China's development has entered a new journey from one era. In the new journey, we have no successful experience to learn from. You can only explore it on your own.