Text: Liu Yang
Foreword: At the moment when the market is declining due to the impact of the epidemic, there is a company that has achieved amazing revenue! On April 27, Luxshare Precision issued an announcement showing that it achieved a net profit of 1.803 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 33.63% year-on-year.
As a manufacturer in the field of consumer electronics, Luxshare Precision is not well known to ordinary consumers, but this does not prevent it from becoming the core production assembler of Apple's AirPods and Apple Watch and Huawei's gold supplier. Compared with the huge assets of Luxshare Precision, the boss of Luxshare Precision is more concerned.
The story goes back to 1967, when Wang Laichun was born in a small mountain village in Chaoshan, Guangzhou. Because her family was very poor when she was a child, her brother Wang Laisheng went to Shenzhen very early to work. Every time he returned home, his brother Wang Laisheng would tell her about life in the city, and the little seed had been planted in Wang Laichun's heart since then, and going to the big city to live became what Wang Laichun wanted to do most. But because she was only 15 years old at the time, her parents never disagreed with her request.
It wasn't until 1988 that 21-year-old Wang Laichun embarked on the road to Shenzhen. At this time, the top management was encouraging Taiwan compatriots to invest inland, and the 38-year-old Gou entered the mainland and founded Foxconn's first factory in shenzhen at that time, shenzhen ocean precision computer connector factory.
Because the factory had just been established and the conditions and facilities were very poor, Gou looked around and finally recruited 120 female workers from Chaoshan and Meizhou in Guangdong, and Wang Laichun happened to join it. At Foxconn, Wang Laichun and other girls slept in bunk beds, a room with more than a dozen people, fans blowing hot air, poor water quality in the factory, frequent water and electricity cuts, and workers sometimes had to take washbasins to villages a kilometer away to brush their teeth and wash their faces.
Not only that, but the work on the bottom of the assembly line is simple and boring, so that many employees can't stand it and quit their jobs and go home. But Wang Laichun was not repelled by the difficulties in front of him. Even after the colleagues were sleeping, they secretly ran to the factory to continue working overtime.
Such behavior may seem a little difficult to understand now, but in the environment where factory efficiency and production were the first, the efficiency of a worker was undoubtedly the greatest embodiment of his value.
Foxconn's boss Terry Gou has implemented a strict militarized management system since the establishment of the factory, so that every business position of the company can not be wrong, and requires leaders to bear more difficulties than employees.
Because of this, Foxconn ensures the stability of the product supply chain and is known for its high quality. But the disadvantage of this is that the staff pressure is too much, and for some time, "jumping off the building" and "Foxconn" often appeared in the news at the same time.
Wang Laichun is in such a high-pressure environment, insisted on working for 10 years, day after day busy work did not consume Wang Laichun's will, in the Foxconn days, she accumulated a lot of technology and experience.
Gou also soon discovered Wang Laichun's amazing endurance and studious personality. In fact, Wang Laichun is not smart, but she insists on doing everything harder than others. Therefore, Wang Laichun was quickly promoted. Wang Laichun knows that Gou is a good boss, and the profit of OEM is very low, so the boss of each factory is cautious about the calculation of costs. Wang Laichun put forward many cost-saving ideas for his boss and won the approval of Gou.
Wang Laichun's status is also getting higher and higher. By 1999, Wang Chuanfu was already a section chief, managing thousands of employees, the company's highest-ranking employee in the Chinese mainland at that time.
It was also in that year that Wang Laichun decided to resign and start a business. Surprisingly, Gou not only did not oppose, but was very supportive. After Wang Laichun founded Luxshare Precision, he also engaged in the same precision equipment and electronic equipment OEM business as Foxconn. Not only that, Gou also gave a lot of Foxconn business to Wang Laichun. With the help of Foxconn, Luxshare Precision has developed very rapidly.
At that time, Luxshare Precision looked a bit like Foxconn's subsidiaries - wherever there is Foxconn, most of them have Luxshare Precision factories; all orders that Foxconn can't take, don't want, and think of thin profits, they all ship on time and in quantity, and the key is to be able to make the same quality.
In 2009, Gou invested 40 million yuan and became the third largest shareholder of Luxshare Precision. In 2010, Luxshare Precision was officially listed in Shenzhen, which was only 6 years after its inception. That year, Wang Laichun was listed on China's rich list with a personal net worth of 2.3 billion.
Since going public, Wang Has been acquiring other companies to build his own foundry manufacturing empire. From 2010 to 2017 alone, Luxshare Precision conducted 16 investment and mergers and acquisitions: not only cut into the business of communications, automotive electronics, FPC, electroacoustic devices and RF modules, electronic equipment and instruments, but also successfully entered the Apple industry chain, Huawei industrial chain, communications and automotive electronics and other fields.
After experiencing initial production growth, by the end of 2017, Luxshare Precision shortened the lead time of AirPods to 3 days, and the yield rate was close to 100% – almost the same as Foxconn's peak in 2009.
Apple CEO Tim Cook specifically visited Luxshare Precision's AirPods production line. In front of the camera, a female worker cleverly tucks various parts into an elaborate headphone in front of the camera, which is a highlight moment belonging to Wang Laichun.
By July 2020, the market value of Luxun Precision exceeded 400 billion yuan, while the market value of Hon Hai Group, the parent company of Foxconn founded by Gou Taiming, was 250 billion yuan, and Wang Laichun successfully surpassed his former "master" and successfully triggered a wave of market attention.
In the 2020 Hurun Global Rich List, Wang Laichun, chairman of 53-year-old Chinese connector champion Luxshare Precision, ranked 235th with a wealth of US$8.3 billion.
"Opportunities are always left to those who are prepared", 32 years have passed, and Wang Laichun's life has undergone earth-shaking changes. And her entrepreneurial experience, in the history of entrepreneurial struggle since China's reform and opening up, will surely leave a strong mark.
Looking back on Wang Laichun's life experience, it is really full of endless drama, but it is undeniable that if Wang Laichun did not have the quality of being willing to endure hardships and being good at learning, then she would certainly not be able to achieve today's achievements.
Now that the 5G wave is coming, the demand for electronic devices is only increasing, although Luxun Technology has a market value of 100 billion, but Wang Laichun and her company still have a long way to go.