From the "Supplier Responsibility Progress Report" released by Apple last year, it can be seen that 96 of the top 200 suppliers are from Chinese mainland, accounting for nearly half. One of them, a company that provides acoustic devices, can get tens of billions of orders from Apple every year, and has more than 7200 patents.
The company is AAC Technologies, and it is said that at least one of every two high-end smartphones in the world will use acoustic components produced by his family. AAC Technology can produce a microphone half the size of a mung bean in a space of 6 cubic millimeters, and its special technical strength is outstanding, ranking among the top in the world.
However, the company is extremely low-key, just like their helmsman Wu Chunyuan, although she has achieved a net worth of tens of billions from a small nurse, few people know her story.
Both husband and wife resigned to do business
Born in 1971 in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, Wu Chunyuan graduated from the Health School and became a nurse at a local hospital. After working for a few years, she met her future husband, Pan Zhengmin, a math teacher.
The combination of teacher and nurse is enough for them to spend their lives in peace, if it were not for a special person, perhaps they would not be exposed to miniature acoustic equipment in their lifetime, this person is Pan Zhengmin's father, Wu Chunyuan's father-in-law Pan Zhonglai.
Pan Zhonglai used to work as a technician in a hardware and electrical appliance factory, so he was often exposed to advanced machines from other countries. At that time, a part called an electromagnetic detector attracted pan Zhonglai's attention, this small "alarm" was very versatile, but it was monopolized by Japanese technology, and if you want to use it, you can only import it.
In order to break this monopoly, various domestic electronic factories have carried out relevant research and development, but there has been no progress. Pan Zhonglai, a technician, naturally likes to tinker with such small things, so he decided to apply for funds for research and development, but the factory did not approve it because of the shortage of funds.
In 1987, Pan Zhonglai took out all his savings, hired several related technical personnel, and established the Yuanyu Electronic Equipment Factory, specializing in the key technology of electromagnetic detectors.
It didn't take long for this technology to be broken by Pan Zhonglai, who also won the Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. The electromagnetic transpolar produced by Yuanyu is not only almost the same as Japanese products, but also because it does not need to be imported, the production cost is low, the price is much cheaper, and it soon occupies most of the domestic market.
As Yuanyu grew bigger and bigger, Pan Zhonglai, who was understaffed, immediately asked his son and daughter-in-law to quit their jobs and help in the factory. Since then, Wu Chunyuan and his wife have intersected with miniature acoustic equipment.
Founded AAC Technologies and conquered Motorola
Later, due to business needs, Yuanyu planned to establish its own sales office in Shenzhen in the coastal area, and then Wu Chunyuan and his wife came to Shenzhen. In the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, the couple received a lot of orders, but they found that there were many orders Yuanyu did not have the ability to produce.
At that time, the mobile phone market has gradually risen, and the demand for audio spare parts related to it is increasing, and electromagnetic ringers are no longer the mainstream.
In 1993, in order to meet the market demand, Wu Chunyuan and his wife rented 4 houses in Shenzhen and established AAC Technology Co., Ltd. together with more than a dozen employees, focusing on the research and development, production and sales of microacoustic equipment.
After two years of conscientious hard work by the couple, although the domestic market has done a good job, it has not been able to open the foreign market because of the single product type. At that time, Apple was still a small and unknown company, in order to enter the foreign market, Wu Chunyuan and his wife set their sights on the mobile phone giant Motorola at that time.
However, at that time, Motorola's audio spare parts supplier was a large company from Japan, and AAC Technology, which had just been founded for two or three years, was naturally not a partner that Motorola would consider. Just when the couple was helpless, a turnaround occurred.
In 1997, Motorola planned to introduce a new flip phone with a redesigned speaker. However, the Japanese supplier demanded that Motorola pay for the new research and development costs, and the two sides did not negotiate. In order not to affect the release of the new phone, Motorola began to look for new partners.
At this time, AAC seized the opportunity to hand over its own information and knocked on Motorola's door. However, AAC Technologies was asked to produce a speaker that would match the new phone within 15 days, otherwise the two sides would still not be able to cooperate.
After returning home, Pan Zhengmin immediately found Professor Sha Jiazheng, an expert in the field of electroacoustics at Nanjing University, through the contacts he had accumulated when he was a teacher in the past, and through Professor Sha, he found several scientific research talents and nervously invested in the research and development of new speakers.
After more than a dozen days and nights of unremitting efforts, the new speaker that meets the flip phone was finally successfully developed and recognized by Motorola, and AAC Technology also won the order without any danger.
With the advent of the new flip phone, Motorola sold well, and AAC technology also made a lot of money. Since then, AAC Technology has naturally become Motorola's audio spare parts supplier.
Adhere to technology research and development, and take tens of billions of orders from Apple every year
The cooperation with Motorola has invisibly played a good role in publicizing the reputation and products of AAC Technology, and in the following years, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and Dell have chosen to cooperate with AAC Technology.
Since then, AAC Technology has grown from an obscure small company to a world-renowned manufacturer of acoustic components. After making a fortune, Wu Chunyuan and his wife did not get carried away, but they continued to invest more of the company's profits into product research and development and technological innovation.
Whether it is the early Yuanyu or the later AAC Technology, the magic weapon for success is the low cost of the product, so that the price is low, and it occupies the main market share of the industry for a long time to ensure the company's profits.
However, once the technology of the entire industry is popularized, the overall product cost is reduced, and the advantages of AAC Technology will disappear. Therefore, in order to maintain its own industry position, AAC Technology needs to continuously carry out research and development and technological innovation to ensure that it can lead the market.
Since 1998, AAC Technology has closely followed the trend of the market, insisted on updating its own product categories for a long time, and repeatedly iterated on new and old products, maintaining a leading position in the industry, as can be seen from Apple's designation of AAC Technology as the main supplier of its acoustic devices.
Since the fall of Motorola, Apple has gradually risen to become the leader of the mobile phone industry with the popularity of smart phones. But in the eyes of many mobile phone spare parts suppliers, Apple's picky energy is very headache.
Every year Apple publishes a list of spare parts suppliers that are changing, and if new companies join, companies that do not meet the requirements will be eliminated. AAC Technology has entered this list since 2010 after repeated inspection by Apple and has become a core supplier of Apple.
And AAC Technology Has never been kicked out of this list since the first cooperation with Apple. Now, AAC Technology receives annual orders from Apple, worth up to 17.1 billion yuan. According to industry estimates, among Apple's entire industry chain suppliers, AAC Technology's profit margin is only second only to TSMC.
This all stems from Wu Chunyuan, as the chairman of the board, who has long adhered to the development path of focusing on research and development and technological innovation, not only acquiring the unique technologies of some small companies, but also maintaining independent research and development.
Nowadays, AAC Technology has established cooperative relations with many universities at home and abroad to do technology research and development, and has also established acoustic research institutes in the United States and Sweden. At present, they have more than 7,200 patented technologies around the world, and their strength cannot be underestimated.
However, Wu Chunyuan, who has always been low-key and unobtrusive, has never liked to appear in public, and for 30 years, she has always paid attention to the development of AAC Technology, silently doing a winner in life with a double harvest of family and career.
Write at the end:
Perhaps not everyone has the courage to put down the decent work in their hands and participate in a business that is on the line. Wu Chunyuan used her courage and determination to make a start-up into a world-renowned enterprise in the field of micro-acoustic equipment. Her story tells us that no matter in any position, as long as you try to do your work to the extreme, you will have a different chapter in your life.