Preface
She is Wu Chunyuan, who used to be just an ordinary nurse who graduated from a secondary school, and now she has become one of the top ten richest women in Hurun, with a net worth of 29 billion.
She holds more than 8,000 patents, and countless electronic device manufacturers rely on her technology, even Apple in the United States is willing to do it for her every year.
From an unknown nurse to a billionaire, how did Wu Chunyuan do it?
The source in this article is from the official media (there are books to read), released on October 26, 2022, but in order to improve the readability of the article, the details may be edited, please read sensibly, for reference only!
1
In an ordinary summer of 1971, a baby girl was born in an inconspicuous maternity hospital in Changzhou, Jiangsu, and she was Wu Chunyuan.
On the first anniversary, the Wu family prepared a ceremony for Wu Chunyuan to catch the week, and among the many objects, Chunyuan chose an abacus, which seemed to indicate her future fate with business.
Wu Chunyuan grew up, and her parents, like most parents, hoped that their daughter would marry a good family in the future and would not need to achieve much.
When he graduated from junior high school, he heard from his relatives suggest that girls have a good way out of nursing, and Wu's father decided to let Wu Chunyuan go to Changzhou Health School to work in the hospital and have stable employment in the future.
The Xi of the health school was far more difficult than imagined, Wu Chunyuan could only accept the reality and study hard to Xi, and finally, she graduated with honors and was assigned to a hospital.
Wu Chunyuan thought that if she was successful in her studies, her work would be better than when she was a student, but she didn't know that the work of nurses was even busier and harder.
In the emergency room day and night, Wu Chunyuan began to question whether her life was destined to continue with such an ordinary job.
At this moment, a boy appeared in Wu Chunyuan's world, his name was Pan Zhengmin, a math teacher.
Two young people of the same age quickly ignited a flame of love, and Wu Chunyuan's parents were also satisfied with this teacher's son-in-law.
Finally, Wu Chunyuan has her own small family and lives a life as fortunate as most people.
The story should have ended here, two people who have nothing to do with technology companies should live an ordinary life all the time, however, the arrival of Zhengmin's father Pan Zhonglai has put the young couple on an extraordinary entrepreneurial path.
2
One day in 1986, in Changzhou, Jiangsu, Pan Zhonglai worked in a hardware factory as usual, he was passionate about machinery and equipment, and always liked to study some novel and small things.
On this day, a small part called an "electromagnetic telephonic" caught his eye.
This kind of simulant is simple in principle, but it can be used in various electronic equipment, and is an important component in the manufacture of alarms and toys, the problem is that at that time, this technology was almost entirely in the hands of Japan, and domestic manufacturers could not afford to imitate it.
Pan Zhong took a look at the disassembled signal, the structure was not complicated, he immediately submitted the research and development plan to the factory, but was rejected, the boss was unwilling to risk investing a huge amount of money, for fear of failure.
In addition to being frustrated, Pan Zhonglai made a bold decision with the support of his family - to start a business at his own expense!
In 1987, he took out his savings and a loan to raise 300,000 yuan to found "Yuanyu Electronics" and began to experiment repeatedly.
When the day and night were exhausted, the son and daughter-in-law gave up their jobs as teachers and nurses and went all out to join the research and development.
With the advantages of price and quality, Yuanyu signal device is in short supply, and in 5 years, Pan Zhonglai easily earned 3 million yuan and became a local model entrepreneur.
For further development, he decided to move the company to Shenzhen and changed its name to AAC Technologies.
Pan Zhonglai also realized that in order for the company to develop in the long run, it must keep pace with the times, introduce young forces, and let his daughter-in-law Wu Chunyuan take over the actual operation of the company, which is the first step for him to relinquish control.
When Pan Zhonglai made this decision at that time, many people were shocked, after all, he could put control in the hands of Pan Zhengmin, why did he have to hand it over to his daughter-in-law?
3
In fact, for the development of the company, Wu Chunyuan has been exploring the market at that time, and often runs out for sales.
At the same time, in order to ensure the cost of materials and the quality, Wu Chunyuan has also been busy, which led to a lot of price drops in their products at that time.
Foreign imported products have tariffs and other problems, resulting in no advantage in terms of price, and soon the market was occupied by AAC, and in less than two years, they earned millions of yuan.
4
After Wu Chunyuan took control, she began to think about developing into a larger market.
In 1996, Wu Chunyuan and her husband went to the United States to display their products in order to open up overseas markets.
Motorola's purchasers found them.
It turned out that Motorola wanted to develop a new product, but it was rejected by Japanese suppliers, and other optional manufacturers were not willing to take the risk of changing production, only AAC was full of enthusiasm and dared to accept the challenge.
The two sides agreed to develop new products in 15 days, and if they meet the standards, they will cooperate, which is a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity for AAC! Success can lead to fame and access to the world-class supply chain.
15 days slipped away in a hurry, the product was finally finalized, barely up to standard, Motorola executives saw it in their eyes and decisively chose to cooperate with this reckless Chinese dark horse.
In 1997, AAC and Motorola signed a huge order, and immediately after, a number of world-class mobile device manufacturers also approached AAC, and AAC became famous for a while.
5
In 2000, AAC Technologies has initially opened its international reputation, and the world's top mobile phone manufacturers have come to seek cooperation, and the business development is very good.
However, Wu Chunyuan was not satisfied, she realized that the mobile communication industry is changing too fast, and it is easy to be eliminated by the market without technology accumulation.
In order to ensure the long-term development of AAC, she decided to invest heavily in building her own core competitiveness.
First of all, Wu Chunyuan has set up two acoustic research institutes in the United States and Sweden, equipped with first-class talents and equipment.
She firmly believes that only by mastering the core technology and intellectual property rights can we be invincible in the market, and although the R&D investment in the past few years cannot see direct benefits in the short term, she knows that this is the guarantee of AAC's century-old foundation.
Then the head of Sony's mobile division called and said that he was interested in working with AAC to develop a speaker system for their next-generation flagship phone, the TypeA.
Wu Chunyuan agreed without saying a word, because this is a good opportunity to show R&D strength.
AAC immediately assembled a team of 30 people to start the project, and through continuous experimentation and simulation analysis, they successfully developed a complete set of customized solutions.
The final delivery of the prototype not only performed fully up to standard, but also exceeded Sony's initial requirements in some metrics.
The head of Sony was impressed by AAC's R&D and production capabilities, and since then, Sony has signed hundreds of millions of dollars in orders with AAC every year.
Wu Chunyuan also confirmed once again that the investment in technology research and development will eventually translate into rich returns.
Subsequently, AAC has reached long-term cooperation with world-renowned brands such as Panasonic, LG, and Sharp, and since then, the "AAC Inside" logo has become a symbol of high-end models.
In 2010, with the matchmaking of her old partner Motorola, Wu Chunyuan finally introduced AAC to Apple's supply chain team.
To her surprise, Apple highly appreciated AAC's ability to provide customized solutions for different customers, and soon AAC became Apple's designated speaker and microphone supplier, which also laid the groundwork for future in-depth cooperation between the two parties.
6
Today, AAC Technologies has more than 8,000 patents, including key voice interaction technology patents, which make AAC firmly in the leading position in the industry, and most of the share of high-end mobile phone accessories is in their pockets.
Wu Chunyuan has spent 20 years proving that the investment in technological innovation and R&D will eventually bring a hundredfold and thousandfold return to the enterprise.