My humble opinion on the development of power supply enterprises in the 21st century

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My humble opinion on the development of power supply enterprises in the 21st century [Copy link]

　There are many manufacturers of power electronic products (including various power supplies, frequency converters, power factor and harmonic compensation devices) in my country, but most of them do not have the scale and strength of Huawei Electric Group. Undoubtedly, enterprises like Huawei, due to the concentration of financial and material resources, high-quality scientific and management talents (including high-level leadership core and staff team, senior think tank, cooperation team with famous universities, etc.), and the strong support of the government, will have a unique advantage in the fierce market competition in the knowledge economy era and leave their peers far behind. Modern internal and external operating mechanisms and means of obtaining high-tech information will enable it to effectively grasp business opportunities, make scientific decisions, and adjust product structure in a timely and reasonable manner, so that it has the strength to compete with multinational groups in market share.

　　However, most enterprises do not have such strong economic and technological strength and comprehensive advantages. How can they face the challenges of the new century and find a living space for sustainable development? We may wish to learn from the experiences of several enterprises.

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2 Examples and Analysis of Enterprise Development Strategies The Wenshang County Radio Factory in Shandong Province is a county-level state-owned enterprise with only 200 employees. It produces Fengguang brand inverters, which are high-tech products promoted by the country in the 1990s. It was listed as a national-level technical innovation project of the State Economic and Trade Commission in 1998. The product performance has reached the level of imported products in the 1990s. At present, it can produce series below 300kVA, which are optimistic about the market in Shandong and Hebei, and has impacted the field of high-voltage inverters. Admittedly, Fengguang brand has no brand effect yet. If it wants to gain a foothold in the 21st century, it still needs to go through a competition. However, today's success is worth thinking about by peers, and the answer can be found from the analysis of the history of similar enterprises. People will not forget that at the end of the 20th century, so many radio factories (even regional pillar industries) failed to escape the fate of being disintegrated, merged or even bankrupted due to heavy debts in the fierce competition in the international and domestic markets. However, a county-level state-owned enterprise with weak comprehensive strength can rise steadily and quietly, full of vitality and vigor. This has to be attributed to the decision of the core leadership of the enterprise to unswervingly follow the path of independent research and development. In the late 20th century, radio enterprises roughly made three types of development choices to fight against fate. The first is to continue to rely on strength to develop TV series and other products, step up, and withstand the impact of the international market; the second is to turn to instrument products with good market conditions at that time; the third choice is to turn to the production of power electronic inverters. Among them, as a result of the first choice, only a few famous and excellent series such as Panda and Changhong withstood the impact of the international market and survived, forming a situation of market division; radio factories with weak comprehensive strength failed in the fierce market competition because they failed to change their product structure in time. The second choice, because it targeted the market situation and changed the product structure, it had a period of prosperity; but because it only targeted the market situation at that time and lacked scientific foresight, when the market tended to be saturated and there was strong pressure from foreign replacement products, it gradually fell into trouble. Compared with the first choice, the second choice only delayed the time of defeat and had no stamina for sustainable development. This shows that after recognizing the situation, the decision to change the product structure is correct and timely, but the choice of leading products still needs to be made with caution. The third option is to switch to the production of high-voltage inverters or other power electronic products. The positioning of this leading product reflects the scientific nature and sustainability of the decision. Because in the late 1980s and early 1990s, this market was extremely large and almost uncultivated virgin land, so it became the main target of competition among multinational groups. There are two approaches in the third option: one is to introduce foreign technology in sets and assemble the assembly line, which is essentially a processing type. The repeated introduction in various regions is very expensive. After a period of hard work, when the product comes out, the market competitors are often the exporting countries of the same technology. Because others already have replacement products with lower prices, better performance and stronger functions. The enterprises that introduce technology may be squeezed out before they can recover their investment. Such enterprises will collapse more miserably than the enterprises in the first two options, because the investment in power electronic products is much larger than that in televisions and instrument products. The country has suffered a great loss, and the survival and development of enterprises are also seriously threatened. Another approach in the third option that has been steadily developed is to refer to new technologies at home and abroad, independently develop power electronic products according to national conditions, and make up for the shortcomings of slightly inferior appearance, volume, and reliability with high-quality services and preferential prices. Wenshang County Radio Factory got out of trouble by doing this. The average salary of county-level enterprises here is lower than that of cities, which has reduced costs. In particular, the company gradually shifted from general products to special inverters, which can reduce redundant functions, simplify software and hardware, and further reduce costs, thereby avoiding direct business wars, finding a living space in the gap between domestic and foreign strong players, and preemptively consolidating the special product supporting market for a long time. Now a few domestic inverter and power supply manufacturers that have established a foothold and have regional or global advantages mostly come from self-development or extended development. Another example is Hefei Sanyu Electric Co., Ltd., a private joint-stock enterprise, which independently develops and produces special power supplies for IGBT inverter arc welding machines, and has occupied nearly half of the national market share. It does not have strong comprehensive strength, but it found the right product direction from the beginning, used high technology to solve the reliability problem of the protection unit, and with proper marketing strategy, it has today's rolling development pattern. This is in sharp contrast to the current situation of Anhui's low comprehensive level of industrial science and technology and relatively weak foundation. When Wanyan, the first VCD in the adjacent electronics industry, and Yangzi, a strong company, were successively acquired by other provinces, Sanyu was able to enter a track of sustained and rapid development in the pale predicament of the power electronics industry in the province and experienced the global impact of the Southeast Asian financial crisis. Its experience can be used as a reference for peers. Scientific decision-making and correct selection of leading products have brought vitality to the development of enterprises. However, in the era of knowledge economy, if enterprises cannot grasp the opportunity of upgrading and fissioning into multiple branches, it will be difficult for them to maintain lasting prosperity. Mr. Dai Zhengyao, a well-known Taiwanese-funded enterprise in Taiwan, has a market share of 3rd among domestic or joint venture inverter manufacturers. It is a leader in Taiwan's power electronics industry. It is strong, but it can be prepared for danger. It has escaped from the increasingly narrow space of "cost-effectiveness" competition of general inverters, and has transcended the product model locked by Westerners, seeking ideas pioneered by domestic experts and scholars in the field of green power conversion technology, and developing new types. Mr. Dai keenly noticed that someone in China obtained an invention patent for high positive strength CTA technology in 1991 and published it internationally and domestically, while a similar patent was not published in the United States until 1996. After finding out the general reasons for the 10-year stagnation of CTA technology (see "My Views on the Development of Green Conversion", published later in this magazine), he suddenly wanted to realize CTA power converters and their variants based on this technology, and made flexible arrangements for two-step and rolling development without losing time. The current switch-linear compound power conversion (CTA) technology has derived several branches based on the original topology in the early 1990s, which can have a wide range of applications. Maanshan Huabao Electric Company (with CTA technology from East China Metallurgical Institute) has finally had the opportunity to end its history of having no funds, no market development capabilities, and only top achievements at the cross-century stage. All employees (including part-time scientific and technological personnel from East China Metallurgical Institute) can finally see the dawn of victory coming in "a little more effort". Undoubtedly, both the technical party and the future investor have realized that "relying on oneself" and "perseverance" will lead to their own future and the future of the nation; only by doing it first can the initiative of technology and market belong to oneself. The above-mentioned examples of enterprise development reflect some key issues of enterprise development entering a virtuous cycle from different aspects, and cannot cover the situation of various enterprises and provide more appropriate reference. The purpose of the examples and analysis in this article is only to trigger thinking and encourage people to draw inferences.

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3. The key to promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements by combining industry, academia and research Since China has not yet formed a professional company with strong strength and specialized scientific and technological achievement transformation functions, the reality of "difficulty in transforming scientific and technological achievements" has prompted many companies to prefer the path of "taking what is available", and this situation is more prominent in the field of power electronics. Therefore, the combination of industry, academia and research to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and replace the functions of foreign professional companies has become a development path with Chinese characteristics. There are many obstacles on the road of combining industry, academia and research, which prevents the development of enterprises from benefiting more from the initial scientific and technological investment of their own country. The following only analyzes the cooperation issues of the partners. The obstacles from all parties to the cooperation are mainly blind spots in cognition. For example, not all companies can implement "taking what is available"; not all universities can provide results with maturity close to products. Therefore, the combination of industry, academia and research often only produces good results in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements between large group companies and famous universities. However, there is no shortage of top high-tech achievements and scientific and technological elites with creative thinking in general schools. Given the limitations of financial resources and practical conditions, the maturity of the results is often still quite far from the product. Enterprises believe that their main burden is to support people, and they want to wait until colleges and universities do more work before accepting them; college teachers engage in research and development in their extracurricular time, which is not only inefficient, but also has poor manufacturing processes, which delays some very innovative work. Academic leadership has no chance to be transformed into product leadership. If entrepreneurs can take some economic and technological risks like Mr. Dai and have more national confidence, they may be able to win technical reserves for market response. In order to become the first to develop new products, it is necessary to scientifically predict the potential market demand and the market change trend in a few years, accept scientific and technological achievements with limited maturity in advance, and create conditions for secondary development. In order to reduce risks, if you wait until the market demand is completely clear before starting development, you will inevitably fall behind others. Because when you see the prospects, others also see them; if you give up the first move, you will have more competitors. The weaker the comprehensive strength of the enterprise, the more courage it must have to develop ahead of time, relying on the time difference in advance to make up for the shortcomings in economic strength, development speed and market development capabilities, and create conditions for itself to become stronger from weak. It is not uncommon for development to fail or have unsatisfactory results due to various reasons, but there is always a chance of success for more than two projects developed simultaneously. As long as it is not a large investment, one success is an overall success; multiple successes are even more fortunate. The market is unpredictable, and enterprises with technical reserves will surely be able to "shine in the east and shine in the west" and take the initiative to control the market. It seems that advanced development is a hard truth. The corporate behavior of advanced development not only requires leaders to have courage, foresight and risk tolerance, but also adds a new force in the field of high-frequency switch rectification of electric power-Shenzhen Xinnengli Technology Co., Ltd. After decades of development, the national power industry has achieved remarkable achievements. Among them, the DC operating power supply has also experienced from magnetic saturation power supply to thyristor power supply to the current high-frequency switching power supply. Every progress in the development process is a revolution in the field of power application. High-frequency switching rectification technology is a high-tech project promulgated by the state for priority development. Xinnengli Technology Co., Ltd. has always been at the forefront of high-frequency switching technology, combined with national conditions, and developed a series of high-frequency switching rectification products to meet the needs of the market to the greatest extent. It has been listed as a key supported enterprise by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. Xinnengli Company provides not only reliable performance and rich varieties and specifications of products, but also contains excellent service concepts, and takes the realization of national industry as its own responsibility, becoming a new force in the field of high-frequency switch rectification of electric power, reflecting the new ability of the Chinese people! It also requires that the technical personnel of enterprises have keen insight and can perceive high-tech achievements that have market prospects but are still in their infancy as early as possible. Quite a number of enterprises are deficient in this regard. First, they lack people who can perceive directly and modern information means of perception; they do not accept the perception of others in their infancy; they follow other enterprises in doing what has a market, but it is always short-lived. Second, in terms of cognition, the function of scientific research is completely defined as universities and research institutes, and it is believed that things in the research stage have nothing to do with them. In fact, the acquisition of the life of all products is based on scientific research, and they must go through the process from academic thinking to research, development and then to productization. This process should be a continuous process. In developed countries, once a university paper is published, it is likely to be accepted by the enterprise and immediately enter the above-mentioned whole process, which is done in one go and the cycle is much shorter. Therefore, enterprises must pay attention to the trend of applied basic research (the 22 review papers such as "Research Report on the Development Strategy of Power Electronics" published in the 1999 supplement of the Journal of Electrical Engineering are of great reference value for scientific decision-making of enterprises), and strive to intervene as early as possible and seize the bright spots. Entrepreneurs who stay away from academic discussions will make the mistake of "begging for food with a golden bowl". Enterprises lacking high-tech talents need to rely on the eyes and brains of experts and scholars, especially the keen sense of smell of those who have seized the "high ground" at the forefront of disciplines, to inject inspiration for product innovation into the enterprise. The enterprise itself also has a group of young talents with strong practical ability to cooperate with them, and the conditions for shortening the transformation cycle of scientific and technological achievements exist. There is also a question of whether colleges and universities are willing to let enterprises intervene as early as possible. In order to strive for greater rights and interests in the future, the fact that they are too focused on utilitarianism has become an obstacle to the cooperation between enterprises and universities. This will make the speed of achievement transformation unable to compete with the rapid response of developed countries. In fact, if colleges and universities delay the time for enterprise intervention due to rights and interests, or emphasize independent development, except for a few key universities that can be unique, most of the cases will lead to the results being shelved. Therefore, for the sake of narrow personal or group rights and interests, giving up the efficient cooperation mode of complementary advantages will inevitably lead to the result of too long development cycle, and it is entirely possible to miss the best market opportunity for characteristic products, and instead make all parties lose the equivalent rights and interests that could have been obtained through efficient cooperation. If there is foresight, early involvement and complementary advantages, the profit ratio stipulated in the contract may seem smaller, but the profit time can be advanced; not only can a larger market be expanded in a shorter period, making the absolute value of profit actually larger; but also energy and funds can be freed up as early as possible to aim at the next goal. What is gain? What is loss? People can put things in multi-dimensional time and space and carefully measure them in all directions. The above analysis is for reference only. It is hoped that certain cognitive issues and rights and interests issues in promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements through industry-university-research cooperation can be better resolved in the field of power supply technology first.

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4 Conclusion Experience and analysis show that the development of enterprises should choose appropriate positioning and possess the elements to activate vitality. (1) Under the market economy, the competition among enterprises is a competition of comprehensive strength. Strong enterprises should compete with each other in general products, stand out, step up and enhance national prestige. (2) Enterprises with a single advantage should avoid direct conflicts in the market for general products, develop special supporting products with characteristics, occupy a place in the market, and gradually grow and develop. (3) Developing enterprises should have forward-looking consciousness, spatial consciousness and risk consciousness. Forward-looking consciousness is the "time difference" tactic, relying on advanced development to gain the initiative to occupy the market. Spatial consciousness is the "space difference" tactic, seizing the initiative to transform innovative scientific and technological achievements and becoming the first person in special products. The "space difference" tactic also naturally leads to the "time difference" effect. Risk awareness is inevitable for adopting the above tactics. Both the "space difference" and "time difference" tactics have economic and technical risks, requiring entrepreneurs to be bold and knowledgeable, have super psychological qualities and sense of responsibility, and require the enterprise group to have sufficient tolerance. (4) Pay attention to the development trends at the forefront of disciplines, plan for the long term, promote profitable cooperation between industry, academia and research, and do not miss any opportunities.