Foxconn's Terry Gou's journey from "plastics processing guy" to "global OEM king"

The results of the Kuomintang primary election poll have come to an end, with Han Kuo-yu winning with overwhelming support, and Foxconn founder Terry Gou coming in second.

Guo Taiming is a well-known figure in the business world. " Foxconn " and "Hon Hai" are synonymous with this business elite. Since he turned to politics in April this year, Guo Taiming's performance has been remarkable. His support rate once led Han Kuo-yu and he was called the "Taiwanese version of Trump." However, why did Guo Taiming, who once vowed to "give Taiwan a chance to live and promise the next generation eternal happiness", lose in the primary election? Let's find out from his life trajectory...

[From "Plastic Processing Guy" to "Global OEM King"]

In 1950, Guo Taiming was born in the Mazu Temple in Banqiao, Taiwan, and lived in the temple's wing for nine years. The family of six lived on the meager salary of his father as a policeman.

Guo Taiming was a devout believer in Mazu throughout his life. In 1975, Guo Taiming spent 2 million yuan to donate a pair of dragon pillars outside the temple and carved his own and his family's names on the pillars.

When he was young, Guo Taiming worked in a rubber factory, a grinding wheel factory and a pharmaceutical factory. After graduating from the Maritime College, Guo Taiming became a soldier. After retiring, he worked as a salesman at the Fuxing Shipping Company.

At that time, shipping was considered promising, but Guo Taiming wanted to do business. He was born in Jincheng, Shanxi Province, and he had the enterprising spirit of a Shanxi merchant.

In November 1987, Guo Taiming and his wife returned to their hometown for the first time.

In 1974, with NT$100,000 borrowed from his mother, Terry Gou and his friends founded Hon Hai Plastics Co., Ltd., which mainly deals in plastic products. Terry Gou explained Hon Hai as "a great swan flying thousands of miles, an ocean embracing hundreds of rivers."

At the beginning of his business, Guo Taiming worked day and night for the company. Later, looking back on his entrepreneurial history, he said that if his children had the mentality of "high pay, little work, close to home, and sleep until they wake up naturally" for work, "I will break their legs the next day."

The following year, the company encountered a bottleneck in development, and the entrepreneurial team withdrew one by one. When Guo Taiming was frustrated, he noticed that black and white TV sets were becoming popular, so he shamelessly borrowed NT$700,000 from his father-in-law, changed the company's name to Hon Hai Industrial Co., Ltd., and began to produce black and white TV knobs. In 1977, Hon Hai finally turned a profit.

In 1983, Terry Gou entered the computer industry and built the "connector kingdom". In 1985, Terry Gou established Hon Hai branch in the United States and founded the "FOXCONN" brand, which is Foxconn. As for the origin of this name, Terry Gou's own interpretation is "Gathering talents is strong, Foxconn is strong", which is also a couplet that Terry Gou wrote later and used it to encourage college students who just joined Foxconn. The "FOX" in the English name also means being as smart as a fox.

In 1988, China's reform and opening up entered its 10th year, which also became the starting point of Terry Gou's business empire in the mainland - he established the Shenzhen Ocean Precision Computer Connector Factory in Bao'an District, Shenzhen, to produce computer peripheral products.

Guo Taiming (second from left) came to Shenzhen in early 1988

In 1993, Guo Taiming, who was already a "famous Taiwanese businessman", came to a hilltop in Longhua Town, Shenzhen, pointed to a piece of barren land in front of him and said, "I want all the land I can see!"

In June 1996, Foxconn Shenzhen Longhua Industrial Park was completed, which is today's Foxconn Industrial Park.

Guo Taiming later recalled the process: "We made every gravel, weeds, bricks, steel bars, underground pipes and even the drain covers in our Longhua Park ourselves. At that time, educated youth returned to their hometowns to find jobs, and many of them gave us great support."

Guo Taiming's empire gradually expanded from Guangdong to all parts of the country, with millions of employees distributed in Jiangsu, Henan, Hebei, Sichuan, Shanxi and other places. He also won production orders from many international giants, including IBM, Intel and Apple.

Current Apple CEO Tim Cook visits Foxconn

In 2005, Foxconn entered the Fortune Global 500 for the first time, ranking 371st. Hon Hai Group's revenue exceeded NT$1 trillion, making it the first trillion-dollar company in Taiwan.

But such success is not without controversy. In 2010, when the "14 consecutive suicides" quickly shaped Foxconn's image as a sweatshop, Guo Taiming was once criticized by Taiwanese scholars as "the shame of Taiwan." The cruel military management and long working hours have become the points of criticism from the outside world.

"I was very sad and didn't have a good night's sleep for a month." Later, Foxconn raised the minimum wage, opened a service hotline, and limited overtime hours to calm the public anger.

Guo Taiming was surrounded by reporters during the jumping incident

However, after the storm subsided, people found that Foxconn's position as a manufacturing giant is still difficult to shake, and Foxconn's factory recruitment offices in various places are still crowded with young people queuing up.

Terry Gou once used a series of metaphors to describe Foxconn: "What is Foxconn? The indestructible cockroach, the hardworking and simple Taiwanese buffalo, the grapevine rooted in the barren soil, the lone goose flapping its wings to fly, and the sweet potato growing up in loneliness.

Guo Taiming also devoted all his efforts to his business empire. During the Spring Festival one year, Guo Taiming took a few more days off and fell ill. He left a comment: "I get sick when I take a holiday. Work itself is a kind of enjoyment."

According to the Forbes 2019 Global Rich List, his wealth is as high as US$7.7 billion, ranking 213th in the world, and he is the richest man in Taiwan, China.

From a poor boy to the helm of a business empire, Terry Chen, who once served as Guo Taiming's consultant, attributed his success to hard work: "He works 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. He understands Foxconn's technology better than anyone else, and because of this, his judgment is more accurate than that of senior executives." Perhaps as Guo Taiming himself said, "I don't have many advantages. The only advantage is that I can make up for my shortcomings with hard work."

[Businessmen who excel will become officials: "Mazu told me to come"]

As early as the beginning of this year, Taiwanese media reported that Terry Gou would participate in the 2020 Taiwan regional leadership election, but Terry Gou strongly denied it at the time. Even in an interview in early April, he still "denied it three times in a row" - he said "there is no such thing" three times in a row, and said that the leader of Taiwan is the hardest and most difficult job.

The reversal came quickly.

On April 15, Terry Gou revealed that he would "step back to the second line," that is, he would only control the general direction of the development of the Hon Hai Group and would not participate in daily operations. He would train younger successors, revealing his intention to retire.

On the 16th, Guo Taiming made his first statement in an interview, saying that he would decide whether to participate in the general election in the near future. If he decides to run, he will definitely go through the primary election process; if he wants to participate in the KMT primary election, he will definitely go through the normal process and will not accept the call-up.

Ten hours later, Terry Gou made up the story of "Mazu's dream" and decided to run for this "hardest" job, and he started to work hard.

Before deciding to run for the election, Guo Taiming wrote a post describing this decision as "a possibility that I have never thought of in my life." He believes that with the current struggle between the two powers in the world, technology changing the world, and the attack of global competition, the leadership style after 2020 will affect the future of 20-year-olds. Whether he is suitable or not, in addition to everyone's opinion, he also needs to "convince himself why he is fighting" so that he can be fearless and move forward courageously on the road ahead.

On June 21, Guo Taiming officially announced his resignation as chairman of Hon Hai Group to concentrate on participating in the KMT primary election. Guo Taiming said: "Taiwan is now facing a bottleneck in development, and it is because of the political bottleneck. If I were an entrepreneur today, I could take care of myself, but I cannot solve the big economic problems. I cannot bear to see Taiwan gradually fall into a deadlock... Taiwan's economy is bad now. Give me four years to give Taiwan a chance to survive and promise the next generation eternal happiness."

[Two magic weapons: compete in economy and understand politics]

Terry Gou believes that his best weapon is economics.

Wait, shouldn’t this be Han Kuo-yu’s magic weapon? Indeed, Han Kuo-yu is “working on the economy”, and he is working on the economy as a grassroots. Some people attacked him as a “country bumpkin”, and he followed the trend and called himself “the head of the country bumpkins”, and as a result, he won a large number of grassroots votes.

But in Guo Taiming's view, this is a joke.

On May 16, seeing that his support rate was getting closer and closer to Han Kuo-yu (only 5.6% behind Han Kuo-yu), Guo Taiming, who had always been close to Han Kuo-yu, suddenly blasted Han Kuo-yu, saying that Han Kuo-yu did not understand the "common people's economy" and could only shout "make a fortune... make a fortune", seemingly trying to force Han Kuo-yu to retreat.

After 2000, Taiwan's economy declined and development stagnated. Right now, the most urgent thing for Taiwanese people is to boost the economy and increase their income. Guo Taiming is the richest man in Taiwan and the king of the manufacturing empire. If he talks about "striving for economic development", who can beat him? Even Han Kuo-yu himself said that if Guo Taiming ran for election, it would be a bombshell for Taiwan.