For 57-year-old Aling Lai (
He loves the thrill of watching the planes soar in the air, and being able to control their movements and direction with a remote control in his hand.
Lai said he was lucky guy because his passion is what he does now for a living.
"Radio control planes allow people to realize their dreams, as not every one of us can afford to buy a real jet," said Lai, chairman of Thunder Tiger Corp (
Founded in 1979 by Lai, Thunder Tiger is currently the world's No. 3 player in the radio control model industry.
The company produces high-end toys such as airplanes, submarines, race cars and helicopters, whose price tags can easily reach around US$500.
The model industry is a niche market estimated at only US$1.7 billion a year -- an amount less than the quarterly revenues made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world's biggest contract chipmaker, company spokesman Jack Liou (劉朝清) said in a recent interview in Taichung.
"But we use innovation to make people's dreams come true," he said.
Taking a different tack from other contract manufacturers in the country at the time, Thunder Tiger started in the business by doing own-brand manufacturing from its first day of operation.
The company was founded in an era when local firms were rushing into toy production, pushing toy exports to all-time highs during the late 1980s to early 1990s.
In the midst of these challenges, Thunder Tiger is one of the few local companies that have survived and proudly represents the country in the global toy industry.
"We have been using a `blue ocean strategy' to stay ahead," Liou said, referring to the strategy of creating new or untapped business areas with promising opportunities and little competition.
Revolutionary
Eight years ago, when the radio control model industry was still focused on promoting do-it-yourself (DIY) products that allow buyers to assemble the model components themselves, Thunder Tiger dared to be different.
The firm revolutionized the industry by introducing finished models that buyers can take home and play with right away.
"Buyers are busy, they do not necessarily have the time to put the pieces together one by one," said Lai, explaining the rationale behind the strategy, which has successfully boosted Thunder Tiger's average annual revenue by about 20 percent since 1998.
Thunder Tiger saw brisk sales last year, raking in NT$1.3 billion (US$39.6 million), compared with NT$1.1 billion a year earlier. Revenues in the first half of this year grew 12 percent over the same period last year, according to Liou.
But part of the company's increased sales can be attributed to a strategy it adopted in 2003 -- another industry first -- by working with a French media group to sell DIY model kits, Liou said.
Targeted at European DIY users, Thunder Tiger teamed up with top magazine publisher Hachette Filipacchi Medias to release parts of a DIY kit in various "issues" sold through its traditional media channel.
This allowed hobbyists to purchase the weekly "copies" at newsstands or on the Internet, and assemble them over a period of time.
The tactic worked well. Last year alone, it contributed more than 30 percent to Thunder Tiger's overall sales, or more than NT$390 million, according to Liou.
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