"I have been fidgety of late and have developed a hot temper," Kinpo Group (
For the 64-year-old, who has been perceived by the media as a gentle and softspoken chairman, the ebullience is a result of his eagerness to drive the group's growth in the near future.
"We have superb resources and top management and we should be able to grow at a very fast pace," he said.
PHOTO: CHEN CHUN-LIANG, TAIPEI TIMES
He made his remarks to reporters on the sidelines of an affiliate's annual dance and dinner party last Saturday held at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall II.
During the party, Hsu declared to over 2,000 Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) employees that the Kinpo Group was aiming to reach US$21 billion sales this year, up from last year's US$16 billion.
Last year's figure already represented an annual growth of 32 percent.
Hsu said that Kinpo was hoping to increase annual sales by US$4 billion each year and to double its sales to US$32 billion by 2010.
"I feel the pressure and I expect every affiliate to achieve sales growth of 35 percent to 40 percent every year so that we can reach that target," Hsu said.
Kinpo, a well-established high-tech conglomerate, makes products ranging from flat panels, power supplies and printers, to portable computer, monitors, mobile phones and also offers telecom services.
Set up in 1973, its first business, Kinpo Electronics Inc (金寶電子), manufactured calculators.
Over the past 34 years, the group has expanded to 23 subsidiaries and counts 60,000 employees. Its subsidiaries include big names such as Compal Electronics, the world's second-largest portable computer maker, Vibo Telecom Inc (威寶電信), the nation's leading third-generation telecom operator and Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊), the nation's largest contract handset maker.
Other subsidiaries include AcBel Polytech Inc (康舒科技) and Cal-Comp Electronics (Thailand) Pub Co Ltd (泰金寶), which make PHS (personal handy-phone system) phones.
Six of its subsidiaries are listed firms. Two more will be listed this year and that number will grow to 10 firms by 2010, Hsu said.
Although it was a pioneer in the production of digital cameras and global positioning systems (GPS), Kinpo has lost out in those fields to Premier Image Technology Corp (
In a bid to avoid history repeating itself in other fields, Hsu is determined to enhance the group's competitive edge in the industry.
"In the business world there are always challenges. To ensure sustainability, an enterprise has to know where the risks are," he said, adding that statistics showed that 47 of the top 100 Taiwanese enterprises had vanished during the 1993 to 2002 period.
To achieve more growth, Kinpo will embark on a series of mergers and acquisitions this year, especially in the network equipment and automotive electronics fields.
Network has become critical in the integration of computers, communications and consumer electronics products, Hsu said, while auto electronics is a fast-growing industry offering tremendous business opportunities.
He said that both Kinpo Electronics and Compal Electronics will form new divisions to focus on the auto electronics segment, with initial products including displays and GPS.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS