The Forbidden City of Terry Gou His complex in China turns out iPhones and PCs, powering the biggest exporter you've never heard of
By JASON DEAN
August 11, 2007; Page A1
Shenzhen, China
Past a guarded gate on the outskirts of this city sits one of the world's largest factories. In dozens of squat buildings, it churns out gadgets bearing technology's household names -- Apple Inc.'s iPods and iPhones, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s personal computers, Motorola Inc. mobile phones and Nintendo Co. Wii videogame consoles.
Few people outside of the industry know of the plant's owner: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.
With a work force of some 270,000 -- about as big as the population of Newark, N.J. -- the factory is a bustling testament to the ambition of Hon Hai's founder, Terry Gou. In an era when manufacturing has been defined by outsourcing, no one has done more to shift global electronics production to China. Little noticed by the wider world, Mr. Gou has turned his company into China's biggest exporter and the world's biggest contract manufacturer of electronics.
Hon Hai's revenue has grown more than 50% a year in the past decade to $40.6 billion last year. It is expected to add $14 billion in revenue this year. That is roughly the equivalent of Motorola's adding, within a year, the sales of CBS Corp.
Throughout his company's rise, the 56-year-old native of Taiwan has maintained a low profile. Publicity, he says, risks helping competitors and alienating customers. "I hate that I [have] become famous," Mr. Gou said in a recent three-hour interview at Hon Hai's Taiwan headquarters. It was Mr. Gou's first interview with Western media since 2002, following more than five years of requests by The Wall Street Journal. "We are so big we cannot hide anymore."
Hon Hai, and its massive Shenzhen plant, provides a window into the sometimes-secretive world of manufacturing in China. Confidentiality is a selling point for contract manufacturers, whose customers count on them to shield their products and plans from outsiders. Secrecy has also been a central issue in China's recent tainted-product scandal, with the often-quiet relationship between U.S. companies and their suppliers complicating regulators' hunt for the source of defective goods. Recently, citing ongoing investigations, Mattel Inc. took nearly a week to identify its Chinese provider of toys believed to contain lead paint.
Hon Hai hasn't been involved in such scandals, and analysts and industry insiders say Mr. Gou has combined discretion with a solid record of quality control and competitive pricing to build a booming empire. The $43 billion market capitalization of Hon Hai -- a public company listed in Taiwan, which uses the trade name Foxconn -- is equal to that of its 10 biggest global rivals combined. Mr. Gou and Hon Hai control additional affiliates that report revenue separately. Mr. Gou is currently worth about $10 billion, a Hon Hai spokesman says.
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The company guards its customers' identities, although some of them are named in its Chinese-language filings to securities regulators. Hon Hai and its affiliates make products not only for Apple, Nintendo, H-P and Motorola, but also cellphones and parts for Nokia Corp., PlayStation 2 sets for Sony Corp. and computer parts for Dell Inc. Those companies did not dispute their relationship with the manufacturer. Hon Hai is also currently the exclusive supplier of Apple's iPhones and one of the few makers of iPods, Taiwan-based analysts say. Apple acknowledged that Hon Hai is a supplier but declined to comment further.
At the center of Mr. Gou's empire is his walled Shenzhen facility, the Longhua Science & Technology Park, which covers about a square mile. Aside from customers, few outsiders set foot inside. A reporter visiting Longhua was barred from viewing protected areas or taking photographs of more than a few scenes.
In addition to its dozens of assembly lines and dormitories, Longhua has a fire brigade, hospital and employee swimming pool, where Mr. Gou does early morning laps when he is there. Restaurants, banks, a grocery store and an Internet cafe line the company town's main drag. More than 500 monitors around the campus show exercise programs, worker-safety videos and company news produced by the in-house television network, Foxconn TV. Even the plant's manhole covers are stamped "Foxconn."
James Lee, a heavy-smoking former banker whom Mr. Gou tapped to run the plant in 1998, is Longhua's de facto mayor. Mr. Lee frets about how to provide more than 150,000 lunches every day in the 10 cavernous employee canteens (that's about 10.6 metric tons of dry rice per meal, at one bowl each). He oversees landscaping, uniform buying, dormitory building and hiring as many as 3,000 new workers a day during peak periods. His administration employs more than 1,000 security guards to keep order and prevent unauthorized visitors from sensitive areas. Administrators also battle what he calls new employees' tendency to litter.
GADGET MAKER
Some major customers/products of Hon Hai & its affiliates:
| CUSTOMER | PRODUCTS |
| Apple | iPhone, some iPod models |
| Dell | Desktop PCs/parts |
| Hewlett-Packard | Desktop PCs/parts |
| Nokia | Cellphones/parts |
| Motorola | Cellphones/parts |
| Sony | PlayStation2 videogame console, PSP handheld game unit |
| Nintendo | Wii videogame console DS game unit |
Source: WSJ research
"I have to resolve every single small problem on this campus, with the exception of production," he says over a "Foxconn Coffee" at a company restaurant. He jokes: "Would you want this job?"
Now the plant's space is running out. "We never thought we would expand so fast," says Mr. Lee.
The founder's personality permeates the site and company. A charismatic man who inspires intense loyalty among his lieutenants, Mr. Gou runs Hon Hai with the power of a warlord. On his right wrist he wears a beaded bracelet he got from a temple dedicated to Genghis Khan, the 13th-century Mongolian conqueror whom he calls a personal hero.
"I always tell employees: The group's benefit is more important than your personal benefit," Mr. Gou says.
Mr. Gou has combined a competitive drive with a business model that lets the company build much of its products in-house, saving money on parts. His zeal for cost-cutting prompted a fellow executive to quip several years ago that Mr. Gou is "worth about $2 billion in nickels and dimes."
Longhua's workers tend assembly lines, in shifts, around the clock. They earn wages that seem meager by developed-world standards but are enough to keep new recruits streaming through its gates. The most basic assembly-line jobs pay about 60 cents an hour -- the legal minimum -- although workers can earn higher wages for overtime. Meals are subsidized. Most workers live rent-free in company dormitories inside the walls or off campus.
Last year, a British tabloid alleged poor treatment of Longhua's workers, specifically those who make Apple's iPods there. (At the time, Apple reported that nearly one-seventh of Longhua's workers made Apple products.) The British account was followed by criticism of the company in the Chinese press.
Apple sent a team to investigate, and found a handful of violations of its Supplier Code of Conduct, including over-crowding at three off-site dorms, according to a report the company issued last August. Apple, which asks suppliers to limit workers to 60 hours of labor a week except in emergencies, estimated that one-third of Longhua's workers exceeded the limit. It did not find evidence of forced overtime. Overall, Apple found Hon Hai to be in compliance with its guidelines "in the majority of areas," it said in the report. Apple declined to comment further.
Hon Hai executives say conditions for their workers are better than the average in China, which helps them attract new workers. They say they have built new dorms at the plant and taken other measures to address Apple's concerns. Mr. Gou angrily dismisses the critical coverage.
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Mr. Gou started what would become Hon Hai in 1974. He borrowed part of the initial investment of $7,500 from his mother, who with his father had fled to Taiwan in 1949 during China's civil war. In a facility near Taipei, he began making plastic channel-changing knobs for black-and-white television sets.
In the early 1980s, he expanded into the PC industry just as it started to take off. His first products were connectors, the relatively simple but ubiquitous parts that join components in a PC. Though he spoke little English or Japanese, he soon began traveling to the U.S. and Japan, seeking out customers. During the 1980s and 1990s, he says he logged so much time driving from city to city in the U.S. that he memorized the menu at Denny's.
In 1988, with orders surging and costs soaring in Taiwan, Mr. Gou set up his first factory in China, where land and labor were cheaper. Decades-old tensions between Taipei and Beijing were starting to wane, and China was a decade into a massive economic overhaul. Mr. Gou chose Shenzhen, a city next to Hong Kong at the forefront of China's market reforms.
He used his small-but-fast-growing Shenzhen operation in his sales pitch to prospective customers. In 1995, when Michael Dell was visiting southern China, Mr. Gou offered to arrange meetings with local officials he knew in return for the chance to drive the 30-year-old American to the airport, says Max Fang, who was then Dell's head of procurement in Asia. On the way, Mr. Gou made an unscheduled detour to show off his factory.
Dell then wasn't one of the world's top five PC vendors, and Hon Hai didn't yet make parts that Dell bought directly. But Mr. Gou "knew that Michael Dell was a star of tomorrow, so he wanted to meet him," says Mr. Fang, who has known Mr. Gou since 1979. Today, Hon Hai is one of Dell's biggest suppliers, analysts and industry sources say. Mr. Gou keeps a photograph of Dell's founder on a shelf in his Taiwan office.
That same year, Mr. Gou secured a larger plot of land that would become Longhua. When Mr. Fang visited a year later, it had fewer than 1,000 workers. Executive offices were housed in 20-foot shipping containers.
But Mr. Fang was impressed. At the time, Dell and other PC companies tended to buy parts from several suppliers and ship them to their own factories for assembly. Mr. Gou had created a production line that let him do most of the process himself, from procuring the raw steel for PC casings to putting together the finished product.
GLOBAL PRESENCE
Global manufacturing locations of Hon Hai and its affiliates.
TAIWAN
Headquarters – Tucheng (greater Taipei)
CHINA
Shenyang, Liaoning Province
Yingkou, Liaoning Province
Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province
Langfang, Hebei Province
Taiyuan, Shanxi Province
Tianjin City
Yantai, Shandong Province
Shanghai City
Wuhan, Hubei Province
Nanjing, Jiangsu Province
Kunshan, Jiangsu Province
Huaian, Jiangsu Province
Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province
Shenzhen, Guangdong Province
Foshan, Guangdong Province
Zhongshan, Guangdong Province
WORLD
Czech Republic
Hungary
Mexico
Brazil
India
Vietnam
Source: The company
Over the years, Mr. Gou has expanded his portfolio to include a growing share of the PC's insides. Making its own components lets Hon Hai undercut competitors on the price of its finished products without reducing its overall margins, says Adam Pick, an analyst at iSuppli Corp., a market research firm in El Segundo, Calif.
By 2000, Hon Hai's work force neared 30,000 people and its revenue topped $3 billion. Mr. Gou was expanding his soup-to-nuts strategy to more products. That year, Hon Hai set up a subsidiary called Foxconn International Holdings Ltd., now the world's biggest independent cellphone maker. In 2003, Mr. Gou launched a company that is now a leading maker of flat-panel LCD monitors. Last year, Hon Hai bought a major producer of digital cameras.
Now, in some cases, Hon Hai builds much of a product and ships it to its client for the finishing touches. In others, it ships the final products directly to retailers or consumers.
In all, more than 450,000 workers are now employed at Mr. Gou's plants across about a dozen provinces of China. Thousands more work in facilities run by Hon Hai and its affiliates across the globe -- including Hungary, Mexico and Brazil -- as the company sets up plants closer to its customers' operations. The company is one of the biggest exporters in the Czech Republic, where Mr. Gou bought a castle several years ago. Hon Hai is also adding operations in Vietnam and India and expanding into other sectors, including auto parts.
As Hon Hai grew too large for one person to manage directly, Mr. Gou fostered a culture centered on his personality. Around Longhua, his image can be seen in large framed photos of him with Chinese officials, and on the Gou biographies stacked in the factory book store's window.
Executives say he leads by example to keep products coming out on schedule and to customer specifications. Known for his 16-hour days, the founder for years would cruise the Longhua campus late into the night in a golf cart -- modified with a large bicycle horn -- stopping to spot-check production lines or help repair equipment.
Company managers are expected to read and remember a document called "Gou's Quotations." (No. 133: "The important thing in any organization is leadership, not management. A leader must have the decisive courage to be a dictator for the common good.") At meetings, Mr. Gou often stands, and illustrates his ideas with black marker on a giant white paper pad. He encourages discussion, but if someone says something he considers foolish, he may order the person to stand at attention. "He'll say, 'I'm not punishing you, because I'm standing, too,'" says a senior Hon Hai manager.
Industry executives and analysts say customers often start outsourcing one product line to Hon Hai and then shift more there. "You get addicted," says Mr. Fang, who left Dell in 2002 and now runs a venture capital fund that has co-invested with Hon Hai in a company called Ugobe Inc., which makes robotic toys.
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Competitors have struggled to keep up. Four years ago, Hon Hai was smaller by revenue than Nasdaq-listed Flextronics International Ltd., the industry's longstanding leader. Now, Hon Hai is so much larger that even after a merger announced in June between Flextronics and Solectron Corp., of Milpitas, Calif., their combined revenue will be about two-thirds that of Hon Hai.
Hon Hai has its vulnerabilities. It isn't, for example, a major producer of laptop computers, which analysts say requires product-design capabilities that Hon Hai lacks. It is exposed to the risks of contract manufacturing, an intensely competitive business with thin margins. Hon Hai relies heavily on a fairly small number of customers: In the tech industry, a single product line can make or break a company's fortunes and, in turn, the well-being of a supplier. The company also faces the challenge of increasing revenue at the rate investors have come to expect.
Hon Hai's sheer physical size also creates difficulties. Longhua was built quickly, and its layout wasn't well planned, says Mr. Lee, the plant director. With its increasing overcrowding, just moving all those workers around is a challenge. Mr. Lee says he once considered building a monorail but the idea proved too difficult. He says the ideal facility would have about one-fourth of the land area and perhaps one-third the workers.
"It's not a good idea to be this size," says Mr. Lee, who is also in charge of building other large factories for Hon Hai.
Hon Hai executives, and outside analysts, say the company has stayed nimble so far largely by splitting its operations among about a dozen smaller, semi-autonomous units. Mr. Gou says he wants to upgrade Longhua's facilities and take on more advanced work, such as research and development. That means shifting manufacturing jobs to other parts of China.
Longhua is incessantly busy, but during breaks and shift changes, the activity explodes. At lunchtime on a recent sunny day, thousands of employees poured out of their buildings. They swarmed in and out of a large cafeteria and browsed in the factory book shop. A line of dozens of new employees, carrying their few possessions, snaked along a crosswalk.
Most of the workers wear uniforms color-coded by their department. Others wear blue jeans and T-shirts. A number stroll in pairs, hand-in-hand. The workers are as young as 16.
Zhou Ruqing, an affable 20-year-old, has worked at Longhua for just over a year as a quality inspector on an assembly line. She lives in an apartment outside the factory with her boyfriend, who also works at Longhua.
Ms. Zhou came to Shenzhen in 2005 after graduating from high school in rural Sichuan province. As a mid-level assembly-line worker, she earns about $230 a month, including overtime pay. (First-year workers can make as little as $90 a month if they do not work overtime.) That doesn't include about $60 a month in housing and food subsidies, plus health insurance. In Shenzhen, that money goes far -- the rent for the small apartment she shares is less than $60 a month.
Another worker, who would identify himself only as Mr. Xiao, started as an assembly-line worker almost three years ago, just after graduating from a technical school in central China, where Hon Hai recruited him. His starting salary was $44 a month at today's exchange rate. Working up to 30 days a month, he could earn up to $157 a month. "I was really tired then, too busy to rest," he said.
Mr. Xiao has worked up to a more advanced post. His basic salary has doubled, although his total pay hasn't increased much, partly because he works fewer hours. He says conditions are better than they were at the time of last year's critical press attention, but "the change is incomplete." He currently works six days a week, spending his off day studying in hopes of landing a different position.
Mr. Gou's role at Hon Hai is changing, too. He says he works just as hard today, but is focusing more on big strategic issues than day-to-day work. He is also devoting more time to charity -- he has pledged to eventually give away one-third of his fortune -- and dealing with changes in his personal life. His wife of many years died in 2005. Last month, his younger brother, who had headed a Hon Hai affiliate, died after a long illness.
Mr. Gou has begun looking for a successor at Hon Hai, focusing on candidates in their late 30s or early 40s and asking senior managers to prove themselves by running their units assertively. There is no natural successor -- his son and daughter don't work at the company.
He says his decision to begin stepping down now is inspired by Chinese history, specifically the Qianlong Emperor, who ruled from 1736 until 1796, when he was 84 years old. Qianlong greatly expanded the Qing Dynasty, making China perhaps the wealthiest country on earth. But his judgment failed in his later years, and the Qing began a decline that led to its eventual demise. "He controlled the whole of China for 60 years," says Mr. Gou. "He stayed there too long. So I want to sit back and give young people more responsibilities, when I'm still young."
--Sue Feng in Beijing and Christopher Lawton in San Francisco contributed to this article.
Write to Jason Dean at jason.dean@wsj.कॉम
华尔街日报：郭台铭的“紫禁城”鲜为人知？
2007年08月14日 华夏经纬网
深圳郊外，穿过一个有门卫看守的大门，便进入了一家工厂，其规模之大可跻身世界前列。在几十座厂房中，苹果公司(AppleInc.)的iPod和 iPhone、惠普公司(Hewlett-PackardCo.)的个人电脑、摩托罗拉(MotorolaInc.)的移动电话以及任天堂 (Nintendo Co.)的视频游戏机Wii这些人们耳熟能详的科技产品正被源源不断地生产出来。
但这座大工厂的东家鸿海精密工业股份有限公司(HonHaiPrecisionIndustry Co.)却是家本行业之外鲜为人知的企业。
这家工厂约有员工27万人，几乎相当于美国新泽西州纽瓦克市的总人口，它生动体现着鸿海精密创建人郭台铭(TerryGou)的雄心壮志。在当今这个制造 就等同于外包的时代，将全球的电子产品生产业务转移到中国大陆方面，郭台铭的手笔之大无人能及。几乎是在世人没有察觉的情况下，郭台铭已将他的公司变成了 中国最大的出口企业以及世界最大的电子产品合同生产商。
鸿海精密的收入过去10年每年都以50%以上的速度增长着，去年达到了406亿美元。今年的收入预计还将增加140亿美元。这大约相当于摩托罗拉公司一年增加的收入，相当于哥伦比亚广播公司(CBSCorp.)的年营业额。
在鸿海精密的崛起过程中，56岁的台湾人郭台铭一直保持着低调。他认为，过分抛头露面会给竞争对手造成可乘之机，并有可能疏远自己的客户。郭台铭日前在鸿 海精密的的台湾总部接受采访时说，他恨自己的名气。这是郭台铭2002年以来首次接受西方媒体的采访，此前5年多的时间他一直对《华尔街日报》的采访要求 置之不理。“我们的规模是这么大，没有什么能隐瞒的，”他说。
鸿海精密及其在深圳的巨大工厂为人们了解颇为神秘的中国制造业提供了一扇窗口。保密性是合同制造商的一个卖点，没有他们的配合其客户要想使自己的产品和商 业计划不为外界所知是办不到的。在近来发生的一系列中国产问题产品丑闻中，产品生产过程不透明也是个颇受诟病的问题。美国公司与其供货商的关系经常处于保 密状态，这增加了政府监管部门追查有缺陷产品来源的难度。美泰公司(MattelInc.)最近就以正在进行相关调查为由，拖了差不多一周才说出为它提供 问题玩具的中国公司是谁，这家公司在为美泰生产的玩具上使用了含铅涂料。
鸿海精密并未牵涉到这类丑闻中，分析师和业内人士称，郭台铭将他的商业判断力与持之以恒的质量控制和极具竞争力的定价成功结合在一起，这才造就了他繁荣兴 旺的制造业帝国。鸿海精密在台湾上市，其与客户交往时使用的是富士康(Foxconn)这个名称，该公司的市值达430亿美元，相当于其全球十大竞争对手 的市值总和。郭台铭本人和鸿海精密还控制着一系列单独公布收入的关联企业。鸿海精密一位发言人说，郭台铭的身价目前约为100亿美元。
鸿海精密一向不对外界透露其客户的名称，不过在该公司向证券监管机构提交的中文报告中会出现过其部分客户的名字。鸿海精密及其关联企业不仅为苹果公司、任 天堂、惠普和摩托罗拉生产产品，还为诺基亚公司(NokiaCorp)生产手机零部件，为索尼公司(SonyCorp.)生产PlayStation2游 戏机，为戴尔公司(Dell Inc.)生产电脑零部件。这些公司都未隐瞒它们与鸿海精密的合作关系。据台湾的分析师说，鸿海精密目前是苹果公司iPhone的独家供应商，是该公司 iPod为数不多的几家供应商之一。苹果公司承认鸿海精密是其供应商，但拒绝发表进一步评论。
郭台铭企业帝国的核心就是他在深圳那个高墙环绕的生产基地──占地约1平方英里的龙华科技园区(LonghuaScience& Technology Park)。除客户外，很少有外界人士能涉足这里。参观该园区的记者会被挡在一些保密区域之外，并且仅限于在一些指定的地点拍照。
除了拥有众多装配线和职工宿舍外，龙华科技园区自己还拥有一支消防队、一家医院并有一个专供员工使用的游泳池，只要郭台铭在深圳，他每天早晨都会到这个泳 池游上几圈。在龙华科技园区这个企业城的主干道两旁，餐馆、银行、杂货店和网吧一应俱全。遍布园区的500多个露天大屏幕电视则不停播放着健身操、安全教 育节目以及富士康电视台(FoxconnTV)自己制作的公司新闻。甚至园区的下水道井盖上也印有“富士康”字样。
银行家出身的李金明(JamesLee)在龙华科技园区实际上扮演着“市长”角色，他是1998年被郭台铭挖来负责管理这一生产基地的。每天在园区内的 10处大型员工食堂提供15万份以上的午餐就是件很令李金明头疼的事，每顿午饭要用掉10.6吨大米。他负责的工作还有景观美化、工作服采购、兴建职工宿 舍以及员工招聘等工作，用工高峰时园区每天招聘的新员工多达3,000人。他手下光保安就有1,000多人，他们负责维持秩序、阻止访客未经允许参观园区 的敏感地区。李金明说，园区管理部门还要负责纠正新员工乱丢垃圾的毛病。
他在园区内一家餐馆接受采访时说，除了生产问题，园区内的大事小情自己都要管。品着一杯“富士康咖啡”的李金明开玩笑说，“你想干这份工作吗？”
龙华科技园区的规模目前还在迅速扩大。李金明说，他们从未想过公司会发展得这么快。
龙华科技园区和鸿海精密上下到处弥漫着郭台铭的个人色彩。极富个人魅力的郭台铭在下属中很有威信，他以军阀的铁腕管理着鸿海精密。他右手腕上戴着一串念珠，这是他从一处成吉思汗庙中得来的。郭台铭称这位13世纪的蒙古征服者是位英雄人物。
他说：“我总对员工们说，集体利益要高于个人利益。”
郭台铭将提升鸿海精密竞争力的努力与该公司特有的业务模式结合了起来，这一模式就是所需配套产品尽可能多地在公司内部解决，将外购零部件的费用省下来。郭台铭的一位同行几年前在讥笑他这种千方百计削减成本的热情时曾说，郭台铭手里攒下的硬币就值20亿美元。
龙华厂的工人24小时不间断地在组装线上倒班工作。他们的工资按发达国家标准少的可怜，但却足以在中国招募到一批又一批的新工人。该厂最基础的组装工作每 小时报酬为60美分，与法定的最低工资持平，不过工人加班可以拿到高一些的工资。工厂为工人提供餐食补助，大多数工人住在厂区围墙之内或厂区之外的免费宿 舍中。
去年英国一家小报曝光龙华的工人待遇糟糕，特别是那些为苹果公司生产iPod的工人（与此同时，苹果公司报告称龙华有近七分之一的工人生产其产品）。在这篇英国报导之后，鸿海又遭到中国媒体的抨击。
根据苹果公司去年8月公布的一份报告，该公司派出的一个调查组在龙华发现诸多违反供应商行为守则的做法，其中包括三处厂外宿舍过于拥挤。按照苹果公司的要 求，供应商应将工人每周的工作时间控制在60小时以内，除非有紧急情况发生。但据苹果公司的估计，龙华三分之一工人的工作时间超过了此限制。不过没有发现 强迫加班的证据。报告称，苹果认为鸿海总体上遵守了行为守则的“主要方面”。但苹果拒绝就报告进一步置评。
鸿海高管表示，他们手下工人的条件要好于中国的平均水平，这也是公司能够吸引到新工人的原因之一。该公司称，已在厂区内建造了新的工人宿舍，并已采取其他措施解决苹果公司发现的问题。郭台铭愤然否认了那些批评报导。
鸿海是由郭台铭1974年开办的公司发展而来。7,500美元启动资金中有一部分是向母亲借的。一开始他在台北附近生产黑白电视机的塑料调频旋钮。
80年代初期，郭台铭开始涉足个人电脑行业，事业随之开始起飞。他最早是生产电脑的接口线，这种配件相对简单，但使用广泛。虽然不太懂英语和日语，但不久 郭台铭仍然开始了他在美日市场寻找客户的旅程。郭台铭说，在八、九十年代期间，他大量的时间都花在驾车穿梭于美国城市之间，以致于能对丹尼斯 (Denny's)连锁餐厅的菜单倒背如流。
随着订单增多和在台湾的生产成本飙升，郭台铭于1988年在土地和劳动力都很便宜的大陆开办了首家工厂。与此同时，两岸间持续数十年的紧张关系开始缓和，大陆也开始了旷日持久的经济改革。这时候郭台铭看中了深圳这处靠近香港的中国市场改革前沿。
郭台铭利用深圳这块规模尚小但发展迅速的业务来招揽潜在客户。时任戴尔公司亚洲采购部负责人的方国健(MaxFang)透露，迈克尔?戴尔 (MichaelDell)1995年到访华南时，郭台铭以安排戴尔与他熟识的地方政府官员见面为交换，获得驾车送戴尔去机场的机会，然后郭台铭又在途中 安排了一次戴尔参观他工厂的小插曲。
当时戴尔公司尚未跻身全球五大个人电脑厂商之列，而鸿海也还未生产戴尔直接购买的零配件。早在1979年就认识郭台铭的方国健称，郭台铭看准戴尔是颗明日 之星，因此一心想与他结识。分析师和业内人士表示，如今鸿海已成为戴尔最大的供应商之一。郭台铭台湾办公室内至今还挂有戴尔公司创始人的照片。
就在同一年，郭台铭拿下了一块更大的地皮，后来发展成为龙华厂。当方国健1年后到访时，这家厂仅有不到一千名工人，而管理人员以20英尺的集装箱为家。
此行给方国健留下深刻印象。当时戴尔和其他电脑公司倾向于向不同供应商购买零配件然后在自己的工厂组装。而郭台铭已建立了一条龙式的生产线，从电脑包装的原材料采购到组装成成品等大多数工序都包括在内。
美国加州市场研究机构iSuppliCorp.分析师亚当?皮克(AdamPick)称，这些年来，郭台铭将越来越多的电脑零配件纳入到产品序列中来。凭 藉自产零配件，鸿海得以在降低产成品价格来打击竞争对手的同时而又不损害自己的总体利润。到2000年，郭台铭手下有近3万名工人，营业收入突破30亿美 元。郭台铭还在将他那种“一应俱全”的经营策略覆盖到其他产品领域上。鸿海早年成立了一家富士康国际控股有限公司 (FoxconnInternational Holdings Ltd.)，如今成了全球最大的独立手机制造商。他2003年开办的一家公司如今是液晶显示器业内的领军制造商。去年鸿海还收购了一家重量级的数码相机生 产商。
如今鸿海有时是生产一件产品的大多数零配件，并以成品的形式提供给客户，有时则直接面向零售商和消费者出售产品。
现总共有45万名员工在郭台铭遍布大陆的十几个省份的工厂效力，此外出于将生产地向消费者靠拢的需要，他在匈牙利、墨西哥和巴西等全球各地的工厂还有数千 名工人。鸿海公司成为捷克共和国最大的出口商之一，几年前郭台铭还在那买下一座城堡。鸿海在向越南、印度扩张的同时，还在向其他行业渗透，其中就包括汽车 零配件行业。
随着鸿海精密的规模一天天壮大，要想凭一己之力直接管理这家公司，几乎是不可能。面对这种情况，郭台铭以自身个性作为基础，培养了鸿海精密的企业文化。在 龙华科技园，郭台铭与中国政府官员的合影被放大镶嵌后悬挂在显眼处，而在工厂书店销售的郭台铭转记中，也能看到他的照片。
从公司其他管理人员那里得知，郭台铭身先士卒，不仅确保产品按时出厂，还必须满足客户需求。他每天工作16个小时，到了晚上依然驾驶着一辆配备了自行车铃 的高尔夫球车在龙华园内巡视，数十年如一日。他会时不时停下车，或是抽查生产线的运转状况，或是帮助工人维修设备。
公司经理往往被要求阅读并背诵一本名为“郭台铭语录”的小册子，其中有一条这样写道：对任何组织而言，最重要的是领导层，而非管理层；领导者必须具备为了 大众利益而充当独裁者的决断力。会议期间，郭台铭往往站着发言，一边说一边用笔在旁边的大纸版上勾画。他一方面鼓励与会者积极讨论，但另一方面如果他认为 某人的发言太过愚蠢，他可能会命此人起身立正。“他会说，我这不是在惩罚你，因为我也站着，”鸿海精密的一名高级经理说。
业内管理者和分析师都说，当客户把一条生产线外包给鸿海精密后，便会把更多的生产线外包给他们。方国健说，这就跟做什么事儿上瘾似的。方国健2002年离 开戴尔，现在经营着一家风险投资基金，该基金与鸿海精密共同投资了一家机器人玩具生产企业，名为UgobeInc.。
对于鸿海精密的竞争对手而言，他们怕是很难望其项背。四年前，鸿海精密的收入尚不及那斯达克上市企业伟创力国际 (FlextronicsInternationalLtd.)，后者稳坐业内头把交椅已有数年之久。而如今，即便伟创力国际于今年6月宣布与加州企业旭 创(SolectronCorp.)合并，二者收入相加也仅为鸿海精密的三分之二左右。
但鸿海精密也有其不足之处。分析师指出，由于缺少产品设计方面的能力，该公司无法在笔记本电脑生产领域傲视群雄。此外，它所从事的合同制造领域也存在一定 风险，不仅竞争激烈，利润率也不高。虽然拥有众多客户，但鸿海精密却对其中的一小部分十分倚重。在科技行业，单一产品线既可以成就、也可以毁掉一家企业， 其供应商的祸福命运往往也悬于一线。不仅如此，鸿海精密还面临一道难题，那就是如何将收入增幅提升至投资者所期望的水平。
鸿海精密如此庞大的摊子也带出了一些问题。李金明说，龙华工业园的建造速度很快，但规划设计却不够完善。随着人员的不断涌入，如何保证工人能够在不同地点 间顺利流动都变成了一件难事。李金明谈到，他曾考虑在园区内建一条小型铁路，但事实证明这个想法太难实现。他说，理想的场所面积应该只有现有占地的四分之 一，员工人数最好也只有现有数量的三分之一。
园区发展到现有规模，不是什么好事，他说。除龙华园外，李金明还负责为鸿海精密建造其他大型工厂。
鸿海精密管理者和外部分析师指出，该公司之所以迄今为止依然保持着活力，很大程度上归因于它将业务分散给手下诸多小规模、半自治式子公司的举措。郭台铭说，他想更新龙华现有设备，希望能承担研发这类更加高端的业务。这意味着它将把旗下制造业务转至中国其他地区。
龙华一刻不停地忙碌着，但在休息和交接班时，却能看到另一番景象。近来的某个午餐时间，室外阳光明媚，数千名工人推挤着涌出车间，他们成群结队地来到餐厅，有的则步入工厂书店。人行道边，是一队拖着行李刚进厂的新员工。
多数工人都身着制服，服装颜色不同，代表他们来自不同的部门。也有人穿着蓝色牛仔裤和T恤衫。还有人两两成对，手牵手在园中散步。这些工人中，最年轻的不过16岁。
20岁的周如青（音）是位和蔼可亲的姑娘，她刚刚在龙华待满一年，是某组装线上的质量监督员。她与男友住在厂外的一间小公寓，男友也在龙华上班。
周如青2005年高中毕业后离开了四川农村，来到深圳打拼。作为一名中级组装线工人，包括加班费在内，她每月能挣230美元。（工人进厂第一年，若不加 班，月工资仅为90美元）此外还有每月60美元的房补和饭补，以及医疗保险。在深圳，这样的工资还是能够满足生活的，周如青个人每月承担房租还不到60美 元。
另一名龙华员工萧先生，三年前刚从华中一所技术学校毕业，随即便被鸿海精密招来。他进厂时从组装工干起，起薪为每月44美元（按现今汇率换算）。要是一个月工作30天，他每月最多能拿到157美元。“那时我真的太累了，忙得都没有时间休息，”他说。
如今萧先生已经获得了晋升，基本工资也翻了一倍，虽然工资总数没太大变化，但他的工作时间减少了。他说与去年媒体接二连三地进行质疑报导时相比，现在的情 况好了不少，只是“变化还不够彻底。”萧先生现在每周工作六天，剩下一天用来学习和充电，希望能得到另一份职位。
郭台铭在鸿海精密的角色也正逐渐发生着变化。他表示，虽然自己目前仍是一如既往地努力工作，但重点已从以往的日常例行工作转移到了重大战略问题上。他还更 多地关注于慈善事业，曾承诺最终将捐出个人财产的三分之一。同时郭台铭也把更多时间用在了处理一系列生活变故上，他结发多年的妻子2005年去世，上月， 他的弟弟（生前曾是鸿海精密某关联企业的负责人）又因久病不治，最终离他而去。
郭台铭已开始在鸿海精密寻找接班人，重点对象是那些年龄在35-45岁左右的员工。他还开始要求手下的高级经理在各自子公司独揽专权，用这种方式来证明自身实力。郭台铭不大可能从家族成员中挑选继任者，因为膝下一子一女均不在鸿海精密就职。
他说他之所以作出现在辞职的决定，是受到了中国历史的影响，尤其是乾隆皇帝(1736-1796年在位)。乾隆在位时大大提高了清朝国力，使得当时的中国 几乎成为世界上最为富强的国度。但在其执政晚年，决策出现失误，清朝开始走下坡路，最终导致这个朝代的灭亡。“他控制整个中国长达60年，”郭台铭说， “可他在位时间太长。我想休息休息，把更多机会和责任留给年轻人，虽然我自己还不老。”
来源：华尔街日报 作 者：Jason Dean
