Zhang Zhongmou (born July 10, 1931), founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC), is known as the "Chip King" and Taiwan's "Godfather of Semiconductors". As a 24-year-old master's student who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he entered the semiconductor industry at the same time as Moore, the founder of semiconductors and founder of Intel, and entered Texas Instruments at the same time as Jack Kirby, the inventor of integrated circuits.
On June 5, 2018, Zhang Zhongmou announced his official retirement. Basic introduction Chinese name: Zhang Zhongmou Foreign name: Morris Chang Nationality: American Ethnicity: Han Birthplace: Ningbo, Zhejiang Date of Birth: July 10, 1931 Occupation: Entrepreneur Graduate School: MIT Major Achievements: Founding "TSMC" Constellation: Cancer Zodiac sign: Sheep Character biography, personal honor, character anecdotes, resignation and comeback, Taiwan Semiconductor Godfather, refusal to serve as minister, social evaluation, personal thoughts, social influence, character evaluation, character biography 1931, born in Zhejiang, China Ningbo. From 1931 to 1940, the family moved to Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong to avoid the war, and spent most of their childhood in Hong Kong. In 1941, Hong Kong and Kowloon were occupied by Japan. His father, Zhang Weiguan, took his wife and children to Chongqing. Zhang Zhongmou entered Chongqing Nankai Middle School. In 1949, 18-year-old Zhang Zhongmou entered Harvard University in the United States. Among the more than 1,000 freshmen in the school, he was the only Chinese. In 1950, Zhang Zhongmou transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in mechanical engineering. In 1954, he received a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1955, 24-year-old Zhang Zhongmou worked as an engineer in the semiconductor department of Sylva-nia, an electrical appliance company near Boston, and entered the semiconductor industry. In 1958, 27-year-old Zhang Zhongmou came to Texas and joined Texas Instruments, becoming the first Chinese employee of Texas Instruments. At that time, Texas Instruments' annual revenue was less than $100 million. In 1964, he received a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University and returned to Texas Instruments. In 1965, he was promoted to general manager of the integrated circuit department. In 1972, he successively served as vice president and senior vice president of Texas Instruments. He was the third most senior figure in Texas Instruments, after the chairman and president. By this time, Texas Instruments had already become the number one company in the world, with 60,000 employees worldwide, half of whom were managed by Zhang Zhongmou. He was the first Chinese to enter the top management of a large American company. In the late 1970s, Intel was invincible in the memory market. The then president, Xia Bai, valued consumer electronics and was unwilling to invest more in semiconductors. Zhang Zhongmou, on the other hand, had a strong personality and was unwilling to compromise. He loudly called for more investment on different occasions inside and outside the company. Invest in semiconductors. In 1985, he resigned from his high-paying job in the United States and returned to Taiwan, China. He was invited by Taiwan to serve as the president of the Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute, making outstanding contributions to the rise and industrial upgrading of Taiwan's semiconductor industry. Zhang Zhongmou In 1987, Zhang Zhongmou founded the world's first professional foundry company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, and quickly developed into a leader in Taiwan's semiconductor industry. In 2006, Zhang Zhongmou appointed Cai Lixing as CEO and he only served as chairman. At that time, Cai Lixing had worked at TSMC for 20 years, starting from the factory director, and was the right-hand man trained by Zhang Zhongmou. In 2009, under the financial turmoil, TSMC was on the verge of losing money in the first quarter. Chang returned to TSMC as CEO, which shocked the global semiconductor industry. In the first quarter of 2010, TSMC's operating income reached NT$92.19 billion, with an after-tax surplus of NT$33.66 billion, making it the most profitable company among Taiwan's 1,300 listed companies. The annual operating income exceeded NT$400 billion, with a growth rate of over 40%, the market value reached NT$2 trillion, and the stock price rose by 30.65%. Operating income in 2011 is expected to exceed the NT$500 billion mark. On June 5, 2018, Zhang Zhongmou announced his official retirement at the shareholders’ meeting. Personal honor: Because of his outstanding contributions to the semiconductor industry, he was named by the American media as one of the most contributors in the 50-year history of the semiconductor industry and one of the best managers in the world. The international media calls him "a man who makes his opponents tremble", while Taiwanese respect him as the "godfather of semiconductors" because he pioneered the professional foundry of semiconductors.
Character Anecdotes Resignation and Comeback In June 2005, Zhang Zhongmou resigned from the position of CEO of TSMC and handed over the reins to his successor Tsai Li-hsing who he had trained. After Tsai Lixing took office, Chang only existed as the "spiritual leader" of TSMC. In addition to regular meetings with senior executives, he spent more time on speeches, reading, and his favorite classical music and culture. In June 2009, four years after resigning as CEO of TSMC, Chang returned to the position of CEO of the company at the age of 78 and concurrently held the existing position of chairman. Former CEO Cai Lixing became the general manager of TSMC's newly established "New Business Organization" and reported directly to Zhang Zhongmou. After Zhang Zhongmou was reinstated as CEO, he said that TSMC used to focus on the foundry industry, but the growth of the semiconductor industry has slowed down. In three years, it will only return to the level of 2008 at most. Even if the economy is slightly better in the future, growth will be limited. In order to find a way to grow in the future, TSMC decided to establish one or more "new businesses" and put them in charge of Tsai Lixing. Because of the importance of the new businesses, "the best managers must be dedicated to them." Taiwan’s semiconductor godfather Zhang Zhongmou is a person who can define an industry. Before him, no one in the IC industry was talking about OEM. How could IC be OEM? Can I help you OEM IC production? No, all ICs are made by themselves in their own factories. Intel sets up its own factories to make ICs and chips by itself. However, Zhang Zhongmou said that in the future, IC design and IC manufacturing will be separated, and IC branding will be separated from IC design and IC manufacturing. When we look at PCs today, PC brand, PC design and PC manufacturing have begun to separate. PC manufacturing is through OEM, and design is through ODM. For example, the IBM brand is sold by oneself. But 15 years ago, he said that IC is the same and can be OEM. Why can IC OEMs survive? Because after its production, equipment, and investment are continued, its production yield, flexibility, and quality will surpass those of IC designers. "Intel is very good at designing a CPU, but not very good at producing CPUs. My cost is half of his, and my quality is twice as good as theirs. I can help you OEM." When Zhang Zhongmou said this, in Taiwan Basically no one believes it, not even those without vision. Zhang Zhongmou refused to be appointed as the counselor. On November 22, 2016, Zhang Zhongmou declined the invitation of "Vice President" Chen Jianren to serve as the "counselor of the Presidential Office". However, since the "Presidential Office" has not updated the list, TSMC "had no choice but to issue a statement on its own initiative." It is rumored that in order to allow Zhang Zhongmou, who has American citizenship, to serve as "Counselor", Taiwan's "Presidential Office" specially revised the "Presidential Office National Policy Advisor Selection Procedure" for him to delete "lost the nationality of the Republic of China or acquired foreign nationality" The stipulation that should be dismissed is called the "Zhang Zhongmou Clause". However, Tsai Ing-wen’s “hot face” encountered a “cold ***.” Social evaluation: He can define an industry and is a first-class and cutting-edge figure in the world. Why can AMD compete with Intel? AMD has much less money than Intel, but AMD can compete with Intel. The important thing is to have people like Zhang Zhongmou. Because AMD only needs to design good products. It competes with Intel in design, and Zhang Zhongmou's TSMC competes with Intel in manufacturing. Intel needs to design and manufacture itself. It needs to support the design and manufacturing people, and then it has to invest in production itself, because the equipment has to set aside funds, issue funds, and credit funds. Now AMD designs it, TSMC manufactures it, and uses manufacturing to compete with Intel. In the end, because Intel's manufacturing is twice as expensive as TSMC and the quality is worse than others, Intel's manufacturing becomes Intel's burden. Intel's brand is an asset, design is an asset, but Intel's manufacturing is its burden; AMD's design is also very good, and TSMC's manufacturing is very cheap, so it can bite Intel and create its own brand. This is how the entire strategy was formed. of. Zhang Zhongmou's TSMC prices are so much cheaper than Intel's, and the company's gross profit can still reach 50%. He defined an industry and saved the entire island of Taiwan. Taiwan's industry that attracts the most attention from the world right now is not the PC industry, but the IC industry. Zhang Zhongmou’s personal thoughts: After high school in the Mainland, he went to Taiwan, and then went to the United States. He studied at Harvard University for his undergraduate degree, MIT for his master’s degree, and Stanford University for his doctoral degree, one of the three best universities in the United States. He read it in every school.
There is a passage in his autobiography that touched me very much. He said that among the many books he read, the one that impressed him most was the course he took in the second semester of his freshman year—Introduction to Classical British and American Literature. He said that he had just arrived in the United States at that time and didn’t know much English, so he started to read British and American classical literature, including Shakespeare, Roman epics, and Homer epics. It was like reading Mencius to a foreigner who had just arrived in China in his first year of college. , the same as the Book of Songs. So he read very hard. The result is that because he took this course, it left the deepest impression on him and made him care and pay attention to people. He considered this to be the most important lesson of his entire education. Later, I gradually came to understand this sentence, because people who like literature have a developed right brain. Zhang Zhongmou’s Social Influence Why did studying English and American Literature have such a profound impact on him? There is a big truth in this. As a leader—leaders are also human beings. You must have special feelings for people and be able to be moved by others. Only then can you guide people. Therefore, Zhang Zhongmou is particularly touching. He is famous for being strict at TSMC, very strict. People often bring stomach medicine with them to meetings with him, because after asking a few questions, he will break into a cold sweat, and he will throw the report out with a bang and pick it up himself. But in fact, he is a person with a very developed right brain and a very sensitive and emotional person. Only people with developed right brains can read British and American classical literature, and can be so easily moved and have such feelings. So we need to train the right brain. The capacity of the right brain determines whether you can become a leader. Remember what I said is correct. Whether you can be a leader depends on your right brain; whether you can become a manager depends on your left brain. Character Evaluation He is the founder of TSMC, the world's largest integrated circuit service manufacturer, and the "Father of Semiconductors" in Taiwan. He created the concept of professional OEM. "The principle of sustainability of only doing OEM and not competing with customers" is his creed. This concept has benefited Taiwan's economy and indirectly incubated Terry Gou's Hon Hai Group. In Taiwan's "World" magazine's Benchmark Enterprise Award selection, TSMC has topped the list for 11 consecutive years. CNN commented that he is a symbol of Taiwan's economic rise and the most important reason why Taiwan's economy has not yet gone bankrupt. In 2011, TSMC ranked first in the world in terms of wafer foundry market share. (Review by "New Weekly") Cover character of "Global Entrepreneur" magazine