bet on the industrial Internet of Things, with a net worth of US$2.5 billion. Advantech 's golden 10 years have passed.
Advantech is the world's leader in industrial computer . Although Kunshan factory encountered the epidemic countercurrent, its revenue reached a historical high in the first five months of this year and returned to the growth track. Continue to focus on the demand of industrial Internet of Things, Advantech Chairman Liu Kezhen said proudly: The growth potential will be strong in the next 10 years.
3 Kunshan factory resumed work earlier than expected, and Advantech's growth was sufficient.
Advantech Technology Kunshan factory
Although the Kunshan factory was hit by the epidemic in April this year, and the acceptance of orders by Advantech has slowed down a bit, the Kunshan factory's production capacity has been fully restored after the resumption of work, and two weeks earlier than the early estimate. In addition, active recruitment and sprinting for production progress, Advantech delivered a record high in history in the first five months of this year.
Some people predict that Advantech's industry recession in the second quarter can be said to be converging. Under the demand for industrial Internet, it is expected that the growth momentum will continue until the end of 2022.
Advantech is one of the world's leading industrial computers. Its revenue in May this year reached NT$45.614 billion, an annual increase of 25.12%, and a month-on-month increase of 17.57%, returning to the growth track, getting rid of the concerns of the Kunshan factory being shut down due to the epidemic in April.
In the first five months of this year, Advantech's consolidated revenue was NT$26.51 billion, an increase of 18.75% from NT$22.324 billion in the same period last year, setting a record high for the same period. Among them, Advantech's three major business groups - Embedded Internet of Things Platform (EIoT), Internet of Things Cloud (CIoT) and Service Internet of Things (SIoT), all have strong demand, up 30%, 59% and 47% respectively compared with the same period last year.
In addition, in terms of markets, North America, China and emerging markets performed strongly in May this year, up 41%, 24% and 18% year-on-year. Since Kunshan Manufacturing Center resumed normal operations, the monthly revenue of the Chinese market has reached the second highest this year.
Advantech Chairman Liu Kezhen
Advantech Technology was established in May 1983 and will span 40 years. In 1999, Advantech was listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Currently, Advantech has two major production bases in Taipei and Kunshan, and has four major R&D centers in Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai and Kunshan.
In the first five months of this year, Advantech returned to the growth track, and its revenue and profits hit record highs last year. All of this has benefited from the strong demand of the Internet of Things.
Advantech Chairman Liu Kezhen said at the shareholders' meeting in late May this year that the company will continue to focus on the demand of the industrial Internet of Things and is optimistic about strong growth in the next 10 years.
bet on the development trend of the Internet of Things. Advantech's traditional hardware business is expected to grow at a low level, but it will be laid out in the direction of two major growth in the future. First, actively develop IoT software module platforms and industry application solutions. Although this business accounts for a relatively small proportion, long-term efforts will definitely bring rewards. The second is to lock in the Internet of Things edge computing communication products. This market demand is strong, and it has high gross profit margin and high growth potential. On the Forbes Taiwan Rich List, Advantech Chairman Liu Kezhen is on the list of US$2.5 billion, ranking 21 among the top 50 rich people in Taiwan.
Advantech Taipei Neihu Headquarters
When Liu Kezhen first promoted the Internet of Things policy in the mainland, he saw this opportunity.
In 2013, Advantech Technology held a global dealer conference held by Suzhou , General Manager He Chunsheng revealed that Advantech specially established the "Embedded IoT Solutions" product department. In November, Advantech cooperated with Intel to develop IoT computing platform products.
Liu Kezhen once said that many people like to call Advantech a "industrial computer". In his opinion, it is more appropriate to call it a "smart computer".In 2014, Advantech actively promoted "smart cities" and established an investment department to strengthen the business opportunities of the Internet of Things, and to focus on six major industries: manufacturing, robotics, medical care, retail, in-vehicles, and smart construction.
As early as September 2014, Advantech cooperated with China Mobile Internet of Things to jointly build the Internet of Things industry application platform in Kunshan.
, Liu Kezhen, who bet on the "golden decade" of the Internet of Things, has always believed that the Internet of Things, which is connected to everything, is the third generation of global scientific and technological revolution. Big data will promote the transformation of major traditional industries such as factories, hospitals, retail circulation, environmental protection and transportation. If you master the development trend, you may get greater opportunities.
Liu Kezhen previously predicted that like e-commerce and mobile payment in the past, China will be the fastest-growing country in the Internet of Things, and Advantech is willing to become an innovative practitioner of the industrial Internet.
I don’t admit that Advantech is a family business! We are professional managers!
Advantech General Manager He Chunsheng
R&D Chairman Liu Kezhen, born in 1954 and graduated from the Department of Telecommunications Engineering, Taiwan Jiaotong University.
Before founding Advantech in 1983, he worked as a business engineer in the instruments division at HP Taiwan branch in the United States. When he founded Advantech, Liu Kezhen made ambition: " I can't win the gold medal for the Chinese at the Olympics like an athlete, but I hope to win the first gold medal for the Chinese in the field of industrial computers! "
As expected, Advantech is already the leader in the global industrial computer industry.
By the way, when Advantech was founded in 1983, in addition to Liu Kezhen, who was 29 years old, the other two entrepreneurial partners were his colleagues at the HP Taiwan branch that year. Later, Liu Kezhen and other founders each donated 3% of the shares to establish the Advantech Foundation, and used the company's dividends to sponsor young students.
Liu Kezhen and his eldest son Liu Weizhi
Liu Kezhen has two sons. The eldest son Liu Weizhi was appointed as the company's director in 2020. His second son is relatively low-key. He got married in 2013. At the entrance of the Kunshan Collaborative R&D Center building of the Kunshan Manufacturing Base in Advantech, there is a "climbing a high and looking far away" child riding a buffalo carving, which was created by his second wife Xu Shuci.
Xu Shuci graduated from the Chicago Art Institute and studied under Taiwanese design master Chen Ruixian. In 2011, she quit her job and opened a carving studio at home. For this buffalo carving, she had been brewing for 4 months. The inscription "Still the aspirations to show their ambitions, and tranquility to achieve far-reachingness" under the carving was discussed by her and her father-in-law Liu Kezhen. Two weeks before the carving was completed, she and the second son of Liu Kezhen held a wedding.
Liu Kezhen is a strong enterprising spirit and is good at change. He has always advocated that Advantech should join in investment and promote digital transformation. He believes that digital transformation is the industrial revolution. "We cannot drive cars, but we still pull the carriage by ourselves." He lamented that the gap between Taiwan's digital transformation and the mainland is getting bigger and bigger. The "Climbing a High and Looking Away" carved by his daughter-in-law also expresses his own thoughts.
The most important thing for enterprises is to do a good job in intergenerational inheritance. On May 28, 2020, the eldest son Liu Weizhi was appointed as the director of R&D. Liu Kezhen launched intergenerational inheritance, allowing the second generation to squeeze into the board of directors for the first time, which once received great attention from the market.
Liu Kezhen and Liu Weizhi father and son
At that time, the eldest son Liu Weizhi entered the company's board of directors as the representative of the family investment company "Kechen Investment".
Liu Kezhen said at the time that he was 66 years old and had reached the age to consider inheritance. He introduced that there were three general managers who had previously divided the management and management, and the inheritance was very smooth at present.He personally plans to serve as a director for another three terms (Note: 9 years). The purpose of letting his son Liu Weizhi join the board of directors is to hope that he can continue the company's business values of Advantech's altruistic management, decent management, and focus on his own business.
The eldest son of 39 years old has been working in Advantech for 11 years. Before being appointed as a director of the company in 2020, he served as a middle-level executive in Advantech's Intelligent Services Business Group (SIoT) department under Advantech. Liu Weizhi, who graduated from Johns Hopkins University, worked for IBM for about a year and a half. Later, he worked as an industrial control engineer at Advantech and worked for Shanghai Yanle Intelligent Technology and other companies.
As for arranging the eldest son Liu Weizhi to join the board of directors of Advantech, Liu Kezhen once explained that allowing his son Liu Weizhi to participate for a long time can continue the company's concept, and the second generation participate in the two things of concept inheritance and business operations. He said: " I do not admit that Advantech is a family business! We are a professional manager company! "
Advantech Chairman Liu Kezhen
" I do not admit that Advantech is a family business! We are a professional manager company! " Liu Kezhen said this from the perspective of corporate governance. Advantech has implemented a professional manager mechanism in the company's business management. Its son Liu Weizhi joins the board of directors on behalf of the family. In addition to inheriting corporate culture, he also hopes to allow the descendants of the family to operate forever.
family business is a business management mechanism based on "blood ties and ties". Strictly speaking, Advantech is a family business.
The reason why Liu Kezhen did not recognize Advantech as a family business is that he believed that Advantech needed to change the family business governance structure in accordance with the modern enterprise system, and change the unilateral governance governance structure of "entrepreneurs are enterprises, and enterprises are entrepreneurs" in the past.
A corporate governance system, including corporate governance levels such as ownership, decision-making power, and business management rights, allows family enterprises to achieve sustainable inheritance. Under the conditions of clear property rights of modern enterprises, family descendants can choose to inherit only ownership, or participate in business management, and introduce professional manager management mechanisms. As for "familyization" there is no good or bad conclusion, what should be abandoned is the disadvantages of familyization, such as "one-management", inseparable rights and responsibilities, and low management efficiency.
Copyright Statement: The copyright of the articles and pictures published in "Yibo Sayings" belongs to the author himself and/or the relevant rights holder. No website or print media may reprint it without the separate authorization of the author and/or the relevant rights holder.
