Taiwan: The Silicon Island Society Essay

Intel operates in an industry, which is comprised of products involving high research and development costs, continuous product improvement and new innovations. The companies in the industry are having high economies of scale and are knowledge based. It helps both the service and manufacturing sectors in the growth process. Intel is positioned as a leading company with its ability to adapt to technological changes and its strong relations with other businesses who are major buyers of integrated circuits. The industry in which it operates is very competitive and comes with high risks as

Although the Silicon Valley is not limited to the production of cell phones, many of the components of cell phones are manufactured by workers in the Silicon Valley. Several corporations that manufacture cell phones or the components of cell phones have their plants located in the Silicon Valley. Some corporations include Intel, Altera, 3com, Applied Materials, Agilent Technologies, Juniper Networks, Linear Technologies, National Semiconductors, and Xilinx (“Silicon Valley Companies”).

Today, Taiwan boasts an excellent infrastructure, convenient transportation system, and high-quality communication services. It also has accomplished, in the face of several international energy crises and economic downturns, a remarkable record of economic development and political democracy by the perseverance and unremitting efforts of its people.

The semiconductor industry thrives due to rapid technological advancement and innovations contributed by various countries of the world. Where European Union and United States have been leading the industry, the Asian countries are now

computer hardware sector. The company has a high brand value in the market due to its cost

Foxconn Technology Group, a subsidy of the Hon Hai Precision Industries Ltd. is one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers. It ranks 112th

The Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry The specific industry that will be referred to will be the semiconductor manufacturing industry. This industry emerged after World War II, first in the Boston area and then moved westwards into California during the 1950s. Reasons for locating in such areas include flat land, temperature, stable economy, steady government scene, accessible to markets, available raw materials and high skilled labour. Because the industry is high tech it has meant that these factors are decreasing in importance and factors such as the environment, government assistance and cleanliness are changing the pattern of semiconductor manufacturer locations.

Dalian in China is the most attractive site for Intel to locate Assembly and Test plant in terms of its low-costed workforce and high labor productivity with skilled workers, reliable and qualified power infrastructure, as well as a relatively open environment and the increasingly mature law and regulation.

As we all known, Sony and Matsushita are two of the largest consumer electronic makers in Japan or even in the world. And in this reading, it points out the different strategies Sony and Matsushita use when they were facing the fierce competition in China ----- Matushita was accelerating its pace on stretching the supply chain in China while Sony unexpectedly decided to shift some of its manufacturing business in China back to Japan. In this article, I will discuss the reasons that lead them to make different decision as well as analysize the advantages and the disadvantages of their decision.

This will boost the economy of Singapore as when more companies are willing to invest in Singapore, especially due to our strengths like competitive workforce and strategic location, it will result in greater influx of capital. It will also result in a creation of jobs for the people, boosting employment rate and generating revenue for both the country and the individual. Take for instance, the chip used in the latest PlayStation3 and Xbox. A French semiconductor company, Soitec, is investing $700 million to set up in Singapore its first offshore facility to make the wafer for this chip. The wafers involve alternating layers of silicon and insulator, unlike conventional wafers which use silicon throughout. Soitec is coming here because its technology has to be well-protected, and we are the only country in Asia that they trust well enough to set up their first manufacturing campus outside of France. Thus, positive development is a sure thing with globalization. Furthermore, since in the modern day context, money is a key indicator of happiness, thus, Singapore’s development can be mirrored by the happiness of the people with their monetary needs fulfilled.

The Intel in China case presents a valid issue. But deep beneath the surface, this case has many other issues associated with the one presented. At the surface it is evident that Li is an emotional worker who puts his whole hearted effort into his job. This presents a challenge for any manager because of the emotional attachment that the employee presents. But the question is whether it is just Li that feels this way in the organization. Perhaps, this behavior stems from other organizational issues.

For the future, SGI still have a long way to go if it wants to be surviving in this market. First, We recommend that SGI should maintain its competitive advantage by continue its traditional way to focus on meeting customer needs, try to provide unique solutions for the toughest technology and business problems, and try to be the first to market with new component technology. Secondly, SGI should try to create more products and services by using its unique and valuable skills like server design and cooling technology in order to gain more customers and competitive advantages. Finally, try to make some cooperation with its competitors. There are no everlasting friends or everlasting enemies in the world. There are only friends with the same interest.

Because of the extremely intricate and sophisticated nature of manufacturing semiconductors, a competitor should expect high initial capital requirements to build facilities needed for production. Cost to build a new semiconductor fab has gone up from $200 million in 1985 to $3 Billion in 2004. Incumbent companies have capabilities to design newer generations of semiconductors with greater amounts of memory and processing abilities that make older generations obsolete. Older generations tend to drop half their amount in price one year after a new model is reduced (exhibit 6). The United States

Techtronic industries is a manufacturing company with its’ headquarters in Hong Kong, the company was founded in 1985.The company has developed its brand and position itself in china, as well as globally to be the leading manufacturing and research competences in Asia and also North America, as well as a customer examining network in North America, Europe and Australasia. It employs almost over 16,000 people worldwide.

US Tech is considering discontinue the cooperation with its primary product supplier: TaiSource. The two main reasons that drive the company for doing so are (1) reducing cost and broaden the market by collaborating with a new Chinese supplier; (2) eliminating the threat of a future strong competitor who knows almost everything about US Tech’s products. After carefully examining the entire situation, we hold that US Tech should find an alternative Chinese supplier to cooperate while keeping the relationship with TaiSource.