Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 154 Internationalization

After deciding on the candidate for president, Korn Ferry immediately helped contact Lou Gerstner.

Then there is no more.

I’ve never heard of Xinghai Semiconductor.

Pass!

That’s right, Lou Gerstner refused it outright.

His target has always been large listed companies, and he has no interest in emerging technology companies like Xinghai Semiconductor.

"Can you help me get in touch with him? I hope to meet with Mr. Lou Gerstner."

Recruitment is a two-way choice, so Masato Takeshita was not angry.

For the development of the company, he is willing to go to the United States to personally persuade and recruit people.

"Mr. Takeshita is going to America?"

"That's right, Xinghai Semiconductor needs to set up a branch in the United States."

Of course, Masato Takeshita went to the United States not just for Lou Gerstner.

The United States is the dominant force in the field of electronic technology and has the largest number of chip talents.

If Xinghai Semiconductor wants to make a rapid breakthrough in its flash memory business, it must establish relevant laboratories in the United States.

Xinghai Semiconductor's subsidiary Xinghai Foundry is also in urgent need of scientific research talents from the United States.

Whether it is Hu Zhengming, Liang Mengsong, Lin Benjian, or Zhang Rujing, he wants to catch them all in one fell swoop.

"Understood, we will help you contact as soon as possible."

"Well, please."

A good CEO can help a company grow rapidly.

Masato Takeshita hoped that Lou Gerstner would agree, thus realizing the rapid rise of Star Ocean Semiconductor.

If Lou Gerstner still refuses, Masato Takeshita plans to poach people from TSMC.

In the past, TSMC’s arch-rival UMC was able to successfully poach talent by offering high salaries, so there’s no reason why Xinghai Semiconductor would fail.

"Oh, the Japanese president wants to meet with me?"

"Okay, let him call me when he gets to America."

Lou Gerstner is now idle at home. Seeing that Masato Takeshita is still persistent, he decides to give him a reason to convince himself to come out of retirement.

"Mr. Gerstner agreed."

"OK, thank you!"

Since there is interest, Masato Takeshita has the confidence to convince others.

As long as Lou Gerstner can see the company's development prospects, he should be willing to take the job.

Since you are free anyway, you might as well challenge your limits.

He is still young and definitely doesn't want to retire like this.

"Mr. Masuoka, I hope you can come to America with me and set up a laboratory there."

Masato Takeshita has no reputation in the North American chip industry and it is difficult for him to recruit relevant talent.

Fujio Masuoka is different.

Although flash memory technology has not yet been officially commercialized, the research and development of companies such as Intel cannot be hidden from those who are interested.

If you want to make progress in the flash memory field, you must know him.

"Yes, She."

Fujio Masuoka also understood the reason and was willing to sacrifice his scientific research time for the company.

"Yeah. Who do you think is more suitable to work there?"

"Sakui Koji, he is more suitable to be the head of the R&D department than me."

"Okay, then it's him."

In addition to Koji Sakuai, who is in charge of scientific research, Masato Takeshita also transferred most of the sales team including Tetsuya Tomioka to the American branch.

Now Xinghai Semiconductor's sales task is very easy, and it basically just has to do things according to the requirements of several giants.

In the long run, it is easy for the company's sales team to become obsolete.

The business in the United States has just started, which is very suitable for training the sales team. As long as you have money, it is very easy to set up a company in any country.

Masato Takeshita directly established a branch of Xinghai Semiconductor in San Diego, the core area of Silicon Valley.

There are a lot of semiconductor companies here, making recruitment very convenient.

"How is it? The working environment is OK, right? If you need any equipment, just buy it. No need to discuss with me."

The United States suffered heavy losses in the US-Japan semiconductor dispute.

Masato Takeshita saved a lot of time by simply acquiring the laboratory of a bankrupt company.

"Hi."

After Masato Takeshita entrusted full authority in Silicon Valley to Fujio Masuoka, he flew directly to New York in the east.

"Mr. Gerstner, please take a seat. It's nice to meet you."

"No, you're welcome, Mr. Takeshita."

After a friendly handshake, Gerstner got straight to the point: "Mr. Takeshita, could you tell me why you value a layman like me?"

"Because he is a genius. Even if a genius has never worked in an industry and does not understand the technology of that industry, he can still lead the company forward."

Ren Zhengfei of Huawei and Jack Ma of Alibaba don't understand technology.

But this does not affect the company's achievement of becoming a giant in the communications field and pioneering China's cloud computing business.

Technology is only a secondary choice for CEOs; the most important thing is strategic vision.

Lou Gerstner was a little happy and decided to give Masato Takeshita more opportunities to convince him.

He smiled and asked, "Can you tell me about Xinghai Semiconductor?"

"of course."

Masato Takeshita then gave a brief introduction to Xinghai Semiconductor, and then continued passionately, "Fujio Masuoka, who pioneered flash memory chip technology, is our company's chief scientist."

"Our company has also started research and development of mobile hard disks and memory cards. I firmly believe that flash memory chips will achieve the same status as storage chips."

“Oh, can you introduce the mobile hard drive?”

Lou Gerstner became interested and wanted to learn more.

"no problem."

Masato Takeshita smiled and introduced the benefits of mobile hard drives. The fact that it benefits laptops alone is enough to prove the practical value of this technology.

“That makes sense, but laptop sales are still too low.”

Lou Gerstner was somewhat convinced, but he still felt something was missing.

Flash memory chips do seem to have a bright future, but they are still just laboratory products after all.

Who knows how long it will take before large-scale commercialization begins.

He doesn't want to waste most of his youth waiting.

"I know, so the flash memory is just my suggestion. I hope that after you join the company, you can develop the subsidiary Xinghai OEM."

Afterwards, Masato Takeshita introduced the company's wafer foundry business again.

In particular, it is important to highlight that with the continuous iteration of Moore's Law, investment in wafer fabs continues to increase, and more and more chip design companies cannot afford to build factories.

Xinghai OEM has great potential in this regard.

Lou Gerstner is not from the semiconductor industry, so he can look at the problem more comprehensively.
He felt that what Masato Takeshita said made a lot of sense.

As wafer fabs’ capital demands increase, semiconductor companies will inevitably move towards division of labor.

However, out of caution, he did not agree immediately.

"Can I think about it?"

"No problem, you can take as long as you want to think about it."

"You're welcome, Mr. Takeshita. I'll be able to give you an accurate answer in three days."

"OK!"

After the meeting, Gerstner immediately collected relevant information.

He found that everything was exactly as Masato Takeshita said.

The cost of building wafer fabs is constantly increasing, and small and medium-sized chip companies have begun to fail to keep up with technological advances.

(End of this chapter)