Chapter 16 15. ASUS: Legend of the Giant Lion

In March 2004, it was rainy and rainy in Taipei, but there was a lot of voices at the sports meeting of ASUS computer employees. It was the first time for ASUS, which has experienced ups and downs in the past 15 years, to hold such a large-scale event. An elder, who has never liked to show his face, jumped out enthusiastically and took the lead in running the symbolic 1,500 meters. While running, he told his colleagues to run faster than him, "otherwise they will be dismissed and investigated", but they all rushed in front of him. 1500 meters, 15 years, no one knows what kind of complicated feelings he had in his heart when he ran this extraordinary distance...

He is Shi Chongtang, the chairman of Asustek, a man with a pleasant face and a low profile, whose image and temperament resemble a university professor.He is so thin and frail, he seems to have the spirit of a fairy but not the big belly of many wealthy businessmen, so that when you occasionally see such a person on the street, you will never associate him with the chairman of the world's top 500 companies equal sign. ——However, there is no doubt that ASUS Group, led by such a person, achieved a revenue of more than 120 billion yuan in 2006 and entered the world's top 500! It is also the helm of this IT giant who accepted the challenge of the giant Intel without fear in 1995, destroyed Intel's dream of motherboard hegemony in one fell swoop, and defeated the American company Micronics at the same time, replacing it as the world's number one; and in 2008 When the IT production base in Nanhui, Shanghai, which can employ 100,000 people, is completed, he will once again approach his dream of "Giant Lion" - annual revenue of 200 billion yuan! ——A number that private enterprises in the mainland dare not even think about.

"In a thousand-year-old dark room, one light can illuminate", Shi Chongtang has some remarks that are difficult for ordinary people to understand, but there is no doubt that there is always a "bright light" illuminating his chest, making him suddenly enlightened, allowing him to hide a heart under his frail appearance. An imperceptible but extremely powerful heart. Back then, college student Bill Gates took his own operating system to IBM to verify it. It was IBM's ruthless ridicule that spurred Gates to create the future Microsoft empire.Such enterprises also include Oracle, Cisco, and Sun Micro... The proud elephant slipped away one after another of the world's top 500 companies if he was negligent.

Elephants are too big to see the gold beneath their feet, and how many business legends have been born out of these oversights. Just after the Spring Festival in 1989, Tong Zixian, Xu Shilu, Xie Weiqi, and Liao Minxiong walked into the office of Shi Zhenrong, chairman of Acer, anxiously, to resign from the boss.They are all senior engineers of Acer, and this time they decided to go out and start a business collectively.After hearing the truth, Shi Zhenrong was inevitably a little disappointed, but he didn't ask to keep him, he knew that he couldn't keep it. A future Fortune 500 company began to sprout because of Acer's negligence. On April 2, 1989, four enthusiastic young people rented a 35-square-meter apartment on Changchun Road, Taipei, and invested 10 million Taiwan dollars (2.5 million yuan) to establish a "specialized in research and development and design for computer motherboard manufacturers". And charge a consultant fee" "small and beautiful" ASUS.

Why did the four of Tong Zixian specialize in the research and development of computer motherboards?What does this have to do with the situation of Taiwan's IT industry at that time? It turned out that around 1985, Intel launched the 386 microprocessor, and Microsoft's original Windows products also began to sell. The combination of the two revolutionized the convenience of computer operation, and the demand for office computers grew rapidly. The global IT industry has entered a period of great transition.Taiwanese manufacturers, which have been supplying spare parts to the world, are sweating profusely in the face of orders that double their profits and reach 100%.

As a result, ASUS, which provides technical services for motherboard factories, came into being. The company was established, and the four of them promoted their business everywhere, but all they brought back was bad news, "There is no time to pick up the gold all over the ground, who has the time to pay attention to us?" At that time, no one in the world regarded the main board as a In this industry, there is no brand, and no manufacturer takes the excellent quality and future design of the motherboard seriously.Undaunted, the four "technical paranoiacs" plunged into the laboratory. "No one understands us, we make it ourselves and show them!"

This kind of culture of "not seeking big, first seeking good" has been rooted in ASUS since then, and the four have gradually become "heterogeneous in reverse operation".Even in order to stick to their ideals, they would rather have friction with customers!Shan Wen, a major customer who once accounted for 1/4 of the business of ASUS in the early stage, placed thousands of orders to ASUS and required short-term delivery to supply Russia.However, Liao Minxiong strongly opposed accepting the order, thinking that 500 pieces must be tested first to ensure the quality, so short-term delivery is not possible.

Although Shan Wen was full of confidence in ASUS technology and declared that there was no need to test it, the ASUS team, which was very weak at the time, collectively decided to reject this large order that would make ASUS "get rich overnight", and even recommended competitors to accept the order, so angry Liu Genshan, chairman of Shanwen, slammed the phone on the spot. ——It is this kind of "practical and pragmatic" engineer culture that is almost crazy, which made ASUS launch a sprint to the commanding heights of global IT technology from the very beginning. All of this seemed to have nothing to do with Shi Chongtang.But what is interesting is that these four people were both Shi Chongtang's subordinates and students when they were in Acer, and the technical origins are self-evident.When they resigned, they strongly invited Shi Chongtang to leave and start a business together, but it was Acer's internal crisis, and it was not appropriate for Shi Chongtang, the founder and technology core of Acer, to leave at this time.Since the four lovers had little savings at the time, he specially provided 60% of the funds (6 million Taiwan dollars) for encouragement and support.

Since then, the bond between ASUS and Shi Chongtang has been inextricably linked. The rise of ASUS is the most wonderful portrayal of the famous saying "Only the paranoid can survive". At that time, the entire island of Taiwan was frenzied for IT. This rolling historical tide made the four of them always full of confidence and passion for the future. One day in December 1989, they tried to tinker with a 486 motherboard that was not yet on the market. They were overjoyed but also trembling, not sure if this new trick would work.In order to confirm the performance of the board, the four decided to visit Chen Chaoyi, the general manager of the chip giant Intel Taiwan Branch, and wanted to take out the motherboard they brought and plug it into an Intel486 microprocessor to see if it was compatible.

——An important page in the history of global IT is about to be turned. After meeting, the four of them were left alone.It turned out that the board used by Intel to test the new microprocessor had malfunctioned, and Chen Chaoyi and the engineers were anxiously busy solving the problem, and the situation was chaotic.The ASUS staff had no choice but to wait patiently by the side.While waiting, they discussed the problem in front of them. The four of them finally discovered the problem after some research, so Xu Shichang and Liao Minxiong stood up and said, "Let's try it?" As a result, the people from ASUS ruled out the problem.

All the Intel personnel present were greatly amazed by the superb skills of the young men!The world's top engineers can't solve the problem, but a few little-known people can discuss the solution just by looking at it? !This is almost unbelievable and indeed the fact that is right in front of us.How could they have thought that the four of Tong Zixian have been researching Intel for more than a year or two. Chen Chaoyi was so excited that he greeted these "alien-like guys" enthusiastically. He couldn't wait to have a good talk with them, and became very interested in the 486 motherboard they brought, so Next, the hearts of the four people "boomed" and tested the ASUS motherboard. Tong Zixian calmly recalled the process at that time: "Xu Shichang, Liao Minxiong, and Xie Weiqi held the newly developed motherboard in their hands, which reserved a socket for the 486 processor. Chen Chaoyi brought Intel's unlisted processor, and It was the only 486 processor in Asia at that time, and it was plugged into an ASUS board - that was the first time ASUS technology went out of the laboratory, and it was also the first time that an ASUS 486 motherboard was plugged with an Intel 486 processor - as a result, a miracle was born Now, the board really works like this!" During those few seconds, the people at the scene were stunned at first, but after recovering, they erupted into ecstatic cheers! Previously, only IBM in the world could keep pace with Intel's technology. The miracle created by ASUS quickly spread like wildfire, the Taiwanese were elated, and the industry was shocked.Because this marks that the IT technology of Taiwanese is at the same level as Intel and IBM, and its importance is enough to become a key moment in the history of Taiwan's IT industry jumping onto the international stage! A small ASUS company has since become a technology partner of Intel. When the industry was amazed, the four decided to build their own factories to produce ASUS-branded motherboards, and many professional motherboard factories followed suit.What is intriguing is that even the old owner Acer, which has always produced motherboards and assembled computers by itself, quietly entrusted a middleman to buy three yuan when Asustek was trial production at dozens of yuan, and took it back to see what happened.It shows the huge shock that ASUS has brought to the industry. ——Since then, computer motherboards have been born in Taiwan as an independent industry, which has led to Taiwan's motherboards eventually occupying almost 100% of the global market share.When Intel President Andy Grove visited Taiwan one year, he said with emotion: "I never thought that motherboards could become a specialized industry." Of course, Grove would never have expected that in the future ASUS A life-and-death battle broke out between Intel and Intel because of the motherboard. The four founders who were originally engineers had no experience in the market. How should they position themselves for sales?The four were deeply troubled.At this moment, ASUS's first order of business came, and at that moment, a lightning flashed in their brains. The first formal business came from Shanwen Computer. Shanwen is a well-known company in Taipei that also engages in computer system assembly and motherboard trading. Its motherboard trading network covers Europe, Asia and Russia.At that time, the boss Liu Genshan had already learned from the industry that ASUS motherboards were unbelievable, and Tong Zixian came to the door just to solicit business. Liu Genshan knew that what was in front of him was a good product, but he always felt that all this was too unusual, and he admired it. Yu couldn't help feeling suspicious—"If these young people infringe Lao Mei's intellectual property rights, it's no joke!" So Boss Liu asked around for details about the ASUS team. He found Chen Hanqing, the general manager of the motherboard company elite who was also from Acer. Although he was a competitor, the honest Chen Hanqing still told the truth about the good feelings of working with Liao Minxiong and others in the past, and ensured that the ASUS team "technical strength in Taiwan is second to none."So far, Liu Genshan, who has found a treasure, decided to place an order with ASUS, and he couldn't help telling his peers everywhere, and made a lot of free advertisements for ASUS. Through Shanwen, Asustek's first business was to sell motherboards to small computer manufacturers all over the world, and since then it has entered the self-assembled computer (DIY) market. ——The angle of entry so close to the broadest market finally helped the ASUS team find a market strategy to become a future giant. While crossing the river by feeling the stones, sort out your thinking.Four or five years later, under the leadership of Shi Chongtang, Asustek finally formed a clear market strategy-to provide comprehensive supplies to Python (international IT giant), local snake (brand computers from all over the world) and Ant Army (retail dealers) , support the latter two in the early stage, and the former will focus on attacking after the enterprise grows. Their logic is: ① In the past, Taiwanese manufacturers always had to pay high prices to purchase from the United States Micronics, the world's largest motherboard manufacturer at that time.After the low-cost local ASUS was born, a motherboard sold for US$1,500, but Micronics, which was always launched later than ASUS, sold for US$2,500. The huge price difference will inevitably make ASUS sell well; First-, second- and third-tier customers will be happy to accept it.While maximizing profits, the brand awareness of ASUS motherboards will also be widely disseminated; ③The latter two are relatively small, so ASUS will have greater bargaining power; ④The DIY computers of the latter two are low-cost At the same time, the local "land snakes" have faster after-sales service than the international big brands, which will make ASUS take advantage of the trend to ship a large number of products; The desire, "the computer is equipped with an ASUS motherboard" is even a "selling point" to attract customers.Such complementarity to form a win-win situation will prompt the two parties to work together to make the cake bigger... In this way, ASUS took the lead in the 486 era and became synonymous with "high-quality motherboards" in the market, and was called "golden board" in the mainland.At the same time, Shi Chongtang, who helped ASUS establish its market strategy, also became the new chairman of ASUS. However, Shi Chongtang, who had no intention of participating in the founding work of ASUS at the beginning, chose to leave Acer to "meet" with the four students in the end?This unbelievable plot elsewhere has once again truly happened to ASUS.The reason is closely related to the dilemma encountered by ASUS toddler. Asustek entered the market all the way high and high. In the first year, its revenue was 230 million Taiwan dollars. It soared to 1.4 billion in 1991 and 2.18 billion in 1992. However, it suddenly stagnated in 1993 and was basically the same as the previous year at 2.3 billion.The four felt that the company had encountered bottlenecks in terms of development strategy, management system, market strategy, and talent pool, and felt powerless no matter how hard they stepped on the gas pedal.Their endless quarrels in the office even aroused the "anger" of the employees; what's more serious, they clearly realized that they had encountered a strong opponent—this opponent was none other than their teacher Shi Chongtang! In fact, as these four people left Acer, their relationship with Shi Chongtang's colleagues and friends has also been somewhat helplessly stalemate and confronted by the unspoken rules of competition."Meeting on a narrow road" in the market has become an unavoidable conflict between the two parties. Comprehensive cooperation with Intel is the glory and commanding height that IT manufacturers must strive for.One year, both parties participated in the International Computing Exhibition in Las Vegas, USA. Tong Zixian found out in advance that Shi Chongtang would hold a meeting with the executive of Intel at 8:00 the next morning, so he immediately called his colleagues to the hotel where the executive of Intel stayed at midnight. After finding the room, they agreed with the other party to have a meeting at 7 o'clock in the morning, trying to win Hong Mu's business.Keeping an eye on the teacher's movements at all times to "intercept and contain" him has become the most important task of the ASUS team over the years; As time passed, Tong Zixian thought to himself: "Just invite the teacher out of the mountain once and for all." In this way, the strongest competitor can become the strongest himself. In order to win over Shi Chongtang, the four of them had many records of staying at Shi's house in the middle of the night and refusing to leave.Either being moved by sincerity, or simply admiring each other, the ideal of accomplishing a greater cause finally made Shi Chongtang nod in agreement. At the beginning of 1994, at the age of 42, Shi Chongtang finally resigned from the post of general manager of Acer's personal computer division, fulfilling the wish of Tong Zixian and other four people, and became the chairman and general manager of the young ASUS. Since then, ASUS has entered a new era! Over the next ten years or so, Shi Chongtang allowed ASUS to grow rapidly by more than 200 times, and firmly established itself as the world's hegemony of motherboards. It also ranked first in the world in many projects, and ranked fourth in the world in notebook computers, ranking among the top 500 in the world in one fell swoop.He once said "this is an age of dragons", so it is undoubtedly Shi Chongtang who made ASUS truly achieve the "legend of the age of dragons". But no one expected that Shi Chongtang, who doesn't smoke, doesn't drink alcohol, doesn't drink tea, doesn't drink coffee, looks elegant and soft, even a little weak "CEO who doesn't look like a CEO", but there is hidden in his body. Admired by his tenacity and arrogance, he said: "To survive well, you must be the sharpest and sharpest!" As soon as he came to ASUS, this famous "technical maniac" made a comprehensive adjustment to the company's business ideas. After formulating the above-mentioned market strategy, he further clarified the strategy. He asked everyone: "The world's highest peak is Everest. Peak, which one is the second highest peak?" Everyone didn't know.Shi Chongtang said, that's right. The implicit meaning in the question is that if ASUS wants to be well-known in the world and not be overwhelmed by the Yunyun brand, the only way to go is "the world's number one". To strive for the number one in the world, we must not only pay attention to short-term interests, but also learn to "play long-term chess and compete with strength", think longer-term than all opponents, and be more persistent; "Engineering culture" and at the same time implement the "elite doctrine", while recruiting elites in the industry, while recruiting a large number of outstanding graduates from colleges and universities.He said: "In an enterprise organization, talents must never be neglected. Just like the generals, soldiers, bishops, chariots, horses, cannons, and pawns in a chess game, they must be in place and placed in the correct position." Then he personally went to the podium year after year , "Devil training" for employees on professional principles and business qualities... In this way, ASUS continued to "long-distance run" towards the ideal, and finally forged a strong physique. By 1995, Asustek's revenue had increased to NT$7.87 billion. At the same time that Shi Chongtang was vigorously rebuilding ASUS, the world's IT landscape was also undergoing tremendous changes. With the impact of personal computers and the Internet on social life, the world's IT trend is booming; at the same time, the low-price competition sweeping across the board has thinned the profits of various sectors, so more and more large manufacturers are bravely entering the computer motherboard manufacturing industry, striving to Grab this tempting cake. In 1995, the global IT giant Intel suddenly announced that it would enter the motherboard industry on a large scale. It would ship 10 million pieces in the first year, and focus on the mid-to-high-end market.With the enemy at hand, Shi Chongtang, like all the bosses of Taiwan's motherboard factories, felt chills down his back and sweaty palms! ——Taiwan’s motherboard companies, which account for almost 70% of the global market share, are about to face an existential crisis. The most important historical event since the formation of the world motherboard industry broke out. It's like a group of ants competing for food in peace and quiet on weekdays. Suddenly a huge dinosaur broke in, and the manufacturers were not only panicked?It was completely precarious, and they fled in all directions!All mainboard manufacturers are in panic all day long, and they don't know who has the ability to escape this catastrophe. Everyone has described this industry shock as "Intel storm". The high-priced positioning of Intel motherboards directly conflicts with ASUS, which also makes mid-to-high-end motherboards. "At that time, the industry believed that ASUS must be the biggest victim of this storm, and many people advised me that Intel is too powerful, so don't fight against them." Shi Chongtang calmly recalled this thrilling past, "But I think It's no use thinking about it, the only way out is to meet the challenge." Shi Chongtang is very persistent in his belief that, based on technology, find a precise market strategy, strengthen the anti-risk ability of his own company and join forces with other companies, and then use the usual advantages of efficiency, cost and flexibility of Taiwanese companies to make a comprehensive evaluation. I don't think I'm necessarily going to lose. As a result, some people quickly came up with the idea of ​​"fighting a collective battle", and immediately received responses from heroes from all walks of life in Taiwan.The strategy of collective warfare was to "encircle Wei and rescue Zhao" - at that time, Taiwan's motherboard industry already had a considerable share in the international market, and the number of microprocessors purchased from Intel each year accounted for about 70% of Intel's total shipments. Obviously, this is because Intel was controlled by Taiwanese businessmen. The weakness in hand, as long as everyone works together to collectively "rebel" and purchase microprocessors from manufacturers other than the Intel camp, Intel will be pulled from the bottom of the pot, and even face disaster! As long as Intel attacks, it will be "backlashed"! The concept of "collective warfare" was immediately put into practice by various manufacturers, and a "people's war" besieged on all sides began to make Intel feel in a hurry and feel uncomfortable.Leading companies Acer and Compaq jointly supported the R processor of Mips, and other manufacturers also began to stop purchasing from Intel. Asustek took into account the close cooperation with Intel and adopted a gentle strategy to establish "Chongshuo Technology" from the side. The purchase of the Shengyang (Sun) Spare microprocessor is quite intentional to show Intel its adaptability. A head-to-head "positional warfare" has turned into a "guerrilla warfare" where the key points are erratically attacked. Intel dare not take it lightly, and finally gave up the idea of ​​​​massively entering the motherboard.The war subsided, and the manufacturers in Taiwan were unscathed, and everyone was happy. However, at this time, the real big winner, Asus, surfaced under people's astonishing gaze—— It turned out that at that time the global leader in the motherboard industry was Micronics of the United States. After Intel announced the motherboard, the most stable large order in the hands of Micronics in the past, Gate-way2000, was voted to Intel. After Intel withdrew from the motherboard, this big order was gone forever. up. Micronics was badly injured and fell into a slump, and soon fell from the throne of supremacy. However, Asustek's customers were loyal. Not only did they not lose one family, but Asustek also made a "war fortune". "In the past, the motherboards of the IT giant HP were all manufactured by Intel. With the withdrawal of Intel, HP discovered the unique ASUS. HP, which is determined to become the world's largest IT manufacturer, also hopes to take advantage of ASUS's high quality and high speed to occupy A bigger market. So in 1996, HP handed over its huge order of motherboards to Asus..." With the big stepping stone of HP, Asustek opened the door of more international manufacturers.Since then, the development of ASUS has been like a runaway wild horse, and its sales have spread all over the world.ASUS not only destroyed the dream of dominance in the field of Intel motherboards, but also completely pulled down the throne of Micronics. At the end of 1996, it became the world's leading motherboard brand and the world's largest motherboard manufacturer, with a revenue of 13.33 billion Taiwan dollars. . This year, ASUS went public and became the "stock king". What kind of enterprise is ASUS? It is said that there are two ways of understanding - One is "competition", which is reflected in the "endless pursuit of the world's first" in the bones.The ASUS team is obsessed with technology. Every time they see a novel electronic product on a business trip, they always buy it and disassemble it for research. Shi Chongtang even skipped lunch for work, and drove the car side to side on the highway in order to read materials!It is this kind of persistence that enables ASUS to form a competitive bargaining chip with world-class technology, fast and high-quality product development, accurate and firm market positioning, and military-style team execution. The other is "not to fight", which is reflected in the prudence, stability and gentleness of being a person and doing things.Shi Chongtang is pragmatic and insists on "controlling immediate costs" without playing financial leverage. He always has tens of billions of liquidity in his hands; Take turns cooking.Once I endured a noise from a small shareholder for two or three hours because of different views, and I always kept smiling.He is so gentle and firm, leading troops with heart. ASUS culture is the group of people under the influence of Shi Chongtang, a balance between contention and non-competition. In 1997, ASUS began to diversify into notebook computers.Although it was nearly ten years later than its peers, ASUS was not in a hurry, and the first product it made was thick and heavy.Tong Zixian recalled that most of his peers looked down on him, and even laughed at him.However, the purpose of ASUS's initial involvement in this field is very simple: "to test the water." Therefore, although the product developed and produced with an experimental attitude is small, the investment in capital, manpower and material preparation is also small, and at the same time it is aimed at high-end. As a result, I actually made a profit after trying the water!Usually, when a company enters the notebook computer industry, it cannot make a profit without working hard for two or three years. Asustek's steady style from decision-making to finance can be seen from this. Then in 1998, the fledgling ASUS notebook computer actually created a world record that no one has yet broken - this notebook has been running smoothly on the Russian "Mir" space station for more than 600 days without any failures!It can be seen that ASUS's engineering culture of excellence has also been integrated into every detail of their work. The test was successful, and ASUS accelerated its launch of new notebook products. In 1999, ASUS led the industry in launching the world's first ultra-thin and fully built-in notebook computer; in 2000, the M8 series; in the third quarter of 2001, data from an authoritative survey company showed that ASUS' series notebooks had already occupied the number one sales position in Taiwan. However, this year, it failed to reach the target of 1 million units shipped, only 750,000 units; in 2002, ASUS launched the classic notebook S1 series and won the highest award for industrial design in Japan. Design Oscar Award "German IF Award, but this year, ASUS notebooks still did not break through the goal of 1 million units, only 900,000 units.Failed twice. The bigger bad news is yet to come - what is especially unacceptable is that it has maintained its position as the world's number one motherboard shipment for many years, but was replaced by its competitor Elite in 2002!It was the elite company that recommended ASUS's first business since its founding to Shan Wen.This situation is no small matter. The moment they got the news, all the senior management of the company were shocked! In that year, the net profit dropped from NT$4 billion in the previous year to NT$2.5 billion, which became the biggest setback since its establishment. where is the problem?It turns out that the company, whether it is a notebook or a motherboard, is positioned in the mid-to-high-end market. In this era of low-priced IT products, it is tantamount to completely ceding the increasingly broad mid-to-low-end market to others. In that year, Shi Chongtang's white hair increased rapidly, and he saw that the general situation was not good in the middle of the year. In December, ASUS held its annual global business meeting. In the face of hundreds of business executives who flew back from all over the world, Shi Chongtang bowed his head and apologized for the first time: "I am too short-sighted! I am conscious that I should correct my strategy, but I have not. Stick to it." At this moment, Shi Chongtang has really realized that if he insists too much on his own inherent culture and advantages, he will easily fall into complacency and closure. How to maintain the balance and transformation between "empty cup" and "self" is really a lifelong homework. Shi Chongtang gradually realized that everything has its own structure. Only when the structure of talents, systems, products, prices, sales network and marketing models are all reasonable, and all links are operated in a logical order, can the enterprise healthy growth. At the end of 2002, Taiwan's first-line mainboard manufacturers, MSI and others, decided to take advantage of the victory and pursue, successively announcing that they would seize the market share as the main goal in 2003.And Asustek announced the "Giant Lion Theory" of seizing technological speed, production scale and reasonable brand echelon, announcing the start of the motherboard market share war in 2003. Shi Chongtang's giant lion theory further clarified ASUS' development ideas: "Lion" means to position itself as the most powerful in the food chain, and all operations are moving towards this goal; "Giant" means a huge number of , several times more than competitors. "A lion pride with a large number is bound to be invincible." Shi Chongtang's ideal is to make ASUS a real global leader like Intel and IBM. As soon as the giant lion theory came out, the implementation effect was immediate—— In 2003, ASUS announced the implementation of a dual-brand strategy and invested in the establishment of "ASRock Technology". The motherboard of the ASRock brand was priced at about US$40 slightly lower than that of its competitors, and it was firmly grasping the elites, etc., and quickly seized the low-end motherboard market.This action is regarded by the industry as "ASUS's most important decision in recent years and the biggest tough battle". Unexpectedly, it has achieved great results by the end of the year-6 million units shipped, the European market share is the first, and the capital is only ASUS 1% of ASRock, motherboard sales have accounted for 20% of the entire ASUS Group.Elite, MSI and others were defeated in one fell swoop! ASRock's success is a matter of course.Because ASRock has retained ASUS’s world-class technology and high quality, and has the cost advantage of large-scale manufacturing in the Suzhou factory, “so ASRock can sell products at a lower price than competitors and with higher quality than competitors. Invincible reason?!" Adopting a dual-brand strategy, I don’t know if Shi Chongtang has referred to this price game theory: “If a competitor’s main market is still at the low end, they should deliberately launch a price war in the low-end market while stabilizing the high-end market. Profitability, to snipe the opponent's ability to advance to the high-end market, so as to protect the profits of the high-end market and gain an overall competitive advantage." Moreover, the dual-brand strategy is just in line with the "Changshan Snake" theory in "Sun Tzu's Art of War": "If you hit the head, you will get the tail; if you hit the tail, you will get the head; if you hit the middle, you will get the whole." Now Shi Chongtang applies this theory to his In the process management, all departments are required to "100% trust, echo from beginning to end, and link the whole process..." In short, as a mid-to-high-end ASUS motherboard, under the cover of low-end ASRock’s firepower, in 2003, it was humiliated by large-scale shipments and regained the throne of the world’s number one motherboard.In 2005, ASUS Group's revenue exceeded 10 billion US dollars, and its shipment of 52 million motherboards was higher than that of the world's second, third and fourth. The sum is even more; in 2006, the group's revenue was more than 120 billion yuan, and it officially entered the world's top 500! While storming the motherboard market, ASUS is fully promoting the production and sales of notebook computers.Taking mainland China as an example, ASUS first launched the strategy of "LCD without bright spots", creating a precedent for quality and service in the field of notebooks, followed by "beauty of craftsmanship", "thin and light journey", "supporting the national fencing team's Olympic journey", " A series of market initiatives such as ASUS Extreme 7+2” have allowed every Chinese to know through various media that ASUS notebooks have undergone severe cold tests on the highest peaks of the seven continents, the North Pole, and the South Pole. Withstood the heat test and so on, compound marketing finally increased the sales volume of Continental notebooks by 150%!At the same time, sales in the global market also increased significantly. ASUS also lays out upstream components and promotes the "open vertical integration system" and 3C strategy.Asustek has bought software company Taijun and Netcom giant Yaxu within two or three years through continuous mergers and acquisitions and equity participation, and formed an alliance with Advantech, the world's largest industrial computer company. In August 2006, it merged with Gigabyte, one of Taiwan's largest motherboard companies, and its dominant position in motherboards is even more unbreakable. Following the deployment of production bases in Suzhou, the Czech Republic, and Mexico, in 2006, the giant factory in Nanhui District, Shanghai, which can employ 100,000 people, also broke ground... Asus, the giant lion, has gradually taken shape.