Episode 186. That one competency.
TM Display President Kim Chan-myung asked me.
“CRT displays have not completely disappeared yet. It means that the heyday of LCD has not come yet, are you saying that you are already starting OLED production?”
“Unless we are gods, there can be many cases where the business market turns out differently than we expected. It’s to be prepared in case that happens. If LCD demand decreases significantly or if many competitors enter the game of chicken, OLED will become our strong support.”
Although the heyday of LCD, which President Kim said, has not yet arrived.
I already knew that even if I came, I wouldn’t be able to go for a few years.
In the late 2000s, Chinese display companies, backed by the huge financial power of the Chinese government, entered the market.
After that, the unit price of LCD panels plummeted due to the chicken game that started.
Most LCD companies fall into a swamp of losses.
There are two ways to win this game.
It was either to cut the opponent’s stamina to make it difficult to endure, or to increase my stamina to last longer than the opponent.
Of course, I was planning on using both.
“Hmm…the president seems to think that competition with China is coming sooner than expected.”
“yes. It will take no more than 6-7 years for Chinese display companies to grow properly. It’s already too late to fight after they’re all grown up. Before that, we have to be fully prepared, and when they are not ready, we have to start the fight first.”
“okay. Then I will gather all the people and come up with an OLED line construction plan.”
“yes. As I said, I don’t have that much time to spare, so please start the construction as soon as possible.”
Yang Ki-moon was studying alone with Lee Dae-cheon, the new president of Hwansung Electronics’ LCD business.
“Chairman. We plan to separate the LCD division from the electronics business next month.”
Lee Dae-cheon, who was greatly shocked, opened his mouth with difficulty.
“..are you selling the business unit?”
“Not that. It’s a simple division of business. You’re saying you won’t lose the title of cheering. Not yet.”
Yang Ki-moon’s ‘not yet’ word caught my heart.
It was fortunate that the car was still choking on the news of the sale of RG Display.
Daecheon Lee asked with a slightly brighter face.
“Then are you saying that this separation is just for financial management…?”
“The LCD business is eating up a lot of money, so there is also the financial management aspect. But if you’re going to run it this way, you’ll just sell it. Do you need to manage your finances separately? Rather than that, it would be more accurate to view it as a last chance for the LCD business.”
“..you mean your last chance?”
“In my opinion, the LCD business is hopeless because of his TM display. So, let’s try to compete with OLED, which is currently being researched as a next-generation display in the LCD division. The characteristics themselves are much better than LCD. With the separation this time, the LCD division is going to change the name to Hwansung Display and make it a comprehensive display company that is not limited to LCD. So, plan in the direction of gradually decreasing the proportion of the LCD business and increasing the proportion of OLED.”
“..The OLED we are doing is still in the R&D stage, so it will take time to raise it to a level that can be mass-produced. In the meantime, I have to endure the deficit, but…is that ok?”
Yang Ki-moon laughed.
“When was it not at a loss? I will take responsibility and provide support for two years, so at any cost, raise the OLED to a usable level.”
“..you are saying that the Maginot Line is two years.”
“right. You know where you are, it’s hard to climb, but harder to maintain, right? Prove that you are the right person for the position. In addition, those two years will determine whether you and your employees will still be able to remain within the fence of cheering.”
Lee Dae-cheon answered with a determined face.
“Inevitably, we will finish OLED development and start mass production!”
Yang Ki-moon laughed happily.
“haha. That’s a nice expression. I believe you’re different from your previous boss. So don’t let me down.”
Apple’s conference room.
CEO Steve Mars looked at development executive John, frowned.
“You mean you haven’t finished developing the AP yet?”
“Wow… it has been a year since the D phone came out. From the beginning of this year, the four major telecommunication companies eventually started selling D-phones, and there are over 20 million people who already own D-phones in the United States alone. Even if we release a smartphone now, I’m worried that it will compete, but we haven’t even started production yet…”
Steve asked, looking at John, who was silently bowing his head.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Like Damoye, you decided to give up making AP into one chip, right? This time, we acknowledged our shortcomings and decided to make all of the CPU, modem chip, and memory separately, but is it still not working?”
In Steve’s mind, he wanted to make an SOC (System On Chip, a single chip with multiple performance) like all APs.
There were too many walls to overcome for that.
Eventually, SOC gave up.
Even at the risk of increasing the size of the smartphone, I decided to make and install a module with each function separately.
Even that was delayed, so Steve’s planting made no sense these days.
After a moment’s hesitation, John opened his mouth.
“CPU, you can use Drill 4 as it is, and most of the other semiconductor parts have been completed, but the communication module is the problem. There is no place to make a 4G communication module, so we have been developing it ourselves, but the performance is not coming out… Since LTE is a communication standard that does not even have a theory, there are very few data and there are no experienced people, so there are many difficulties in development. . To be honest, I feel like I am walking in the dark to the extent that I cannot guarantee that the development of the communication module will be finished even after one more year.”
Steve asked with a puzzled face.
“Ha… I can’t believe it. Having graduated from the prestigious Harvard Graduate School with excellent grades and having successfully completed development projects so far, you and hundreds of team members rushed to hear that sound… Did Mr. Kang use any magic to create a communication module? ”
John put on an anguished expression.
“It is so far from the current level of technology that I would rather believe that it was made by magic. How did you make this a year ago…”
Steve looked at him and smiled bitterly.
“.. as expected Mr. Kang. Even if the whole company rushes in, it will be difficult to handle the capacity of that one person.”
Steve thought for a moment before continuing.
“Let’s change the way.”
“We can’t give up like this if we can’t do it on our own. Communication modules are the biggest problem right now, so we attract companies specializing in communication modules.”
“If you are specialized in communication modules…are you talking about Walcom?”
“Right. We developed 2G communication technology CDMA and 3G CDMA2000 technology, and most of the communication modules used in mobile phones except smartphones were designed there, so you have a good knowledge in the communication field, right?”
“..As you said, it is an excellent company in the telecommunication industry, but it tends to charge royalties too high, so attracting Walcom can be quite a burden on our business in the long run.”
“Now is not the time to choose between cold and hot rice. It is not too late to think about the royalty issue once it survives.”
“If Mr. Mars agrees, we will contact Walcom and proceed with joint development.”
“yes. If possible, please comply with the conditions required by that side. The most important thing right now is time.”
“Okay, Mr Mars.”
Daewon hyung and I were talking about the sales performance of the D phone.
“Hyung, have you finished organizing your first quarter earnings? Apparently, the four major US carriers started selling D phones from the beginning of this year, so I think it would have turned out pretty well.”
At my words, Daewon hyung smiled and held out the materials.
“it’s over. In the first quarter alone, 6 million units were sold in the US and 1.5 million units were sold in Korea, so the total is about 7.5 million units. Operating profit is about 2.9 trillion won.”
“2.9 trillion? It came out well too. Even though they sold only in Korea and the United States, it came out close to 1 trillion won a month. haha.”
“Because I was surprised too. Even now, the revenue is about this level, but if it goes out all over the world later, how much will it be? Ha…I can’t even imagine.”
“We will be able to check it out by the end of this year. As 4G telecommunication equipment is starting to be installed in the US, telecommunication companies are slowly appearing in Europe who want to purchase our equipment.”
My brother asked with a smile on his face.
“okay? Where?”
“Deutsche Telekom is Germany’s number one telecom operator, and they want to build 4G infrastructure throughout Germany within this year. There are also telecommunication companies that contacted us in the UK and France as well. I haven’t signed a contract yet.”
“Hey! Is our 4G communication finally reaching the world?”
“Yes. In fact, if it wasn’t for collusion with US carriers, we could have spread 4G communications a little faster, but it’s a little late.”
“But where is this? If you hadn’t made global communications into the American market, you would still be selling D-phones only in Korea.”
“haha. I do. But it’s not something I’m just too fond of. Now, spreading the 4G communication infrastructure around the world doesn’t seem to be a problem, but there’s no guarantee that it will lead to D-phone sales.”
“Ah…are you saying that a competitor that makes smartphones will appear?”
“yes. It’s a bit quiet now, but big companies like Hwansung Electronics and Apple will be preparing smartphones.”
“It could be. But just because you want to make it doesn’t mean you can make it that easily. Wouldn’t it take at least two or three years to create a product that could compete with us?”
“If you don’t have a D-Phone, that would be the case. However, since we have already released the D-Phone, it has already been thoroughly analyzed, so competitors probably already know much of the know-how we worked hard to develop. Since our starting line is different, we will follow you sooner than you think. The development of other technologies must have already been completed, and the LTE communication module is a rather unfamiliar technology, so it is buying time.”
After hearing my words, the older brother also realized the seriousness of the situation and hardened his face.
“That’s why you rushed to develop D-Phone 2?”
“Yes. When a competitor releases a smartphone, we need a weapon to counter it.”
“..After all, there is always a reason for what you do.”
“haha. So, if you’re not doing business just for fun, would you go ahead with it for no reason? Anyway, that’s why it’s so important to develop D-Phone 2. And after talking about it, what happened to the Bluetooth that we decided to put in the D phone 2?”
Bluetooth.
It is a representative short-range wireless communication technology that few people will know the name of in the future.
