Financial Considerations

Please summarize a paper according to the content of my previous homework（You can add whatever you need）：

Target country：China

Product: Taiwan Semiconductor Industry (Chips)

analyzes the market and country you selected to develop or introduce a new product or service. You will tie your research homework together to support your final recommendation is through a comprehensive case analysis paper. You may wish to use the rubric as your table of contents to ensure you cover all the areas:

Criteria

Executive Summary

• Why you selected the product and country

Country and Product Background

Page； 8-10 page。

Macro Environment

• Cultural Discussion
• Demographics/Economic Outlook
• Political/Legal Considerations
• Trade & Financial Considerations

Conclusions

• Pull out supportive facts from your paper that leads the reader to support your final recommendation.

Recommendation

What is your recommendation to your boss? Defend you position to keep your job! 😉

Assignment 1: Country/Product Selection Abstract

Focus on one thing, do the best, is success. That is true of Taiwan when it comes to chipmaking. Since the early 1980s, Taiwan has set up the Hsinchu Science Industrial Park with strong policy and financial support. After 40 years of development, Taiwan has become a recognized industry leader in the global chip industry, establishing a near-unshakable position.

In the field of contract chip manufacturing, Taiwan can be said to be far ahead of the world. In 2017, TSMC’s (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) market capitalization surpassed Intel’s, making it the world’s largest semiconductor company. In 2019, TSMC’s global market share was nearly 52 percent, more than three times that of second-place Samsung. In addition to TSMC, Taiwan’s UMC （United Microelectronics Corp) and Power chip Technologies ranked third and sixth in the global rankings. These three Taiwanese companies alone account for more than 60 per cent of the global contract chip market, second to none. According to the 2020 McLean Report, Taiwan’s chip design output accounted for 17% of the world’s total in 2019, ranking fourth. At the same time, Taiwan is also the world’s largest packaging and testing provider, with a 19% market share and providing semiconductor packaging and testing services to more than 90% of the world’s electronics companies. With sales of semiconductor equipment surging, Taiwan remains the world’s largest market for new semiconductor equipment, with an annual turnover of US $17.12 billion.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, the global chip supply is in serious shortage. Volkswagen of Germany, Ford of the United States and Toyota of Japan have been forced to cut production due to chip supply constraints.

The Chinese government has repeatedly said it wants to be more autonomous in the semiconductor industry, after Taiwan Semiconductor was forced to cut its supply of Huawei Hais in 2020 under US pressure. The Japanese government is seeking TSMC to invest in plants in Japan. All this highlights the global industry’s dependence on Taiwan’s semiconductor chip industry, and countries are increasingly examining their supply chains and preparing to invest heavily in supporting their own wafers. Currently, U.S. companies dominate the intellectual property and software needed to design advanced chip semiconductors, Europe holds the key special gases used to make wafers, and Asia is home to all the most advanced wafer production, according to research published by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Taiwan directly accounted for 92 percent of the total, while South Korea accounted for 8 percent. If foundries in Taiwan were to shut down for a year, it could have a direct impact on the global electronics supply chain and cost the global industry nearly $500 billion.

Historically, Taiwan’s importance has had geopolitical reasons. Now, as a byproduct of its successful economic model, Taiwan has become a key link in the global technology supply chain, adding economic weight to its geopolitical considerations. That weight is likely to grow as the global battle for technological supremacy heats up.

Assignment 2: Culture & Ethics

With its advantages of industrial settlements and market investment opportunities, Taiwan has attracted enterprises from all over the world to continue to increase their investment. To ensure the sustainable development of Taiwan’s chip industry and promote steady economic growth, enterprises must also pay attention to environmental protection, social responsibility, and corporate governance while pursuing profit and growth. With the goal of enhancing the value of society and using technology and innovation to help solve the challenges facing humanity.

Good financial performance is the key to the sustainable operation of an enterprise. The company pursues good financial performance, mainly through the growth of operating income and the continuous improvement of profitability, long-term and stable to create higher economic value and feedback to all stakeholders. In the operation and expansion of the business at the same time to comply with the national tax regulations. Any adverse changes in tax laws and regulations will increase the effective tax rate of the Company and adversely affect the operating results. The company shall establish an enterprise risk management system to bring tax risks into management.

As the most professional IC manufacturing service industry in the world, Taiwan companies should lead global scientific and technological progress through innovation. The company listens to the voice of customers, year by year expands the scale of research and development, adheres to the production of high quality, the low energy consumption of sustainable products, and establishes the highest standard of customer confidentiality protection mechanism.

On the other hand, “green manufacturing” is the foundation of sustainable business. In the pursuit of technological innovation, enterprises should assist manufacturers to join the green action of energy saving, water saving, and waste reduction, and establish cleaner production factories. Companies should strive to incorporate environmental awareness into their organizational culture, including the continuous introduction of renewable energy, renewable water, and circular economy, creating maximum benefits in the use of energy resources, and working together with the supply chain to become a stable force for environmental sustainability.

In terms of talents, excellent talents are an important asset for enterprises to maintain competitive advantages and the driving force for promoting industrial upgrading and social development. Companies should strengthen industry-academy cooperation, fund national education construction, train more professionals in relevant fields, strive to create a diverse and inclusive working environment, and attract multinational talents to give full play to their strengths. At the same time actively participate in social construction, care for the vulnerable.

Another serious problem is that as the region with the lowest fertility rate in the world, Taiwan’s rapidly aging population has become a serious social problem. To make employees live and work in peace and contentment, enterprises should not only provide employees with the right to stay on duty without pay according to laws and regulations but also provide a perfect leave management system and maternity welfare subsidies, so that employees can flexuously use leave to take care of children and children, considering the needs of personal and family care.

Assignment 3: International Finance

The global semiconductor industry will have very good growth prospects in the next few years. The progress of 5G, big data, the Internet, and other technology industries will support the development of the semiconductor industry. This means that the global demand for chips will remain strong for many years to come. Taiwan’s chip manufacturing industry has a large number of customers all over the world, and their end markets are different. A stable market helps companies develop in economic globalization and achieve a high level of capacity utilization. This is the key to Taiwan’s long-term high level of profitability.

Good financial performance is the key to the sustainable operation of an enterprise. The company’s pursuit of good financial performance is mainly through the growth of operating income and the continuous improvement of profitability, and the long-term and stable creation of higher economic value and feedback.

The analysis of the enterprise income statement can help managers understand the enterprise’s revenue structure, cost structure, expense structure, and profit results. From the income statement, we can analyze the problems that the company is currently encountering, such as the revenue bottleneck, whether it is the product, the channel, or the profit point. And we can analyze which links initially affect the cost, whether it is the problem of raw materials or intermediate links. It can also be analyzed to see what the reasons for the substantial increase in corporate expenses are, whether it is sales expenses, management expenses, or financial expenses. These analyses help managers to grasp corporate problems and help companies grow healthily.

Analyzing the balance sheet can help business managers understand the structure of assets and the structure of liabilities. The assets and liabilities in the balance sheet are both the company’s ability to realize cash. What assets and liabilities a company has, long-term or short-term, and how many liabilities require interest are the core of asset operations. As long as the company maintains a healthy debt-to-asset ratio, it can ensure that the company continues to use a large amount of capital to invest in its business growth and stable development.

The main raw material for chips is high-purity silicon, but Taiwan’s mineral resources are not rich, so Taiwan’s chip manufacturing raw materials are very dependent on imports from other countries. The US dollar is commonly used in international trade, and every country needs US dollar reserves for foreign trade. Most commodities are priced in US dollars, so the US dollar is more suitable as the main currency used by an international trading company.

As Taiwan’s legal tender, the New Taiwan Dollar is the world’s cheapest Carry trade currency. However, due to the relatively small size and the ardent demand for Taiwan’s technology exports, the exchange rate of the New Taiwan dollar is constantly increasing, which will weaken the income of using the New Taiwan dollar to engage in carrying trades.

Assignment 4: International Finance Mitigation

When formulating an export trade strategy, I think that one of Taiwan’s biggest risks is how to deal with the impact of trade friction between China and the United States. First, Taiwan’s domestic demand market is small, and its own economy is mainly driven by external demand. So, I think global trade liberalization is an important foundation for Taiwan’s economic development.

After 2017, the United States focused on the establishment of an international trading system centered on the United States and imposed restrictions on the existing WTO’s multilateral trading system. This limits the production capacity of some Taiwanese industries. There are many levels in the Sino-US game, the core is the fight for the commanding heights of high-tech strategies.

After 2018, the United States has adopted a variety of methods to pressure mainland China in the communications and semiconductor fields. Many Taiwanese companies have close contacts with mainland China, and several products produced in cooperation between the mainland and Taiwan are exported to the United States. As an important factory in Taiwan’s chip industry, China has undertaken many international orders received by Taiwan. However, under US sanctions and control, the road of cooperation between Taiwan and the mainland’s high-tech industries was cut off, and Taiwan was forced to choose other countries for industrial transfer.

In response to this predicament, the Taiwanese government has promoted and implemented many policies to encourage investment in Taiwan, including many preferential treatment programs. Encourage Taiwanese companies and businessmen affected by the trade war to return to Taiwan to invest. These preferential treatment programs and strategies include meeting the company’s land demand in Taiwan, abundant industrial manpower, assistance in rapid financing and stable supply of water and electricity.

However, those who can migrate back to Taiwan for development are manufacturers with “low labor, high technology, and high automation”, and the biggest problem most Taiwanese companies are currently encountering is manpower. It is not easy to evacuate all factories opened in China. Taiwan still lacks labor. Because even if the factory is transferred to Southeast Asia, there is still a lack of management talents, and there is a gap between language and culture. Taiwan-funded enterprises are not prepared for these. If the trade war continues to heat up, exchange rate fluctuations will hurt many Taiwan-funded companies. Makes the operating costs of Taiwanese enterprises higher.

Assignment 5: Managing an International Business

With the rise of new applications such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, new changes have begun to take place in the global terminal time. As the demand for consumer electronics is saturated, the growth of the semiconductor industry will tend to flatten.

However, many emerging areas will still bring ample opportunities for the semiconductor industry. The demand for semiconductor applications in the automotive and artificial intelligence fields continues to rise. This has led to changes in the upstream semiconductor industry.

In today’s society, many of the technologies behind the cutting-edge digital devices we use rely on semiconductors. With the development of emerging technologies such as unmanned driving, artificial intelligence, 5G, and the Internet of Things, as well as continuous global investment in technology research and development and fierce competition among major market participants, the global semiconductor industry is expected to break through growth again in the next decade.

Taiwan has gathered the most important semiconductor manufacturers in the world. Benefiting from economic growth, the rise of mobile communications, and the development of cloud computing, Taiwan has become a hot spot for the development of the semiconductor industry and controls almost half of the semiconductor market value.

While Taiwan is striving to maintain its leading position in the semiconductor industry, it is also constantly seeking more reliable partners. In the global semiconductor supply chain, the United States and Taiwan are the most natural partners; in the upstream and downstream of the semiconductor value chain, many Taiwanese and American companies can be seen.

As Taiwan’s second-largest trading partner. One-third of the products imported by the United States from Taiwan are information and communication technology products. Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is more important than any other industry in the US-Taiwan trade relationship. Taiwan’s exports to the United States include 86% are semi-finished products that US manufacturers need to reprocess. Therefore, the health of Taiwan’s production chain will also have a direct impact on US upstream manufacturers. In terms of high-tech equipment, the US and Taiwan industry chains are complementary, so the entire upstream and downstream supply chains are maintained tightly and have a fusion relationship.

Assignment 6: International Organization and Culture

The economic growth rate of Taiwan’s chip market exceeds 3%, and the region has great potential to help foreign companies increase their wealth. It is precisely because of this economic growth momentum, coupled with the liberalization of trade and investment, that many foreign companies have poured into Taiwan. However, before foreign companies decide to enter the regional market, they still need to have a deep understanding of the obstacles in the market. Therefore, it is necessary for companies to understand the unique business culture of the target area and actively create a diversified management space. Taiwan has a unique business culture different from the West. Affected by the overall business culture of Asia, Taiwanese companies focus on the class systems and group energy efficiency, rather than emphasizing individual initiative; in some cases, there are also huge differences in gender issues. Many Asian regions put more emphasis on local talents and protect local industries and businesses, which has benefited local companies a lot. The Taiwanese government supports its development with policies that are conducive to local culture and business, and these policies are often detrimental to Western companies. To survive and develop in Asia, foreign companies must take measures to adapt to local conditions. As regulatory policies are tilted towards local companies, to effectively predict and improve the impact of relevant policies, foreign companies need strong localized human resources support and corresponding corporate strategies. Creating a culturally diverse and inclusive workplace has many benefits for companies. It not only helps to represent the company’s positive and enterprising image, but it also brings rich and diverse perspectives while the business is growing, thereby improving production capacity and production efficiency. Diversity also plays a vital role in attracting new talents. Taiwanese millennials will soon become the main force in the workforce. They believe that having different backgrounds and perspectives in the workplace is essential for growth and success. Compared with past generations, they may be more concerned about gender bias at work. Companies that don’t pay enough attention to inclusion and diversity will cause these new employees to leave the company and look for opportunities elsewhere. Making inclusiveness a top priority can also create a group of employees with a wider range of skills to better exchange knowledge internally. Not only hard skills, but diversification also improves employees’ soft skills, such as leadership, collaboration, and communication. These are important skills that business leaders need to possess.

Assignment 7: Managing International Marketing and Operations

For the chip industry, standardized and customized marketing strategies should depend on the main needs of the target market. In the field of some low-end general-purpose devices, special precision technology is not required. For example, low-end general-purpose electronic devices have the advantage of batch processing and centralized production and then reselling to multiple manufacturers. In this way, there will be advantages in the cost of scale manufacturing, the investment in standardized production is extremely low, and the market risk is very small. However, the disadvantage of this model is that the product homogeneity is serious, and the profit margin is extremely low.

For the customized marketing model, as the advanced process nodes tend to the limit, the design becomes complicated, the time for commercialization is prolonged, and the cost-effectiveness is no longer guaranteed. Due to product needs, the terminal factory needs a chip product with a proprietary function to realize it. However, such products are not sold on the market, and the terminal factory itself does not have the chip design and manufacturing capabilities. Therefore, the terminal factory can only cooperate with the chip company to jointly develop products according to the required functions of the chip product.

In the marketing mix, I think product and price are the key elements of Taiwanese chips. The key to the rise of Taiwan’s semiconductors lies in cutting in from the manufacturing process and adopting the foundry model, which is in line with Taiwan’s competitive advantage. At the same time, manufacturing separation can effectively lower the capital threshold for the development of semiconductor components and promote a large number of fabless IC design companies to begin to thrive, thereby achieving a complete semiconductor industry chain of design, manufacturing, packaging, and testing, and establishing a global semiconductor manufacturing base.

In terms of chip manufacturing technology, Taiwan currently has the world’s most advanced chip manufacturing companies. They use their scale advantages to continuously reduce costs and improve their process level, and they have made great progress in the foundry industry chain. This industrial chain division of labor mode reduces the threshold and R&D risks for design companies and foundry companies, allowing companies in different links to focus on their areas of expertise. At present, 92% of the world’s chips below 10nm are produced by Taiwan manufacture.

I think the biggest challenge in managing the international business of a multinational company is to judge the changes in the world situation. As countries around the world have launched a technological competition in the chip industry. While strengthening the return of chip manufacturing to its homeland, the United States has continued to put pressure on China’s chip industry, the world’s second-largest chip market. In response to the pressure, China has continuously absorbed talents and technologies in various fields and has rapidly caught up with the pace of independent chip design and production. In this case, it is particularly important for companies to adjust their strategic planning in a timely manner.