| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 科技管理研究所 === 96 === While the IT and Telecom Industry in Taiwan generally suffers from low gross-margin rate and profit, some companies still sustain these at a higher level than others. In this thesis, these outstanding companies are defined as “Modern Craftsman Companies.” The aim of this thesis is to find out: (1) How to define “Modern Craftsman Company”? (2) What are the core capabilities of a Modern Craftsman Company? (3) How does a Modern Craftsman Company develop its core capabilities and extend into new ones? What are the paths? How to make the choices?
Research was conducted using case studies of five companies in the mobile phone industry. The results show that when Modern Craftsman Companies extend the scope of their businesses, they devote themselves to a certain area of technology and go deep into it. Also, their spirit of actively experimenting along with regular knowledge-creating activities results in their ability of foreseeing great opportunities. Lastly, long and strong relationships with leading suppliers and major clients not only brings stable and sustainable orders, but also help these companies have control over or even co-define the trends of future technology.
Thus, Modern Craftsman Companies have an ever-improving core competence position and long-term competence, not just luck or abilities that only work in short-term. This is how Modern Craftsman Companies can keep a higher margin rate and profit rate.
The core competence of Modern Craftsman Company is the combination of physical technical systems, the managerial system, employee knowledge and skill, and its values and norms. This combination is deeply influenced by the founders’ and management’s expertise. Because this kind of company tends to cultivate its talents using a mentor system and the employees need to know the process very well, it is very unlikely that it obtains its core competence simply by recruiting its staff.
Modern Craftsman Companies tend to extend their core competence to the up-stream part of the industry. The paths include internal development, acquisition & development, connection & development:
1. Internal development is the best choice when the existing resources (human resource, time, capital) are abundant and the new aim is an important competence.
2. Acquisition and joint venture are usually used to gain a new core competence and market quickly. Acquisition is to have the other firm’s core competence fully transferred. If successfully integrated into the acquirer itself, a long-term competence is formed. Joint venture is used only to transfer some part of the other firm’s competence and usually merely brings short-term competence.
3. Connection & development works somewhere between the two above-mentioned principles in perspective of speed and cost. It helps by utilizing external expertise as well as developing internal exclusive knowledge. When the network of connection & development is strong, the involved parties commit more and therefore there is greater chance of forming long-term competence. On the other hand, when the network is weak, commitments on different parties bring only short-term competence.
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