Abstract
Abstract In Taiwan’s economic structure today, integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing service is a crucial part of the overall semiconductor value chain. The business, like any other hi-tech businesses in the world, is extremely competitive, and hence facing the following major challenges: 1. How to sustain growth 2. How to maintain profitability. Unlike the glorious 1990’s, the IC industry must now find a way to stay one step ahead of the competitors. This research studies a specific case: TSMC and how it may capitalize on the successful business model from the benchmark investment banker Goldman Sachs. The correlation of these two companies does not just happen randomly because Morris Chang, TSMC’s Chairman, had once said that Goldman Sachs’ client-partner idea is a good role model for TSMC’s managements and that TSMC may benefit from Goldman Sachs’ success story. This thesis lists the similarities as well as the differences of these two companies: the types of business, their unique corporate cultures and the characteristics of their employees. The analysis is focused on four areas: service characteristics, service quality, relationship marketing, and service value chain. The conclusion is listed below. 1. Goldman Sachs’ success is largely due to three factors: quality of its employees, corporate assets, and corporate reputation (by being one of the most trustworthy banks in the world). These are most intangible assets and these are the reasons why Goldman Sachs must win the total trust of their customers. 2. Unlike Goldman Sachs, TSMC’s products are mostly tangible ones (except, of course, brand name recognition), and inevitably the company will encounter severe pricing pressure as the product reaches commercial scale. Hence TSMC can only sustain its profitability by building a “structural relationship” with their clients. 3. By being an engineering company in nature, TSMC employees are long entrenched in the mindset of placing priorities on cost of production, technology development, service confidentiality, process flow and R&D activities. This type of corporate mindset, if not cultivated, may limit TSMC’s ambition of growth with improved customer relations and better services values.