大立光電: 财经

choi

Peter Fuhrman, Why Taiwan Is Far Ahead of Mainland China in High-Tech. Financial Times, June 7, 2016 (blog)
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics ... china-in-high-tech/

Quote:

"Largan last year had revenues in excess of $1bn and net profit margins above 40 per cent.

"Largan is doing so well because the optical-quality plastic lenses it makes for mobile phone cameras are unrivalled in their price and performance. Any higher-end mobile phone, be it an iPhone or an Android phone selling for above $400, relies on Largan lenses.  Many companies in the mainland have tried to get into this business. So far none have succeeded.

"High precision, high megapixel plastic camera lenses are basically impossible to reverse-engineer. * * * Largan has been in the plastic lens business for almost twenty years. Today's success is the product of many long years of fruitless experimentation and struggle.

"The venture capital industry in China, though statistically the second-largest in the world, has shunned investments in early-stage and experimental R&D. Instead, VCs pour money into so-called 'C2C' businesses. These “Copied To China” companies look for an established or emerging business model elsewhere, usually in the US, then create a local Chinese version, safe in the knowledge the foreign innovator will probably never be able to shut-down this 'China only' version.

Note:
(a) "Peter Fuhrman 傅成 is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, China First Capital"
(i) China First Capital  中国首创 (established in 2008; based in Shenzhen; "投资银行及顾问公司")
(ii) The name Fuhrman is Americanized by shortening Fuhrmann. The latter is a German surname "from Middle High German vuorman carter, driver."

(b) Largan Precision Co, Ltd  大立光電股份有限公司

(c) "China has 5,000 years of glorious history during which it created such technology breakthroughs as paper, gunpowder, porcelain and the pump."
(i) pump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump
(section 1.1.2.3.9 Rope pumps: Devised in China as chain pumps [链泵; see (ii) immeiately below] over 1000 years ago, these pumps can be made from very simple materials: A rope, a wheel and a PVC pipe are sufficient to make a simple rope pump)
(ii) 李根蟠, 翻车起源献疑——水车起源和发展丛谈（三）.
http://economy.guoxue.com/?p=1810
("翻车的起源，一般追溯到东汉末年的毕岚 * * * 范晔《后汉书》卷78《宦者·张让传》载

        [中平三年（186年）]……遂使钩盾令宋典缮修南宫玉堂。又使掖庭令毕岚……铸天禄、虾蟆，吐水于平门外桥东，转水入宫。又作翻车、渴乌，施于桥西，用洒南北郊路，以省百姓洒道之费。（李贤注：翻车，设机车以引水；渴乌，为曲筒，以气引水上也。）

这是关于翻车最早的明确记载，为后来的文献广泛征引，近世学者多据此谓毕岚是翻车的创制者，《中国农业科学技术史稿》也是这样认定的[2]。毕岚的这把交椅似乎坐得很稳当。

　　也有把翻车的起源追溯到这以前的。英国著名中国科技史家李约瑟就是其中之一，不过他的论据不无可商。李约瑟称翻车为方板枱式链泵，认为王充《论衡·率性》所载“洛阳城中之道无水，水工激上洛中之水，日夜驰流，水工之功也”，无疑已经使用这种方板枱式链泵")


(d) "While Largan may now be the best performing Taiwanese high-tech company, there are many others that similarly can run circles around mainland competitors."
(i) run circles around someone and run rings around someone:
"Fig. [Figurative] to outrun or outdo someone. (Alludes to someone who runs fast enough to run in circles around a competitor and still win the race.)
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/run+circles+around
(ii) Run Rings Around. The Phrase Finder, undated
www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/run-rings-around.html
("The alternative form of the expression is 'run circles around,' which came into being later again, around the turn of the 10th century. This form is entirely disassociated from the source hunting context and was coined in the USA")

I believe there is a typo here: 20th century, not "10th century."

choi

The above blog points to:

Peter Fuhrman and 王岩松, 大立光电的唐僧式创新. 财经, May 18, 2016.  
http://magazine.caijing.com.cn/20160518/4121317.shtml
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Quote: "大立光电要与当时世界上最成功的镜片公司竞争，它们几乎都是日本企业——尼康、佳能、美能达、奥林巴斯等。

Note: "理性和风险这看似不相关的两个词正是风险投资（Venture Capital）的精髓。 大陆不缺投资，也不缺愿意冒风险的投资，但是严重缺乏理性的风险投资。PE和VC跟风，股票市场更是炒概念。但急功近利的资金是不可能扶持出大立光电这样的企业的。"

PE is
Private Equity. Investopdia, undated
www.investopedia.com/terms/p/privateequity.asp
("Private equity investments often demand long holding periods to allow for a turnaround of a distressed company or a liquidity event such as an IPO or sale to a public company")