How to Achieve 100% Growth in 2023? Slkor Song Shiqiang Tells You the Password (Part 1)

In recent years, China's economy has encountered many troubles, but against this background, Kinghelm Electronics (www.kinghelm.net) and Slkor Semiconductor (www.slkoric.com) still maintained 100% continuous growth in 2022 and 2023, basically completing the preliminary goal—achieving annual sales of 100 million yuan! This meets the basic standards of the ChiNext board for listed companies, and we are still working hard to strive for the STAR Market. Is there any secret to this? I, Song Shiqiang, will tell you the answer! I will explain it from several aspects: grasping the core value of the industry, strong internal operations of the company, systematic innovation from top to bottom, and treating the domestic and overseas involution in the industry as a war to fight!

Song Shiqiang speaking at the ECAS of the China Information Industry Association.

First, we chose a very correct track—the electronic information industry. As an industry with great development prospects, the electronic information industry is regarded as one of the important pillars of the future economy. According to Buffett's investment theory, this industry is a track with a "long slope and thick snow." With gradual accumulation, you can build a big snowball, and it can roll. The snowball represents the company's final scale and profit. A while ago, I met a brother who speculates in goods in Huaqiangbei. He proudly said that he had one month of growth this year. I said that this is accidental growth; your system has not been built well! He said he has Longwei system software. I said Longwei ERP is good software, but it is only part of the system. You need systematic and sustainable growth so that you can roll the snowball and develop big and strong. Our Slkor/Kinghelm has done this. Slkor's plan is to become an internationally renowned semiconductor enterprise in 30 years, and "Slkor" (www.slkomicro.com) will become an internationally renowned brand. Since officially starting product R&D and entering this industry in 2016, we have patiently accumulated experience, adopted a gradual strategy, gradually expanded scale, and improved product quality. Up to now, Slkor has become a company with some reputation in China. Now we plan to enter the international market, and we have also achieved good results. In today's highly competitive business environment, Kinghelm/Slkor has achieved remarkable results with a complete set of successful tactics. Now, by selecting twelve key points in four major modules, we have summarized the experience of our phased success to share with everyone. We welcome criticism and correction from all sectors.

Let us first take a deeper look at one of the key points—grasping the core value. Under this there are three sub-points: independent controllability, chain leadership, and pricing power.

The first thing to do to grasp the core value is independent controllability. At present, very few companies truly achieve independent controllability, including aspects such as technology R&D, team and organization, important nodes in the industrial chain, and business development models. Slkor/Kinghelm (www.kinghelm.com.cn) has achieved this, and this is one of the cornerstones of success. The company is committed to achieving independent controllability in the industry, ensuring the autonomy of technology, products, and the industrial chain. Especially in the semiconductor field, the high value density of high-tech industries makes independent controllability particularly important. The R&D team of Kinghelm/Slkor is composed of highly educated teams from Tsinghua University, Yonsei University in Korea, and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. We have invested a lot of energy to ensure the autonomy of technology and the controllability and continuity of product iteration. Years of deep technical cultivation have made the company's product quality excellent, and it can continue product iteration, thereby giving products certain competitiveness and gross profit space. In terms of team building, Slkor/Kinghelm has also invested a lot of energy. Through regular team-building, internal incentive policies, new employee training, and the implementation of policies such as "one-on-one mentorship" between experienced and new employees, the company has built a highly efficient and cohesive team full of talents and capable leaders.

Kinghelm Laboratory Instruments in Dongguan

The second point is chain leadership. The semiconductor industry is a globally distributed industry, mainly including product R&D, IP design, manufacturing wafer fabs, packaging and testing plants, distribution, and downstream user assembly and processing production, among multiple nodes. In this huge industrial chain, some giant companies such as Samsung and Intel implement the IDM model, that is, giants with layouts at all nodes of the industrial chain. Industry giants such as Apple phones and Tesla cars dominate the entire smartphone and new energy vehicle industrial chains and have strong discourse power. But for small and medium-sized enterprises like our Slkor/Kinghelm, to gain a leading position and discourse power in this industry, we need to grasp key nodes in the industrial chain, such as new product design, gradually accumulate and establish competitive advantages at that node, and continuously strengthen our own strength. Slkor and Kinghelm choose to invest more energy in the R&D field and have achieved considerable competitiveness in this field. Using new product R&D to drive the development of the entire industry is our goal. Although our current scale is not large enough and our influence is limited, Slkor/Kinghelm has still reached the front ranks in brand promotion, channel penetration, and product iteration. For ordinary small and medium-sized enterprises, if they cannot become the chain leader of the supply chain and build a supply chain ecosystem, they must improve their core competitiveness, find ways to join the supply chain led by the chain leader of the industrial chain in which the enterprise is located, and develop together with the supply chain chain leader, so as to leverage the momentum to become bigger and stronger!

Song Shiqiang's manuscript on the password for Slkor/Kinghelm's continuous 100% growth.

Third, we must have pricing power over products, sustained pricing power. In any industry, including the semiconductor industrial chain, having pricing power over products is crucial. Many small enterprises in Huaqiangbei lack basic pricing power. Their pricing power is often established behind original manufacturers and agents, and only then do they have marginalized pricing, without discourse power above them, causing them to only passively respond to market competition, run themselves ragged, and find it difficult to obtain good profits. If you want to have pricing power in this industry, you must become the core of the value chain. One way is to become an original manufacturer, with your own IP, brand, channels, and a certain scale and a large group of solid partners, forming your own moat. Pricing power actually includes the right to interpret related matters, bargaining power with upstream and downstream, industry influence, and bargaining chips. For example, I often drive a Japanese Lexus car. It is the entire system of car production and sales, integrated with the technical points of new products, to obtain better profits. A new thing originally worth 500 yuan, bound to the car, can be sold to you for 30,000 yuan, such as cruise control, GPS navigation, and EBD systems. Only with strong strength in these aspects can enterprises squeeze out profit space in the middle. At the same time, having influence can bring more social resources. This is my understanding of pricing power. So what has our Slkor/Kinghelm been doing in recent years? We have been building the company around these aspects: product power, influence, brand power, sales channels, and company team. Therefore, the influence of Kinghelm/Slkor in the industry keeps pace with the times. In the future, we hope to become an enterprise with leadership and then become the core of the value chain!

Song Shiqiang speaking on the password for Slkor/Kinghelm's continuous 100% growth.

Profile of Song Shiqiang:

Mr. Song Shiqiang is the General Manager of Slkor Semiconductor and Kinghelm Electronics, a member of the expert database of the Chinese Institute of Electronics, a Shenzhen Huaqiangbei research expert, and a columnist and popular science writer. Song Shiqiang started as a grassroots technical person, has served as CEO of an international real estate listed company, has rich experience in technical management and business operations, combines macroeconomic theory with real business management, and leads the company's rapid development!

The Slkor Semiconductor and Kinghelm Electronics companies invested in by Mr. Song Shiqiang are headquartered in Shenzhen, China, and are both national high-tech enterprises. The Slkor (www.slkoric.com) and Kinghelm (www.kinghelm.net) brands enjoy international visibility and reputation, and their market share is gradually expanding. Shenzhen Slkor Semiconductor Co., Ltd. focuses on the R&D of new materials, new processes, and new products. Its technical team comes from Yonsei University in Korea and Tsinghua University, and it masters internationally leading silicon carbide MOSFET technology. Slkor has developed from a FABLESS design company into a company integrating design and R&D, production and manufacturing, product sales, and technical services. It is a member of the "Shenzhen Electronic Chamber of Commerce."