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tsmc's Approach to Grooming a Successor for the CEO Role

M

Maximus

Active member
People often attribute Intel's current struggles to a series of non-technical CEOs. In contrast, TSMC’s approach to grooming a successor for the CEO role is much more strategic.

Both Mark Liu and CC Wei hold PhDs and have comprehensive experience across R&D, production, and business. The same criteria apply to Kevin Chang and Cliff Hou, who are seen as the top contenders for the next CEO position. Both also hold PhDs and have broad experience in R&D, production, and business. To strengthen Cliff Hou's production background, he was recently appointed as deputy to Mr. Y.P. Chyn (Co-COO), likely to enhance his expertise in this area.

Overall, TSMC's approach to building future leadership is as steady and meticulous as the way they run their company.
 
Keep in mind, TSMC has also had an unsuccessful CEO transition: Rick Tsai was President & CEO from 2005-2009 before Morris Chang un-retired to right the ship. Rick was also incredibly technical (PhD in materials science), formerly COO at TSMC, and served in various operational, production, and sales positions at the company. There's certainly more to it than being technical, although in Intel's case, lack of technical expertise in CEOs has certainly contributed to its current woes.
 
tedc said:
There's certainly more to it than being technical, although in Intel's case, lack of technical expertise in CEOs has certainly contributed to its current woes.
Click to expand...
This really calls out the ultimate issue in the IDM strategy - it is probably impossible to find someone who can be an effective ratifier of strategy proposals from fabrication and from chip and system design. For example, Craig Barrett is a brilliant individual, but he is not a computer scientist or chip design engineer. He is a materials scientist. Itanium happened on his watch as CEO, but Intel fabs led the chip world. Two completely different skill sets are required.
 
Maximus said:
People often attribute Intel's current struggles to a series of non-technical CEOs. In contrast, TSMC’s approach to grooming a successor for the CEO role is much more strategic.

Both Mark Liu and CC Wei hold PhDs and have comprehensive experience across R&D, production, and business. The same criteria apply to Kevin Chang and Cliff Hou, who are seen as the top contenders for the next CEO position. Both also hold PhDs and have broad experience in R&D, production, and business. To strengthen Cliff Hou's production background, he was recently appointed as deputy to Mr. Y.P. Chyn (Co-COO), likely to enhance his expertise in this area.

Overall, TSMC's approach to building future leadership is as steady and meticulous as the way they run their company.
Click to expand...
This forum should implement a reference system.
I have noticed that many of my original ideas are being borrowed without proper citation.
 
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tedc said:
Keep in mind, TSMC has also had an unsuccessful CEO transition: Rick Tsai was President & CEO from 2005-2009 before Morris Chang un-retired to right the ship. Rick was also incredibly technical (PhD in materials science), formerly COO at TSMC, and served in various operational, production, and sales positions at the company. There's certainly more to it than being technical, although in Intel's case, lack of technical expertise in CEOs has certainly contributed to its current woes.
Click to expand...

Rick Tsai's resignation was largely due to differences in opinion with Morris Chang regarding layoffs following the 2008 global financial crisis. It’s possible that handling layoffs wasn’t part of his training in business, R&D, or production roles. ;) Fortunately for Rick Tsai, he had the opportunity to prove himself at MediaTek, and this time around, it has worked out well for him.
 
Maj
Maximus said:
People often attribute Intel's current struggles to a series of non-technical CEOs. In contrast, TSMC’s approach to grooming a successor for the CEO role is much more strategic.

Both Mark Liu and CC Wei hold PhDs and have comprehensive experience across R&D, production, and business. The same criteria apply to Kevin Chang and Cliff Hou, who are seen as the top contenders for the next CEO position. Both also hold PhDs and have broad experience in R&D, production, and business. To strengthen Cliff Hou's production background, he was recently appointed as deputy to Mr. Y.P. Chyn (Co-COO), likely to enhance his expertise in this area.

Overall, TSMC's approach to building future leadership is as steady and meticulous as the way they run their company.
Click to expand...

The educational backgrounds of the senior leadership teams at Intel and TSMC are very different. I believe the consequences of this are very clear to see.

Is there a glass ceiling for people with advanced engineering degrees at Intel?

I analyzed the educational backgrounds of the 16 executives listed on Intel's executive leadership page. Here are my findings: 1. Four executives have PhDs in engineering-related fields. Among them, only one (Ann Kelleher) is a long-time Intel employee. Two joined Intel in 2021, and one joined...
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Maximus said:
Rick Tsai's resignation was largely due to differences in opinion with Morris Chang regarding layoffs following the 2008 global financial crisis. It’s possible that handling layoffs wasn’t part of his training in business, R&D, or production roles. ;) Fortunately for Rick Tsai, he had the opportunity to prove himself at MediaTek, and this time around, it has worked out well for him.
Click to expand...
Rick Tsai goofed up by messing up the next process transition and focusing on whale clients while dismissing smaller clients. That is why Morris had to come back.
 
samwilde said:
Rick Tsai goofed up by messing up the next process transition and focusing on whale clients while dismissing smaller clients. That is why Morris had to come back.
Click to expand...

Could you provide more details about Rick Tsai's impact on TSMC's process transitions and client relationships? I’m particularly interested since most media reports focus on his resignation being primarily due to layoffs.
 
Maximus said:
Could you provide more details about Rick Tsai's impact on TSMC's process transitions and client relationships? I’m particularly interested since most media reports focus on his resignation being primarily due to layoffs.
Click to expand...
TSMC started losing NVIDIA as a customer for example. NVIDIA were moving GPU production to UMC. Look at NVIDIA's 2008 GPU releases.
 
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