We ain't Foxconn!

Source: EETimes.com

Here are excerpts from a new online article about my school, The SMIC Private School.

Name a semiconductor manufacturer that runs a school and a real estate business along with their foundry service. There’s only one--Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), based in Shanghai.

Founded in 2000, SMIC symbolizes China’s ambition to become a key player in the global semiconductor industry. SMIC also developed a template for successful recruitment of world-class talent, by building close to its headquarters a residential campus together with an award winning K-12 international school, which as of 2012 had an enrollment of more than 2,000 students.

You’ve probably heard of Foxconn’s dormitories in Shenzhen, jammed with young production line workers recruited from the countryside. Far less known is this semiconductor company–unusual in China or anywhere else in the world–that actually operates a school and provides family living quarters for workers and executives..

SMIC deserves credit for writing a textbook scenario on how to set up a successful operation in emerging markets. The key is the school.

The SMIC School, offering an English Track that runs on a U.S. curriculum, is known as one of the best schools in Shanghai--even better than the American School in Shanghai--by the expatriate community. On the theory that the best school needs the best teachers, the bilingual school recruits its teaching staff globally, including career educators from prep schools in the United States. 

A Harvard Business Review article in 2009 that examined SMIC’s strategy–including the SMIC School–pointed out that “graduates from the school had been admitted to top universities in the U.S., including many Ivy League schools. The school became a popular choice even for non-SMIC employees, which accounted for more than 60 percent of the student body.”

In short, this may be China, but it ain’t Foxconn. 

Read the full article here.