Product Overview

Early in 2019, Wingtech CEO Xuezheng Zhang faced one of the biggest challenges of his career. China-based Wingtech, which Zhang had founded 13 years earlier, had rapidly grown into one of the world’s top manufacturers of mobile phones and intelligent devices. But Wingtech didn’t manufacture its products’ key component: microchips. Most of the chips it used were purchased from American and European manufacturers. Faced with growing anti-China sentiment from the US government, and seeking to avoid crippling disruptions to its microchip supply chain, Wingtech had recently purchased highly regarded Netherlands-based chip manufacturer Nexperia for USD3.6 billion. Now Zhang faced a daunting set of consequential new questions. To what extent should he try to integrate the two geographically and culturally distinct companies? How could he convince Nexperia’s highly competent leader, who had been unenthusiastic about the deal, to stay? Zhang had seen great success as an entrepreneur. How should he lead as the CEO of a global high-tech firm?