【管院】ACT program field trip: Fair Friend Group

On Friday, December 08, the ACT students visited a company known as Fair Friend Group (友嘉實業股份有限公司, 簡稱FFG) in Taichung. The field trip was for the Asia Business Context class taught by Professor Wanda Tseng(曾頌華). The bus ride there was three hours with much anticipation from the students for the company visit. When we arrived at the headquarters, we were given a warm welcome by FFG.

They led us to their futuristic meeting room that was not like any other meeting room I have seen before. An employee from FFG began with an introduction of the company. They explained how FFG has a comprehensive product range with 96 total of companies all over the world and three business divisions: the machine tool division, the industry equipment division, and the green energy division. The machine tool division is the largest division at FFG with 37 brands.

students with the FFG signboard

The machine tool division has fifty different plants that spans over ten major machinery-manufacturing countries, such as the United States, Japan, China, and Germany. To exemplify how much history some of these companies have, Honsberg is a brand in the machine tool division and is over 200 years old. The history of the 37 brands in this division combined is over 3,000 years.

FFG is a leader in the industrial manufacturing industry as the third largest machine tools group and has many Taiwan Excellence Awards. FFG also has many international joint venture partners, such as the Toyota Tsusho Corporation and Nippon Cable Company based in Japan. The company has major customers from around the world in the aerospace industry, automobile industry, and the mold industry. For example, NASA and British Nuclear Power are customers of FFG in the aerospace industry, Ford, BMW, and Ferrari are a few of the customers in the automobile industry, and Caterpillar and Siemens are customers in the mold industry.

FFG Field Trip

The introduction of the company was followed by a Q&A session from Professor Wanda and the ACT students. The questions were over a wide range of FFG’s business operations; for example, FFG was asked about their large-scale operations in China and if there was any tension in the relationship with Taiwan that would affect FFG’s business. FFG stated that the political and economic relations do not affect FFG as business activities continue to go on, especially since the network and business relationships have already been developed in China despite the political tensions that exist. Other questions asked were about FFG’s student development efforts and how FFG works with universities to cultivate talent, their merger and acquisitions strategy, their international communication strategies, artificial intelligence’s role in the industry, and the environmental factors that may affect FFG’s business.

The discussion was then followed by a tour around the company’s factory. The tour exemplified the variety of products that the company manufactures, as well as the technological capabilities they possess, such as the utilization of virtual technology. We were shown many different exhibitions of the company’s products as well as their machinery and equipment. Students also had an opportunity to have a firsthand look in the production and manufacturing area of the company.

Professor Wanda Tseng(left)

Our company visit had concluded after the tour and everyone boarded the bus heading back towards school. It was a four-hour bus ride back and though the day was full of many hours commuting on the bus, visiting Fair Friend Group in Taichung was well worth the ride. Jimmy Chu, the Chairman of FFG, once stated, “Whatever you do, do well.” It may be simple advice, but this is what has made FFG the successful international company it is today and are words the ACT students can take with them as they continue their own professional business career.

(by Corey Yeung)

ACT group photo