Acer founder Stan Shih has been awarded the third K.T. Li Award. Shih said that when he first started his business, he wasn't thinking about making money; he only wanted to create value. Since then, the Acer Group ecosystem has expanded to include Acer, Wistron, BenQ, and AUO; each bringing its own successes.
According to Shih, people were poor but ambitious in the 1970s. His business happened by chance with his wife and partners. Because K.T. Li cared so deeply about young people in the tech field, Shih recalled not wanting to personally let him down.
When Acer was founded, Shih said they could not find investors, so they raised money from employees and sought venture capital participation. At the time, K.T. Li advised against using the term "risk fund," because in Taiwan, the word "risk" discouraged investment. Instead, they used the term "entrepreneurship fund." In the 1980s, Acer built its own brand and handled its own production; later, brand companies also began commissioning Acer for OEM services.
When he retired at age 60, unlike other companies that looked for one successor, Shih chose three, establishing three companies, Acer, Wistron, and BenQ; AUO also later joined. Together, their combined market value now exceeds NT$2 trillion (approx. US$64.5 billion).
Shih's entrepreneurial family concept is guided by moral leadership and shared cultural values to achieve sustainability. According to Shih, a family business might last 20 to 30 years per generation, while an entrepreneurial family can renew itself every decade. Allowing employees to own shares and participate in company management is one way to embody this principle of balancing and sharing benefits.
Article edited by Jack Wu
