Big companies with humble background

Foxconn or Hong Hai is one of the biggest manufacturing company in the world. It was a small tiny company about 20 years ago in Tu Cheng of Taipei province Taiwan. I used to work for Acer Inc in its Taiwan headquarter and Foxconn then was one of the part vendors who sold connectors to us for the 80286 personal computers. One of the keyboard engineer left Acer and joined them and I wondered then why he had to leave a big reputable company like Acer and joined such a relatively small company. I happened to passby Tu Cheng one day many years ago and was right in front of the door steps of Foxconn shop and it was such a shabby shack that it did not even attract me to explore and step in further for a visit. Just barely within 20 years, Foxconn now has grown so big and employed more than 400,000 workers just in its Shenzhen China plant alone. They build iPod, iPhone or probably even iPad for Apples and other multinational brands ODM products. With its worldwide operation, I suppose they are at least the same if not bigger than Acer Inc in terms of size and revenue turnover. This company came into news recently because of many suicidal incidents of workers in its multi-storeys hostels. It was reported in newspapers that Foxconn is a sweat shop or a "pressure cooker" factory. Foxconn employees are always under tremendous stress that somehow coupled with some of their personal unresolved problems that drive them to the extreme act of taking their own lives. Statistically speaking, with such a humongous organization, suicides or all kinds of other unfortunate incidents bound to happen to its large pool of human resources. The high profile boss Mr. Kuo had made a public apology and also promised a 20% increase in salary just to pacify his Chinese employees.

There is another very famous motherboard company by the name of Asus. Asus chairman Mr. Johnny Shih used to be the Senior VP of R&D in Acer Inc. I went with him once in year 1991, my first trip to America to visit computer companies such as Wang, Data General and Dell etc. We visited Boston and also together we went to take a look at MIT from the outside just to satisfy our curiosity on this top-class world renowned institution. Johnny speaks very good English and was always referred as the "Father of Acer 80386 machine" at that time. Being a very technical person, it was not to his favor whenever the top management wanted to pick a candidate to helm the Acer Inc organization. It was Acer tradition that always the Sales and Marketing guy would get the job as the CEO. He had probably realized this, therefore he started Asus company behind the scene with one of his section manager Mr. Tong as one of his first GM employee or partner. And now Asus reputation is almost in par with Acer in the worldwide computer market and they built a strong name in motherboard, EE netbook, laptops etc.

I had always told my son that do not ever under-estimate any person he meets in life. I told him that one of his classmates Tan Kok Hou might not be the most popular guy amongst the girls in class but his willingness to work hard and persevere, one day he might just become rich. Similarly, those people I met in the university days such as ex-CEO of IBM Woon Seng Chuan, Bumi-highway chairman Mohamed Zaini Amran, ex-MCA president Ong Tee Keat and Top Glove chairman Dr. Lim Wee Chye, they were not the brightest academic guys in town, but they are now amongst the list of most successful Malaysians. One of my old friends James Tan who was the QC supervisor in EAC while I got to know him during the time I did my 3rd year industrial training and now he is the proud owner of the Joven water heater brand company. Another of my friend and ex-colleague Ramlan, the foreman in UMW Toyota Assembly plant in year 1987 became a very successful businessman when he quited the job and took on many lucrative projects  given to him by Majlis Perbandaran Shah Alam.

Always treat your friends nice and do not look down on humble set-up, one day they will just surprise you for what they could become!