A focus piece on Terry Gou (pronounced "gwo" - so shouldn't it be "Guo"?), founder of Foxconn and supporting actor in every Jackie Chan crime fighting movie. Gems include:
Part of Burson-Marsteller's plan was granting Bloomberg Businessweek's request for unprecedented access to Foxconn's factory floors, worker dorms, suicide-help-line operators, and Gou himself, who in the course of a three-hour interview riffed on everything from Warren Buffett ("He's too old") to the uselessness of business degrees ("You can't read a book to learn to swim") to Steve Jobs ("I forced him to give me his business card"). Gou also mocked New York bankers who "see the Hudson River and say, 'I'm a king of the world.'"
Some parts of his story are actually fairly inspiring:
In the early '80s, Gou made his first big push into the U.S., visiting 32 states over the course of an 11-month tour. He dropped in on companies unannounced, like a door-to-door salesman, arriving in a "big and safe" Lincoln Town Car he rented in every city. Once, to keep costs low, Gou slept in the backseat. In Raleigh, N.C., he booked himself into a motel close to an IBM facility. After three days of hanging around, he got an appointment and came away with a firm order for connectors.
Oh, the 80s. What wasn't possible? If only someone would produce a motivational peel-away calendar featuring daily nuggets of Terry Gou's business acumen in time for the holiday season.
What's your question, fool?
[Bloomberg Businessweek]
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