Foxconn founder Terry Gou might be regarded as Henry Ford reincarnated if only a dozen of his workers hadn't killed themselves this year. An exclusive look inside a postmodern industrial empirePostmodern? I was trying to figure out what they meant before I realized they just meant really modern. Maybe a nod to the fact that companies sell stuff stamped "Apple" or "HP" are actually made by a totally different company, but who knows.
This was followed by a two-hour rally inside a vast sports stadium featuring acrobats, musical performances, fireworks, and life-affirming testimonials punctuated by chants of "treasure your life" and "care for each other to build a wonderful future."A little creepy.
Finally, Gou's company hired the New York firm Burson-Marsteller to help devise a formal public-relations strategy, its first in more than 35 years of existence.Mark Penn's company!? Damn, that guy really gets around!
Prominent on display are biographies of Gou, one of which collects his many aphorisms, including "work itself is a type of joy," "a harsh environment is a good thing," "hungry people have especially clear minds," and "an army of one thousand is easy to get, one general is tough to find."Well, he doesn't seem to be short on self-esteem! No doubt most Business Week readers will agree with a lot of those quotes.
Gou (pronounced "Gwo")No, Not really. ("Gwo" would be spelled Guo in Pin-Yin Gou would sound similar to "Go" with a long o at the end)
Since the end of May, Gou, who normally divides his time between Hon Hai headquarters in Taipei and China, has been living at Longhua in a room behind his office, dealing with the aftermath of the suicides. He says he works 16 hours a day and eats three meals at his desk. There is scarcely time for indulgences. "I was getting my hair dyed at 11 p.m. last night for this interview," he says, introducing himself with a firm handshake. He hasn't played a round of golf in months and stays fit by doing pushups in the morning and using the time to reflect on "the five-year plan. That's the most important."This is why a lot of "business men" can't understand why their employees need breaks in their 8 hour shifts and stuff like that. They work 18 hours a day so why shouldn't they be rewarded.
The public nature of Foxconn's labor problems could end up benefiting the company, enabling it to pass on the costs of its new worker-friendly initiatives. The raises will cut earnings per share by about 5 percent this year and by 12 percent in 2011, according to Daiwa Securities in Taipei. Yet all it would take is a 1 percent increase in the price of most finished products—$4 more for a 64-gig iPod touch, for example—to offset the added labor costs. Given the awful spectacle of the suicide epidemic, who's going to complain?This is an important point. I've seen people make claims like "You're not paying the real price for your stuff! If workers were paid well an iPod would cost $3000!!!!"
“• Gou on Warren Buffett (‘He's too old’), the uselessness of business degrees (‘You can't read a book to learn to swim’), Steve Jobs (‘I forced him to give me his business card’) and New York bankers who ‘see the Hudson River and say, 'I'm a king of the world.'posted by ericb at 7:16 AM on September 11, 2010
• A sampling of Gou's collected aphorisms: ‘work itself is a type of joy,’ ‘a harsh environment is a good thing,’ ‘hungry people have especially clear minds,’ and ‘an army of one thousand is easy to get, one general is tough to find.’
• That Gou dropped his libel lawsuit against two China Business News reporters who exposed harsh working conditions at Foxconn's iPod factory at the behest of Apple and Hewlett-Packard, two of his most important clients.
• That it's the threat of getting sued that concerns him as he prepares to move some of his production facilities from China to the U.S.”
Here's a fun challenge: whenever you see a self-described conservative or libertarian on the internet talking about their "hard earned money," "working hard," or how "lazy" a given group is, check if they're posting from work and watch how vigorously they'll justify it.Honestly, though, if someone in the USA can't figure out how to make six figures, they just aren't trying. That's fine, though, because people have priorities other than making money.
There's very few ways to seriously make over 100k without screwing someone over somewhere, even if it's the mundane, everyday screw-overs like taking massive bonuses for a successful year, while the lower-downs see little reward for their hard work.Yes, this mindset is the problem. What reward should there be just for "hard work"? None, if you ask me. Nobody cares if you just show up and punish yourself.
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It seems to me that what he means by that last sentence is that doing business in America means subjecting himself to its laws (environmental laws, worker safety laws, minimum wage laws, patent laws. etc.) and the (generally uncorrupt) system of justice that enforces them.
It is much more profitable for Mr. Gou to manufacture in places where there are few such laws and lax enforcement and then ship those products without any tariff into countries like America where such laws do exist.
Conservatives (and way too many Democrats) champion this under the banner of "free" trade when what they are really championing is "free of American laws" trade.
posted by three blind mice at 5:12 AM on September 11, 2010 [10 favorites]