With its in-house art gallery, the Taipei office of Barry Lam, CEO of Quanta, looks more like a museum than the headquarters of the world’s leading supplier of notebook computers.
The art gallery at Quanta shows Lam’s deep admiration of the prolific Chinese artist Chang Dai-chien – a leading figure in Asian 20th century art often called the «Chinese Picasso» because of the variety of styles he worked with. “He knew how to learn from the great artists and at the same time to develop his own personal style,” says Lam.
One of Lam’s favourite Chang Daichien paintings is “Dawning Light in Autumn Gorges”, which uses deep green hues of «splashed ink», a painting technique allowing the artist to combine the abstract with the specific – the superimposed blend of which Lam finds deeply fascinating.
The CEO of Quanta owns over a thousand works of art, including 250 by Chang Dai-chien. What motivates him to collect art? “I am looking for peace of mind. High tech is short-lived. Art is forever.” Art is a uniquely powerful and accurate expression of life, he believes. “When you understand the art of a
country, then you will understand how its people live and how they think. This ability is essential for any manager who wants to sell his company’s products in different markets.”
All of his businesses have been, from the very start, infused with that kind of insight. He could have retired comfortably as the “king of calculators” with Kimpo, the company he founded with classmates in 1973. But by the 1980s, his attention was wandering elsewhere. He grew increasingly convinced about the future potential of notebooks even though they, and the PC industry,
were still in the midst of their first decade of popular use. “Like any other personal object, the computer needed to be mobile and allow its user to communicate with anyone in the world.»
In Lam’s mind, the notebook would inevitably grow to be a large global
consumer industry even though most experts then were extremely sceptical about the potential size of any future market. Many believed that a portable
computer would never have the range of capabilities and power of a desktop computer. Still, he was not to be discouraged, and in 1988 he founded Quanta.
One of the major obstacles his fledgling business faced was that all components back then were basically designed for desktops. Hard
disks and monitors were too big, and processors inadequate. Despite
all that, Lam held true to his vision. “I had a strong belief in the future of notebooks. My network of relationships kept me going on the path I had chosen.»
Guided by his analytical mind, he positioned Quanta as an original design manufacturer (ODM) – or, in other words, as a supplier to companies
who sold the notebooks he made using their own brands. It was a key, fateful decision that paved the way for his eventual success “The Taiwanese market is very small. It was the only way that we could achieve economies of scale and conquer the world market,” he notes.
Within a few years, Lam’s vision found an increasing number of major industry adherents. In 1994, Intel launched a special processor specifically meant for notebooks, calledCoppermine. By 1996, Quanta had launched MP5, its first multimedia notebook. But his crowning achievement was the Dell Latitude C600 – launched in 1998. It was the first model in the history of notebooks that sold more than one million units. Quanta had arrived. It was the world’s leading supplier of notebooks.
Today, Quanta produces one fourth of all the notebooks in the world. The 10 largest brands in the industry are customers, among them Dell, Apple, Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard.
Along the way, Lam’s company has acquired various component manufacturers. Although it is the leading ODM in the world on the notebook
market, Quanta is, by strategic choice, a company that stays out of the limelight. “Our customers sell their products under their own brand names. For this reason, we want to keep a low profile,” explains Lam.
Lam’s thoughts are always attuned to the future. He is convinced that
Quanta can apply the ODM model to the business computing segment
and LCD television screens. The fact that both industries feature
dominant, established players does not discourage him at all. “We are
used to being innovative, and we can produce at low costs.”
Lam envisions a future in which the notebook is what he calls a «virtual
PC». This means the notebook is connected to a central server and
doesn’t need to store all the data. The notebook is then just an interface
between the user and the data. He also wants to expand into mobile
telephones, because of the way they can complement notebooks.
“There are so many possible applications for mobile devices – using
one’s cell phone to check a database on the internet, for example.”
The “king of notebooks” never stops thinking of how to help Quanta grow. But even when he gives his creativity free rein, he considers himself a hands-on engineer. He laughs when he hears his nickname “hei shou”, which literally
means “black-hand». Still, it conveys how Lam sees himself and his
engineers: “We are not scientists, we want our products to operate
the way those using them want them to.”
In fact, as an engineer, Lam feels he can look at his past with some isfaction. He remembers something that happened to him a while back while he was flying. «I saw a passenger using a notebook manufactured by Quanta. I asked him if he
liked it, and he answered that it was fantastic. For me, it was the most tangible proof that I had made the right decisions as a manager!”
Despite his success, Lam still has a dream he wants to fulfil. “We are selling so many notebooks throughout the world. I would like to share my love of culture and art with just as many people at least, especially in Taiwan, a country where culture is underdeveloped, and one day I would like to open a museum that would house the works from my collection.”
Lam has also created the Quanta Educational Foundation whose aim
is to finance an international art center in Taipei City. “Culture changes people, their way of thinking, their behaviour. More wealth not enough to improve the security of a country, you also need more culture,” he exclaims.
When it comes to «culture», Lam sees beyond geographical barriers.
He considers himself a mediator between Asian and western cultures.
Born in Shanghai as Lin Pai-Li, he grew up in Hong Kong and completed
his studies in Taiwan. He notes that his company’s technology is western but
that its interpersonal relationships are Chinese. “We are aggressive in engineering development and benevolent in interpersonal relations. Western
and Asian cultures complement one another perfectly,” he explains.
He cites Confucius, his spiritual guide: “According to Confucius, a human being needs three things to function well: wisdom, benevolence and courage».
Top