Short Irish Guy

Taiwan's Top Brands: The Real Stories Behind Acer, BenQ (Qisda) and ASUS

Acer almost went bankrupt in the 1990’s and only survived because of a government bailout. ASUS sprung from renegade executives who broke away from Acer and stole some of its best talent in the process. BenQ had made one of the most fraudulent strategic moves imaginable after taking over Siemens’s mobile phone division only to go bankrupt soon afterwards, narrowly saving its bacon by hastily creating a new corporate entity, Qisda, which it then bundled its operations into.

Who founded these companies? Why and how did they do so? What were the first few years like for them, and why did they manage to beat the competition to eventually not only come out on top of their Taiwanese counterparts, but become global leaders? I saw that each of these companies had a unique story, intertwined with both the personal narratives of their founders and that of Taiwan, a nation established in 1949 when the fascist dictator Chiang Kai Shek fled with his two million-strong nationalist army to an island only recently abandoned by the defeated Japanese. There was absolutely nothing in either the histories of these companies or Taiwan that had made this successful inevitable. So why were they winning?

I also wanted to find how much of the companies’ growth was due to a suitable environment and how much was dependant on the personalities of the founders. Were they straight-laced or did they demonstrate a Berlusconi-esque penchent for giving law the finger? What element did luck play? Furthermore, how did the founders' and companies' stories link into the rollercoaster of the global economy as it slowly but surely shifted its centre of gravity from West to East? Suffocating in the 90 percent humidity and 36˚C heat of summer, I decided to use the time I had left in The Republic Of China to find out.


Chapter Headings and Subheadings:


1. Taiwan™ Goes Global
- It’s Business, Jim, But Not As We Know It
- The Goose that Lays the Golden Noodle
- That’s a Nice Pair of Double Es You’ve Got There
- It’s the Environment, Stupid

2. Acer - A Taiwanese Pioneer
- A Humble Home
- The School of Hard Knocks Don’t Come Cheap
- A Kiss from Lady Luck
- We’re All in This Together, Chaps
- Paying the Price to be an IP Pioneer
- To Get a Name Can Happen But to Few
- Gimme an “A”! Gimme a “C”!
- Acer’s Brand Strategy
- Penny Pinching Proclivities
- “Except Husbands and Wives, Acer Sells Everything!”
- Danger is Opportunity: Maintaining a Sense of Crisis
- An Internal Revolution Begins
- Show Me the Light, Ronald McDonald
- We’re Gonna Become a “Network” of Companies. No, Literally
- Global Brand, Local Touch
- One Must Strike While the Iron is Hot, One Revolution Following Another
- BenQ and Wistron are Born
- Disembodied Brand, Full-Bodied Margins
- True Globalisation, Working as One
- Summing Up

3. BenQ (Qisda) and the Siemens Mobile Debacle
- A Big Step in the Wrong Direction
- Er... Let’s Just Get Back to Making Money, Shall We?
- How Not to Name a Company ... and then Make it Worse

4. ASUS - The Apple of Taiwan™’s Eye?
- Four Guys with some Dough and a Dream
- The Winged Steed Takes Flight
- Right on the Mon-eee
- Jonney Rotten

List Price: $ 0.99 Price:

Tags: Acer, ASUS, Behind, BENQ, Brands, Honest, Product, Qisda, Real, review, stories, Taiwan's