Foxconn's Founder Opens Up About Making iPhones

eldavojohn writes "Bloomberg Businessweek has an article of interest resulting from a three-hour interview with Foxconn founder Terry Gou (single page), whose company manufactures 137,000 iPhones a day. The article profiles Gou's rise to Foxconn but also offers some interesting tidbits you might not know. On why he is not opening factories in the United States, Gou frankly states, 'If I can automate in the US and ship to China, cost-wise it can still be competitive. But I worry America has too many lawyers. I don't want to spend time having people sue me every day.' If you're interested in how a modern day Henry Ford thinks, you can read the rest about the man steering the ship of the world's largest producer of electronics components and China's largest exporter. This unprecedented transparency was part of an agreement Gou made with his customers during his delayed response to an increasing number of Foxconn suicides."

Comments

Re:he's not a modern day Henry Ford

[homer_s]

Ford wanted his workers to have a living wage, to be able to afford the products they made.

From http://cafehayek.com/2010/08/fording-the-gorge-between-fiction-and-fact.html:

Ford raised workers’ wages for two reasons, neither of which had anything to do with raising consumer demand for his automobiles. The first reason was to reduce worker turnover. In 1913, the year before the $5 wage was announced in January 1914, the average Ford employee quit after less than four months on the job. A workforce so unstable and inexperienced prevented Ford’s factories from achieving peak efficiency.

Second, because the $5 wage was conditioned upon Ford’s workers learning English, as well as their steering clear of alcohol and gambling – conditions monitored by Ford executives visiting workers’ homes! – the higher wage was an incentive for workers to be more reliable and productive while on the job.

In short, Ford was something of an early supply-sider. He understood (at least in 1914) that the key to economic growth is not in giving people stronger incentives to spend but, rather, in giving people stronger incentives to produce.

Please, read the fine article, it's worth it

[acid06]

You'll notice that even though by western standards Foxconn has a terrible work environment, they're actually the best option for Chinese workers, who queue to work there.

Even though the salaries seem low by western standards, Foxconn pays the higher salaries in China. The article mentions several people who are there only to earn some money for a while and then go to work on a lower-paying less-stressful business.

The man himself started his huge empire with a $7500 loan. Hell, I live in Brazil and you can't even begin an auto repairshop with this money here, let alone a small manufacturing plant.

By Chinese standards, Foxconn is great and they actually seem to care about their employees more than the other Chinese companies do. None of the workers are afraid to complain and lose their jobs or anything like that and even strikes happen (and people continue employed).

Honestly, you should just enjoy your cheap electronics while you can because this isn't going to last forever as a newer generation of Chinese people is growing up (also mentioned in the article) and they will want better standards of living - no one needs to take care of them, there's more than a billion of them and they can take care of themselves.