The Success Culture

The World Wide Web really is that - worldwide. American business believes it's the end all and be all of online culture, but time will prove it wrong. There's a new challenge from companies from other countries and continents. And there's a huge contingent of U.S. immigrants who have injected new energy and vitality into business stateside.

James Chu brought a commitment to creating products around customer needs when he left Taiwan in 1986. His company, ViewSonic, manufactures and outsources monitors that must compete with market heavyweights like Sony, NEC and Panasonic. He faced them down - and the result is the leading monitor company that turned $1 billion in sales last year. The key to his success is simple, Chu says. He turns the disadvantages of coming from another country into advantages. Easier said than done, you say? Here's how he does it.

Be a Voice for Change

If you were raised in the US, you were brought up with a certain set of cultural precepts, Chu says. If you come from another place, you can see beyond traditions and try different strategies. "When you stay in one place too long, you become used to doing things in the same ways. You don't think about change," Chu says. "I have recently come into the country. I don't know too much about this country yet, so I have a more neutral mind. I can see what people need and I just give it to them. Our competitors do the same things over and over and follow the trends. I give the customers what they want instead. I think that since I look at the end user more directly, I get a better result." See related interviews on building a team and listening to customers: Founder, Drugstore.com CEO of LivePerson CEO of Furniture.com Chu doesn't have traditional business ideas standing in his way - he can see outside of business as usual, and create a company with a unique model.

Create Products Around Needs

Chu thinks ViewSonic has a leg up on competitors because the company creates products around customer needs. "Our competitor develops and manufactures the product and then ships it to the US, to the market. They ask their sales and marketing staff and their branch offices to figure a way to sell to the customer," Chu says.

"ViewSonic does it the opposite way. We ask what the customer wants and we build the product that they want. We produce the product to match what they need. So two approaches: our competitor makes the product and then tries to sell it and we find the end user's point of view, listen to what the end user wants and source the product that they need. It's a totally different approach." "The point is that the customer needs value, the customer needs a service, the customer needs a high quality monitor and they also want a very reasonable price," Chu says. "A very simple message, but I doubt our competitors get it. Sometimes you work on more complicated things and you cannot hear the most simple demand, the voice from the end user."

Listen to Feedback

Talking about hearing that voice is simple. Tuning into it can be more difficult. Where do you go to hear the opinions of your users? Chu goes right to the source when he can.

"I attended a lot of tradeshows. I met with a lot of customers, even though my English was pretty bad at that time. It's still so-so," he says. He also uses the net. "I read end user messages every day. I go to the Internet. I go in the chat rooms. I check for anyone mentioning ViewSonic. I read those messages everyday. I get all the feedback," he says. "I use a search engine for all the chat rooms about the Internet itself. Anything related to ViewSonic, anything related to our company, I read everyday," he says. For Chu, keeping his ear to the ground paid off. The same strategy could work for you.

Use Your Strengths

Many people who have come to the US to start a company are intimidated. They don't know the language, they don't know the customs, everything moves so fast here. Chu advises these people to use their strengths instead of focusing on deficits.

"English is not my first language and also, the culture is different. When I started the business, not only did I have the day to day challenges of the business, but also adjustments to the culture, the language. I thought I needed to learn everything from the beginning," Chu says. Instead, he found he could overcome his weaknesses with his strong points. "First, I tried to practice so that I could speak better English. Later on I found out that it doesn't matter how hard I tried. I probably could never achieve a professional level. So then I thought about it this way: to make my business more successful, maybe I needed to focus on the areas in which I have more strengths than weaknesses. Like speaking better English - maybe I can only achieve a skill level within certain limits. But if I use my strengths, then I probably can be more successful." It worked for Chu - it could work for you!