Barry Lam

Barry Lam (Chinese: 林百里; pinyin: Lín Bǎilǐ; Cantonese Yale: Lam4 Baak3 Lei5; born 1949 in Shanghai) is the founder and Chairman of Quanta Computer,^[2] the leading laptop producer worldwide.^[3] He is also a major patron of the arts and a leading philanthropist in the area of culture and education.^[4] In 2011, Forbes named him as the 376th richest person in the world and 6th richest in Taiwan with a net worth of US$3 billion.^[5] In 2012, he is cited as the 296th richest person in the world and 5th richest in Taiwan with a net worth of US$4.2 billion.^[6]

Barry Lam was born in Shanghai and raised in Hong Kong.^[7] His father was an accountant for the Hong Kong Club.^[8] He studied engineering in Taiwan, graduating from National Taiwan University with bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering.^[9]

In 1973, he and some former classmates founded Kinpo Electronics,^[10] a manufacturer of handheld calculators. As president of the company he built it into the largest contract manufacturer of calculators.^[10] In the late 1980s, he became convinced that notebook computers would be the next big product.^[11] He left Kinpo and founded Quanta Computer in 1988.^[9] He set up Quanta Computer with the help of a colleague, C. C. Leung, with capital of less than US$900,000.^[12] It had a turnover of NT$777 billion in 2007, US$23.7 billion.^[13][14]

Barry Lam is recognized as one of the front-runners of the high-tech field, which some attribute to a combination of engineering talent, innovative thinking and entrepreneurial skills.^[10] He has built Quanta into one of the biggest high-tech companies worldwide. In 2006, Fortune Magazine recognised Quanta as one of the Fortune Global 500 Companies,^[15] and in 2007, Forbes placed Quanta 15th in its ranking of the world's most admired computer companies, the highest ranking of a Taiwanese company.^[16] Quanta designs and manufactures for clients such as Apple Inc., Compaq, Dell, Gateway, BlackBerry Ltd., Hewlett-Packard,^[17] Alienware, Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, Gericom, Lenovo, LG, Maxdata, MPC, Sharp Corporation, Siemens, Sony, Sun Microsystems, and Toshiba. It is the largest manufacturer of PC notebooks worldwide^[18] and it has also diversified into servers, storage, and liquid-crystal display terminals.^[19]

Quanta

After his success with Kinpo, Barry Lam wanted Quanta to be more than a contract manufacturer. His vision was for Quanta to be a design manufacturer, a partner with its clients rather than just a supplier. As an SSDMM Provider, System Solution Design Manufacturing and Move,^[20] Quanta is very involved in engineering design for its clients. For Lam, Quanta's ability in combining designing power and functionality into lightweight packages has been the key to its success.^[10] Quanta offers combinations of features for each of its products which its clients can choose from. Once the design is agreed on, the next step is to get new, high-quality models into volume production quickly. These two steps, design capability and outstanding supply-chain management ensure profitability for customers and long-term relationships for Quanta.

Barry Lam established the Quanta Research and Development Center at its headquarters in Taiwan. The center works on many collaborative projects with major institutions such as MIT, National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica on producing next generation products.^[21]

Quanta Computer's flexibility has become a by-word for Taiwanese competence in the high-tech world, and Lam is seen as the founder of the engineering / design / manufacturing model,^[22][23] which launched Taiwan's High Tech Industry.^[12] Lam's visionary view of the PC notebook world can be seen as the driving force behind the success and prolific growth of the notebook in the late 1990s.^[11]

In May 2008, celebrating its 20th anniversary, Quanta was named as Taiwan's second largest private manufacturing enterprise.^[13] It had an annual turnover in 2007 of NT$777 billion, posting a 45% revenue growth.^[13] In 2001, a tough year for most computer companies, Lam led Quanta to world dominance as it became the largest notebook manufacturer worldwide and increased production by 50%.^[24] In 2002, Quanta moved production to mainland China where it established a large manufacturing base with the aim of reducing costs.^[25]

Teams

Barry Lam is renowned in Taiwan for his emphasis on employee satisfaction. His engineers and design teams are some of the best paid in Taiwan, and share in company profits.^[10] He has instilled his focus on design and quality into his entire team and employees regularly make suggestions for improvements in products.^[26] The Quanta Research and Development Centre includes an art gallery, library, gym, and swimming pool. A performance hall is also planned. Quanta has more than 30,000 employees of which over 3,500 are engineers.^[19]

MIT Project T-Party

In 2005, Barry Lam and Quanta joined forces with MIT on Project T-Party,^[27] a five-year initiative that will create the next generation of platforms for computing and communication.^[28] Combining the huge brainpower of MIT with the practical skills of Quanta, the project aims to create new interfaces and explore new ways of managing and accessing information.^[29] Lam commented on the project, "We are very pleased to team up with the renowned research institution, MIT, to embark on a new IT trendsetting endeavor. Combining the exceptional research resources of MIT with the world-leading innovative design and manufacturing engine of Quanta, we are excited about the prospects of bringing brand-new products and services to the world that will improve all of our lives and cultures."^[27]

One Laptop per Child

Barry Lam decided that Quanta would be the original design manufacturer (ODM) for the OLPC XO-1 by the One Laptop per Child project.^[30] Quanta took orders for one million laptops as of 2007-02-15.^[31] The OLPC project was also part of Quanta's Blue Ocean Strategy,^[32] entering new market segments which are uncontested in terms of competition.

Public Computers

Barry Lam considers that one path for the future is the availability of public computers in conjunction with OLPC. He envisages 'public computers' available in organisations or schools which are accessible to anyone with a PC.

“If users paid fees [when using a public computer], the OLPC could become even cheaper. This is because when using your device, you would be actually using the resources of the public computer, so that the OLPC would not have to be equipped with computer functions at all. For instance, sending video and audio files, downloading games – depending on which game I want to play or which TV channel I want to watch – I can get them from a multimedia public computer. It could evolve into only paying for what you use, and not having to pay for what you don't use. The future, I believe, will be the age of OLPCs and public computers.”

Patron of the Arts and Philanthropist

Barry Lam is one of the foremost patron of the arts in Taiwan,^[4] and a leader in the area of culture and education. He has a personal collection of more than 1, 000 works of art and in particular, he collects Chinese paintings and calligraphy.^[11] One of his favourite painters is Zhang Daqian, and he has more than 250 of his works.^[33] He is sponsor of the Zhang Daqian Museum, which is housed in the artist's former home. He has incorporated a Museum of Art and Technology in the headquarters of Quanta in Taiwan, and he displays his personal art collection there.

He is chairman of the Advisory Committee of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, one of the leading museums worldwide.^[34] It has the largest collection of Chinese artefacts in the world.

He is chairman of the Contemporary Art Foundation which manages the MoCA Taipei.^[35] Its mission is to introduce diverse creative art forms from Taiwan, Asia and the rest of the world.

He is director of the renowned Cloud Gate Dance Theatre group,^[4] a Taiwanese modern dance group, which has performed in the Guggenheim Museum^[36] in New York, and toured Europe extensively.^[37][38]

He is founder and Chairman of the Quanta Cultural and Educational foundation, which promotes culture, art and education in Taiwan.^[2] It promotes educational exhibitions and programs for schools free of charge. It has held more than 20 exhibitions in 291 schools, with more than 1.3 million young people participating in its educational activities.^[39] The foundation has received the Wen Hsin Golden Award from the Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan, for its outstanding promotion of social education many times.^[40]

In November 2002, Barry Lam announced that he would fund a new College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at his alma mater National Taiwan University.^[41] It opened in July 2004, and is known as the Barry Lam Hall.^[41] It houses the Barry Lam Art Gallery in its basement.^[42]

He is chairman of the Dwen An Social Welfare Foundation, a charitable organisation funded by leading business people in Taiwan.^[43]

He is a board director of the China Exploration and Research Society (CERS),^[44] a Hong Kong-based group dedicated to understanding the natural wonders of China.

Honors

• 2012 Honorary Doctorate, National Tsing Hua University^[45]
• 2007 Honorary Doctorate, National Taiwan University^[46]
• 2005 Honorary Degree: Doctor of Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University^[47]
• 2006 'Second Class Bright Star Medal' Taiwan Government^[40]
• 2006 and 2002 Wen Hsin Silver Award for outstanding promotion of social education, Council of Cultural Affairs, Taiwan^[40]
• 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year, Ernst and Young^[48]
• 2002 One of '25 Managers of the Year', Business Week Magazine^[49]
• 2001 and 1999 One of 'The Stars of Asia', Business Week Magazine^[50][51]

References

External links

• Project T-Party
• Quanta Culture and Education Foundation