Idris Jala
Read this.
Maybe being exposed to the cabinet for extended periods has the reverse effect on one’s IQ.
People do business with the Japanese and Koreans despite the language barrier because of the value of what they have to offer. Culturally they are far more advanced than us. They reverse engineered key technologies and created far superior products than the west. Cheaper too at one point, so much so that people were desperate to do business with them. The entire cycle is repeating itself for us to witness first hand. Just look at China.
Huawei was founded in 1988. Within 10 years they entered a strategic partnership with IBM, and soon after a joint venture with Siemens. Today they are the second biggest telecoms infrastructure provider behind Ericsson. Look up their entry on Wikipedia and you’ll see allegations of technology theft. Call it what you will but they learnt hard and fast and made full use of their low-cost advantage. Now everyone has to do business with them. Its no longer an option but a necessity if you run a Telco and want to remain cost effective. In just two decades, Huawei is now at the cutting-edge of next-gen mobile technologies. They have successfully moved from copycats to innovators.
How long has Proton been in business by the way?
At this point we can only hope that because we are fairly proficient in English, people will still choose to do business with us compared to the other countries in the region. But that is different from people wanting to do business with us despite the language barrier.
