| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JUNE 14, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| INTERNATIONAL -- ASIAN COVER STORY
Chester Lin, CEO, NatSteel Electronics, Singapore (int'l edition) Chester C. Lin, 58, is such an avid golfer that he keeps sets of clubs at his plants in Indonesia, Mexico, Malaysia, China, Ireland, and California. ''All I do is work and play golf,'' he says. Lin needs so many irons because of his success in turning an ailing maker of computer parts such as disc drives and motherboards into a global player. Singapore couldn't look to a better role model than Lin. In 1994, he risked his personal savings to lead a buyout of a 35% controlling stake in NatSteel. He built plants around the world, figuring he could win contracts from Apple, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Compaq. He did: Companies liked his quality, on-time delivery and supply-chain management. Lin, who trained as an electrical engineer in his native Taiwan, was sent to Singapore in the 1970s by General Electric Co. to manufacture TVs. He stayed on, setting up operations for Huntsville, (Ala.)-based SCI Systems. Then he saw a chance to run his own company and seized it with NatSteel. Since the company went public in 1997, its stock price has more than tripled. Profits jumped 90%, to $40 million last year, as sales doubled to $1.5 billion. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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