Delirium

Delirium chief defies year of dotcom madness BYLINE: Gwyneth Roberts BODY: JOE NGAI IS 26 years old. He has a degree in economics and an MBA from Harvard. He is also the chief executive of Delirium Corp, a pan-Asian e -business solutions provider. If you are secretly hoping this tale will evolve into one of spectacular dotcom disaster, like so many others in the past year, stop reading. Mr Ngai may have come far in a short space of time, but he has none of the arrogance one would associate with a young overachiever and while the dotcom bubble may have burst, this infant executive is not picking up the pieces. "We were all caught up in the bubble at some point," he said. "That is the definition of a bubble - even those who are conservative or sound investors get caught up. It 's a bubble when everyone believes in it. Now we need to be more realistic in terms of what we can do and what we are doing." Delirium helps traditional companies gain an online presence by providing services such as Web design, consulting and technology integration. It is a mere two-and-a-half years old. From an office in New York and a staff of 30 people, the company has expanded into Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and Beijing and employs almost 300. China is the focus of aggressive expansion plans in 2001, with offices in Shenzhen and Shanghai opening soon. Mr Ngai 's first foray into the new economy was the founding of online auction company Campus24.com in Boston. It was a pioneer in a burgeoning market before eBay became a household name and made its mark through selling services. "The concept was that through an auction you can find the right price for everything," he said. "For example, who goes to a hair salon at 3pm on a Wednesday afternoon? No one. Not in Boston. We were selling hair cuts for US$ 3 online. The hairdresser was happy to get a customer at that time for a lower price. "We auctioned weekday lunches at new restaurants, random times at golf driving ranges, canoe trips - all that