Terry Gau Case Study

At the age of 23, Terry Gau borrowed $7,500 from his mother to start his own manufacturing business out of a rented shed in suburban Taipei. (Balfour & Culpan, 2010). After 20 years gaining position and power within the technology manufacturing industry Gau leveraged his efforts to launch the company now known as Foxconn Technology and has since grown it to almost a million employees in 9 countries with almost $50 Billion in assets. (Foxconn, 2013). Estimates of Gau’s personal worth at between 6 and 10 Billion dollars though he claims to have little interest in that figure, stating in a 2010 Bloomberg Business week interview that, “I am working not for money at this moment, I am working for society, I am working for my employees.” Now in his 60’s Gau has begun planning his succession at the head of his company with a focus on executives in their 30s and 40’s who have proven “themselves by running their units assertively.” (Dean, 2007). Terry Gau sees himself as a benevolent dictator as is evidenced in both his behaviors and in his words; “The important thing in any organization is leadership, not management. A leader must have the decisive courage to be a dictator for the common good.” (Dean, 2007).

Li Chang, a department manager in charge of component production staffed by entry level workers proved herself an asset to the company through her Task-Oriented leadership style. (Lussier & Achua, 2012, p.115). Through close supervision and ongoing disciplinary action Chang was able to keep her staff engaged and production on schedule. Upon her promotion to manage a larger department employing a skilled labor force made up of designers and engineers whose technical knowledge exceeded her own and whose work practice was very different than that of the assembly line workers Chang had previously supervised. Having had success in her former role, Chang began to implement changes in her new department believing she would increase productivity but found that her

References: Bridges, W. (2009). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press. Broderick, P.C., Blewitt, P. (2010). The Life Span: Human Development for Helping Professionals (3rd ed.) Burkus, D. (2014). “The Peter Principle” and Other Reasons to Think Twice Before Accepting a New Promotion Maxwell, J.C. (2013) The Five Levels of Leadership. New York, NY. Center Street. Company Milestones. Retrieved July 11, 2014 from http://www.foxconn.com/GroupProfile_En/CompanyMilestones.html