Robert Sawyer

Born in Germany on a US Army base, raised in roughneck Stockton, California, by a doctor (father) and a nurse (mother), educated at Stanford University (BS Industrial Engineering), where I took advantage of the Overseas Studies Program (Berlin), which gave me the "bug" of living overseas, which I've never gotten cured of and never will.

I had the chance to set up European operations (mostly sales, marketing, tech support) for Elo TouchSystems, which was part of Raychem (now part of Tyco) during the rise of touchscreen phenomenon that has now taken over the world of user interfaces. Spent 5 years living and working near Brussels in Belgium, where I picked up some Flemish (Dutch) and worked hard to learn French.

Had the great good fortune to be able to live and work beside Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland, for 4 years, working for a leader in the touchscreen computer industry.

Since then (now going on 10 years) I've been living and working in Penang, Malaysia, in the EMS industry -- the most fascinating period in my life, and getting more interesting all the time!

Now I'm working more independently, developing new business for two different companies in the EMS space, one specialized in PCBA in the industrial and medical markets and the other in design, development, box-build and test, mostly in the consumer electronics market. I'm also now a lecturer at the Wawasan Open University in Penang in their EMBA program, lecturing on manufacturing systems, outsourcing, and supply chain management.

What I think about Foxconn

Way too big, way too vertically-integrated, too dominant in the industry, too powerful for most branded product companies to work with -- the Borg of the industry!

EMS companies I have worked with

ESCATEC Group (Switzerland, Malaysia, China, Mexico, Indonesia)
TES Electronic Solutions SAS (Malaysia, France)
STRiDE Electronics Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia)
K-One Industry Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia, China)

What I think about some of the emerging EMS markets or regions

I think Malaysia is developing as the "sweet spot" in Asia with an ideal balance of low-cost and yet high skill and productivity -- becoming more and more competitive in the EMS world. Plus it's a fantastic play to work, play and live!

What I think about low-cost manufacturing

Low-cost manufacturing is the "invisible hand" of the free market at work at the macro & global level. Painful as the shift of manufacturing to low-cost countries has been during the past few decades in the West, it's driven the West to shift its focus to knowledge work (R&D, marketing, product innovation) & spread the economic benefits of manufacturing jobs to regions that desperately needed it. Truly a case of "a rising tide raises all boats" - a driver for peace and prosperity in the world!

A book I recommend to others or am currently reading

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall