Over many objections, K.Y. Lee has made decisions from casting his fate with BenQ and entering the wireless telecoms and flat panel display businesses, to creating the BenQ brand and acquiring Siemens' mobile phone business. The son of a rice mill owner, Lee spent his childhood hefting loads of rice, and believes that "success means being yourself." (Yang Wen-ching)

In March of this year Renaldo, the Bra-zilian star forward for Spanish soccer team Real Madrid, appeared in ads around the world as a spokesperson for a mobile phone. As expected, the ad campaign resulted in torrid sales and product shortages. The brand of the phone--BenQ-Siemens--drew on the charisma of this sports superstar to rapidly establish itself throughout the world.

Fifteen years ago, K.Y. Lee relinquished his position of vice chairman of the Acer Group, requesting that he be assigned to Acer Peripherals--now BenQ--which at the time had annual revenues of NT$2.6 billion, or just one-sixth of the Acer Group. He followed the example of Acer founder Stan Shih by boldly creating a new brand and pressing toward the upper end of the "smiling curve" that Shih had used to illustrate the sources of value in the IT industry.

The BenQ brand was officially launched in 2001 and its value has grown from NT$6.756 billion three years ago to NT$11.6 billion last year. BenQ has also been responsible for a number of Taiwan firsts, from GSM, CDMA, and 3G handsets to a two-megapixel CCD camera phone. Moreover, BenQ has won recognition with a number of international awards for its product designs. Last year, after acquiring Siemens' mobile phone unit, BenQ immediately won the design world's equivalent of the Oscar, a 2006 iF Design Award, collecting a total of 17 individual citations, the third-highest of any vendor in the world. The dual BenQ-Siemens brand created after the acquisition has became one of the world's top five in terms of units shipped.

It is 7:30 in the morning, and nearly 100 new BenQ employees are gathered in front of the Taoyuan train station. On their first day of work, they are not going to their new workplace, but rather to Aspire Park, a combination industrial park and residential community built by Acer in nearby Lungtan. Regardless of their backgrounds or new job titles, these newcomers, who will work in different departments, must stay here for six days. Through teamwork, they must pass a series of physical and mental challenges, gaining from them an understanding of the company's culture and task management know-how. Only when they have faced and passed an evaluation of their ability to make the right judgment at the "moment of truth," will these newcomers be reborn as true BenQ people.