徐旭東 (Douglas Hsu)

Wilson Chen introduced Douglas to me in 1968 after he finished his MBA from U.S. My first impression was his neat appearance and energetic movement. The meeting was brief and I was at that time a section chief of Export Department of FETL.

 The 2^nd time I met him he already seated himself in the chair of Foreign Department of FETL. (Far Eastern Textile Ltd.) In 1969 I was assigned to head Japan Sales Representative of the company stationing in Tokyo. We had telex communication once in a while and did not know him quite well. The only thing I knew was that his father apparently picked up him between his brother and sister to succeed him as Chairman of Far Eastern Textile Group.

 One time, I was summoned by his father Y.S.Hsu. He praised my sales abilities and encouraged to gear up the sales and promised to open a Tokyo Branch Office in a couple of years. In fact, When my sales reached a record of 3 million a year, the Promised office had not been materialized. I knew that was the way of Chinese conducting business. When they can use you alone to make more money why they had to spend more money for a branch office. Besides, I was not even one of their family members.

 In 1970 I was called for to accompany him to attend ship launching Ceremony in Hitachi shipyard of Kobe.  Later on he took tour with me to have a brief sight-seeing tour in Kyoto. He did not talk too much. Being with him privately I noticed that he had been deeply involved himself in acceptance with the forth coming heavy responsibilities.  When in the famous Kyoto temper, he was sitting in front of the scenic spot staring at the wave of sands and outstanding rocks for hours.

I did not disturb his deep thinking. When I thought of his father's wisdom of choice I told myself that Y.S. Hsu made best choice.

 Douglas supported my works in Japan.  When he paid me almost $1,000 a month while most of the management only got about $300 a month in Taiwan, I knew I was the focus of the jealousness.  I was not allowed to make any mistakes. In one occasion, I was assigned to settled a big claim with the big Trading House of Kalamatsu GoshoOne of the FETL garments factory shipped defective underwear to Japan. I went to the KG warehouse and checked the merchandize personally. It turned out the factory used the heavy gauged needle for the underwear. It cut through the fabric and caused the damages. The random check involved 200,000 dozen of the garments. I used the technicalities of negotiation with KG manager and settled the claim with a check amount $40,000 to be either deducted from future order when KG placed a new one, or the same amount to be remitted from FETL to KG in a 3 years period.   As a result, the case was forgotten and Douglas never honored the check. This is how the big enterprise  handled the dispute and claim.

When the 1^st oil chock in 1972, all of a sudden Japanese buyers stopped all the import. My sales from the peak sale almost $3,000,000 a year dropped to zero.
Two month later I got a call from Douglas:
“Mike, you know the situation does not look good.”
“I know.”
“You know we are big company, in a long run we just can not afford having money going out without cash in. Would you consider to come back to Taiwan for anther?Position?”
“Give me a couple of days, I will reply you without delay.”

I consulted my situation with Mr. Ohta of KG. He said: “ Don’t worry. You stay here in KG and we will offer you a place to stay. You still continue doing your sales and arrange selling all garment good of Taiwan to all the whole seller in Japan. But do not limit your self only selling FETL merchandise. Every order you receive and KG will open L/C On their behalf. You will receive 3% commission from KG for the sales.”

“It’s a deal!”
The next day, I sadly sent out telex:
“Douglas, thank you for the years support. I talked to my wife and we decide to live in Japan and sadly to render my resignation from next month.”

That was the end of my relation with Douglas.