Clearly, Ko’s philosophy very much reflects a positive, familial, celebrate-every-accomplishment kind of work environment. At the same time, she took a very hard-nosed approach to Motorola Penang’s viability and business model. She saw technology as a two-sided coin that would eliminate low-skill jobs at the same time that it brought new opportunities. She knew that other countries had lower labor costs. She was committed to rapidly moving Motorola Penang to produce more complex systems products, creating an increased demand for technicians and engineers and potentially less demand for unskilled operators. She had never had to do a lay-off, and she was worried about lower- skilled operators’ ability to adjust to the new reality—she feared that in many cases they only knew how to do one thing and that they might not survive unless they learn to do other things.
In December 1993, as part of a management retreat for the top 40 Motorola Penang managers, Ko addressed the future vision for the facility. She tried to engage and get the input of the 40 by asking them to envision the factory in the year 2000 and then identify what needed to be done then, in 1994 to move closer to that vision. Her senior HR leader pressed her to share her vision. She pressed back once again and said she wanted to hear from them first. She finally relented.
Today we have nearly 3,000 employees but in six years, I believe that we will need only 1,500 people to produce over three times the sales turnover. Now we have islands of automation, but in six years I envision a factory that is integrated and automated from front to back—a lights out factory. Rather than simply producing components for products designed in the States for sale in Asia, I envision an Asian Design Center. Whereas now we produce many components for products, I envision us producing entire products