Home Resource Seeks Success Through Good Management, Constant Innovation

David Chen, general manager of Home Resource Industrial Co., has always believed that a company without innovation is doomed to fail, and this belief has driven his company to innovate ever since its establishment 15 years ago.

The GM has been striving to infuse the concept of innovation in his company's lighting-fixture production and management principles, and this effort is paying off. When Home Resource's international sales slumped recently because of the global economic slowdown, end-user confidence borne of the company's spirit of innovation during the trying times carried it through. "Only by creating more innovative products," Chen states, "can we maintain our competitiveness in the international market. As a result of the success of this effort, we achieved 20% sales growth in the past year."

To ensure innovative products continually roll off its production lines, Home Resource has engaged in cooperative projects with lighting designers from Italy (Gewiss SPA) and Spain (Lamparas Oliva S.A.) over the past eight-plus years. "We are now planning to ink a contract with a U.S. design house this year," Chen notes.

Among the company's latest innovative breakthroughs is its light-emitting diode (LED) lighting-fixture collection, featuring table lamps, floor lamps, picture lamps, underwater lights, step lights, and other models. These fixtures come with a choice of LED lamp colors, high color efficiency and are both multifunctional and power-conserving. "This family of lamps is high-end, and its lamps have a longer life (70,000 hours) than other types," Chen reports.

The company is currently developing various innovative lighting including indoor lamps, outdoor fluorescent lights, pond lights, metal-halide lamps, high-pressure sodium floodlights, table lamps, and garden lights, with unit prices ranging from US$2 to US$65.

All Home Resource products feature safety, beauty, practicality, and durability. A monthly quality-analysis meeting is held to review quality-control procedures and the degree of customer satisfaction in conformity with the motto, "To be the best at what our customers value most."

To keep improving his management system, Chen strives to learn from recognized international thinkers in the field of business management. He followed the ideas of Dr. Peter Senge, for example, in setting up a team-learning system at his Taipei headquarters.

"Management is the lifeline of a business," he emphasizes. "To enhance our competitiveness in the international arena, we constantly upgrade our internal management in the areas of warehousing, human resources, and marketing."

Chen follows this philosophy in encouraging his managers to absorb as much management know-how as possible in order to boost the company's competitiveness. Reading the Chinese classic Book of Changes convinced him that the only thing that does not change is change itself, and that there are no eternal winners in business. Only by constantly learning new ways of thinking, he believes, can a company keep going.

Good management paid off in the winning of 2000 version of ISO 9001 international-quality certification in 2002. It has also obtained the approval of numerous foreign safety standards, including CE, GS, UL, CSA, SEMKO, DEMKO, and FI. And, Chen says, "We hold to these safety standards when we develop and manufacture our products."

The company moved into mainland China in 1995 via a 50-50 joint venture with mainland partners, with factories set up in Shanghai, Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, and Shunde in Guangdong Province. Headquarters and R&D operations remain in Taiwan, however, and the head office has a team of seven specially trained personnel at the ready at all times to respond to overseas inquiries. Delivery is promised within 20 to 45 days after receiving a foreign order.

Four years after landing in mainland China the company set up a wholly owned plant there for the production of items that are completely different from those turned out at the three original mainland factories: high-end light fixtures, which are produced on both an OEM and ODM (original equipment manufacturer and original design manufacturer) basis. The factory is supported by a laboratory that carries out tests in regard to stability, temperature, torque, pressure, and durability.

The company currently has 800 workers who are able to turn out 100,000 lighting fixtures per month, of which OEM products account for 40%, OBM (original brand manufacturing) products make up 25%, and ODM products amount to 35%. Europe takes 40% of the total, North America 25%, Australia and New Zealand 20%, and other areas 15%.