Ask someone how they built their billion-dollar company, and you will get answers including hard work, perseverance, good timing and innovative thinking.
Rarely does the list include “painful memories.” But for John Tu, CEO of Kingston Technology, it does.
Those memories are pretty high up on the list, and they’ve gone a long way toward making the multibillion-dollar computer hardware manufacturer one of the best companies in the country to work for.
“The reason is because we suffered a tragic, financial disaster,” says Tu.
They called it Black Monday — the stock market crash of 1987. Tu and Kingston co-founder David Sun lost nearly $6 million that day — all the money from the sale of a previous business.
But out of those dark days, Kingston was born, along with a heightened appreciation for the human spirit.
“All the people in the beginning that we recruited, we were just so appreciative that they came and worked for us,” says Tu. “We knew that maybe we’d be OK, but maybe we’d be on the street. So we really appreciated the little things.
“The (corporate) culture is influenced from (Black Monday) because our lives were so painful and hopeless. You think you’ll never recover from that.”
Kingston’s company values include terms such as “respect,” “loyalty,” and “fairness.” Also on the list is “Having fun … working in the company of friends.”
That seems to be what really fuels Kingston — there is a driving range behind the headquarters, a company band that Tu participates in and the eye-popping $100 million in employee bonuses awarded back in 1996.
