Word: bu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Strange how the pressures of the world seem to have cropped out in the center of the country. The fecund fields of Adair County, Iowa, yield more corn than anyone can sensibly conceive (5,308,000 bu. made up of at least 400 billion individual kernels, any one of which makes a good chew for a boy doing nothing but hiking in the sun and tasting the earth's power). That is corn coveted by the adversary, the Soviet Union. Corn that would feed the hungry of Bangladesh if they could only get it. Corn that is so abundant...
...Chinese thus hope to develop more badly needed consumer industries by encouraging enterprising managers who know how to use the new freedoms to create profits. The transformation at the Haiyan shirt factory is the work of one such man, Bu Xinsheng, 52, its manager. The son of a Shanghai tailor, Bu started sewing shirts at the factory in 1956, and moved up in the ranks by earning a reputation as a hard-driving worker. When industry officials decided in 1979 that the factory needed revitalizing, they tapped Bu...
...time, the plant was like most others in China. Absenteeism, sleeping on the job and a hearty disrespect for managers were only a few of the problems. Bu quickly changed all that. Among other moves, he demanded strict discipline, firing workers who ignored his rules. Angry workers and local party officials opposed the reforms. One fired worker tried to kill Bu with a pair of scissors before being overpowered by employees, and Bu became the target of political attacks. They stopped only after laudatory reports about him appeared in the People's Daily and on Chinese television...
With such struggles behind him, Bu continued to revitalize the company. He has introduced benefits like subsidized housing, and even composed a company song. Now he is working on marketing approaches that have included adding new colors and giving Haiyan shuts their first brand names: Tangren (Tang Dynasty Man), Shuangyan (Double Swallow) and Sanmao (a character in a popular cartoon strip). Says Bu: "When I die, I want no wreaths, just the logos of these shirt brands placed on my box of ashes...
...BU's Doyle says that while "their people are very good, the disadvantage is that it doesn't suffer from competition. There's always an advantage to having clients that choose you because you're the best there...