Lawrence Kｕo's Birzman Branding Story

Lawrence Kuo(right) came to visit me in Heng Shan Village on Sept. 27, 2008 with his team, the Centurion bikes and the Birzman cycling tools. For his visit, I invited

• Lawrence Kuo, CEO Dirotech http://www.dirotech.com.tw/, http://www.birzman.com/



• Jack Tsai, Partner in Charge Heidrick & Struggles Taipei office. www.heidrick.com/



• Vincent Liu, BrandDNA http://www.brand-dna.net/



• Feeling Huang, ZyXEL HR manager, Global Operation www.zyxel.com/web/



• Lu Lu 謝倩瑩, 竹科單車推廣社 http://www.wretch.cc/blog/bikelulu



• 黃天人牧師, http://www.icoc.org.tw/tenren/article.htm



• 范揚田, 意念工房 http://www.smangus.com.tw/

• Jimmy Cheng, BusinessWeekly (台灣的商業周刊) , http://thinkerckd.blogspot.com/
  
  
• 彭嘉煒, 橫山居民 前聯合報系記者
  
  to come for a mini Forum to discuss the branding strategy of Birzman and its challenges. It was a very inspiring day. After the mini Forum we went cycling in the greater Heng Shan region and visited 意念工房.
  
  The Forum was conducted in the traditional Hakka House YinChungTang(潁川堂)
  LuLu 謝倩瑩
  
  
  From Left to Right: Feeling Huang, Lawernce Kuo, Vincent Liu, Don Chen, Jack Tsai

Friends with bikes in front of the Yinchung Tang(潁川堂)







Right: 意念工房 范揚田

潔如 & Jimmy Cheng in DaShanBei

Left to Right: Don Chen, 黃天人牧師, Jimmy Cheng

Jhuoshuei Station 濁水車站

Sun Moon Lake

Birzman

I went to Chung Hwua to see my college classmate Lawrence Kuo in his new office. It was supprised that he printed the photos in our college days and posted in the meeting room. It is happy but also a little sad that 25 years passed and it just like yesterday!

After 17 years in global trading business of bike parts, Lawrence established a brand- Birzman for biking tools. It is so touched to see a nice and modern designed office in a very remote village in central Taiwan. It is like what we experienced in Europe to visit some famous brand in a small town. Everyone said Taiwan should do so, and I saw my classmate is working on this.

Boys be ambitious!

On August 7th, 2008, my 16 years old son went to Finland alone for one year exchange student program. Why Finland? because Finland is trusted, unique and innovative. It is good for a young boy to experience a different culture to inpire his future.

He stay in a volenteer family in Mantsalan, a small town 60 km north from Helsinky.

http://www.mantsala.fi/lukio/



Boys be ambitious!
　
Be ambitious not for money or for selfish aggrandizement　
　
not for that evanescent thing which men call fame.　
　
Be ambitious for the attainment of all that a man ought to be.





"少年 要胸懷大志不是為了金錢 也不是為了私慾


也不是為了名譽這類空虛的志向


而是為了人為何生存 為了走完人生這條路而胸懷大志"



--William Clark---

1875年札幌農學校(即現在的北海道大學)成立，隔年借調聘任美國麻州農科大學校長克拉克博士前往任教，在借調的八個月期間，克拉克博士強調自律教育觀，認為教育工作者應相信學生良心，培養孩子的獨立人格，不應用強制手段要求他們做「正當」的行動。克拉克強調，不能自動自發地發展自己的良心，對自己的行為負責，就稱不上是「現代人」。認為國家建設的根基在於人，而日本除了物質近代化之外，國民精神的成長與培養，其實更為重要。這樣「精神重於物質」的信念，深深影響了日本。
1877.04. 克拉克博士離別之際，對全校師生發表公開演說，離情依依的他特別要求學生：「Boys, Be Ambitious！」(年輕人，你們要胸懷大志！)，這句話也成為日本教育界的經典勵志名言，至今傳頌不歇。

旅途的容顏