| |
As you read, click icons in the left margin
and answer any questions that pop up.
Your answers will be stored for
you to review and print once you have finished the article. |
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
 |
 |
| |
|
|
HONG KONG, Aug 05, 2004
Faces of Globalization: Minimotor Maker
by Kathleen Wang, UPI Correspondent
|
|
| |
|
|
 Rod MacGregor has the relaxed, self-assured air of a man who is doing what he wants to do. The 43-year-old Scotsman, seated at his desk in front of a gorgeous view of Victoria Harbor, explains why he has just moved major operations of his startup company from  Silicon Valley halfway around the world to Hong Kong.
"With a startup, you position yourself in an industry that's expanding. Historically there was a geographical locus—one location was the center of an industry," he explains. "But the companies coming up now are fundamentally different because of globalization. You have to be where your customers are."
MacGregor is chief executive officer and co-founder of NanoMuscle, a company that makes tiny motors to power toys and automotive parts and anything else an inventor wants to make. Instead of the traditional coil-and-magnet approach, the motor uses smart materials that do away with mechanical whirring and clicking noises.
|
|
| |
|
|
The motor's speed and silence make it useful in "interactive toys": a talking robot that moves its lips, a baby doll that blinks its eyes and raises its hand.
Since south China is known as the "factory of the world," and Hong Kong the largest exporter of toys in the world, where else would NanoMuscle want to be? There are plenty of toy designers in Hong Kong, MacGregor says, to whom he can pitch his tiny motor.
“Faces of Globalization: Minimotor Maker” by Kathleen Hwang from United Press International, 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Valeo Intellectual Property, Inc. Reproduced by permission of the copyright holder.
|
|
| |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
