Law and Disorder

摘要

Avant chairman gerald hsu has a little trick for improving productivity among his 1,330 employees. Every six months he fires 5% of them. Sales reps in particular are in danger if they fail to visibly dote on customers. "If you don't smell each other's body odor, you don't get purchase order," he quips in clipped English. This is a guy you don't want to cross. No surprise that when he and his software firm were charged with stealing trade secrets from archrival Cadence Design Systems, Hsu fought back. He has spent some $30 million of Avant shareholders' money to clear his name in criminal and civil cases, and $48 million to settle related shareholder suits.