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About a year ago, when AST Research's computer sales were sizzling and its stock was soaring, the company's three young founders decided to treat themselves. They all went out and bought fancy new cars.
Albert C. Wong and Thomas C. K. Yuen drove up to work in identical black Ferrari Testarossas. Safi U. Qureshey, displaying more modest taste, showed up in a top-of-the-line BMW.
Whether purchasing cars or plotting corporate strategy, AST's top executives followed a "Three Musketeers"-type philosophy after forming their company in 1980. They named the company by using the initials of their first names and chose their original job titles by literally picking them out of a hat. They later shared the title of co-chairman, drew the same salaries and decorated their offices almost identically. They were not just business partners but also close friends.
New employees at the Irvine firm soon learned that important company decisions weren't final until Albert, Safi and Tom-as AST workers call them-gave their collective stamp of approval.
But somewhere along the line, something went wrong.
The first sign of trouble came in November when Wong, the company's technology chief, abruptly resigned. "The reason I left was the partners," Wong said in a recent interview. "We just didn't get along."
In eight years, AST's founders had gone from being three enthusiastic entrepreneurs working 16-hour days in an 800-square-foot office in Irvine to millionaire executives trying to run the daily operations of a big, fast-growing enterprise. AST is now one of the nation's leading manufacturers of IBM-compatible personal computers and it is expected to surpass $500 million in sales in 1989.
But the AST story is also a case study of the strains that young entrepreneurs endure when a company grows, prospers and then stumbles along the way to becoming a major corporation. It also shows how idealistic visions, such as the AST founders' egalitarian approach to management, sometimes don't work in the business world.
"When you start a company, you are really doing it for yourselves," AST's Qureshey said. "We have learned that we have to take a much more objective, businesslike approach. It doesn't mean that our values are less important. But we know we cannot treat the company as our personal property."
AST's founders...