by: Dereck Andrade

INDUSTRY -- When the Asian economic crisis struck in October 1997, few U.S. high-technology manufacturing firms understood the punch it would ultimately deliver. Many U.S. exporting orders fell while projects dried up as exchange rates fluctuated wildly by as much as 70 percent depreciation between the United States and many Asian nations. It was an economic thud that could be heard all the way from the floor of the Nikkei stock exchange to Wall Street. But Tom Chung, 44, president of Industry-based Tri-Net Technology, Inc., a privately held computer networking firm that had relied heavily on Asian exporting, was able to keep his company in the black with little or no impact on the firm's infrastructure. "The issue wasn't making a lot of money," said Chung, "but to prove myself in business."

Chung, an entrepreneur who emigrated in 1979 from Taiwan to the United States with $300 cash in his pocket, was a business leader who heard the impending Asian economic thud. His decision was to curtail the company's focus from exporting - which had been as high as 55 percent - and turn Tri-Net's focus to the domestic marketplace. "I'm only 44 years old, and I wasn't ready to retire," said Chung. "I wanted to see my business plan come true." His business plan indeed ended up paying dividends just as the empirical financial numbers were showing serious monetary consequences for companies that didn't adapt as swiftly. Chung's Tri-Net has grown from $900,000 in sales in 1993 to $7.5 million in 1998. This year's projected revenue is $9 million, with just over $1 million expected in profits.

Before the Asian economic turmoil struck, U.S. Customs in 1997 had reported $185.8 billion in imports and exports that passed through the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Ventura, and at Los Angeles International Airport and McCarren Field in Las Vegas. But U.S. Customs officials in 1998 reported a drop of nearly $4 billion in imports and exports fell to $181.5 billion, the first decline in that figure since 1982, because of the Asian economic crisis.

Two years later as the Asian economic turmoil appears to have run its course, Chung oversees a company that has two manufacturing facilities and a distribution center - a 33,000-square-foot facility in Industry that Chung bought this year for $2.5 million; a 10,000-square-foot facility in Tecate, Mexico; and a 9,000-square-foot distribution center in Taipei, Taiwan. The Taipei facility escaped serious damage or injuries to its employees in Monday's 7.6 temblor that struck the island nation. Tri-Net, which manufactures high-speed cables and whose clients include AT&T, has grown from two employees in its first year - 1992 - to nearly 40 employees at its corporate facility in Industry.