Desperation turned out to be the mother of invention: Ping made a $1.8 million sale to Align Technology (in fairness, the former CEO had established the groundwork for the sale), and convinced customers in the dental tech industry that DSSP could deliver a new age of custom-fit crowns and implants. She decided not to assemble an in-house sales staff, relying instead on resellers, particularly laser-scanner and processor manufacturers. Within the promised three months, Ping had stabilized Geomagic, and within a year the company was showing a profit.
"Being so close to failure somehow gave me confidence," says Ping. "Everybody worked together, we reinforced each other. And the crisis committed me to running the company. The experience really opened my eyes about corporate governance. I learned that I must listen very carefully, gather all the information and advice that I can, but in the end I must make the decisions. I know I will make mistakes. But I also learned that, at times, it's more important to be clear than to be right."
The last few employees have cleared the conference room, their four-letter personality types echoing after them: INFP...ISTJ...ENTP... Watching them depart, Ping blooms with a smile that takes a long while to fade.
"If a product is made to order," says Ping, "by necessity it has to be manufactured close to the customer. What I'm suggesting is that globalization might be a passing phase."
"I think that if DSSP is developed to its full potential, then outsourcing manufacturing to other countries will no longer be necessary," she says. "Because if an American worker becomes 10 times more productive, which is possible through DSSP, then he can economically compete with a foreign worker. And if a product is made to order, by necessity it has to be manufactured close to the customer. What I'm suggesting is that globalization might be a passing phase."
These hopes are not modest, but consider the range of projects that Geomagic has contributed to. Among Geomagic's thousands of clients are, for example, NASCAR teams, which use DSSP to streamline the inspection and production of cylinder heads; and the Cleveland Clinic, which has used it to model and test a new artificial heart.
Then there is the Statue of Liberty. After the 9/11 attacks, the impregnability of American landmarks could no longer be assumed. If a terrorist attack or other catastrophe damaged Lady Liberty, officials would want to rebuild it with maximum fidelity to the original. But certain architectural details--the folds of her robe, the lift of her eyebrows--could not be recast from photographs. So a research team from Texas Tech University spent days laser-scanning the statue, accumulating a total of 16 million data points from which to build a digital model with Geomagic software.
But it is in bread-and-butter manufacturing that Geomagic truly shows its potential. American turbine companies, for instance, use DSSP to perform 100% digital inspection for new parts. In the dental industry, the technology has produced a new generation of implants--bridgework that actually fits. Ditto for hearing aids. Extrapolate as you like. Ping likes to imagine that each of us will soon be in possession of a DSSP model of our feet, and when we need new shoes, we'll transmit that model to a manufacturer, which will make shoes that fit like no off-the-shelf shoes can.
Common to these projects is quality custom work performed by American companies for a domestic market. By their very nature, none of these products could have been satisfactorily delivered by foreign competitors, especially the one that increasingly looms the largest: China. It's an important point with Ping. "I don't think having China manufacture all our goods and ship them back over here at a grotesque trade imbalance is a good model for anybody," she says.
"I really believe that this technology is important," Ping continues. "We are just on the edge of it now. I hoped that mass acceptance would have come already, but it takes time. I can honestly say that if in five years Geomagic is a highly profitable company, but the DSSP revolution has not arrived, then I would not consider myself a success. By the same token, if we sold the company to a buyer who understands our vision, and in five years the revolution takes place but Geomagic's contribution is forgotten, I would consider my work accomplished. I am not interested in wealth. I want to produce something of value."
And what is value? In the midst of Geomagic's darkest time, with the firm earning no revenue and Ping taking no compensation, she donated software and expertise to Seattle Limb Systems, a company fashioning high-tech prosthetics for victims of land mines in Cambodia. To heal others, she says, is to heal herself.
It has grown late in Research Triangle Park. Outside the hotel, the traffic is bumper-to-bumper on the road to Raleigh, and the sky is darkening over the sandy forests. Ping Fu hurries away to meet her husband, who has gone to pick up the couple's 11-year-old daughter. The girl, named XiXi, has just started sixth grade, and her mother is hungry to hear about her day.
