Mannerisms

"C-Cube had been bulding its business in China and went from zero to $14m in 1995 and Memec had generated 25 per cent of the business", recalls Ashworth, "we went to their worldwide sales meeting, and we got the award for their Wordwide Distributor of the Year. Two weeks later they terminated us."

"They tried to terminate us in 30 days but we found we had a nine month sales protection clause in the contract which meant we should get the commission on any sales for that period. They said they would not honour the agreement and would sue us."

"Well, around that time, Dick (Dick Skipworth, founding CEO of Memec) and I were in Hong Kong, and were going to meet a guy from Dallas Semiconductor. He was staying at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

We arrived early and called his room but he was not in. I said I'd have a look in the coffee shop while Dick stayed in reception.

The guy from Dallas was in the coffee shop but there was also a group of C-Cube guys, and I ducked down behind the menu as the dispute was still going strong at that time..

So we left the coffee shop and went up to the guy's room, and after the meeting we came back down again and Dick went to the loo, while I went to get the car and said I'd pick him up outside the front door.

I waited in the car and Dick didn't come out. Then I parked the car and went back into the hotel to look for him. I opened the door to the toilets and called out "Are you in there Dick?"

"Yes" came back Dick's voice.

"Those fuckers from C-Cube are here," I shouted .

"I know" replied Dick, "I'm standing next to their president".