Tom Duncan of Positec, Immersed in Global Business I GREW up in Pumpkintown, S.C., northwest of Greenville, in a house surrounded by cow pastures. There I learned a lot of life lessons, like how to walk through the pastures in the dark. RECENTLY BUILT A wooden grill cart Coming from a small town grounds a person. You have to learn to get along with everyone. Desegregation was occurring across the country, but we had only one school in town, so there was no school to desegregate. When I was about 11, I had a lemonade stand at the 13th hole on the local golf course. I probably made money because people felt guilty that I was sitting there in 100-degree weather. After taking a public-speaking course at the University of Virginia, I decided to major in rhetoric. I graduated in 1987 and decided to work in politics. I was starry-eyed and thought I'd write the next "I Have a Dream" speech. I got a job with Al Gore's 1988 presidential campaign in Nashville. I told the staff that I wanted to write speeches, but it had a different idea. I ended up writing news releases for rural media outlets in the South. The political decision-making process didn't fit my personality, so I joined Lawler Ballard Advertising, now Lawler Ballard Van Durand, in Nashville and wrote sales brochures and managed a few accounts. It was a great first business job. I'd compare it to the hub of a wheel - I dealt with different types of businesses. I'd visit a liqueur account in the morning and, while still in my suit, a dairy farm in the afternoon to learn about its forage grass for cows. The next day I'd visit a bank. I was hearing about the coming formation of the European Union, and that interested me. I decided to get an M.B.A. in international business studies; I left my job and enrolled in the University of South Carolina. As part of the program, I took an intensive German language course and then spent eight months in Germany as an intern at a packaging machinery company. Learning a language in school and then having to speak it in a business setting is one of the most humbling experiences you can have. But I did improve. After graduating in 1991, I worked for Vermont American, a joint venture of Emerson Electric and Bosch of Germany. I was recruited because I knew German. In 1998, I was promoted to vice president, and in 2000 Bosch bought Vermont American. I wanted to do something entrepreneurial, so I left in 2003 and acquired the rights to use the Rockwell name for power tools. Rockwell Manufacturing had been sold in 1981 and the name wasn't being used. I planned to reintroduce the brand with a new line of tools and sell them through stores like Sears and Home Depot. I started looking for investors and a factory to make them. In 2004, I met Don Gao, chairman and C.E.O. of the Positec Group, a power tool maker in China. He was starting the Worx brand of tools and was interested in joining forces. In 2005, I started an American division, Positec USA, to sell Rockwell Tools and the Worx line. Too often, Americans have a negative perception of Chinese companies, but I have a unique perspective. I was impressed with Mr. Gao's operation, which was entrepreneurial and driven by innovation. We've created more than 100 high-paying jobs in the United States, and also a number for our business partners here. We're also considering transferring some functions that are now done in China to our North Carolina facility. For example, we have found that it's more cost-effective to package small items here, but haven't yet made a final decision on doing so. When you put a drill bit into clamshell packaging and then place it in a box, you're paying to ship a lot of air.