Lisa Lin Enjoys Birth

Of Her New Products

Lisa Lin, the director of ABL Innovation Co., Ltd., a supplier of a wide variety of toys in Taiwan, is an executive woman who likes to think and create new toys for the world market.

As for designing new toys, 'It is the most worthy job I could ever have.  I have had a lot of chances to bring happiness to the people around the world through my creations," said Lisa Lin.   "Sometimes an item I have created is more than just an item in my mind. I always talk to my toys and hope they will talk in the same way to the consumers who buy and play with them."

Amazing Laser Ball

She showed a new item called 'Laser Ball," which is a rolling and roaming musical ball lit up by 10 blue and green spinning lights which creates amazing laser patterns. "Waw" was the first reaction when I saw a group of laser lights dancing to the Waltz. " I had the first idea of making a dancing light ball back to 1998, it took me almost 6 years to make the dream come true," said Lisa. " It has been selling very well since we put it into production a couple of months ago and I have been very happy. This item will make a lot of friends in various countries for me again." From the heavy file that records the process of development of Laser Ball -- including the first concept sketch -- I wondered how this lady can work so hard and still be so happy.

Ups and downs

Time and tide wait for no man. Lisa Lin founded her own company in 1997 after working for 20 years in a major toy firm. She said she learned a lot from her former employer, ranging from computerization, sales and marketing, and business negotiations with foreign buyers.

ABL Innovation was established eight years ago. "Over the past eight years or so, I have experienced ups and downs. In other words, profits were made and losses were registered. Despite the times of difficulty, I managed to overcome the problems, one after the other. And I have found that innovation and quality are keys to survive in this industry," stated Lisa Lin.

Although Lisa did not major in designing, she has a mind full of ideas. "I am lucky I have a team of people who are good at electronic and mechanical engineering" said the director.

Designing a new product usually takes a lot of time, sometimes longer than expected, and heavy financial resources as well. "I am basically an idea developer. It's my team that puts my ideas into practice. Although the process is long and hard, we always find a way to accomplish our goal," noted the director, showing another new item "Sudoku Quiz' to explain.

User Friendly "Sudoku Quiz"

"Although innovation is the key to success we cannot neglect the trends, but even for a follow-me item we always add our own creative twist" Lisa stated proudly. "Sudoku is the most popular topic now. It was originally designed to be played on paper where you can have a lot of space to take memos of the clues for each blank grid to figure out the final solution. Now the electronic version of Sudoku game is available, but it is not easy to operate as there is no extra space to take memos of the clues of each blank grid. Some electronic Sudoku games have tried to overcome this problem, but the readability is not satisfactory. So we create our own Sudoku Quiz using four  gray level colors dot matrix screen display and designing with our own copyrighted 'Dot Clues' play feature. The 'Dot Clues' play feature will allow the user to register the effective clues of each blank grid in the grid using dots. The clue dots indicating digits 1 to 9 are positioned in the grid by three rows like the telephone key pad, so it is very easy to identify and read. This design has made our Sudoku Quiz as easy to solve as in a printed game. Besides, in our Sudoku Quiz, every each game has its own code, so it is possible to have contests with the same game involving multiple players using one or multiple consoles.

Lisa said she likes to think how the player will play her products and take it as the guide in designing. She is also woman with great patience. "I'm lucky I have more patience than the average folks, which I have learned from my previous job dealing with Japanese customers," she said.  So up until today Japan is a major market for ABL Innovation Co.