an engineer's experience moving from a mnc to a technology start-up

Confidential and Copyright 1

An Engineer’s experience

moving from a MNC to a

Technology Start-Up

Dr Tan Guan Hong

Programme Director of I2R

Synopsys

24 July 2013


Introduction

To

A*STAR

1997/65% 2001/75% 2006/66% 2011/60% 2016/??


8 12

Straits

Times

May 16

2013

A*STAR

Focus

Multi

Disciplinary

Approach

I2R

Research Departments

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Programme DirectorTan Guan Hong

Smart Grid

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Robotics

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(BIRC)

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comm

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Initiatives

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INT

EL

LIG

EN

CE

CO

MM

UN

ICA

TIO

NS

ME

DIA

Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R)

Building Industry

Relevant Solutions.Focus on market oriented,

end-end solutionsE

NG

INE

ER

ING


In this presentation, I will share

my Engineering journey from

an Engineer to start SysEng

, a System Engineering

Company, in 1994. Then

diversify to Civil Sector, Water

Sector and be acquired in 2009

by Tritech Ltd TriTech


How can we prepare our future

Engineers to be competent and

successful ?

In this presentation, I will share my

Engineering journey from an

Engineer to start an Engineering

Company and the challenges which I

faced, highlighting the skills,

competencies and values individuals

require


Minimum Requirements:-

•Hardworking (>12 hours per day and almost 7 days a

week)

•Full commitment with Drive and Ambition

•Communication, People, Political and Social skills

•Set example of 120% work standard

•Leadership by example

•Start Young (< 35) and Believe in yourself

•Go against Norm (do what the average guy don’t do)..

Don’t be a me too person

•Challenge yourself to always be better yesterday

•Able to transform your own habits

•Self discipline


My past experiences

have already shaped my

future as there is no

future without the past.

These are my

experiences


Born in Dec 1953

Started Electronics as a Hobby at age of 15

In 2nd year University course, best subjects were

Electronics while the Electrical (Heavy Current) subjects

had lower grades. But I still chose for the Electrical

options !

My Head of Department called me up and asked me if I

had make a mistake (He thought that my “England”was poor and mis-understood).

•B. Eng Degree in 1976.

•Ph.D. in Electrical Machines in 1979 (Wolf Safety Lamp

Coy Industrial Scholarship)


Learn

Electrical Engineering to

bring R&D outcomes into a

working prototype

for a British SME

1976 to 1979


Industrial PhD: Increase 55W to 250W Generator

55 W Version


Modular Real Time

Analog Computer

• Product Design Improvement x5 in same packaging

• Bridging Theory to Real World with Constraints

• 2D Finite Element Method (FEM) Software

Development and Electronic Design

Stator

Rare Earth

Magnet

Magnetic Field Prediction

My work place for 3 years

Green

Engineer

@ 23


Knowledge in Log scale

Know

ledge in the W

orl

d

Read

101,000,000

1010

Un

de

rsta

nd

105

Ap

ply

103

Education trains you to acquire

Knowledge and apply what you

have been trained for. This is

normal forward path.

I wanted the reverse, by

understanding the market, then go

back to the Knowledge Centers to

pick what can make business sense

Better look for

solution to solve

problem


Learn

Product Design &

Manufacturing Technologies

for Global Market

1980 to 1993


My Philips Singapore History

(Make Company Dependent on you !)

March 1980 to Dec 1993 in Philips Singapore in Toa

Payoh Audio-Radio Factory

• Development Engineer (1980) myself

• Senior Development Engineer (1981) myself

• Section Manager (1982) 3 staff

• Chief Engineer (1983) 6 staff

• Quality Assurance Manager (1984) 80 staff

• Production Engineering Manager(1987)12 staff

• Engineering Manager (1988) 100 staff

• Senior Manager (1991) 100 staff


First Big Challenge in Philips (1984 to 1986)

•Promoted to be a Department Head of 80 staff in

1984 when Factory Quality was dropping !

•Negotiated with the GM that when the Quality was

99%, I would look for a new job function

Average

Quality

dropping


Made my boss successful to be promoted to GM and I took

over his Engineering Department in 1988

•Streamline Factory Process for Quality & Productivity and

Flexibility

•Reduce and De-skill manpower to be globally competitive

Transform Factory from 0.5 day to Just

In Time (JIT) Manufacturing lines

Transformation


• Who am I without the Company Logo

behind me ?

• Can I stand on my own feet and make a

living without the Logo behind me ?

• We all can … as before our first job, we

were actually unemployed

Mid career crisis ?

Done everything ?

Bore ?

Dr G H Tan

B. Eng, Ph D

Who am I without Philips ?


•As we have grown accustomed of the

trappings of an MNC by its size & job security,

we take it for granted

•The reality is that we are a NOBODY without

the Company Logo behind us

•As an individual in an MNC, you are only 1 in

their 1,000 staff. You are easily replaceable as

MNC has a operating system in place anyone.

This is their strength in the first place.

•With Globalization, you are now calibrated with

the talent globally. Embrace it rather than fear it


MNC

1st JumpJust

starting

to

survive

Fear Factor ?

Loss of face ?

Loss of income ?

Many, many ????


The Barrier is actual you

yourself !

In an MNC when you grow up,

you have to be aggressive &

push to get things done but

when you start on your own you

have to be more

accommodating


Some people make things happen

Some people watch what happen

Some people wonder what happen


Employee Entrepreneur

Boss Above him Himself

Profit Nil Everything

Loss Nil Proactively Avoids

Salary GIRO Variable

Pay rise Boss Himself

Pay Loss Nil No Pay

Stress 9 2 5 24 x 7

Holiday 14/Year Everyday

Destiny Coy Himself

Risk Avoid Challenge

Decision EXCEL Back of envelope

Spend By Budget Minimize


Don’t Know

Know √

Self Aware of your own self

Over confident ?Learning

Over confident

also, Arrogant ?Opportunity

√

XXX

KnowDon’t Know

You


A domesticated Animal is fed from can food

Keeps

owner

Happy

In the home, the large Alsatian

is the King compare to others

and he is kept well fed

Compare to a Wolf

who has to hunt

for food every day

to survive ?

They

hunt as

a team


We send two shoe

salesmen to Africa to

explore opportunities

One told me “Boss, we

can’t sell shoes as

African don’t wear

shoes”The other told me

“Boss, we have Huge

Market as Africans

don’t wear shoes”

Both saw this ???


Learn

How to start

a Test Engineering Company

from Ground Zero

1994


System Engineering


Rotate 90 degrees

Sine and Square Waves

Analog and Digital Technologies


Test Engineering Business line

PCBA

Flying

Probe

Tester

Motor Tester

Step

Angle

Motor

Tester

Fax

Functional

Tester

DC Motor

Tester

Water

meter

Tester


Trends in

Singapore and

World

in 2000


See what Young people want to do, then do what

they don’t want to do.

Go to areas of excess and Supply to areas of

shortages

They like to do :-

Office type of work and computers

Business Opportunity :-

Use technologies to do the Dirty & Mundane

work, Glorify them using technologies


Cost Structure changes in Singapore • Move from Low Cost Economy to

Knowledge Intensive Industries

• Cost structure moves from (High

Material & Low Manpower) to (Low

Material & High Manpower)

• Trend follows Europe. No longer

repair at component level but swap

at module level for servicing

• Professional equipment and

services are commoditized for a

larger market like Computers,

Mobile Communication Devices,

Medical Devices.

Mate

rial

80%

Manp

ow

er

20

%

1970

to

1980

1990

to

2020

High Man

Value

Knowledge

Base Service

Low Man

Cost EconomyM

ate

rial

20%

Ma

np

ow

er

80

%


Singapore Growth Curve with the

Emergence of China & India

1970 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030

Electronics

Peak of

Electronics

Civil, Water,

Transport Bio Tech,

Nano

Material

Gro

wth

1980


Every Business, Every Product, Every Service

has a Life span unless you are in basic

essentials like Water, Food, Energy, Transport.

Even these changes with the

method of generation, delivery

and consumption

50 70 80 90 2000 10 20 30

Cassettes

60

Water, Food,

Energy &

Transport

Video

Tapes

Desktop

Computer

Mobile

Phones

40 50

CD / DVD

Smart

Phones


•Electronic has 2 peaks

(Summer & Xmas sales)

in a year

•Construction has 1 peak

every 3 years

Business Cycle Peak & Dip


Learn

How to start

Diversify to Civil Engineering

Sector using Test

Technologies

2001

SysEng R&D

Investment in

Structural Health

Monitoring of

Highway Bridge

in

April 2001

May 2001


In Business Times

23th March 2003,

SysEng was

featured at the

center page by

IDA as a State of

the Art Wire-less

Technology

System Developer

for Automatic

Tunnel Monitoring

System. This is the

innovative method

of deploying Wire-

less and

Inforcomm

Technologies for

Tunnel Monitoring

20 April 2004

April 2004 Crisis comes with

Opportunity

Real Time Monitoring for Marina Bay Sands

•Sensors are measured and

processed every 10 minutes and

available in the secured website

using Machine to Machine

Technologies (M2M)

•300 MEMs Tilt sensors for

structure movements

•400 VW Strain Gages and 400

Temperatures for cast-in, Post-

tensioning and strut monitoring

•System handles 158,400 sensor

readings per day

Confidential and Copyright

Sept

2006

`

Future LTA Projects till 2020March 2007and I will be 67 years old !


Co

nst

ruct

ion

M2M Approach 2007

Sensors and Domain Specific Devices

Horizontal

Technologies

•Mobile

•Internet

•Network

Data Collection, Analysis, Management & Alert

En

viro

nm

enta

l

Tran

spo

rt

Fac

ility

/Bu

ildin

g

Hea

lth

care

Man

ufa

ctu

rin

g

Su

pp

ly C

hai

n

Project Specific Development


Started in January 1994 to provide One Stop Shop for Factory Test Solutions from Design to Production

Remote Instrumentation for Buildings, Tunnels and Bridges

Real Time Monitoring & Alert systems using Wire-less and Internet for Civil Engineering

Machine 2 Machine (M2M) Solution Provider


The Biggest Challenge at this stage of

SysEng Growth in 2007

•How to move to the Next Stage of

Growth ?

•Which sector ?

•What type of Organization is needed for

the future ?

•How to transform team to the next

Organization ?


A snake has to shed its old skin to grow.

An organization has to shed the irrelevant

business units and resources to grow to

the next size


As company evolves, each will rise to his

level of incompetence (Peter’s Principle)

•Can you accept your former customer to

be your boss in 5 years time ?

•Is the company bigger than you or

you are bigger than the company ?

•Do you use people’s

strengths or use their

weakness in a team?

•Are you aware of your

own weakness and

strength ?


4 Ms which I started with are

Man, Machine , Materials & Methods

Now I have learned that another 2

more are even more important

Market & Money


Handling

Known Knowns

&

Known Unknowns


The business has 3 domain blocks

Electronics SoftwareCivil

Engineering

For business to work, all 3 sub-blocks must work

Each sub-block has 2 states, “0” Not-working Logic

and “1” Working Logic

This business has 2 x 2 x 2 possible combinations

(23) to work or fail

Profits


The business has 3 functional sub-blocks

0 0 00 0 10 1 1

0 1 01 0 01 1 0

1 0 1

1 1 1

For business to work, the

probability is 1 / 23 = 1/8 =

12%

The possibility of unit not

working is 7/8=88% !

When getting it to work, can

you assume that the person

has the skills to troubleshoot

any of the 7/8 ? Unlikely


The business has 3 functional sub-blocks

0 0 00 0 10 1 1

0 1 01 0 01 1 0

1 0 1

1 1 1

How it works is a Known

Knowns of 1 combination

And Known failure occurs is a

Known Unknowns of 7

combinations


Learn

How to start

Diversify to Water Sector

using Test Technologies &

Civil Engineering Out-door

deployment

2008


PUB Command Center

for Live Flood Sensor

readings and Video

Wall

Real Time Track Record Aug 2012


Outdoor stations over 710 km2

Project

Number of

Stations

Number of

Parameters Interval

Frequency of

monitoring /

Day

Amount of

Data / Day

Water Gauging Station 30 76 15 min 96 7,296

Water Vertical Profiler 24 2,474 15 min 96 237,504

Water Hydrometric Flow 53 265 10 min 144 38,160

Total Suspended Solid Monitoring 25 75 10 min 144 10,800

s::can Station 5 30 10 min 144 4,320

Water Level 66 189 10 min 144 27,216

Reservoir Level Monitoring 17 51 5 min 288 14,688

Metrological Station 2 8 10 min 144 1,152

Rain Stations 60 120 5 min 288 34560

RTWQMS India ,River Ganges 10 140 15 min 96 1344

Rain Stations 64 64 15 min 96 6144

Camera 66 132 10 min 144 19,008

Low Tension Alarm Panel 8 32 10 min 144 4,608

Fleet Management 408 3,264 1 Week 0.1 466.3

Geotechnical Monitoring 75 3,173 10 min 144 456,912

Structural Monitoring 33 3,899 6 hours 4 15,596

Total 919 13,619 1,732 879,774

Amount of Data Points / Month 26,393,220


In 2012

• 45% of LTA Real Time

Monitoring Projects

• 75% of PUB Real Time

Monitoring Projects


Tritech Marble Business in 2012


Bought 33 years marble mining rights in Kelantan

Tritech group have Geologist who can core the rock and

assess ourselves rather than depend on the seller

“independent” geologist report to buy the mine

Tritech has Water Membrane manufacturing in Qingdao

China, Water Monitoring business

Water monitoring will determine where to put water filtration

plant along the river and give access to local plant builders to

supply membranes

Good quality marble are sold as blocks. Broken marbles are

turn into Grounded Calcium Carbonate (GCC) which are used

for pH correction in water treatment plants.


Reminder ………Minimum Requirements:-

•Hardworking (>12 hours per day and almost 7

days a week)

•Full commitment with Drive and Ambition

•Communication, People Political and Social skills

•Set example of 120% work standard

•Leadership by example

•Start young and Believe in yourself

•Go against norm (do what the average guy don’t do).. Don’t be a me too person

•Challenge yourself to always be better yesterday

•Able to transform your own habits

•Self discipline

•Always ask Why ?, Why ? Why ? (three times)

•Continuously Knowledge Acquisition

Thank you

Email : [email protected]

an engineer's experience moving from a mnc to a technology start-up

Small Business & Entrepreneurship