Code of conduct

Updated: 2015-07-03 15:35

By Sophie He(China Daily USA)

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 Code of conduct

Simon Yu Man-wang, president of Arrow Asia Pac Ltd, is ready to bet there will be at least one Chinese name among the top 10 semiconductor producing countries and regions in the world within five years. Parker Zheng / China Daily

Simon Yu, head of components giant Arrow Asia Pac Ltd, believes determination is the single most important key to success. Sophie He reports.

Simon Yu Man-wang says the Asian electronics industry has changed significantly during the past decade and believes that more Chinese electronics companies will take the lead in the sector within the next five years.

And Yu should know - he is president of the Asia Pacific business at Arrow Electronics Inc, a global distributor of electronic components.

Arrow Asia Pac has numerous customers on the Chinese mainland, including giants such as Xiaomi Inc, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, ZTE Corp, Lenovo Group Ltd and Datang Telecom, Yu told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

"We have so many customers, basically every electronic product you use, some of its components were supplied by us, from your mobile phone to a LED table lamp," he said.

Yu said more than 30 years of experience in the electronic component industry makes him firmly believe that in the next five years, the world's top 10 semiconductor producing companies will include at least one Chinese name.

"Let's take a look at the semiconductor sector, which is a high-end technology industry still dominated by the US and Europe but mainland companies have started to acquire semiconductor manufacturers, and it is definitely a good thing if you ask me."

Meanwhile, the central government has also stepped up support for the semiconductor industry, with some outstanding producers like Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp coming into the limelight.

Change is constant

"When I first entered the industry in 1980s, Samsung was a small firm in the semiconductor industry. Backing from the South Korean government has seen it become an industry leader," Yu said. "I will bet that in the next five years, the top 10 semiconductor producing companies in the world will have at least one Chinese name."

Yu noted that the electronics industry in Asia has changed significantly during the past decades. Asia used to be nothing more than a low-cost production base for electronic components, the designs for which usually came from the US or Europe, recalled Yu.

Rising demand from the Asia Pacific as a result of a rapidly growing economy means more and more electronic components produced here will be sold within the region instead of being exported to other markets, he explained.

"We used to produce things for overseas markets and now we produce to satisfy our own demand."

Code of conduct

Besides, Asia is more than just a production base now, we also design electronic products in Asia, Yu pointed out.

"I think the electronics industry will have a great future in Asia, especially on the Chinese mainland, with its robust economic growth, expanding green economy and rising medical care industry," he said.

Yu said he started as a salesman in 1987 at an electronic components distribution company in Hong Kong, which was acquired by US-based Arrow Electronics Inc in 1993.

"In Hong Kong, electronics distribution was a new industry back in 1980s, so when I first entered the industry I thought that a distributor was just a 'middleman' between buyers and sellers."

Actually it was more than that. One must understand the needs and demands of customers, and understand the cycles, as well as forecast and manage the supply chain, he said.

"The charm about the industry is that I've been in it for more than 30 years and still have a lot to learn about it, as it evolves every year and there are always new things for me to understand and to learn."

Down to three Ts

Yu said years in the senior management of Arrow Electronics have seen him develop his own business philosophy of the three "Ts".

The first "T" is timing: Managing a company sometimes means that you have to always find the right time to do the right thing, he said. "Sometimes my colleague would tell me that this thing we want to try we've already tried 10 years ago, and I would reply that it did not work out 10 years ago but it may be perfect for today."

The Second "T" is tempo - if we want to do things right, we need the right time and the right pace, he said.

"As a businessman, I have to control the tempo of how we do things. Some things need to be done quickly while some things need to be pushed forward gradually."

The last "T" of Yu's business philosophy refers to team, as individual achievement in a way depends on teamwork."This is why I always spend a lot of my time building my team." Yu knows that many young people in Hong Kong have entrepreneurial dreams and want to start their own businesses, but they mostly lack determination, he said.

"I also tell my daughter: You can do whatever you like, but you need to be determined."

He noted that young people usually are very creative and have many new ideas. While that is good, what they need is the determination to execute their ideas.

Aside from determination, Yu believes hard work is also a key to success.

He recalled what Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun once said: "Young people, if you can still do hard work, then you should not choose a comfortable job."

"When I was young, I was a salesman. When other salesmen would relax and take tea breaks, I insisted on visiting seven or eight customers per day, plus making numerous cold calls," said Yu.

But it was far from smooth sailing. Yu recalled the shortest customer visit of his life when, after making Yu wait outside his office for over an hour, the prospective customer took just 38 seconds to decide that he did not need Yu's products and asked him to leave.

"But I never gave up, I kept on doing this and tried to understand my customers' demands, which has made me who I am today."

Contact the writer at sophiehe@chinadailyhk.com

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