An expert of Asia
By Enid Chen
Photo by Yao Fan

Name: Ken Fay Nationality: American Position: General Manager of GN ReSound China Ltd.

瑞声达听力集团前身是创立于1943年的丹麦达那福公司GN Danavox(达那福),其母公司大北集团(Great Nordic)通过一系列收购兼并行动后,于1999年成立瑞声达听力集团,总部设在丹麦首都哥本哈根.瑞声达听力技术(中国)有限公司于1986年在厦门成立,经过多年的发展,已成为中国市场销量最大的助听器品牌之一.2003年,瑞声达新厂房落成,现已成为全球最大的助听器生产基地.

来自美国的费凯先生(Ken Fay)去年七月起出任中国区总经理,其在亚洲工作长达12年,对亚洲市场有较多的了解,因此被称为"亚洲专家".

World's biggest production center for hearing aids

Q: It's said that Xiamen has become the biggest production center for hearing aids since the new factory was completed for production last year. Is that true?
A: Exactly. Almost 80% of the GN ReSound's hearing aids in the world are produced in Xiamen while about 20% come from Ireland. There is some production in the US, which only accounts for a small part.
The new factory was completed in March 2003. The opening ceremony was held last October and the Prince of Denmark also made presence here for the opening ceremony. Since the new factory was put into production, the output here has been continuing to grow which we hope to continue in the future. Our productivity here has been very high. The local employees often come up with creative new ideas on how to build things faster and with better quality. The combination of these factors has made this factory very efficient. It's improving every day.

Q: Now that the factory here is the biggest production center and the business is growing at a stable rate, are there some strategic adjustments being planned for GN ReSound?
A: Our goal is to continue to grow for sure. The building was completed last year, but it was planned to support our needs for at least the next five years. However, we are developing faster than we originally planned.
Two years ago, we moved our China sales office from Xiamen to Shanghai. But part of the organization like the customer service is still here. We also established an office in Beijing so as to get closer access to our customers. However, Xiamen will remain as the only manufacturing base in China.

Q: What are the key factors for GN ReSound's development in the future?
A: The most important factors are our costs, availability of human resources as well as our potential business opportunities. What we are working on now is the growth of the company, what we can support from our current assets, and investments required to support our future.


Prince of Denmark (C) visited the factory with Mr. Ken Fay (L) last October.

A broad background in Asia

Q: Can you give a brief introduction to your work experiences so far?
A: I became the General Manager of GN ReSound in Xiamen in July 2003. Previously, I worked with Kodak for about 20 years in the US, Japan and China. From 1995 to 1997, I worked in Shanghai where I led a team that established Kodak's first wholly owned company. After that, I worked for a small company in California. In 2002, I returned to Asia and worked for a US-based manufacturing company, and was stationed in Singapore.

Q: You are extolled as an expert of the Asian market since you have 12 years' working experiences in this region. How has the operation of the company been since you became the General Manager of GN ReSound last July?
A: As I have concentrated my efforts on the operations side of the business, my knowledge of the market is greater from the supply side than from the sales.
However, since last year, the manufacturing capacity of the whole Great Nordic Company has been increasing dramatically. There are two legal companies here in our building, GN ReSound and GN Netcom, which are part of this same parent organization. GN ReSound is in the production of hearing aids while GN Netcom produces headsets. The businesses for both companies have both continued to grow very fast.
In this building, there are more than 1,000 employees, and this is the biggest GN operation in the world and we are continuing to grow faster than any other GN branch in the world. About 95% of GN ReSound's product manufactured in China is exported to the other parts of the world. We would like to expand our business in the Chinese market in the future, which is an opportunity for additional growth.

Q: Since you have many years' experience in management, what do you think is the most important qualification for being a successful general manager?
A: As the title says, a general manager for a manufacturing operation should have a very broad background across manufacturing, procurement, finance and engineering. I had that opportunity with Kodak as I had opportunities to work in engineering, operations, as well as in finance. My experiences in different organizations within Kodak enable me to better communicate with the people in different sectors with some general level of background.
To me, as a general manager of a manufacturing company now, wide experience through many different organizations including manufacturing, is critical. If you are a general manager of a design company, then your experience needs to be more specialized. For example, for the general manager of a software company, he should have some knowledge and expertise of software development. This person may not necessarily require extensive experience in finance though. So it depends on the business situation.
As a result of the wide experience within the organization, it allows me to understand the situation and makes it easier for me to understand the problem and know what's going on within the organization. Hopefully, I can offer some direct help from time to time.

Q: What is GN ReSound's way of training?
A: On one hand, we send the staff here in Xiamen to the company's training program in the US or in Europe so that they can understand what the other people are doing and improve our communication skills. This will help our staff improve their job performance.
On the other hand, we have people from other parts of the organizations in other countries that can deliver training to the local staff. For example, right now we have two engineers from the US to help us train the local engineers.

Q: How do you like Xiamen?
A: I like Xiamen. When I came here, I found a pleasant surprise. The English level of the staff here is much higher than that I experienced in Shanghai. We need to encourage that because they need to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds in multi-national companies. However, I was not only surprised by their English level, but also by their capabilities, like business skills. There are really very good staff here.
I have also found many good restaurants and I really enjoy the local food. There is one interesting thing, which is that the three companies that I have worked for all have branches in Xiamen. So it must be destiny that I came to this pleasant city.