Connecting at a high pace
By Yayu Wu & Enid Chen
Photos by Yao Fan

大北欧通讯设备有限公司(GN Netcom)总部位于丹麦哥本哈根, 成立于1987年, 是大北欧集团(Great Nordic)的一部分. GN Netcom具有设计和生产耳麦产品的丰富经验. 为世界上各国的邮电部门, 呼叫中心, 服务中心和日常办公提供各种不同的适合产品, 还有为多媒体, 移动通讯等高科技专门设计制作的配套耳麦产品. 位于厦门的工厂于2001年正式投产, 现为全球大北欧通讯设备的重要生产基地, 且该厂的生产能力逐年提高. 吴世高先生于2001年出任大北欧通讯设备(中国)有限公司总经理, 曾在柯达公司任职26年, 具有丰富的管理经验.

Name:
Jimmy Woo
Nationality:
Chinese/
Hong Kong
Position:General Manager of GN Netcom (China) Ltd
Production lines of GN Netcom

GN Netcom's worldwide production centralized in Xiamen

Q: GN Netcom is now among the leading and fastest growing suppliers of hands-free communications solutions. How has the factory's operation been doing since its establishment?

A: In February 2001, GN Netcom obtained the license to build a factory here in Xiamen and in May the same year we started manufacturing. The number of employees has seen an increase from 40 at the beginning to more than 600 at present. In the past three years, we have obtained all the certifications, including ISO 9000, TL 9000 and ISO 14001 (Environmental and safety).
As soon as the factory here in Xiamen was started, the other two factories in the UK and North America were transferred to Xiamen successfully and all the production is now centralized in China.
We produce mainly two kinds of products. As the leading provider of Bluetooth technology in the world, we dominate 40 percent of the market share of the state-of-the-art Bluetooth technology, which has a strongly growing market. We believe that it will develop even faster in the future. We have produced a kind of headset with Bluetooth technology, which can be connected to both desk phones and mobile phones. We are looking forward to more growth with mass production since we now only take up 40% of the production capacity. One of the good things is that we can share resources with GN Resound which is in the same building. If they have got some spare space, we can utilize it and vice versa.

Q: Why did GN Netcom base the factory here in Xiamen?

A: There are several reasons. First of all, GN has a long history in China. There is a building on Gulangyu Island, which used to be an office building of GN telegraph company. Our sister company GN Resound also established a manufacturing base for hearing aids here in 1987. The two companies are now in the same building so that we can share a lot of resources and fully utilize them. It makes sense that we base the two companies here.
The second key factor is that there is no problem for us to hire hundreds of skillful employees within a short period of time. The HR department can easily find the right people from the talents market and the universities here.
Last but not least, Xiamen Municipal Government is very helpful and service-minded. They have established a very close and friendly relationship with the investors. The Mayor and Vice Mayor come to visit the factory to hear the voices of the investors and try to find ways to help us develop our business. They once sent a delegation to GN Netcom's headquarters for on-the-spot investigation. This rarely happens in some other big cities. Besides, the municipal government is tightly controlled and clean without any corruption as far as I can see.
There is great potential for growth and a huge market for the investors in China. We are ensured of resources and skillful workers here. China's entry into WTO is bringing it into the best situation.



Rich experiences in management

Q: Can you give us a brief introduction to your career so far?

A: After graduation, I worked in the biggest telecommunication company in Hong Kong as an engineer. From 1974 to 2001, I worked in Kodak, where I started as an engineer and then worked with the R & D department in the headquarters. Later I was assigned as a specialist for the Asia-Pacific region. I was in charge of providing training, supporting new product launch and international procurement. In 1995, I moved to Shanghai where I was the General Manager for Kodak till 2001. Later I moved back to my birthplace Hong Kong, where I was hired by GN Netcom. At that time, there were only two factories in the world, one in the UK and the other in North America. I was the first employee hired by GN Netcom China when a new factory was established here. Therefore I came to Xiamen and I have been here for almost four years now.

Q: Since you have rich experiences in management, what do you think are the most important qualifications for a successful top manager?

A: I would like to put it into two parts. The foremost thing is personality. You need to be open-minded to accept changes since the technology and way of manufacturing keeps changing. You need to accept and trust your people. Once you hire the people, you have to trust them, otherwise you shouldn't have hired them. You should know how to utilize the skills and the best part of the people and give full play to their potentials. Meanwhile, you need to be a good delegator, knowing how to delegate your power to other people, since you cannot do all the things by yourself. Furthermore, you are the decision-maker, so you should have the ability and use your own judgment to make decisions.
The second thing is your experiences. As a general manager of a factory, it's essential for you to have a broad background in manufacturing. For me, I need to have rich experiences in the total supply chain management; how to get the orders, how to certify the suppliers, how to make sure of quality materials and how to ensure on-time shipment of the supplies. To be the general manager of a factory, you need to have wide knowledge and direct the people to utilize the resources. My engineering and purchasing background during the 26 years working with Kodak has greatly helped me.

Q: What is GN Netcom's way of training?

A: There are a lot of things for us to learn and we cannot stop learning and then properly train our employees. We need to provide at least 48 hours of training a year for an employee. There is both internal and external training. Sometimes, we send the staff to Copenhagen to receive training from the headquarters. We send some people to attend MBA courses at Xiamen University. We also provide English training once a week to people who cannot speak it very well. Every year, we spend around 400,000 Yuan on the training of the employees. To retain the people, we provide them good training for their career development.

Q: Among all the Chinese cities that you have been to, which city do you like best?

A: Throughout the cities in China I've been to, Xiamen is the city I like most. The weather in the northeast of China is too cold in winter and the economic situation is not as developed as Xiamen. Beijing and Shanghai are very commercialized but they are also very crowded. The transportation in those cities is not that convenient and the costs of living are higher and there is also more pollution than here. Xiamen is an excellent place for both work and living. The traffic is good and the air is clean. People communicate in Mandarin rather than their dialects, which makes you feel more comfortable. Besides, most of the employees are well educated with a relatively high level of English capability.