ABB's trump card
By Enid Chen
Photo by Yao Fan


Name: John K. H. Yung
Nationality: Singaporean
Position: President, ABB Xiamen Switchgear Co. Ltd

厦门ABB开关有限公司是ABB集团在中国成立的第一家合资企业, 主要生产中压开关设备和断路器等产品. 公司目前已成为ABB集团最大的中压开关制造基地. 总经理翁建汉先生在采访中亮出了企业迅速发展的一张"王牌", 即公司拥有一支优秀的员工队伍, 而这又归功于企业为员工提供全面的培训计划.
Founded in September 1992, ABB Xiamen Switchgear Co. Ltd. was the first joint venture of ABB in China. Over the past thirteen years, the company has enjoyed a sound and rapid growth, with an average increase of about 33% each year.

World's No. 1 manufacturer of medium-voltage switchgears

Q: Being the first "child" of ABB China, ABB Xiamen Switchgear Co. Ltd. is growing up healthily and rapidly. Could you give us a brief introduction to its development and the reasons for the fast development?

A: 1992-1995 was the starting phase, when the company kicked off the recruitment and training program and began to gradually understand the market needs. The period from 1995 to 1998 was an accretion phase for the company. We had got sufficient understanding about the market needs and we constantly influenced the market demand and served the market with new products. Since 1999, the company has entered a stage of fast development.

There are several factors that contributed to the rapid growth. First and foremost, the municipal government of Xiamen is very supportive. Second, it is because of ABB's proper marketing strategies. We bring in state-of-the-art technology and reliable high-quality products to the Chinese market. Thirdly, we can seize the opportunities owing to a highly innovative and excellent working team.

Q: The order intake and sales revenues of ABB Xiamen Switchgear in 2004 exceeded US＄ 260 million. Does the figure imply that the company has become the world's biggest manufacturing base of medium-voltage switchgears?

A: It's true that it has been the world's biggest manufacturer and research center of medium-voltage switchgears since 2004. This is well beyond everyone's expectation. The ABB Group had confidence in us that we would become No. 1 one day, nonetheless, they didn't expect that we were able to accomplish our goal and turn the vision into reality within a period of only 12 years.

Being No. 1 doesn't indicate that we can rest on the existing success now, however, we need to stride forward and keep in the leading position. We are in the hope that more products will enter the international market, because our production capability is able to satisfy the global needs.

Q: ABB Xiamen is now a large family with five companies. Is the "eldest child's" sound and rapid growth one of the reasons for the birth of the other four here?

A: Being the first joint venture of ABB in China, we have set up a good example of successful investment. It is now acknowledged as a successful example of a well-integrated company of ABB worldwide. The number of ABB's subsidiaries in China has reached 28, with 5 in Xiamen, the city where ABB in China has the largest number of family members. ABB China has about 8,000 employees, whereas Xiamen is home to one quarter of them. This is an indicator for Xiamen's good investment environment as well.

Training is the trump card

According to a staff attitude survey conducted in 2000 in ABB Xiamen Switchgear Co., 85% of its employees felt proud of working with the company and its corporate culture. Its staff turnover rate has remained at around 5% since 1996, much lower than the average 15% of the manufacture industry in South China. President Yung attributed this to the all-round training provided, which he said was the company's trump card.

Q: Knowledge and technologies of the employees are crucial to ABB as a technological company. What are your company's practices for cultivating and training employees?

A: The major reason why we can surpass and win over our competitors is that we have a better working team with people who are willing to learn and make self-improvement. If you don't make progress, you will fall behind. The company's philosophy is "retaining the staff by providing them with excellent career development opportunities rather than an excessively high salary".

Therefore, the company invests 2 to 3 million yuan on all-round training for our staff every year, mainly in terms of three aspects: product and technological training, functional skills training which includes the English language proficiency training, and leadership/managerial expertise training. We tailor-make training programs for the staff to make up for their insufficiency in certain aspects, provided that they hold a good attitude and are willing to learn.

Nevertheless, we are not making blind investment on training, although the budget for training every year is a large sum of money. We are using the money where it can be put to best use for the sake of the employees' career development and company's business growth.

The company has a three-level assessment for those who attend the training program to make sure of the ROI (return on investment). In one word, if the changes are for the better, the investment is worthwhile.

I am a coach

President John Yung has been working with ABB since 1982. In 1993, he took the position as the production manager of ABB Xiamen Switchgear Co. Ltd. and has been the General Manager since 1997. He received Friendship Award Certificate from the State Council in 1998 and Xiamen Honorary Citizenship in 2001. However, being a sports fan, John Yung prefers to call himself a coach of his team in the business field.

Q: It's said that you like doing sports in your spare time. If we compare the business field to a sports field, which role do you play?

A: I like scuba-diving, bowling and playing golf. I consider myself as the coach, where my role is to delegate the team, watch, listen and make decisions. The players will fulfill their responsibilities. I won't be playing in the team because I want to make sure that my mind is clear enough to see the direction and make plans for the next step to maintain our market leader position and to keep our competitiveness.

Q: What are the qualifications for being such a coach then?

A: The coach should be able to deal fairly with his players, lead the corporate culture in the correct direction and create an excellent environment which is conducive to building up among them a relationship characterized by open, fair, respectful and mutual trust. In addition, he should encourage the company to provide more opportunities for the employees, because the Chinese market is tremendously huge. The growth of our employees is the key to the development of ABB. We believe two heads are better than one. If the players are joined together, we will definitely win the game.

Vocabulary
switchgear 开关
accretion 增长
trump card 王牌
scuba-diving 潜水



Contributions to Qinghai-Tibet railway
ABB华电高压为青藏铁路贡献力量

ABB Huadian High-Voltage Switchgear Co., Ltd. signed an 18.1 million RMB ($ 2.2 million) contract with Qinghai Electric Power Company to supply advanced power technologies for the Qinghai-Tibet railway, May 25, in Beijing.

"We are excited to work on this prestigious project," said Fulvio Granata, the company's General Manager. "And we have committed to delivering our world-class power technologies, which are of the highest quality, in addition to the absolute best after-sales service."

Under the terms of the contract, ABB will deliver seven circuit breaker bays of gas-insulated switchgears (GIS), which ensure safe and reliable power supply while eliminating environmental impact.

本栏目特约协办