by Tng Ying Hui
Although Singapore lost its competitiveness in hard disk manufacturing in the beginning of 2003, Hitachi persisted in setting up its Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) here where it would make high-end hard-disk drives. HGST was set up after the parent company acquired IBM’s global hard-disk operations for US$2 billion.
Dr Kanai’s perceptiveness and broad vision were valued by many. In Singapore, he sat on the EDB’s International Advisory Council and the Ministry of Education’s International Academic Advisory Panel. Dr Kanai’s successors, like Takashi Kawamura, who is current chairman emeritus, have also learnt from Dr Kanai that “a leader should not be caught up in daily work. He or she needs to think of the big picture, to imagine the ideal business scenario in order to achieve the goal,” he said in the company’s commemorative book featuring a series of eulogies for Dr Kanai.
Most significantly, under Dr Kanai’s charge, Hitachi became one of Singapore’s largest investors and employers. Today, Singapore is the regional headquarters for Hitachi and many of its group companies, with more than 3,100 staff and generating a combined revenue of around US$3 billion across 24 subsidiaries in 2013. Described by Fortune Magazine in a 1996 interview as a “brilliant, rather low-key nuclear engineer”, Dr Kanai also helped Singapore build up a successful electronics cluster. The electronics industry continues to be a vital part of Singapore’s economy, contributing 5.2% of its gross domestic product in 2012. In December 2005, the Singapore government announced that Dr Kanai would be conferred the Honorary Citizen Award. Reflecting on his receipt of the award, Dr Kanai said it was a “great honour” for him personally, but it also demonstrated the government’s recognition of Hitachi’s numerous business and community activities. He added that he had “enormous respect for the country’s perceptive and bold action.”
Dr Kanai passed away in 2013. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who met Kanai when they attended HNS’ opening together, wrote in an eulogy, “I always appreciated his perspective on how the industry was developing, and how Hitachi saw prospects in the region and Japan.”
Indeed, Dr Kanai may not have been a household name to ordinary Singaporeans the way Hitachi was and is. But he was deeply involved in an event close to the heart of Singaporeans. In November 2012—for the last time—
Dr Kanai officiated, as he usually did every year, at the annual Orchard Road Christmas Light-Up. Hitachi has been the main sponsor of the light-up since 1990, and Singaporean families and tourists enjoy taking pictures against the backdrop of sparkling, festive lights.
References
“Electronics,” Economic Development Board of Singapore, accessed August 2015,
https://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/industries/industries/electronics.html
“Singapore Semiconductor Industry Report,” Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, accessed August 2015,
http://www.meti.go.jp/english/apec/apec-isti/history/ISTI/abridge/sgz/zsgzic.htm
“Building the Fundamentals of the Region,” Hitachi, accessed August 2015,
http://www.hitachi.com
“Hitachi Gliding Nowhere? The Japanese Behemoth is looking to PCS to boost its Meagre Profits. Good luck, say the experts,” Fortune Magazine, August 5, 1996,
http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1996/08/05/215452/index.htm
Hitachi Ltd,. 2013. Hitachi Mourns Passing of Dr Tsutomu Kanai,
http://www.Hitachi.Com.Sg/About/Press/Press_2013/20130325.Html
金井さん追悼集 (Japan: Hitachi, 2014).
Dr Tsutomu Kanai
Japan, 1929-2013
Lien Ying Chow
The Altruistic Ambassador
China-born Lien Ying Chow helped to ease tensions between Singapore and Malaysia when their bilateral relationship was fractured after Separation in 1965. A big-hearted philanthropist, he donated almost half of his wealth to set up the Lien Foundation in 1980 to bring education to the disadvantaged, and supported numerous educational institutions. But he is probably best remembered as the founder of the Overseas Union Bank (OUB) which became one of Singapore’s biggest banks.
At 14, Lien Ying Chow came to Singapore from China in 1920 alone with only a few coins in his pocket. He started work as an assistant at a ship’s chandler and was promoted to its assistant manager. By the time he was 21, he had started his own company. It would be the first of many businesses. Over time, his list of businesses grew to include a sundry supply shop and what would be one of his most lasting legacies, the OUB, which eventually became the fourth largest bank in Southeast Asia in the mid-1990s.
Lien, who was the second person to be granted Singapore citizenship when the Singapore Citizenship Ordinance was passed in 1957, is well known in the business world. Not many, however, would recall his role as High Commissioner to Malaysia from 1966 to 1969. In 1966, Lien was approached by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to be the High Commissioner to Malaysia. Recalling this in his oral history interview, Lien remembered, “Mr Lee said, you know the Tunku, you know me; you can be a good go-between. I know you will do the best for the country. I told him, ‘Yes, Mr Lee, I will do my best’.” In his eulogy of Lien, who died in 2004, Lee highlighted the banker’s role as an envoy: “He helped keep relations steady during the turbulent time after Separation.”
Lee and Lien were friends even before the former became a politician in the 1950s. Lee was working as a legal assistant at Laycock & Ong in Malacca Street and OUB was situated just round the corner. Lien recalled in his oral history: “Before he came into power, sometimes we stood there and talked. And before Lee became a politician, I already [had] been friends with him.” Lien also knew Lee’s family well.
Lien’s friendship with former Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman went back even further—they knew each other before World War II and had bonded over conversations about Malaya’s independence from the British.
By the late 1930s, Lien was one of the most successful businessmen in Singapore. He was elected chairman of the Teo Yeoh Huay Kuan (clan association), and president of the Provision and Wine and Spirit Association. In 1941, aged 34, Lien became the youngest president of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI).
Lien's grandson, Michael Lien, said his grandfather hosted meetings of politicians from the People’s Action Party (PAP) and the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) when Singapore and Malaya were negotiating freedom from British rule, and later, when Singapore merged with the Federation of Malaya to become Malaysia in 1963. Michael, who is now executive chairman of the family's investment company, Wah Hin & Company, said, “as a businessman, his instinct was to be in the same room as the key decision makers.”
So close was Lien to the political leaders in Malaya that Tun Dato Tan Cheng Lock, the first president of the Malayan Chinese Association, asked Lien to become a politician. Lien declined, saying that he “likes to be a businessman,” and continued living here because Singapore was a business port.
After Lien accepted Lee’s invitation to be Singapore’s high commissioner to Malaysia, he relocated to Kuala Lumpur and left the day-to-day management of OUB to his colleagues. The separation of Malaysia and Singapore still cast a lingering shadow over the two countries. But managing their rocky relationship was made easier because Lien was close to both parties. He wrote in his autobiography, From Chinese Villager to Singapore Tycoon, “I could just pick up the telephone and settle many things.”
According to Michael, his grandfather played poker with the Tunku, knowing that the game was one of the Tunku's hobbies. Even after he completed his diplomatic posting in 1969, he would visit his ex-associates in Kuala Lumpur during Hari Raya Eid al-Fitr celebrations. They would still address him as “His Excellency”. They became “real friends,” Michael said.
Though Lien was a prominent personality in the business community, he realised that doing business was not an end in itself, said Michael. Thus, Lien contributed almost half of his wealth to set up the Lien Founda
tion in 1980, which supports social initiatives in the areas of eldercare, early childhood, and water and sanitation. When Michael’s sister, Virginia, completed her medical studies, Lien told her, “You have to treat everyone who comes to see you even if they have no money. Those who have no money, I will pay for them.”
As Lien had been orphaned at the age of 10, he never had an opportunity to receive a formal education. Deeply concerned about the plight of the poor who were deprived of formal schooling, he consistently gave a portion of his income to education over the years. He supported institutions like Nanyang Girls’ High School and The Chinese High School, and played a key role in the founding of Nanyang University and Ngee Ann College (now Ngee Ann Polytechnic). Lien was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 1964.
In 2004, Lien passed away at the age of 98.
References
Lien Ying Chow, From Chinese Villager to Singapore Tycoon: My Life Story
(Singapore: Times Book International, 1992).
Alvin Chua, “Lien Ying Chow,” Singapore Infopedia, accessed August 2015,
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1786_2011-02-24.html
Lien Ying Chow, interviewed by Mrs Lily Tan, February 11, 1981, accession number 000057/15, transcript, Oral History Centre, National Archives of Singapore.
Interview with Michael Lien in August 2015.
Lien Ying Chow
China, 1906-2004
Pasquale Pistorio
The Fab Man
Italian Pasquale Pistorio, former CEO and president of STMicroelectronics, one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, saw the potential in Singapore as an entry point into Asia as well as having a pool of impressive “human capital”. This convinced him to build a wafer fabrication plant here in 1982, paving the way for a vibrant semiconductor industry in Singapore.
Pasquale Pistorio started working as a Motorola salesman in 1963 after he graduated with a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin in Italy. He took up the job because it paid well and “I was anxious to get married,” said the Italian, who was born in 1936.
Over the years, he rose through the ranks in Motorola to eventually become corporate vice president of the company, in charge of the International Semiconductor Division. In 1980, Pistorio became the chief executive officer of Italian state-owned SGS Microelettronica (SGS). At that time, it was in the red and had survived only because the Italian government was paying for their losses every year. “Some people said we will die. Some were recommending that shareholders sell us out,” Pistorio recalled. By 1983, Pistorio managed to steer SGS into the black and the company has been profitable since. Other European semiconductor companies were still running a heavy deficit.
SGS’s turnaround in fortunes was partly due to Pistorio’s strategy to tap into Singapore’s human capital. Foreign companies with interests in Singapore had preferred to conduct low-cost manufacturing in the city-state, and retain high-technology activities in their home country. SGS went against the grain by establishing high-end manufacturing activities here, even though shareholders were initially uncertain about this decision.
In 1982, SGS broke the ground for Singapore’s first wafer fabrication plant and a research centre. The research unit designed electronic circuits to be manufactured on a silicon wafer. Two years later, the wafers were ready to be shipped.
Around this time, SGS also set up its regional headquarters in Singapore, shifting all components of its regional operations, which included the plant and research centre, here. It also developed a global logistics centre at Loyang. The success of Pistorio’s plans convinced his colleagues that he had been right to see Singapore as a point of entry into other Asian markets. Other semiconductor firms were not as far-sighted—the next factory with comparable technology opened here 10 years after SGS, said Pistorio.
Pistorio always thinks big. This trait of his came through when he was being interviewed for this book. He expounded passionately on ideas about business management—how to ensure growth and expansion and encouraging a resilient company culture. Pistorio has honed his business management ideas over time. In 1987, he led SGS to a merger with French company, Thomson Semiconductor, to become SGS-Thomson Microelectronics. He wanted it to be among the top 10 in the world. Pistorio called this Vision 2000. He achieved this earlier than envisioned—the company entered the targeted ranks in 1997.
In 1998, SGS-Thomson changed its name to STMicroelectronics. In 2001, STMicroelectronics surpassed expectations to rank among the top five semiconductor companies in the world.
Pistorio is also remembered for being a staunch advocate of environmental protection. From 1993, he began to integrate environmental protection into STMicroelectronics’ corporate philosophy. The company produced an environmental decalogue, deliberately named as such to imply its non-negotiable quantitative environmental targets for all its firms. The decalogue was a set of commitments by the company towards several targets—reducing electricity use and water pollution, promoting recycling and the development of an environmental management system for all of its manufacturing sites. In Singapore, the government provided the company with incentives to be environmentally friendly.
By the time Pistorio retired in 2005, STMicroelectronics had invested in three wafer fabrication plants here. STMicroelectronics had hired 8,700 people in Singapore, becoming Singapore’s third largest foreign employer.
Pistorio remembers vividly an exchange between the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi that gives an insight into his personal work ethic. “When Romano Prodi was in Singapore, he told Lee how nice it was to have flowers all year round. Lee then replied, ‘But there is a problem. The bees stop making honey.’ It is a lesson to say that if the food is ready, you stop working,” he recalled.
Today, Pistorio continues to be a mover and shaker in his own way. He is founder and president of the Pistorio Foundation, a non-profit organisation which aims to better the lives of children by providing them with education, and by improving school infrastructure. Based in Switzerland, the foundation has a chapter in Singapore. It operates projects in Cambodia, Thailand, Morocco and Burkina Faso.
For his contributions to Singapore, Pistorio was conferred the Public Service Star in 1999, and the Honorary Citizen Award in 2003.
References
Antonio Battiato, “1997-2012 The Environmental Management System of the
ST Microelectronics Site of Catania is 15 Years Old,” in Pathways to Environmental Sustainability: Methodologies and Experiences, ed. Roberta Salomone and Giuseppe Saija
(Springer Science & Business Media, 2014).
Deborah Wise, “International Report; SGS-Thomson’s Goal: Big Enough to Survive,”
The New York Times, March 20, 1989.
Grace Chng and Hsung Bee Hwa, “How Microchip Firm got out of the red,”
The Straits Times, May 6, 1985.
John A. Matthews, Dong-Sung Cho, Tiger Technology: The Creation of a Semiconductor Industry
in East Asia (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Pistorio, Pasquale, interviewed by Doug Fairbairn, April 26, 2010,
reference Number X5809.2010, transcript, Computer History Museum.
Interview with Pasquale Pistorio in June 2015.
Pasquale Pistorio
Italy, b.1936
Captain Muhammad Jalaluddin Sayeed
Putting the Sail on Singapore
India-born Muhammad Jalaluddin Sayeed set up Singapore’s first national shipping line, the Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), in 1968. He then fought for its right to access the very lucrative Far East-Europe trade route which connected major ports in Europe and North Africa via the Malacca Straits to those in Southeast Asia. Today, NOL is the largest shipping and transportation company listed on the Singapore Exchange.
Singapore has always been an important maritime location but until 1968, it did not have a shipping line to call its own
. This meant that in times of crisis, Singapore would not have its own ships to carry cargo and its survival would hinge on aid from others. Captain Muhammad Jalaluddin “MJ” Sayeed came to the aid of Singapore, advising Finance Minister Dr Goh Keng Swee and EDB Chairman Dr Hon Sui Sen on setting up a national shipping line. At that time, Captain Sayeed, also known fondly as Capt. MJ, was the commercial manager of the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, and had spent three decades as a sailor. He was known for his conscientiousness. In 1963, he sailed in his tugboat to personally warn each ship at the Chittagong port of an impending cyclone.
Capt. MJ arrived in Singapore in April 1968. It was at the Botanic Gardens where he wrote his plan to “set up a national shipping line for trading round the world and round the clock.” Pleased with his report, the government encouraged him to stay on in Singapore and run the NOL.
But Capt. MJ was hesitant to give up his job as a commercial manager and uproot his family from Pakistan. His wife was running a school then, and his children were still studying in “good English-medium schools”. In the end, he changed his mind. “I was drawn to the opportunity of setting up a new carrier and working for a government known for its wise policies and efficiencies,” he wrote in NOL's commemorative book.