Turning weakness into strength – English Capability and Diversity Awareness are the key to future success

Turning weakness into strength – English Capability and Diversity Awareness are the key to future success

– Blog by Steve Hwang

I was recently asked to participate the management and leadership development training class, an internal training curriculum with that Seagate uses to develop new managers and future company leaders. I shared some thoughts on my learning experience of management, my own leadership style, strength and weakness of different managerial approach.

During Q&A session, I was asked by one of participant, who is Japanese American and 1st line manager, to compare the weakness and strength of business practice and management style between the West and the East, and of my opinion on the rise and fall of Japanese economy growth.

Here it was my opinion-let me know what you think:

When I came to USA in 1987, that was a booming time for Japanese economy and for automobile, consumer electronics, semi-conductor in particular. American had seen that Japanese companies was gaining the market sharing globally through the high quality and low cost of products being made in Japan. Japan was well position to become world #1 economic power -house and to own many properties, equities in USA, that included Pebble Beach Property, a landmark of most beautiful costal land in California, USA as well as the many tall buildings and big companies.

The strength of the East:

It was well documented how Japan had overtook USA and become the most powerful economy entity in 1970 –1980. They had cut costs, improved overall efficiency, productivity and quality to gain overall business competitiveness. It was also clearly demonstrated that Japanese were intelligent, well educated, and totally loyal, dedicated to companies, works and jobs. Many employees worked from morning to midnight, missed family activities, spent little or no time with kids, and gave personal health and life to the success of the company.

I thought that I would list the strength of East that contributed to the success of Japanese economy in 1970-80.

Strengths are:

1. Education 2. Discipline 3. Hardworking 4. Dedication 5. Go by the rule and book 6. Loyalty

In the fall of 1990, I arrived in Silicon Valley, California. The economic power of Japan has allowed Japanese companies to extend their influence and visibility in the birthplace of high technology industry. To continue to economic expansion, Japanese companies had invested and took over dozens of companies in Hard Disc Drive, Personal Computer, and other industries. If you were driving around the Silicon Valley, you can see the company logos, like SONY, Mitsubishi, KAO, JVC, Cannon, Hitachi, Toshiba, Kubota, Yamaha, Japan Energy, Tosoh, MKE, Asahi, Toyo Kohn, Fuji, Showa, Sanyo, ALPS…and many Japanese conglomerates, around every corner of R&D and manufacturing buildings. Many technical professionals, me included, were learning Japanese, instructed to learn of operational excellence from Japanese business practice and were looking forward to working in a Japanese company.

In the Hard Disc Media business I was involving in, two Japanese companies, Hitachi Metal Technology and Akashi (American company was bought by Kubota group in 1989) were the most admired and highly respected companies among 6 recording media companies in Silicon Valley.

When I was interviewed by Akashi in 1991 for an engineer position, I learned that the president and majority of the management team were all Japanese from parent company, Kubota, who had very little or no knowledge of recording media technology. During the interview, the Japanese manager, through interpreter, asked the question and conducted interview in such way that it was so ineffective and took an hour longer to complete a simple interview. I also learned that President of Akashi, who was a Japanese but educated in USA for advanced degree, could speak fluently English, however, he would conduct all meeting in Japanese and relied on translator to communicate message to employees in English.

Few years later when I was assigned to off shore production transfer role and responsibility, I’d found that the same Japanese business practice, such as conducting business in Japanese language, operating in a silo environment with mostly Japanese management and local employees for engineers, technicians and operators, were alsohappening in Singapore, Philippine, and Malaysia.

The weakness of East

This business practice mentioned above in an oversea Japanese company had two flaws

1. Lack of English communication skill to local employees, to suppliers, and to customers - The communication and translation from English to Japanese, then Japanese back to English, was ineffective, nor productive. Furthermore, it created interpersonal barrier among the employees, management team, customers, suppliers and others. An ineffective and slow-pace communication could probably work in a production-oriented environment in 70 or 80’ but will certainly fail in the innovative, fast pace R&D environment in the 21st century.

2. Lack of diversity awareness and ability to manage diverse workforce – A leadership and management structure with singular race (Japanese) and gender (male) discussed above created many shortcomings that included poor moral, lack of performance, and low motivation. In a global business environment, how to hire and manage diversed employees are the most important lesson and competitive advantage for a person and company that want to be successful.

Even though there are many attributes to the cause of “ Loss of 20 years since 1990” to the Japanese economy, in my opinion that the lack of English skill and diversity awareness is one of most significant factor.

How to turn our weakness into strength?

1. Improve English language skill – In current education system in Taiwan, English is most popular and the mandatory class from elementary school to 4-year university. However, the English language skill that is practical and useful in business communication is not getting much progress for past 20 years.

From my experience of learning English language, the best and most effective way to improve English skill is to take TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language). TOEFL provides a practical way for us to practice reading, listening and writing, and a motivation to measure self of English comprehension capability through the improvement of TOEFL score (a person who can achieve 550-600 score is capable of conducing any business with English). In addition, practice makes perfect. If we want to improve English skill, we need to take every opportunity to read, listen, write and speak English. In the beginning, it will be difficult because of fear of embarrassment and discomfort. But as long as we won’t stop and are persistent in practicing English, the fear will soon disappear and the comfort level is surely increasing and we won’t avoid or delete English e-mails when we see them.

2. Train and improve diversity awareness- The diversity awareness is to make us aware of that the variety of skill, view, experience and perspective which arise from difference in race, gender, culture, religion, and other characteristics, exists in our daily life. It’s important to know that a successful individual and future leaders have to be actively promoting community, comfort with difference and know how to respect, motivate, value and manage diverseworkforce and how to build a successful life and career through diversity practice.

Please forward this blog of improving English skill and diversity awareness to your friends, colleges and family members. So we can all make continued improvement and prepare us for the better and brighter tomorrow.

Thank you,

The Best of Taiwan yet to come

The Best of Taiwan yet to come – blog from Steve Hwang

Recently, as I talked to my wife, family, friends and colleagues of Taiwan current affairs – from economy, education, social value, political conflict, and many others, I feel confused and sad, as you might, of what Taiwan has become as a country to have 5-6% unemployment rate, highest suicide rate, lowest birth rate, lowest economic growth rate among 4 Asian Tigers, and one of worst social, political environment and education system.

Taiwan once had been regarded as an economical, educational and political miracle reflecting how well all of the functions and people work together and shared standards of hardworking, dedication, commitment and excellence for the incredible success.

Someone recently mentioned to me that Taiwan has done poorly economically and politically for the past 10 years because of its lack of focus and inability to work well as a cohesive, cross-political parties team.

But will Taiwan continue the same course, dip further into the hole and lower the performance bar even more? Or Will Taiwan unhappy with the situation, reinvent itself and accelerate performance to next level, like the years when we were achieving Taiwan miracles.

Here are some thoughts of mine on this topic and I would like to have your comments:

1) In 1987, my wife and I arrived in Salt Lake City to attend University of Utah and pursue my doctoral degree. During the time of my graduated studies, students from China, India, Korea (Graduated students from Taiwan, China, India and Korea made up ~ 80-90% of total with most from Taiwan and China then.

Now there is close to none graduated students from Taiwan in major universities) and professors gave Taiwanese graduated students high praise for excellent academic and research achievements.

Many leaders in the universities, research institutes and industrial management looked for and eagerly wanted to hire Taiwan students when we graduated from master or doctoral programs and decided that we will stay in USA for professional career.

Following the professional career in USA, excellent comments continued to come in from the leaders and management team. They commended that Taiwanese students and employees are intelligent, well educated, dedicated, and accountable.

Once, Taiwan had education system for producing best students, employees and citizens, why Taiwan can’t now?

2) Following my career at Seagate Technology, I was assigned to an off shore high volume production transfer task in Singapore in 1996.

During two years of my assignment in Singapore, Singaporeans were impressed with the political and democratic progress happening in Taiwan. People in Taiwan cast the vote and chose the President for the 1st time in Chinese history and the presidential election went smoothly without any turmoil and contention. No any other country, not even Singapore, reached such memorable milestone in the political system.

After 1996’s president election, Taiwan remains committed to the challenges ahead and continued to focus on improving democratic and political progress. They know that the democracy is a long and challenged road and that one misstep could switch back to autocratic state.

They were highly motivated and proud to maintain such democratic progress. Eventually, they made happen for a different political party in power after ~ 50 years in power from Kuomintang.

Once, Taiwan was an example of democracy miracle and admired by many leaders, including Deng Xiao-Ping, Lee Kung-Yiao, why Taiwan can’t now?

3) Traveling through the Far East from 1996 – 1999 to now, I’d experienced a drastic change (That is not a good change for Taiwan).

In the summer and fall of 1997 during the period of Asian economic turmoil, I traveled to Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, and Taiwan and experienced the 1st hand of economic impact of Asian economic.

Korean was in deep recession when many major corporate, including Hyundai, Kai and many others, were being bought out or shut the doors. Malaysia was in such bad economic shape with corrupting banking system when you can’t see many people in the airports and resorts with many factories shutting the door and laying off massive employees. Singapore was in relatively good shape as compared to Korea and Malaysia, but the job loss and currency depreciation was significant and most of Singaporean felt the impact of economic recession.

In contrast to these Asian neighbors, Taiwan was still growing strong, showing little impact in economic activity, and had a relatively healthy banking system. When I transited in different airports, I experienced that Chiang Kai- Shih airport, once a leading airport in terms of passengers, accommodations and size in early 80 and 90, becomes an outdated and deserted place as compared to airports in China, Singapore, Korea or even Malaysia.

Once, Taiwan was called the head of 4- Asian Tigers in economic development and was considered a economic miracle, why Taiwan can’t now?


From my experience seeing the Taiwan miracles, the people I’ve talked to and from the inputs I’ve received during many Taiwan trips, the dedication, hardworking, value of family and education, competitiveness and desire to be succeed remain the same as when I was in Taiwan 23 years ago.

We, who call Taiwan as our home country, should feel confident in the future of this wonderful island. We should proud of that Taiwan had accomplished many milestones. We value the land, beauty and will help and respect each other. I believe that the current challenges facing Taiwan is just the road bumps of a wonderful and successful journey. We should be anticipating the greater achievement, better tomorrow and Taiwan to come.

So, if anyone asks you what the future of Taiwan looks like? The answer is “ the best is yet to come”

What do you think? Pease voice yours so people can hear yours. Either Chinese or English writing are welcome.


Steve ( Kuo-Hsing) Hwang 2/16/2010