Life story Puah Khein Seng
inventor USB flash
It's not easy running a multi-billion dollar business. Such an accomplishment is more impressive when you consider that the person doing it is a young man who not that long ago struggled to pay his tuition fees and living expenses.
The company is Phison Electronics Corp, a listed technology company in Taiwan with a market capitalisation of almost NT$40bil (RM4.3bil). Its main claim to fame is that it changed how many personal computer users store and transfer data.
According to Phison’s website, in 2001, the company came up with a product that led to the demise of the floppy disk. It was the world’s first USB (universal serial bus) “flash removable disk”. Most of us know it simply as a pen drive. In fact, that was what Phison named the product.
(USB flash removable disks are also known as thumb drives, yet another trademark that has evolved into a generic term.)
Phison’s president and co-founder is Pua Khein-Seng, an energetic 35-year-old whose childhood memories include fishing trips and living in a place surrounded by paddy fields. After all, he grew up in the pretty village of Sekinchan, Selangor.
Yes, the man behind the pen drive is a Malaysian. Although he has been living in Taiwan for the past 16 years, Pua still considers Malaysia as his home.
His success story began in 1993, when he arrived in Taiwan to study electrical control engineering at the National Chiao Tung University. During his three years there, he worked part time, earning about NT$80 per hour (RM8), to help pay his way.
“My intention was to come back to Malaysia after graduating,” he says, adding that he had already given up his ambition to get a master’s degree because it cost too much to prepare for a qualifying examination.
Then, in his third year at the university, the rules changed. Students need not sit for the exam to gain entry into a master’s programme if they do very well for their first degreee. Pua not only obtained first class honours but was also top in his faculty. He thus kept his dream alive.
Phison takes off
After Pua obtained his master’s degree, a professor at the university offered him a salary of NT$5,000 per month to research and develop memory controllers. The professor set up a company with his friends, and Pua became an employee.
As a key engineer in the company, he travelled to places like South Korea and Japan for meetings. It was a time to gain valuable experience and exposure. That ended when friction and office politics nudged Pua into a decision to leave. However, complications over his work permit blocked his exit and forced a long negotiation.
Eventually, the shareholders promised to invest NT$30mil in a spin-off company where Pua would have a lead role alongside some friends. But things did not go as planned. The shareholders only invested NT$1mil and later opted to give up.
“We faced some problems that time as we had purchased equipment, and the resources were ready,” Pua recalls.
Clinging to the principle of never backing down in the face of adversity, Pua and his friends chose to forge ahead with the new venture. But first, they needed fresh capital.
The target was NT$6mil which they hoped to achieve through borrowings and their own savings. At that time, venture capitalists were not exactly in a hurry to put money in the fledgeling business. Through his contacts, Pua finally secured some investments to get the business running. With that, Phison got off the ground.
According to Pua, the company was not producing USB drives when it began operating in 2000. Instead, it was making USB card readers. In fact, Phison also claims to make the world’s first 5-in-1card reader.
In January 2001, an Australian customer approached the company on the possibility of producing a USB drive. This put Phison on the path to its rapid rise.
“There was already a USB drive but we invented the USB drive SoC (system on chip), which uses a single chip,” Pua explains. He was only 27 at that time.
Despite this milestone, the company still had to grapple with teething problems. It was tough, for example, for a start-up with limited funds to attract talent. “We tried to hire Malaysians who had just graduated in Taiwan but it was hard to obtain work permits,” he says.
The company’s stature and appeal have since grown following its listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 2004. It now has 430 employees, of whom 210 are engineers. Its principal activity is designing USB flash controllers and related NAND (a type of technology for flash memory) flash applications. It also designs integrated circuits and provides system integration services.
Its products include controller ICs (integrated circuits) for card readers, pen drives, memory cards, flash disks, and other electronic devices.
These are exported worldwide.
Its revenue has ballooned from US$500,000 in the first year of operation to US$580mil last year. It spends between US$15mil and US$20mil annually on research and development. Clearly, Phison has overcome the rocky start.
What is it that motivates Pua in dealing with huge obstacles? “My passion has helped me overcome the hurdles and also, there is the desire to prove that we are right. It’s thanks to the support from my staff, partners and shareholders,” he says.
His maxim in life is to do things correctly everyday and to be patient so as to grow better. “I just want to raise my quality of life and be myself,” he adds.
To grow further, you have to keep improving yourself, he says. “We are our own worst enemy. We have to be patient and concentrate on the things we are doing.”
For those who want to go into business at a young age, he urges them to consider carefully such a move because setting up a business is not easy without working experience. “You need a team as it is not a one-man show. You need to have your core technology and values to stay competitive,” he adds.
Leadership management and creating a good environment are essential in the development of a company. So how does Pua treat his staff members?
They are like his family, he says. “We have to do the right thing for our staff and they will do the right thing for you.”
Local pride
To him, it is a simple principle: “Don’t treat others the way you wouldn’t want others to treat you. Your staff will like you more if you treat them like your friends. They will not like to work for you if you treat them as part of a money-making machine.”
This has been tested during the global financial crisis, when millions of people have lost their jobs. Although Phison’s revenue decreased from US$630mil in 2007 to US$580mil last year due to the downturn, Pua does not believe in retrenchment and insists that the company’s best assets are its employees.
“We didn’t implement a retrenchment programme. In fact, we increased salaries and paid bonuses,” he says. He points out that although last year’s net profit dipped, it was a nevertheless a good sign that it was possible to register a profit even in these hard times. Thus, rewarding the staff was necessary.
Pua says his priorities in running a business are the staff, followed by suppliers, shareholders and customers. “I promise to share the company’s profits with my employees,” he maintains.
After being away from Malaysia so long, how does Pua feel about his homeland? “I’m like a foreigner in Malaysia but I like the place very much. I’m not really familiar with it now but I really miss the food here. This is my country and I keep track on the news in Malaysia,” he says.
He describes Malaysia as his motherland and Taiwan as his second home. “I am proud to be Malaysian, ” he adds.
He comes back to Malaysia once in three to four months as his parents are staying here.
“The quality of life is good in Malaysia as the pace is not so fast. This is a nice place to relax and enjoy, as there are mountains and the seaside. I will come back for my retirement.”
Fact File
Born: Malaysia (June 15, 1974)
Personal: Married with three kids
Education: Master's in Electrical Control Engineering
Career: President of Phison Electronics Corp (Taiwan)
Favourite food: Curry rice, Noodles, Hokkien Mee
Favourite place: Malaysia
Hobbies: Golf, Swimming, Sleeping
Values: To judge other people's feelings by one's own and to treat others with sincerity.
I'm interested in the life Puah Khein Seng, a designer USB flash and electrical control engineering famous in Malaysia. I chose him as an idol for a long time goal I want to create a product of its own to help others like him. I am proud of him because although his stay in Taiwan with a bit long but he was impressed with Malaysia to raise the reputation of Malaysia with his creation. I am also proud of the spirit he never gave up studying to help the family because he did not come from a rich family. Thanks to learning, he managed to produce products to help others and become a respectable person and the richest in Malaysia. God willing I will follow him to achieve my long goal.
How to like him
Based on a closer look at Pua’s biography, here are some takeaway points for an aspiring entrepreneur:
1. Others will not immediately recognise your potential; proving yourself to the right people is key
Pua’s journey has not been smooth sailing. He failed to get a place in Malaysian public universities, forcing him to look for choices abroad, and finally making it to Chiao Tung University.
Not being financially well-off, he had to work part-time during his three years studying in Taiwan to pay his way through university, receiving NT$80 (RM8) per hour.
He also almost declined pursuing a Masters due to the financial burden of having to prepare and sit for the entrance examinations. He was later exempted due to a new ruling that allowed graduates with exceptional grades to continue their studies without taking the examination.
It was in Chiao Tung University that his talents were noticed by his teachers. Having received his Masters, he continued to work as a researcher developing memory controllers (with a monthly salary of NT$5,000) under one of his alma mater’s professors who later started his own company.
However, things started falling apart when the heightening office politics and internal bickering forced him to leave the company. Undaunted by this major setback, his skills and determination did not go unnoticed and he was later offered a leading role in a spin-off company.
This promising new beginning turned sour when the investors who had promised NT$30mil, only offered NT$1mil. At the time, shareholders were doubtful of start-ups. They refused to offer the financial backing that Pua and his partners sorely needed.
In desperation, Pua and his colleagues struggled to rack up NT$6mil from relatives, friends and their personal savings.
This saw the genesis of Phison Electronics in November 2000 – the name was derivative of “five person”, representing its five founders. Its debut product was a patented 5-in-1 card reader. Their famous pendrive debuted in 2002. By then, Phison had impressed big names in the industry such as Toshiba and M-Systems, which invested in Phison’s later projects.
2. Great discoveries are made by struggling, not by epiphany
We constantly hear legends of how great discoveries were made with a sudden flicker of inspiration. Legend tells us that Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head; forgetting to mention the years he spent perfecting the mathematics required for his theory of gravitation.
In reality, innovation requires long, careful study, while continuously adding to past knowledge of how things were done. Pua acquired advanced learning in integrated circuits not only from his professors, but also through his research work at Chiao Tung and the practical application of his work in his professor’s company.
Working as an engineer under his professor, Pua was dispatched to Japan and South Korea, where he gained indispensable exposure in the international technological scene.
From his entry to university at age 19, he took about eight years before he got his big breakthrough with his pendrive invention at age 27.
He has stated that he makes perfectionism and determination his personal axioms – striving to get things right everyday and being patient in achieving results. He has also chosen a field that currently produces high-demand products, making his specific expertise invaluable.
3. One can see further ahead by standing on the shoulders of giants
The years and effort it takes to master any field is easy to understand once we
realise that inventions are built upon existing ideas, being innovative modifications of previous innovations. The first patented USB flash drive was invented by a team of researchers for the Israeli company M-Systems in 1999.
realise that inventions are built upon existing ideas, being innovative modifications of previous innovations. The first patented USB flash drive was invented by a team of researchers for the Israeli company M-Systems in 1999.
Even then, Trek Technology and Netac Technology, of Singapore and China respectively, claimed similar patent rights. Having studied past designs and possessing extensive knowledge of building circuits, Phison accepted a partnership with an Australian company to come up with a better product.
The single-chip USB flash controller was born, employing a sleeker, less cumbersome and more cost-effective design.
When filing the patent, Pua named it the “pendrive”, due to the ubiquity of the word “pen” in everyday usage.
4. There is no end-point to achievement
His invention of the pendrive is not the “happily-ever-after” of his journey. More challenges were to come, as other tech companies realised what Phison was capable of. Pua seeks to keep up the competitive spirit as can be seen in Phison’s recent activities.
Phison’s recent break into the market for NAND flash memory (found in smart mobile devices) is proof of its ongoing innovative vitality.
NAND memory components such as solid-state drives (SSD) and eMMC controllers are now a thriving industry with the tremendous growth in the smartphone and tablet market.
Phison has not only hopped on the bandwagon of producing these components but has bested many of its competitors. In 2011, 556 million units of NAND flash controller were shipped by Phison, achieving revenue of more than US$1bil (RM3.3bil) that year.
5. Success is not the result of a sole genius
Phison’s success also has another ingredient – its employees. His success is not a one-man show as Phison has around 500 to 600 employees, more than 300 of whom are engineers. He recently opened Phisontech Centre, a Malaysian branch, in the Northern Corridor Technology Development Centre (NTDC) in Bayan Lepas, Penang.
His admiration for Malaysian engi- neers, conducive governmental policies and doubts about intellectual property theft when setting up business in China were primary motivations for this choice.
He places great emphasis on trustworthiness, teamwork and timely execution of tasks to meet the increasingly competitive market. Part of Phison’s success comes from its ability to recruit and manage talent that is suitable for the job.
I agree that the key to success, he says, we need to work hard to achieve something we want although many obstacles encountered as a result bring benefits to ourselves. Never say no and despair when the test comes to us, but we need to be strong to face it. I will also tell all his key to success. I will also strive to be like him because he works the same as my dream job. I also want to produce a product or software that can help others. In my opinion, everyone fails in everything but the failure does not mean we give up, even we have to rise from failure. Failed once does not mean that fail forever.
