October 15, 2014 was my two year anniversary at Sun-Tec America as the General Manager. Less than two months after starting in my new role I was asked to come to the Sun-Tec headquarter office in Japan to present my strategies and focus for Sun-Tec America. The opening slide of my presentation to the Sales, Marketing, and Management team was very simple. It had only two lines, which were set in PowerPoint to appear one line at a time with a click of a button on my laptop.
The first line appeared and read, “Congratulations Sun-Tec!” I went on to say how Sun-Tec had successfully overcame the odds of staying in business as a company for more than 35 years. No small feat given that most start-ups in the US fail in the first 5 years, and the odds of getting past the 10 year mark are even smaller. I went on to complemented the Sun-Tec Management for having a vision for where they wanted the company to go, and the wisdom and skill to make adjustments as needed to overcome the market changes and challenges that Sun-Tec faced over those 35 plus years. Job well done!
I clicked the button on my laptop and the second line on the opening slide appeared which said, “What’s next?” That simple two word question had a lot of possibility for audience to think and interpret it in many different ways. My intent was to provoke thought by each person in the room about what was really behind that that two words question. The purpose of putting that question on the same slide along with the congratulatory message was this, “We need recognize the accomplishments of the past, but we cannot continue to live in the past.” To continue to be successful, we need to have the same vision. The same aggressive survivalist spirit. And the same “can do” attitude that Sun-Tec had when it was founded more than 35 years ago.
There is a saying, “The only constant in life is change.” The market will change. The technology will change. The customers and their requirements will change. But we need to be ready to handle “What’s next” when it happens. So in reality, that means the future of the company, (or “What’s next?”) is really in the hands of each of us as employees of Sun-Tec.
There is a long standing New Year tradition that has taken place since Sun-Tec was founded. The tradition has now been passed to our new President, Mr. Ryoji Matsumoto. At the start of each year a Kanji character is selected by our President. The meaning of this Kanji then become the focus of our company for that year. The Kanji chosen by President Matsumoto for the year 2015 is “Shin”, which can mean “new” or “fresh”. Much better than my two word question of “What’s next?”, this single word has the potential to be applied in many ways for our business.
In 2015, we can focus on “fresh” ideas with a “new” approach. We can focus on “new” equipment designs. We can focus on finding “new” customers, “new” applications, and “new” markets. As employees, we can adopt a “fresh new” attitude and work habits. All of these things will help to make Sun-Tec a stronger more successful company.
President Matsumoto has the one word answer to my two word question. “Shin” is “What’s next”!
By Raymond C. Wiley, Sun-Tec America, LLC
SUN-TEC CO., LTD.
We create high accuracy and efficient film/Panel Lamination machines for display manufacturing industry over 35years.
http://www.sun-tec.net/
