Richard Dyck, President of TGK-Japan, a semiconductor testing company as well as many other companies, originally visited Japan as a student in 1965. With a PhD in the field of semiconductor from Harvard University, Dr. Dyck began working at General Electric’s Japanese office. Dr. Dyck worked closely with Jack Welch, Senior VP of GE at the time, and was responsible in building the material business in Asia, with a focus on Japan. Among many things, Dr. Dyck learned from Welch’s hard work ethics and his value-based pricing strategy. Dr. Dyck then moved to Teradyne, a Boston based manufacturer of semiconductor equipment, leading the Asia operations for 20 years. He then went on to establish his independent company after a management buy-out of Teradyne’s high speed connection system business, starting at $8 million. Dr. Dyck describes the first 10 years as “more rewarding than anything [he] had done before.”
After selling his company that grew to $50 million, Dr. Dyck then became involved in Japan Industrial Partners, a private equity specializing in carve-outs of businesses from large Japanese corporations. When the firm bought out a spindle motor business from The Japan Victor Company, Dr. Dyck took on the role of leading the $300 million business with a large factory in Thailand and a labour force of 5000 employees. He was confident in using the Japanese approach of quality control and quality circles. He “ became a huge fan and still place a lot of value in the Japanese approach to a manufacturing operation…and it is very effective, not only in Japan but…in Thailand and China.” Dr. Dyck also serves on the board of Hitachi Chemicals, which he describes is another “experience at looking at a Japanese company from the inside.”
On leading in Japan, Dr. Dyck highlights focusing on customer satisfaction and relationship building as the key to gaining credibility among clients and the team. Communication among all operations within and outside of the Japan office is also crucial, ensuring there is constant feedback getting communicated back to headquarters. In Teradyne, Dr. Dyck’s employees were on a team commission, in which teams were rewarded instead of individuals for their performance. Dr. Dyck also encourages his team to face their mistakes and learn from defective products calling them “treasures.” He holds regularized engineering reviews to ensure quality and performance standards are maintained. Dr. Dyck also participates in social activities such as playing softball and volleyball to build team engagement outside of work. He is always trying to be honest and open to learning from his employees.
On Innovation in Japan, he sees more and more Japanese companies fund businesses within their organization, treating it like a start-up company. Dr. Dyck talks about the challenge of collaboration in the academic field, in which departments within the same university do not have a collaborative mindset. Dr. Dyck also thinks letting employees work in one specific position instead of rotating them, would lead to more specialists who are skilled within their area of expertise with a strong network.
He advises newcomers to Japan to be ready and willing to learn from Japan and figure out what you can bring to your company that differentiate you from a local Japanese employee. Dr. Dyck also addresses the value of spending time with the customers in Japan to build relationships to be able to provide the best solution for them.
