The 17th Century Marquis of Montrose gave a famous toast in which he told the truth about risk and reward: "He either fears his fate too much, Or his desserts are small, Who dares not put it to the touch, To win or lose it all."
At Advantech's 2007 World Partner Conference in Lake Malaren, Shanghai, China, Advantech clearly showed that they understand Montrose's Toast.
You could hear multiple pins dropping yesterday as the top leadership of Advantech announced the most ambitious plan to integrate globally of any automation company, large or small.
Chaney Ho, who leads Advantech's China business noted that a company needs a strong economic base in a prosperous country to provide the engine for globalization. "For Advantech, greater China provides us that homeland," Ho declared.
"Seeing," he went on, "is believing the growth and advance of China. This is our vision. We want to be successful in the global marketplace and share our success with our homeland."
Ho talked about the impact of Thomas Friedman's book, The World Is Flat, and noted that in the flat world, there is equal economic opportunity for all. He noted Friedman's claim that the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and the VISTA countries (Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand, Argentina) will become much more economically consequential as the century progresses. "We are one world," Ho said, "with one dream. We all live in one free world, and we are dreaming for a better life -- a more secure life."
Drivers for one world include the growth of the Internet, high availability inexpensive telecommunications, and transportation. Yet many tough issues remain, Ho said, including global warming, natural resource deficiency, drinking water shortages, aging populations, terrorism and increased pollution. "Our earth is our Mother," Ho declared, "and is millions of years old. It is our responsibility to protect our earth."
And with this responsibility, he said, comes a set of great opportunities. Green power needs control systems, and Advantech networking and controller systems are designed to fit well. Everyone has one dream, and wants a comfortable life, a comfortable e-life. Advantech's medical computing solutions, point of are solutions, nursing carts, etc., will help to produce that comfortable life. So will Advantech's solutions for intelligent transportation, like ticketing solutions, gate access and security, and digital signage such as that being installed in Korea and Pudong Shanghai International airport.
Advantech intends to pursue a nascent market in real estate intelligence, as Ho called the home automation market. From his description, Advantech believes that the building automation and home automation markets will fuse, into this larger market Ho called real estate intelligence.
Advantech also sees a major new market in gaming solutions and other entertainment solutions, with kiosks, video game stands, etc. Advantech is also working in the anti-terrorism market, with x-ray instrumentation controls, network security, video surveillance for things like license plate recognition, and patrol car automation for police vehicles.
Ho concluded with Dickens' "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was a season of darkness, it was a season of light."
Next came Advantech's founder and guiding genius, KC Liu. As Advantech is often compared to National Instruments, KC Liu is often compared to Dr. James Truchard. "Advantech is in transformation," KC declared. "We are moving immediately from a MNC (multinational company) to a Globally Integrated Enterprise (GIE)."
In order for Advantech to grow and prosper, Liu noted, it must reorganize itself and become not just a company with offices in many countries, directed, top-down, from headquarters in Taiwan, but a company that is organized in such a way that responsibility and risk are shared in a localized fashion.
He quoted the Wikipedia definition of a GIE, and noted six capabilities of a Globally Integrated Enterprise:
- leverage global assets
- serve distinct global markets
- build a specialized enterprise
- enable collaboration
- manage value in an ecosystem of increasingly specialized entities
- address shared risk and control