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Smooth Go Live in Taiwan thanks to respect for cultural differences

“You’ve got to know a lot to keep on seeing the relationships within the complexity”

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“Lots and lots of switching…”, replies Erik ter Poorten when asked to typify his job in a couple of words. Erik (38) is Team leader SAP Material Management, and responsible for resources (personnel in particular) in the SPEED program. ‘SPEED’ is related to the complete replacement of the business systems on the production side of Philips Semiconductors.

Erik: “Lots of switching around between the various settings: the ‘ordinary’ process (planning, communication with teams, HR etc.), and alongside that the IT development projects, testing, roll-outs, support and keeping in touch with sites all round the world. One minute I’m busy with a conference call and the next day I’m on site somewhere else, listening, talking, negotiating…”
The ability to switch quickly and adequately served Erik well during a large and successfully completed project in Taiwan: the shift to SPEED in Kaohsiung, where Philips Semiconductors has one of its biggest facilities. Erik: “Not only the size of the plant, but also the high level of subcontracting made this a special project. Then there was the considerable amount of pressure exerted on IT by management: the demands made were far from modest. That’s why I rate it a major success that we carried out the entire operation on time and within budget, and to the complete satisfaction of our customer. A couple of days before Go Live – I was on site myself – people were quite amazed that things were going so smoothly; it was in fact going far better than expected. I’ve been in SAP consultancy for eleven years and I’ve never experienced such a smooth Go Live with so few incidents and always the feeling that we had so much under control.”

Streamlined communication
A major success factor was the degree to which account had been taken of cultural differences. Erik: “In Chinese culture, people are accustomed to an entirely different way of communicating than we are. A much more indirect and implicit style. Moreover, not everyone is 100% fluent in English – neither are we – so that the communication during the project demanded great care in order to make sure that possible misunderstandings didn’t escalate. That’s why we had a highly experienced consultant – one who knew both the local and western ways of working – on site right from the start in March 2005 till completion in March 2006. His principal task was to ensure streamlining of communications and this proved to be of crucial importance, particularly in the early months. In the initial phase, all communications were conducted via him in order to get the issues across in just the right tone and in the right dosage.”

Besides proper attention to communication, clarity of vision and working with experienced people were also decisive to the considerable success of the roll-out in Kaohsiung. Erik: “On such a big site, you’re working with people who really know what they want and how to get it. That means you’ve got to have people in place with enough weight and influence. This is also a way of showing that the site is considered to be of sufficient importance – certainly a matter of great consequence throughout Asia.”

Philips offers more operational scope
Erik ter Poorten joined Philips in 2005 following a career as an SAP consultant. “I was in need of more operational scope with more opportunities to find out how much more I could achieve and enjoy. Things like giving leadership and being part of one of the most complex IT environments I know. Not only is the worldwide scope offered by Philips enormous, but there’s also the range of systems, interfaces, the number of projects running at one time and the whole technical infrastructure… so multi-faceted at so many levels – as a consultant you have to be a pretty high flyer to be able to operate here. You simply have to know a lot, otherwise you don’t see the relationships. And that makes it so attractive: it’s much more challenging than what I used to do. Constantly switching… yes. Contact with the business here is much more direct and I really enjoy the international aspect. I’ve been in Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong – on the really big sites… a completely different world. Observing closely, listening, making assessments, using your own creativity and flexibility and finding the right balance between pragmatism and sticking to rigid rules. Then there’s developing your own people… so that they’re not always doing the same old things, but learning from their experiences and continuing to grow. That’s essential to the Philips culture: giving people space and ‘ownership’ of their own work and encouraging them to trust their own potential. What I see is that human resource management here is approached really structurally and that there’s also genuine follow-up in practice.”

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