This document provides a summary of Dr Tan Guan Hong's experiences and lessons learned over his career. Some key points include: - Dr Tan started his career in electronics as a hobby and went on to obtain engineering and PhD degrees, working for companies like Philips. - He discusses challenges he faced as a young manager tasked with improving factory quality and how he overcame resistance to change. - Other lessons include the importance of continuous learning, understanding customers and markets, effective communication in organizations, and developing talent within teams. - Later in his career, Dr Tan started his own business applying IoT technologies to problems like smart pest monitoring and management. - A reflection is provided on the challenges of aging populations

1. Learning What you don’t know and
facing uncertainties
by
Dr Tan Guan Hong
5 April 2022
TriTech
1
Job Hoping at Later years only !

2. My past experiences have
shaped my future already
as there is no Future
without the Past and
These are my experiences
Past History
2

3. Background
Born in Penang, Malaysia in Dec 1953
Started Electronics as a Hobby at age of 15
Educated there for O and A levels before going to University
of Sheffield , UK in 1973.
In 2nd year University course, best subjects were Electronics
while the Electrical (Heavy Current) subjects had lower
grades. But I still chose for the Electrical options !
My Head of Department called me up and asked me if I had
make a mistake (He thought that my “England” was poor and
mis-understood).
•B. Eng Degree in 1976.
•Ph.D. in Electrical Machines in 1980
Learn what you don’t know
3
2017 Designing for Pestech
Young: No Money, Have Time
Old: No time, Have Money

4. •Do what you commit
even if others have
excuses
•Continuously Knowledge
Acquisition and New
Experiences are required
•Always ask Three times
Why ?, Why ? Why ?
•10 Years of Experience ,
Is it 1 year experience
repeat 10 Times ?
Learn what you don’t know
4

5. Knowledge in Log scale
Knowledge
in
the
World
Read
101,000,000
1010
Understand
105
Apply
103
Education trains you to acquire
Knowledge and apply what you
have been trained for. This is
normal forward path.
I wanted the reverse, by
understanding the market, then go
back to the Knowledge Centers to
pick what can make business
sense
Better look for
Problem first and
then find solution
Applying Knowledge to Real Cases
5

6. First Big Challenge in Philips (1984 to 1986)
•“Promoted” to be a Department Head of 80 staff in 1984
when Factory Quality was Dropping !
•Negotiated when the Quality reach 99%, I would get a New
Engineering Job
Average
Quality
dropping
Biggest Challenge in Philips
6

7. Young, Talented
& Ambitious
Design Engineer
Experienced stable,
experienced
production manager
Challenge: Design works but gives inefficiencies in
yield
Design is right but Production has to improve better
Whose problem ?
If push too hard for changes, Designer might resign
If Production allows such design, then future designs
will follow. Production Manager in charge of KPI
Challenge
7

8. If you are face with this Challenge
where both options will give
problems, how would you move
ahead and still overcome them.
Using Logic, don’t help any more.
Forcing also don’t help !
If it can work, it would have
worked already.
No way out already with Deadline
Challenge
8

9. So add a 3rd variable of
2 young and pretty
production girls into the
project team meetings
These two Variable cannot work already
+
Apply to Mgt
Change an
aggressive
Warrior to a
cute Puppy !
9

10. Manager explaining to workers about
Government Factory Safety Act when
operating Machinery
Management
Machinery
Factory Act is
.....
Challenge
10

11. The same safety explanation can be done with
more effective way to communicate to others
Slicing Machine Hand
without
fingers
Cannot dig nose then
Challenge
11

12. As company evolves, each will rise to his
level of incompetence (Peter’s Principle)
•Can you accept your former subordinate
to be your boss in 5 years time ?
•Is the company bigger than you or
you are bigger than the company ?
•Do you use people’s
strengths or use their
weakness in a team?
•Are you aware of your
own weakness and
strength ?
12

13. Learn how a sheep dog (Lassie) leads a flock of
sheep into the pen. Some managers manage
only individuals in a team to perform
The dog
handles the
flock by
exception only
while it still
keeping the
goals, direction
& boundaries
13

14. -Give Organization a
Clear Direction
-Encirclement
Organization towards
that Direction
-Handle the exceptions
and coach them to deal
with changes
-The centre part will
move on its own or it
will move as the outer
ring will push the center
ring to conform
-Or the center ring will move and push the outer ring to
conform and the exception will still have to handle by
exception
-Like the US Indians encircling the cowboys wagon trail
14

15. We define the
Strategy Purpose
Goal Destination
Approach Direction
Method Road Outer
& Inner Limits
15

16. • Who am I without the Company Logo
behind me ?
• Can I stand on my own feet and make
a living without the Logo behind me ?
Mid career crisis ?
Done everything ?
Bore ?
Dr G H Tan
B. Eng, Ph D
Who am I without Philips ?
• We all can … as before our first job,
we were actually unemployed
16

17. 17

18. MNC
1st Jump
Just
starting
to survive
Fear Factor ?
Loss of face ?
Loss of income ?
Many, many ????
18

19. Factory Test Engineering Business line
PCBA
Flying
Probe
Tester
Motor Tester
Step
Angle
Motor
Tester
Fax
Functional
Tester
DC Motor
Tester
Water
meter
Tester
19

20. Island wide
deployment
Live
water
level
data
Contactless Flow Sensor
Real Time IoT Water Level Monitoring System
Cable-less
3G & Solar Power
20

21. Charles Revson,
the founder of Revlon,
was once said:
“In the factory Revlon
manufactures cosmetics,
but in the store
we sell hope”
21
Marketing

22. This is call Marketing and
Branding
Image creation !
TV media with their Body
Building equipment
22
Marketing

23. Tough clients are good clients to have
• Tough clients will also be tough to your competitors
• Tough clients don’t have so many suppliers to
choose from as most will shy away
• Tough clients are up and coming stars in their
company and hence authority.. usually
• Tough clients usually are unreasonable ones
• If he chase others away and you are the only one
standing there for him to choose, then you
perseverance can command premium prices
23
Clients

24. Morale of story:
Start with Difficult and small
market businesses and grow
from there
Everybody wants to do Easy
and Big market !
(Like Bubble Tea, Lohan Fish !
Syndrome)
24
Clients

25. Grows up using Eyes and Fingers to interact
Human to Human Network
supported by IoT Network to
interact with the Physical
world via Sensors
25
Social Trend

26. The population grew up from the computer generation
using eyes and fingers to interact
This is the “i” Generation of iWatch, iPhone and iPad
The self centric world of “i” or me, me, me …
Everything revolves round “i”
Knowing this, how do we grow business in future ?
Gen Y & iGeneration
i i
i
26

27. Let them try and allow mistakes
to occur as mistakes are
acknowledgement of their limits
and boundaries.
This gives the area to improve
their skills
“Maximum Performance is right on the Edge of Failure”
John Peters, ex-British pilot who was a Gulf War Prisoner
27
Learning

28. Capability Limit
Under Challenge - Sure Pass
Over Challenge – Fail !
How do you know that that
individual has reach his potential
and how do you help him ?
Time
28
Learning

29. Old Capability
Limit
Under Challenge - Sure Pass
Over Challenge – Fail !
Once he fails, this gives him the
opportunity to identify weakness
and improve
Time
New
Capability
Limit
Maximum Performance
is Right on the Edge of
Failure
29
Learning

30. Good staff don’t need managers as they can
manage themselves
Managers are needed to develop staff talent
Skill managers can lead staff to excel
Hindsight everybody has, Foresight demands
instinct
Clever people give you clever problems to solve !
The more you learn, the more you realize the less
you know
30

31. A General is just as
Good or Just as
Bad as the troops
under his
command make
him
General Douglas MacArthur (1880 – 1964)
31

32. "A Customer is the most important visitor on
our premises. He is not dependent on us. We
are dependent on him. He is not an
interruption in our work - he is the purpose of
it. We are not doing him a favour by serving
him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the
opportunity to serve him.”
Mahatma
Gandhi
32

33. Feedback from bottom to top is important
0.8
0.8
When we discuss to the next level,
we lose 20% of our content as we
are not the same people with the
same level of understanding. Every
organization level of communication
corrupts the information quality.
If we have 2 levels, the data quality
loss is 0.8 x 0.8 = 0.64
Which is a loss of 36% !
With 3 levels, it is 0.8 x 0.8 x 0.8 =
0.51
33
Communications

34. Information Quality decays when it is delayed in its
delivery
0.8
0.5
Data
Accuracy
Time Delay (Hours)
0 12 24
The Quality deteriorates
over time as we tend to
forget the details
34
Communications

35. Information loss via organization incompetence
0.8
0.8
Instructions are always given
from Top down to strengthen
the Chain of command. This
gives managers the authority.
However feedback from the
Bottom is important as it is
used to improve the accuracy
and respond time of work
being carried out.
The KPI is to reduce from 0.8
to 0.9 and also time taken to
hours instead of days
35
Communications

36. When things go wrong, feedback Top is important
0.5
0.5
Failures are feed upwards with
lower accuracies as there is a
tendency to report less bad news.
We lose 50% of the contents as
we don’t want to tell our boss bad
news. Every organization level of
communication upwards dilutes
the Bad information.
If we have 2 levels, the data
degeneration is 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25
Which is 25% !
With 3 levels, it is 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.5 =
12.5 %
Big
Fire
Fire
36
Communications

37. A Team is made up of People making
use of their strengths & covering
each other for their weakness
A collection of Body Count is not a
Team. It is the inter-relationship
between them which make the team
stronger than the number of bodies in
the team
37
Team

38. An Organization is made up
of many people. Each person
in the Organization is a
Character in the Picture.
The Arrangement and Inter-relationship of
People makes a Organization Function like a
complete picture (“The Mind of an
Organization”) 38
Team

39. Some people make things happen
Some people watch what happen
Some people wonder what happen
39

40. We send two shoe
salesmen to Africa to
explore opportunities
One told me “Boss, we
can’t sell shoes as African
don’t wear shoes”
The other told me
“Boss, we have Huge
Market as Africans
don’t wear shoes”
Both saw this ???
40

41. You
Strength
Weakness
Company
Improving yourself to increase
your value outside Company
You are employed and paid for your strength. No company
employs you for your weakness
This means that your weakness will never be tested and
improved as using your weakness will increase your failure to
Grade D
Improving your weakness is important to the individual to
increase your market value outside the company
41

42. Effectiveness of a Leader with 10 Staff
A Poor Leader X 0.8 to create Output of 8 Staff
An Effective Leader X 1.2 to create Output of 12 Staff
42

43. Every Problem, you
encounter looks like a Nail
If you are a Hammer
Do Not trap yourself in this mindset
43

44. We were born , not knowing how
to walk yet
We learn how to walk even after
falling down a few times
We give ourselves excuses that we
don’t know. We will all be on
wheelchairs
We should see what we have rather
than see what we don’t have and make
full use of them to move ahead
44

45. If a Baby grows up wearing only Red
Glasses, his world looks RED
If he wears
Green
Glasses, his
world looks
GREEN then
45

46. 46
An Innovation project using
IoT technologies of Low-Cost
Sensors and Data Analytics to
manage Pests

47. 47
Customers staying away from Marina
Square eateries after rat incident in
Jan 2015. Business falls by 30~50%
as customers stay away. Even affect
cloths and fashion outlets due to drop
in overall traffic
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/hotpot-culture-suspended-by-nea-after-rat-carcass-found-in-its-dish
Rodent Management Challenges
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/bukit-batok-rat-infestation-
what-you-need-know
The Bukit Batok Rodent infestation
reported in Dec 2014
Smart Rodents

48. Current Rodent Management for in-door
Install Traps off working hours
Place traps in false ceiling locations where
there are Rodent droppings, urine stains &
gnaw markings, paw prints
Process of Site Inspection
2 man for safety
Travel to site 30 mins
Organise site 20 mins
Setup ladder, climb up, inspect, climb down & move
another trap location 10 mins / glue trap
For 30 traps site 300 mins = 5 hours !
Travel back from site 30 mins
Total per site 6 hours 20 mins
Traditional Method

49. Reality of Site Inspection
49
Traditional Method
• Traps are sampled checked weekly
• Staff turnover. Trap Location handover a challenge
to maintain
• Inspection Records are hand written, NOT temper
proof nor Accurate
• Caught Rat not detected until complaint of smell
CANNOT perform Real Time Rodent Surveillance as :-
• Need to do in enclosed areas and only at Night (with overtime
manpower cost)
• Rodents stay away when they smell humans and hear noises
• Need a large Man power to simultaneously on site as Rodents move
from one area to another area to avoid humans
• Maximum surveillance frequency done is a month or quarterly !
Current Rodent Management for in-door

50. 50
Smart Rodents avoid Traps
https://youtu.be/Dfcs0EdiLhs
Smart Rodents

51. 51
Smart IoT RodentEye System
Wireless
Detection
Sensor and
Sensor
Based Traps
Location
Analytics
Data Analytics
SMS/Email
Notification
Real Time
Geospatial
HeatMap
Sensor Triggers
In Space & Time
IoT Technology

52. 52
Real Time
RodentEye
Geospatial
HeatMap of
a Shopping
Mall False
Ceiling
Level
Each Sensor
Weekly Triggers
Cameras for
Validating Ground
Truth Triggers
Data Analytics

53. 53
Accumulated Rodents caught
Normalised
Average
Sensor
Triggers
/
Level
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0 10 20 30 40 50
Normalised Average Triggers / Level against Accumulated
Rodents Caught
June
July
Aug
Sept Oct
Data Analytics on 245 Sensor Triggers and Rodents caught
High Correlation as R2 > .9
Data Analytics
Estimated
Rodent is
51 when
Triggers =
0

54. 54
My biggest personal
Challenge

55. Manpower Ageing Population
My age by then 57 62 67 72 77
SME Bosses
Electronics are 50-60 1st Wave to exit
ICT are 40-50 2nd Wave to exit
When time
to sell
business,
Buyer will
have more
choices
locally as
well as
overseas.
Cash is
KING and
very Fluid !
40 - 44 359
45 - 49 583
50 - 54 853
55 - 59 1,316
60 - 64 1,666
65 - 69 1,616
70 - 74 2,209
75 - 79 2,350
80 - 84 2,520
85 &
Over 4,010
DOS Death
Age Grp No
X2
X1
X4
X5
X7
55

56. -$500,000
$0
$500,000
$1,000,000
$1,500,000
$2,000,000
$2,500,000
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Sales Turnover
Profit/Loss after Tax
Fixed Asset
Net Current Assets
Paid up
capital of
$300k
Positive
Profit
Trend
Invest
Financial Health & Potential of company
56

57. Biggest personal Challenges
Raising my youngest son, who has ADHD
Fiercely Independent
Did many wrong things when young
57

58. Have a great day
Thank You
Dr G H Tan
97271973/ drtangh@gmail.com
The Greatest Fear is
Fear itself
58