17: Richard Dyck, President of TGK Japan

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.