New entrepreneur has ambitious designs

Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple, believes 'a company chief executive should think like a designer'. And perhaps he is right as Chris Ng Sui-wang appears to think along similar lines.

Mr Ng founded his design and product development business - Fadtronics Innovation - in 2005. He started out designing electronics products for clients and has worked on his own projects ever since.

With a higher diploma in industrial design from the Hong Kong Technical College and a master's degree in design from Polytechnic University, Mr Ng has worked on a wide range of products alongside major corporations such as VTech, and Hanzawa Hong Kong.

Mr Ng was the winner of the Hong Kong Design Centre's 2005 Young Design Talent Award and, before starting his own business, he worked for four months as an intern at Ziba Design, a renowned design consultancy firm in the United States. But his entrepreneurial qualities came to the fore and inspired him to start his own business.

'In making the leap from being a designer to an entrepreneur there were so many things to learn, ranging from preparing products, receiving orders, making shipments, to managing cash flow. They are all part of my responsibility now,' said Mr Ng, the company's director.

The young entrepreneur quickly adapted to the entrepreneurial world, mingling with business associates from production lines, assertively searching for investors through his networks, figuring out logistics and ways of securing capital, and seeking advice from experienced mentors.

'The key to starting a business is to have good planning,' Mr Ng, 32, said. 'You should at least know which product category your business wants to focus on and network accordingly.'

He said that in the design industry, planning ahead was especially critical as it might take up to a year to complete a product, and what followed was a spate of well thought-out marketing plans which included trade fairs and presentations. 'You also need to schedule a good time to present your products because that can match your production plans to save costs.'

Mr Ng's company does everything from providing design services for clients to creating its own unique products. With a mission to bring new experiences to customers, Mr Ng also emphasised that his designs aimed to create value for all parties in his business paradigm, including individual customers, suppliers, people involved in the production line and corporate clients.

When it comes to fulfilling this mission, Mr Ng highlighted the emotional value that could be created for electronics products, and took the Japanese design of a ballpoint pen as an example.

'I have seen an interactive ballpoint pen designed and developed in Japan that has sensors and is given a human character,' he said.

'The pen feels pain and makes a crying sound when you knock it, and shows other emotions depending on the different ways it is handled.'

Mr Ng considers this pen a success because of its ability to keep users entertained and the interactive features injected a soul into it.

In running his business, Mr Ng has encountered several major issues, including a limited budget, the difficulty of dealing with small to medium-sized companies, and finding an effective and reliable manufacturer to produce his products.

Mr Ng found that a number of his business problems had sprung from the different perceptions and attitudes towards business culture that his local and international business partners had.

'It's really hard to build on an effective partnership in this business,' he said.

'There is not a strong sense of trust or commitment to an agreement, as our business associates often squeeze prices along the way and are reluctant to pay the amount you deserve for royalty-based design projects.'

As Mr Ng pointed out, the underlying reason behind this issue might be due to the way Hong Kong businesses were run.

'International clients are much more knowledgeable and appreciative of the value of design, and therefore are willing to put more money into the design,' he said.

'It's not to say that our local clients don't value design, it is because most of the products made by our clients are exported overseas, and are not for local distribution or sale.

'As a result, their key concern is how to be able to produce these items at the best rate within the shortest time.'

Consequently, Mr Ng's short-term solution is to increase his sales to bigger overseas clients, and reduce local orders to a minimum.

Nevertheless, his ambition is much wider and his aims much higher for his business.

'In Hong Kong, we work so hard in creating high quality products for international clients and they can sell them at their local markets for a high price,' he said.

Many international brands have successfully established, in the minds of consumers, the philosophy of a specific lifestyle through their products, according to Mr Ng, whose ultimate objective is to create a lifestyle brand that is uniquely Hong Kong.

Mr Ng wishes to introduce a line of products that exude a modern version of Chinese culture. On the business front he will continue to focus his resources on developing new products for the market.