Jiangling Motors Co., Ltd Board Member and President Thomas Fann delivering a speech at 2018 JI Graduate Commencement
Distinguished Dean Professor Huang, Distinguished faculty members of JT, dear graduates,
First of all I like to congratulate the Ph.D. and Master graduates at JI for achieving the major milestones. It’s my privilege, as a Michigan Alumnus, to witness you to successfully conclude a phase of your academic careers. And what a great day to be a Wolverine! If you haven’t followed American’s college sports, University of Michigan, a renowned academic institution and a traditional football powerhouse, is now entering the Final Four of both the NCAA basketball tournament and the Ice Hockey tournament.
It’s also my honor to share my thoughts with you at this moment. The title is “The Future You Define.” These are my observation about Thomas Fann as a person. I hope you may find some of them interesting.
But before that, please allow me to briefly introduce to you the JiangLing Motor Co., Ltd. (JMC), Ford Motor Company and the person of Thomas Fann (Fan Xin).
JMC was established in NanChang City and has been listed on ShengZheng stock market since 1993. JMC is recognized as one of top 300 companies in China. JMC’s vision is to become the best partner of mobility and smart logistics solutions. Its major shareholders include Jiangling Holding Company and Ford Motor Company. JHC is a 50-50 JV between JiangLing Group and ChangAn Auto. The rest of the shares are mostly held by big financial institutes. JMC has two wholly owned subsidiaries in JiangLing Sales Company and Jiangling Heavy Duty Operation in Taiyuan. JMC operates three plants and has one new energy vehicle plant under construction.
JMC’s PD center is certified as a national engineering center and a national design center. With more than 2,000 engineers between NanChang base and Taiyuan Center, the PD center plans to recruit extra 300 engineers this and next years to continue bolstering core competence in new technology, like NEVs, AV and Mobility, in order to support Ford and JMC product developments. JMC is a leader in China’s light commercial industry. And JMC is expanding to passenger vehicle territory with Ford’s support.
Established in 1903 by Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford Motor Company has grown into a global enterprise which runs auto business in more than 100 countries and markets. It sold more than 6.5 million of vehicles in 2017. Ford’s vision is People working together as a lean, global enterprise to make people’s lives better through automotive and mobility leadership. Globally Ford has more than 200,000 employees and operates more than 66 plants. In China, Ford has a Joint Venture with ChangAn Auto and invested in JMC and very recently is forming an EV JV with Zongtye. Ford’s Asia-Pacific and China Headquarters are in Shanghai while it also has a major Research Engineering Center in Nanjing.
With regard to Thomas Fann (Fan Xin), as introduced by Professor Hung, he is the President of JMC. Thomas was born in Taiwan in 1960s. He finished bachelor degree at Cheng Kung University and master degree at Taiwan’s Tsing Hua University, both in Mechanical Engineering. In 1989 Thomas was admitted into University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His Ph.D. advisor was the late Professor W.J. Yang, and his study was on heat transfer and fluid dynamics in rotating mechanism, e.g., turbine blades. Fancy stuff at that time. He finished the thesis defense in the winter of 1992 and worked post-doctor in the first half of 1993. By the way, he named himself Thomas after Thomas Edison, the greatest inventor.
Thomas, however, found out the harsh truth about finding an ideal job at that time. By accident, he landed a job at Ford’s JV in Taiwan that had nothing to do with his research, i.e., as a senior Supplier Technical Assistance engineer. He was just to make a living and treated it transitional. Ironically, the god of fortune has a different plan for Thomas. Here he is, after 25 years and still doing a job that has nothing to do with his research. He experienced different roles in STA, Purchasing, Finance (though he never went to study MBA or finance) and general management. He moved between Taiwan, the US, UK, Germany, Chongqing, Nanjing, and now Nanchang. He worked for Ford Lio Ho, Ford Europe, Mazda Europe, Changan Ford JV, Changan Ford Mazda JV, and now JMC.
You may wonder what this guy has been doing. Here are some of my observation about Thomas Fann and his mentors and friends, good and bad:
Curiosity / Dare to Push the Boundary
Thomas and his friends constantly surprised themselves by what they did or didn’t, maybe because they like to challenge the difficult parts of their lives. Some people see such behaviors as reckless, risk taking or even stupid. However, the history of human being is full of trying. People constantly do different things or do things differently. “Curiosity” is the fire to drive these innovations and inventions. Without curiosity, one’s life could be very comfortable but complacent.
My observation also finds that Thomas and his friends are often curious of what they can or can’t do and curious of any newly emerging thing. Comfort zone is not what they like to stay long. Surprisingly, it seems not so difficult for them jumping from one territory to another, if a person owns strong thinking logics. The broader you’ve learned, it seems the better vision may present itself to you.
People like Thomas may not have decent finance education, however, they found out there are many similarities between the logics of business assessments and that of researches. To begin with, a lot of data analysis works and/or experiments must be done based on assumption principles. Conclusions are drawn from analytics or experiments. Then the conclusions are put through verification tests or sensitivity tests to confirm. Wala! Done.
You may question that real business is much more complex than this. Honestly, real business is no more complex than research works inside a lab. The best businesswomen and businessmen are those who can simplify the business complexity and set clear visions. Great leaders, great scientists or great business people stretch themselves from one area to another. Sometimes it’s by design, and sometimes by luck. Regardless, the first thing you should ask yourself when such an opportunity presents is: do you dare take on the challenge? Never draw a circle and assume that’s all you can do. You never know what you don’t know if you don’t try.
Learn From Mistakes and Grow
Throughout Thomas’s career, mistakes were made and he paid for those dearly sometimes. Some of mistakes are common for many people.
When Thomas was young, he thought he was intelligent and could take the world alone. He became arrogant. Even worse, he thought asking help is a sign of weakness. He almost failed his master degree thesis because of those, if without rescue by his advisor, the late Professor G.J. Huang, and his undergraduate advisor Professor C.K. Chen.
In Thomas’s stint as a purchasing supervisor at Ford Europe, he made another typical mistake by assuming his objectives and work approach were easily evident so communications were not required. At a performance review, Thomas was stunned when being told his performance was bad because the objectives had not been aligned with his boss and his team members. As a result, he and his team functioned poorly.
When Thomas served as the VP at ChangAn Ford Mazda Engine JV, the second engine launch became a major disaster because of over-confidence, not paying attention to details and lack of true cooperation between partners. The Engine problem was only salvaged after a significant global rescue effort. It delayed a new vehicle launch by 6 months and caused loss of tens of millions of dollars. Those were the darkest days of Thomas’s career. His direct boss said: Thomas, you were in dog house. He almost quitted. Though Thomas also found out a good company does allow making mistakes, as long as mistakes are not about integrity or behaviors.
Arrogance can derail your life fair easily. Nothing can really be done by just one person nowadays. Even the great Einstein needed friend’s support to land his first professor’s job. Know how to ask for supports is also an art.
A true leader possesses three critical characters: know how to set a clear vision, how to establish a team working toward it and how to communicate effectively. Only with good communications, effective team work can happen.
Learn from People You Work With
Thomas’s master degree advisor, Professor Huang, was famous for his research on Heat Transfer and Control, two very distinct territories. He demanded the best from his students and reviewed research works tightly, but not necessarily gave suggestions if a student’s thought logic was not robust. The study life under Professor Huang was tough because he believed you could be at least like him in achievements, if not better. But importantly, Thomas learned from Professor Huang about how to conduct a research properly via thinking logics. This proved hugely important to Thomas’s Ph.D. study and business career.
Another person Thomas admires is Mr. Dave Schoch, who retired as a Ford Group VP and President of Ford Asia Pacific last August. Dave is a rare westerner who sincerely respects and enjoys Asia and a rare good person in the harsh business world. Dave is always beaming; always bringing positive energy to work, no matter how stressful he was. He was supportive of what you do and tolerated mistakes you made to allow growing room. He is genuine, no pretending. He may not be the smartest leader, but surrounded himself with great minds. And he listened carefully.
And of course there were really rugged people that Thomas had the luck to work with. For instance, at a summit meeting in Nanjing, Thomas was astonished by attacks made by a senior leader for a not-on-agenda item in front of many other senior partner leaders. Even without direct reporting relationship, the person continued treating Thomas harshly thereafter. He had a big ego, didn’t listen and just wanted to drive his ambition through the wall. However, Thomas did grow from it, because Thomas doesn’t want to become a person like him at all.
Sometimes, rough people actually drive you to reflect deeper and make you emerge a better person. Sometimes, tough love is true love. There is always some good coming out of bad.
Be Positive
“Everything is difficult, but nothing is impossible!” is the motto of Mr. Ron Tyack, the first President of Changan Ford JV. If you could imagine how he and his Changan counterpart had started a new JV from ground zero in 2002, in a remote village of Chongqing City, you might appreciate what the motto means. Thomas wouldn’t have pulled through the engine problem had not he lived by the motto.
Allan Mulally, a business icon and former Ford CEO during the global financial crises, was always positive and energetic. And that was contagious throughout Ford organization that was otherwise very beaten down. Light bulbs would’ve been introduced that early, had not Edison kept positive spirit and trying thousands of materials. The motto, also a great testament to the whole China development, should be true to many others.
Integrity
Everyone may have a different definition to the term. To Thomas, it’s defined as honest to himself, honest to what he does, and honest to what he brings to people. In business world, and perhaps every world, the life is easily complicated by internal and external factors. Old saying says people live for either money or fame. A lot of distractions try to induce you to be not yourself or to do something that you regret later. In the case of Thomas and his friends, he could’ve wielded power to direct decisions to otherwise might be illegally or immorally benefiting himself or specific others. Many business people, engineers, scientists, and politicians fell into those traps willingly.
The integrity Thomas and his mentors are keen to exert is from their hearts, not just to comply. Only when you are honest to yourself, you know clearly the strengths and weaknesses you possess and therefore the opportunity to improve. Only when you are honest to what you do, you treasure every minute you spend and want to generate goodness from the works. And only when you are honest to what you bring to people, you appreciate and recognize the great consequence of potential benefits or harms. Live and lead by examples. I think this speaks truth, especially, to the academic world that holds researchers and professors to a higher moral ground. People of integrity may or may not get rich or famous because of integrity. But we definitely sleep well.
Those five are what I like to share with you: Curiosity / Dare to Push the Boundary; Learn From Mistakes and Grow; Learn from People You Work With; Be Positive; and Integrity.
One of Thomas’s former bosses once asked: Thomas, what’s your brand identity? Thomas didn’t realize what it means initially. The boss explained every person is unique, so how do you want other people to see in you? Strange question…. For Thomas, I think he likes people to see him as a person who dares to challenge boundary, brings positive energy, learns from good and bad and is of integrity and approachable.
So, what’s your brand identity? The future is here for you to define!
Life is short and full of surprises. Please cherish every minute no matter what you do. Please be curious and dare to jump out of comfort zone. Please cherish your youth. You can afford to stumble as long as you learn from mistakes. And in the end, please be a good person who helps herself or himself and helps others.
There may be something you can’t do, but there is nothing that can’t be dreamed of. If you can dream of it, you can do it! I wish you all the best on your new journey and hope one day you may share with us what you’ve observed or learned.
Thank you!
Brief Introduction of Dr. Thomas Fann
Since joining Ford as a Senior Engineer in 1993, Dr. Thomas Fann has held a variety of management positions at Ford Lio Ho and at Ford Europe. He was Finance Director, Ford Lio Ho and Vice President for Business at Changan Ford Mazda Engine Co., Ltd. He also served as Operations Controller for Finance, at CFMA in China, as well as Financial Analysis Manager for Mazda Motor Europe in Germany.
Fann received a Bachelor’s degree from the Cheng-Kung University, a Master of Science degree from the Tsing Hua University and a PHD from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, all in Mechanical Engineering.
