I have fulfilled several roles within Advantech. I was hired as Channel Manager, but pretty soon after I became a Product Manager. As a Product Manager you’re basically the intermediate between our headquarters in Taiwan, the Product Division, and Advantech Europe for a certain product range. After that, I became the AOL –  AOnline Manager, what is the direct sales department. And after that I became Business Development Manager which is a very diverse role.  This makes me the intermediate to implement certain developed strategies for our partners. Therefore, I spend a lot of time with our European partners.

Develop

We develop markets and segments at Advantech. There is the traditional IPC & communication products business that we’re really good at. And you have the emerging businesses such as electrification & smart grit, smart city & smart transportation, hydrogen and so on. But also, innovative developments. We are the hardware + SW tools manufacturer, but I work with companies such as an Eriksen and Orange, which focus on cyber security, large IT infrastructures and AI. AI is a daily part of my job, now.

Innovation

Advantech gives you space and freedom to develop yourself but also to develop your customers / markets the way you would like to do. I work with partners continuously, and I am charmed by partners who have very good, innovative solutions and are ready to bring these to the market. We are co-creating innovative SaaS/pay-per-use solutions and ideas for example.

Connect

My relationship with my colleagues is very good. Within Advantech you have several business units with it’s own Sales, but I am representing Advantech as a whole, and not as individual BU. I could say it’s part of my identity. I always try to conversate with everyone around the office. Everyone knows me too; I want to know everyone as well. I try to help my colleagues as much as possible if they need help.

Growth

When I just started at Advantech, I had the ambition to understand the technologies and markets well. And the market is very dynamic because if you look at the trends of the recent years, things are changing rapidly. The trick is to understand thoroughly what’s happening around us, to identify great opportunities. To translate these into business and into customer development. And that is really a big part of my personal growth!