APACC Annual Review 2009 - Asian Pacific American Chamber of

Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce l January-December 2009
APACC board of directors, corporate sponsors, and Richard Lui (center)
APACC Welcomes Broadcast Journalist Richard Lui
“Transformation Through Innovation”
was the theme of APACC’s Eighth Annual
Dinner Celebration at the Royal Park
Hotel in Rochester on May 9, 2009. We
were privileged to have as our featured
speaker Richard Lui, news anchor for
CNN Headline News (HLN), who shared
the story of his own transformation from
entrepreneur to broadcast journalist.
Since joining CNN in 2005, Lui has
anchored live coverage of major breaking
stories across the globe. He is currently
anchor for HLN’s late morning program
and a news correspondent for “Morning
Express with Robin Meade.” Prior to his
successful career in television news, the
graduate of the Univ. of Calif.-Berkeley and
the Ross School of Business at the Univ.
of Mich. spent 15 years in the business
world, focusing largely on new venture
creation in various management capacities
at firms such as Citibank, Mercer Management Consulting and Lazarus Data Recovery.
Lui also shared his remarkable family
history with an audience of 400 guests
at our annual celebration. He told us his
grandfather was an impoverished Chinese
farmer who bought a fake identity in order
to circumvent the harsh 1882 Chinese
Exclusion Act, which was then still in
force, and entered the United States as
what was known as a “paper son” -- the
fake son of legal immigrants.
“He bought a new name and thus a new
family, giving up his birth name, so he
could come to the U.S. Which means my
real last name is Wong, and Lui is my purchased fake name. I am a descendent of an
illegal immigrant,” Lui related.
We spoke with Lui a few days later at
the Detroit Historical Museum, where he
was doing research and interviews for a
potential television documentary on the
Vincent Chin case.
APACC: Who inspired your transformation from a business career to
broadcast journalism?
Lui: Growing up I watched Tom Brokaw
and Ted Koppel. Those are the two that
stand out in my mind, and they inspired
me. I was a news anchor as a student at
Berkeley and got to cover some interesting stories like the Rodney King riots, but
then I walked away from journalism for
15 years to pursue a business career.
I came back to it five years ago. It was an
intersection in my life. I told myself that
this is what I always wanted to do. It was
a huge risk, but clearly a risk I knew was
worthwhile.
APACC: What are the most memorable stories you have covered in your
career as a broadcast journalist?
Lui: One was the story on underage sex
slaves in Indonesia. It was shocking to
see that human trafficking still exists so
rampantly in some areas of our world.
We reported on girls as young as 12 and
13 being held as sex slaves in brothels
when their families thought they were
signing a contract for them to work in
a café. Another story is how one out of
three Chinese Americans are either a
paper son or daughter or, like me, a direct
descendant of a paper son or daughter.
My grandfather had to buy his name to
come here. I was 17 years old when I first
learned this. As a journalist, I stick to the
facts when I cover illegal immigration, but
it always reminds me of my own personal
family history.
APACC: Given your own business
background, what advice you give to a
young entrepreneur today?
Lui: Go for it and learn how to fail. Get
ready to fail and fail again. I relish failure
because I know it’s an opportunity to learn
and an opportunity to do even better.
I don’t mean that we set out purposely
to fail. But if we do, hey, that’s OK -especially for entrepreneurs. Most serious
entrepreneurs will tell you the stories of
their own failures before they ultimately
achieved success.
To see a video clip of Richard Lui’s
keynote address, ‘Personal Innovation,’
at APACC Eighth Annual Dinner Celebration, visit www.youtube.com/apaccusa.
Richard Lui, Shigeki Terashi of
Toyota Motor Engineering &
Manufacturing N.A. and Wally
Tsuha, Saturn Electronics &
Engineering, Inc.
Table of Contents
Peter Wong, APACC Chairman
2
Leverage Your Success Globally Workshop
3
Cultural Competence Takes Center Stage
4
APACC East-West Business Connection
5
Networking Events Add Value to Membership6
Photo Gallery
7
Message from Executive Director
8
Mission and Credits
8
A Word From Our Chairman
Peter Wong Sees a Good Year Ahead for APACC
Now in his second year as
chairman, Peter Wong is busy
working with APACC’s officers
and Board of Directors on several
new initiatives that will help our
organization achieve an even greater level of service to our members
and to the Southeast Michigan
business community as a whole.
“Financially, we are strong
going forward,” reports Wong,
president and CEO of the Detroitbased Roy Smith Co. (RSC) and
long-time APACC activist. “We
are in a good position to continue
with our goal of improving business relationships and business
opportunities for Asian businesses.”
As part of this effort, Wong notes, APACC is strengthening its
collaborative relationships with its nine strategic partner members:
Association of Korean-American Professionals in the Automotive
Industry (KPAI); Detroit Chinese Business Association (DCBA),
Detroit Chinese Engineer Association (DCEA), Indo-American
Chamber of Commerce-USA; The Indus Entrepreneurs-Detroit
Chapter (TiE Detroit); the Japan Business Society of Detroit (JBSD);
Philippine Chamber of Commerce - Michigan; Taiwanese Chamber of
Commerce of Greater Detroit; and the Thai -American Association of
Michigan. In addition, APACC has made important contacts over the
past months with the Asian Professional Organization (APO) in the
Grand Rapids area.
APACC will focus on three specific areas for members in 2009:
1.
2.
3.
Making Tough Decisions to Survive -- APACC will survey members to determine what issues are most important to them and
give them an opportunity to identify themselves as participants or
experts.
Finding New Business Opportunities to Grow -- APACC will
investigate new industries (such as alternative energy, biotechnology, defense and aerospace) and help its members find new
customers and markets in these growing sectors.
Helping People Discover New Opportunities Through the Transition -- Taking note of our current troubled economy, this initiative
will include a job search component (for APACC members only)
as well as advice and education in such areas as how to start a
business and how to partner with other businesses.
APACC will continue to offer quality programming and information
to support its membership and to help the Michigan businesses in
economy.
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‘Leverage Your Success Globally’
Good Business Advice at Workshop No. 3
When Rick Inatome speaks, it’s both entertaining and informative with generous doses of humor
and humility. APACC members had another great
opportunity to hear from this inspirational
business leader and computer industry pioneer
at the third in our series of Entrepreneurship
Educational Workshops.
square-foot home in Warren. Agility is the key to
his success over the years. “If you are an entrepreneur, you have to be very agile. Nothing stays
the same. Have an open mind. Recognize that you
are NOT your company,” he advised attendees.
Inatome also discussed the impact of culture on
business performance and how to build a “dashboard” for your company. (See Q&A for more of
his thoughts.)
Rick Inatome (center) with APACC Board of Directors
“Leverage Your Success Globally” was the theme
of the October. 28, 2008 event at the Embassy
Suites Hotel in Southfield with Inatome, managing director of Sterling Partners and CEO of
Infilaw Systems, as keynote speaker. Presenters
were Timothy J. Hilligoss, CPA, a shareholder at
Clayton & McKervey PC, and Rajesh U. Kothari,
CFA, managing director at Seneca Partners Inc.
Kim M. Stine, vice president of Marketing and
Operations at Michigan Financial Companies,
served as moderator. The workshop was an
Bob Bertsch, Gary Lawrey, Mike de Irala of Saturn
Electronics and Engineering with Rick Inatome
unparalleled opportunity for APACC members to
hear the personal stories of successful Asian business people and to get valuable advice on how to
run their own businesses.
Inatome told how he founded his first
successful business, Inacomp, out of his 1,000-
Participants speak with Rick Inatome
Other highlights:
Tim Hilligoss, whose firm deals exclusively
with entrepreneurs, discussed mergers and
acquisitions and explained the nuts and bolts
of how growth-driven privately owed business
expand and build their most valuable asset -the business itself -- while minimizing taxes.
Rajesh Kothari outlined the tools for raising
capital and advised attendees to know the
expectations of their investors. Noting that only
1 percent of the deals presented to investors
Panel Discussion with Tim Hilligoss, Rajesh
Kothari and Naren Balasubramaniam
are accepted, he stressed the importance of a
preparing a foolproof business plan that makes it
perfectly clear what your business is about.
Q&A with
Rick Inatome
APACC: How can we
best help our members
during this difficult
economic period?
Inatome: APACC is really
valuable because in any
kind of significant challenging time, the power of
a network and the power of
collaboration is really the
security blanket that people
have because the lesson we
learn in business in both
down times and good times
is that none of this
are we able to accomplish
by ourselves.
APACC: Even though
times are tough, what are
some of the positives?
Inatome: Detroit is a much
more resilient culture in
dealing with the economy
than a Chicago or a New
York. We are a very buoyant community with the
right culture and right
support structure to take
the advantage of any upturn. I have started a couple
of businesses that have had
their greatest growth period
during a downturn. A lot
is based on attitude. If you
are able to build a team and
build a concept, you can
out-think and out-will what
people are seeing as an
economic disaster.
APACC: When do you
think we might expect to
see a turnaround in our
economy?
Inatome: I think we’re
right in the middle of the
bottom-out period right
now. Within the next 12
months you’ll see significant signals of an upturn.
Note: This interview was
conducted on March 4,
2009
A Global View
Cultural Competence Takes Center Stage at Workshop No. 4
pay a higher price. “You as a U.S. business person might not like this approach,
but you had better get used to it,” she
cautioned. “Remember that just 30 years
ago, China was a very poor country.”
There is no pro-active planning in China,
and “weaving, dodging and hustling” is
how business gets done there.
From left to right: Peter Wong, Grace Lee, Peng-Li Liu, Peter Schreck, Shotaro Nakahama, Jamie Hsu, Brenda Schneider, Naren Balasubramaniam and ShiaoFong Yin
APACC members learned more about
the cultural differences of doing business
in India, China and Japan on February 18, 2009, at “Thriving in Uncertain
Times With Cultural Competence,” the
fourth in our series of entrepreneurial
educational workshops at the Embassy
Suites Hotel in Southfield. It’s a critical
issue because India and China are the
world’s two fastest-growing economies
and Japan is a long-time economic
powerhouse.
India
You have to known your own culture
in order to understand another culture,
explained Naren Balasubramaniam, an
advisor at Global Crosswalk Inc. and
vice president of System HR Services
at Henry Ford Health System. “While
we Americans think everyone is unique,
foreigners see us having a very specific
culture,” he said. Stereotypes -- good or
bad -- limit our opportunities. We need
to be aware of our own “filters” as we
enter new markets, he said. We also need
to beware of national biases and stereotypes and see the bigger picture, not just
the limited point of view based on what
we see and read in the media.
China
ShiaoFong Yin, president of a. MOBIUS Manufacturing Solutions LLC,
said quality -- or rather the definition
of quality -- is a big issue when dealing
with Chinese businesses. In the United
States, quality is a black or white issue,
she explained. In China, there are many
gray areas. For example, in China, a
cheap or inferior product will be excused
if it’s sold for a low price. If you want a
better product, go somewhere else and
Japan
Shotaro Nakahama, executive director
of the Japan Business Society of Detroit,
said Japan has imported much of American culture but still has its own and very
different spiritual and moral culture.
Don’t expect a conclusion or result at the
first business meeting, he said, because
Japanese business leaders are cautious,
even if they have confidence. The key
words are harmony and teamwork. In
Japan, like other Asian countries, the
vision is long-term whereas in the U.S. it
is short-term. “Look for things you have
in common,” he advised.
Q&A session with speakers
The Power of Diversity
GM Exec Headlines APACC East-West Business Connection
She urged suppliers present at this networking event to contact her
team if they have a good product at a good price.
The evening wrapped up with two business-to-business roundtables
in which participants were given the opportunity to identify themselves, provide their contact information and specify what they sell
and what they are looking to purchase. A Mandarin translator was
available to facility the discussions.
From left to right: APACC East-West Planning CommitteeGrace Lee, Victor Naidu, Suk-Kyu Koh, Barbara Whittaker of GM,
Art McClellan of GM, and Peter Wong
The APACC East -West Business Connection drew more than 240
people along with delegations from a number of Asian countries to
the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn to hear guest speaker Barbara Whittaker,
executive director of Global Purchasing - Service and Parts Operation
at General Motors Corp.
Addressing GM’s commitment to diversity, Whittaker noted that
GM has purchased $67 billion worth of goods and services from
minority suppliers since it launched its first diversity initiatives more
than 40 years ago. “We need diversity in all aspects -- dealers, workers, suppliers, investors,” she told the audience. “Diversity helps us
understand what the marketplace needs and wants.”
Whittaker said GM currently has a mentoring program for
31 minority suppliers as well as a Supplier Diversity Council. “At
GM we’re not just talking about diversity, we’re doing it -- and we’ve
been doing it for a long time,” she said.
A new Buick Enclave was on display outside the hotel, demonstrating the “power of diversity.” This vehicle, Whittaker noted, represents
16 minority suppliers, including six Asian American companies.
China delegate describing his product during the B2B session
Attendees agreed that this event is a great opportunity to introduce
Michigan-based companies to the Society of Automotive Engineers
(SAE) Asian delegates and Asian American businesses and to
facilitate business discussions and explore growth opportunities.
“Coming to an APACC event like this is an opportunity to expand
not only our own interests but also the interests of the many countries
and communities we currently serve,” said Ronald Butler, executive
director at James Group International. “APACC has been instrumental
in not only helping us in our efforts to expand our opportunities but
also in providing us with candidates for employment opportunities
B2B Roundtable Session
Left to right: Tony Hung, Yamei Tien, Katherine Laird at the
B2B session
GM also pulled people from across the world to develop the new
Chevy Volt, including 13 Asian suppliers, she said.
GM currently offers more hybrids for sale than any other company,
Whittaker said, and will have 15 such vehicles on the market by 2015.
both here in this country and abroad.”
Tim Hilligoss, CPA, a shareholder at Clayton & McKervey PC, said,
“This is a great environment to actually meet entrepreneurs in the
business market. With all the negative information that’s out there,
it’s great to see an event like this where you’re going to see well over
100 people excited about their business and excited about the Detroit
business community.”
Networking Events Add Value to APACC Membership
Thanks to the support of our sponsors and members,
we are able to host networking events and programs
that add value to APACC’s membership. These
include the APACC AM and PM events hosted by
APACC members at their business locations, Webinars on state and federal contracting and aerospace.
APACC AM
at Lotus
Bank: Stan
Patterson
of Atco
Industries
and Satish
Jasti of Lotus
Bank
APACC PM at
the Royal Park
Hotel: Charlie
Lu of Wingate
Trading LLC
and Bill
Peseski of
Saturn
Electronics
and Engineering, Inc.
•
Stan Patterson, Vice President of Operations of ATCO,
felt that his APACC membership helped solidify the
contracts with Nissan and KOTRA by being awarded
a three year contract in May 2009 with Nissan North
America to supply Quality Control services to both of
their U.S. assembly plants located in Smyrna, TN and
Canton, MS.
•
Jan Huang of Merrill Lynch and Nancy Brownrigg of
Brownrigg Companies, Inc., met through their APACC
affiliation in 2009. As a result of the friendship forged
by APACC, they have been working together to save
money for their mutual clients by improving investment portfolios and reviewing commercial insurance
premiums. In one case, they saved a client more that
$140,000.
•
“I can say without question APACC has been a value
added resource that our company has benefited in new
business throughout this year. APACC is nothing like
the other chambers; they actually care about helping
their members grow their business through strategic
networking.”
William Langdon, Financial Advisor,
ING Financial Partners, Inc.
•
Our Power Mixer B2B Showcase hosted by our title
sponsor DTE Energy and our event sponsor, Chrysler Group LLC, was on November 12, 2009 where
160 attendees engage in a results-oriented roundtable
dialogue with buyers from major corporations, state
and governmental agencies and with each other to
expand and grow their business.
Charles Perkins and Rolanda
Heard of Chrysler Group LLC
Iqbal Singh and Karen
Hamilton of DTE Energy
Here’s what some of our members are telling us:
Being the APACC web provider and event volunteer
since 2005, I received various networking opportunities with APACC Board, staff and members. This has
furthered my business growth and relationship building.
Key benefits I enjoyed the most are web development
referrals from APACC, membership database access
—where I can announce business promotional products—and business guidance from a few of the APACC
Board who have become my friends. It is good to receive APA related business and community news via the
APACC e-news. I appreciate the opportunity of being
part of APACC. I cannot ask for more!
Ms. Cheng Murray-Khoo
President, e-Waves, Inc.
Photo Gallery
Eighth Annual
Dinner Celebration
Armando Ojeda of Ford Motor Co.,
Brenda Schreider, and Richard Lui
Corporation of the Year Award:
DTE Energy: Pictured: Peter
Wong and Trevor Lauer
Left to Right: Peter and Shirley
Wong, Pamela and Steve Henderson
of Dow Automotive Systems
Left to Right: Dr. Ernestina Mac,
Speaker of the House Andrew
Dillon, Iqbal Singh of DTE Energy, Henry Martin of Visteon Corp.,
Peng-Li Liu, and Richard Lui
APACC PM Launched Grand Rapids, MI and hosted by Miller Canfield
Floriza Genautis and Amy Marshall of Management
Business Solutions, Debra Quade of Toyota Boshoku
America, Inc.
Vanh Miller of Midwest Safety Products and Peter Wong
of Roy Smith Company & APACC Chairman
Bing Goei of Eastern Floral & APACC Board Director
and Stanley Stek of Miller Canfield
H.S. Kim of VKM Global, Tom Kim of Silas Distributors,
Inc., Gene Hahn of Gene Hahn Cascade Industry
To see more photos of APACC events, please visit www.apacc.net; go to media center-event archives
Message from Denise Yee Grim
APACC Executive Director
For APACC, 2009 was a year of transformation, diversification and unification. In his keynote address at our Eighth Annual Dinner Celebration, Headline
News anchor Richard Lui spoke of personal innovation, urging us “to recreate
who we are based on our needs and desires, not bowing to constraints.” I believe
we, as an organization, achieved this goal in 2009. As a result, we are now in
an even better position to serve our members and guide them on the path to
innovation and success.
Transformation -- Globalization is here to stay, and APACC has transformed
its mission statement to recognize the changing economy. We have become a
“bridge” to connect U.S. and Asian businesses and to promote entrepreneurship
for Asian Pacific Americans.
Diversification -- APACC developed strong partnerships with the State of
Michigan, U.S. Department of Defense, and the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturing Association to educate our members on diversifying their businesses and
tapping into federal and state contracting opportunities.
Unification -- APACC and nine other Asian business organizations are
now collaborating and sharing resources to promote economic growth and educational development for Asian Pacific
Americans and Asian-owned businesses in Michigan.
In this issue, you will learn how we achieved our goals by providing top-quality programs and events for our members.
We owe our success to our talented and committed members, to our dedicated and professional staff, and especially to our
board members for unselfishly sharing their time and expertise. Thank you for your membership and support throughout
the year!
Our
Mission
To facilitate business relationships among Asian and
U.S. companies and to promote entrepreneurship for the
advancement of Asian Pacific Americans.
Thank you to our 2009 Sponsors
Signature Sponsor: DTE Energy
Benefactors: Nippon Oil
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing NA, Inc.
Diamond Sponsors: Comerica Bank
Ford Motor Company
General Motors Company
Saturn Electronics & Engineering, Inc.
Jade Sponsors: Darden Restaurants
Delphi Corporation
Delta Air Lines
Dow Automotive Systems
Visteon Corporation
Opal Sponsors: Aisin World Corporation of America
Acro Service Corporation
BBK, Ltd.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Chrysan Industries, Inc.
DENSO International America, Inc.
FedEx Express
Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP
Logic Solutions
Roy Smith Company
Toyoda Gosei North America Corporation
APACC Officers:
Peter Wong, Chairman
Ron Shahani, Vice Chairman
Suk-Kyu Koh, President
Grace Lee, Vice President/Treasurer
Peter Schreck, Secretary
Wallace K. Tsuha, Chairman Emeritus
APACC Board Directors:
B.N. Bahadur, Stephanie Beau, Amal Berry-Brown, Bing Goei,
Jimmy Hsiao, Jamie Hsu, Ph.D., R.J. King, Peng-Li Liu,
Janny Lu, Ernestina de los Santos-Mac, M.D., Victor Naidu,
Dominic Pangborn, Brenda Schneider, Shigeki Terashi
APACC Staff:
Denise Yee Grim – Executive Director
Theresa Chiang – Office Manager/Membership
& Public Relations Support
Editors & Writers:
Chris Mead & Denise Yee Grim
Photography:
Nick Martines, Theresa Chiang & Denise Yee Grim
Design & Layout:
Jeff Emerson of Pangborn Design, Ltd.
Published by APACC - Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce ○ 2120 Austin Ave., Rochester Hills, MI 48309
○ 248-844-4100 ○ www.apacc.net