« Jack » Chien-Kuang Chen
Market Development Manager, High-Performance Materials Sector, Taipei - Taïwan
With a background in engineering, "Jack" Chien-Kuang Chen, aged 44, provides technical follow-up for customers, a mission made all the easier by his liking for human contact.
High-tech and interpersonal skills
"Jack" Chien-Kuang Chen admits that he would not have liked to spend all his time shut up in a design office, which might have been his fate in view of his mechanical engineering training. But as soon as he got his first job as an engineer, after leaving the National Taiwan Central University, he devoted half his time to sales work. And customer relations played a key role in his activity when he joined Saint-Gobain in 1993, where his migration to sales activities became complete. He is now in charge of following up sales of parts for machine tools. "It is particularly important," he explains, "to have a solid technical grounding, as the people I am in contact with are engineers themselves."
Contacts throughout Asia
Building on his solid base of cutting edge technical knowledge, he developed his interpersonal talent, allowing him to become Market Development Manager with responsibility for Saint-Gobain electronic components in Asia. The challenge is to keep up to speed while always staying in touch with customer demands, as well as being able to forecast future needs which will soon require solutions. He must also make sure the sales team is fully aware of the very latest innovations. His responsibilities require him to travel throughout a good part of Asia, from Japan to Thailand as well as continental China.
A career path in phase with his expertise
When questioned on how he thinks his career path will evolve, "Jack" has no doubt that he will continue to apply his expertise in the Group's sales sector. "I like being in contact with people," he says. "And I must admit that it is very satisfying to feel appreciated. I don't like having to stay cooped up in an office for too long. I want to be out and about, which is perfect for a sales person. I would also be interested in working on more large-scale projects in the future." Could these be outside Taiwan? "Absolutely!"
The lastest milestone for him: in 2008, he was relocated as Market Development manager, Asia for the strategic Construction Market.
