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Global Citizenship: Bringing Two Cultures Together in PCB Manufacturing

Welcome to my new column. My name is Tom Yang, and I am the CEO of CEE PCB, a family-owned global printed circuit board business. I was actually educated in California, earning my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance at Cal State. After graduating, I worked in investment banking for a while, then came to work at CEE, where I have been ever since.

We are a family-owned business. My dad is the founder and chair of the company; my uncle heads the sourcing team. I first joined the purchasing team in 2019 when our Zhuhai factory was in the early stages of construction. I watched it being built and helped by selecting and installing all the new equipment. For the past three years, I have spent most of my time at the headquarters in Huizhou, as well as visiting clients in mainland China and around the world once COVID restrictions were lifted.

Over the years, we have put together a great team at CEE. Our team works on the principle of “family-by-choice”; whether or not we are actually related, we operate as one big family, and we have valued these efforts over the years very much.

During my years in America, I came to realize that many of the impressions we have in China about Americans are misconceptions. That same thing applies for the impressions that Americans have about China. In truth, I have found myself in the middle. I have spent much time trying to explain Chinese business culture to Americans and American business culture to Chinese businesspeople, especially those in our industry.

A few decades ago, Americans came to China and taught us the PCB business. They helped us learn the technology, set up factories, and invest in the growth of our PCB industry. Now, my company—and many others in China—desire to reciprocate with the American PCB industry. It is time to give back in several ways, including our technology and production capabilities.

I hope you will consider this column a crossroads between our two continents, countries, cultures, and PCB companies, where we can meet and get to know one another as collaborators, not competitors. We have been competitors long enough, which has not been a good thing for either of us. I want us to be partners and collaborators, with the common goal of making our industry a truly cooperative and synergistic global industry where we strive to work together for the common good of making our technology, manufacturing, and industry the very best it can be.

These columns will be all about collaboration and cooperation. I will discuss our differences and how we can address and solve those differences. I will also highlight the similarities and expound on the idea that there are many more similarities than differences, and we should capitalize on those.

In my next column, for example, I will discuss our similarities. While I have discovered some differences between the two countries regarding our culture and approach to business, I have also found many more similarities.

It is no great surprise, then, that we are much more alike than we might think. We often have the very same goals, problems, attitudes, and values. There are two valuable things I’ve learned while running a business:

• One of the greatest truths is that when people do business together, most of the cultural values and goals are indeed the same. We all want to run successful businesses.
• The best way to do business is through true common partnerships and collaborations. Indeed, we all need one another to be successful.

One of my favorite American expressions is, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” I add that it doesn’t matter whether those boats are in China or North America. Together, we will create a solid global printed circuit board industry that will better serve our customers worldwide.

Please help me tear down these walls and break down these cultural silos that have done no one any good. Let’s make a fresh start; not to make China better or America better, but to focus on the entire global PCB manufacturing family.

My goal is for you to get to know me better, and I hope to learn more about you. What you need may be exactly what we can provide. I look forward to getting to know you better.

Tom Yang is CEO of CEE PCB.

This column originally appeared in the July 2024 issue of SMT007 Magazine.