The joy of tinkering

NG SIEW Kean has always had a keen interest in electronics.

Since his days in primary school, he has been building his own toys such as electronic motorboats using electronic components.

“The joy of seeing the things I build from scratch and seeing it function is indescribable,” Ng says.

What if they are not functioning properly? Well, he’ll just try another method.

Ng once tried to do an engine overhaul of his own motorbike. When he was done, he realised that there were two extra screws.

“I opened it up again and re-assembled it but could not figure out where the two screws belong. In the end, I sent the motorbike to the mechanic and stayed there for a few hours to see how they do it. I was successful at my second attempt,” he says proudly.

But sometimes the result is secondary, he says. What counts is the enthusiasm and satisfaction that come in executing something.

“Now I am focused on building my brand. It is not about making tonnes of money. If making money is the intention, I would have continued with the trading business where there would be no need for reinvestments,” he says.

Ng’s enthusiasm for building things has gotten his company, Amperes Electronics Sdn Bhd, far.

He had already started building his own products long before he started his public address system manufacturing business. While he was still working as a project executive for his previous employer, which does implementation of audio visual projects in buildings, Ng was already developing his own public address system components such as the amplifiers, speakers and control equipment.

“I had no idea what commercial value they may have had then. I simply love putting all the electronic components together and see what the results could be,” he says.

When bigger players in the industry competed to get the distributorship of some products, which affected Ng’s audio visual products distribution business, he simply changed the way he did business.

That was also when he realised that he had some of those public address system prototypes he used to develop. They did come in handy after all!

He took a hard look at his prototypes and mapped out what he had to do to ensure his products not only functioned well, but also looked good.

“It has to be reliable and built with quality finishing to let our customers feel good about the products they are using,” he says.

But Ng notes that people are sceptical about his products as they are used to Japanese and European products.

“To give them confidence in our products, we also provide one-to-one swap, in some cases, so our clients can continue using them without any down time. We also provide extended warranty with not much questions asked when the product has issues such as how it was used. If it is within the warranty period, we’ll simply replace them,” he says.

All this adds to the brand value which will grow over time, he says, and he is happy to continue building it.

“When we create our products, our brand name is there. It gives us satisfaction to see our clients happy with our products,” he concludes.