Technology Park Malaysia Corporation

We were having an interview with the executive MOHAMMAD NADZIM AHMAD AZMI of Sdn Bhd (TPM). The company located in Level 5, Enterprise 4 Technology Park Malaysia 57000 Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur. TPM is a partial private and partial government organization which was incorporated in September 1996. It is a pioneer centre for technology innovation and advanced research and development in Malaysia, offering world-class infrastructure and 2 million square feet of R&D space.

Twelve distinct building make up TPM; each architecturally designed for knowledge-based companies at various stage of growth.

The buildings, namely the innovation House, Incubator Centres and Enterprise Houses are equipped with Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS), LAN infrastructure, wide bandwidth internet connectivity, multiple telephone connections, teleconferencing, maintenance and round-the-clock security.

TPM has also set up the Centre for Technology Commercialization (CTC) to bring together the forces of technology business commercialization in Malaysia by hosting technology business forums and seminars, anchoring consultative panels between industry and academia, and undertaking business and market intelligence through an international network of experts.

Conceptualized as a means to promote the development of high-tech companies with an environment conducive to R&D activities, TPM today is a vibrant technology business cluster within MSC Malaysia, home to more than 10,000 knowledge workers in over 140 technology based companies.

TPM is a property-based organization, developed to catalyze Malaysia’s transformation into the knowledge economy. TPM is managed by specialized professionals whose main aim is to increase the wealth of the community by promoting a culture of innovation and competitiveness in its associated businesses and knowledge-based organizations.

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Designed to propel Malaysia into the Innovation-Led Economy, Technology Park Malaysia is to date one of the world’s most advanced and comprehensive centres for research and development of knowledge-based industries.

Spanning 750 acres, its first phase comprises 12 state-of-the-art buildings with specific functions. The latest addition to Phase I is the Enterprise 4 building, which is an intelligent building designed to service the physical needs of high-tech companies, enabling them to be service providers to the MSC, the rest of Malaysia and the world. The other phases involve the leasing of R&D Lot to individual companies to establish custom-designed head offices, research facilities, test sites and planned future expansions.

TPM Company Management Team is responsible for sourcing the most progressive and innovative tenant companies that can also create synergies within TPM. TPM also engages in other business activities through its four wholly-owned subsidiaries, namely TPM Biotech Sdn Bhd in biotechnology, TPM Engineering Sdn Bhd in engineering, TPM IT Sdn Bhd in Information Technology, and Technology Park Malaysia College Sdn Bhd in education and training. METHODOLOGY: We obtained data by first selecting three topics from which we have covered in our lectures. Then we composed a set of questions to be asked during the interview.

During the interview the questions were asked, we jotted down the striking points from the answers given by Mohammad Nazdim Ahmad Ezmi, Executive Marketing and Business Development. In addition, we also recorded the entire interview of which we used to add up other points that we forgot to note during the interview for this report and presentation. On the other hand, we used secondary data from TPM’s handouts, brochures and leaflets. ACADEMIC CONTENT: In this report we are going to deal with the following topics; Business environment, Individual at work and Organization structure.

This Environment focuses on the attributes that add up to the structure of an organisation. They can be controlled in the sense that the organisation dictates the quantity and how much to be used depending on their available resources and therefore differ from different organisations. Refer to Exhibit 1. 1; the five attributes (controllable environment) as you can see are the major make-up of the organisation and without them, it is dormant to all its operations.  Labour points out the human resources, the actual workers who provide physical or intellectual contribution to the everyday activities within the organisation.

This includes the heads of TPM who are president/CEO, vice presidents (corporate services, finance, Business Development and Special Projects) general managers, senior general manager, chief operating officer & also the employee subordinates under them.  Raw Material is the physical bits and pieces that are provided by suppliers to manufacture the company’s end products. * Equipment refers to the machinery or devices that play a role into converting the raw materials to finished end products. in the case of TPM which is a service sector orginisation the end product is to produce rental accommodation.

Thus things like building are the equipments because they to provide accommodation to their tenants! Capital is the cash flow or the monetary aid the organisation needs to acquire and achieve its goals, it is the most important because it keeps the other attributes active and functional. Last but not least, the Entrepreneur who are directly involved in the organisations’ operations. These are Individuals or Groups that take into risk and invest so as to see the Company achieving the posted goals.

Adding on to the listed, each attribute is vital for the company existence but they must be balanced and considered equally in order to prevail in the market competition. TPM recognizes this and take hide to see each attribute contributes accordingly. Non- controllable environment is composed of the political, economical, competitors and technological environment. This is the most prominent environment of TPM. It’s the direct impact of the government’s attitude towards the business environment.

The government shapes many determinants of a business’s political environment through its policies on the economy, competition, regional development, devaluation and employment. TPM is operating under the government’s attitude towards the economy and competition. Its policy focuses on Engineering, Biotechnology and Information, communication and technology (ICT). Due to this all facilities rendered by TPM are based on the above mentioned fields and not otherwise. The government of Malaysia plays the following roles towards TPM, since it practices mixed economy it acts as an entrepreneur, a planner and a promoter. ) Entrepreneur The government may provide services through its own department or through its agencies. In TPM the government through MOSTI (Ministry of Science, technology and innovation) offers tenancy services. These include land parcel, enterprise, incubator and innovation areas. Land parcel involves the development of customized building for large or fully commercialized technology companies such as ASTRO, TELEKOM and APIIT.

Incubator is for individuals and companies expanding from the prototype pre-production stage through to market testing and production. Innovation, here individual entrepreneurs, scientists, software, writers, innovators and start-up entities at pre-production stage get areas to perform their work. b) Planner It involves the government’s expectations within a certain period of time. These include the government policy on energy, transport, communication and many others as its long term plans. It controls the overall level and direction of the country’s economic activities.

As a result, TPM is one of the fruits of the government’s focus on Engineering, Biotechnology and ICT. TPM is also having TPM College whose work is to provide education in technologies to nurture the next generation of workers. In the long run, this will help to meet the expectations of the government by providing TPM and other offices with technological experts. c) Promoter The government plays the role of making new opportunities and promoting businesses found in her territory. TPM’s Centre for technology commercialization (CTC) is to galvanise the needs of the country’s stake holders in harnessing technology for wealth creation.

Universities, research institutes, venture financiers, technopreneurs and government regulators will come together at CTC to make technology a reality. Promotion is done by CTC through hosting forums on the latest technology development, showcasing the latest technology- driven businesses, organising regional and international seminars on technology commercialisation, facilitating business needs of technopreneurs and through the production of “SYMBIOSIS” magazine for science, technology, innovation and business for the knowledge community. This includes the macro economy of the country and the industrial sector environment of TPM.

Macroeconomics shows how all the different elements in the business environment interact. The trade cycle is among the elements, it follows a pattern of recovery, boom, recession and slump. Since December 2007, the world has being experiencing a great financial crisis (Recession). Due to this TPM’s tenants who are greatly hit by the crisis, tend to cut down spending by shutting down offices (wings) such as those situated at TPM. In doing so TPM is left with fewer clients. Ultimately, TPM earns lower han they used to before the financial crisis (Recession). 3) COMPETITORS TPM is not having competitors in its industry. However, there are companies given the same mandate by the government to carry out MSC Malaysia’s 1996 vision of spearheading the nation towards the becoming a technology rich and knowledge based economy.

The following is what TPM does to overcome and emerge as the best organisation among the other organisation under MSC Malaysia’s industry; TPM ensures that it offers the best R&D facilities. Example, it has laboratories for Physics and Chemistry for rental, something which firms like Cyber jaya does not possess. They try to offer competitive rental prices, by making sure that the rent that they offer is a bit cheaper than other firms, such as that of KLCC and UPM- MTDC technology centre and the rest. In terms of services, TPM makes sure that it delivers hers (services) quickly. For instance, responding quickly to maintenance services such as bulb replacement. To offer infrastructures which are up to date, lake making sure that each of their offices has internet, fully equipped with a power backing system (UPS) and reliable security systems.

Technological change has been one of the important reasons of the current environmental turbulence in the business environment. TPM’s in 1996 establishment was based on the changing nature of the technology. Moreover, changes in technology can affect one or all functional areas in some way and links in the supply chain of an organization. Such changes prompt TPM to change its functional areas by making sure that they provide proper an up to date gadgets such as UPS in their offices. But again, when TPM was established it only focused in supplying facilities that dealt with Engineering and ICT. Due to the change in technology, TPM added Biotechnology facilities in its supply chain. INDIVIDUAL AT WORK There are three that govern at the perception of other in on individual at work.

These are basing on a physical person, ones range of abilities and ones personality. At TPM when applies for a job he/she firstly perceived in terms ones range of intellectual ability. Due to this when one applies for a job they assess his/her academic qualification and experience. Secondly, they check at ones social abilities such as being e-subjective or interaction ability. One can have good academic qualification and fail to deliver the second criteria, TPM might not approval for their application. However the physical person such as ones gender is also considered in some fields of TPM’s work.

For instance, when they want to offer a post for a secretary, women are the expected candidates for the job. The same applies to works offered in the engineering laboratories where much strength is required, TPM prefer to employ men in the field. MOTIVATION Is the term used to describe those processes instinctive and rational, by which people seek to satisfy the basic drives, perceived needs and personal goals which trigger human behaviour. TPM uses the following ways to motivate her workers; KPI (key performance indicator), here objectives are listed down before the New Year.

Thus each employee knows the goals of TPM for the coming year.  Employees to attend courses to improve their skills and knowledge. This mostly involves attending short courses to boost up their performance and make them up to date, since TPM deals with technology. Giving employees promotions. TPM has a tendency of promoting employees who has at least worked for them for more than 2 or three years. Allocating more responsibilities to employees. Example, an employee who is used to data entry only can be assigned to organize meetings and keep on his/her data entry task. SPECIALIZATION

TPM has a specialized differentiation of functional tasks through each department into which the problems and tasks facing a concern as a whole are broken down thus giving room for individuals to specialize in a specific field. For instance TPM Engineering department has specialized individuals in each field they have split its tasks/jobs into, which are: Robotics & PLC Training CAD/CAM & CNC Training  Industrial Robots  CNC Machining ORGANISATION STRUCTURE TPM has a structured organization with career paths starting from Non-Executives to Executives and Senior Managers.

With a diverse range of products and services, a career at TPM comes with opportunities to enrich one’s self with knowledge on the many aspects of business, IT and operations. There are many aspects of the organization structure. TPM is based on a flat structure with less bureaucracy where it has short lines of authority (short chain of command) clarifying who reports to whom. There not many people who have legitimate power to discharge responsibilities. For instance when TPM holds their monthly bases meetings, the president/CEO is the one who gives out tasks to each department depending on what the government implements.

TPM’s high ranking management is the only one that makes crucial decisions concerning TPM for instance the president/CEO approves any new proposal from his subordinates such has employment of new staff or a raise to employee’s salaries. But for small decisions such as fixing a broken light bulb or painting a building, there pushed down to low ranking individuals. The degree to which decisions are made in TPM’s high ranking management is small thus it’s decentralized. It can be deduced that TPM is an organic model due to the fact that it’s flat structured and comprises of individuals at a low rank as well as high rank making decisions.

TPM has categorized together jobs/functions into seven departments each having a High ranking individual (manager) who has a number of subordinates to direct. The nine manageable units/departments with their heads are: Corporate services unit which is primarily responsible for the provision of internal services that support the work of management and staff. Zakaria Mohammed Vice President  Finance Unit which is setting an effective and efficient system of financial and accounting management of all business activities which TPM runs.

Sharbani Harun Vice President Business development & Special Projects Ahmad Husni Johari Vice President Centre for Technology Commercialisation which is responsible for Technology Commercialisation, Incubators & Entrepreneurs and also giving out Advise & Consultancy. Dr. Mustaza Ahmadun Senior General Manager Park Management & Services unit which is held responsible for taking care of TPM Park as well as services supplied through TPM to its tenants and the park itself. Shahazman Abu Samah General Manager TPM College Sdn Bhd which manages TPM college subsidiaryShaliza Sabtu Chief Operating Officer  TPM Engineering Sdn Bhd unit which manages engineering related projects and produce innovative engineering solutions. Mohamad Zaihirain Mohamed Rasin Acting Head TPM IT SDN BHD which manages the operations and Maintenance.

Dato’ Haji Mohd Azman Shahidin Determinant of structure: The Main determinant of TPM’S structure is the government. Technically orders/policies are passed down from the government to the ministry of science, technology and innovation (MOSTI) depending on where the country is heading towards. MOSTI then passes the policies toTPM and it’s implemented by TPM. for instance the government wants to industrialise Malaysia. The government will role out the policy to MOSTI and MOSTI will inform TPM to attract more engineering companies.

The ministry of science, technology and innovation (MOSTI) installed the following Subsidiaries in TPM according to the government’s policy which is mainly focusing on where the country is heading to. TPM Engineering Sdn. Bhd. (Prime Minister Dr Malhi wanted to industrialise Malaysia hence this was born) * TPM IT Sdn. Bhd. TPM Biotech Sdn. Bhd. (this was born due to the Prime Minister Balha who focused on Bio-tech)  TPM College Sdn. Bhd. Complexity of the services TPM produces is also a determinant of this structure.

The degree of heterogeneity is high, because of it being a services based organisation with broaden services from land rental to infrastructure rental each having additional entities such as furniture, aircon,elevators high tech security systems, gardens etc. Not forgetting its responsible for supplying quality education at TPM college, providing excellent internet connection throughout TPM etc. TPM’s income capacity is mainly on rental accommodation, and by this structure it will be able to support its growth even in the long-run for it has shown good benefits so far which improves TPM’s resources for income!

To wind-up, we reported our findings at TPM, pinpointed the Political environment to be the most important environment and its implications in the future for TPM. However, the Technological environment is also one of TPM’s pushing factors. TPM is one of the best accommodation suppliers especially for organisations seeking technical infrastructure and good services.

REFRENCE

1. Butel, J. etal (1998), Business Functions, Blackwell publishing USA
2.  Jankowizcz, A. D (1997), Business Research Projects third edition, Chapman & Hall Place North Yorkshire
3. MSC Malaysia (2008), Facts & Figures third edition, MSC Malasyia Cyber cities Department. Malaysia
4. Technology Park Malaysia (2008), All about TPM [online]. Available: