AS a boss, STATS ChipPAC's president and chief executive Tan Lay Koon (pictured above) is results-oriented and sets clear key performance indicators (KPIs) for staff.

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'I believe more in quantifying things. I believe that it's important. You cannot expect what you don't inspect,' he said.

As STATS ChipPAC is a global operation with 11,000 staff, of which only about 2,000 are in Singapore, setting KPIs is a practical way of running the company.

Mr Tan is comfortable about hiring 'strong people' and giving them room to do the job. 'But you don't let them do the job to the extent that you don't know what they are doing and you hope for the best.

'Sometimes people ask me: Are you the kind that empowers? I shudder at the word because empowerment is used so loosely by a lot of people that it's almost an abdication, that you can do whatever you want. I don't do that.'

Instead, he holds both regular and ad hoc reviews of staff.

For senior staff, bonuses constitute a high percentage of their annual compensation. The percentage declines at the junior levels.

Mr Tan sees his role as connecting the dots and aligning them. While the company's chief operating officer is strong in manufacturing and the chief technical officer in technology, 'technology in the real world has to be linked to manufacturing', he said, adding: 'If you have the technology but you can't manufacture in high volume, it's useless. Then it's just a lab experiment.'

A company like STATS ChipPAC understandably places a great deal of emphasis on innovation. This it has done well, with Mr Tan being named Asia Innovator of the Year 2008 at the Seventh CNBC Asia Business Leaders Award.

The citation for the accolade stated that under Mr Tan's guidance, 'STATS ChipPAC has filed more patents than all of its major competitors combined over the past three years'.

In motivating staff to innovate, the company gives rewards for the filing of patents, the publication of technical papers as well as for speaking at conferences.

However, the most important factor is the mindset. 'You need to have a tolerance for failure and an appetite for experimentation because if you don't have that, then I think it's difficult to be innovative.'

While encouraging innovation, Mr Tan also keeps an eagle eye on the company's bottom line. Technological innovation has to be a means to an end, which is to offer the company a competitive advantage that will result in higher profits and returns, he said.

These articles first appeared in the December issue of Pulses, produced by The Business Times.