Think different

GIVEN a sterling resume in the first part of his career, Yancey Hai could be heading a big bank or financial services firm now. "But I don't want to run a bank," says the reserved 66-year-old with a laugh. "It's not as interesting as running an electronics company." As chairman of Delta Electronics, Mr Hai is overseeing the transformation of the Taiwanese power systems manufacturer, which is diversifying as its bread-and-butter business of making switches and converters to power personal computers (PC) declines.

His decisions affect the rice bowls of Delta's 70,000 employees around the world and the future of its revenue streams, which were at NT$190.6 billion (S$8.3 billion) in 2014.

To move ahead, Delta is making higher-margin components for industrial automation, as well as components for smartphones and tablets. From supplying parts for robots like motor drives and servor motors, Delta is now making the assembly robots themselves, known as Scara robots. It is also expanding into supplying power components for telcos, such as for use in base stations. At the end of last year, it announced an acquisition of Norwegian firm Eltek, the Number 2 player in the world in the field.