We Invest in Our Home : Aemulus Corporation

Ng Sang Beng, Chief Executive Officer, Aemulus Corporation

Aemulus Corporation started operation in 2004, focusing on the tester equipment market for the semiconductor industry. By 2015, Aemulus testers footprint can be found in most of the countries in Southeast Asia, and China, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, as well as the States. Aemulus was listed in Bursa Malaysia as a public company in the same year. Then in 2017, Aemulus embarked on artificial intelligence platform software development.

Indeed, the choice of location was a great concern for a start-up. The Company had to consider the ecosystem, the talent pool followed by identifying the location to build the right culture for the company.

We knew that we need not go far. We believe that our home — Penang, Malaysia is the best because we can build our corporate culture based on principles and values that mean  to us. Malaysians possess good qualities that are inculcated since young from living in a multi-ethnic society.

Growing up in a multi-ethnic society, Malaysians are not only multilingual and multicultural but, accommodative too. We are open to differences in views and opinions and this attributes to great problem-solving skills. In Aemulus, we are constantly seeking alternatives because having a pool of solutions to the same problem is definitely better than restricted to a few options.

There is a common local proverb, “Usaha tangga kejayaan” and it means success comes with hard work. So, Malaysians have been taught to work hard in order to achieve. While we believe there are many other elements to be successful in life, being hardworking can compensate many shortfalls in life. Working around-the-clock is not uncommon in Aemulus, simply put, our employees are not only accountable but self-motivated too. Our employees serve customers from different parts of the time zone, they make time and manage their workflow.

Over the past 15 years, Aemulus grew rapidly mostly with our local talents. We have set a high benchmark of technical knowledge requirement, because the semiconductor tester market is niche, and it is dominated by the American and Japanese companies. On top of that, we will run a culture fit assessment — their attitudes towards failure and success; their determination to grow; and so forth. Undeniably, talent filtration takes time but we do get qualified talents who meet our requirements and fit our corporate culture.

There was an incident not long ago, one of our customers rejected a project that we had worked on for months. Apparently, the failure was due to a miscalculation of project direction and the management resorted to shutting down the project.

Nonetheless, the team members did not give up. They revisited the project covertly; they analysed the failure, rectified the methods used, and last but not least, worked around the clock to rebuild the project. Their hard work paid off, the same customer approved the new solution. The management was thrilled, the team was exemplary; they had shown the founders’ determination and passion.

In fact, we love to have open discussions with our employees, and especially discussions about their future. Employees are the most important asset for a company, with crystallised career pathways in mind, they will fuel and propel the company forward.

We made the right decision to invest in our home and we are proud to call ourselves, a home grown company. Our 5G radio frequency testers and artificial intelligence platform software, Moridaru will need more talents. We did it 15 years ago, and together we shall have many more years to come.

Let’s innovate together, Malaysians!