Mark Norris, Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing, ViTechnology

We caught up with Mark Norris, Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing recently who shared with us some thoughts on his leaving VI and pertinent industry insights garnered from 25 years in the Electronics Assembly Industry.

CN: It has been recently announced that you have resigned from ViTechnology. What’s the scoop?

MN: Actually I resigned from ViTechnology last June, 2007 but the board asked me to remain an additional 12 months which was my official notice period to work with the new CEO who joined us in September. It has been fun and we did not announce my departure for the first nine months. Now things are moving in the right direction I can announce my decision to move on and prepare for the next step.

CN: So why did you resign?

MN: There were many reasons that I took the decision to leave ViTechnology. First and foremost I have been with the company for over 10 years and formally 8 years with Camelot so I guess it was time for a break. I have two young children 4 and 6 and I wanted to take some time with them before they start 1st grade, this is probably the last chance to take a few months off dedicated only to the family.

I recently told my friend that my son had reached that age where he no longer wanted to hug or kiss me and was very independent, he replied “Yeah! 12 is a tough age! But I had to admit that my son is only five…! We plan to tour Europe for a couple of months and then some time in our house in Thailand. With my extensive travel schedule it is going to be fun traveling with the family for a change.

CN: Why not just take a sabbatical?

MN: It is a fact that many people who take a sabbatical do not go back to their original jobs. People talk about “burn-out” but more recently people are talking about “Bore-out”, getting bored with the status of things and needing to radically change direction. If I had waited to try to find something else I would probably be in the same place ten years later.

It is surprising just how many people around me in successful careers are looking at trying to change what they are doing. Some may call it a mid-life crisis, but at least I am not going to buy a sports car, die my hair blonde and run away with my secretary… I would like a motorbike though!

CN: Will you continue to work with ViTechnology in any way?

MN: There were discussions of a consulting role, but I think a clean break is a better solution. I want to do something else and as usual I want to concentrate on one project and give it 150%. ViTechnology are doing very well and are a respected name in the AOI industry. We pioneered Vectoral Imaging, the Closed Loop Zero Defect line with Fuji, AOM Automated Optical Measurement and more recently started to sell into the back-end semiconductor industry. The new team that is in place since September last year is moving the company in the right direction.

CN: So what will you do next?

MN: The main question is whether I want to continue in this industry? To be honest I like to sell technology but more and more it is only a question of price with little respect being given to the innovation and R&D that goes into these products. In the past we had technology relationships with our customers which were long term, now that seems to be a thing of the past and customers will change vendors for a slightly lower buy price with no consideration for the return on investment or the service and support commitments of the past.

If I do decide to stay in the industry I will probably try to find a smaller company or one who wants to grow internationally and work with them to grow from under 10 million up to 30 or 40 million. That’s when things are the most challenging and the most exciting. It’s what I do best; I don’t function well when companies grow too big. Another alternative is to find an Asian company who wants to grow internationally; there are some very innovative Asian companies out there. Otherwise I will look to work with a smaller division of a larger corporation with P&L responsibility in Asia.

CN: Do you have any projects outside of the industry?

MN: There are some but as I said, first I want to take some time off with the family and then I will take some time off for ME to be able to consider the different projects and decide what is the best decision. I want to take some time and look at what is out there, only then can I decide what the most interesting next step could be. I have the luxury financially to be able take some time, in many cases people jump into the next job because they have to, when in fact if they could think about it more and look at a much broader opportunity base they might just do something else.

When I left Camelot after they were purchased by Speedline I should have taken more time then and perhaps looked outside of the industry but there was too much pulling me back. I enjoyed the electronic assembly equipment industry but it’s not the same industry today as it was 10 or 15 years ago. Back then we could invent and pioneer, that is not so much the case today.

CN: So will you stay in Singapore, Asia?

MN: From a family perspective with my wife being Japanese, Asia is where we feel comfortable, but she would move wherever is necessary, she is very supportive. We like Singapore but if the right opportunity comes along we will move wherever that opportunity takes us.

It is nice to be able to put the children into a Japanese and English school in Singapore, but they will probably drop out of school when they reach 15, it does not really matter! Joking aside we are comfortable anywhere, the most important thing is to be comfortable in what we are doing and to make the right choices. That is something I intend to take enough time to do…