麻豆传媒

Frank Zhu is the ECS Commercial Manager at Shell Catalysts & Technologies. His career at Shell has spanned over 26 years and both technical and managerial roles in the Asia Pacific region.

As Frank prepares for retirement, he looks back on his career and the time and dedication he has given to building up his team and supporting their own growth. More than the individual achievements and awards he has collected throughout his career, Frank remembers the support he received from colleagues and managers, cross-team collaboration, and the supportive environment he benefitted from - and helped create - at Shell.

You mentioned that you’ll be retiring next month and have been training your successor. What were the most important learnings you passed on to your successor to help them succeed?

I’ve been working on handover work for about 10 months. Most of that work has been focused on the technical aspects of what I do, but I have also focused on helping my successors understand market development for our Environmental Catalytic Systems (ECS) business.

ECS is pretty different from other catalysts we work with, so it’s important to have a different commercial strategy and distributor management in the different countries in Asia. Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Australia all have different needs, different cultures and different ways of doing business. We also need to closely monitor government environment policy, which is an import driver for ECS business.

What do you see happening in the Asia Pacific region that is different from the rest of the world? What are some of the most exciting or interesting developments that you've seen during your career in this region?

This region is really dynamic and different from other regions. I started my career in China and then became a Business Manager for our ECS business for the Asia Pacific region, so I’ve seen a lot of growth and change in this region over the last 40 years. After the first wave of Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan’s fast economic growth, China became another economic growth engine with its open-door policy that started in 1976. Its economy had tremendous changes with foreign investment and has kept up that fast growth over the past 40 years.

Various industries have been rebuilt and facilities have had big improvements made. China became a substantial market and has brought many opportunities for foreign companies, leading the second wave of growth in the Asia Pacific region. I’ve also seen a third economic growth wave come to India, Vietnam and Thailand. These countries are quite active and they can become new engines for world economic growth.

The other big changes I see are related to the environment. With fast industrialization happening at an earlier stage, air and water pollution became a big problem in many industrial cities in China. China's government has made a concerted effort to control and mitigate the effects of pollution. They tightened emission regulations and took action against companies that violated regulations. As a result, China reports that its environmental conditions have improved, and its programs were replicated in many other industrial cities throughout Asia to improve the air and water quality. I’m very happy to have been working in the air quality control area with Shell Catalysts & Technologies for the past 10 years leading up to my retirement. I had a part in helping China and other countries improve their air quality and improve people’s lives, which is very meaningful for me.

How have other people at Shell helped you to develop in your career?

I’ve been very lucky to have managers throughout my career who have been invested in my development. When I first started at Shell, I didn’t know how to effectively work in a foreign company. My line manager at the time provided not only the technical coaching that I needed but also diversity and inclusion coaching that helped me better collaborate with Shell colleagues around the globe. He gave me many opportunities to lead projects and expand the scope of work I could do. Later, he extended my responsibility from just China to include Taiwan and Indonesia. He also supported me participating in an MBA course jointly organized by Shanghai Tongji University and UBI Belgium. All this support helped me lay a solid foundation for my career at Shell.

All my line managers provided me with invaluable support at various stages in my career at Shell. They broadened my horizons and enriched my experience, but the most important thing is that they all provided me with responsibility and trust. That was so important for me as a junior colleague growing in my career. I take the same approach to coaching the younger generations of Shell staff to support them in building both their business and leadership skills.

You’ve spent over half of your career working for Shell; how is Shell different from other companies you’ve worked for? What motivated you to stay here for 26 years?

My first job was for a state-owned rubber tire plant after I graduated from college in 1984, and then I joined Shell in 1998. The biggest difference is in the efficiency that an organization like Shell can provide. Like many state-owned companies, the one I worked for was more slow-moving. It became more difficult to compete with foreign and private companies. I resigned from that company and worked for two trading companies before I joined Shell, but I felt those companies weren’t the right place for me either. Without manufacturing facilities, the trading companies didn’t have stable suppliers or stable customers, which made the business more challenging.

I feel lucky to work for Shell, as it has strong R&D and manufacturing facilities, so I can focus more on sales and market development. I’ve enjoyed my roles at both Shell Chemicals and Shell Catalysts & Technologies because they need both technical and commercial skills. I can make full use of my knowledge and skills in my work. Shell also provided a big platform where I have had room to grow throughout my career. I also really appreciate Shell’s core values of integrity, fairness, encouraging staff to speak up, and Health, Safety, Security & Environment (HSSE) management. All these core values align with mine.

It sounds like you have moved from highly technical roles to more managerial positions in the later part of your career. Can you talk about how that transition happened?

It happened naturally for me. As a technical designer for the state company, I just focused on technical work. After working there for about five years, I had the chance to start learning international trading, business management and leadership skills in a management program jointly organized by Shanghai Jiaotong University and Konstanz University in Germany. After that, I started my job as a team leader doing technical management and import and export work.

After I joined Shell, I learned how important it was to have those leadership skills and how to lead a team and distributors. To further improve my leadership skills and commercial mindset, I took more training courses and received more coaching. I’ve learned throughout my career that managers need to have big picture thinking and understand how to lead a team and deliver on business goals through team effort. Instead of focusing on too much detail work, sometimes we need to step back and see the whole picture.

Part of the transition from technical roles to a team leader was learning how to support people in their own growth goals. Working together and supporting each other is critical for the success of the whole team.

You were involved in a project where collaboration between sales, technical, and operational teams helped some of your Korean customers meet tightening emission standards and save money. How did you facilitate that collaboration? How did those teams work together towards positive outcomes?

This success story really started in China. We had success in China's DeNOx and Dioxin Destruction market between 2014 and 2018 and were able to capture some quick growth opportunities. Because of these successes, we won another four DeNOx projects. This was a substantial achievement for us since we had to confront various commercial and technical challenges.

As ECS commercial manager for the Asia Pacific region, I led the ECS team and our distributor when we were starting our journey in Korea’s SCR market in 2008. I was responsible for ensuring we could use the successful projects we completed in the Chinese market to generate the same kind of results in the Korean market.

We evaluated Korea’s Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) market and local emission regulations and found that the industry that would most benefit from the Shell low-temperature DeNOx and Dioxin Destruction System (SDS/SDDS) was the paper industry. Our system was new to buyers in that industry, so we cooperated with local EPCs and introduced our key Customer Value Propositions (CVP) to the end users in the Korean paper industry. We also worked with local environmental government agencies to encourage them to buy into our low-temperature SCR system, which focused on saving energy and reducing carbon emissions.

After evaluating the Korean paper industry’s SCR requirements, we understood our potential customers’ pain points and built a commercial strategy and market development plan. Building on our experience in the Chinese market, the technical team provided improved designs based on the unique needs of the Korean paper industry and developed a tailor-made solution for them after several rounds of technical reviews and meetings with them.

The results of that team effort helped us win our first two references and go on to win more projects in the Korean paper market. Today, low-temperature SCR has become a standard DeNOx process in the Korean paper industry and we’ve supplied our SDS/SDDS for about 25 projects in the past 5 years. Ultimately, we supported our Korean customers in meeting tightening emission standards by helping them on their journey to reduce their energy costs and carbon footprint.

What accomplishments or “moments in the spotlight” from your career at Shell are you most proud of?

There are several moments that stand out in my career. One award I received is a Crystal Cheetah sculpture from the HODer (High Olefin and Derivatives) GM. This statue is awarded to individuals who benefit the company by working sharp and fast. It was presented to me in appreciation of my contribution to growing our HODer business in the Chinese market.

I led the HODer China team in achieving 10x sales revenue growth in 10 years and built a solid customer base and trusting relationships with those customers. The HODer China team was also awarded the Most Valuable Supplier in the Chinese detergent industry, and the HODer Asia team won the EVP Award for successfully launching the Silver Project, Shell’s first ethoxylates manufacturing plant in Asia, which allowed us to increase our production capacity and capture more market share in the Asia market. I’m very proud to have been working with both of those teams when they earned those awards.

During my time here at Shell Catalysts & Technologies, I received an award in appreciation of my contribution to successful catalyst sales. This was a huge honor for me because I helped lay the foundation for Shell Catalysts & Technologies’ EO catalyst business in China. I also received several Special Recognition Awards related to my work in ECS for my contribution to our success in China and Korea.

Do you have any other words of wisdom you’d like to share with your colleagues or other industry professionals before your retirement?

Working in this industry is very challenging under the current unpredictable circumstances. China and the whole world are facing big changes that can have long-lasting effects on our industry. We all need to focus on being resilient to get through these difficult times, but we also need to be prepared for success now. We’re responsible for powering today and energising our future. My motto is, “一分耕耘、一分收获” or “No pain, no gain”.

In my 20+ years at Shell, I have learned a few things I can share:

1. Manage your expectations
2. Focus on your personal growth
3. Work smarter and be more agile
4. Adhere to your own values and embrace every day, even the ones that aren’t ideal