Solid track record of leading the development of Core Technologies such as AI, Deep Learning, and 3D. Jane Shen Shengmei is highly skilled in technology development and technology solutions evaluation, creation, and promotion of sound business models. She is Chief Scientist of Pensees Singapore and is responsible for the technology direction and technology development and deployment. She is the managing director of the company and also responsible for the operations, business development, sales, and marketing.
Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between World’s Leaders and Jane Shen:
Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace.
I am passionate about new technology, especially AI technology development. I am always interested in how artificial intelligence technology can bring benefits and improve lives. At the same time, I am also passionate about leading people and managing a team in a professional way to realize corporate goals, including sales and business goals. I believe in respecting people and being sincere in all circumstances. I am quiet at home and with friends, giving more room and freedom to my children to grow, yet supporting them whenever needed, especially when they are down or sick or seeking advice or opinion.
Being a Christian, I live by Christian values and attend church, seeking God’s wisdom, and sharing my personal growth with the Lord with people.
Describe your background and what did you do before you started/joined the company?
When I was young, I was influenced by great scientists in the world. Madame Curie, Nobel Prize winner in Physics, has greatly influenced and inspired me as a lady.
As I grew older, I decided to major in Science and Engineering at university.When I read a story about Henry Ford on how to set up Ford Motor company as an industrialist and a businessman, I became interested in how technology can change businesses.
Having worked for a large Japanese conglomerate, I learned a lot about how to apply technology in commercial products and applications, as well as how to manage people to make it happen, with the key practice being “making people before making products.”I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to manage people, train them, and build a good corporate culture and system.
What has made you successful? What do you value?
I must say I was lucky to be “talent scouted” to set up Pensees Pte Ltd, which is set up as a research institute in Singapore. This may be due to the record-breaking results that I had. I value those who can commit to their job roles and to their tasks given; people who are open-minded, diligent, work in a team, and with a “Can-Do” spirit. In this way, we can realize our dreams together. I think what has made me successful is my passion, clarity, and ability to work strategically.
I value a good corporate system and a platform for everyone to work professionally.
What are the major services of the company and how do they help the company to get ahead in the competition? What value-added services does the company provide?
Pensees develops and provides PesGuard, which is a Face Recognition Door Access system with time attendance management and HR scheduling, visitor management, people counting, and body temperature measurement.
In addition, Pensees develops and provides a full stack of video analytics using AI technology for CCTV surveillance, building management, and smart city applications.
Pensees also develops and provides smart parking systems and patrol robots. We are creating deployable cutting-edge technology and solutions by leveraging the most recent AI advancements and customizing them at the system level with data-centric AI methodology and an MLOps (Machine Learning Operations) development process pipeline, allowing us to compete in the market for both system performance and resource efficiency.As a result of this, we have won several project Proof-of-Concept (POC) competitions in the open market, bringing in good revenue for the company, which will help the company grow in the next few years.
What are the most important aspects of a company’s culture? What principles do you believe in and how do you build this culture?
Pensees attained “Best Companies to Work For in Asia 2020” amongst 180 companies shortlisted for the award, which is awarded by HR Asia magazine. The company’s culture is one where employees willingly assist colleagues who require assistance. This is championed by the management’s belief that “We Rise by Raising Others,” shared by the HR Director in one of the Micro-Learning sessions. We also have a strong learning and supportive culture by organizing regular sharing sessions to learn and grow together. On the other hand, trust and encouragement are something always practiced from the management team to supervisors and to all people, as we believe all people working here are for meaningful achievements for both the company and their own career.
What is the significance of innovative ideas in the company?
Innovation has its place at Pensees and we encourage innovative ideas. We have built an incentive policy to reward innovation and patent filing.
At the beginning of COVID-19, we quickly developed an innovative body temperature measurement module using AI technology to add on to our PesGuard product, a Face Recognition Door Access control device, and later developed and added SafeEntry and Vaccination checking modules, people counting, and HR attendance function to the same Door Access control device to make PesGuard more value-added to customers.
With innovative ideas, we developed our PesEyes solution, a full stack of our AI video analytics into a “Virtual Patrolling” system, which has been deployed in smart buildings, smart communities, and smart car parks, to greatly solve the manpower shortage issues in the security industry.
Give us your opinion on; do organizations rely heavily on individual heroics or team processes?
We encourage team work although we understand some are more capable or more intelligent than others, while we also understand people with different strengths are complement each other in order to achieve a goal. On the other hand we are results oriented to reward the team or individuals who make the great contribution regardless your intellectual, qualification or your background.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
Humble, sincere, leading with confidence and clarity
