3 What can they do about these dangers and difficulties? Introduction Anuar Kamaruddin, COO of United Photonics Malaysia

(EPM), was conscious that the project in front of him was one of the most important he had handled for many years.

The number and variety of the development projects underway within the company had risen sharply in the last few years, and although they had all seemed important at the time, this one – the ‘Laz-skan’ project – clearly justified the description given it by the President of United Photonics Corporation, the US parent of UPM: ‘. . . the make or break opportunity to ensure the division’s long term position in the global instrumentation industry.’

The United Photonics Group United Photonics Corporation had been founded in the 1920s (as the Detroit Gauge Company), a general instrument and gauge manufacturer for the engineering industry.

By expanding its range into optical instruments in the early 1930s, it eventually moved also into the manufacture of high precision and speciality lenses, mainly for the photographic industry. Its reputation as a specialist lens manufacturer led to such a growth in sales that by 1969 the optical side of the company accounted for about 60 per cent of total business and it ranked as one of the top two or three optics companies of its type in the world. Although its reputation for skilled lens making had not diminished since then, the instrument side of the company had come to dominate sales once again in the 1980s and 1990s.