Digital innovation propels current digitalization by employing technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing to boost corporate operations and customer experiences.

This innovation makes businesses more agile and efficient, aiding them to swiftly respond to market changes. By developing new products and improving existing offerings, companies can maintain a competitive frame and adapt to evolving client expectations.

Adopting a culture of continuous improvement not only enhances operational performance but also ensures long-term relevance in a constantly changing environment, ultimately leading to increased profitability and growth.

At the vanguard of these efforts is Ben Su, General Manager of MSI Middle East, who actively leads the company’s digital innovation initiatives. Understanding the value of new technologies, MSI invests in innovative-superiority solutions to stay ahead in the hastily evolving tech view.

Ben focuses on how MSI optimizes operations and acquires basic insights into client preferences through AI and big data analysis. MSI fosters an environment of perpetual development under his leadership by providing frequent staff training, holding hackathons to encourage creative thinking, and developing strategic connections with prominent digital companies. This proactive approach facilitates MSI to remain agile and responsive and make sure of exceptional value delivery to its customers.

Let’s explore his innovative journey ahead!

Driving Technological Innovation

In a recent conversation with Arabia World Magazine, Ben shared how his deep passion for technology has shaped his journey with MSI since 2009. From leading MSI’s expansion from India to the Middle East and building a skilled team to crossing a competitive market, his leadership has been essential.

As MSI’s laptops celebrate their 20th anniversary this year, Ben’s commitment to innovation and strengthening MSI’s position as a leading tech brand in the region and beyond is clearly evident.

Innovating Beyond Gaming

Since its founding in 1986, Micro-Star International (MSI) has transformed from a motherboard and graphics card manufacturer to a leader in high-performance gaming laptops.

Over the past 20 years, MSI has expanded its portfolio to include powerful workstations for creators and dependable notebooks for business professionals. A pioneer in AI PC technology, MSI integrates features like automatic performance optimization and AI-higher image processing into its products.

This dedication to innovation and quality continues to drive MSI’s success and shapes its future in technology.

Evolving Leadership

Ben exemplifies a leadership style that blends collaboration with a results-driven approach. By empowering team members and maintaining strategic focus, he has planted a high-performing environment.

In the lively Middle Eastern market, Ben has raised innovation and problem-solving, creating a culture of continuous learning and adaptability. His clear direction and recognition of achievements have inspired the team to exceed expectations and deliver exceptional results.

Key Strengths

Ben excels in building cohesive teams and promoting innovation, creating an environment where team members feel valued and empowered to contribute ideas. He recognizes his perfectionism can occasionally delay decision-making and is working to balance quality with timeliness. Additionally, he remains dedicated to staying current with emerging technologies and trends.

Strategic Response

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ben faced significant challenges with disrupted supply chains and fluctuating demand. He crossed this by strengthening supplier relationships, adjusting the product mix to focus on high-demand items, and expanding MSI’s online presence through e-commerce.

These strategies helped mitigate the pandemic’s impact and led to growth in key market segments, highlighting the importance of adaptability, resilience, and strong partnerships.

Growth and Innovation

Over the past 20 years, MSI has solidified its position as a leading IT solutions provider through several key strategies. The company has formed strategic collaborations with brands like Mercedes-AMG and Capcom to boost its global status.

Investing in esports has strengthened brand visibility and engagement with the gaming community. MSI has expanded its product portfolio with new lines for content creators and business users, driving revenue growth.

By localizing marketing efforts to resonate with regional consumers, the company has built strong customer relationships. Additionally, raising a belief in innovation has permitted MSI to stay ahead of market trends. These strategies have been crucial for MSI’s continued success in the Middle East.

Building Work Culture

Ben promotes positive and collaborative work values by accenting open communication, trust, and shared goals. He nurtures a safe, inclusive environment where team members feel valued and empowered to share their ideas. Clear, achievable goals align with company objectives, improving team camaraderie and purpose.

Ben also invests in permanent education and development, providing opportunities for training and mentorship. By reassuring innovation and ownership, he helps the team tackle challenges creatively. Accountability is key, with everyone understanding their role and responsibilities.

Ultimately, Ben’s approach creates a motivating environment where team members are inspired to perform at their best, driving high performance and achieving exceptional results.

Key Lessons

Throughout Ben’s career, several key lessons have shaped their approach to leadership and problem-solving. Endless learning has been vital, as staying updated with industry trends and technologies enables adaptation and drives innovation.

Teamwork is another key lesson, with Ben recognizing that success relies on collaboration and the collective efforts of a talented team within a supportive environment. A strong customer focus has guided his career, emphasizing the importance of understanding and meeting customer needs through feedback besides exceptional service.

Lastly, persistence has been vibrant, as resilience and a positive outlook help overcome challenges and achieve long-term goals. These insights have profoundly influenced Ben’s leadership style and approach.

Approach to Staying Ahead

Ben is devoted to staying updated on industry trends and technologies through several key practices. He regularly reads industry reports from leading market research firms to understand emerging trends.

Attending conferences and forums helps him network with peers and learn about the latest innovations. Subscribing to industry publications, newsletters, and blogs keeps Ben informed about current developments.

Also, he promotes a background of permanent learning within the team by offering training and workshops. This approach warrants that MSI remains competitive by identifying opportunities, anticipating challenges, and guiding the team towards innovative solutions.

Career Advice

Ben advises aspiring technology professionals to build a strong foundation by mastering core knowledge and staying adaptable in a hastily advancing industry. Adopting innovation is crucial—incessantly proposing new ideas and viewing challenges as growth opportunities can set you apart.

Effective transfer is key, so focus on articulating ideas clearly and collaborating well in teams. Networking and building relationships through industry events, mentorship, and online populations can expand your professional connections.

Additionally, developing soft skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence is needed. Finally, maintaining passion and persistence is important, as a career in technology, while demanding, is highly rewarding.

Accomplishment Story

Ben’s standout achievement at MSI was guiding the team through the post-COVID-19 market downturn. Despite global economic challenges and overstock issues, he led the team to achieve countercyclical growth by aiming on high-growth areas like gaming and content creation.

With analyzing market trends and implementing innovative marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships, MSI’s laptop business grew fivefold over four years, becoming the firmest-mounting brand in the Middle East.

This success highlights Ben’s leadership, adaptability, and alignment with MSI’s promise to innovation and customer focus.

Work-Life Balance

As General Manager, Ben faced burnout but learned the importance of work-life balance. By setting clear work hours, turning off work notifications outside those hours, and incorporating regular exercise, he has successfully balanced professional and personal life.

This approach not only improves personal well-being but also heightens team beliefs and productivity. Ben’s spotlight on effective time management and stress reduction has made them a more well-rounded and effective leader.

The Development Journey and Core Values of MSI Laptops

• Best Brand in the Minds of Consumers:

• For four consecutive years, MSI has been rated the best laptop brand by users on PC Mag.
• New product launches consistently receive praise from the media.

• Extreme Performance:
  MSI believes in the importance of quality, backed by solid R&D and manufacturing expertise.

• Since 1986, MSI has handled its own R&D and production, building a strong foundation of skills and experience.
• This allows better control over product quality, like extended durability testing, and the ability to quickly respond to consumer needs and issues, turning new ideas into actual product features.

• Powerful and Stable Performance:

• MSI focuses on delivering “complete” performance. While many other laptops throttle performance to manage heat, MSI ensures sustained, stable output even during prolonged use.
• This means you get the full potential of components like the RTX 4060 GPU without performance drops. MSI uses the best materials, flexible expansion options, and the latest features (e.g., WIFI 7) to provide the best experience.

• Innovative Technology:
  MSI offers exclusive and first-of-its-kind features, choosing MSI laptops means you get the latest and best technology.

• Close cooperation with upstream manufacturers provides priority support.
• MSI is quick to bring the latest technology to market (Time to market), allowing consumers to enjoy mainstream tech years ahead.

• Luxury Aesthetics:
• MSI laptops have won numerous design awards and feature collaborations with other brands, showcasing the potential of high-performance laptops in different industries.
• Collaborations span gaming, fashion, and luxury cars, combining performance with style and luxury. MSI partners with top brands to create special editions, such as:
• Creator Z16 Hiroshi Fujiwara: Collaboration with Hiroshi Fujiwara, a highly influential figure in street culture.
• Stealth Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: Known for elegance, safety, and performance, this collaboration combines MSI’s performance with Mercedes-AMG’s luxury craftsmanship. Both brands share a dedication to performance technology, respect for craftsmanship, and an artistic approach to engineering.

MSI Laptop Product Strategy and Market Performance

Initially, MSI wanted to move away from the intense price wars by offering “value.” Gaming was a completely new and challenging field. Back then, “gaming PC” only referred to desktop computers; there was no concept or market for gaming laptops. No one believed that laptops could meet the performance demands of gaming. Even many MSI employees and long-term sales partners were skeptical, and everything needed a new approach.

• Pioneering a New Field: Starting was incredibly tough because no one had ever done “gaming laptops” before, and there was no clear path.

• MSI believed that understanding gamers’ needs was the key to designing great products. From product design to marketing, MSI involved many gamers, including professional esports players, streamers, commentators, and editors.
• He extensively gathered feedback from professional gamers and incorporated various new features into his laptops.

• Providing a Complete Experience: A crucial aspect is that gaming laptops not only need powerful performance but also need to offer a complete experience. MSI has enhanced every gaming laptop in areas like sound, display, control, and connectivity. This ensures that players can fully immerse themselves in the gaming world and enjoy a luxurious experience.

• Introducing Steelseries Keyboards: (Same as Q1. talking point)
• Sound Performance (Same as Q1. talking point)

• Exceptional Performance: MSI consistently delivers industry-leading performance, even in mainstream models. MSI products often outperform similar models’ instability and power.
• MSI uses the best materials (like SSD and memory chips), offers flexible expansion options, and adopts the latest features (like WIFI 7) without cutting corners.
• Even laptops with the same RTX4060 GPU perform better with MSI’s cooling technology, allowing the GPU to run at full potential without throttling, ensuring no compromise on performance.

MSI’s Laptop Marketing Strategy and Market Insights

•  Nobody had done it before; Ben and his team had to start from scratch.

• His colleagues and customers were skeptical, thinking there was no market for gaming laptops. MSI believed that to create gaming laptops, you had to be a gamer yourself.
• Only by understanding gamers’ needs they can design good products.
• They recruited many gamers and esports players for the team, including professional players, commentators, analysts, and editors.
• Many of the marketing and sales colleagues were also recruited from gaming communities. Especially overseas, many of their colleagues were recruited from amateur esports teams.
• They took the advice of professional players and incorporated it into the products. Starting in 2010, MSI fully committed to gaming laptops, leveraging 25 years of R&D and production experience to turn ideas into product features.
• Listening to users was crucial, but so was understanding market trends. For instance, in 2011, MSI prepared the Killer Network gaming network card for players, anticipating the market’s huge potential.
• Back then, the prize pool for Dota 2’s 2011 International tournament was $1.6 million. By 2013, it had reached $2.9 million, and in 2021, it soared to $40 million.
• The Killer Network card minimized latency during games, ensuring that network signals reached the game server faster, giving players an edge in split-second online battles.
• However, there were many times when Ben envisioned features that didn’t exist in the market. Ben and his team collaborated with manufacturers to develop these technologies. Unlike other brands that assembled new models from available parts, MSI led with concepts.

• This approach posed new challenges across various aspects, from finding upstream suppliers to marketing and sales channels.

• A typical laptop might cost around $30,000, but MSI laptops could cost $50,000, $60,000, or even over $100,000. It wasn’t just about making users understand; their sales partners needed to be convinced as well.
• Marketing: They had to engage a new target audience in different ways and make them understand the product’s value.
• Sales channels: Since their product prices and customer base differed significantly, they had to find new sales channels when they first ventured into gaming. His marketing and sales teams spent a lot of time-sharing expertise with the partners, helping them understand esports, grasp players’ needs, and stay updated on the latest products. He assisted in inventory management, organized various marketing activities, and provided hot-selling products, fostering mutual growth with partners.
• He often heard sales partners express their surprise at how enjoyable it was to collaborate with MSI, despite initially thinking esports would be a hard sell.

• In 2015, MSI became the global leader in gaming laptop sales. This was just the beginning of his journey in high-end laptops.

• He noticed that many users bought high-end gaming laptops not just for gaming but for creative and professional work. They needed a laptop capable of handling complex tasks without performance drops over long periods, with excellent graphics and audio to meet professional needs.
• Moreover, many young users of MSI gaming laptops transitioned from school to work and sought laptops suitable for both work and daily use. He wondered if he could create a series of high-end laptops tailored for creators and professionals.
• Thus, after 2018, he and his team launched the Creator series and the Business and Productivity series laptops, serving a broader range of users.
• His colleagues and customers were skeptical, thinking there was no market for gaming laptops. MSI believed that to create gaming laptops, you had to be a gamer yourself.
• Only by understanding gamers’ needs he can design good products.

• • They recruited many gamers and esports players for their team, including professional players, commentators, analysts, and editors.
  • Many of his marketing and sales colleagues were also recruited from gaming communities. Especially overseas, many of his colleagues were recruited from amateur esports teams.

MSI’s Laptop R&D Strategy

• It’s not just about having cutting-edge hardware; it’s also about making AI easily and fully accessible to users through a combination of hardware and software.

• Different manufacturers have their definitions of “AI PC.” MSI believes that regardless of the definition, its goal should be to make AI’s convenience easily accessible to users, essentially “AI + PC.”

• He has developed smart applications like MSI AI ARTIST and MSI AI ENGINE to seamlessly integrate AI into daily life.
• For advanced users, cloud-based AI applications might not always be optimal. Local edge AI applications can ensure better security and speed.

• MSI’s close collaboration with upstream manufacturers provides additional support, such as early access to new products and quicker launches compared to other brands. This gives us a competitive edge in bringing more models to market faster.

MSI’s Future Challenges and Prospects

• In 2009, tablets and touchscreen phones were on the rise, changing people’s habits. Coupled with the financial crisis, the market was fiercely competitive in terms of pricing. MSI didn’t want to get caught in a price war, so in 2010, they decided to focus on high-end gaming laptops.

• As mentioned earlier, MSI places a lot of importance on user feedback. Many of their product features are designed to enhance and address current user needs or improve existing experiences.

• Another crucial aspect is anticipating market trends at least three to five years in advance. People have used their computers for several years, so he can’t just focus on current technology; he needed to foresee future trends. For example, while WiFi 6 was mainstream last year, MSI had already incorporated WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 into their products to ensure users have access to the latest technology.

• Design is also significant. It might sound abstract, but their design team studies global events from recent years to identify color trends. He then works with manufacturers to create the desired colors and surface textures for their products, which takes a considerable amount of time.

 

• Additionally, whenever major components like CPUs and GPUs are released, MSI ensures that consumers can purchase these products immediately. This requires high-level skills in R&D, precise production scheduling, and effective inventory management. Choosing an MSI laptop means opting for the latest and greatest technology.

Most Memorable Laptop to Date

• There have been so many impressive products. Recently, MSI’s collaboration with Mercedes-AMG has been particularly notable.

• Discussions for this collaboration spanned several years due to COVID.

• This long-term partnership includes more than just co-branded laptops; it also involves various aspects. For example, the Mercedes-AMG esports team benefits from the stable, high-performance MSI products, enhancing their sim racing experience. The manager of the AMG esports team told us that many professional racers are also involved in sim racing, drawing more attention to these competitions. MSI is a key partner, providing excellent hardware. Their laptops not only look elegant but also offer stable, high-performance practice sessions during travel (as shown in an interview video).

• The latest Stealth 18 Mercedes-AMG Motorsport features a stunning display—it’s the world’s first 18″ 4K Mini-LED 120Hz laptop. It also comes with a 1:16 scale AMG model car and a luxurious range of accessories.

MSI Responding to the Upcoming AI Wave

• It’s not just about having cutting-edge hardware; it’s also about making AI easily accessible and fully integrated into users’ lives through a combination of hardware and software. Different manufacturers have their definitions of “AI PC.” At MSI, they believe that regardless of how AI PC is defined, it should provide users with the convenience of AI, which is called “AI+PC.”

• They’ve developed intelligent applications like MSI AI ARTIST and MSI AI ENGINE to seamlessly integrate AI into everyday life. For advanced users, cloud-based AI might not be ideal; instead, Edge AI, which runs locally, can ensure better security and speed.

• MSI also closely collaborates with upstream suppliers, gaining more support, such as early access to new products and faster launches compared to other brands.

Vision Growth

Ben aims to establish MSI as a global technology leader, inspiring people worldwide. In the Middle East, he plans to position MSI as the top choice for advanced technology solutions, with future expansion into enterprise and government sectors.

Point out innovation and sustainability; Ben seeks to create impactful products. Personally, he is given to ongoing learning and leading a top-notch team dedicated to technology and positive change.

Strategic partnerships, diversity, and involving new technologies are key to achieving these goals.

Looking ahead to the next 20 years & beyond

• This year marks the 20th anniversary of MSI laptops, a significant milestone. They have always focused on innovation, applying the latest technology, and providing the ultimate user experience for laptop users.

• In 2024, for the fourth consecutive year, MSI has been voted the best laptop brand by users on the top tech media site, PC Mag.

• Starting in June, various countries will celebrate MSI’s 20th laptop anniversary with a series of promotional activities and special 20th-anniversary merchandise. Many countries will also host special exhibitions showcasing the major milestones of MSI laptops over the past 20 years.

• Moving forward, they will focus on three core principles to launch even better products: luxury aesthetics, ultimate performance, and innovative technology.

Throughout its 20-year history, MSI has remained committed to three core values: 

• Luxurious Aesthetics: MSI elevates laptops beyond mere computing devices, transforming them into objects of desire. Collaborations with renowned trendsetters like Hiroshi Fujiwara and Mercedes-AMG Motorsport have infused MSI laptops with luxury and style.

• Luxury Aesthetics represents their pursuit of high product aesthetics.
• MSI not only provides excellent functionality but also incorporates luxurious and elegant designs to give users a sense of prestige and style.
• He collaborated with top brands like fashion designer Hiroshi Fujiwara and the elite car brand Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, blending their trend-setting elements into laptop designs, breaking traditional boundaries, and bringing a unique fashion vibe to laptops.
• Aesthetics also cover user experience. For example, his handheld gaming device, CLAW, went through tens of thousands of simulations and trials to create the most comfortable ergonomic grip. He also uses top-quality joysticks to ensure players feel comfortable and enjoy using the device for extended periods.

• Extreme Performance: MSI is relentless in its quest for extreme performance, catering to the most demanding users with products that deliver unparalleled power.

• Extreme Performance reflects MSI’s commitment to the highest product performance.
• We focus on creating products with the most powerful processing capabilities and top-tier performance to meet the stringent demands of professional users. He spare no expense in selecting the best materials to ensure the highest product quality.
• Additionally, he and his team are always among the first to bring the latest products to market, allowing users to immediately enjoy the newest technology. For example, their critical thermal design uses more robust materials than their competitors, despite the higher costs, to push performance to the extreme.

• Innovative Technology: MSI embraces cutting-edge technology, constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the world of laptops.
• Innovative Technology has always been MSI’s tradition. He strives to incorporate the most advanced technology into laptops, continuously exploring new possibilities.
• “Understand users’ needs first, then create the products they want!” With this belief, MSI constantly listens to and understands user needs, turning these insights into product design concepts and innovative ideas.
• For years, he has led the way in introducing innovative technologies and features into products. Choosing an MSI laptop means choosing the latest and best technology in its class.