Career -

By the time he arrived on the Grand Prix scene as a 15 year-old Marco Simoncelli already had a wealth of experience and titles behind him, and his entry into the World Championship arena in 2002 was the start of a career marked by success, ambition, determination, some controversy and plenty of admiration as he progressed through the classes to become one of MotoGP’s most recognisable stars by the time of his tragic death on October 23rd 2011.

Growing up in Coriano, some 10km from the Misano World Circuit, Simoncelli spent his youth racing on the Italian east coast and was a frontrunner in the Italian Minimoto Championship from 1996 to 2000 – a competition he won on more than one occasion.

Stepping onto 125cc machinery after his exploits in minibikes Simoncelli was quick to adapt, riding in the Italian National Championship in 2001 and then taking the European 125cc title the following season. It was in 2002 that he made his World Championship debut, riding six rounds of the 125cc campaign before a first full season the next year.

2004 saw the then 17 year-old take his first GP victory – which was also his first podium result and his first start from pole position – when he won at a rain-soaked Jerez on his way to 11th overall in the standings. Simoncelli’s final season in the category in 2005 produced six podiums in total, including another win at Jerez, as he ended the year fifth overall taking further steps forward.

Moving up to the 250cc category for 2006 it took two seasons for Simoncelli to settle in and find his feet, and when he did so it was in stunning style. 2008 did not start in the most encouraging manner as Simoncelli failed to score points in the opening two rounds, but in Round 3 at Estoril he qualified on pole for the first time in 250s and finished the race in second – his first podium in the class. From there, Simoncelli’s season took off in a phenomenal fashion. He took his first 250cc win in his home GP at Mugello, the sixth round of the campaign, and only finished outside the top three on one more occasion on his way to the title. Winning six races and stepping onto the podium a total of 12 times in 2008, Simoncelli was the first Gilera rider to win the 250cc title and became the first man to take the intermediate crown after not scoring points in the first two rounds since Dieter Braun in 1973.

Speculation linked the charismatic new 250cc World Champion with a move up to the MotoGP class but Simoncelli opted to stay and defend his title. He again displayed his fearless riding style as he engaged in a series of great battles, taking the title fight to the final round in Valencia where he eventually lost out to Hiroshi Aoyama. Simoncelli finished the campaign in third, having won six races, and was by now ready to make the step up to the top level.

Pre-season testing for the 2010 campaign was something of a baptism of fire for Simoncelli, who was shaken by a big crash at the second Sepang Test. He was back on the bike for the final Qatar outing however, and then finished his first MotoGP race at the same Losail circuit one month later in 11th place. Simoncelli gained in confidence as his rookie season went on, steadily improving his qualification and race results and ending 2010 with a strong run of notable displays which included fourth in the penultimate round at Estoril, where he was unlucky to miss out on a podium spot.

With a full season’s experience behind him his second year in MotoGP saw Simoncelli get off to a flying start, as he immediately set about converting the promise shown towards the end of 2010 into results in 2011. After a top-five finish in the first round in Qatar, he then crashed out of the Jerez race when leading in only the second race of the campaign. Next time out Simoncelli secured his first second-row start, in Portugal, and a first premier class pole position came shortly after in Catalunya as the excitement surrounding the daring Italian continued to grow.

Another pole followed at Assen but Simoncelli was unable to seal that elusive podium spot that seemed an almost certainty every time he took to the track, something he finally managed at Brno where he took third position in the Czech GP to great acclaim.

Fantastic rides continued to flow as he finished fourth for three races in a row at Misano, Aragón and Motegi, the last of which saw Simoncelli prevail in a toe-to-toe race-long battle with age-old rival Andrea Dovizioso. Just two weeks later at Phillip Island Simoncelli again held off his compatriot in an epic fight to take second place, his best-ever MotoGP result.

Qualifying on the second row for the Malaysian GP Simoncelli was battling with Álvaro Bautista for fourth position in the race when he crashed on lap two, sustaining the injuries which brought to an untimely end a rapidly evolving rider and individual who was hugely admired both on and off the track.

Marco Simoncelli’s World Championship career:

2002: 125cc World Championship – 33rd position on an Aprilia, 6 starts, 3 points

2003: 125cc World Championship – 21st position on an Aprilia, 15 starts, 31 points

2004: 125cc World Championship – 11th position on an Aprilia, 13 starts, 79 points, 1 win

2005: 125cc World Championship – 5th position on an Aprilia, 16 starts, 177 points, 1 win

2006: 250cc World Championship – 10th position on a Gilera, 16 starts, 92 points

2007: 250cc World Championship – 10th position on a Gilera, 17 starts, 97 points

2008: 250cc World Championship – 1st position on a Gilera, 16 starts, 281 points, 6 wins

2009: 250cc World Championship – 3rd position on a Gilera, 15 starts, 231 points, 6 wins

2010: MotoGP World Championship – 8th position on a Honda, 18 starts, 125 points

2011: MotoGP World Championship – 6th position on a Honda, 16 starts, 139 points

Simon Tsui VP of international information technology, Asia-Pacific, for Time-Warner Hong Kong

CWHK: Tell us about your specific role within the Time-Warner organization.

Simon Tsui: Time-Warner Hong Kong is a shared-services division within Time-Warner–we support a few of the divisions of Time-Warner in Hong Kong and throughout Asia-Pacific. Turner and Time Inc are our major constituents, we also serve Time-Warner corporate staff in Hong Kong and Warner Brothers here at our Hong Kong offices.

When you look at Asia-Pacific, Hong Kong is a relatively small market. The location and ease of entry/exit on an international level is why we have our headquarters here. Within Time-Warner we’ve got about 600 employees in Hong Kong.

CWHK: So within Time Inc, you have Time Asia…what else?

ST: Time Asia, Fortune Magazine, and the customer service of Time Inc: a separate organization called TW4. They handle fulfillment for other magazines.

CWHK: Time Asia, like our publication, started in an era when print-publishing was king, Fortune Magazine also. What are you doing now that the print landscape is changing?

ST: In the States, a lot of Time-owned magazines like People and Sports Illustrated have iPad-versions. People still crave content, it’s just the medium of delivery has changed.

CWHK: Apart from devices, the local audience seems to crave for content in their local languages.

ST: Yes. One of our new products is CNNgo, which was first launched in English. But now we’ve got simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese. In the media industry we’ve seen a change in terms of viewer-preference. When Turner first came to Asia it was a big export business–CNN, Cartoon Network–we basically transferred the US programs to Asia. Now it’s localized–cartoon-series might have multiple languages that will be selected depending on the locale.

CWHK: But while Netizens prefer localized products, English is still the main means of communication in the business world.

ST: I have to thank my father for helping me learn English. He used to work at an Indian company, and recognized the global importance of English. So when I was young, while all the kids were watching Sunday morning cartoons, I would be with my dad reviewing and practicing English. I think my English ability has helped me greatly in this job. Language helps you build relationships–if you can’t communicate fluently, there’s always going to be some sort of barrier. And I tell my staff this–in our environment, English is very important.

CWHK: So when you came back to Hong Kong after your BA in Canada, what did you do?

ST: I didn’t really know–I would look at the Classified Post and realize I didn’t have the qualifications for these jobs! But I applied anyway and eventually got a job doing pre-sales for an Apple Center. After that I changed jobs a lot, mainly in sales and marketing for software on the Macintosh platform, and eventually was hired by Turner in ’94.

CWHK: What was your job back then?

ST: Systems engineer–back then there were only two people in IT: me and my boss. Every couple of nights the database would become corrupted and I would need to work with someone in the US to fix it, so I was working until 10:30 almost every night. The important thing for me is that I didn’t waste time working those hours, as I got to know people in the company and build trust.

While it’s been a slow process to become department head, it’s been a satisfying one. The company has continually expanded over the years, and I always need something new to keep me interested.

CWHK: You now sit on the Turner board. Is there anything you do to get the business guys interested in IT?

ST: It’s a slow journey. While we may spend time talking about social networking and all that, at the end of the day creating a viable business is what counts. But one of the initiatives we recently started is called “Business Liaison.” If a department is interested, we’ll insert one of our senior staff into their regular operational meetings. The purpose is to understand their everyday problems, and from those conversations, we learn where we can help.

CWHK: Do you see more interest towards business from your team? Do they see the value of understanding business?

ST: We do. We have an annual customer-satisfaction survey and one question is how IT is perceived: do you see us more as a problem solver or equipment-provider, up to a strategic partner.

Our IT team’s slogan is: “business-focused customer partnership,” there’s nothing IT about it. It’s really easy to hire technical professionals, but difficult to hire business people with a technical background, because if their focus is business, they won’t study tech in the first place.

I think the staff sees its importance–the problem I have is building enough traction for them to do something about it. There’s often resistance–IT people are busy, and I often hear them say: “I don’t have time to spend hours learning about what that business does.” My response is that being business-focused doesn’t mean you have to spend hours sitting with the business understanding it. If you show you’re interested in what they do, you become more valuable, and you don’t spend as much time as you think.

For the same reason, I don’t want to outsource our help-desk, because if done properly, our help-desk is a great place to be in touch with our business. Inherently, IT people are introverts–we’re more reactive rather than going out and learning new things. I put a lot of effort to educate my staff on the importance of help-desk and the importance of these touchpoints.

CWHK: I’ve heard others talk about the importance of bridging the IT-business gap. Do you ever get the staff together and try to aggregate what they’ve learned through this process?

ST: Operations has always been resistant to change, so it is one area where we’re trying very hard to achieve a broader mindset.

We use the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type) personality indicator here and many technical folks are what we call “sensing” types: very detail-oriented, but not as good as seeing the big picture.

So in addition to presenting them a big-picture concept, I try to add something concrete. We encouraged our staff to write down what they’ve accomplished, how they achieved it and we use it to demonstrate how that fits in our list of “IT Values.” Through learning this experience from others, the sensing-type staff has better understanding of how their work fits in a bigger picture. But sometimes when I’m talking with sensing-type people and they’re not quite getting it, I need to rephrase what I’m talking about.

In the past, if you were management, the staff had to listen to you. But now–at least in our company–that’s not true anymore. In management you have to listen more, and act differently with different folks, so actually…the days of management being tyrants are gone.

Large numbers of people turned out on Wednesday morning in Coriano, the hometown of Marco Simoncelli, to bid the MotoGP rider a final farewell before his funeral takes place on Thursday.

Fans, friends, members of the public and figures from the world of sport came to the Municipal Theatre in Coriano, close to Riccione in the Italian province of Rimini, to pay their respects to the 24 year-old rider who passed away on Sunday following a crash in the MotoGP race in Malaysia.

A long line of mourners formed early this morning at the chapel, which will remain open until 10pm this evening, and where Simoncelli’s body is resting prior to his funeral on Thursday. Behind the Italian rider’s coffin the Gilera bike, on which he won the 2008 250cc World Championship title, and the Honda RC212V, on which he competed in the MotoGP class, were presented.

Amongst those in attendance were recognised Italian sporting figures such as former basketball player Walter Magnifico and Marco Melandri, a close friend of Marco Simoncelli’s and his team-mate in the Gresini team during the young rider’s debut season in MotoGP in 2010.

The funeral, which will take place tomorrow (Thursday) at 3pm at the Santa Maria Assunta church in Coriano, is expected to be attended by close friends of Simoncelli’s and fellow riders including Valentino Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso, Jorge Lorenzo and Sete Gibernau. To ensure that all those who attend the funeral can follow the ceremony two large screens will be installed outside the church, and a large screen will also be installed at the Misano circuit nearby.

As preparations continue for the funeral of the late rider Marco Simoncelli continue (see additional information here), the San Carlo Honda Gresini team confirmed on Tuesday its intention to attend the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana, where the MotoGP community is planning a tribute in memory of the late Italian rider who died in Malaysia.

Team sources have ensured that the majority of the team’s members will travel to the Valencian circuit and the customary team box will be assembled, in which the Honda RC212V holding the number 58 will be present in tribute to their rider Marco Simoncelli.

Team owner Fausto Gresini has not yet decided if Hiroshi Aoyama and Moto2 riders Michele Pirro and Yuki Takahashi will take part in the Grand Prix. The team may make an announcement on Wednesday morning or might wait until after the funeral services on Thursday for Marco Simoncelli are held.

In a press release issued Tuesday, the Italian team thanked the countless messages of sympathy received since Sunday with a message that read: “Thanks for the love shown to Marco. The star of “Super Sic” will shine forever in heaven! From Marco’s family and the team, thank you.”