CEOs In The Making : Faces of the Future

2009/11/05

Fitness In Training
By Himmat Singh, 16, Selayang

Meet four new up-and-coming business prospects – Eric Soo, Lee Kean Boon, Aurelia Tiam, and Jeremy Lee, all 20 years old except Tiam who is 19. They are co-founders of Fitness in Training, and another YES Challenge finalist.

How did it all start? One fateful day, they were in their lecture halls when the announcement of the YES Challenge was made. Jeremy and Kean Boon decided they would join.

But there had to be four to a group. They turned and saw Aurelia, who was also looking for team mates. Then, Eric walked by and he said he wanted to join the group as he, too, was searching for team-members. The end product was inevitably something conjured up at the spur of the moment. Eric summed it all up by saying, “It was random and coincidental”.

After that, they went to the drawing board to prepare blueprints for their company.

In the beginning, their idea was to set up a company dealing with new designs on banners that people were using. However, this idea was rejected.

Thereafter, they ran short of ideas, but they did not lose heart. They were bent on taking part. Just when all avenues seemed to be leading to dead-ends, light at the end of the tunnel appeared.

Eric Soo, Lee Kean Boon and Aurelia Tiam

Eric said that a thought struck him when he was bathing. He saw a problem. His tummy was as big as it could get, and he realised that, THAT could be the focal point of their business.

These days, many teenagers and young adults don’t really care about their well-being, in terms of their body weight. They hardly exercise. This served as a catalyst for the four budding entrepreneurs who at once subscribed to Eric’s idea. Thus, Fitness in Training was conceived.

The objective of the company revolves around providing children between the ages of eight to 18 years the chance to experience holistic exercise of the physical, mental, social and emotional kind through the organisation of four-day-three-night camps. Those who participate in these camps will come out healthier.

Four of them share that they are still learning the ropes and though they are business students, what they learn in theory is out-dated. So they have to “think on their feet” when running this company.

They said too that participating in the YES Challenge made them better individuals. Aurelia said, “Before, I was quite reserved. But after coming on board, I became more articulate. It also improved my communications skills, and helped me discipline myself.”

Eric echoed her sentiments, saying, “The Challenge provided me the opportunity to make real friends in addition to supplying endless networking opportunities.” Kean Boon was more philosophical. He said, “It has opened my eyes to many things in life. This has also given me a platform to own my own venture.”

Case study shows that obesity and overweight are two major problems, no thanks to the influence of the television and gaming consoles. So they convinced the judges that they could do something to initiate change via Fitness in Training.

Their first camp has been scheduled for mid-December. They hope to empower youngsters by educating them to live healthily. A host of exciting events are in store ranging from physical workouts to nutrition classes to mental and emotional healthcare.

As young businessmen/women who are managing start-ups and studying at the same time, it has become important for them to manage their time well. Eric’s advice to those who mismanage time is… “Learn to set priorities. Do things that are important, not those that are urgent as most of the time, urgent things turn out to be unimportant.”

Aurelia, an avid fan of the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong and an admirer of Sir Richard Branson, added that they usually commit more time to their business when they are on a holiday break.

Hoh Kar Ming

Kean Boon insisted that the time for effort is now. “You never know when an opportunity like this will come by again, so the best thing to do is to nick it when it is within your grasp.”

Tun Dr. Mahathir and Steve Jobs are his inspirations. “Things that you think are impossible are actually possible for there are no limits. The limits are all in your mind”.

No doubt this lot are sure to make waves. They are, after all, the face of tomorrow’s business leaders.

Entrée
By Abirami Gnana Kumar, 17, Petaling Jaya

According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary, an entrepreneur organises, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. But I believe this definition does not do justice to this new generation of young entrepreneurs. They are creative, daring and outstanding individuals ready to make their mark on the world. Why do I say that?

Recently, I was fortunate enough to meet a bunch of 19- to 21-year-olds, all co-founders of their own companies, set up under a project called the Young Entrepreneur Start-Up Challenge (YES Challenge) organised by MoneyTree. The Challenge was created to help future youth entrepreneurs launch new ideas that could be turned into profitable ventures.

One of the companies that caught my attention was Entrée. Set up by co-founders Jolene Sim Hui Ching, 20, Tan Suzhen, 19, and Hoh Kar Ming, 20, Entrée is a newly formed media publications company that targets the tertiary institutions market.

Entrée’s main goal is to publish a guide book for all college students to help them settle into college life. “We hope that every enrolment package at colleges will feature our book in it,” says Hoh, who is majoring in accounting and finance. This induction kit is called no sweat! “Our guide book has many value-added benefits. With every copy of our guide book, there will be for example, a free prepaid Telco card, debit cards and more,” she explains.

Sim says, “This is a media company with a twist.” One of the “twists” is the organisation of induction tours (no sweat! tours), for college and university students around the Klang Valley.

“It will be a practical tour and worthwhile especially for those who are from outstation,” says Hoh.

Hoh’s team is one of five YES Challenge finalists who had to pitch their ideas to a jury of corporate leaders for their start-up financing of RM25,000. The team has already come out with their first draft of the publication and a company brochure and are looking to be in colleges at the start of 2010.

When asked what she learnt from the YES Challenge, Hoh says, “This is a very hands-on competition. I have learnt so much about how to operate a business. It has taught me very important skills such as time-management, communication and networking.

Hoh described the pitching session as “awesome”. “I was very nervous that we were not going to be able to convince people to invest in our company but in the end we managed to reach the maximum target. I learnt a lot about what the power of persuasion can do.”

Entrée’s ultimate goal is to make a real difference in students’ lives. Their dream is to “… see all new students at college and universities in Malaysia holding no sweat!”

Buttered Toastz
By Saheb Singh, 12, Petaling Jaya

You have been accepted into university to do the course of your dreams! You are so excited and want to research well and pass your exams with flying colours! You also want to refer to as many books as possible related to your assignments. Alas, the books specified by your lecturer have already been borrowed before the class has ended, as is usually the case. Photocopying is wrong and buying is extremely expensive. So, what other options are there?

This is when you go to ButteredToastz – no, not the type you have with a cup of tea or coffee but a service that tastes just as good.

Knowing that university/college books are expensive, three young men Alexander Gunjau Fowler, V. Vishal and Ashwin Menon, all engineering students and housemates, decided to start an online book trading community service called ButteredToastz.

An online book trading community is a Web site where you can share your opinions of the books you have read and make friends with people who like the same books as you do. But you can also trade books with these people online.

What kind of ‘trading’ is done via the service? Fowler explains, “We allow you to rent out your books or rent other people’s books. Or you can buy or sell books. You can even auction off your books or participate in online book auctions. We allow book publishers and bookstores to open up e-shops on the Web site, so you can browse through their selections and buy books online”.

Besides, university/college text books the service provides access to storybooks, motivational books, history books, encyclopaedias, fiction and non-fiction.

Handling payments online can be tricky, but the three co-founders say that to keep things “honest”, they will act as the intermediaries. Says Vishal, “We have developed a system for our Web site to ensure that you won’t get scammed when you trade books using our service.”

So, what makes this service different from other book trading Web sites such as Amazon.com or mph.com.my? “You are allowed to rent books, instead of buying or selling them,” adds Alex.

Ashwin says, “You can describe ButteredToastz as Facebook + Ebay.com + Amazon.com + something extra”.

So if you want to read the latest bestseller but your allowance is not enough to get it, just click on ButteredToastz.com (You won’t be able to find it on the Internet just yet because the software for it is still being developed). Look out for it next month or January 2010.

Student Media
By Nur Afiqah Azizan, 11, Bangi

Valerie Tan Shu Yin, 21, got to know about the YES Challenge from a friend, and wasn’t quite sure if her ideas would make the cut. But she took part, and today is a co-founder of a company called StudentMedia.

Tan’s company sells advertising pages. Her team’s idea is innovative. College students seldom buy expensive textbooks. They photocopy notes. So, “… instead of using the billboard and newspaper advertisement methods, we do the watermark. If advertisers want to reach the tertiary market, they pay us and we will print their logo onto photocopy papers which we will sell to photocopy shops at or near a university or college. The papers will be sold at a cheaper price. When students come into the shop and want to photocopy notes, the shopkeeper will offer them the watermarked paper. If they choose that, students get a discount as the watermarked paper will be cheaper than the plain paper.”

And when customers (students) read their photocopied notes, they might not read the brand, but they will experience something called brand recall. For example, a brand for colour pencils (named Graces) is watermarked on a sheet of paper. When students read their notes, they will surely notice the watermark. Then when someone asks about that brand, that student will surely remember Graces because he or she is experiencing brand recall. “It benefits both parties,” says cheerful Tan.

Every semester, as students move on to the next level, these watermarked notes get circulated to juniors and this expands the reach of the advertiser.

Tan says there was actually another company doing ‘almost the same type of advertising’ in Nilai, Seremban. But they used fully-coloured advertisements on a whole page leaving only one side of the paper unused. This distracts students from reading their notes. And imagine if the notes are 20 pages long, when they use fully-coloured advertised paper, it will be two times thicker. So, Valerie and her co-founder Alex Teoh Cing Ji improvised on the method and made it more convenient for students.

They are starting their business in Subang and plan to expand to all of Klang Valley.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? But StudentMedia’s founders know that there will be many challenges ahead.

“In the beginning things are very nice and smooth, but after a while it gets tougher,” says Tan. “You can’t limit yourself with things you want.

“I am always saying this to myself… it’s not that you cannot achieve something, it’s just a question of whether you want it or not. We have to think out of the box and a few brains are better than one. You must also prove to yourself that you can do anything that you want to achieve,” adds Tan.

Try This Out!
By Saheb Singh, 12, Petaling Jaya

Try This Out! is a market information specialist that provides youth trend advice to clients wanting to reach the youth market. The brains behind this venture are two 19-year-olds, Johnson Khoo and Chia Sheng Yeong.

Chia, who is currently studying Business and Commerce at Monash University, said, “TryThisOut took a long time to grow.”

“The idea did not come instantly. It was an idea that grew from long discussions with Khoo. We discussed and expanded the idea into a viable business.”

The two co-founders met through a mutual friend. Chia added, “Being passionate about entrepreneurship, I was sharing ideas with friends and I was happy to discover that Khoo was also passionate about entrepreneurship.”

Asked why they ventured into entrepreneurship, Johnson said, “I dislike Mathematics, Science and subjects that have complicated equations or need memorising.” So that excludes mainstream career choices. “I also wanted to earn well, be able to travel and meet new people. If you are an entrepreneur you can do all of the following.” But the most compelling reason was, “I wanted to change the country for the better by supporting its economy, and entrepreneurship is the fastest and easiest way to give back to the community.”

TryThisOut! is a growing company. According to Chia, the company has a “unique selling proposition” which is the youth. Sheng Chia said that in five years, they want to make their company a one-stop youth specialist company that will provide clients with access to the minds of the youth.

“Our company can engage the youth for our clients because we understand youth very well. Young people want to experience things (new and exciting things), they want empowerment (they like to decide what they like for themselves), they want a sense of belonging (by joining Facebook and other networking sites) and they want freedom (to be master of their own time and be free from doing mundane stuff).”

I asked them if their company was feeling the impact of the recession and the answer was “No” because it was yet a small but growing company. Small companies do not usually feel the impact of recession.

Were there any conflicts when making certain decisions and how were these solved? Khoo said they resolved it by sitting down and reasoning it out. “We don’t let emotions take over. When you are reasoning it out, you should never think it is your word against mine and vice versa. After you have done that both of you’ll try to see which choice is better and why.”

Had anyone doubted the possibility of their success?

Khoo said, “Everyone besides a few close friends doubted my success. Even my parents, family, relatives and outsiders doubted me. ‘What do you know about business’ was frequently asked’”.

Khoo added that youths do not like to venture into entrepreneurship because they are afraid they will fail and others will laugh at them. One quote that inspired Khoo was by Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy (John F. Kennedy’s brother) – “Only those who dare to fail greatly, will succeed greatly.”

Both Chia and Khoo are average college students with big dreams and a set of principles that govern their philosophy of life and the way they conduct their business. Khoo said he wouldn’t do anything detrimental to the public or the community. Their business mantra, “Always juggle your time well, never give up, what you do must make money, and what you do must benefit society. Do your best so you will have no regrets.”

Alexander Gunjau Fowler, Ashwin Menon and V. Vishal