David Yim, founder of Udders Ice-Cream, arrived in khaki shorts and sneakers.

“I dress like this at work all the time. We have a very relaxed atmosphere,” he told everyone.

He realized some in the audience didn’t know what udders were.

“You know… cow tits,” he quipped, after struggling for a while to find the right word. The audience roared.

That was just one of the highlights at Entrepreneurs Unplugged, a panel discussion organized by Startup@Singapore, an annual business plan competition. The event is part of this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week.

The panel couldn’t be more diverse.

Rounding up the group is Ben Tan of Hauslab D&B, who looked just the right amount of classy and casual in his blazer, Tong Yee of School of Thought, who wears his heart on his sleeve, and Geoffrey Kung of REVERSE Cooperative, an anti-entrepreneur who’s also the oldest of the group.

The panel is moderated by Albert Teo, associate professor of the National University of Singapore Business School.

With the room full of curious, laptop-hugging students, one of the major questions raised was whether a person should jump straight into entrepreneurship right after graduation.

The panelists agreed that there is no right answer.

Yee said, shoulders and arms raised in bewilderment: “It could go either way. It’s like asking someone: ‘Should I marry my first love or wait a few more years?’ How do you answer that?”

Perhaps their experiences could give some insight. Both Yee and David were teachers before they started their businesses.

“Working first has given me a strong perspective. Because I’ve worked in the public sector, I know how to be a better service provider,” said Yee, “so it helps to work first, gain experience.”

Yee’s first social enterprise was School of Thought, a tuition center that teaches GP, Literature and English. School of Thought is part of a grouping called the Thought Collective.

David had a colorful story to share about why he transited from teaching to enterpreneur-ing.

“I realized I couldn’t work under anybody anymore,” he told the audience, “I developed strong beliefs on how people should be treated and how things should be done.”

Once, his school principal had a meeting with the teachers to tell them their top three weaknesses.

“I was told that I’m too playful. The principal expected good teachers to be serious and stern-faced. But I do have high standards for my work, because I have fun while I’m at it.”

That was why he made sure that Udders’ number one brand value is to be cheeky.

“I can be who I want to be, do things the way I think is right,” he said.

Geoffrey too was an employee, until he was retrenched at 55. Unable to secure a job in the IT industry, he studied to get the right qualifications to enter the banking industry instead. But he was already beyond the cut-off age for entering a bank at the startup career level.

“I remember going for the interview without telling them my age, and the receptionist told me, ‘Uncle, you’re at the wrong place.’”

Unable to secure the job, he decided that he could start a company and secure outsourced work from the bank as a sub-contractor.

But he found that he wasn’t really a competitive person. So he decided to start REVERSE cooperative instead, which is an organization that provides elderly with more work and play opportunities.

Ben, on the other hand, knew that he wasn’t going to work for anybody right from the start. He understood early on that he was a creative person with an independent streak.

“When I was younger, I would grab a cookbook, look at the pictures, and I could bake and cook. Floral arrangements came naturally for me. I’d just grab a few flowers and stick them together, and people will say, ‘wow, that’s interesting’.”

He even went on to help out at a friend’s flower shop, gave classes and did arrangements for a hotel. While in the Army, he did extra work as a wedding coordinator, “the whole shebang,” he calls it.

But as traditional Asian parents often do, Ben’s parents told him to give up all these things and find a proper job. He did not cave in.

Today, Hauslab designs homes, corporate offices, hotels, clubs, and restaurants to suit the clients’ tastes. He is even working on creating a 3D walkthrough room to help customers visualize their designs.

After some thought, he had this advice to give: “Work for two or three years in the industry you want to start your business in. Learn the technical language and lingo, but more importantly, get valuable contacts.”

He added that it is important to learn how to submit to authority and be humble. “At 25, I thought I knew everything, but I learnt my lesson later on.”

Photo: From left — Albert Teo, David Yim, Ben Tan, Tong Yee, Geoffrey Kung. Courtesy of Startup@Singapore.

This event is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2011.

SGE is proud to be the Official Online Media partner for GEW 2011.

Many of us have romantic ideas about starting a business. Like other dot-com entrepreneurs, I made beautiful business plans with an ambitious five-year projection.

But one of the first lessons I’ve learnt was that it was not the content of our business plan that mattered, but what customers wanted.

I started my venture thinking that we had a unique business proposition. Perhaps it was original at the point we conceived it. However, we started our plan at the height of the dotcom boom in Singapore in 1999/2000.

We soon found some 30 other new start-ups in the same space as us. Some were well funded with several million to over ten million dollars in investments, while we raised only a few hundred thousand dollars.

Our target customers were schools, and they were offered free solutions by our competitors. With little funding and confronted with the dotcom crash, we decided early in our business that we had to charge customers for our services.

This gave us some revenue. More importantly, I felt it would help us understand what customers really wanted as they had to pay for our products or services. In contrast, most of our competitors wanted to gain ‘eye-balls’ through free services.

We received countless rejections in the first year of our business. Schools were not ready to use e-learning. If they were, there was no shortage of free solutions they could use.

I soon realized the power of the customer. It didn’t matter much what my academic or professional background was, or who funded our company, or who was on our Board of directors Customers wanted value for money. They wanted solutions to fit their needs; and they will vote with their purchasing dollar.

Looking back, I am thankful we did not receive the massive investor funding that other dotcoms did. It forced us to realise early that the customer is king. It forced us to make constant changes to our business model, products and solutions until we had something that customers were willing to pay us for.

We executed perhaps just 10% of our original business plan. We evolved our solutions with constant feedback from customers. In the end, that proved to be what mattered as I look back at those who survived the dotcom era and those who didn’t.

A second lesson I’ve learnt was to seize the moment. Opportunities are there but one must see them and seize quickly when opportunities knock on the door.

In the first three years of our business, we evolved our products to suit what we felt the customers needed. However, business was slow because not many schools saw the need for e-learning, especially when they had their students physically with them most of the time.

The budget allocated for e-learning was rather miserly. We struggled to balance our budget in a poor business environment that affected everyone in our industry. Most of the well-funded Dot-com competitors had burnt out their funding. Many had ceased operations.

Singapore was hit with SARS in March 2003. It was a national health disaster; a most unfortunate event to hit Singapore. Ironically, out of the disaster, I saw a break for the business. It provided the reason for our customers to use e-learning.

The opportunity was not just for our company but also for others in our industry. So we acted fast. We were the first to craft the message of using e-learning in times of emergency school closures. We ramped up the sales and operations department in anticipation of more interest and more business.

Our hunch turned out to be right. A year prior to SARS, MOE had stopped a pilot project to provide a centralized learning management system for all schools.

Technologically advanced Singapore could not afford to have schools caught off guard by SARS without an e-learning solution. Schools were issued a directive to seek suitable solutions from the industry. Funding became available for schools to acquire solutions.

Prior to this, we had spent three years getting our products and services ready for that moment. We saw the opportunity and ramped up our operations. Sales grew by 50% per annum for the next 4 years.

Bill Gates was once asked how he became the richest man on earth. He said, “First, I was in the right place at the right time. Second, I saw the vision. Third and most important, I took action.”

He was situated at a time when desktop computing was becoming a possibility. He was not unique to the situation. There were 4 billion people living on earth at that time. He saw the opportunity that others may have missed, a vision that software will be needed to drive the hardware that will become increasingly popular.

Most important of all, he did not sit on his vision. He acted on it decisively.

Moments will come in your business when opportunities present themselves. Be sharp to spot them and decisive to act on them.

Yee Jenn Jong is the founder of e-learning services provider ASKnLearn Pte Ltd.

ASKnLearn was started in January 2000 as a 4-man start-up to provide online education services for schools. It survived the NASDAQ dotcom crash of April 2000, recession and intense competition to become a profitable and top e-learning provider in Singapore with staff strength of 150 by the time it was sold to a public listed firm in 2007.

Jenn Jong has since started another two companies and is mentoring other start-ups. He shares Steve Jobs’ belief that in life, it is better to stay hungry and to stay foolish. Jenn Jong is currently also a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament in Singapore’s 12th Parliament.

Photo: zzkt

Projects like Bizhub 28 @ Chai Chee, slated to be completed by 2013, will have a pool, barbecue pits, and a gym. The developer hopes to attract foreign firms and yes — new tech businesses.

Another upcoming development, Oxley BizHub, will also add some swag to its design. Beyond bragging rights, such an environment makes workers more productive.

“We believe that injecting a bit of ‘lifestyle’ into our projects encourages people to be more productive at work. It helps to have a lot of greenery and a nice area to work in,” said Oxley Rising CEO Ching Chiat Kwong.

Also, watch out for Asia Square, located in the Central Business District, which will have a 32,000 sq ft gym and a fully sheltered landscape plaza.

Many existing office buildings in Singapore already contain similar facilities. Capital Tower, for instance, has a pool and an indoor golf club on its ground floor.

But while such perks are nice to have, these alone aren’t always enough to retain the best and the brightest, a Google survey found out. When the Internet giant asked its employees what they valued the most at work, their answers were surprising.

What they most wanted was access to “even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.”

Even an attractive salary package didn’t come up on top.

So it turns out that the intangibles, like company culture, matter a whole lot too. Stuffing yourself full with the best gourmet food provided by the company isn’t therapy enough for a horrible, David Brent-ish boss, it turns out. It just makes you fat.

Photo: WoJianWuWei

“Startups don’t get killed by competitors, but by their own incompetence”

- Paul Graham in TC Disrupt 2011

After seeing over the years how up and coming entrepreneurs often drag on with a startup that is going nowhere, I realize that failure is not an option they want to think about.

Of course, if you are passionate about an idea and set about making your passion a business, having thoughts about “what if I fail” is a bad idea and definitely something investors don’t want. You’d be expected to put your heart and soul in the startup because it’s not about the founders but also the employees who work with you to build the idea into a sustainable enterprise.

What I think Singapore entrepreneurs don’t have is the ability to pivot quickly to something else when they are reaching nowhere. That’s what people mean by failing fast.

Being involved with startups as an early stage investor in the past and a full-time entrepreneur now, people often ask me, “How’s your company going?” I will reply that we are busy with some recent happenings in the company and focused on our tasks. When they start associating the word ‘success’ with my company, my instant reply is: “We’re not that there yet. We can only do our best and everything is 50-50.”

What I mean is that all start-ups are inherently volatile. Perhaps, experience has taught me to be self-aware and focused on the journey rather than worry about success and failure. It is better to have a good fight than to think about what happens after that. If you fail, you probably have all the time to reflect. Spectacular failures can happen to anyone, and if you want recent examples, check out Color, the US$41M funded startup.

Recently, our newly elected President, Dr Tony Tan, made an interesting point in a forum that if he has to come up with an idea to engage youth, he will want to find a way to allow them to taste failure. He illustrated his point with the Silicon Valley culture where instead of giving up, entrepreneurs often go back to the drawing board when they fail.

He’s spot on about the problem of entrepreneurship in Singapore. I don’t have any idea how to induce students to experience failure, because to do so is to expect someone to take risks and suffer the consequences if something does not work out.

More interesting views:

• What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? Paul Tough from the New York Times discussed how failures actually help students to cope with challenges in life. His article is the reason why I wrote down these thoughts.
• Face to Face 2: Presidential Forum video Part 2. Check out the question in the video where the candidates were asked for one good idea to engage young Singaporeans. Dr Tony Tan’s suggestion about getting youths to embrace failure is spot on.

Image: Tinou Bao

Witnessing this, Sheryl Tay launched The Baby Specialist in 2009 to provide Singapore’s only hospital-grade baby equipment rental company. It helps mothers who are caring for newborns and toddlers to save cost since they would not need to purchase expensive equipment which they’d only use for a while.

The service caters to various needs and occasions for mums in Singapore. Some of the items available for rent are medical grade items and everyday necessities like baby cots, car seats and strollers.

Medical grade items in particular have been especially valuable to mothers in times of need. “In some cases of jaundice, it pains parents to send their newborn babies back to the hospital. With the rental of our medical grade items, mothers can now have their jaundiced babies treated in the comfort of their own home, at a fraction of the cost of admitting their baby into the hospital.” Jaundice is a yellowish pigmentation of the skin that frequently occurs in the first few days of a newborns’s life.

With much of her business occurring online, Sheryl has seen significant conversion rates by making use of online channels to market The Baby Specialist and its services. She remarked: “As the consumer’s buying habits change, it’s important for businesses to adapt.”

One of the key things she did was optimizing her site for searches. The website is ranked highly on Google searches for keywords such as “Baby Equipment Rental Singapore”. Consequently, a large portion of the revenue from equipment rental comes from the site itself. The number of orders has also been steadily increasing since their launch, particularly from overseas mothers visiting Singapore.

Building The Baby Specialist from scratch was the first ‘job’ Sheryl didn’t need to drag herself out of bed to go to. She was persistent about keeping the business going. “On days that I had fever, I would still turn up for work just to make sure that I could meet the deadlines I had set,” she mused.

The most rewarding part of building The Baby Specialist for her is the flexibility and ability to see the returns from her hard work, “I have full autonomy to dream up ideas, execute them, and experience the satisfaction reaping the fruits of my labor. I cannot imagine doing anything else.”

To aspiring entrepreneurs, Sheryl shared a few words of advice. “When being called stubborn, take it as a compliment.”

Having met her fair share of nay-sayers, Sheryl was determined to prove them wrong. “It was especially stressful when others gave doubtful comments about whether the business would work. But looking back, I think it was those very comments that fueled me to prove that my idea would work. Always have an open mind and take criticism in your stride. ”

For the ladies, Sheryl encourages you to “think fast, think clearly and stick to your guns. If all else fails, hire an older male to present your case.”

Key challenges and how she overcame them

1) The lack of technical expertise

Her initial lack of expertise and understanding of technical jargon was overwhelming. But Sheryl set her heart on learning the ropes from scratch. She researched a lot in order to keep up with the latest trends and avoid being pushed around.

“The beginning stages were the most interesting. I had to prowl websites to learn about Search Engine Optimization, read books about branding and web design, talk to lawyers about customer contracts and agreements, talk to bankers about payment collection options, go through pages after pages of blogs by mothers about their first hand experience at motherhood,” she explained.

2) Understanding others and their motivations

As she started to work with people from various backgrounds, the challenges became people-centric. “I had to ask myself questions like — how do I put across my message so it can be best understood and received? Is it reasonable for me to say this? Is it reasonable for him to say this? What exactly is she thinking when she is saying this?”

The tenacious entrepreneur describes this as a continuous learning process, something which can be improved with experience.

3) Getting too absorbed with her work

At times, Sheryl found herself increasingly irritable and unhappy with herself when the stress from business began to stack up.

Her remedy? Spend time taking stock of your life whenever you feel out of balance. “I sat down at the beach to reflect for a day and made a list of things, besides work, that I would like to do before the year ended,” she recalled.

Once she made it a point to allocate more time to doing the things that she enjoyed other than work. That recharged her.

Photos: Dr Louis-Sebastian Sonntag

Those looking for scandalous information that will rock the nation will be disappointed — no heads are set to roll. But one cable is of interest to entrepreneurs: Created in 2007, the document charts the Singapore government’s push towards supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, and the obstacles they face in driving the country towards a knowledge-based economy.

An extract follows:

Creativity by Fiat

2. (U) A strong record of economic success notwithstanding, Singapore’s leadership recognizes that further growth will depend on finding economic advantages over the rapidly growing and low-cost economies of China, India, and ASEAN neighbors. As a developed nation, Singapore must also compete with other developed economies. To continue thriving, the GOS (Government of Singapore) believes that Singapore must transform itself from an efficient platform for manufacturing and logistics into a global, knowledge-based and more entrepreneurial economy. With a small population, no natural resources, and a trade-heavy economy, the GOS is acutely aware of the need for Singapore to develop a strong entrepreneurial class that can adapt.

3. (SBU) Pursuing the objective with its usual vigor, the government is pouring in resources. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong chairs a Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC), established in 2005 to promote R&D and innovation in ”strategic” sectors of the economy. In 2006, the RIEC announced it would provide $916 million (SGD1.4 billion) over the next five years to fund entrepreneurs. Also in 2006, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) unveiled its Science and Technology 2010 Plan (STP2010) which commits $4.9 billion (SGD7.5 billion) over the next five years to encourage raising R&D spending to 3 percent of Singapore’s GDP by 2010.

The Challenge

4. (SBU) GOS efforts to promote entrepreneurship continue to encounter a risk-averse Singaporean mindset, government domination of the economy, and discouragement of critical thinking and inflexibility in the educational system. The 2007 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report (GEM) showed that, among the surveyed OECD and developed economies, Singapore was consistently below the mean for all indicators of social and cultural attitudes toward entrepreneurship. For example, only 57.8 percent of Singaporeans believed that new business success was accorded high status in their country, compared to an average of 66.2 percent among all the countries in the survey, ranking Singapore 21st of 24.

Government Itself a Cause

5. (C) Entrepreneurs continue to face obstacles in a number of sectors in the form of Government-Linked Corporations (GLCs), which account for nearly 60 percent of the national GDP. Temasek Holdings, the government’s investment arm, is by far the largest investor in Singapore, with an estimated 50-percent stake in Singapore’s GLCs. GLCs often compete against each other in key markets, making entry by an independently-held company difficult. For example, SingTel and Starhub, both Temasek Holdings companies, compete directly in the wireless service market and will soon do the same in the cable television market. The strong GOS role in directing the economy likely has the unintended result of ”crowding out” natural economic development, according Dr. Sha Reilly, Chief Knowledge Officer at the National Library Board (NLB), which has a mandate to encourage creativity and entrepreneurship among young Singaporeans. She believes Singaporeans look first to the government, rather than the private sector, to be the innovation leader.

6. (C) Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) — a potential source of innovation and commercial nimbleness – find it difficult to secure financing for their businesses since financial institutions, accustomed to an abundance of large corporate customers, are reluctant to lend to riskier SMEs. The 2007 GEM report ranked Singapore 17 out of 21 countries for venture capital availability. The Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) is similarly inhospitable to SMEs, with many Singaporean entrepreneurs opting to list in other countries. SGX Executive Vice President Lawrence Wong told us that the SGX targets SMEs with a capitalization of SG$500 million to SG$5 billion ($327 million – $3.27 billion). Wong characterized the amount as “not a lot,” but it does put SGX listing out of the range of many SMEs. He says a GOS proposal to develop an exchange catering to smaller firms was ”still under discussion.”

7.(C) While the government has allocated various funds to encourage SMEs, a number of business leaders told us that funding is still inadequate. They suggested that even if sufficient funding were available, it would still take at least a generation before an entrepreneurial culture would truly take root. Of the $4.9 billion STP2010 budget, less then two percent has been allocated for SME financing. Inderjit Singh, a Member of Parliament and an entrepreneur, told us that the proliferation of entrepreneurial schemes for SMEs was “government lip-service that fails to address the critical need to divest GLCs and open markets.”

Political System Discourages Risk-Taking

8. (SBU) The GOS’s tight political control and the “habits of constraint” it fosters have inhibited the development of an entrepreneurial spirit and risk-taking culture, according to Nominated Member of Parliament Kum Hong Siew and others. G. Jahyakrishan, Assistant Director of International Enterprise Singapore (IE), a government entity responsible for helping Singaporean companies grow globally, believes that a prevailing atmosphere of restraint “subtly” leads to less risk-taking behavior by firms and individuals. Siew believes the government’s attempt to encourage economic risk-taking while limiting political and social freedoms is unsustainable because it discourages the kind of critical thinking required for entrepreneurship.

Education System Not Helping

9. (C) Singapore boasts a highly competitive and well-regarded primary and secondary education system, but the number of Singaporeans completing a tertiary education is relatively low. Only 23 percent of Singaporean students entering primary school complete a degree at a local four-year university. In other knowledge-economies such as Japan’s, around 50 percent of students complete a university degree. However, according to Cheryl Chan, Assistant Director of the Planning Division at the Ministry of Education (MOE), the government does not plan to encourage more students to get a higher education. The university enrollment rate will continue to be maintained at 20-25 percent because the Singaporean labor market does not need everyone to get a four-year degree, she asserted.

10. (SBU) Singapore’s education system has been criticized for being heavy on memorization and light on critical thinking and creativity. Based on the British model, the system is highly test-focused and separates students (a process referred to as “streaming”) at an early age between high, middle, and low achievers. The GOS has slowly begun to introduce greater flexibility into the system by allowing ”streaming” in subjects (rather than based on total average scores) and has created new magnet schools focused on mathematics, the arts, and sports. But there are only three such schools, and the overall education system has changed little.

Some “Strategic” Sectors Suffer

11. (SBU) Growth in the “strategic” media sector may be hampered by limits the government sets on freedom of speech and expression. Filmmakers such as Martyn See (reftels) or productions that touch on sensitive issues often find their distribution and broadcasting rights disapproved by the Media Development Board (MDA), a governmental agency responsible for regulating and promoting media industries. Cheah Sin Liang, Deputy Director of International Relations at MDA, admitted to us that the GOS’s tight control over controversial political, religious, or social topics does limit growth in the media sector, but argued that such controls are necessary to prevent negative social consequences.

12. (SBU) Singapore’s approach to promoting R&D development in the biomedical field, another government-identified ”strategic” sector, has also been criticized by foreign education specialists as too focused on quick economic gains rather than fostering the “holistic approach” necessary for sustained innovation in science and technology. Dr. William Broady, President of Johns Hopkins University, told the local press in January that in order to be a leading center for R&D, Singapore had to get away from “trying to measure short-term economic returns. There has to be a mindset change… in tolerating and being comfortable with failure and ideas that don’t seem to be going anywhere.” (Note: Johns Hopkins stopped development of a $53 million (SGD82 million) Biomedical Sciences research unit after its Singapore Government partner, A*Star, accused Johns Hopkins of not meeting performance benchmarks. End Note.)

Casinos, Kumar and the Crazy Horse

13. (SBU) The GOS appears to recognize the need to give citizens freer rein in order to foster creativity and entrepreneurship. Unwilling to loosen political controls, it has focused so far on easing social restrictions. The government made a highly controversial decision to allow casinos, and has awarded contracts to open two integrated resorts in 2009. Kumar, a popular transvestite nightclub comedian whose material focuses on taboo subjects including race, sex and the foibles of government personalities, has been allowed to perform on television and in public venues. Singaporeans returning from long stays overseas have told us of being shocked at the mushrooming of racy billboard advertising. MDA’s Cheah pointed to the opening of the Crazy Horse French Burlesque in December 2005 (which subsequently closed in January 2007 due to poor attendance), and to the ”success” of the Singapore Biennale (an arts festival) as further signs of greater social openness.

Comment

14. (C) Ever thinking strategically, Singapore’s leadership will keep pushing innovation in order to stay competitive in a rapidly changing Asia. To its credit, the government appears to recognize that its own penchant for control – however enlightened its policy choices or soft its authoritarian touch — may be at odds with the kind of free-wheeling atmosphere it needs to achieve its economic objectives. Time will tell whether it can promote creativity, critical-thinking, and innovation in society by loosening up on social issues and tinkering with the education system while keeping politics in quarantine. One way or another, Singapore’s flirtation with openness will provide another interesting chapter in its unique history as a social-engineering petri dish.

The Post Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship involves participants spending three weeks on campus and 10 hours of online learning a week. Throughout the course, students have to follow through on a business idea they brought up during their interview. Lessons will start in September 2011.

The diploma is meant for aspiring entrepreneurs who wish to understand the academic theory behind building successful companies, as well as intrapreneurs working for large organizations.

“While Silicon Valley is a much bigger area than Cambridge, in terms of innovative thinking we are very much a match for the best globally,” said Dr Vyakarnam, director of the university’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning.

Serial entrepreneurs like Hermann Hauser, founder of software company Acorn, will mentor the students. In total, the fee for the course is £10,000 (US$16,000).

Photo: Mamee Monster (left) and Mister Potato (right).

So I was excited to know that the guests for the Augest 12 session of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Week would be Datuk Pang Tee Chew, CEO of Mamee Double Decker and his son Vuitton Pang, who is the company’s business development manager.

As part of the audience, I became a kid again. I gawked at the Mamee Monster and Mister Potato mascots as they posed for photographs, and licked my fingers after finishing the BBQ-flavored snack that were distributed to the attendees. I pouted when I got two packets while everyone else got one, and sulked when others got their bag of Mister Potato and I didn’t.

Yes, Mamee Double Decker, with a line-up of over 50 products, is powerful.They are also the market leader in potato chips in Malaysia, beating Pringles and Jack n’ Jill. In 2010, their annual revenue stood at RM428mil (US$143mil), with Australia and Singapore as its largest export markets.

That’s not all: Most recently, Mister Potato secured a partnership with Manchester United, one of the most storied football club in the world. The two sure seem like an odd couple, but my understanding is that the F&B company wants to leverage on the football brand’s reach in Asia. The football club also has an interest in Asia too, as indicated by their intention to raise US$1 billion from an IPO in Singapore.

The deal starts with the new season, and will end in 2014. The website states that football fans can look forward to “exciting contests, great giveaways, free merchandise, and even a chance to meet the Manchester United team themselves, at Old Trafford.”

The partnership is part of Mamee Double Decker’s ambitious plan to grow their annual revenue to RM1bil within five years. They hope to ride on the football club’s popularity in Asia to gain more market share.

Before they could dream of global domination, however, the company had very humble beginnings — they really struggled in their first two years. First, they got cheated by their business partner. Next, with limited cashflow and a lack of expertise in manufacturing, bankers were not confident of financing the company.

“My father never gave up. He continued going. In the end, a Malaysian industrial bank pitied him. But they financed him not because of the project but because of his determination,” said Datuk Pang.

Finally, with the loan, they started Mamee Double Decker, then called Lucky Noodles, in 1971, selling instant noodles and vermicelli.

Datuk Pang joined the business a year later as a salesman going from shop to shop, seven days a week. He found out that they were up against tough competition, one of which was the well known Maggi noodles, manufactured by Nestlé. In fact, Nestlé even brought down their price just to deter Lucky from selling to the market, claimed Datuk Pang.

“I was scared to return to the factory. I got a lot of scolding from my father for not being able to sell the noodles. But I do sympathize with him as his entire savings went into the business. If we don’t do well, he’ll be close to bankrupcy.”

Vuitton Pang, business development manager at Mamee Double-Decker, Prof Hooi Den Huan, director at Nanyang Technopreneurship Center, and Datuk Pang Tee Chew, CEO of Mamee Double Decker.

But things started turning around with Datuk Pang’s keen observation. While travelling the country selling noodles, he noticed that a lot of customers, especially rubber tappers in rural areas where a gas stove or heat wasn’t readily available, ate the product straight from the pack without cooking them.

That gave him an idea: Instead of selling instant noodles, why not pivot to crunchy noodle snacks instead? And within a few months, they adjusted their machinery to do just that.

The next problem they faced was branding. ‘Lucky’ was not exactly memorable. With a limited budget, they approached a young advertiser who just left Ogilvy & Mather to start his own agency. Both being new businesses, they decided to help one another.

“We needed something that was low budget but high impact.”

During one of their discussions, Datuk Pang related about how during his course of selling the noodles, his cheapest meal was wonton noodles, which cost around 30 cents at that time.

“I always asked for double portion, so I’ll say in Cantonese: ‘ma-mee’. And we thought, hey, that’s actually a good name!”

With that settled, they zoomed in on brand positioning. While rubber tappers were eating instant noodles as it is, they decided to focus on children instead. Hence the blue Mamee monster was born. They kept their product affordable enough for kids, without compromising on quality. Instantly, Mamee Monster caught fire.

Today, the company has expanded from their signature product into other brands like Cheers beverages, Nutrigen cultured milk, and Corntoz snacks. Mamee Monster now accounts for only 26% of their revenue.

One important lesson they’ve learnt is the necessity of having a good distribution network. A company may have the best product in the world, but without the ability to reach the furthest corners of the market, everything comes to naught.

Vuitton Pang said that whenever they expand to a new country, they would identify good partners and distributors to work with. “They are the key. Without distribution, all the money spent on branding goes to waste.”

For the younger ones in the Pang family, Mamee still pretty much runs in their veins. Although it is often said that many family business don’t last beyond the third generation, they are still passionate about the business — and most certainly Vuitton.

“We don’t sell our company because we know this is what we’ve always wanted to do,” said the former investment banker.

The foyer was packed with people.

Photos: Nanyang Technopreneurship Center

Please share some lessons learned in developing entrepreneurship in Singapore over the past twenty years – Dr Tony Tan from Office of Dr Tony Tan on Vimeo:

Singapore was forged on risk-taking. How can we encourage self belief and self confidence? from Office of Dr Tony Tan on Vimeo:

How can Singaporean firms achieve the scale needed for success? – Dr Tony Tan from Office of Dr Tony Tan on Vimeo:

Singaporeans don’t seem to have a global perspective. How can we address this? – Dr Tony Tan from Office of Dr Tony Tan on Vimeo:

How can the govt address the talent shortage in Singapore, especially if bigger companies come in and poach from local companies from Office of Dr Tony Tan on Vimeo:

For more videos on the session, visit Dr Tony Tan’s page on Vimeo.

Special Interview on Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystem with Brad Feld from onsuccess on Vimeo.

For full transcript, click here.

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This has been brought to you by SGE and Onsuccess. Onsuccess is a media enterprise for start-ups and ventures in Korea. Onsuccess introduces innovative Korean start-ups and ventures to people overseas through media partners and inspires readers by sharing interesting business ideas and trends from all over the world. Furthermore, Onsuccess holds various events, offering actual chances for Korean start-ups and ventures to meet other start-ups, venture business partners and investors abroad. They publish in both Korean and English.