25th Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk - Dato' Yusli

Live blogging of Young Corporate Malaysians 25th CEO Series of Talk by Dato' Yusli, CEO of Bursa Malaysia.

Dato' Yusli was born in Bangsar Hospital. His late father was army officer, so he used to travel a lot. However, his late father passed away when he was about 40. At that time, Dato' Yusli was 8. His mother brought them up. At that time, they were living at MINDEF at Gurney/Semarak.

He was at Rifle's Range school, and then St. John, and then went to Sultan Alam Shah in Petaling Jaya. He did his Standard Six in 1970. He skipped a year of school, so he only had five years of primary school.

He was selected as the first batch under Yayasan Selangor to study in Kuala Lumpur under the first year of New Economic Program. The school that he was supposed to go to, ended up does not exist now. He ended up going to Victoria Institution, and the rest went to Methodist Boy's School and St. John Institution.

He spent his years at Victoria Institution (VI), and it was fun. He left VI at the start of Form 6, as his mother felt that he was not studying enough. He was just made Head Boy then.

He then went to UK in 1977 and did A Level and university, as well as working in UK. He came back in 1990, and joined Renong Berhad, which also does not exist today too. Dato' Yusli was joking that places he went to, ended up does not exist today.

He went to do ICAW, and joined an accounting firm in UK, Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co (which eventually became part of KPMG). He was in UK till 1990. In between, he got married. However, unfortunately, it didn't last. His daughter is now staying in UK and now is a doctor there. When he came back, his daughter was 6.

Dato' Yusli was supposed to start working with Petronas. Before he went to Petronas, he got "hijacked" to Renong. At that time, Renong just took over UEM, and they were building the North South Highways. Renong was one of the preferred companies then.

During the New Economic Model, Tun Dr. Mahathir selected a bunch of bumiputera businessmen to build a bigger pool of bumiputera professionals, and at that time, Tan Sri Halim Saad was one of them. Tan Sri Halim Saad was Dato' Yusli's first boss in Malaysia.

Dato' Yusli then had to explain to Tan Sri Hassan Merican on he had to turn down the offer. In hindsight, Dato' Yusli felt that in the fairly new group, like Renong, there was a lot more flexibility and he got a good learning curve.

In Renong, Tan Sri Halim Saad set up a Group Management Office, and that company was HBN Management. He set up with the help of an ex-partner in PwC. Dato' Yusli's first job with Renong was to write report on the companies that Renong had. Having worked under Tan Sri Halim Saad, Dato' Yusli shared that Tan Sri's culture was ruling by fear. He shared that everyone needs to know everything at finger tips, or else, would "get bitten off the head".

Dato' Yusli shared on those quarterly presentations back then, and some of those subsidiaries people were terrified and sometimes they didn't even dare to sleep. One even fainted in the meeting.

Tan Sri Halim Saad knew a lot about each of the companies, and he could literally ask anything on the company. And if people could not answer, they would be in trouble. Dato' Yusli highlighted that while Tan Sri's style "sucks", his style was admirable, as he was able to get everyone on their toes. Dato' Yusli credited him as the best bumiputera managers that he had worked with.

Others who were working at Renong was Datuk Seri Che Khalib. He worked very long under Tan Sri Halim Saad, whereas Dato' Yusli worked for five years under him.

After HBN, he moved to Faber Group, and then Time Engineering and then went back to Renong Group as Chief Operating Officer in 1994/1995. At Renong Berhad, Dato' Yusli reported to Tan Sri Halim Saad.

After that, Dato' Yusli joined Shapadu Corporation for about 2 years, but he left as he felt that what was promised to him was not carried out the same way.

Dato' Yusli felt that as country progressed, then people would need to specialize, instead of being "jack of all trades". In developed nations, there were not many conglomerates.

In Renong, Dato' Yusli had exposure to construction, infrastructure, property, engineering etc. At Shapadu, it was similar.

At that time, Dato' Yusli joined Sime Merchant Bankers Berhad, which was joint venture of Sime Darby, ANZ Bank and another Japanese Bank. (And he joked that Sime Bank does not exist today too.) Sime Bank got hit by Asian Financial Crisis and Sime Darby decided to get out of Banking industry. Sime Bank was acquired by RHB.

Dato' Yusli decided to leave before the bank got folded. The worst thing that Dato' Yusli felt was that Sime Darby decided to pull the plug. The first thing that Dato' Yusli chose to join them, was that it was supposed to be stable.

Datuk Jaafar Hamid, who had worked with Tan Sri Halim Saad, planned to do Management Buyout for Intria Berhad and Metacorp Berhad. So, Dato' Yusli decided to join them as Managing Director of Metacrp Berhad. After Tan Sri Halim Saad, Datuk Jaafar Hamid was the person he admired the most.

However, two days before Dato' Yusli joined them, the MBO fell through. So, Dato' Yusli had to report to Tan Sri Halim Saad again. He was asked to be Managing Director for both Intria Berhad and Metacorp Berhad.

At that time, Intria then bought into a UK firm, and had to take a huge Pound Sterling loan. At that time, the exchange rate was about RM4 to 1 Pound, but during crisis, it became ended up to RM8 to 1 Pound at one pound. Intria ended up going into receivership.

During back then, Tun Dr. Mahathir encouraged local big companies to venture abroad, but, not many of them succeeded, as they were not ready to match the foreign "con" people, until Petronas was successful abroad.

Usually when Japanese companies wanted to invest abroad, they would be there for some time to observe, whereas for us, we usually just went out.

Dato' Yusli shared on the reason of Asian Financial Crisis, due to too fast growth and companies went on too much gearings. And the Western world didn't learn the lesson, and ended up in crisis recently.

Dato' Yusli was always in fascination with financial sector, and one day, Datuk Seri Nazir called him and he joined as Chief Executive Director of CIMB Securities Sdn Bhd. That was in 2000, and he stayed on for 4 years. And then he joined as CEO of KLSE.

Dato' Yusli was always willing to try to new things, and he was always involved in general management. In this manner, one does not need to be technical expert, but one builds expertise in organizing and managing people. Technical expertise would help, but not a must.

Dato' Yusli shared that having some knowledge of finance and accounting would help in progressing in corporate world. Like when one is a CEO, one has to speak to analyst, and the analysts would not be impressed, if the CEO does not know about finance and accounting.

Bursa Malaysia requires all listed companies to have briefing to analysts and media.

Prior to end of 2003, KLSE was owned by brokers, and the brokers gave a guarantee for the exchange. And then KLSE was demutualized and became a company limited by shares. So, they wanted a new board and a new CEO, and Dato' Yusli came in as CEO of KLSE.

Dato' Yusli then responded to a bunch of questions.

Dato' Yusli shared that every time one joins a new company, it would be a new set of experience and new set of challenges. He was fortunate to have the chance to move into various industries. As of now, he has been in stockbroking industry for 10 years.

Being in general management, it gives us the ability to influence the culture of the place. Dato' Yusli tried to learn from the bosses that he had worked along the way, and extracted the good thing and not to take on some of the not so good things.

Having worked abroad, one of the things that Dato' Yusli found more common in MultiNational Companies or companies abroad, is that they probably treat their employees differently. Things like respect for the individual are different in the more developed economy. Over there, people tend to pay more attention to quality of life. In developing countries, it is easier for employers to "force" people to work hard, as people here are less likely to complain.

Dato' Yusli felt that people should have a good work life balance. He felt that if people work all the time, then people would become unproductive. If people do that day in day out, productivity must decline after a certain point. Dato' Yusli preferred that they go back and rest and energize, instead of staying back late.

Dato' Yusli felt that sometimes lower-ranked staff don't dare to go back earlier, because their boss don't go back early, and sometimes the boss don't go back early, because they don't want to set the wrong example. So, ended up people stay back later.

In corporate life, people are different, compared to students' days. So, in a group of people, there might be difference in personality, and people might not work well together. So, if one is unlucky, then one would have to work to get people to work together. So, as one moves up the ladder, then one would have to handle that.

In any position, people are still people and would have character. Dato' Yusli always advised that people should be firstly professional at work. That means one should do the job that one is paid for. One is not paid to not like a person, not paid to not cooperate with another person.

Dato' Yusli does not expect people to like each other, but do expect people to work together. That sounds simple, but almost impossible to do. That is probably the biggest challenge for anyone. If people don't talk to each other, someone has to break the ice, and professionals would do so, to get things done.

There are close to 1,000 companies, which they are quite diversified. In Malaysia, we are quite blessed with resources and we have enterprising people, and generally, people are quite well educated. Dato' Yusli felt that the challenge is not too many people invest.

Securities Commissions is the commission that approves listing. ACE board is meant for businesses that do not have much track record. Lets say that there is a younger company that wants to list, they could find with a sponsor investment bank, and then they can list.

A lot of people do not want to let go of power, and that is especially so, for entrepreneurs. So, as the number of employees grow, entrepreneurs need to learn to give up the power, or else, it might be hard to grow the companies. It is important to look for professionals to handle the companies.

Most of the problems we have today is due to dishonest people. So, it is tough for entrepreneurs to find someone that they can trust.

Dato' Yusli credited YTL group to have a balance of professionals and family members.

As company promotes staff up, the skill sets needed would differ, and company should ensure that the skill sets is built up.

Dato' Yusli felt that there is nothing wrong with subordinates who are better than the boss. In fact, it is better, as it can help the boss to do a better job. Then, Dato' Yusli's advice would be for one to be better than one's boss.

Dato' Yusli shared on Bursa Malaysia, where there are only 600 staff, so there are limited jobs on the top. However, there are some specialist roles, which those people would choose to stay there, as there is only one exchange in the country. Of course, Bursa Malaysia did face the challenge of being poached by other banks.

Dato' Yusli shared that Renong took on too many projects, and funding obtained was often short term, and the projects were long term. And interest rate went up, so it was harder to get income matched. So, cash flow problem could happen. It ended up with Khazanah Nasional bought over Renong.

Dato' Yusli shared that back then Prolink, a Renong subsidiary, was the master planner for Bandar Nusajaya. And if not due to the crisis, Renong would be the one that took charge of Renong.

Dato' Yusli felt that there is a trend for the Robert Kuok's linked group to list abroad. Dato' Yusli said that if followed logic, then they should have listed in Malaysia.

Dato' Yusli shared that it is challenging to attract Indonesian companies to list here.

On his goal when he joined Bursa Malaysia, he wanted to improve the culture of Bursa and created a better atmosphere. He felt that he hasn't really achieved that yet. There are some people who prefer to be told what to do, and if there is no instruction came down, then there could be problem. So, if things are not doing well, then one has to change. Change is always difficult. People don't like to change, especially if they have always been doing something for the last many years. This is another thing that one has to deal with, as one progresses.

The skill required would be to learn how to sell the idea. That is a skill that everybody needs to have. Looking back to those at school, the one who is doing well at corporate life are those who don't do well at school. They were the ones who were really socialing around. Those who don't have good social skill, would find it hard to do well in society.

Bursa Malaysia is in service industry, and there are a lot of stakeholders. Pretty much everyone has opinion on Bursa Malaysia. In dealings with direct stakeholders, Bursa tries to be as efficient as possible.

Dato' Yusli's comment on 10th Malaysia Plan, the plan is on the right plan, but the challenge is to get everyone to work together with Prime Minister. First is to get all the ministers to work together, and then to get all the civil services to work together and then all Malaysians to work together.

Dato' Yusli felt that when he was younger, inter-racial thing was better. But over the years, society has lost some of that, but what our Prime Minister tried to do with 1Malaysia is to find ways to get everyone to work all together, for the country to progress.

Dato' Yusli felt that we should have more solid government schools, so that schools can produce better quality people. Maybe today, there is more pressure, life is more stressful, and there could be some structural issues, and the government should definitely find a way to quickly fix the education system. That is about the future of young Malaysians. This should not be politicized.

In life, there are many decision points, and one makes decision and one can't turn back the clock. Dato' Yusli thought that most of the decisions were correct. Perhaps one of his personal choices would be to bring his daughter back, but he can't turn back the clock. Once a kid grows up, it would no longer be the same.

He wanted to create high quality professionals, and people would work together. It is easier said than done. One is paid to do work, so one does work for the salary, instead of one does work for the bonus. The bonus is just if people exceed the performance. One should look at whether one contributes more than what they were contracted to do. Nobody works eight hours flat out, although in theory, that was what one was paid for.

Dato' Yusli would like to see Corporate Malaysia to have very high corporate governance standards. He wants companies to run with high transparency, and a lot of failure that we see in the past, was due to lack of corporate governmance, for instance fraud. Fraud could happen at all sort of level. It could be people stealing cash or selling fictitious products to fictitious people, and sometimes even public listed companies.

If one buys a share in a company, then suddenly we find that one month later, the company goes bankrupt, due to auditors said that the stocks or debtors in the companies would be worthless. Of course, people have paid money earlier, and one would lose money. If one knew that the company would go bankrupt, then one won't invest it. So, Bursa's attention is on companies disclosing it. If dishonest people discloses things, then chances are things might not be honest. So, Bursa has to detect those. Fact of life is that there would be dishonest people.

Directors of companies are meant to monitor the performances of the bosses in the companies. Bursa Malaysia did set up mandatory training for board members, but it was taken away after Directors were against it. So today, only first time board members of public listed companies go through a few days of training.

Today, public listed companies do list down the trainings that the directors went through.

Dato' Yusli ended with hoping that all the attendees would become investors, and also to make sure that one read the annual reports. As long as one buys reasonably low, then sells reasonably high, then it would be good.

Dato' Yusli felt that it is important to know the management of the companies. If one trusts the top management, then one can invest in the company.

Dato' Yusli always supports the countries of the captain of Arsenal. Last World Cup, he supported France, and this time, supported Spain.

Adrian Lim - Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk

Live blogging from the 23rd Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk by Adrian Lim, Managing Director of Sony Music.

He started his venture into music industry when he was 18 years old. So, he is now close to 20 years in the business, with his age at 37 years old.

He started in the retail business for 4 years, and then he went into Warner Music for 11 years, before at Sony Music for 5 years.

His business is always very much misunderstood, as people would have linked Warner Music with Warner Brothers, and Sony Music with Vaio etc.

Sony Music often worked from behind the scene, and the artists are always the one who got the limelight. People who got into music shop, end up looking for CDs of artists, and not the company that represented them.

Music is always around us, from karaoke, to even back then, when people copied songs from cassettes to cassettes.

Adrian used to buy cassettes from pasar malam, and then he had a catalogue, and when his friends wanted to do parties, he would produce cassettes for them. That was back in his schooling days.

Copyright act started in 1988. After that, copying songs was no longer legal.

Since then, Adrian wanted to respect the law, and then he started to buy original cassettes, and he also wanted to support the industry.

He started to work at pizza shop, where his first week, was washing plate, before he started to get permission to cut fruits. He didn't want to do this work for long.

One day, he went to Jaya supermarket, and he was hired to work at a cassette shop (Horizon) there on the spot. He only had lunch at 4pm that day, but that was his most satisfying lunch, as he found his calling in the music industry.

His pay then was RM1.50 per hour, and it was lower than RM1.80 per hour at the pizza shop. After some time, he was offered RM550 per month as a full time staff.

Adrian tried to apply for Warner, BMG and EMI, but ended up no response yet.

In retail, he learned how to talk to clients. As he was new, he was assigned to do classical music. No one else wanted to do those kind of music. After that, he was assigned to do jazz music.

Adrian's principle is that if one wants to go to the next level, one has to really do more stuff. So, he challenged himself to try out new stuff and gain more experience.

Adrian developed a great skill on how to recommend songs to get people to buy cassettes. So, soon he got promoted to be overall buyer. So, he would be able to look at customers, as they came in, and then he could recommend them to the right cassette, that they would like.

When Adrian's mother asked him what he was still doing, he would say selling cassettes, and she would felt that he was not developing himself, since he still sold cassette. However, his father, especially being a music lover, loved that Adrian is a buyer for music.

Then, he went on to develop himself in the Malay songs, and then eventually into Chinese songs. So, he could sell for all kinds of songs.

He was usually on leave on Monday, and on his off day, he would be doing research on what was the latest songs. He would be listening to musics, and then learned the top ranked hit songs, as well as asking his friends on what was the latest music. He wanted to make sure that he knew all the new songs.

He shared on his interesting example, where customers came in knowing only a little part of the artist's name or the song's name or album's name. Some customers would come in saying that they wanted tape, when asked whether they wanted cassette or CD. To them, tape was what they would want.

So, it took some experience to learn what the customers wanted.

Adrian learned how to attract crowd, for example type of songs that need to be played, to attract attention.

Adrian talked about people's mindset, where people perceived a certain industry is not as glamorous. But if one worked himself/herself up, then he/she would have a great future in it. If want to be successful in anything, never be afraid to do more and learn more. Then, one would learn to develop oneself.

As Adrian wanted to learn to do things more challenging, he went on to start doing retails in selling binding machine and laminator, and covered Shah Alam and Klang.

When he started doing his job, he was able to sell the laminator very well. And eventually, he got promoted to Petaling Jaya and Subang Jaya.

One day, his friend told him that Warner Music would like to hire a sales representative. During the interview, he was able to name the artists in Warner Music, and that impressed them a lot.

His second round interview was with Mark Lankester, and his third round was supposed to be with Tony Fernandes. However, Tony Fernandes told Mark that Adrian seems to be a very suitable guy, so don't need to do more interview, but just hire him.

So, he went into Warner Music. Started with radio and then eventually moved around to do promotion. Tony Fernandes was the one who promoted him back then.

Adrian went in to compile a good mix of songs, and then he did strategic marketing. He went on Regional Marketing Manager in Hong Kong for one year, and then he went on to be Senior Marketing Manager and then eventually be Marketing Director.

Adrian talked about loyalty, and also took about 45% pay cut to come back from Hong Kong to Malaysia. He talked also about when he moved from sales to promotion, he took pay cut, as he would no longer be getting commission.

Adrian's wife preferred that he stayed on in Hong Kong, but Adrian felt that his calling was back home.

Two and a half years later, he got a call from Sony BMG, when there was a merger. He eventually got the job as the Managing Director.

Adrian's advice is to be very influential in the field, and to have one's name to be always come up, when people talked about the industry.

During the interview, Adrian told the Regional President that he knew nothing, except music. Adrian was very open during the interview, and shared on how he saw the set-up of the company. The interviewer then was expecting a much more "senior" guy, so Adrian just had to be more serious and seen as a suitable candidate to be managing director.

So, he left Marketing Director from Warner Music to join Sony BMG as Managing Director.

Adrian's advice is not to save work, but always to finish up the work, and get it done immediately. One never knew what interesting work would come up the next day.

Adrian has always been asked on what is his secret of success. He felt that it is very important to really learn and know the stuff.

It is very important to "cross over", where one is able to be adaptable and learn new stuff, and cross sell things to different segment.

Adrian learned how to understand the market, and how to go beyond the core fans, so that there would be greater demand. For example, how to get those English-speaking Chinese to buy tracks for Lee Hom.

He shared on how he turned around the "Dr. Bombay" song, where he sold 120,000 CDs, when he hit the younger crowd and mass, with the wordings of "Kakuta", instead of "Calcutta".

It is very important to educate the market and create the awareness. He would learn what the public identify the artists/songs/albums, as they might not be really knowing the actual name of it.

So, if one can be master of it, then there would be a lot of potential.

Adrian shared that those who are very successful in YouTube, may not necessarily make it big in the actual album.

In terms of whether YouTube would be a competition to his business, he felt that it is not necessary. Sometimes, YouTube could help him to unearth talents, although not all would work when in actual audition.

Adrian also shared about the antics of some artists, like some want to have beer on stage, or want to meet the make-up artist at midnight etc.

Adrian shared on one of his experiences with Aaron Kwok, when he offered to order Coke for him, but he refused, even though the drink was to be delivered to his room in room service. He was the Pepsi promoter. He shared on how professional Aaron Kwok was, when he endorsed the brand.

Adrian shared once where the artist needed a recording of the football match, but somehow the recording didn't work out. So, the artist wanted to cancel the press conference and concert, but luckily Tony Fernandes managed to sort it out with the artist.

Adrian shared on the understanding that his wife had, as he had to go club hoppings to promote his music, and also sometimes, when he went for dinner with his wife, he would go out to his car to bring a CD, to get the restaurant changed the songs, if they didn't play the songs from him. That was his dedication to his job.

Adrian shared on the importance of organizing things and making sure that things are in control. Adrian also shared that it is important to be able to do what one's boss is doing, so that if the boss is promoted or headhunted, one is ready to take over the job.

Adrian shared that if one makes mistake, one has to admit the mistakes and take responsibility to it. Learn from it and improve from it. If one can really know everything about the industry, then it would be convincing to others.

Adrian shared that loyalty is very important, and also always made sure that he learns one thing a day. When he shared lessons learned with others, people would appreciate what he has gone through.

Adrian also shared that it is important to learn how to write good minutes.

Adrian shared that learning how to handle a team is very difficult. So, if one can learn how to handle people, then one can go very far. Human beings have so many character, so it is very important to learn how to handle people.

One has to be flexible to learn how to deal with different type of people. Might need different style to deal with younger people, or with older people. Learn how to manage upwards and downwards.

It would be important to really learn everything. Adrian used to read about every section in newspaper, to really equip himself with all sorts of knowledge. Adrian stressed a lot about reading. It could be reading from the internet. This would ensure that when people talk to him, he is able to talk comfortably to people.

One can't demand respect from others. One has to learn to earn the respect from people. Adrian wanted a good team, and be a team player.

When Adrian hired people, he stressed a lot into looking at their co-curricular activities.

Adrian highlighted that there are plenty of jobs in the music industry, so there are a lot of stuff one can work on.

Malaysians have a lot of talent, where we can learn to go far. In Malaysia, it is very unique, where we can relate to all sorts of music. We would buy Hindi, Middle Eastern music, Korean music etc. Malaysians can accept others' music easily, but our own music did face a lot of challenges to go out.

Malaysians are well exposed to all sorts of music, so in this music, people can go very far.

Today, there are more ways to monetize the music. In weddings, in radio etc, people do pay for the public performance royalty. If everyone starts to pay for music, then it would be growing a lot.

There is an enforcement team from MACP and PPM, who went around to collect public performance royalty and it is a non-profit agency, which would then distribute the collections to the companies, by using 60% air-time played and 40% market share.

Today, people are interested to see performers live, so Sony Music would work concert organizer to bring in performers, and cover the coverage from radio and other promotion.

For Sony Music globally, itunes is their number one revenue generator, much higher than even Walmarts.

Adrian shared that Sony Music needed to educate the people about paying a little more for music, and get Sony Music to get bundled into other products, like in Sony Ericsson or Blue-Rays. Sony Music would also work with other players, like Panasonic.

When being asked on his actual reason of leaving Warner Music, he shared that he wanted to challenge himself to go far. It was a tough decision. Adrian shared that when he went into Sony BMG, he didn't bring in new people, but retained the team, and respected others first.

So, at that time, Sony merged with BMG, and he was from Warner music, but he managed to get everything work well, by earning their respect.

Adrian shared that passion in the job is the most important thing, and one would go far in life with that.

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Above are the live blogging that I made from Nikko Hotel, where Adrian Lim shared. If anyone caught any typo or wrong information, do let me know. I will rectify it. Thanks for reading.

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22nd Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk - Jason Lo

Live blogging from Nikko Hotel for the 22nd Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk. Tonight we have Jason Lo, CEO of Tune Talk.

For the Facebook event, go to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=107038969337345

Jason was born in Kuching in 1975. He was a sheltered kids in Kuching, just like other Kuching kids. When Kuching had its first flyover, everyone jammed up to take a look at it.

Jason has always been on stage since young, and he really found the world when he studied together with Khairy in Singapore.

When he went to University of Hull to study, he made 3-hour trip every weekend to London. He always tried to get musical deals there, but it was tough. He was very used to get rejection.

Then, he tried to stay longer in UK, and he told his father that he is doing MBA there, as Malaysian Chinese people would want their kids to do courses like business.

Eventually he came back to Malaysia, he started to produce his album. He joined EMI at the start. Back then, it was tough to get songs to go on radio. He has always been begging around. Hitz gave him a break, when they initially put up his song at 4am, and after he begged for it, they played it at 6pm.

Jason always focused on his fan, and even went off stage to meet the fans.

His partner, Nik ran the business, whereas Jason produced the album.

Once, he spent $100,000 and the revenue was $4,800. That was not really working. And at one point, the debt was $200+K.

Jason had to read the book on how to editing, and throughout the process, he was humiliated many times, from people of Datin class to other people.

He would have to contact supplier last minute, to get the drum sets, as sometimes organizer didn't have the sets ready, and he had to tape the wires sometimes.

Jason started to get calls, from landlord and suppliers, especially to ask for money. So, time was tough.

Fat Boy was having a tough time, and the phone line was cut and the salary of the staff was not yet paid. Jason asked Zaid to go and convert his guitar which was signed by top star. The cost was RM5,000, and thought that he could sell for RM10K, but eventually it was RM900. Jason cried in the car, as he asked Zaid to go in again to convert the guitar. It was tough time, especially he took a lot of efforts to get the guitar autographed by top star.

With the RM900, Jason used RM200 to pay for phone bill, RM200 for electricity, RM300 for Zaid and RM200 for buffet in Subang. Jason said that when things get very tough, go to buffet. It would be worth it.

Jason that when he was CEO of Fat Boy, it was as tough as being CEO of a telco.

Then, Jason went to do Latte 8 at midnight, and the show ended at 1am, and by the time, he left was 2am and went to bed at 3am. Then, at 5am, he had to wake up for his show at Hitz.

Jason also talked about once he fell asleep in the studio, when Ralph Marshall brought some investors around.

Jason also talked about how he called up Khairy one day, and brought up idea of MyTeam. It was great seeing the kampung boys took their first flight to UK, and drew 0-0 against Manchester United Reserve Team. MyTeam also played against National Team and scored first, before losing 1-2.

Before Tony Fernandes started Air Asia, he did ask Jason on what he thought about airline business, and Jason thought back now that he should have jumped on it back then in 2000 to invest on it. Jason was also asked before Izham went into TV station.

When Tony Fernandes started, he asked Mark Lankester to join, but he refused, as he felt comfortable. But when Tony started his hotel, Mark jumped on it, to be CEO of TuneHotels.com .

Jason even went on knee in boardrooms to ask for support for local artists, but Malaysians often just supported foreigners, especially Westerners.

When Tony Fernandes asked Jason Lo to join telco, and Jason eventually invested a bit on it to have some stake. Jason relied on wikipedia to learn, and during his initial business meetings, he learned his way to learn the key terms.

Jason shared about how his dream of people, when they are in Singapore, they could call back to Malaysia on local call rates and on same number. After that, it would be expansion to Indonesia. It would ride on the Air Asia's network.

Jason talked about how Tony Fernandes warned him before hand that the dealers would hold him to ransom, but Jason thought that it won't happen. But it did happen. Jason said that Tony was always spot on things.

Jason was sharing on various tricks that telcos use to make money from the customers. Telcos are like commodities of this century. For Tune Talk, it was a flat rate of RM0.16 per minute (flat rate).

Jason talked about how his RM0.5 Million went down to drain, when the incumbents forced the dealers to take out their posters.

Jason said that he is now working on his 4th album, after putting his children and wife to bed. Jason advised that we should always do creative and innovative things everyday.

Jason shared that Star Trek really showed things way in advance. Example, back in 1950s, handphone was there already, and "iPad" type of notebooks were used there too.

Jason hoped that he would achieve the following before he died.

a) Made 20 albums

b) Played at Wembley

c) Went on top of BillBoard

He said that we should always work very hard to achieve our dream.

As of now, he is making his 4th albums. He had played to 35,000 people in Sungai Petani, hearing them singing his song.

Jason talked about how we could set up platform and went off the ground, and went up bit by bit.

Q&A

Jason loved wikipedia, and he felt that everything is there. He also felt that dare to fail is important and we could learn from mistakes. Entrepreneurs all dare to fail, and if you do that, then your learning curve would be steeper. When fail, learn from it.

Don't close yourself off when you are learning, and always go to talk to people, and learn from people. It is very important to learn from everyone. Even a beggar can make us learn from it. Make it a point for us to always learn.

Jason has a management style, which is full transparency. All the staff know everything that is happening, and all the team discussed together for everything, example the company's marketing plan.

Jason also talked about "Chinese whisper". He hated it very much, if people do it. Communications would get distorted, if people whispered.

Jason said that it is very important that people don't have temper. People should be having fun at work. He tried to be very approachable too.

Sometimes his staff would go to him and ask him to make decision, but Jason always wanted the team to discuss and decide. This would empower the staff, and no decision is made without the knowledge of everyone.

Sometimes, Jason might get voted out by his staff, when they all voted for a certain decision. Of course, sometimes wrong decision could be made, but that is unavoidable.

It is very important for Jason that when his staff left, they moved up. Sometimes, he would try to make it very clear to his staff who wanted to leave, if they are not moving to a more established roles elsewhere. He would do his best to convince them to stay back.

Tony Fernandes chose Jason Lo based on his strength and weakness, and he was not from telco background. Jason has also started a company before.

Jason said that a lot of things that happened today, he didn't plan for it. But when opportunities come, he seized it. Tony, Jason and Mark Lankester all came from music background.

It is very important to communicate with the staff, and have a laugh at things. Jason said that we should be more laughing at ourselves, and not be as touchy on things. It would break the ice and have more fun.

Jason shared his phone number and email address with the audience, and he said that as the bosses, one should be very approachable. One can't do great things, if one is not approachable.

Malaysia should be do a lot more, but often we are scared to fail, and we don't reach our potential.

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Live & Inspire Series - Datuk Vinod Sekhar

Live blogging at Starbucks, Bangsar Village II.

This is the 2nd session of the Season 2 of the Live & Inspire Series. For today's event, do check on this link. Today, the speaker is Datuk Vinod Sekhar on "Entrepreneurship: The Up, Down and All Around".

To follow Live & Inspire's twitter, go to here.

Datuk started by saying that if someone doesn't want to fail, then one shouldn't consider to be an entrepreneurship. Failure is a lesson that shouldn't be repeated. If want to fail again, then fail on something different. It is part of the "tuition fee". If failed on the same thing, then it is a wasted effort.ols

Datuk studied molecular biology, with minor in political science. Datuk's father was a civil servant, and he managed to get scholarships to further studies. The scholarships were sufficient to pay for tuition fee and living cost. His father just provided enough for his flight back. But Datuk wanted to have some fun.

So, he had to work on something during his studies.

In US universities, they sold all sorts of things, from mugs to key chains etc with huge university logo, but they didn't sell any T-Shirt with college crest on it. It cost him USD50 to make 10 samples. He went to many universities' bookstores, but most rejected. Eventually University of Pennsylvania agreed to purchase it.

Datuk Vinod didn't have money to make the few hundred T-Shirts that UPenn ordered. Eventually, he asked for 50% down payment, and managed to get the shirts done. Datuk Vinod shared the actual cost of making the T-Shirt was close to USD2 to USD3 then.

Eventually, the business grew quite huge, and he sold it for millions to Champion.

Datuk Vinod has also sold his innovation to 3Com as well.

Datuk Vinod shared about his disastrous mistakes, like he went into farming or car making. At one point, he thought that he could do anything, and didn't know enough about the field.

He shared that he was millionaire at age of 20, and then multi-millionaire at age of 24, and became a Datuk at age of 26. Unfortunately, he almost became bankrupt at age of 32, during the financial crisis.

During that time, he borrowed USD100 Million, which was equivalent to about RM250 Million. However, when the currency crashed, at one point, it became close to RM500 Million. Eventually, it stabilized to RM380 Million. And interest rate went up from 5.+% to 13.+%.

Datuk Vinod shared that when business failed, it would have hurt people, as people might have lost business or job, and those people might not have done anything wrong. It is impossible for any businessmen to say that they haven't hurt anyone or made someone's life miserable. It is impossible to go into business that one would do right all the time. One would have to make hard decision sometimes.

If one tries to be good guy all the times, one might end up lose everything. One has to look the situation and sometimes, one might have to make hard decision, including firing people. One can feel sorry about it, and perhaps mitigate it, but there is no way around it. If things go down, one has to do something drastic to save the business.

Early on, Datuk Vinod would fight on to keep everyone, but it just didn't work. And that would be reality of business. Datuk Vinod shared that he did spend money, but 60% of money that the company made, went to the foundation, to help 12,000 children one way or another.

If there is excess cash, Datuk Vinod would use it, either spend it on himself, invest, or donate it out. He doesn't believe in having the money in the account. Either it is used to make someone's lives better or improve the society, or make one's lives better.

Datuk Vinod said that lives is short, so we should enjoy it and experience everything. We would never have yesterday again, and last month is gone forever. We should think of everyday as it is all we are going to have.

Datuk Vinod shared on him playing with the children of down syndrome, and he found that his money went missing. He went home feeling angry. Then, he went back with his mother to the place, and they showed him the collage that they had made, and the kids told him that they ran out of coloured papers, and they borrowed some of his. And those coloured papers were Vinod's money. And hence, Datuk Vinod shared that those were just coloured papers.

Datuk Vinod shared on Zimbabwe's currency of 100 trillion and it is worth 5 cents in Malaysian Ringgit.

Datuk Vinod shared that there are enough money in the world to go around, but lots of people still went hungry and dying.

Datuk Vinod believed in capitalism, and he felt that everyone should live above the line, be it for education, health etc, but once beyond it, it is a free for all, where it is pure capitalism. If people don't have money, then as a capitalist, then one can't "take" it from others.

So, as capitalist, should always try to increase the number of middle class, so that more people can afford to purchase, and hence can take more money from them. Creation of wealth is crucial. Get the government to create the opportunity.

By giving, Datuk Vinod received a lot more than what he gave. By being rich, and he can afford big house, big car etc, he could afford to give out more. One does not have to be socialist to give to others. One can have everything, and then one could give away to others. Imagine if everyone is doing something, the amount created would be immeasurable.

If you want to be successful and rise to the top, then one should expect to be shot down, and one has to deal with it. There will always be people who would try to pull you down. So, we just have to accept it and move on.

Q&A

Q: What was your worst failure and how long does you take to overcome it?

A: Worst failure was to go into farming. Datuk Vinod invested more than $40 Million, and he had no experience on it, and he rode on it with an American partner, and eventually lost everything. Beyond it, 150 people lost their jobs. Datuk Vinod related that during financial crisis, the American ran off, and he had no experience in it, and he could do nothing. So perhaps, if Datuk Vinod could understand the business a bit more, he could have done something.

So, Datuk Vinod's advice would be to either learn up on it, or only invest in things that he understood. Only go forward, if he has confidence to run the business. Because of this downfall, it caused Datuk Vinod's other business to falter too, as his money was lost here, and he couldn't use it to sustain his other businesses.

Always understand what is one's weakness, and always surround with smart people. One does not have to always accept what is being told, but one has to be always alerted when there is issue. Make sure that people dare to tell you some observations, if they have, even though it is negative. Datuk Vinod used to think that he knew everything and he did not take advice, but he learned his lessons, and now he always surround himself with top brains.

Q: How does he balance his life?

A: His advice is that people should get a life. Datuk Vinod said that people are willing to stay back on Thursday evening to listen to him talking. It is inspiring especially to hear people's stories. He loved his work, and enjoyed his work.

Datuk Vinod said that some people accuse him of being arrogant, but he thought that he is quite humble. His family and friends have always kept him going. He enjoyed learning and sharing. That's what life is about.

A: No regret of selling the apparel company, as it gave him the capital. The offer price then was very good, and the shirt company would continue to make 100,000 shirts and gave the money to the foundation, besides him getting upfront payment. Sometimes people thought that he sold the optic engine early, but he felt the bigger company could bring it bigger.

When Datuk Vinod started AsiaConnect with RM200,000, and he sold within 9 months at USD15.8 Million, and it was just before the dot-com bust.

He felt that one should not regret making money, and once we sold it, we should not think back at it again.

Q: How did you deal with people who are shooting you down?

A: When people are shooting, they might never identify themselves to you. As you won't know who attacks you, you won't know how to defend. Many people felt jealous when others make it.

Datuk Vinod wrote a play in 1997, and there was bunting all over KL. And he was having a meet up at Bangsar, and when he was introduced as an actor now. The person across said that he knew Vinod Sekhar very well, and he had done business with him. He said that Vinod Sekhar would take advantage of him once he had the chance, and this person was telling it to Datuk Vinod without realizing that he is the guy.

Q: How about those overseas bad media?

A: Not much one can do, if people are shooting you. If those have no basis, then it is fine, as long as you do the right thing and performance would prove it. So, always focus on doing one's things, and keep on doing it right. Datuk Vinod said that as he is always very outspoken and speaks his mind, he would sometimes caused others to attack him. He could not tolerate idiots, and he would react to them.

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TeAM Talk by Mark Chang, CEO of JobStreet.com

Live blogging from PappaRich at Telawi area with Mark Chang, CEO of JobStreet.com sharing at Technopreneur Association of Malaysia (TeAM) talk.

Mark highlighted that his journey started back in 1995. Mark would like to thank Mr. Siva for starting this initiative back then, and during that time, there would be a small group of 10-12 people who would be gathering and learning from each other, especially on technopreneurship. And along the way, everyone learned and grew in this area.

Now, 11 years later, Mr. Siva is still running the group and Mark really respected his efforts in nurturing entrepreneurship among the young entrepreneurs. Mark hope that in 5-10 years later, some of the people in this audience would be back to share on their entrepreneurship stories.

Mark thanked Chok Kwee Bee from Walden International, who was the initial investor for JobStreet.com. Mark highlighted that if anyone has anything to learn on getting funding, can definitely learn from her.

Mark commented that in this internet age, people can utilize Facebook or Twitter to connect to each other and know each other.

Mark started by sharing on his background. He was working in Perlis back in 1990, and it was not long after Communist surrendered. Perlis is quite a rural place, and Mark wanted to learn more about people, so he went there. But it is a very quiet place, and by 8:30pm, Kangar is quite dark and not many places are opened. Perhaps only the shopping center was open. So, Mark spent a lot of his time either working or learning on his own. Then when internet started, Mark was dying to tap on the power of internet.

At that time, internet was just starting, and most people just started with emails, and then internet browser started to be used. There was an attempt back in around 1993, where they tried to install sound in browser.

During that time, there was a group of internet enthusiasts in Penang who would meet up once a week. Mark started using internet back in 1992-93, when it was the days of Yahoo! and Netscape.

As there wasn't much to do in Perlis, Mark often worked 16 hours a day, so technically he worked for 10 years, instead of the 5 years that he actually worked. Then, Mark got the blessing of his supervisor to leave and try his hands on starting an internet business. Mark asked whether he could come back and work in the company in the future, just in case his venture didn't work.

Back then, Yahoo! was the popular one, and Mark was trying to build a Yahoo! of Malaysia. Mark remembered that during his students' days abroad, to get the news from Malaysia, it would be from Malaysian Embassy and it was about 1 month late. So, Mark tried to summarize the news in Malaysia and updated in the website.

So, it got very popular with the students abroad. And later on, the newspaper started to have their websites, and wrote to Mark that he cannot lift news from them. Mark also put up musics, like those from P. Ramlee for Malaysians abroad to listen as well.

As it progressed, Mark asked on what else the students abroad would need. At that time, the students need to get jobs, and it was almost impossible for them to know about job opportunities back home, when they were abroad. So, Mark started to get jobs from newspaper and then posted it online. Soon, Mark realized that he cannot continue to lift the jobs from newspaper, so he started to approach the companies. The 1st company that he approached was Intel.

At that time, Intel also wanted to hire Malaysians before they came back home, in the semiconductor boom. Intel put up 5 advertisements then, and after a couple of weeks, Mark checked with them, and there were only a few applicants, and they didn't manage to hire. Mark thought that it would be the end of his venture, but Intel gave him more job advertisements and soon more and more multi-national companies in Penang put up ads through Mark. After all, it was much cheaper compared to newspaper and it was very hard to get talent.

It was a good start. Back in 1995, there was an election in Malaysia too and Mark felt that it would be good to provide the news to the students. Mark had a bandwidth of 9.6 kbps, whereas his modem was 2.4 kbps. Mark would announce the news of the election to the Malaysians abroad, with the help of 2 students. One of the students would go to business center next door and watched the TV and jotted the results and came back to update it.

One of the hottest seats was Lim Kit Siang vs Koh Tsu Koon, and everyone wanted to know the results. By midnight, the modem light kept on blinking and Mark could no longer key in more results, as there was too much load. So, he had to disconnect the line and then keyed in the results and then connected back the line.

Mark said that a lot of things would not be as planned. A lot of things would have to be trial and error. Mark said that a lot of successful entrepreneurs are not super smart, but it was just that they are working very hard and keeping on trying very hard. And it is very important not to give up.

And from there, JobStreet.com got more and more popular, and a lot of the users were computer science students, as it was mostly computer-related jobs. And soon, more and more university students started to use JobStreet.com . Initially, the ratio of male vs female was 95:5, and soon it became 55:45, and Mark was very happy to see the ratio balanced up, as JobStreet.com became more and more accepted by people and became a mass market product.

Gradually, JobStreet.com was spreaded to Kuala Lumpur and Johor etc, from its initial base of Penang.

Mark said that he was a technical person. He didn't know about some of the other stuff, like how to comply with the law, without the support and guidance of others. Mark talked about having to line up to pay the electric bill etc. If he didn't do any of the task, it won't be done. Back then, there was only a handful of staff. At that time, anyone with working experience would not join JobStreet.com . So, a lot of those who joined were fresh graduates, who might be inexperienced. So, Mark rallied the team to try and made it work. Mark shared about many things that he didn't know, for instance how to pay commission and had to discuss with his staff on that.

In1998-99, Malaysia went through economic downturn. There was a reporter from Far East Economic Review, who wanted to interview Mark. Mark shared his story and the employment market. When the article was published, it ended up becoming an article on JobStreet.com , and the reporter put JobStreet.com in a very good light. Mark started to receive calls from venture capitalists. At that time, Mark didn't even know what is Venture Capital. He even got contacted by VCs from Japan.

Soon, Mark took up VC money and advice from VC in Singapore - Walden International. Before that, Mark didn't have the ambition of JobStreet.com become a big company. It was more of an expectation of a lifestyle business, where Mark could go to coffee shop during office hour and drank coffee with his friends. Mark asked two of his classmates whether they wanted to be partner, by asking them to put RM15,000 each. So, from day 1, Mark only have 1/3 of the company, as each of them had 1/3 of the company. They helped Mark along the way with quite a bit of things.

VCs went through the plan and advised Mark on what to do. JobStreet.com got SGD3 Million in 1999 from Walden, and expanded very fast. During that time, Malek Ali joined JobStreet.com . When Mark started the company, it was called Malaysia Online, and after that, JobStreet.com was spun off, and Mark focused on JobStreet.com .

Mark shared that coming up company names would be difficult. Financial center is called Wall Street, so Mark would call job center as JobStreet. By the year of 2000, JobStreet.com has already raised some money and Mark, Malek and Kay Yip was invited to Hong Kong to present JobStreet.com story and Malek presented at a Merrill Lynch conference to some high net worth people. A gentlemen walked up to Mark and said he was interested in the company. That person was Vincent Tan. JobStreet.com at that time was fully invested, and Mark said that Malaysia Online could possibly be available. So, Vincent Tan and JobStreet.com talked on MOL back then.

McAfee back then talked to Mark on possibly getting MOL, as McAffe's name was tough to be spelt. Another potential buyer was Microsoft. Mark felt that it would be better to sell off to Vincent Tan, as it would be a Malaysian company. Mark talked to the CEO of MOL at that time too.

The CEO of MOL showed Mark the ideas of MOL, and Mark was asking himself why he didn't think of the ideas. So, Mark bought quite a bit of MOL share at RM7, and eventually it dropped off to RM0.70 . So, Mark pointed out that he did make mistakes along the way.

With the VC money, JobStreet.com gradually expanded.

Now, everyone sees Mark as the CEO of a Multi-National Company, but back then, he was a programmer, and the first person he hired was a salesperson. Then, Mark had to become sales manager, and it was tough. Then, Mark had to soon hire an external sales manager. So, it was a tough decision, as he felt that it would be tough to hire from internally, as they might not be ready to do the job as sales manager. Eventually, Mark brought in someone from outside as sales manager.

Mark then became program manager, and slowly moved one level by one level up the organization. Mark had to consistently read up books to learn the new job scope. Mark had no finance background, and he just had to learn from scratch. Back then, everything was done in cash, as Mark didn't know about accounting. So, that was a simple way to move forward back then.

Mark gradually learned to become CEO of a public listed company and then CEO of a multinational company. Mark back in 2000, actually went out to try and hire a new CEO, as part of the agreement with the VC. But eventually the CEO didn't join and Mark became the temporary CEO, and today, he is still the CEO. During that time, he agreed with VC that he would be the Executive Director.

Mark said that in a new business, it would be tough to come up with a business plan, as there was nothing to copy from. Mark said that in budget planning, expenses would usually happen, but revenue may not really happen. So, it was like a water tap, where water may not flow out, even when the tap is opened.

So, Mark and the team bootstrapped along the way. And with the SGD3 million that Walden provided JobStreet.com, he didn't know how to spend it, as he never handled that much money. Luckily, the money was not spent, and when dot com bust came, the money saved JobStreet.com .

In 2004, JobStreet.com got listed in MESDAQ and more and more companies wanted to advertise at JobStreet.com and more companies would like to be partner with JobStreet.com as well.

When JobStreet.com was listed in 2004, it was already 9 years that Mark had worked on it. During the ceremony of IPO listing, Mark really didn't felt anything special. At that time, the price of listing was 0.54, and it quickly went up beyond 1.00 . Mark reflected back that he always told his staff that they had to work very hard, as it was not good enough, but when it was accepted and valued by the public, it meant a lot to Mark, that JobStreet.com is good in the eyes of the public.

A lot of staff who had been around with Mark since back then, they had now become quite successful, for instance some have become entrepreneurs or mothers. Mark commented on some of those early staff, for example See Ming, who played a good part in making JobStreet.com successful.

Mark got the invitation from the son of Robert Murdoch, who was interested to invest in the company in the year of 2000. So, during Olympics Games in 2000, Mark was invited there with his wife, and they were given business class tickets to go over. Mark stayed at a hotel that everything was paid for, and he was provided with the box seat to watch any games in the Olympics Games. Mark didn't know that there would be separate entrance to the stadium, as well as box office, where food was served and they watched in the comfort.

Mark didn't know anyone there, so he just approached people, and when the people told him their names, Mark would ask them what they were doing. Some of them could be quite famous in Australia, but Mark didn't know of their background.

Mark said that there would be a lot of difficulties along the way. Mark said that he tried to explain to his mother and grandmother about his business, but they never understood. Once Mark's grandmother went to office, and she wanted to see the physical stock of the companies, and Mark didn't have anything to show (as it was internet business), and his grandmother thought that he was running a scam business!

Mark was lucky to have a lot of good partners, like Malek, Suresh, Albert and Greg. Mark focused outside Malaysia, and let them run the business. Mark was focusing on Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Seek (Australia). Mark moved himself to Singapore for private and business reasons. Being there, Mark can talk more easily to more business analysts.

Today, JobStreet.com owned about 10% in Recruit Holdings in Hong Kong, and in the last few years, Recruit made quite a bit of money printing airline magazines in China. And indirectly, Jobstreet.com owned 10% of those large printing plants. JobStreet.com also owned close to 20% of 104 Corporations in Taiwan, and at one point, 104 Corporations made more money in one country than the entire JobStreet.com . JobStreet.com also owned some stakes at Innity and AsiaTravel.com .AsiaTravel.com is one of the largest hotel booking websites in Hong Kong. Each day, they booked more than 2,000 rooms and they had good margin from booking the rooms.

Mark said that as JobStreet.com grows, it has become more of a utility company, and some companies even banned their staff from accessing JobStreet.com at office, as their staff may leave if they found jobs there. Mark asked those future entrepreneurs to not ban their staff from accessing JobStreet.com, as the staff would have ways to do that, if they want.

Mark shared on him meeting Thomas from Brazil, who was helming Catho. Mark talked to Thomas, and Thomas said that Mark could just write a USD40 Million cheque and he would sell the whole company to Mark, and he would work for Mark for 5 years to make sure that everything was fine. However, JobStreet.com did not have USD40 Million for it. Mark came back to Malaysia/Singapore to try and raise money, but was not successful.

And a couple of years later, Catho was sold for USD40 Million to Seek for 40% of the stake, and what Mark was offered earlier was 100%.

Mark also said that sometimes time may not be right for things to happen.

In the Q&A session, Mark was asked on what he would do differently for JobStreet.com . Mark said that hindsight is 20-20, so it is easy for us to look back and comment, but being in the midst of it, it would be tough.

Mark highlighted that in the early days, he didn't know much about the concept of market share. So, he tried to focus on bringing in revenues, whereas his main competitor tried to build market share by giving some of the advertisements free. And eventually, the main competitor built up quite a bit of market share.

Mark highlighted that he was competing with a competitor who had sold a company to Li Ka-Shing, which eventually became a huge conglomerate in Hong Kong.

However, Mark said that ignorance could be a blessing sometimes, as they would just keep on fighting hard against the competition, without really knowing that they were huge giants and ended up giving up.

On the issue of job seekers vs employers, Mark said that "job seeker is king". Mark believed that if job seekers' needs are taken care of, they would be using the portal to apply for jobs, and with that, it would served the needs of employers.

Mark talked about quite a number of companies thought that online job board would be a good business to go in, and many had tried to start a job site. However, many of them failed. Mark said that it is a tough business, and if he was to start again, he won't do another job site.

Mark highlighted that he has about 60 programmers now building tools to serve the employers and job seekers. For instance, there is interview scheduler, which helped companies to arrange for interviews, and job seekers would be reminded of the interview and they can respond to it, informing employers about their attending of the interview. In terms of codes, there are millions of lines too.

So, to start from scratch, it would be tough. Moreover, currently, JobStreet.com has close to 1.5 Million job seekrs in Malaysia. For companies, if they were to consider spending a couple of hundred Ringgit more advertising at JobStreet.com versus lesser known job sites which is slightly cheaper, they would rather spend the money advertising at JobStreet.com, to get more quality candidates, as if they did not, their competitors may get to hire the better talent, and eventually, it would cost them a lot more.

When asked about the % that JobStreet.com gave to the Venture Capitalist which invested in the company, he said that it was around 20%-30% for SGD 3 Million.

Mark said that while he would love to be angel investors, sometimes, he is not prepared to invest in a business, where it might take another 10-15 years to succeed. He might not be ready to put in money and then shared the sufferings through many years. Mark also wanted the companies that he invest in, to have open minds, so that advice and opinion can be heard constructively. The chemistry between the investor and the entrepreneur needs to be there too.

Mark asked those who had business plans to share with Dr. Siva, Malek or Kwee Bee, and if they thought that it is good, they could help to contact Mark.

Mark also shared on his experience of visiting Silicon Valley back in 2000. His friend brought him to visit 2 brothers in the warehouse, where they were selling old games software. His friend was investing in it, and he asked whether Mark wanted to invest. Mark felt that the business was interesting, so he invested for some money. Since then, he occasionally kept in touch with them, and they assured Mark that the business is fine. Soon, dot com bust happens, and Mark thought that the business might get affected as well. So, Mark didn't follow up with them.

Then in 2007, they wrote to Mark to ask Mark to sign for them to sell the company for USD100 Million. It was the best investment that Mark had made. They were the one that created Guitar Hero, which was a top selling item in Christmas. A public listed company bought it over. Mark said that the two brothers worked very hard, and made it work.

Malek Ali, who was with Mark in the early days of JobStreet.com, shared that Mark is also an investor in BFM 89.9. Malek is the founder and CEO of BFM 89.9 . Malek shared that sometimes path might diverged, but eventually it might meet again. Malek shared that when he started BFM, he looked for his ex-colleagues in JobStreet.com to be his investor, and 3 of the JobStreet.com founders/top management invested in BFM. Kwee Bee played an instrumental role too. So, Malek advised on building network and friendship, and one can tap into trusted people.

Malek shared that BFM was for a different agenda and it often promoted for social cause, eg it promoted Jimmy's games.

Mark said that Malek's passion of radio was there, even in his JobStreet.com days.

Mark said that without the money from VC, JobStreet.com would not have money and know-how to expand abroad. He mentioned that things like how to sign lease in India was something different and one had to learn to do it. India is a different world.

Mark shared that he had always wanted to be here with TeAM members, but sometimes time was tough to be arranged.

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Above was live blogging during Mark's talk. I strived to capture as correct as possible based on what I could type when Mark spoke. If there is any typo or misinformation, do kindly let me know.

To know more about JobStreet.com, do go to here .

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Chen Chow's Other Posts
Subscribe to Chen Chow's blog

Encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I will be more than happy to post it to share

Feel free to quote any post within my blog, as long as you link it back here. Sharing is always a good virtue. :)

TEDxKL

If you want to be inspired and be part of this TEDx initiative, check out TEDxKL. Thanks to Daniel Cerventus for sharing on this.

Among the speakers include Steve McCoy, Peter Nicoll, Surech Kuppusamy, Afzal Hashim, Urmilah Dass, Raj Ridwan Singh, Yvonne Foong, Ezrena Marwan, Aloha Lavina, Premesh Chandran and Pete Teo.

Do check the link below for any updates. The list of speakers are correct as of the moment this post is made.

http://www.tedxkl.com/schedule/

The Young Corporate Malaysians 21st CEO Series of Talk

The Young Corporate Malaysians 21st CEO Series of Talk, by Wing K. Lee, CEO of YTL
Communications at Nikko Hotel.

Live blogging from the venue.

Wing borned and raised in Hong Kong. Grew up alone with mother. Mother was small print shop owner, and she went to see clients and Wing would go together. In 1980s, the clients would have a computer, and it is more of showing off.

Back then, his mother bought an Apple for Wing, and what Wing did was playing games. And after approached by his mother, Wing then started to use computer for actual learning. That was in Form 4 in Hong Kong.

In Form 6 in Hong Kong, his mother asked what he wanted to study, and Wing said photography, and just like any Chinese mum, his mother said that he had to pay on his own. So, eventually he went on 2nd choice of Computer Science.

Wing chose the colleges in US, which offer computer science curriculum. University of Texas, Austin was one of the top programs. He applied for University of California, Berkeley, Brown, University of Minnesota and University of Washington, besides Texas, Austin. He got acceptance to all 5 of the universities. Brown, Minnesota and Washington are not his choice due to weather. Then, he was left with 2 options.

Choosing between Texas and Berkeley, and he heard that big earthquake would happen in San Francisco, so he dropped Berkeley and chose Texas, Austin. That was such his frank sharing on how he actually chose his universities.

Back then, his first job was janitor. And today, Wing really respected the janitors. He learned hard and always reminded himself to be humble and learn the value of money. Later on, he was promoted to lab assistant job, and then took up teaching assistant job.

He worked very hard, and carried 18 to 20 credit hours per semester. Nevertheless, the tough time was also the memorable time.

He graduated in 1989. When one goes for US visa interview and the question of whether you would stay in US is being asked, the answer is always no, or else you won't get your visa. And Wing back then did truthfully answered no, when he was asked back in 1986.

In June 1989, when Wing was hiking in Canadian Rocky mountains, and on 4th June 1989, Tiananmen Square incident happened, and Wing's mother asked him to find ways to stay in US.

Wing's mother lost her father due to communist and Wing's mother had to be refugee in Hong Kong. So, she advised Wing to stay in US, so that he could have better life and eventually, Wing decided to stay in US.

Wing then picked up his 2nd degree in Business Management, and when he is done, it was recession in US. Fortunately, Wing managed to get 20+ interviews and he was given 4 offers. He chose 1, JC Penney, which is the largest retailer in US.

One of the offers is Tandem Computers, another is Mobil Oil and Halliburton. Halliburton asked Wing to build a Computer-based training. Mobil Oil asked to help on building system. Tandem Computers was mainly used in financial institution and Wing was asked to help in operating system.

In 1989, US has this new "strip malls", where it is row of shops along a mall, and it grabbed market share from bigger players. For retailers, having scale is one thing, but fast reaction is important. Thought that he can helped a company to restructure, so Wing joined JC Penney as management trainee.

Back then, he has to learn a new programming language - COBOL, and he realized that university education teaches him to be adaptive and able to learn something fast. He was able to help JC Penney to launch JCL within 20 months of joining. A lesson learned from here is that a company always needs to learn to reinvent itself.

If you deliver on business promise, people will reward you, but people may not continue to reward you all the time. So, you have to reinvent.

2 years later, Wing approached the HR of the company to apply for Green Card. But they can't, as they have to advertise in 1,500 outlets, and to show that no American is qualified. So, Wing had to look elsewhere, although his supervisors there were very supportive of Wing. Wing has delivered a lot of value to his computer, so they valued his contribution.

Wing spent 15 years at Sprint. He chose to get into Sprint, as it was looking to reinvent itself. Sprint was the first to launch the fiber optic network. Wing was tapped for his skill in distributed network and messaging system. This time, he got them to put in offer letter to help him to get green card.

Back then, when Sprint got problem, they would called Accenture (management consulting company). So, when Wing joined Sprint, 80 people in the office were from Andersen Consulting. So, Wing was asked to report to Accenture guy too, and back then, there was an Andersen Consulting partner in the board of directors too.

A good architect is someone who knows the whole landscape. Back then, there was a lot of hierarchy too in Sprint. Wing lives the notion of life of always ask "What can I do". Wing has a list of task list, and he gets it done quickly and at high quality, and then he offers help to others. People would reciprocate, and help him too. So, whenever Wing puts his name on anything, it has better be very good. So, he would always make sure that it is the best thing that he can deliver.

Started out as Software Engineer 2, and within 2 years, he became Manager of the team. Wing became Director of Sprint at age of 29, and was the youngest director there.

Wing has 9 patents, and they were filed in late 1990s and early 2000s, and he still had 20+ in the pipeline. The entire process of getting patents would take about 5 years in US. Patent system is also quite abused, where a lot of people file it, just to provide defensive or offensive mechanism. So, there is something wrong about it. Wing only filed a patent, when he managed to solve a real problem.

Wing used to spend a lot of money to call home, during his time at University of Texas, Austin. So, when he got the chance to move to Sprint's headquarter, he took the opportunity, as he was charged to work on wireless network.

In 2001, high speed internet means 80 kilo bit per second, so back then, to stream the picture, is still very slow. And it cost USD2 billion worth of investment, and the picture is still look pixelized. Wireless network can never compete with wired line, purely on speed, so have to fight on other competitive landscape. That was a turning point.

Back then, he made pilgrimage trip to Japan, as it was still the technology hub. In Japan, people started take photo and made it into wallpaper. So, Wing found an area to look into using wireless network to move picture.

Wing they all went to the guy who wrote Turbo C++ and Turbo Pascal, Philippe Kahn. Philippe has sold off Borland, and became millionaire. And he had a baby. Philippe has built a prototype of transferring photo, and Sprint wanted to commercialize it. So, the value that wireless can provide is that one can take a photo and then send across the network within seconds. Picture Mail product charged USD5 per month and need data plan which cost USD10 per month. It was the biggest phenomenal success of the company.

So, the breakthrough paradigm is to cross-link two different fields and bring value. Software brings life to things. The company was growing very fast then, and the fastest growth in wireless history.

Sprint was the first one to launch J2ME game in mobile device. Mobile video was launched too.

Through these exercises, Wing was asked to head the innovation team. So, he went from infrastructure, and then architecture and then innovation. This was the first 3 of the 5 jobs in Sprint.

Wing led the innovation team of Sprint for 5 years, and it was very satisfactory.

Sprint looked at various technologies post 3G. And that's how Sprint launched his career into Wimax. Next generation CDMA upgrade definitely makes sense, but Sprint made the bold decision of not upgrading to CDMA. The royalty of CDMA is quite high, and Sprint's goal is to democratize internet. What got them excited about Wimax is the ecosystem, and it is the IEEE technology. When a technology is an IEEE technology, it can scale easily. That's how people can do plug and play, and cost will go down and people will pick up.

Sprint then merged with Nextel, and a big mistake is that they didn't take good care of the customers of the acquired entity. Sprint lost their mindshare, and they started to churn, and then people started to cut cost.

So, Wimax operation has to be scaled back due to operations issue. Wing was leading the product development team of Wimax. Sprint has to spinoff Wimax business and merged with Clearwire, and then go into clearwire company.

Andy Rubin started Android, and he loved robotics, so he created Android, using his name and his love of robotics for the company name. He went into Google to ask them to invest in his company, and Eric Schmidt heard the pitch and offered to buy at a cost of about USD80 Million.

Andy Rubin had the blank check from Google, and he invested hundreds of millions to buy the best applications. Wing was doing the due diligence on Android and brings Sprint on board.

On why WiMAX was chosen as the platform to deliver Malaysia's mobile network, Wing highlighted that it is the only technology that can deliver it at the right cost. LTE is not yet a matured technology and yet the royalty is very high, and hence, it might be difficult to deliver in the right price.

Wing was instrumental in delivering the 1st 4G network on Android at Clearwire.

In Summer 2008, the government of China created Thousand Talents program, where it tried to attract top talents to ensure that China's state-owned enterprise, universities, research laboratories and space programs can be world class and compete globally.

Wing was then headhunted to lead the Innovation Team at China Mobile, which has 500 Million subscribers (even more than total US population), and Wing has this opportunity to change the experience of 500 Million people.

Then, he got a call from YTL Director, and he came to visit Malaysia. He found it very interesting, where the country has very poor connectivity, and yet YTL is a company with strong resources and determination.

Wing had a hard time deciding on whether to go to China or Malaysia, and the book "Clock Speed" influenced him. In that book, it talked about how fast things are changing, and Wing believed that being at YTLe would enable him to bring fast transformation to large group of people and improve people lives faster.

In Malaysia, only 25% of people are connected to internet, yet the average age is 26. The people here know the power of internet, but can't really enjoy the connection experience. So, Wing sees this opportunity to make impact at national scale immediately, and improving people's lives.

For Clearwire, it won't be able to launch nationwide in less than 2 years in US and to launch for whole of US would cost more than USD5 billion, but Wing can do that in Malaysia in shorter time and also at a cost of USD850 Million. Wing lamented on the very slow uploading speed of 60 kbps that many people experience here in Malaysia.

The WiMAX experience is not just to connect people with internet, but to enable people to have applications that satisfy their social needs.

For this WiMAX, YTLe is working with 3 world top player in it. For IP Backbone, it is working with Cisco. For wireless network, it is working with Samsung. For WiMAX chipset, it is with GCT, and YTLe just made a commitment order of 1 million devices and it is the largest acquisition in the world, and with this economy of scale, it would drive down the prices.

On expansion to other countries, Wing planned to do it very well at its homeground in Malaysia, before looking to expand it elsewhere. Talking about internet, it is really about getting developers to make it happen. With internet, it is equal opportunity for everyone, and to really make it possible, especially with mobile internet.

Wing also introduced mYprize, which offers USD1 Million as prizes for incentives of 4G applications, devices or ideas. It offers USD120,000 prize money for Malaysians anywhere in the world too. So, hopefully, this can tap on the talents of Malaysians globally, as well as other talents to get involved.

The soft launch of YTLe WiMAX would be in Q3 2010, and nationwide commercial launch would be in Q4 2010.

Wing promised that YTLe WiMAX would be a new experience and customers would reciprocate with the support. While Wing did not disclose the pricing or package of WiMAX, he promised that there would be surplus value for the users. He talked about the 20 Mbps network that he had in US, and hopefully soon, Malaysians can enjoy similar or even better network.

Wing shared on Clayton's book of "Innovators' Dilemma" and "Innovators' Solution", and he said that it is good that YTLe is brand new, so there won't be legacy issue behind. With legacy, there might be inertia to move. And to make it work, it needs disruptive innovation. He cited Intel Centrino as a way for Intel to reinvent itself. It created a lower cost low-end product, that undercut itself, but it allows Intel to grow market share.

One of the issues of 3G was that the network was used to cater for voice and data, but for 4G, it would be packet based and used to carry data.

While AT&T enjoyed a great exclusive partnership with iPhone, the huge amount of data that iPhone used took a toll on AT&T network, which affected the call quality.

Wing shared a few tips with the audience, where he talked about working very hard and always producing the best. He talked about having mentors and also reading a lot. One good resources would be iTunes applications, where a lot of top universities resources are available. He talked about ability to have platform to bring idea to the world, and among the largest developers' network are Microsoft, Java and Adobe Flash.

He ended with 4 key components to innovation, which is having original idea, building and applying idea, being financed by someone and have a platform to distribute.

It was a great 140 minutes of talk non-stop by Wing. Really engaging and it attracted the largest crowd of Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk, with more than 150 people turned up, and it was reduced to standing room only.

After the talk, a large group of attendees surrounded Wing, and he attended the questions till well past 11pm, and at that time, he hasn't even had dinner. That speaks volume of his dedication and passion to share with the youth!

On behalf of Young Corporate Malaysians, great thanks to Wing for sharing with us, and to all those who attended, hope that you manage to learn from Wing.

For future Young Corporate Malaysians events, do check out Young Corporate Malaysians .







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Encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I will be more than happy to post it to share

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Youth Engagement Summit 2009 - Part 2

This is the 2nd part of the Youth Engagement Summit 2009 sharing.

Biz Stone - co-Founder of Twitter
a) Twitter is a 10 years in the making, and not something that happened over night.
b) It is meant to be an agent of change and solve problems. Would look at Twitter as a social innovation/social responsibility.
c) Happy mistakes are the best kind. Twitter is a happy mistake.
d) Opportunities can be manufactured. Don't wait for opportunities. Initiate it. Create the opportunities.
e) Creativity is a renewable source. Biz is a artist first, and then only techie. He started with graphic design, before moved to web design (when he started Xanga).
f) Entrepreneurship means becoming mortal. In order to have dramatic success, need to have dramatic failure. Learn it the hard way.
g) Social alchemy is taking place. From blogging to social networking and now twittering. Started blogging on catcha and write about blogging itself, and was invited to write a book.
h) From a simple tweet "I am having a cup of coffee at Logan airport." People meet up and start a conversation and meet up with new people.
i) The open exchange of information has a positive global impact. For Twitter, all the info are public info and anyone can search, and it makes people more informed and more engaged. Hence, positive global impact.
j) Really love and use the tool that you build. Build it for ownself, and you will find it useful. Build a prototype over weekend and try it out.
k) Some says that Twitter is fun but it is not useful. In essence, build something that fun and thrilling and then would only think about business aspect.
l) Is Twitter just a rudimentary social networking or something more? In Texas, food operators tweet about the location they would be at, and can move large group of people around.
m) Tiny bits of information can have a profound impact. People help one another for instance during earthquake, when quick update on Twitter helps.
n) Twitter is about the triumph of humanity and not the triumph of technology. Twitter is what people do with the service, and not what it is meant to do.
o) A rich and diverse ecosystem has emerged. Twitter provides open source for its API. Allow people to create applications. Many companies are created to build applications or Twitter-related products.
p) The potential for impact increases with a focus on mobile. Hence, Twitter is created with 140 characters (as the total limit for mobile is 160 characters). There are 1.5 billion web users, but 4 billion mobile users. Twitter offer SMS access to users in many places, with no additional cost.
q) Giving back is in Twitter DNA. TweetOut was organized in 200 cities in the world, to raise quarter million on a Thursday evening.
r) There is special pinot noir for Twitter, and the profits are used to help to build library.
s) Indirectly, Twitter helps in literacy. If you can't read, you can't tweet.
t) Twitter allow companies to spend as much money as they want, as long as they get more back.
u) To start-ups, bootstrap first and show early sign of growth.

More to come soon. Stay tuned.

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Encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I will be more than happy to post it to share

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Youth Engagement Summit 2009 - Part 1

Congratulations to Khailee and team for successfully organized Youth Engagement Summit 2009 (YES 2009) at Putrajaya International Convention Center on 16th and 17th November 2009.

A few things that really stand out in the Youth Engagement Summit:-
a) The quality of the speakers
b) The spirit of the youth across South East Asia
c) The volunteers (especially those youth)

I was lucky to be able to be there to listen to those speakers and also to meet up with 20 of our JobStreet.com job seekers, who came from Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand through the partnership with SEAChange. JobStreet.com is the Official Job Board of SEAChange and official partner of YES2009.

This post is going to be long and I will share a few points that I learn from each of the speaker.

--> Lorraine Hahn (Host)
a) Youth are now effecting and embracing the changes around. They are daring to spark a change, and many youths are already a leader today.

--> Datuk Johan Jaafar (Advisor of YES2009)
a) If youth do not speak up, the voices would never be heard and get lost in the noises.
b) There are 200 Million youths in the South East Asia region, and it is time to empower the youth. Share views or ideas around.

--> Harmandar Singh (Organizing Chairman)
a) This event is organized due to inspired by change. Hope to create new generation of leaders. If we try, we may succeed, and hence embark on this summit.
b) It is great to see 600,000 youth from South East Asia step forward and get heard.
c) This was planned 4 months ago, with the dream of getting Barack Obama to be here to address the audience. Met up with US State Department for 3 times.
d) Lets not give up on hope. Provide hope to shine and hopefully it would sparkle and the youth would be fearless leaders.
e) Get together to create miracles beyond the mission.
f) Have fun, share your experience/knowledge and learn. Hopefully the youth would go home a little wiser.
g) The duty of the organizer is not to fail the hope of the youth.

--> Khailee (Youth Asia and SEAChange)
a) Total world population - 6.7 Billion. Of which, 200 Million live in South East Asia, age between 15 and 35 and ready to bring the change in their career, education, family etc. Hence, there is this movement South East Asia Youth For Change (SEAChange).
b) The Vietnamese saw war destroyed their nation, yet the youths meet up to speak in English and this network of meet-ups spread across the nation and it is small step to make Vietnamese more accessible to the world. (Note: Speaking English Meet-ups (Malaysia) Facebook Page was just created to encourage Malaysians to practice English Language.)
c) The Indonesian youths bring together to protect the rights of the children and have their voice heard by the government. They advice and help the government to understand more about the younger generation of Indonesians.
d) The Malaysian youths get together and make a difference.
e) In total, 105,552 stories were told from various groups in South East Asia.
f) For the youth, when we don't know something, we google; when we want to spread the news around, we tweet; when we want to connect with others, we facebook. The power is now in the hands of the youth.
g) The world has passed judgment on the youth, saying that the youth are apathetic. Employers have no faith on the youth. Many businesses pay millions to buy artificial relationship with the youth.
h) SEAChange has brought together 120 organizations to make the change for South East Asia youths. Millions of words and thousands of videos were shared. It is a network of believers.
i) SEAChange Facebook group has more than 41,000 youths.
j) We have come too far to not go all the way. We should groom the talents and champion the needs of the youth. Youth should start to believe in ourselves and there is no excuse for us to go all the way. We have come too far to not go all the way.

This is the part 1 of my blogging on Youth Engagement Summit. More to come on the sharings by all the speakers.

Hopefully that this would be able to enable those of you who were not able to be there to learn a bit about what happened there.

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Encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I will be more than happy to post it to share

Feel free to quote any post within my blog, as long as you link it back here. Sharing is always a good virtue. :)