I confess.
I’m probably the worst person you would want to run a business. When my first finance manager came in, she was shocked to see 9 accounts, for a business that was not even turning over that much money.
It was all part of my effort to optimize every cash flow and maximize interest rates. I’ve since learned from my folly.
But a lot of my business and life experience has also come through hearing some of the sharpest minds in business today – the CEOs and Board Directors at the Annual General Meetings of listed companies.
Here’s some of the best I’ve heard over the past few years.
Sheng Siong CEO: The value of hard work, and disciplined growth
Sheng Siong’s CEO Lim Hock Chee might be one of the funniest CEOs you ever meet. This year, when he was asked about his strategy on growth, he assured shareholders,
我以前做，能做到哪里睡到哪里。 (In the past, I could work till I slept wherever I worked).
It’s no small feat for how Lim started – selling pork.
He also alluded to how many younger entrepreneurs today seem to expand stores quickly. He shared in Chinese,
in my first 10 years, I only opened 3 stores.
3 stores in 10 years sounds small, but it’s evidence of disciplined growth from a grocer that’s gone from strength to strength.
Often, we look at the upper end of growth, or how fast a company can grow. In our personal life, this also applies.
We want to be the biggest and the best, in the fastest time possible, but we forget the value of consistent, lock-step growth.
For example, in your career, you might want to become the CEO or a senior leader. Life at the bottom end of the ladder seems small and insignificant. And some people do end up chasing life on the fast track, by starting their own businesses, trying to get venture capital, and then attempting to accelerate their growth.
All that sounds sexy, but it distracts from the power of consistently growing your business.
The probability of getting rich quickly is low, but getting rich slowly?
That’s much higher.
Sheng Siong shows the value of not just pursuing the upper end of growth but also putting a floor on growth, so they do not grow too quickly. In an era where fast growth is prized, Sheng Siong shows the value of not just chasing a growth ceiling, where they maximize their growth in the shortest time possible, but setting a growth floor, where they focus on getting quality growth.
PropNex CEO: We can coexist
This year, I asked Ismail Gafoor, the CEO of PropNex, how he would deal with the $1999 salespeople. These are property agents who charge a flat fee for selling your flat, rather than the usual 1 to 2% that people pay to agents.
It’s undercutting the market, and leaving PropNex agents with more competition.
His answer?
We can coexist.
It was a remarkable show of grace from the market leader, and it taught me personally about the value of grace.
Do life long enough, and you would quickly find that there are people who cut you. Give an inch, and they take a mile.
What do you do?
Tit for tat is easy. Go on the offensive against them, damage their reputation, and you would quickly find yourself wearing down over time.
The other way is to show grace.
Recognize that the market is big enough to accommodate more competitors, play according to the rules, and simply focus on upping your game.
It’s what PropNex has done with things like their property tech, their roadshows, and their consumer empowerment seminars… and even a Monopoly game.
Don’t just fight harder on the wrong things. Make a bigger pie so more benefit.
DBS CEO: Intra-regional, and not just inter-regional growth
This year, at the final DBS AGM of outgoing CEO Piyush Gupta, it almost felt like a memorial. There was a thank you letter from Temasek, polite applause, and many more congratulatory notes as shareholders came up to ask questions.
But as I heard new CEO Tan Su Shan’s presentation on her strategy, I was curious about how DBS would look at the other countries within ASEAN. Notably, she talked about the high ROE businesses in wealth management, treasury sales, and global transaction services (like DBS Remit).
What’s unsaid is that consumer banking, doesn’t seem to be very ‘high ROE’. Of course, if you think about the bulk of most consumers who might use the occasional credit card, credit their salary, and buy the occasional Regular Savings Plan from DBS, there doesn’t seem to be much profit to be made there.
Which was why I asked them what they thought about their regions of focus in Asia, especially since the purchasing power of a developing market like India or Indonesia does seem much smaller compared to a developed country like Hong Kong.
Gupta shared about how some tended to look at trade as inter-region – like US to Asia. But what some forget is that there’s also money to be made intra-region, such as within North and Southeast Asia.
Like trade flows between China to Singapore.
Which brings us to UOB CEO’s point on how to make money in China.
UOB CEO: “We want to profit from China, but not in China”
One shareholder was concerned about their China exposure. It’s a common topic, especially with the macro news around China’s slowdown. But what’s interesting was how CEO Wee Ee Cheong responded.
They want to make money from China, but not in China. He spoke about how there simply wasn’t the scale one could afford to build in China, to profitably make a lot of money from it.
But he neatly pointed out that they were profiting from China’s rise from doing business with offices outside of China.
Again, this is smart advice for a globalized world.
Open the headlines, and you quickly read about how places like Vietnam may be the next hottest place to do business.
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype, and lose focus on your core markets.
Of course, if you’re an individual, and you see a market rising, then the clearest indication often is, how do you make money from that money, even though you’re not in the market?
Here’s an example.
For us as an agency, we have built out a remote team primarily with Indonesians based in Jakarta and Bogor.
We never visited the place before hiring.
But we lucked out because we were able to get good referrals to Indonesian staff.
These Indonesians have thought me a lot about how to do business, from how to treat people nicely, to having difficult conversations.
So don’t always just think about being a direct recipient of growing trends. Think about where you can grow together, without getting yourself cut out.
The Hour Glass CEO: “I want to ensure the long-term survivability of The Hour Glass”.
My favorite AGM to attend each year is still The Hour Glass.
Beyond the fancy watches, CEO Michael Tay is a masterclass on business philosophy.
Just listen to this.
In 2023, they had hit record high revenues, surpassing the $1 billion for the first time in history. Yet at that AGM, Tay said,
“I want to ensure the long-term survivability of The Hour Glass”.
His focus wasn’t on growth.
It was simply on not dying.
His bet was later proved right, with 2024’s interest rate rise marking a phenomenal downturn in the luxury goods market, and an accompanying drop in their profitability.
Often, when we are doing well, we tend to focus on the upside, rather than capping the downside.
Warren Buffett’s 2 rules for investing come to mind.
- Never lose money.
- Never forget Rule No. 1.
We focus so much on making money, that we forget how to stop losing money.
So maybe in our own investing journey, it’s vital to remember that sometimes wins don’t matter.
Capping our losses matter too.
And learning not to be greedy, and chasing the lockstep, boring, 8% growth per year, may sometimes work out more than the lumpy see-saws of investing in the next hot thing.