Business in Malaysia especially
starts with a piece of paper. It can be a Form A for SSM for registration of an
enterprise or Borang 9 certification of incorporation of companies.
Then you start your business
proper. Adhering to the local statutory and regulatory requirements of your
nature of business. Doing what is necessary to see things being realized and
objectively carried out.
Planning comes naturally – you plan
daily and periodically. Business, marketing and financial plans are often what
were used to be submitted for Grants or Loans.
Almost every business owner is a
salesperson. Armed with a name-card with a telephone number and emails, the
doers will plod the streets, into trade fairs, meetings with potential
customers and gathering of friends. Then phone calls started to come in,
customers started to place orders and then you have the business.
Ever so often business owners
will tweak and turn but always with the same principle of beliefs in their
system of business that it will work. There’s Vision and there’s the reality.
We call this the Vision gap. Here is where you are and there’s where you had
wanted to be.
As business expands, more and
more people trust your business, it then boomed and at times gone bust when the
risk factors were not well-identified. But your knowledge and experience on
business keeps on expanding. Never leaving you far and at the flick of your
thumb, you know what must be done. Hence, there’s always some form of Rule of
Thumb especially for the professional business owners.
As we ourselves build documents, processes
and systems from scratch and at time restructure them, submissions to
government, tenders and presentation, we are mindful of the historical values
of these organizations and the attachments of the owners who had built the business
with sweat and blood.
But to grow, existing companies
must shed their former skins like dragonflies do.
They cannot continue to rely just on
their Grade A builder status, the tons of certifications obtained and in some
cases, the Bumiputera status to propel their existence; outward and onwards.
These companies must evolve based
on existing needs, market demands and today’s competitors. Business owners should
no longer operate the same, doing the same thing and making the same mistakes,
over and over again despite the assurance of their systems in place.
Imagine 20 years from today, you the
business owner is still handling that one piece of paper, for which it should
have long left your table and someone else is looking into it. Then this shall
not be a business but a process requiring urgent think-over. As for me, my
passion happens to be admiring a piece of paper.
Erasmus KL Koay
