Overview

Entrepreneur is defined as an individual who operates and organizes a business by taking on higher financial risks than normal. As an entrepreneur, the individual should be innovative and creative as he or she is going to create some value-added products or services to the citizens. The most important criteria that an entrepreneur should fulfil are he or she must have a will to bear on the risks. There are a lot of risks and challenges should be faced by entrepreneur. In addition, entrepreneurs should consider the internal and external factors when they are making the decisions. The internal factors such as employees benefits, coordination of the management, quality of the products and so forth. The external factors are technology, competitors, suppliers, customers and so on.

            

Besides that, once an entrepreneur is successful and has market position, he or she has to compete continuously rather than step at the current position. It is due to there are a lot of competitors around the market, if an entrepreneur desires to control and maintain his or her business at the market, then he or she has to obtain competitive advantage in order to control the entire industry in the market. Hence, being a successful entrepreneur is not easy; entrepreneurs cannot stand at the current market position while they have to find out where they are standing. They have to always review their market position. Different entrepreneur will meet different challenges, and it depends on how the entrepreneurs overcome their challenges. Therefore, different entrepreneurs have different traits.

Furthermore, entrepreneurs should smart in playing market strategies. They have to find out and implement the appropriate market strategies in their business. Once a wrong market strategy is implemented; then there is a problem has to be solved by the entrepreneur. Thus, entrepreneurs have to be careful when they are making a decision. A wrong decision is made may bring a huge trouble to them. So, if an individual desires to be a successful entrepreneur, the individual should do some market surveys and in addition, take some successful entrepreneurs to become their role models in order to imitate their market strategies. 

Vincent Tan

First of all, our group has chosen Vincent Tan as our entrepreneur in this project. The full name of Vincent Tan is Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun. He is born on 1952 in Batu Pahat, Johor. He is a Malaysian businessman and investor. He comes from a poor family and could not even afford his proper education. He became success nowadays because he know what it is like not to have a lot of things that the average person days will take for granted.

Besides that, he is the founder of Berjaya Media Berhad, the Chairman and Chief Executive of Berjaya Corporation Berhad. Berjaya Corporation conglomerate in a wide array of business includes golfing, property, resorts, and gambling. Tan Sri is married and he has 11 children. Before he enrolled into business, he worked as a clerk and insurance agent in1980s. In 1982s, he purchased Malaysia’s Macdonald’s franchise and in 1982, moreover, he bought Sport Toto from an untendered privatization, when the lottery agency was privatized by the government. Vincent Tan obtained the license for his lottery business from a non-tendered privatisation in 1985. His success in the Malaysian business sector has been attributed and he had close link with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad and his family, who is the ex-prime minister of Malaysia.

Furthermore, Tan Sri also known as an owner of 7-Eleven Franchise in Malaysia, Crispy Crème Franchise Holder, Burger King Malaysian Franchise and UMobile Operator in Malaysia. In May 2010, Tan Sri became the owner of Cardiff City Football Club after a consortium of Malaysia investors which is led by Dato’ Chan Tien Ghee. He bought 30% of the club’s shares. Next, on 23 February 2012, he retired from an active corporate role in Berjaya Corporation. Now, he is the current owner of Cardiff City Football Club, which recently gained promotion to play in the English Premier League.

Company Profile of Berjaya Group Berhad

Berjaya Group Berhad also known as Berjaya Corporation Berhad began in the year 1984, when its sole founder, Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun purchased a major controlling stake in Berjaya Industrial Berhad (formerly known as Berjaya Kawat Berhad but now known as Reka Pasific Berhad) from the founders, The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited, Austrialia and National Iron & Steel Mills Limited, Singapore. The shareholding change resulted in a major change in the business, direction and the dynamic growth of a diversified conglomerate under the flagship of Berjaya Corporation Berhad.

Berjaya Group Berhad (then known as Inter-Pacific Industrial Group Berhad) became the holding company of Reka Pacific Berhad following a major restructuring in October 1988. Inter-Pacific Industrial Group Berhad (formerly known as Raleigh Berhad) was incorporated in 1967 as a bicycle manufacturer. The Company gained official listing on Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (“Bursa Securities”) in 1969. Berjaya Corporation Berhad assumed the listing status of Berjaya Group Berhad on the Main Board of Bursa Securities upon the completion of the group restructuring exercise in October 2005 and listing of new share on 3 January 2006.

Tan Sri’s company, Berjaya Corporation Berhad is diversified entity which engaged in the following core businesses:

a)    Consumer Marketing, Direct Selling and Retail

b)    Financial Services

c)    Hotels, Resorts, Vacation Timeshare and Recreation Development

d)    Property Investment and Development

e)    Gaming and Lottery Management

f)     Environmental Services and Clean Technology Investment

g)    Motor Trading and Distribution

h)   Food and Beverage

i)     Investment Holding and others

           

Next, there is the marketing of consumer products and services in Cosway Sdn Bhd’s (“Cosway”). Cosway’s business model is based on the free store concept. It offers physical sales and distribution of its products in many countries, for instance Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, USA, Japan, Thailand and Australia. Cosway offers online purchase through eCosway.com. After almost 35 years, it has been offering a wide variety of quality products ranging from Personal Care, Health Care, Home Care, Food and Beverage, Organic, and Pharmaceutical, among others. It provides a valuable opportunity for business owners and high quality, competitively price products to its members and shoppers.

Moreover, in the aspect of hotels and resorts, Berjaya Hotels and Resorts Division (“BHR”) owns and operates 16 hotels and resorts locally and internationally. The major Malaysia-based hotels and resorts are Berjaya Langkawi Resort, Berjaya Times Square Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Berjaya Tioman Resort, The Taaras Beach & Spa Resort, Redang, as well as Colmar Tropicale and The Chateau at Berjaya Hills. These strategically located hotels and resorts have attracted tourists’ arrivals from various countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Middle East, China, Japan and Australia. In addition, they also have hotels and resorts at overseas. The major overseas hotels and resorts of the Berjaya Corporation are Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Resort & Casino, Seychelles, Berjaya Praslin Resort, Seychelles, Berjaya Hotel Colombo, Sri Lanka, Berjaya Eden Park London Hotel, InterContinental Hanoi Westlake Hotel, and Sheraton Hanoi Hotel, Vietnam.

Furthermore, Berjaya Corporation has clubs and recreation. The Clubs and Recreation Division (“The Clubs”) operates six golf clubs and one equestrian club located in the Klang Valley, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Batu Pahat, Johor and Berjaya Hills, Pahang. Golf and equestrian are the core activities provided by The Clubs and they are supported by other services such as sports facilities, dining outlets as well as banqueting facilities and event space. Under vacation Timeshare, Berjaya Vacation Clubs Berhad (“BVC”) operates and manages a vacation membership scheme which provides and coordinates holiday accommodation packages at holiday resorts in Malaysia.

On the other hand, the Property Investment Division (“PI Division”) owns 4 commercial properties comprising Plaza Berjaya, Kuala Lumpur; Wisma Cosway, Kuala Lumpur; Kota Raya Complex, Kuala Lumpur and Berjaya Megamall, Kuantan. In the aspect of gaming, the toto betting and related activities business segment of the Berjaya Group is operated via Berjaya Sports Toto Berhad (“BToto”). BToto is principally engaged in the operations of Toto betting, leasing of on-line lottery equipment, and the manufacture and distribution of computerized lottery and voting systems. BToto has four main operating subsidiary companies, namely Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd, International Lottery & Totalizator Systems, Inc., Berjaya Philippines Inc. and H.R. Owen Plc.

Besides that, from the aspect of education, Berjaya Higher Education Sdn Bhd (“BHE”), which operates Berjaya University College of Hospitality (“Berjaya UCH”), commenced its operations in January 2009. For a young niche university college, Berjaya UCH has created a strong awareness in the local market and is looked upon by many established educational institutions as a major industry player especially in the Culinary and Hospitality courses.

In addition, Berjaya Group has a lot of subsidiaries in food and beverage industry. The list of food and beverage subsidiaries is as follows:

a)    Berjaya Roasters (M) Sdn Bhd (“BRoasters”)

b)    Jollibean Foods Pte Ltd (“Jollibean Foods”)

c)    PT Boga Lestari Sentosa (“PT Boga”)

d)    Berjaya Jollibean (M) Sdn Bhd (“BJollibean”)

e)    Berjaya Starbucks Coffee Company Sdn Bhd (“BStarbucks”)

f)     Roasters Asia Pacific (Hong Kong) Limited (“RAP”)

g)    Berjaya Papa John’s Pizza Sdn Bhd (“BPJP”)

h)   Kenny Rogers Roasters Catering (Shenzhen) Company Limited (“KRR SZ”)

i)     Wen Berjaya Sdn Bhd (“Wen Berjaya”)

           

Lastly, Berjaya Corporation Berhad is a public limited company. On 26 May 2010, Berjaya Group Berhad was added to the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Malaysia Index. On 23 February 2012, chairman of Berjaya Corporation Berhad, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, decided to retired from his position. Tan Sri passing his position to his son, Robin Tan to become the next chairman of Berjaya Corporation Berhad.

Five Traits of Vincent Tan

Our chosen entrepreneur, Tan Sri Vincent Tan is having five entrepreneurial traits which highlighted in the Part A. The five entrepreneurial traits are as stated below:

1.   Ability to learn from mistakes

Ability to learn from mistakes can make a successful entrepreneur and capable of being the best of the best. Any errors of self or environment can make an entrepreneur, will have a competitive advantage or shift the determination to do business and be successful not only in Malaysia but in the world.

From the point of success of Tan Sri Vincent Tan, his ability to learn from mistakes has been taken into account when he was young. Historical family background of Tan Sri Vincent Tan is in a state of uneasy and his family has trouble and affect Tan Sri got less education. Hence, this incident has raises the spirit of Tan Sri Vincent Tan for work and then venture into enterprising and successful at the same time, not only in Malaysia but in the world. All things were made by him is on how to fix any problem from his family. Tan Sri also gives pleasure to his family. He became success on nowadays because he know what it is like not to have a lot of things that the average person days will take for granted. It can be show that Tan Sri Vincent Tan learns from mistakes has taken him from banker to become a billionaire in world.

2. Versatility

Versatility is one of the criteria in becoming a successful entrepreneur. This criterion can be more daring entrepreneurs to develop their ideas and thoughts to a better level and is able to achieve the desired success by an entrepreneur. It means entrepreneurs who have the capabilities and versatility of being able to manage the business from failure and have good management in terms of operational, financial, control and so on. Versatile also can provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to think outside the box and coupled with innovation and new ideas. It will create a unique idea and can be marketed and traded in the market.

           

Tan Sri Vincent Tan has features that can follow high. This can be seen from the development of his business. Starting with just ordinary workers, and from it he ventured to buy Macdonald's franchise in 1982, and in 1985 he bought Sports Toto when the lottery agency was privatized by the government and subsequently Tan Sri became the owner of 7-Eleven Franchise in Malaysia, Crispy Crème Franchise holder, Burger King and UMobile Malaysian Franchise operator in Malaysia. Tan Sri acquired a controlling stake in major Berjaya Corporation Berhad into 1984. In May 2010, Tan Sri Vincent Tan became the owner of Cardiff City Football Club. Every business endeavour by Tan Sri shows that he is a very versatile because he can diversify his business in various industries.

3. Foresight

Entrepreneurs who have the foresight will experience a lot of advantages. As foresight can lead to success and high profitability in any business and it seeks to develop a business that is operated by larger entrepreneurs in the current market and the world. Entrepreneurs who have the foresight to set a vision that can be achieved and the mission has the best strategy to achieve the vision and goals. Tan Sri Vincent Tan became successful nowadays because he know what it is like not to have a lot of things that the average person days will take for granted, because he had the foresight to achieve success and wealth that desired by him. Tan Sri is not satisfied with the previous success and he desires to achieve more. Due to just having a Macdonald's franchise he could develop into successful limited company and now Tan Sri has a football team in the process to achieve success in the world.

4. Ethical consciousness

Ethical consciousness is one of the characteristics of entrepreneurs. With the consciousness of ethical entrepreneurs will be more competitive in the business and will provide the best services or products to customers and employees. Cultural or ethical nature is adopted by a community or business to believe that something is good or bad. Sometimes entrepreneurs do not think of ethics in their business success. They only think about profit but not the effect of which would be accepted by their environment or their own workers. With their ethical consciousness in themselves, entrepreneurs can help to convince customers that they do business and also think about the lives of their customers.

Tan Sri Vincent Tan has a good consciousness of ethics. This can be proved when Tan Sri was creating a Berjaya University College of Hospitality in 2008. Tan Sri also owns the SUN newspapers since 1993; the third national daily in Bahasa Inggeris and Malaysia's first and SUN newspapers is the only free national newspaper. SUN newspapers is given free is to help citizens learn and improve their English at all levels of age. In addition, Tan Sri founded the Better Malaysia Foundation (formerly known as VTCY Foundation) in 1997, which provide aid and relief for medical and charitable purposes. In addition, Tan Sri also sponsors the Sathya Sai Medical and Dental Clinic at Jalan Klang Lama, Kuala Lumpur, which offers free medical services to the underprivileged community and a feeding program which provides for the poor and needy in the Klang Valley. On the other hand, Tan Sri is sponsoring a clinic in Jalan Klang Lama known as OKRs Acupuncture Centre that offers acupuncture treatment for free.

5. Time competence:

Time competence is an expertise that should be nurtured in the life of an entrepreneur and also everyone. Time is the main enemy in life, it can kill and developing businesses in the blink of an eye. Time competence is needed by entrepreneurs to start, develop and provide stability to the business. Incompetence time is very harmful because entrepreneurs will miss the opportunity to create something new. With the competencies of time, it can help entrepreneurs to overcome their competition with the strategy or the production of a new product that will help entrepreneurs have an advantage in the market.

Tan Sri Vincent Tan has a good time competencies in clever way of entrepreneurs franchise to his football team. Time changes to be fully utilized by him to reach a better level. With time competencies, he could develop himself into the world and create a good name.

Summary

Everyone has the chance to become an entrepreneur. To be an entrepreneur is not difficult matter, but become a successful entrepreneur is difficult. A successful entrepreneur will always identify where his or her market position is. If an entrepreneur decides to just stand at the current step, then he or she may be override by other competitors. Moreover, in order to maintain the market position, entrepreneur has to meet a lot of challenges and willing to take the risks.

Besides that, entrepreneurs will have their own criterions. Most of the criterions which can be found from majority of the entrepreneurs are integrity and reliability, initiative, versatility, decisive, time competence, perceptiveness, ability to learn from mistakes, ethical consciousness, and foresight. Apart from these criterions, there is another criterion can be founded. Each entrepreneur will have different entrepreneurial traits. Therefore, we should not simply do the comparison between those successful entrepreneurs.

The entrepreneur that we choose who is Vincent Tan has fulfil five entrepreneurial traits such as versatility, time competence, ability to learn from mistakes, ethical consciousness, and foresight. The family background of Vincent Tan stimulates him to fight for his own future by himself. He is admirable person as he is considered as an entrepreneur who builds his own success by his own. He fights off the challenges that he faced during his journey of the success. He never gives up and until today, he has become a successful entrepreneur. His success has brings a lot of prosperity to his family. Before that, he faced wealth problem during he was kid, but now he has brings much of the wealth to his family.

Last but not least, once again, to become an entrepreneur is not difficult but being a successful entrepreneur is difficult. A successful entrepreneur should consider all the factors that will bring the implication to his or her business. Furthermore, entrepreneurs should take count on all the consideration when they are making the decisions.