Ivan Lee can be called a born entrepreneur. He has always been his own boss, ever since his childhood years. Fresh out of university, he embarked on his first business venture with his family. Today, he leads a company that boasts many familiar brands in Singapore and overseas, among which is the famous Thai Express restaurant chain.

Company: THAI EXPRESS (S) PTE LTD Address: 2 Alexandra Road #07-09 Delta House Website: http://www.thaiexpress.com.sg/ Interview with Mr. Ivan Lee by Muhammad Farid Angullia Bin Abdul Gaffar on 23-May-2007. Student can be reached at muhdfar@singnet.com.sg   Business Profile: Thai Express offers authentic Thai food in a casual and cosy ambience. Thai Express not only serves the standard offerings of Thai food, but also their own innovative culinary creations as well. The dishes are notably created by native Thai chefs themselves. In place of fine dining which may be intimidating to some, Thai Express is all about being fresh, contemporary and fuss-free.   Interviewer's Comments: Ivan is someone who is self-driven and this is something that everyone, not only entrepreneurs, can learn from. I admire his vigor and would like to add that an inner drive to push you in all pursuits in life is essential as it keeps you going. Giving up will definitely not be as easy when you have a drive that comes from the inside. It was a pleasure to hear his story from the horse's mouth itself. Personally, I can vouch for the exquisiteness of Thai Express dishes, namely the ambrosial Phat Thai and the luscious Thai Red Rubies with coconut ice-cream!   1. What is the nature of your business? Our core business is Food and Beverage and lifestyle services. While others have the traditionally set up restaurants, like those that offer middle range and fine-dining, we create our brand around the concept of a lifestyle restaurant. One of the many brands of restaurant that we are more popular for is of course, Thai Express. The initial emphasis of Thai Express was to provide fast service, but over the years we try to move away from that emphasis and more towards quality. So when you emphasize a bit more on quality, speed tends to be compromised to some extent.   2. What made you embark on this venture choice? Straight out of university, my family and I started a cafe which didn't really succeed. I gained the relevant business experience through the failure. After a year or so, we decided to give up on the cafe, but I wanted to give business another try because I felt that I learned something from the failure; and that was how Thai Express was born. As for the choice of Thai food, it was because even though Thai food is very popular, it hasn't been developed commercially to its fullest potential. Unlike Japanese or Chinese food, we felt that Thai food has not been given that commercial edge yet.   3. How does your business work? The business comprises of many parts; we have 700 staff now. Among them, we have a team of many native Thai chefs that keep our recipes authentic and also maintain the quality of our food. We have very experienced and established F&B managers in all our restaurants and a very good pool of customer service managers to ensure a high level of service standards. We also have a real estate and property manager to source for new locations and a purchasing manager to manage and ensure the freshness of ingredients we buy.   4. Did you have the capital to start the business or did you have to borrow from someone to get started? I started the cafe prior to Thai Express with my family and everybody had a part in it. When that cafe didn't work out, I managed to make use of what I had at that point to convert the cafe into Thai Express.   5. What is your role in Thai Express? As the CEO of the company, I guess my primary role is to ensure a continuous inflow of new talents to help the company innovate and expand constantly. Also, to explore new markets and ventures by which the company can grow by. As all the managers mentioned have their own areas to focus on in the company, I myself am more focused on new businesses and new talents.   6. Do your parents have their own businesses too? Have they inspired you in one way or another? My father is in the shipping business while my mom was in the beauty business; they were two very different industries! They definitely inspired me, along with many other successful people. My parents had a neutral stand; they neither directly encouraged me nor objected to my decision to start my own business. One thing for sure, I was given the freedom to make my own decision.   7. What was your childhood dream? When did you decide that you would strike out on your own instead of working for someone else? My childhood dream was actually to make movies - in fact I'm still looking out to sponsor a movie! I can't really point out a certain time when I decided to strike out on my own. When I was in secondary 1, my parents were separated and I lived with a maid looking after us. Basically, I grew up on my own. So, as a kid I always understood that there's nobody there and I have to look after myself. One of the things that I found out was innate had to do with the Nintendo consoles which I had and most other kids in the neighbourhood didn't. They came over to my house to play so often that I didn't even have much chance to play. So, I decided to start renting out the consoles and charged the kids per hour rates for the games - this was how I earned my allowance. On top of that, I also realised that the kids get hungry while playing, so I sold them Maggi Mee, with the option of adding ingredients for a price; eggs for example. The income I got from these was not spent unnecessarily but on items that can improve or 'upgrade' the services provided to these kids, like new games and sofas. As far as I can remember, I don't remember thinking that I want to work for somebody, mainly because I've never had the chance to do it.   8. Why does someone decide to be on their own rather than join an existing company? The most important reason is that you want to control your destiny. You don't want to be at the mercy of somebody's bad decision or get mixed up with politics that is not related to productivity in business. But, with the increasing media portrayal, many people set up businesses for the wrong reasons. Some think its glamorous, cool, fun and a quick way to get rich. It is the contrary, in fact. For example, long-lasting friendships and family ties get torn apart, people go bankrupt, and people have committed suicide and all other negative effects of doing business are rampant. So, there are a variety of reasons why people do business nowadays. My advice is to do it for the right reasons, and like I said, because you want to control your own destiny.   9. Are there at any point in your life that you experienced a significant event (WW2, racial riots of the 1960s, the Economic Crisis of the 80s or 90s, SARS, new competition or shifts in market behavior and trends) which affected or influenced you and your business that made you change the way you think and do your business? Like I've mentioned earlier, I come from a so-called broken family where my parents were divorced. From an early stage of my life, I've been forced to be independent; to figure out how to make things happen out of nothing. Despite this, I managed to do well academically from, primary school to university. In fact, with everything I do, I would achieve something. I always knew that I have to lead my life this way. Of course, over the years, as much as I enjoy some measures of success, I also experience failures every now and then. Nevertheless, every failure also motivates me to work even harder for the next venture.   10. What are some of the challenges in starting a business from scratch? All the challenges actually apply here. For one, when you start a business, you're a nobody and you have no brand. Even for Thai Express many years ago, nobody knew what it was. Many people will not believe in you. Among them are suppliers, pioneer employees and perhaps even your own family members. On top of that, you also have limited cash flow and you cannot afford to lose money. Basically, your business has a very short lifespan. You only have a few months to turn the business around. There's also a high risk of not being able to earn back your investment.   11. Who/What motivates you? A lot of people motivate me, particularly successful people. I don't really have one person that motivates me all the time. First of all, as a matter of technical definition, a lot of people have made the distinction between being motivated and being inspired. When you're motivated, it means an external source motivates you, so you depend on this external source to give you energy and motivation from time to time. When you are inspired or when you are driven, it comes from inside irrespective of the external environment. I would say truly successful people have a drive that comes from within and they don't depend on an external party to influence them. For me, I think I'm more of a very inspired and driven person. Everyday, I have a new goal and target of my own. Nobody tells me what goals to set and how to do these things. In fact, most people around me tell me to slow down because I'm always pushing for new things to happen. I would say that what drives me is a better question to ask, and what drives me comes from the inside. What's inside is an understanding of life and what we have cannot be taken for granted. What we have is only temporary, so we must work harder to secure this and gain more. We must also understand that we are very modest and small. When the tsunami comes, it gets everyone no matter how accomplished a swimmer you are. So, there's an understanding that I must work very hard, not be too contented and prepare myself for the 'tsunami'. Therefore, what drives me is the comprehension of how vulnerable we are in this world, so every moment we have should be spent in trying to secure our future.   12. Tell me about the first few customers and the first few years of business. It was a very nerve-wrecking moment when we first opened the door to the first few Thai Express customers, but we were very lucky as we had a lot of people come in. In fact, after opening for the first week, we had to shut down for three days because we sold everything out; we never thought that business would be so good. It was a very memorable experience to have so many people rushing to enjoy what you created.   13. Please tell me some stories of your best day in business. I think the best days of my business are when we truly make somebody happy when we offer a genuinely quality experience in terms of food and beverage service. It happens every now and then where we as an organisation, through our very valuable staff, manage to create a very memorable experience for our customers. Some people might say that the best days of their businesses are when they make their first million. Those are memorable but they don't feel as nice and real as when we genuinely touch people. For example, a supplier may need help in his business, so we support him. Sometimes, a member of our staff may need some form of help, be it financially or to deal with their personal problems. Whenever we manage to make a difference in any of their lives, I always feel are the best days in business; much more satisfying than making another million.   14. Do you recall your worst day in business? Have you ever felt like giving up? The worst days of business would probably be the opposite when the business ends up hurting somebody, like when customers get upset due to inadvertent factors or when staff has problems that I didn't manage to help. It's the exact opposite of the best days of my business.   15. When was the moment you realised the business would work and support you? I'd like to say that it was during the first week of business when it was booming as mentioned, but I realised that you can't judge a business in a week. So, after about three months when the business was consistent and flowing well, I knew that it was doing well and I didn't look back. I started opening more restaurants every 2-3 months. Overall, I guess I had a good encouragement from the start itself.   16. What are some of the things you have had to overcome to succeed? The challenges are always there; cash flow, finding good employees, maintaining food quality are just some of them. Food business operation is 'live' in the sense that an order is taken, cooked, and then delivered on the spot. It was a big challenge before and even though we managed to streamline everything, it's still a challenge now. Therefore, learning to establish consistencies in our services and quality has to be the biggest challenge.   17. What are some qualities that you feel you possess which differentiate you from someone who works for others? I wouldn't say that there's a quality that differentiates me from people who work from others. First of all, you must understand that some people who work for others make more money then a small businessman, for example. Perhaps, the main difference between entrepreneurs and the general people who work is the willingness to take a lot of risks. I think we entrepreneurs like to create something and are willing to take a bet that we're right about something and are willing to live with the consequences that come along with it. On the whole, I think entrepreneurs are very courageous - sometimes foolishly so - as they may be overly optimistic over something.   18. To succeed in business, what qualities are essential? What are some of the secrets in making a successful business? There are definitely no secrets to make a business successful. It's always the same things that people say, like to work very hard, take a lot of risks, be very creative, be a leader. Thus, I think that the 'secret' to a successful business is to understand that there are no secrets. The truth is there is no easy path to succeed in business. Hence, the sooner you accept that fact, the sooner you'll find out the so-called secret.   19. Who or what inspires you? A successful person, amongst the many who motivates me, inspires me at the same time.   20. Have you ever thought of expanding the business in some way or in multiple locations? How and where? We're always in a continuous drive to expand and open new outlets. Two more Thai Express outlets are opening in Shanghai at the end of May 2007 and even as far as Mongolia, in August 2007. We are now exploring the market in India, the UK, Morocco and Spain.   21. What aspects of expansion would you like to see for your enterprise? We have developed other brands of restaurants that we can expand. In actuality, Thai Express doesn't just represent a restaurant but also a company which owns many restaurants and provides lifestyle services. Therefore, there are many aspects of expansion possible for Thai Express as a whole.   22. In your opinion, how would you define entrepreneurship? My definition of entrepreneurship will probably not be very different from the official definition in the dictionary. As I said earlier, entrepreneurship is about risk-taking, hard work and determination, and understanding that there are no short-cuts and being creative.   23. To what extent does ones educational level help or hinder entrepreneurialship? In general, I think the education system hinders entrepreneurship as it teaches you to be very obedient, and to follow the rules. To a large degree, it turns you into a person who does not dare to break the rules, whereas in business, you have to be different and break the rules to survive. Furthermore, the commercial value of money is toned down and materialism isn't inculcated. Schools are good in the sense that they teach you to be honest and how to be a good person, but when you do business, you have to understand that it is about money. You have to learn how to earn and multiply your money, employ your strategies, become cunning and compete in the business arena, which are all hardly ever mentioned in school. The plus side about school is that you can make a lot of friends, which is essential for networking when you do business.   24. As we try to select the final 2007 entrepreneurs, what qualities would you think a person should have to inspire others? Just like in a school, a student who score a lot of As may not be the best teacher. What makes a good teacher is the passion and understanding of what teaching is about. Similarly, there are many businessmen who may not be able to inspire other people - maybe because they are selfish and inward-looking or that they don't understand how they succeeded and cannot translate what made them successful. It's also very possible that they don't have the passion or know how to share their stories. I guess one of the core criteria is to have somebody who can share, be passionate and inspire other people, and has the understanding of what made he/she successful and how he can translate this to other people to inspire them. Perhaps, someone who is passionate about entrepreneurship itself, and also a bit of a teacher who wants other people to join him in this journey. There are two kinds of people - the kind who enjoy doing business only if they make a lot of money, and the kind who don't make a lot of money yet enjoy business nonetheless. I think you want to look for the latter kind, who has a genuine passion for entrepreneurship. It's easy to find 42 rich people, but to find 42 people who can inspire and share their experiences and help bring others onboard the same journey, is a little bit harder.   25. What are some of your own values in doing business and what do you like to pass down to others, particularly the younger generation? The first thing, like I mentioned, is to not look for short-cuts. Today's world is all about short-term gratification. To add to that, you hear and read more stories about successful people, so the more you think you can achieve success in a short time. Moreover, do not underestimate how hard it's going to be. A lot of people seem to think that life is better when you run your own business when in actual fact, it is worse off. When you work for somebody, you just have to answer to your boss; but when you become your own boss, you have to answer to even more people because even the customers are your bosses. So, the main thing I would advice young people is don't look for short-cuts or underestimate how hard it's going to be.   26. Do you foresee the future entrepreneurs conducting their businesses in a different way than entrepreneurs from the past 5 years? Why? With the ever-increasing technology nowadays, entrepreneurs are more well-connected and mobile. The key difference is of course, speed. Therefore, the new entrepreneurs have to be very fast and agile or they will be left out.   27. Do you feel that the future entrepreneurs have a higher chance to succeed than the entrepreneurs from the past 5 years? Why? We cannot generalise the success of entrepreneurs according to this. The success of an entrepreneurship not just depends on when you start the business. To a large part, it depends on the economy at that point of time, but that is not within your control. It also depends on the support you receive in various forms; like a partner, a wife, health, money. You also cannot write off the role of luck, as sometimes you may be doing all the right things but fail, and when you do everything wrong, you may succeed. I wouldn't say it was easier last time or is going to be easier in the future, I think there are several factors that make it both harder and easier for new entrepreneurs to succeed and it will be a fair playing ground when you balance out these factors.   28. - -