Despite having achieved huge success in his business, he will not afford himself the luxury of sitting on his laurels. He is always testing new ideas or creating opportunities, such as developing strategic alliances with tertiary institutions, to further develop Cambridge Institute into a leading learning provider in the region. This is incidentally the vision he has set upon to accomplish.

Company: CAMBRIDGE INSTITUTE Address: 111, North Bridge Road, #26-04, Peninsula Plaza Website: http://www.cambridge.com.sg Interview with Mr Edwin Chan by Ho Han Yew Victor on 23-May-2008. Student can be reached at vertigoblues86@hotmail.com   Business Profile: Cambridge Institute offers language learning programmes to learners who wish to study either on a full-time or part-time basis. It also extends the programmes to corporate clients. Since language learning is its area of specialisation, Cambridge Institute is renowned for having the most comprehensive repertoire of language courses on its menu.   Interviewer's Comments: Mr Edwin Chan is extremely passionate about his business, and one cannot help but feel a tingle whenever he let loose his gush of business enthusiasm. Throughout the interview, he came forth as a sincere, full of zest kind of person, willing to share his personal thoughts, experiences and business philosophy. His inspiring character might just be one of the reasons why he has managed to build and successfully sustain his business for more than ten years.   1. What is the nature of your business? Cambridge Institute is a language school. We offer more than 20 languages to our students of different races and nationalities. Our core business is to teach our students to speak the language quickly, effectively and naturally. . Our slogan is "Speak A New Language In Just Two Months."   2. When and why did you decide to become an entrepreneur / take over your family business? NOTE: If it is not a family business, ask: Do your parents have their own businesses too? Have they inspired you in one way or another? (Select appropriate question according to the entrepreneur being interviewed.) I realised early in life that my parents were very poor and that they worked hard just to eke out a living. They were illiterate. My mother was a housewife and my father a cleaner and caretaker of a church. Although he put in very long hours, his earning was meagre. When I started attending kindergarten, I had to rely on donations for my school uniform, clothes, shoes and textbooks. My clothes and shoes were most of the time either too tight or too loose. Every time I walked too fast, these accoutrements would desert me. It was then that I made a promise to myself that I would free myself of these chains of poverty. The movies that I watched in my childhood seemed to suggest that once a slave you would remain a slave for the rest of your life. I mean the poverty trap would run its course from father to children to grandchildren and so on. Such an impression made me more determined to break free. When I was 7, my mum took a bus to a school to register me for primary one. Somehow she fell off the bus and suffered serious injuries. She was hospitalized and warded in the DIL unit for many months. At that time, we had to eat rice balls with just a pinch of salt. I remembered that there were occasions when I was the only kid in the class who had to go without food or drinks during breaks. The sum total of all these experiences made me even resolute and defiant. My mum passed away when I was in Sec Two; a year later, my father and one of my younger brothers were no longer with us. One day, I overheard a neighbour remarked that as far as this family is concerned, it is a gone case, the kids are so young and there is no one to take care of them. Upon hearing that comment, I told myself that I must succeed in life just so that I could show them they were wrong. I was fortunate to have an adoptive uncle who was very supportive. He provided for me until I completed my studies. When I started working, I always told myself that I must break free from poverty and be successful in life.   3. What are your reasons for choosing to do business in this particular industry? When I started my business in 1997, I was a sole distributor of a self-study language learning programme. I had never thought of setting up a school as I was not a school teacher and had no experience in running a school. My business only required me to recruit sales people to sell the products direct to customers. Once the customer has bought the language programme which consisted of books, cassette tapes and a language laboratory; he has to learn the language on his own. However, things changed after my staff and I realised the products would not be an effective long-term learning tool. After selling the product for a few months, we conducted a survey to find out how satisfied our customers were. To our dismay, we found that most of them were unable to learn the language on their own. We are talking about more than 90% failure rate here. We had to do something quickly as we could not afford to let down our customers his way. They deserved to get something out of the learning programme they had purchased and we needed to show that we cared. The plan was to turn this disaster into a winning formula. We came up with Help Sessions programme for our customers. What we did basically was we gathered them in a classroom environment and deployed a teacher to help them get the maximum out of the language products. The teacher would teach them phonics, grammar and sentence structure and construction. The Help Session programme worked and they were able to gain speaking skills proficiency. They were interested in pursuing higher level language courses but very much suspicious of the effectiveness of the products. To cater to our customers' want and needs we had little choice but to set up a school, Cambridge School of Languages.   4. How did you put together all the resources needed to start your business? For example: getting the start-up capital, hiring staff, doing sales and marketing, advertising, etc. I started my business in 1997; it was a period when most businesses took a very cautious approach because Southeast Asia was experiencing recession. My Senior Vice President from my previous company advised me to wait for a better time and not to take big risks. But I saw it differently. I was adamant and refused to budge as it was my last chance to strike it on my own. Age was a factor. I knew I could not miss the opportunity and was extremely determined to succeed. I told myself if I were to stay with the company I would have to work doubly hard to earn my keeps. To top it all, there was no security. I would rather take my chance and venture into a business. Recession was not without blessings. I managed to get furniture and equipment at a very attractive price as many companies were folding up or downsizing. This helped a lot as I had very limited capital. My suppliers helped me pay for my rentals and other overheads for a period of six months. Thereafter I would have to meet all the expenses and repay the loan.   5. What are some interesting stories you have about your first few customers/first few years in business? Our first newspaper advertisements attracted quite a number of walk-in customers. We were happy to welcome them and took great care in dealing with them. However, it was disappointing to learn that that they had come to return the products sold to them by our predecessor. We took pain to explain it to them that we were an entirely new company and had no part in their purchases. However, we eventually managed to strike a deal by offering trade-ins and at the same time we sold our products. .   6. What are some of the challenges you faced when you first went into business? As I said earlier, I started as a sole distributor of a self-study language programme. I faced a problem in that my customers needed to be guided by a teacher. I felt compelled to start a language school as my customers were not getting worthwhile returns on their investment. I approached my supplier and asked him to jointly set up a school with me. He was against the idea and thought the idea would not work. He said his programme had a hundred-year proven track record. I still persisted and set up a school to fulfil my obligations to my customers. This upset my supplier and he decided to sever our relationship. I was caught in a very difficult situation. Suddenly I had no products and books for my students and teachers. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to tap the expertise of my teachers. We negotiated and decided that the teachers produce their own material for the students. Six months after setting up my business, I had to start paying back my loan, and at the same time, meet all my manpower and other operating expenditure. Sometimes, I felt so helpless when there was just not enough money to pay my staff salaries on time, and owed my landlord and advertising companies several months' outstanding expenses. It was a miracle that I managed to pull thorough this painful initial period. I started with just one unit of 2,175sqf and struggled to make ends meet. Today I have ten premises totalling 16,500sqf and three branches. Perhaps it was my willingness to explain my dire situation to my creditors that allowed me some leeway to settle the outstanding loan.   7. How did you overcome these challenges? Please share some specific examples of the action you took to overcome the challenges. We introduced a referral scheme whereby existing students who recommend their friends or family members to our school would get a discount. Our student intakes increased tremendously. We started with only one classroom and six students and it quickly filled up to maximum capacity. I even had to turn my office and store into classrooms. Since then we have been busy expanding.   8. Can you remember your worst day in business or a time when you felt like giving up? What happened that made you feel that way and how did you triumph over it? It was a Sunday and my staff and I were working hard from morning and continued into late afternoon. We felt so hungry but we had no money for lunch. We managed to come up with 40 cents collectively but not enough to pay for a bun which cost 50 cents. We decided to try our look by looking for a 10 cents coin someone might have dropped in the office. We looked for it high and low and just luck would have it we found it and bought the bun, We split it into two and shared. As for drinks, there was always the tap which we were so used to. That was really heartbreaking for I could not even provide a decent lunch to my staff. Later in the day she asked me a pathetic question, "When would we be able to get ourselves out of this miserable stage?" I answered,"Can you see the light at the end of the tunnel?" she retorted immediately,"No, it's getting darker and darker". Her reply faltered me somewhat but I snapped out of it quickly and convinced myself that I will make it.   9. Can you share some of the lessons you learnt from overcoming your own business challenges that you think will help other businesses? I have gone through a roller-coaster ride. To me, in business you must have the guts to succeed or fail. I subscribed to the saying that "Though times never last but tough people do." This lets you thrive over adversity.   10. When was the moment you realised the business would work and support you? When our students move up from one level to another and they keep introducing students to the school. Some of them even proceed to take up learning other languages. Another reason is our multiple student feedback we have in place as one of the mechanism to measure customer satisfaction. Every time we received very positive feedback and comments we know we must have done something right and that the students must have learned well.   11. What are some of your proudest business achievements to date? And why are they so important and meaningful to you? My proudest moment was when we celebrated our 10th Anniversary in 2007. Why? Because when I started my business in 1997 I did not have an opening ceremony as I was not sure how long it would last. Furthermore, when I left my employment during the recession to venture into business, my then SVP told some of my colleagues that I would crawl back to him and beg him to take me back within six months. At the same time, most of my friends, acquaintances, colleagues, family members and relatives strongly discouraged me from going into business. These and many other broadsides only strengthened my resolve and helped me thrive over adversity. Today I have turned many obstacles into opportunities and owned a number of schools and businesses. I felt that I am an entrepreneur who never succumbs to any adversity.   12. How do you differentiate your business from your competitors? Please provide specific examples. When I started my school in 1998, I was the first person to use the designation, Course Consultant for my frontline staff. At that time, all my consultants were graduates from reputable universities. They were well trained and did not resort to superficial sales talk or pressurised selling. Our philosophy was to approach the student from an ITEM perspective- Interest, Time, Enrolment and Money. We prompted the student to explore their real reasons for having interest in learning a language, explained about the durations, time management, course materials and fees. Our courses did not strictly use formal textbooks like most of our competitors did which took a long time for the student to learn reading and writing. We focus on the communication aspects which improve the student's confidence to further explore the language, thus achieving results in just two months.   13. What are some business ideas you have implemented that created great results in your business? Besides schools I also own several other businesses like a publishing firm, an advertising company, and a media company that provide web portals, websites and domain names. All these businesses and diverse activities help me develop an integrated business approach which in turn generates all sorts of possibilities.   14. Where or who do you get your business ideas from? Mostly from my competitors as they provide the impetus for continual growth and knowledge. Always treat your competitors with respect. You have to be friendly with them and never treat them as your enemy. This allows you to observe their performance and improve on it. You are in the same trade, not unlike the high jump field event. Treat then as worthy competitors so that you could learn from the synergy and spur each other to greater heights. You are not likely to be able to jump higher if you do not know the bar set by your competitors. A strong competitor provides greater challenges and gives you the drive to go even higher.   15. What do you see for your business in the next 5 years, and does it include any plans for expansion? Definitely. We started off as a direct selling company selling self-study language programmes. It became a school with just one classroom. We are now an institute with more than 25 classrooms and three branches. And we offer more than 20 languages to our students. We came up with our mission, vision and core values many years ago. We wanted to be the leading language school in Asia. We are today the leading language institute in Singapore and a leader in Asia. Currently, we are working to looking into establishing ourselves as a language university. But to be realistic, it is an uphill task. If you look around you will know that there is not a language university in Asia. What we have succeeded so far was cooperating with a university to set up a language department in their university. My plan is to work with as many universities as possible to set up a language department in the universities. We want to live up to our vision of being the leading language school in Asia.   16. What does entrepreneurship mean to you? Entrepreneurship has many meanings; in sports they call sportsmanship and zest to excel. But it still boils down to having the courage to succeed or fail; you must have the spirit to persevere in the face of failure. When I was young I always asked, "Why did sports car racers never give up racing, no matter how many accidents they have encountered they would still go back to the track." Willingness to strive it out on your own under whatever adverse conditions made us a true entrepreneur in business.   17. What are some entrepreneurship qualities that you have which has helped you come this far? I am an ardent believer of "tough time never last, tough people do" when others say no, I say yes, because no to me means new opportunity; "success through perseverance." Most importantly, I thrive on adversity. These are the qualities that have helped me thus far.   18. In your opinion, what other qualities does a person need in order to be successful in business? And why? (eg. Educational qualification, work experience, family influence, attitude, etc) The ability to benefit from other people's experiences and your own failures are the most important qualities for a successful business. On the other hand, education may be a hindrance as you may not want to venture into certain profitable businesses. Sometimes, I find it such a pity that people brand ITE students as "it's the end", for the students. But actually, ITE students are the ones who are most likely to be entrepreneurs! They have the skills and knowledge of a certain trade to succeed in business. They can set up a business servicing and repairing cars or air cons or computers. All they need to do is to provide good service to customers. Take care of the customer and through recommendation they will be able to expand their businesses. They can even earn more than very well-educated professionals with doctorate degrees! When you go into business you must have the mindset of becoming the best in the trade and not just for the money. You must also aspire to be the best in customer service.   19. In your opinion, what does it mean to have the "spirit of enterprise"? The determination to strive it out on your own even under the most adverse circumstances. Never say die and always set greater heights after every achievement.   20. Who or what motivates and inspires you? The person I admire most is Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew; I tell you why he had such great influence on me. When I was in my primary school years, I lived in Alexander area and I used to play hide and seek with my friends in the evening. One evening, I was running towards a crowd to hide myself from my friends. Suddenly, I realised that coming towards my direction was a tall gentleman dressed in white, whose face radiates a glow around him. That impression is still fresh in my memory. I watched him speak at the rally with awe and admiration. During those times, gangsters were rampant and they roamed the streets for extortions and fights. I was confronted once by a gangster just outside my house, he questioned me about the gang I belonged to. When Lee Kuan Yew came to power, the gangsters just faded away from the streets. He also cleared the drainage problems that caused floods after heavy rain. Racial harmony prevailed after the racial riots and Singapore built a formidable defence force. When I left school, life was very uncertain. There were few jobs and the British just pulled its troops out of Singapore. Singapore was also kicked out of Malaysia. Jurong Industrial was not ready then. I have seen it myself how he turned the country around. To me Mr Lee Kuan Yew is the greatest entrepreneur I ever know. He built Singapore from a swampy area into a great financial city. Mr Lee also made Singapore famous for its ports: airport, seaport, transport and passport. Whenever Singapore in doldrums and the future looked bleak, he would travel around the world and convinced investors to build factories and industries in our industrial parks. His spirit of enterprise is one that we must emulate if we want to be successful in our own field of endeavour. Mr Lee has the foresight which many of us do not. He can see things that will happen in the years to come. Sometimes I found it difficult to comprehend but over times I have learned to wait patiently for the outcome. He was proven right most of the time. A good example is the speak mandarin campaign.   21. What are some of your business values and what would you like to pass down to others, particularly the younger generation? Basically it boils down to customers. Remember you want customers not curse-tomers. Customer satisfaction is still the best. If you follow their needs you would not have to be too afraid of falling behind changing trends as their needs reflect what has changed.   22. Can you share some of the more significant events / incidents that affected or shaped your business philosophy and the way you conduct your business? i.e. SARS, new competition or shifts in market behaviour and trends, etc. The very day the customers of the previous distributor came to my office and started cursing and swearing was the moment I decided to change my fundamental business philosophy. In business, sustainability is dependent on how best you make your customers happy. I also designed a presentation format that safeguards the interests of the customer. At the same time, it ensures that there will not be any misrepresentation of our product and services on the part of our course consultants.   23. With the changes in the market today, do you think it has become harder or easier to succeed in business? Why do you say so? The education industry is getting more difficult for the new players. Even for us, things were not that easy initially. It took us more than three years to acquire the SQC award. In the private school business, if your school does not possess the SQC award, students and parents would shun your school as they regard yours is inferior. Today many of the larger business schools possess the SQC mark. Only a handful of language schools have achieved it. One worrying trend is that more and more schools are recruiting foreign students indiscriminately. They made all kinds of promises and misrepresentations to the parents and students. They treat education as a money spinning business and couldn't care about the students' education and welfare. When a school shuts down, the whole education industry would suffer because parents would stop sending their children to Singapore to study.   24. What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business? Be prepared for the worst that could happen to you: you either end up as a banker or a bankrupt. In business, you must be daring to achieve and daring to fail. Failure is only a temporary defeat and success is a permanent achievement unless you faltered badly. In business, you must remember that though time never last, tough people do. You must learn to thrive over adversity. Never take no negatively, because no means new opportunity.