Mr. Tony Latimer is one of the few coaches in Asia Pacific holding the highest accreditation by the International Coach Federation (ICF) as Master Certified Coach (MCC). Tony is a member of the International Coach Federation Examining Board. He works globally with senior executives to develop their leadership skills and enhance business performance. Tony is President of the International Coach Federation Singapore chapter, and a veteran of 30 years in International Sales and Business Development in Asia, Scandinavia and Europe. He has spent over 20 years in Asia and leverages this experience in his coaching research and development.

Company: THE REALLY BIG IMPACT COMPANY PTE LTD Address: 3 Raffles Place, #07-01,singapore Website: http://reallybigimpact.com/ Interview with Mr Tony Latimer by Lam Vui Sin on 17-Jun-2009. Student can be reached at lamvuisin@yahoo.com.sg   Business Profile: With extensive experience coaching senior executives, designing and delivering internal coaching programme's to Fortune 500 companies around the world, Tony combined skill in leadership development with corporate knowledge and creativity to develop the only dedicated corporate leaders coach training programme in Asia.   Interviewer's Comments: As a Professional Coach, Tony's approach to coaching has an emphasis on results, but incorporates the understanding of the individual's personal context. He has a powerful ability to help his clients identify and remove the self-limiting beliefs that can be holding them back.   1. What is the nature of your business? We are an Executive Coaching firm. We work with senior executives and their teams to improve business performance through individual and group Coaching and Leadership Development, sales leadership and sales training.   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.) It was about 18 years ago. I was in corporate life before I became an entrepreneur. I didn't like the kind of behaviour it seemed to require to get right to the top of corporate life, which meant I got to a point where I was working for people I did not respect. I wanted to take charge of my own destiny and to provide something different to the market. My mother was a teacher and my father was an employee of a large corporation. I saw what they did and they inspired me to do the exact opposite.   3. What are your reasons for choosing to do business in this particular industry? I have something unique to offer. When I looked at the aspect of my corporate job that I enjoyed the most, training and coaching people to make the way they performed easier came out a clear first. I took a long hard look at what I had seen that did or did not work, and decided to improve on it.   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 did it all by myself. I had no start up capital. My approach is: if you need to buy something for the business, go get a client and earn the money first. Start-up capital can be dangerous. It is tempting to behave as if you were already successful, just because money is there to pay the bills. There is no substitute for being hungry as a motivator to get results. Look back at the dotcom boom and bust and you will see what I mean. Second, many wanna-be entrepreneurs solutions looking for problem. This is the wrong way around. Find the problem first, then come up with the idea to fix it.   5. What are some interesting stories you have about your first few customers/first few years in business? A friend approached me to conduct a team development workshop for 800 people. I had no idea how to make something work for that large group, so I sat down and figured out how to make it work. My wife and I spent a week to design the various exercises for the workshop. It all worked perfectly. Later on, I discovered I had been asked to do it, because the more established people in the field all said it wasn't possible for one person to do such a large scale event single handed. I didn't know it 'wasn't possible' so I just figured out how to do it. That was really an inspiring moment for me. Don't ever be influenced by others and their beliefs. Anything IS possible.   6. What are some of the challenges you faced when you first went into business? First, it is getting known. People can't buy from you if they don't know you exist. Developing an identity or brand is very important. It is about visibility in the market. Secondly, it will be money. However, you need to have the hunger or else having enough money will not work.   7. How did you overcome these challenges? Please share some specific examples of the action you took to overcome the challenges. We had to go out and look for business opportunities. Don't wait for people to come to you. Get out there and talk to the companies who have the problems you can solve. Also, don't focus on getting money. Focus on doing what you do best. You will not make much money when you first start out. You have to provide good quality products and services. Secondly, enhancing skills in your chosen field and being able to prove you are good is important. I needed to get my certification to become a Master Coach, which takes thousands of hours of practice and exams. I am one of the only four Master Coaches in the Asia Pacific Region and only 60 worldwide. I can help clients get results fast and therefore command fees I could not have in the early days.   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? I was struggling at first. I was figuring out how to pay the rent, etc. At the same time, I was offered a job to be the local CEO of a company. I thought maybe the security of a job and the paycheck for an employee will be a good idea. The thought of going back to a job left me with a sense of overwhelming panic. In another incident, my youngest daughter and I were listening to the news one day in 2002. She asked me whether I could be retrenched. I realised I can't! That was the final trigger. I vowed to myself that I would never going back to be an employee again. I want every dollar that I make to belong to me and the only person that can give me pressure is me.   9. Can you share some of the lessons you learnt from overcoming your own business challenges that you think will help other businesses? Do not go into debt. Do not take investment money from others if you can avoid it; if you must have start-up capital, limit it to the amount you need for your basis infrastructure. Otherwise you will get comfortable. You will not be hungry enough. Secondly, figure out what do you stand for? What is your purpose? Get clear on your purpose and what you need to do will become obvious.   10. When was the moment you realised the business would work and support you? I knew it would work from the beginning. For my first few clients when I did some work with them, expanded some of my ideas and thinking and saw their faces changed, I realised I was able to help them overcome their problems. I was really clear that the business would support me from the beginning; and I want more than that. I want to create a structure that will impart my expertise to as many people as possible and have an impact on leadership around the world.   11. What are some of your proudest business achievements to date? And why are they so important and meaningful to you? At a personal level, it would be getting my Master Coach certification. I had to go through rigorous training and be tested by the best in the field. At the business level, it is an on-going process of seeing how I have always make a difference to the lives of countless clients. It is an amazing experience.   12. How do you differentiate your business from your competitors? Please provide specific examples. Everything we do is original. We do not regurgitate ideas or license other people's work. Everything we do is based on my experience and analysis. For example, for leadership development training, we teach different leadership behaviour, performance coaching skills, etc. We do that as an in-house process for the clients. We have a new brand, Asia Pacific Corporate Coach Institute (ACCI) whereby companies can send their senior leaders and human resource people to learn in a peer group environment for 6 months. I have developed the role specific conversations they need to practice in order to take the skills, use them in the real world and make a permanent change the way they work, and the way their people perform. Nobody else in this region is doing what we do at that level.   13. What are some business ideas you have implemented that created great results in your business? In term of what we teach to leaders, the content is original. Structurally, how we teach is revolutionary and we use carefully designed processes for ensuring the learning is permanently transferred to the workplace. I feel that most of the money organisations spent on training is completely wasted. This is because 3-6 months later, the nothing has really changed for the better in the company. Our emphasis is on use of learning. We have an extended process for embedding skills. A recent innovation we have is the introduction of user-based pricing. Companies budget on a $ per person basis and measure results on a per person basis. So it makes sense to charge for training in the same way. This means the company spending is in line with its budget and the way they measure results. Issues around how many people they can release for training at one time should not affect their costs. We take care of that.   14. Where or who do you get your business ideas from? All from myself. I watch, I listen, I think, and then create new solutions.   15. What do you see for your business in the next 5 years, and does it include any plans for expansion? Donald Trump said "While you might as well think big." My purpose is to affect the lives of as many people in the corporate world as possible. I can't do that on my own. The reason we have a big focus on leaders is because if we can transform a leader, he can transform all the people working under him. We take the top down approach. At the same time, I am building a team of people globally to do what I do so that my company can deliver results to far more companies. Moreover, I am growing a pool of corporate executive coaches that can help my business expand when they transition out of corporate life.   16. What does entrepreneurship mean to you? The word 'entrepreneur' is an overused term. It is having an idea and a passion. It is going out to create something unique or improving something by doing it in a new way; and making a difference.   17. What are some entrepreneurship qualities that you have which has helped you come this far? Understanding that you can do anything you really want to achieve. Being committed to working hard and not expecting anyone else to hand things to you on a plate. What holds people back is their self limiting beliefs. We must recognise how phenomenal the human brain is. Believe in yourself and to realise there is no quick money in this world.   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) I left school early as I was attracted to the workplace and I wanted to earn money. I had to go through the hard way to take up part time diploma and degree courses while I was still working. Nowadays, tertiary education is the minimum and we need to focus on that. Very often, the common perception is that the parents need to be entrepreneurs before someone in the family can become one. There is nothing entrepreneurial in my family history.   19. In your opinion, what does it mean to have the 'spirit of enterprise'? Determination to make a difference.   20. Who or what motivates and inspires you? My wife. She has a high level of belief in me. The business would not have happened without both of us. We are like the double helix of DNA. We are inter-linked and we complement each other. She gives me phenominal support and really believes in me.   21. What are some of your business values and what would you like to pass down to others, particularly the younger generation? I don't think I am qualified to 'pass down' anything in the way of advice. I am still learning now and there is still a long way for me to go. However, if you have something better, original and different, focus on giving quality to people. Success is not created overnight. Take the bubble tea craze for example, it failed because no one added value or created anything better. They just copied others. I believe you should always be looking to improve something, or add more value. You don't always have to have a completely new idea, you do have to bring something new to the area you work in.   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. It is the accumulation of past experience. When I was in the corporate life, I was on the receiving end of a lot of training. When I went into my business, I analysed the past experience to see what worked and what didn't work. Then I asked myself how can I do it differently to improve.   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? 2009 has been a record year for the company because we stopped and did some thinking. It is about adaptability. Einstein said that "Doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different result is THE definition of stupidity."   24. What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business? Don't! Go work as an employee for somebody else for a while. Go work in the industry of your interest for a while and check your ideas. See what goes wrong. Talk to customers and see how they feel and what they really want. Then go out on your own and do it better.   25. How would you describe Tony Latimer? Who is this man? How do you want yourself to be remembered? What is your legacy? That is a big coaching question. (laughing) I guess I would want the epitaph to say "He made a Difference." I would like to be remembered as 'A Change Agent.' I am working on building a sustainable organisation which will continue to grow and equip more people with the skills to change the working lives of others by impacting as many leaders in the world as possible. Many education systems inhibit thinking. I do not teach people new skills but re-awake the skills they were born with. We are teaching people how to solve problems. Every company, instead of focusing on its business results, should focus on becoming a leadership factory, in growing and developing people. If you do that, you will get the business results, they are just the measure of success in developing people in the workplace. Our emphasis is to grow and spread across the world so as to change existing leaders. As we do that, the next generation of leaders will simply follow their example. True sustainability of change.