Wilson Ng started helping the family business since 9 years old. Since then, he had dreamt to be a successful entrepreneur, one who starts great businesses  ( he has started 7) from scratch with insight, guts and initiative. He keeps his focus on growing the business by creating value-- not on politics, or wasteful distractions. He brings the same focus to community service, teaching, life and family.

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	Saturday, March 19, 2005

A Call to Entrepreneurship  ( on business) The process of qualifying for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2004 was both ardous and challenging.  It also made me know more people, and opened doors.  The President of the Junior Achievement of the Philippines, a chapter of the worldwide JA organization, offered if I would accept the challenge to head a new chapter in our city, which I accepted.  I also was the Guest speaker of their 36th Awards Night, for which I enclosed parts of my speech. Nurturing good entrepreneurs and businessmen are essential to economic growth especially in developing countries, and the way to learn it is through learning by doing, something JA has been doing worldwide.  Here is part of my speech,   " ....  Unlike other entrepreneurs who quit their jobs to start their own business, I grew up with the thought inculcated to me daily that my father would turn over his business to me, eventually.  Our family was of Chinese lineage, and the Chinese were of the belief that the way to prosperity was to own your business, however small.  In fact, there is a Chinese proverb that says "it is better to be the head of a chicken than to be the tail of a bull, " and we absolutely believe and practiced it.  While other friends dreamed of becoming lawyers and doctors, most of what I dreamed was what business I would own. I remember as early as 9 years old, I was already helping the business during vacations and after school.  We had a small gasoline station, and I would fill automobiles myself, and receive the money.  I would receive deliveries, and ocassionally, I would go with the driver to deliver goods.  I would order supplies ocassionally, and I was also ask to collect receivables. I would fill up the deposit slip to deposit the cheques, and at the end of the month, I would take the challenge of balancing the bank statement.  Ocassionally I would be the one to make statement of accounts. I remember my father would talk business in the meal table with my mom, and tell her about his frustrations, and what products sold and what products did not, and who were the bad customers. They would talk about how to price certain products, and what margins would be ideal. When we had business visitors, we would bring them to lunch or dinner together, and hear him work out the deals. By the time I was 21, I not only had a business management degree under my belt, but also over 10 years of hands on experience of all aspects of a business. I had always thought that this early training give me an edge over competitors, and in fact, I believe sincerely that this training give the Chinese an edge in many countries, and the main reason why the Chinese own so many businesses worldwide.  No, they are not smarter.  They just helped the family mind the business, and learn the ropes early. That is why you should be grateful for what you have learned from JA.  You have learned from mentoring from advisers, but most of all, you have learned what it really is to manage your own business, and how to make it sustainable and profitable.  You have learned production, and basic accounting, sourcing, costing, and marketing.  No other training can give you a better grounding for your eventual entrepreneurship than a practical simulation of the challenges you will be facing -- in a controlled environment under the guidance of advisors. One of the best books you can read to learn about entrepreneurship is the E-Myth Revisited by Samuel Gerber.  In that book, the author tried to air out a fallacy that many people believe when they go into business, which is that knowing the technical side of the business does not mean you know the business. I have talked to many people who believed that just because they know how to bake cakes, they can be in the baking business, that because they know how to cook, they can be in the catering or restaurant business, or just because they know how to write programs, they can be in the software business.  Many people definitely would know how to make better tasting burgers than McDonalds, but that does NOT mean that they can be in the burger business. A business like McDonalds goes beyond just knowing how to make burgers.  It includes many practical aspects in business like understanding customer segments, advertising, market positioning, branding, logistics, sourcing, operations, costing and many other skills.  Many of these, especially in micro and small businesses are labelled everyday common sense and nothing insightful, yet these are the competitive edge that a business have, and it is precisely the lack of some simple practical sense that many entrepreneurs fail. I am in the computer business, but one of the great things I thanked was that I was a management graduate ( where I supposedly learn so many things that are just plain common sense  -- and yes, a lot of things you will read me write about in this blog are also mostly common sense things). I compete with computer science graduates.  I focus on making my business work, and making the technology work for my customer's business while they fall in love with their technology. Achievers, you have been through several months of managing and growing your mini-company.  In the process, you have managed to learn the different parts of the business, and you have gained practical skills.  You have not just gained common sense.  YOu have gained the insight that will help you immensely the next time you looked into a business.  Treasure it.  Even if you eventually also become employed, it has already succeeded in giving you a better perspective on how a business works, and we hope this skill that you have learned in JA will be something that will help turn you into a successful person..." 8:19:09 PM     comment []   trackback []

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2005  --  May , April,  March , February,  January

2004  --  December, November, October, September