Transforming Your Business For Explosive Growth

Recently, I shared with a small group of entrepreneurs that by changing their business model, they can propel the growth of their businesses.

Having been a CEO of both large and small enterprises, the chairman of the Asia Pacific region for a top-notch strategic advisory firm, and an established entrepreneur, I have personally crafted and implemented many business transformational projects.

I have experienced and benefited from many an explosion of profits, advantages, and growth.

Please allow me to share just some of my experiences with you.

When I was a kid and growing up in poverty, I used to work in Sungei Road – otherwise known as the “thieves market” – as one of the many above-the-board street peddlers.

In that dog-eat-dog world, I was competing with many other similar peddlers.

I worked with my aged Aunty to come out with the idea of branding our products as “Cote De’Or.” Nice name isn’t it?

That simple idea of branding our products helped us to take a lion share from the other peddlers. They were either selling generic brands or brands that could never appeal to the heart and mind.

Through the branding journey, it differentiated us from the crowd and compelled us to provide many distinctive services.

At a later stage of my life, I found a job not just by responding to a job advertisement.

I made a direct appointment with the senior manager of one of the biggest companies in the world.

I did not just meet him for a job appointment.

I presented to him a well-researched and substantive business plan to help leapfrog the growth of the business.

I even offered to work for free because of my belief in my plan and abilities to innovate a different business model and implementation plan.

I was happy to just have a cut of the additional customers and profits that I would bring to the company.

We finally agreed on an income package.

It was made up of a relatively low basic salary and a high percentage of the profit.

Within less than three years, I made almost as much money as my boss. I was eventually appointed to become the youngest member of the management committee.

By the time I left the company, I had totally transformed the business operation and took the company from almost total wreckage to become a force in the industry.

In another company that I worked for, I helped to transform the way financial traders and investors transact various instruments of investment.

We had to train a whole generation of professionals on how to conduct fundamental and technical analyses to improve their returns on investments.

As a strategic consultant, my greatest contribution was to help companies turn around and take off in the the market by transforming their business models.

I remember working with some of the top companies in the world and helping them to make major thrusts in the market.

For example, I helped a petroleum company to integrate different systems to attract customers and “hold their customers captive and totally tied up” to the use of the company’s services.

Within a short period of time, they increased their market by a few percentage, an achievement that was unheard of in the industry.

I also helped to pioneer the integration of retail technology, computer system, and telecommunication network to automate different enterprises.

Without realizing it, I was developing and implementing what the business world would term as a disruptive system today.

I came out with many innovative models that helped my clients to destroy many of their competitors and dominate the market.

As an entrepreneur, my partner and I practically created the B2C industry for adult learning programmes.

We have developed and changed almost every aspect of that industry.

Because we have an abundant mindset, we also went out of the way to train our competitors on how to run their businesses more effectively and efficiently.

There is hardly a single personal development seminar company that has not been influenced by us and has not built on some of our business models, systems, structures, and processes.

I have also helped to build a technology business that became a pioneer of its industry. It went on to have clients in more than 60 countries and have a nett profit of more than eight figure worth of money.

Subsequently, I took over a small firm and grew it to more than 10,000 strong. It also generated a turnover of more than one hundred million dollars within a relatively short period of time.

According to Singapore 1000/SME 500 survey, it became the fastest growing company in the industry for years and was ranked number 7 in terms of rate of growth on a national level.

At one point, it became the most productive company in Singapore in terms of returns on equity. It also became one of the top 50 companies in the country.

Many of the companies that I worked with broke records in the industry and achieved many unprecedented results.

Over the years, as an institutional investor and an angel investor, I have invested in many firms.

I have also taken strategic interests in some firms and helped them behind the scene to become a major force in their respective industries.

I have taken on different roles in the business world, including being a judge of business competitions, evaluator, mentor, coach, trainer, and advisor.

Throughout my journey in the business world, I always wonder why people cannot see their blind spots. (Perhaps, that’s why they are called blind spots. Ha!)

More importantly, why they did not spend more time sharpening their axe and changing the forests so as to cut more trees.

Here’s my point.

As you begin a new year, please remember if you walk on the same road, you will always reach the same destination.

While you live with your unknown unknowns (ignorance) and known unknowns (apathy), soon, the world will change the road.

As a result, you may never reach your destination.

You may even become lost, be left behind, or worst, end up like the dinosaurs that disappeared during the ice age.

To reach a different destination in terms of your personal and professional results, you need to not only change the direction but to also develop your own roads.

In the near future, I hope to share with you some of the clinically-proven tools and other resources that I used to innovate and implement new business models.

The strategic concepts that I would like to share with you are not based on any feeling, fad, fashion, or fetish.

They are scientifically-tested and are results-driven.

Tangible, recurring, and sustainable results are the only true measurement of life.

One of the professors in my doctoral programme told the class on the very first day in the course, “Many of the beliefs and practices in the world are unfortunately wrong.

“They are based on assertions, hear-says, and pop culture.

“Even common sense and practical experience can be wrong.”

To change your business model, start by asking yourself the following questions:

What kind of a life and business should you be developing in the future?

What are tomorrow’s problems you need to start resolving today?

What are tomorrow’s opportunities that you need to start capitalising on today?

Feel free to share the posting if you feel that others can benefit from it.

Go4It!

I hope this message will find a place in your heart.

By the way, I have also recorded other reflections.

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Please read my reflections and continue to teach me.

Life is FUNtastic!

(Photo produced from my iPhone 6)