Wong Kim Hoh meets...... (Sunday Times Interview Series)

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#7
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Feb 24, 2013
Wong Kim Hoh meets... Jenny Koh
Survivor with a spring in her step

Can-do attitude, long-term vision helped this tough cookie turn company's fortunes around

Twenty years ago, Ms Jenny Koh flew to Jakarta alone for a week to find suppliers of wooden bed frames.

She knew no one in the Indonesian capital, did not speak the language and had no idea where the suppliers were to be found. As it turned out, many of the factories were located in remote areas outside Jakarta.

An Indonesian friend was aghast that she went about the task alone, telling her it was both foolhardy and dangerous for a woman.

But those were considerations she could not afford to ponder. Getting the suppliers was crucial because she needed to help turn around the ailing fortunes of her employer - mattress manufacturer and distributor Matsushita Greatwall Corporation.

Her temerity and gung-ho attitude served her well; she got the suppliers she wanted.

The same qualities have seen her rise at Matsushita Greatwall.

Starting out as the owner's personal assistant, she is now the group chief operating officer, having played a key role in transforming the once debt-laden company into a leading mattress and sofa manufacturer and distributor.

Besides Singapore, the group has offices in several countries including Vietnam, Mauritius, Kenya and Madagascar. Its total turnover last year exceeded $100 million.

Sitting in her spacious office - the size of a small studio apartment - in Sungei Kadut Way, Ms Koh, 49, says she never nursed big corporate dreams.

"I was not very ambitious. All I hoped for was a good job, one with opportunities for me to get promoted to, say, a manager," she says.

The second of four children of a vegetable seller and his wife, she grew up in a rented wooden house in the Toh Tuck area.

"Life was hard but my parents made sure there was food on the table and the children went to school," she says.

Academically mediocre, the former Swiss Cottage Secondary School student had to repeat her O levels.

She began work as a clerk in a paper company after completing her A levels at a private school.

"I was then the youngest in the office and was roped in to help with everything - from purchasing to computer programming."

Two years later, she left to be a personal assistant at a multinational corporation providing engineering and turnkey services to the oil and marine construction industries.

Her boss was head of operations for quantitative analysis and quantity surveying, and she picked up a lot of useful skills - from preparing budgets to writing complicated safety reports.

"It was a big place with staff of all nationalities so you learnt to work with all types of people. There was also a lot of politics at play so you learnt to be street-smart. If not, you wouldn't survive," she says with a laugh.

The financial crash of 1987 dealt a big blow to the company. Many employees lost their jobs, including Ms Koh.

Around the same time, a friend, Mr Peter Liong, offered her a job as his personal assistant. With funds from his family, the former banker had bought over Matsushita Greatwall which was in financial trouble.

It had seemed like a good buy. Started in 1968, the company was a pioneer in manufacturing spring mattresses, and had its own brand, Wonderland.

But it was only after he came into the company that Mr Liong found out he got more than he bargained for.

Ms Koh says: "Peter thought he could just sit there and collect dividends. But he soon discovered whatever money he put in would be gone in a matter of weeks."

They discovered the company was saddled with a lot of old stock.

"There were a lot of damaged and rejected goods in the warehouse. The fabric covers were old and could not be used; the springs were rotting and rusty."

They kept the ex-owner on the staff but soon suspected that he was squandering money and cutting deals to line his own pocket.

"We realised soon there he was doing something behind our backs, but without evidence, we couldn't boot him out."

They finally caught him out during a turnkey project in China.

"When he was caught, he actually asked if we wanted a share," she says, shaking her head.

Getting rid of the rot and cleaning up operations proved a gargantuan task.

Suppliers would call, shouting expletives down the phone and haranguing them to settle their debts.

"One day, our power supply was cut off. Apparently, the landlord was very fed up because the ex-owner owed more than two years' rental. We have no idea how he managed to avoid paying for so long," says Ms Koh.

To add to their woes, the sales director left with all but one member of the sales team to start a rival company.

By then, Mr Liong had poured more than $2 million into the company.

Determined to stem the bleeding, he and Ms Koh set about turning the company around.

But first, they had to get the workers - all of whom had been with the company for years - to come round to their side.

"In the beginning, they would reject whatever we told them to do. They would say, 'This cannot do, that cannot do.'

"We realised that we knew nothing about the trade or the products and we needed to get that fixed."

So both Ms Koh and her boss became workers at the factory.

"We changed into our shorts and T-shirts and spent a few hours every day at the factory. We learnt how to assemble bed frames, how to clip wooden materials together, how to sew covers on to the spring units. We did this every day for nearly three years," says the feisty woman who proved to be quite adroit with the factory's machinery.

"It took a bit of time before the workers realised we were serious about the business. We spent a lot of time with them, especially the supervisors. Their attitude started to change," she says, adding that many of the employees are still with the company.

Time away from the factory was spent in the office, fighting fires or making sales calls.

"We sat down with customers just to understand the business and to know who we were dealing with. Peter and I worked so closely together then that people sometimes mistook us for husband and wife. That's bad. Maybe that's the reason why I'm still single," she says with a tinkling laugh.

Money continued to be an issue.

To keep the business going, Mr Liong sold his house and golf country club membership.

Ms Koh also dug into her savings on more than a few occasions.

"There were times when I would collect my salary in the morning and bank it back into the company in the afternoon. Mind you, I was only earning a couple of thousand then so you can imagine how financially strapped we were."

The way out, the pair decided, was to export and hopefully get the sales volume they needed.

They zeroed in on Australia and Japan, two of the bigger markets then, and started participating in trade fairs such as the Tokyo Furniture Fair and Australia's International Furniture Fair.

Ms Koh took charge of Japan; Mr Liong, Australia.

Often the only woman among Singapore furniture exhibitors in Japan, she brought in a lot of business, thanks to her street smarts and pleasant disposition.

She remembers meeting an elderly Japanese man in Tokyo, one who was well respected in the industry. She would make it a point to greet him politely each time she saw him at a fair, even though he was not a client.

A few years later, he came to see her with his senior manager and placed orders.

"In those days, the Japanese liked wooden frames with their mattresses. Our philosophy then was to get our customers first, and then accommodate whatever they asked for. And that was why I went to Jakarta on my own to look for suppliers," she says.

The export strategy worked, and turned the ailing company around. At one point, it became one of the biggest furniture exporters to Australia.

With that reprieve, Mr Liong and Ms Koh turned their focus on recapturing a share of the local market.

They decided to court American mattress brand King Koil, the rights of which Matsushita once had but then lost because the company's ex-owner breached territory rights.

Once they had secured the manufacturing rights, they set about building the brand.

"The father of one of our Australian business contacts taught us two very important things: get the right product and make sure your customers make money," recalls Ms Koh, who took on different roles - from sales manager to export manager - as she grew with the company.

They focused on service, taking on board feedback from dealers and accommodating their specifications even when it was more labour-intensive.

The company also started a factory in Malaysia in 1994.

Business grew, and the company soon acquired other brands including Dorma, Silentnight and Star Master; it also went into bedding and other furnishings.

From 1994, the company experienced compounded growth of more than 30 per cent each year.

Besides mattresses, Matsushita has become a leading sofa manufacturer as well. Its made-to-order fabric sofas, which are sold at Courts stores here, account for 30 per cent of its business.

It now has 2,000 employees worldwide, 300 of whom are based in Singapore.

"We have gone into product development, and have our research and creative team to do packaging, ads and interior design," says Ms Koh, who now handles operations, product development and marketing.

Mr Liong - who is Matsushita's group managing director - says he made the right move in hiring her 25 years ago.

"She is smart, dedicated and loyal, with good long-term vision," says the father of two grown children.

Describing his right-hand woman as a capable general with a posse of good soldiers, he adds: "She has strong IQ and EQ and is open to changes, especially in incorporating automation and high-tech, and values the importance of strong brand equity."

Ms Koh is surprised at her own tenacity.

"I discovered I am quite a tough cookie and that I have great survival instincts," says the energetic woman, who also found time to study part-time at the Management Development Institute of Singapore for a business degree from the University of Bradford.

Having helped to steer the company away from choppy waters, she now spends quite a bit of time doing grassroots work.

She is vice-chairman of Jurong Spring Citizens' Consultative Committee.

Mr Frankie Goh, the committee's chairman, says: "She connects with people really well and has a knack for solving tricky situations."

Although she laments that work has put paid to romance in her life, she has no regrets.

"I've learnt so much. Whatever I have is because of the hard work I put in," says Ms Koh, who lives in a terraced house in the western part of Singapore and plays golf every week.

"But I tell the younger ones that work is not everything. They have to plan for themselves."

kimhoh@sph.com.sgWong
My Value Investing Blog: http://sgmusicwhiz.blogspot.com/
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RE: Wong Kim Hoh meets...... (Sunday Times Interview Series) - by Musicwhiz - 24-02-2013, 10:26 AM

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