One
of successful entrepreneur that we choose is Bryan Loo. Bryan Loo is a Malaysia
entrepreneur and he is the master franchisor for the Chatime brand in Malaysia.
He is the CEO of the faster growing beverage brand in Malaysia. Bryan Loo has
been the winner of the Best Master Franchiser award in 2012 and be called “
Emerging Entrepreneur Of The Year” at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The
Year Awards in 2013.
Bryan
Loo was born in Perlis, the smallest state in Malaysia. Loo is married and has
second daughter. His first entrepreneurial venture was at the tender age of 7.
He was good at drawing comic book and found friend who were willing to pay just
for read his comics. He sells his comic book at RM0.50 to get a bit more pocket
money.
He
earned a degree in biotech from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
After his graduation, he returned to Malaysia and worked for a biotech company.
After two years being a worker, Loo have decided to start his own business, and
looked into the possibility to selling bubble tea. To achieve he dreams, Loo
travelled to Taiwan with his father. He was approached five companies with an offer
to bring their brand to Malaysia, but all rejected his offer.
After
that, his cousin who had just returned from Taiwan told Loo that Chatime was
looking to expand their business. Bryan Loo contacted them and Chatime CEO was
flew to Malaysia to meet Loo within 24 hours. Following the meeting, Bryan Loo
was given the Master franchise for Malaysia. Now, Chatime is currently the
fastest growing beverage brand in Malaysia, and Bryan Loo leads Chatime
franchise in the ASEAN region and was opening 100 outlets in three years. ().
There are some valuable lessons or some trait that we could learn from him and
his success.
Visionary
is one of the defining traits of entrepreneurial, which is the ability to spot
an opportunity and imagine something where others haven’t. They imagine another
world and have the ability to communicate that vision effectively to investors,
customer and staff. Entrepreneurship is not merely about earning money, it is
also about entrepreneur satisfaction and purpose. Before Bryan Loo brought in
Chatime to Malaysia, his vision then was to bring the culture of drinking
bubble tea into Malaysia as well as cultivate a tea drinking culture among
Malaysia consumers. His visions come true when Chatime franchise become one of
the fastest growing beverage brands in Malaysia and in ASEAN region.
Risk
taking is a part of entrepreneurial life. Entrepreneurs have to have a risk
taking sprit, it is because not taking risk can kill a business before it gets
off the ground. Because of that, open risk taker is the one traits in
entrepreneurial. In Bryan Loo case, he is open risk taker when he makes the
decision to leave his paid job and start the Chatime franchise. Loo willing to
leave his job and travel to Taiwan to search the company that have business in bubble
tea and want to bring their brand to Malaysia. But he failed, Loo was rejected
by many top brands and none of them were keen to expand their business in
Malaysia. Until his cousin come and tell him about Chatime. Result of that,
Bryan Loo has become the Best Master Franchise in 2012.
Besides
that, observant also a traits in entrepreneurial. Being observant of your surrounding is one
way to unleash your inner creativity. You do not necessarily have to be an
expert in a specific business in order to be a successful entrepreneur.
Learning from its history and observing trend is key to ensure your decision.
Bryan Loo also does not have previous working background in the food and
beverage industry. He started doing research on the industry by visiting different
trade expos with his father in Taiwan. With his aim to look for a food and
beverages business that require only an automated process to control quality.
After
that, Loo see a gap in the beverage industry, at the time only the coffee
market such as Starbucks was the trend. Brayan Loo describe, “There was no real
tea beverages offered to the middle low range target market.” After another few
months of hard work and persuading mall operators to give his concept a chance,
and in 2010, he eventually opened his first Chatime stall in Pavilion KL. That
was when the bubble tea bubble started to grow, and now, with over 100 outlets
in nationwide (The Star, 2013).
Networked
in entrepreneurship aim is not to grow a single organization but to achieve a
greater impact through a network of collaborators and partners. It will
increase the range of resources that can be brought to bear on an issue and
multiples the number of experiment and innovations and at the same time
allowing a solution to be tailored to particular circumstances (Alex, 2006). In
order to be networked, Loo was working on a bigger project to expand into
fast-moving consumer goods. He plans to produce canned Chatime beverages that
can be sold in convenience stores, restaurants and supermarket. Besides that,
Chatime has embarked on marketing campaigns with social apps such as WeChat and
LINE, offering discount and freebies.
The
company also sells a limited selection of beverages on Air Asia flights and has
featured the budget airline’s ads on the plastic cover of its beverages. (Ann
Tan, 2014). Furthermore, Loo wants to embark on co-branding exercises with
well-known consumer brands. In terms of beverages, two out of five new
beverages it has launched in Malaysia are co-branded drinks featuring locally
accepted flavors. For example, last year, it introduced Horlicks and Oreo-flavored
beverages.
The
company recently announced that it would tie up with Cadbury to offer chocolate
beverages. (Ann Tan, 2014). Bryan Loo said, “Co-branding and localization has
become very important to us because we want to eventually make our brand a
household name. We want people to be really familiar with our brand”. This is
why networked become important trait in entrepreneur view.
Becoming
a successful entrepreneur requires many skills.
One of the key components of being an entrepreneur is be a proactive.
Being proactive means, creating or controlling a situation by causing something
to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened. To be a proactive
entrepreneur, you must focus on the steps that are required to get you where
you need to be. These steps will include planning for unforeseen events. Once
all proper steps are taken, you can respond to situation effectively as they
surface. In order to be a proactive entrepreneur, Bryan Loo want to
implementing a series of business plan to grow the Taiwan based lifestyle tea
brand in Malaysia. Loo was confident in the Chatime brands potential and growth
plan underscore his steadfast belief that tea beverages are not merely a fad that
will eventually fizzle out.
Loo
said, “I want to correct the public’s mindset that we are a bubble tea shop. We
are not a bubble tea company. We are a lifestyle tea provider.” He adds that
the confusion could have come about because Chatime offers bubble tea in its
menu, and tapioca-based pearl topping can be added to its drinks as an option.
However, that is just one small part of Chatimes large beverage menu, which
offers coffee, milk teas, green and black tea, chocolate and fruit beverages.
Besides that, Bryan Loo intention that from day one, his target had been to
cultivate a modern tea-drinking culture in Malaysia, much like what he saw in
Taiwan. Taiwan has more than 190 tea brands and over 15,000 outlets, which form
the base for the country sturdy is tea culture. “The business was never about
creating hype in Malaysia, it is about modernizing the entire tea drinking culture
in Malaysia.” Loo said.