BIOGRAPHY OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR

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.