1. Continuing Madam’s Legacy
If you’ve ever heard of the famous Madam Kwan, and wondered who she is - I can tell
you. Madam Kwan is my mother in law. She was the mind behind a bustling eatery in the
70’s called Sakura Café. Anyone who came to Jalan Imbi in those days were sure to make
a pit stop at Sakura Café. Madam Kwan loved to cook for people and seeing them enjoy
her food was one of her biggest joys.
I grew up on the border of Penang and Perak, in a small town called Parit Buntar. I was
schooled and raised there, eventually arriving in KL in 1992, got married and settled down.
At that point, my mother-in-law had made some risky investments and was at the risk of
losing her business.
One morning, I walked into the kitchen and immediately sensed her sadness. She looked
forlornly at me, and asked me why the only thing she sacrificed her whole life for was
being taken away from her. This incident led to the birth of the Madam Kwan brand. We
managed to give her back her kitchen on 65, Jalan Telawi 3.
I am passionate about carrying on her legacy, until this very day. My purpose for going on
this journey goes back vividly to that day when I found her in our kitchen, heartbroken at
the prospect of not cooking anymore.
I told myself at that time that I would do this for a while, but you know how it is, three
months turn into 16 years and before you can blink, you’re in the thick of things. I believe
everything happens for a reason. Despite the challenges I have faced, it has been a
wonderful ride and I’m happy with how everything has turned out.
Along the way however, it is easy to lose yourself in the equation, which is why when I was
prospected to join YPO six years ago, I was rather uncomfortable. At that time, I
considered our business profitable but small-scaled and I didn’t see myself on par with the
big boys within YPO, they were all in the ranks of country managers and CEOs of multi-
million dollar companies. It felt like being put on the field to play tennis with a pro.
However, I was torn because I had heard about an amazing YPO product, known as the
forum. Because of the value I saw in this product, I mustered up the courage to start my
YPO journey. Looking back, I’m so glad I joined because the forum has changed my life. It
has made me a better manager, wife, mother, daughter and leader. I’m not perfect but i’m
working towards who I want to be.
The forum taught me to categorise my life into three sections - my work-business life, my
family and myself. At that point, it wasn’t easy to talk about myself. However, I recognised
what I could benefit from this the moment I was asked how I was doing - not how the
business was going or how my family was getting on, but me. I became aware of all the
power I had within me to create change within myself, my family and the company.
The other thing that helped to cement my loyalty towards YPO was the moment that I
realised that I wasn’t alone. Before I joined YPO, I used to feel that my problems were
unique to me, but I no longer feel that. I came to understand that my challenges were a
universal thing. Through YPO, I found that every CEO and manager has felt what I feel.
We are all human beings in the rat race; regardless of the size of your business, we all
experience the same thing. The people I met at my forum every month became my
sounding board.

2. There were times when I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was a simple kampong girl taking
on the role of chief waitress. F&B is a very needy kind of business and it takes a lot of time
to look after. It is a business where anything can go wrong and it is a huge challenge to
deliver the same thing over and over again to your customers. You don’t always get it right.
Starting a business requires you to practice situational leadership by way of telling,
especially in the beginning. Like a conductor, there is a lot of directing involved - you need
to be able to translate business goals into simple terms in order for your staff members to
understand your vision. By attending workshops organised by YPO, I was exposed to the
best practices by multi-national companies. I learned that it was important to implement
core values in any business. From then on, we built our core values and what I passed
down to my staff, was to be the best in everything we do.
My mother-in-law always strove for quality. Whether it was about making the best chicken
curry, or the most scrumptious satays, we want to ensure that what you get in Madam
Kwan’s, you don’t get anywhere else in Malaysia. We make everything from scratch. I also
passed down what our guru, my mother-in-law taught me: if it isn’t good enough for you to
eat, it isn’t good enough for our customers. She always taught us to put quality ahead of
profit.
However, I still have a lot to learn. When I was expanding the business to Singapore, I had
a YPO friend that came to spend an afternoon with me while I was in the city. He asked
me - how much of time in our daily lives do we spend attending to urgent matters? Have
we paused for a moment to think about the last time we attended to important matters
instead?
He made me be conscious of the fact that many of us spend our whole lives trying to put
out fires. I learned an invaluable lesson that afternoon - that we have to ask ourselves
regularly where we stand on matters that are truly important in every aspect of our lives,
whether in business, family or personal matters. I urge you to take some time today to
implement this in your lives - you may be surprised at the results. I certainly was.
Maureen Ooi is YPO’s Forum Chair for 2016-2017. The views expressed by Maureen are her own, and not
necessarily representative of YPO Malaysia. To find out more about YPO and its global network of over
24,000 CEOs, log onto www.ypo.org
About YPO
YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) is a not-for-profit, global network of young chief executives connected
through the shared mission of becoming Better Leaders Through Education and Idea ExchangeTM.
Founded in 1950, YPO today provides 24,000 peers and their families in 130 countries with access to unique
experiences, extraordinary educational resources, access to alliances with leading institutions, and
participation in specialized networks to support their business, community and personal leadership.
Altogether, YPO member-run companies employ more than 15 million people around the world and generate
US$6 trillion in annual revenues.