MIB Special Edition 2015

Message from
Minister of
Domestic Trade,
Cooperatives and
Consumerism
Malaysia
T
he aspiration of becoming a developed
nation, depends on the success of the
entrepreneurial task undertaken by all
Malaysian. The implementation of the Economic
Transformation Plan (ETP) put all of us into the clear
roadmap in achieving high-income status by 2020. I am
happy to learn that Malaysian Indian Business Magazine
(MIB), a monthly publication, particularly on Eastern
Management enabling Malaysian Entrepreneurs and
Professionals progress towards achieving that vision.
Malaysia aims to be a leading Franchise hub in the
region. As such, we encourage Malaysian to expand
their participation in the franchise and cooperative
sectors. The franchise industry is expected to contribute
9.4% to the gross domestic products by 2020. I wish
Malaysian Indian Business community would be able to
take the opportunities available within the sectors.
Congratulations to all MIB Entrepreneur Awards 2015
recipients for their achievements and contribution
towards our economy. The recipients of MIB Lifetime
Achievement Award 2015 and MIB Entrepreneur Awards
2015 are important assets to the community. They had
substantially contributed not only from their personal
wellbeing but through their hard work as well.
I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate
IndianToday.Net Sdn Bhd, publisher of Malaysian
Indian Business (MIB) Magazine on celebrating their 5th
successful year of stimulating entrepreneurship among
Malaysian, particularly within the Indian community.
In addition to publishing, the company nurtures
entrepreneurs and recognizes their contribution to the
development of the nation.
I wish Malaysian Indian Business all the success in
continuously stimulating entrepreneurship and to all
present at the Gala Dinner cum MIB Entrepreneurs
Award 2015 Ceremony, let us work together towards
becoming a high income nation.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
YB DATO’ SRI HASAN BIN MALEK

Publisher
INDIANTODAY.NET SDN BHD (858997-V)
(Wholly-owned by Charu Holding Sdn Bhd)
Petaling Jaya Office
Suite 3A52, Level 3A, Block A2,
Leisure Commerce Square, Jalan PJS 8/9,
46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel/Fax: 03 7865 7320
Johor Bahru Office
No. 6-01, Jalan Bestari 4/2,Taman Nusa Bestari,
81300 Johor Bahru, Johor
Tel: 07 235 4236 Fax: 07 238 2320
www.malaysianindianbusiness.com.my
www.IndianToday.net (e-Directory)
mib@charu.com.my
https://www.facebook.com/
MalaysianIndianBusinessMagazine
CHAIRMAN & MANAGING EDITOR
Rasa Rasik
rasarasik@charu.com.my
016 711 4236
MANAGING DIRECTOR
R Surangi
surangi@charu.com.my
SALES & MARKETING
Jayasree Vijian
jayasree@charu.com.my
016 213 4236
Prasad Subramaniam
prasad@charu.com.my
ADMINISTRATION & CIRCULATION
Petaling Jaya Office:
Pungkodi
pungkodi@charu.com.my
Johor Bahru Office:
Shila
shila@charu.com.my
EDITOR
Arikrishnan Subramanian
editor@charu.com.my
Writers
Kishor Subramaniam
Anand Naidu
CONCEPT & GRAPHIC DESIGN
Kugan Rengasamy
design@charu.com.my
DISTRIBUTOR
One Stop Book Enterprise
PRINTING
Sampoorna Printers Sdn Bhd
No.1, Jalan TIB-1/19
Taman Industri Bolton
68100 Batu Caves
Selangor
EDITOR’S NOTE
H
APPY 2015! As we step into another
new year, allow me to express
my sincere appreciation and gratitude to all those have made
Malaysian Indian Business Magazine [MIB] to remain relevant for
the last five (5) years. We would like to give a heartfelt thanks to YB
Dato’ Sri Hasan Bin Malek, Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives
and Consumerism for his kindness to officiate the Malaysian Indian
Business Entrepreneur Awards 2015 [MIB-EA2015] ceremony. Taking
the opportunity of our 5th year of stimulating entrepreneurship among
Malaysian Indians, we thank all our advertisers, sponsors, subscribers,
readers, article writers and members of MIB Team.
MIB adopts January as a month of Celebrating the Success of outstanding
Malaysian Indian Entrepreneurs and Professionals who have shown
excellence and outstanding achievement in their respective sectors. We
congratulate all Inaugural MIB-EA2015 award recipients and wish them
continuous success on their business journey.
This special edition of MIB took a look on the entrepreneurial path and
traits of MIB-EA2015 award recipients and how MIBs oneness model
guided them to continuously push forward to being exceptional in the
competitive market. This special compilation should be part of every
entrepreneur and professional reading material as it contains priceless
true , practical sharing regardless how simple or complex they might be
handy at a most critical time. Grab a copy, read them frequently and keep
them safe for your future reference.
The past year 2014 has been very challenging for Malaysian Indian
Business Magazine as we set our prime focus into Eastern Management,
a proud step forward. As for 2015, we had planned to continue bringing
forward best of Eastern Management philosophies, including from
Ancient Indian literature, Thirukural, Scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita and
others. Support from members of business and professional community
is paramount for us to produce more original and meaningful content
including updated news and events. Sign up as our subscriber to have
the one and only Malaysian Indian Business Magazine delivered to your
doorstep.
BE KNOWN, BE DIFFERENT, BE SINCERE
Chairman & Managing Editor
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the articles published are those of the authors and do not necesarily
reflect the views of MIB. While every reasonable care is taken in compiling this publication, MIB does not accept any liability
whatsoever for possible errors, inaccuracies or omissions or the consequences thereof. The Publisher also accepts no
liability in respect of the content of any advertisement in the magazine. All rights reserved. The reproduction, duplication, or
republication of this magazine or any part thereof in any form whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the
publisher is prohibited.

07 Enricos
'Patcha Tinne Manje Moodi'
09 Agenda Suria Communication
Landmark Event Maker
13 Renowned Incubator Of Medical Practitioners
& Professionals
Thayananthen
15 Award Winning Beauticians & Cosmetologists
S. Vasuthevan
19 MIB Planner 2015
21 Drilling To Success
Dato’ Pannirselvam Manickam
23 Beauty Entrepreneur Extraordinaire
Sanjana
27 Innovative & Quality Construction Projects
Dr. Pushparajan Pillai
29 Wedding Designers For The Crème De La
Crème
Ramesh & Sriiya
33 An Icon In The General Aviation Industry
Captain Earnest Koilpillai
35 The Inspired Modern Potter
Arumugam Perumal
36 Skills The Main Commodity
Exclusive With CM Vicknesvaran
41 Transforming Beauties With Its Holistic
Approach
Valli Maiyeel Nadaraju
43 Winning Marketing Strategy
Dato' K. Elumalai @ Ganesh
44 Leadership Lessons From The
Bhagavad-Gita: Part 6
The Art of Cultivation
47 Carving A Niche In The Advertising World
K. Muthupandy
51 Foremost Quality Management Consultancy
Raja Segar
53 Founder Of A Successfull Retail Store
M. Kanagaratnam PJK, PKT
57 Look Exotic. Wear Exclusive
Andrew Paul & Abdul Anuar
61 Home & Premium Caterer
Yokitha Naidu
63 Boutique Private Banking & Finance Advisory
Specialist
R.V. Ganesh Prakash
67 The Non Quitter
Subramaniam Kandasamy
69 Beauty In The Hands Of An Expert
Selvarani
CONTENT

V. Rajendran
RAVIRAJ SDN BHD
Wholesale & Distribution - Dairy Products

Raviraj Sdn Bhd
I
t all started as Raviraj Trading in the dawn of 1989 to
solely distribute Enrico’s range of food products to retail
shops, restaurants and catering companies. Later, 8th
July of 1991, Raviraj Trading was incorporated into Raviraj
Sdn. Bhd (RRSB), with Mr S. K. Sundaram appointed as
it's Chief Executive Officer and two talented Directors, Mr.
V.Rajendran and Mr. R.Ravindran, to whom all the credit
goes for elevating the business into a celebrated height
and they are supported by a strong team of sophisticated
individuals to manage and run the company.
Along with Enrico’s, their distribution is also associated
with Landgreen Spice Veg Products, that offers a variety of
vegan food, from vegetarian mock meat to instant food along
with pudding, crackers, cereals, noodles and fibre drinks.
They have also entered to North India to get their hands
on Kohinoor instant ready to eat meals, which are being
distributed to various airlines for in-flight servings. RRSB is
also certified with HALAL, ISO 9001, ISO 22000, MeSTI and
have won multiple awards including Business Superbrands,
the Golden Bull Award, HR Excellence Award and a few by
Action International. The company credit their successes to
their marketing strength, which stands from 36 distribution
vehicles, 3600 retailers, experienced workers, outstanding
public relations, and media marketing tools, road cruisers
and endless supply of products.
As for their advertising campaign, it spans twenty years
of colossal media advertising. For instance, they have
sponsored ASTRO Vaanavil Talent Quest for six years
continuously. They have also done radio advertising with
THR Raaga and Sinar FM, to be exposed to the Malay
community, and advertised in Saji and Cine Fashion
magazines. They entered the local FELDA marts as well as
the international MATRADE Trade Shows.
ENRICO’s Brand
Enrico’s have a long business history that dates back to
more than 65 years ago to a trading outlet in Penang. It was
founded in 1940, by Mr. M. Mooka Pillai, to distribute spices
and lentils, in Malaya. It was then taken over by K. S. Nathan
as Nathan & Co. in 1960. He later renamed the company
to Enrico’s Sdn. Bhd. which stands for “ENRIch COmpany”
and developed the brand to a successful trademark. It was
then licensed to Raviraj Sdn. Bhd. in 1999. Enrico’s range
of products include ghee, milk powder, textured vegetable
protein (mostly known as vegetarian meat), spices and tea.
Their ghee, which is purchased from the well-known diary
producer from New Zealand, Fonterra, is branded in two,
most well-known Enrico's and the second brand Keywee.
In addition, their Enrico’s Full Cream Milk Powder is bought
from Fonterra as well. For their tea, which comes from
Assam, India, are branded as Enrico’s Hi Top Tea. The
Enrico’s Textured Vegetable Protein, comes under the
brand Soyamate.
Enrico’s is highly advertised by their road cruisers crew that
comes in two forms. The first is their Tea on Wheels mobile
kiosk that delivers free Enrico’s Hi Top Tea, and the second
is their sleek mascot, Ney Vande, a classic Volkswagen
Beetle, highly modified with Enrico’s yellow and green paint
scheme and logo, advanced In Car Entertainment and LED
lightings.
Key Traits
TRAITS QUALITIES THAT SHOWS THE TRAIT
Variety of It started with spices and lentils, which slowly
Products expanded to ghee and milk powder, and now it
ranges from drinks, vegan food, millet products,
and noodles, instant and read to eat food
Huge Marketing Their advertising is huge, especially with 6 years
and Advertising of sponsorship for ASTRO Vaanavil Talent
Quest, 2 Radio ads throughout the years,
Magazine advertisings, and international
MATRADE Trades Shows
Road Cruisers The Tea on Wheels mobile kiosk, delivers
free Hi Top Tea, followed by their mascot that
organize ground events for the public to win
prizes and goody bags, all around Malaysia
Point-of-Sale Free food tasting, drink tasting and
Activity promotions at various hypermarket, retailers,
and stores, throughout the years
Sleek Mascot It’s an addition with two reasons, first, it’s
an attraction, and second, it personifies the
brand and the company, making it more
friendly and approachable
'Patcha Tinne Manje Moodi'
07
MIB-Entrepreneur Awards 2015 Special Editon |

Jaggarao Simancha
AGENDA SURIA COMMUNICATION SDN BHD
Event Management - International

J
aggarao Simancha fondly known as Jag is the founder
and the Chief Executive Officer of Agenda Suria
Communication Sdn Bhd (ASC). Formed in year 2002,
ASC specialized in organizing shopping carnivals, trade
fairs and exhibitions. He was the brain behind the successful
brain behind Global Indian Festival (GIF), which attracted
almost 50,000 visitors back in the year 2004. Beside GIF,
ASC was also organize innovate and most successful Indian
shopping events such as International Indian Shopping
Festival, Indian Wedding Fair, Penang International
Shopping Festival and Deepavali Carnivals.
GIF being dubbed the largest international Indian shopping
festival attracted some 330,000 visitors in 2014 including
international visitors from Far East Asia as well as Australia.
The objective behind this innovative idea was to create a
network among Indian traders and unite them under one
roof. GIF helps to reveal new products to the market along
with giving hopes to struggling businesses thus creating
mutually beneficial relationship between traders and
consumers. Jag serves the community through Malaysia
South Asia Chamber of Commerce (MASACOM) which he
co-found and currently serves as its Vice President.
Jaggarao, who cited Steve Jobs as his inspiration, is truly
an innovative person with exceptional interpersonal skills. It
was his sole idea to organize local and international Indian
and non-Indian traders under one closed venue to expose
their new products to the consumers. Jags vision was to take
trade fairs beyond limitation, hence, targeting all the races
instead of focusing on Indians alone. Beside that limitation,
Jag also made trade fairs beyond festive season’s sales,
to boost trades sales during the unproductive months such
as June. Jags interpersonal skills are the building blocks of
his businesses, because without communication skills, it
would be an impossible task to bring all this traders under
one venue.
He is also very passionate about his business and willing
to take risk to see a brighter future. “Many local traders
refuse to venture outside their shops; therefore, allocating
a large number of sales booths in an indoor venue such as
shopping complex is a big risk, as the booths are usually
expensive. Although Pakistani and North Indian traders
agreed with idea, a lot of other international traders were
hesitant as well. Organizing the fairs in the mid-year school
holiday was a risk as well, but a massive crowd of hundred
thousands of people showed up in the end,” Jag explained
his risk factor to Malaysian Indian Business Magazine.
Jag’s very good with time management as well. Organizing
big events like shopping festivals is time consuming
therefore time management is an important quality to have
in doing this business. He cited that time management will
allow a businessperson to organize and prioritize the work
effectively and a good option would be creating a to-do list
or task list. With his time management skills, he is able to
bring hundreds of traders in a designated venue before the
due date with every preparation being done and completed.
Key Traits
Innovative Jag came up with the idea of trades’ fair and
shopping festival to bring all the traders of local
and international to promote and expose their
products under one venue
Interpersonal Interpersonal skills such as communication
Skills skill are very important in this business especially
when it involves international participants from
other countries
Taking Risk It is a risk to organize big events like trades’ fair
or shopping festival as it involves large amount
of money. It is also a risk to organize events
on holidays such as school holidays. Jag
somehow manages to overcome all that risk as
the entire events turn out to be successful
Passionate Jag insists to work passionately as much as
enjoying a hobby or pastimes, therefore doing it
in a passionate way and working in a fun and
enjoyable environments gives more success and
victory
Time Jag also very good in managing time as he
Management able to bring in all the traders under one venue
with all the preparation done and completed
before the events due date
Agenda Suria Communication
Landmark Event Maker
09

Thayananthen
NEUROSET (ME) SDN BHD
Education - Recruitment

Renowned Incubator
of Medical Practitioners &
Professionals
M
r. Thayananthen is the President and CEO of
Neuroset (ME) Sdn. Bhd, which was formed in
2009, and a company that responsible for recruiting
students, that qualifies within the specifications or academic
qualification imposed by Ministry of Education but failed to
secure a medical seat in local universities, and assist them
to pursue their medical degree in prestigious universities
with lowest possible cost, such as Kursk State Medical
University in Russia. The initial idea started in 1993 to assist
his late brother Dr. V. Sathiananthen to pursue medical
degree studies at a prestigious medical university.
The core idea of, students struggle in getting a medical seat
at any prestigious university led to the formation of Magaram
Enterprise in 1997. The formation consists of himself, his
late father Dato M. Varatharaju, and, his late brother Dr. V.
Sathiananthen. The management of Magaram took the first
effort to make Kursk State Medical University of Russia to
be recognized by Malaysian Government, comprising of the
Malaysian Medical Council and Public Service Department.
Their effort was effective as the Russian University was
granted its recognition in 7th of August 2001.
Magaram’s intention is purely to provide opportunity to
thousands of Malaysian students and students abroad to
attain the medical degree or achieve their dream as a medical
practitioner with lowest possible cost of fee structure. During
the time Magaram, they did a huge favour to Malaysian
Government especially to the Ministry of Health by reducing
the ratios of doctor to patient from 1:800 to 1:400. This
major contribution of Magaram solved the problem of acute
shortage of doctors around 2004 and 2005. In 2005, they
assisted 123 students with perfect score in STPM but failed
to secure medical seats in local universities to pursue their
medical degree at Kursk State Medical University of Russia.
Thayananthen expanded the business scope by forming
the Neuroset (ME) Sdn. Bhd, in 2009, with Dr. S. R.
Sen Gupta as Chairman and Dato’ A. Kohilan Pillay as
Advisor and their mission is to promote Malaysia as an
International Centre of Education Excellence. Therefore,
their ultimate goal is to promote tertiary education offered
by Malaysian universities to Central Asia, Eastern Europe,
Indian Subcontinent and other countries as well. They are
also responsible to encourage Malaysian students to study
medical and dental degree offered by Russian, Indian and
Bangladeshi universities. As for Business Law, Engineering
and IT degree, it will be United Kingdom.
Thayananthen, a Law graduate from University of London,
initiated a new business venture, a joint project in Mauritius
between Neuroset (ME) Sdn. Bhd. and a local university
education opportunity for students from Africa. Him, who
were born to Dato M. Varatharaju and Datin Ponnamah,
currently undertake the responsibility as the President of
Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur West and initiated “Charity
Education Fund” to raise RM 250,000 in a year with a 10%
of his contribution and also contributed to “Rotary Kasih”, a
project by Rotary International District 3300.
Key Traits
Community He assisted thousands of Malaysian students
Service who failed to secure medical seat to pursue their
medical degree at prestigious universities with
lowest cost and fee structure
Contribution promotes Malaysia as An International
to Education Centre of Education Excellence by promoting
Sector Malaysian universities in other countries
Contribution to The major contribution was reducing the ration
Medical Sector of doctor to patient from 1:800 to 1:400 thus
solving the problem of acute shortage of doctors
in Malaysia during 2004 and 2005
Charity Work He is very active in charity work, besides being
the President of Rotary Club, he has donated
and participated in Cambodian Eye Cataract
operation and Sri Lankan war victims’ Leg for
Legless
13

S. Vasuthevan
GREENO VALLEY MARKETING SDN BHD
Cosmetics - Ayurvedic

G
reeno Valley Marketing Sdn. Bhd. was established
in 1998 by Mr. Vasuthevan and his better half
Mrs. Vijayakumari. Prior to establishing Greeno
Valley Marketing Sdn Bhd Vasuthevan who holds MBA
(International Trade), held various key positions in Fortune
500 companies including at an American industrial
conglomerate, TEXTRON.
In year 2000, the company signed an exclusive distribution
agreement with the world’s pioneer and leading Ayurvedic
cosmetic manufacturer, Shahnaz Husain and never looked
back ever since. All 300 Shahnaz Husain Ayurvedic
products was approved by Pharmaceutical Bureau, Ministry
of Health Malaysia since it been manufactured according
to ANAB Accredited ISO 9001:2008 International Quality
Standard.
Greeno Valley Marketing Sdn. Bhd. was among the pioneer
Malaysian Indian company to secure a Franchise license in
2011 from Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs
Malaysia with 9 franchisees under its umbrella.
“Our aims is not maximize profit by selling cosmetics but to
create maximum benefit for consumers through the use of
Shahnaz high quality skin and hair care skin care solution
which is committed to the betterment of humanity and the
environment through ayurvedic science,” Vasuthevan
told Malaysian Indian Business Magazine. In Mid 2014,
Greeno Valley Marketing Sdn. Bhd introduced FAIRNESS
DREAM CREAM specially dedicated for Malaysian market
manufactured Shahnaz Herbals. The Fairness Dream
Cream made from pure plant extracts and essences
address the need for a naturally fair and radiant skin. Natural
ingredients namely saffron, honey, apricot oil, cucumber
and lemon were uniquely formulated employing the latest
scientific techniques in ensuring gradual lightening of skin
colour.
Greeno Valley Marketing Sdn. Bhd Shahnaz Hussain
Fairness Dream Cream makes the skin visibly fairer,
giving way to a smooth and healthy skin, with an even and
flawless colour tone. Enriched with precious emollients and
natural moisturizers, the cream not only removes tan, but
also counteracts sun-damage and prevents moisture loss.
Easily absorbed, it is suited to all skin types and leaves
the skin soft, smooth and youthful. The ingredients of the
Fairness Dream Cream have several other benefits, apart
from lightening skin colour, it also detox and rejuvenate
body cells from harmful free radicals ,oxidative stress and
hazardous chemical found in today’s so called FAIRNESS
CREAM that offers quick fix.
Vasuthevan has always looked ahead towards newer
challenges incorporating unique ayurvedic innovations.
His far sight, faith and dedication are something for all to
follow. His vision of getting GREENO VALLEY MARKETING
SDN. BHD. to reach even greater heights, he is indeed an
inspiration to all.
Key Traits
Persistent It took three years for them to get 400 dealers
around Malaysia, and they didn’t give up easily,
as their patients played an important role in their
business life
Time It was also time consuming as they were
Management constantly traveling for marketing purpose and
monitoring their outlets, therefore they had to
manage the time cleverly
Interested It took almost years for them to be thoroughly
successful in this industry as a franchisor; it
was their interest in the business that kept them
for such a long time without giving up or losing
hopes
Hard Work They are dedicated and committed in the
business as they were doing everything by
themselves, from registering, advertising to
marketing and taking care of every outlet
Trustworthy There will be a lot of agreements and signature
exchange between the franchisee and
franchisors, therefore they as master franchisors
must be enough trustworthy to get the deal and
contracts
Award Winning
Beauticians & Cosmetologists
15

MONTH SUBJECT KEY FEATURES
Jan Recognition MIBEA 2015 Award Recipients and Chat with
Government Officer
Feb Social Media Reach your market through cost effective social media
strategies
Mar Logistics The growth of Logistics Industries in Asean
Apr GST What’s Next after GST?
May Branding Creating wealth through Intellectual Property
June Human A look into Human Resources trainings and policies
Resource
July Capital Market The myth of getting public listed
Aug Government Effectiveness of Government policies in tackling
Malaysian Indian Business or economy
Sept Innovation Readiness of Malaysian Indian Business to face
borderless business world
Oct Banking Are Malaysian Indian under utilizing the banking
facilities?
Nov Tourism Untapped Niche of Tourism
Dec MIB Maker Top 10 Malaysian Indian Business personalities of the
year

2015
Editorial PLANNER
Business News
Subject Matter
Personality
Eastern Management
Analysis
Advertisement
Event Coverage
19

Dato’ Pannirselvam Manickam
USAE (M) SDN BHD
Engineering - Equipment Supply & Services

Drilling To Success
P
assion and desire transformed a mechanic to be the
first Indian successfully engaged in underground
construction industry. Y Bhg. Dato’ Pannirselvam
Manickam, Managing Director of USAE (Malaysia) Sdn.
Bhd. not just an ordinary businessman, he sets his mark
on being the trailblazer of Horizontal Directional Drilling
(HDD) technology, including trenching and micro-trenching
in Malaysia since the year 2000. Beside above mentioned,
he is responsible in making USAE (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd as
distributor of state-of-the-art trenching equipment all over
the nation.
He is the face of top-brands that specialized in HDD tools
that revolutionized the underground drilling technology
that lay cables and pipelines without the need of digging
trenches. Some of the top-brands he represents are Ditch
Witch, Charles Machine Works (CMW), Condux, Earth Tool
Hammerhead Mole, Digital Control Inc (DCI), from USA and
Australian Mud Company (AMC). Each of the company has
different role in this underground drilling industry. USAE
(Malaysia) is also responsible for the training programs and
onsite training for customers to ensure complete support in
handling the state-of-the-art equipment.
The new technology of HDD is widely used to mount
telecommunication cables and gas pipelines in Malaysia.
This technology captivated him to take a big risk and
approached USAE head office in Singapore. His business
plan and work experience actually helped him winning the
dealership of the HDD cutting-edge technology by USAE,
the leader in making trenchless drilling. “It’s very much
environmental friendly and efficient, low on cost and one
of the technologies that could actually drill under the river
or railway tracks without traffics congestions,” Dato’ Pannir
explained some features of USAE to Malaysian Indian
Business Magazine.
Dato’ Pannir strongly believes that customer satisfaction
is the only way in retaining them, therefore, his company
adapted a customer-oriented approach by providing
trainings, maintenances, repairs, and after-sale services
at any time in a week, including Sundays. He treat his
customers as his own partners and offers assistance on
calls, even on late nights. He offer attractive discounts to
customers, as in return, they do all sales and promotes his
equipment by spreading words around.
Dato’ Pannir and his crew attend training courses to keep up-
to-date with the latest technology, as essential requirement
as newer machines come with automation loading and cruise
control. His dedication, hard work, and the 100% effort put in
this business awarded him with RM 6.9 million of revenues
as of 2012 and was recognized as top salesperson of the
region during CMW Annual Business Conference in 2012.
Key Traits
Innovative Pannirselvam is credited as the trailblazer and
the first to pioneer Horizontal Directional Drilling
in Malaysia, as well as micro-trenching
Representing Representing a top brands is not an easy task
the top brands as Pannir need to level up to the standard of
that brands. He eventually attended training
courses to be specialized in those brands
Up to date As HDD is a new technology in underground
construction industry, Pannir had to be up to date
with that new technology from A to Z
Customer Pannir treats his customers as his own partners
oriented and will be there to assist them with services
onsite or offsite, even at late night
Dedication Pannir is a hard working businessman and put
his 100% effort to run this business. His mobile
can be reached at any time every day, including
Sundays, for maintenance and repair and
assistance, and this shows his dedication
21

Sanjana
SANJANA FASHION SDN BHD
Beauty Care - Boutique

Beauty Entrepreneur
Extraordinaire
S
anjana, an entrepreneur with a novelty thought is
the brain and beauty behind the success of Sanjana
Fashion Sdn Bhd, a one-stop centre for bridal care
and fashion tailoring. Established in mid 2005, Sanjana
Fashion Sdn Bhd comprises of Sanjana Bridal Beauty
Care, Sanjana Fashion Tailoring and the newly launched
Boutique. She offers bridal beauty care, herbal treatments,
custom-made tailoring, and wedding services.
A firm believer in intercultural work ethics, and the ability
to think beyond cultural boundaries helped to shape her
business journey. Her novelty thought of establishing a
one-stop centre, from beauty care, herbal treatment, and
custom-made tailor to wedding services, which includes,
photography, decoration and Mehndi artworks elevated her
business name. Besides bridal and fashion, her business
centre act as an academy, offering bridal and tailoring
courses. A full-time course takes between three to six
months to complete while part-time courses take a year.
She never once failed to treat her customers from various
profession including lawyers and doctors and racial
backgrounds as them as part of her family. Her much
dedication into customer service and customers’ satisfaction
attracted customers from Singapore as well as retaining loyal
ones that still prefer her touch for last eight consecutive years.
Her business career begins with much needed knowledge,
as knowledge is crucial in business world. She had her
proper studies in bridal care before actually venturing into
this industry. She pursued Advanced Diploma in bridal
courses in India, after noticing a bridal course advertisement
in a newspaper while working in Singapore. These sets of
knowledge on beauty care nurtured the necessity skills that
she needed in this business, as well as, developing her self-
confidence and positive thinking towards the business. She
know, if she is not sure what she is doing then she is not
getting anywhere near success.
Besides being a beauty entrepreneur extraordinaire in
this industry, she also acts as a key role model for the
young generations, especially to girls working under her
wings. She placed high priority of hiring girls and ultimately
guiding them to start their own business. She knows that
girls, especially Indians, faces many problems these days
and do not have much chances or opportunity to prove
them worthy. Therefore, being a key role model for them,
she takes a huge responsibility in sculpting their future.
Her inception into business world was unplanned, but her
courage, adequate knowledge, and burning desires brought
her success in this industry in such a short time.
Key Traits
Novelty It was her novelty thoughts of establishing
Thoughts one-stop centre from beauty care & bridal fashion
& tailoring, wedding services that elevated her
business name
Intercultural Her idea of working beyond cultural boundaries
Work Ethics and taking examples from other racial cultures
such as Chinese and Malays, helped to shape
her business journey
Excellent She offers excellent customer service as she
Customer treats her customer as part of her family even
Service when they are from different social status and
racial backgrounds
Adequate She had proper studies and pursued Advanced
Knowledge Diploma in bridal course that nurtured her skills,
confidence, and positive thinking
Role Model She is a key role model to young generations
as she give importance by hiring girls and guides
them to start their own business
23

Dr. Pushparajan Pillai
GERBANG BUMI DEWI SDN BHD
Construction - Building & Renovation

Innovative & Quality
Construction Projects
D
r. Pushparajan Pillai is the founder of Gerbang Bumi
Dewi Sdn Bhd (GBDSB), a construction company
based in Johor Bahru, that act as a one-stop centre
for construction needs with five subsidiaries under them
offering various services from civil, structural, mechanical,
architectural, electrical, interior works, design, build and
approval. Currently, the company is managed by the
energetic husband and wife duo, Rajan Pillai and Sulosana
(Tasha), and started handling projects from small scale to
big for the last several years and this includes factories,
hotels, houses, road works, bridges and schools.
His business venture begins in 1992, when he was still
18 and studying in Stamford College, Petaling Jaya, with
his first company Thunderstorm Marketing, founded with
a friend, and their foremost client was his own college.
Business was good with an income of RM 200-300,000, but
being young, they were still on the learning curve. One of the
unnecessary risks they took was registering 13 individual
companies under them, all in construction services. Upon
completing college in 1997, Rajan Pillai returns to Johor and
started the construction business and a restaurant. During
the 1997 economic crisis, he abandoned the restaurant and
focused on construction business alone.
Lesson learned including huge financial losses assisted
Rajan Pillai to shape up his latest venture LDS Construction
that employed 40 workers under them and registered with
Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) under G7
category. The support from his wife, Tasha, a PhD holder
in Sociology, has strengthened the company. Business
expanded from 2-3 projects a year to 10-15 projects a year,
thus, boosting the sales to 300 percent, a result of the last
8 years of efforts. In 2009, GBDSB was incorporated into
a Sdn. Bhd and expanded their jobs to Melaka, Negeri
Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur and Pahang.
GBDSB works in a very unique and customer friendly way
in contrast to their competitions. One such way is that
they’ll stick with the fixed price regardless of variation order
in the future and that manner secured them sophisticated
customers who need reliable contractors. GBDSB also use
current technology to easily interact with clients. Besides
that, Rajan Pillai is very punctual in terms of payment and
earned a good reputation among suppliers and workers and
this positivity has led to securing bank loans.
Rajan Pillai, who mentioned Dato P. Kasi and Tan Sri A.
K. Nathan as his role model, have big plans for GBDSB
and one of it is to make GBDSB known nationwide by
making it a huge one-stop centre that does not only gives
construction needs but as well as interior designs, furniture
and accessories. As for the future, he and his wife preparing
their eldest son, Arawin Raj Pillai, now a Director of GBDSB,
to take over their administration soon.
Key Traits
Hard Work Rajan Pillai credits, the increment of 10-15
projects in a year and the boosting of sales by
300 percent, to the last 7-8 years of massive
efforts he put in this construction business
Team Work His wife, Tasha, strengthened the company, as
he takes care of marketing and technical aspect
while she handles the financial matters
Unique Rajan Pillai mentioned that GBDSB works in a
unique way in contract to their competition, as
they stick to the fixed price regardless of variation
order in the future
Punctual in Rajan Pillai is very punctual in giving payments to
Payment his suppliers and workers, and therefore gained
a good reputation among them as well as
secured loans from banks
Customer GBDSB is very customer friendly and easy to
Friendly interact or discuss, and Rajan Pillai will go to
work sites every day to meet the clients in
person as he gives importance to them
27

Ramesh & Sriiya
GANA CREATIONS SDN BHD
Deco & Event Planner

Wedding Designers
for the Crème De La Crème
G
ana Creations Sdn Bhd, the crème de la crème
wedding designer was founded 15 years ago by
Ramesh and Sriiya. Started as home business
operating on weekends as Gana Creations, later registered
into Sdn. Bhd. in year 2004. The high end wedding designer
company has worked on more than 1500 projects up to
date. In the beginning, the pair started to offer photography,
videography and venue along with full event management,
but end up focusing on wedding decoration and designs in
the later years.
Seremban born Ramesh enjoyed landscaping during his
younger days, studied Electro-Mechanical and worked as
Assistant Engineer for 3 years in Malacca. While his partner
and wife, Sriiya studied Information Technology and worked
in Singapore when an opportunity came when a friend
asked to decorate for a wedding. Since then, they worked
on wedding decorations on weekends at Malacca and thus
was born Gana Creations. The happy couple Ramesh and
Sriiya opened a branch in Seremban at a shopping complex,
followed by another branch in Petaling Jaya when they got a
project in Kuala Lumpur.
As a high end wedding décor meeting clients’ demands and
expectations is their utmost priority. Their clients include
Malaysian Chinese and Malays; and also from India, Thailand
and UK who view Malaysia as unique destinations to hold
wedding ceremonies. Some of their memorable clients are
Tan Sri AK Nathan, Datuk Dr. Hj. Mohamed Haniffa as well
as celebrities such as Sushmeetha, Ram THR, Geetha
THR and celebrated film-maker Barathi Raja. Ramesh and
Sriiya even decorated a private jet for a client who wanted
to have their registration while flying high from Singapore
to Subang. They earned the recognition as an innovative
wedding designer and always on the constant look out for
fresh ideas. Ramesh and Sriiya are an ideal example of
team work. Their success is credited to their cooperation
and mutual understanding. Sriiya, who is excellent in interior
decoration, takes care of internal design, flower detailing,
and colour harmonization. She also takes care of the
administration thus giving Ramesh to fully concentrate on
production and marketing. He also alluded that patience
is the most important thing in this business as they meet
different clients with different opinions, perspective and
personalities. They need to deal with requirements and
expectations and create a positive tone among the clients.
Besides that, Ramesh and Sriiya are known for their
punctuality. They do numerous corporate events such as
annual dinners, theme parties and festival dinners. Every
event is a big event for their clients, and a moment to cherish
forever, therefore everything should be on time and run
smoothly without hassles. Some are open minded and some
are inflexible, therefore they have to cope with all kinds of
clients. They need to make sure that everything is ready
before the big events. Success does not come easy; Ramesh
and Sriiya have given their 100% efforts for Gana Creations.
Key Traits
Innovative They are known to be innovative as they are up
to date with current design and constant lookout
for fresh ideas
Customer They work with various clients with different
Oriented perspectives, from different races and different
countries, and they are able to set the positive
tone around them
Team Work Their successes are credit to team work and
mutual understanding as both have different role
in designing, administration, production and
marketing. They are able to separate the tasks
between them very well
Patience They work with various clients, some are flexible
and some not, but they are able to work with
patience to meet their clients need and
expectation
Punctual They need to be punctual and make sure
everything is in order and be on time to avoid
hassle in the last minute as clients are always
concerned about the events
Hard Work They left their normal 9-5 jobs to fully focus on
the business. Having done more than 1500 event
decorations with an average of 100 events per
year shows that they have put 100% effort and
their hard work in it
29

Captain Earnest Koilpillai
NASH AEROSTAR SERVICES SDN BHD
Aviation - Maintenance Services

An Icon in the
General Aviation
C
apt. Earnest K a self-made successful entrepreneur
in corporate aviation industry founded, Dnest
Aviation Services Sdn Bhd the first and the largest
in Malaysia to cater private and corporate aircrafts services.
He is solely responsible for pioneering Fixed-Base Operator
(FBO) in Malaysia when it was relatively non-existent back
in the mid 90s. In 30 years of dedicated service, he has
bought and sold 30 aircrafts for different people, relying
only on networking contacts he had made in this industry.
He sold his company in 2012 to a Malaysian public for an
acceptable profit and became advisors to AJ Aeroservices
and NASH Aerostar Sdn Bhd.
Capt. Earnest Koilpillai grew up in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur
joined Royal Malaysian Air Force in 1974 as a pilot in
transportation department. He continued his services there
for eleven years. He later joined private aviation industry
by piloting private business jets for corporate companies
namely MEC, Country Heights, Lowyat Group and Berjaya
Group. He decided to venture into Fixed-Base Operator
(FBO) when most Malaysian private aircrafts depended on
Singapore for aircraft maintenance and parking services. He
bought Airfoto Sdn Bhd, company that specialized in aerial
photography, from a friend with intention to open aircraft
maintenance centre and renamed is as Dnest Aviation
Services Sdn Bhd in 1990.
As the founder of Dnest Aviation Services Sdn Bhd , Capt.
Earnest has very clear vision of being a one-stop centre
for aircraft maintenance including, hangar and fuel supply,
repairing, painting, overhaul and immigration clearance.
Eventually, his FBO became the largest FBO in Malaysia,
catering the needs of regional corporate jets as well as
overseas clients such as Bombardier Aerospace, Executive
Jet, AgustaWestland, Metrojet, and Macau Jet. The company
grows from just two aircrafts in a small hangar in Subang
Airport with a land leased from Malaysian Airports Bhd to a
100,000 sq ft of parking spaces, that could accommodate
up to 30 private jet aircrafts including Boeing business jet.
His hard work and tireless effort eventually paid off as his
revenue increased to RM 1.2 million per month. He received
Emerging Indian Entrepreneurship award in 2004, Business
Excellence Award by Malaysia Canada Business Council
in 2006 and Global Organization of People of Indian Origin
(GOPIO) Entrepreneurs’ Excellence award in 2008 for his
contribution to the general aviation industry.
Capt. Earnest mentioned three important work ethics that
needed in this industry, interest, punctuality, and dedication.
There is many opportunity for young pilots and engineer but
should only join if there is interest and not because for its
highly paid salary. Flying is for dedicated people, sometimes
pilots needs to fly in a formation on training, if one does not
feels like flying for that day, anything could get wrong on that
day. One small mistake could send your career tumbling
down. Lastly, being punctual is the most important aspect
because every repair and maintenance for private jets
should be done before the flying schedules.
The Fixed-Base Operator industry in Malaysia still fresh and
lots of room for growth as blossoming business of aircrafts
market and more private corporate owns private jet for
business purposes. Malaysia offer the cheapest FBO in this
region and with rapidly upgrading of airports such as KLIA
and Senai International Airport there will be a lot more to
offer. The third reason is the massive jobless young pilots
and engineers searching for better job opportunity. Capt.
Earnest K is ready to help the future generation since the
commercial business of FBO will be better in the future.
33

Arumugam Perumal
ARU ENTERPRISE
Manufacturing - Pottery

The Inspired
Modern Potter
M
r. Arumugam Perumal is the successor of Aru
Enterprise, a 100 years old pottery family business
located in Kuala Selangor. They are one of the
experts in clay products and are much in demand, as their
products are sought after by all the races in Malaysia - the
Indians, Malays and Chinese.
Previously they were only used to make food related clay
products such as ponggal pots and thuwalak but now their
products have diversified to include an array of clay products
such as tandoori pot, curry pot, ponggal paanai, nei vilaku,
agal vilaku, statues, undiyal (money box), full sets of catering
pots and also uri pot specially for the Muslim friends.
The business was initiated in the early 1920s by his
grandfather Vengadasalam, and then given to his father
Perumal in the 1950s and then passed down to him for the
past 30 years. Since it is a family run business, his wife,
his son and his younger brother are all involved in Aru
Enterprise. During the early days, all the products are made
by traditional skills with the production of 70 pots per day,
and now Arumugam made a few innovations and installed
moulding machines, which do the 80% of their works and
produce 300 pots per day.
There’s not much competition in this business as there
are only seven big players of potteries in Malaysia - five in
Selangor and two in Perak - as it needed vast experiences
and skills to venture in this field, that either been cultivated
over time or handed down the generations. It is the
weather that brings the biggest challenges as they need an
uninterrupted supply of sunlight for the products to dry and
rainy season poses threat as it will delay the drying process.
Shortage of workers and getting a regular supply of skilled
talent poses the second challenge for them to expand their
productions. This also led to the difficulty to deliver the
orders taken, especially during the festive seasons, such as
Ponggal and Kartighai but the advantage in this business is
that they don’t need much advertising as they are already in
demands. Arumugam yet credits BABA Products (M) Sdn.
Bhd. for inspiring him to advertise their products through
pictures on their delivery trucks, an essential marketing
technique with value for money.
Discipline, dedication and full commitment are the key to
success in this field as the scopes are bigger with lots of
demands, plus clay products are only done by Indians alone
therefore it gives a huge opportunitiy for those who gets in
this business.
Arumugam has already been selling clay products to
Sarawak and have demands from Singapore; therefore he
always spends his time doing research to improve and make
more innovative and attractive products. Aru Enterprise
might be in traditional business with many challenges but
they are already in the roadmap to great successes in the
future.
Key Traits
Diversifying Used to make pots for ponggal and thuwalak
Products but now have diversified to include an array of
clay products from cooking pots to catering pots
Innovations Gone are the days of making pots with traditional
skills, the introduction of moulding machines has
increased the production of pots to 300 pots a
day and do 80% of their daily works
Less There is not much competition in this field as it
Competition needs skills and knowledge cultivated over time
or handed down generations
Niche The demands are huge with fewer suppliers, clay
products are always sought after eventually
Huge The business of clay products poses a huge
Opportunity business opportunity. Aru Enterprise has already
been selling to Sarawak and has demands from
Singapore
35

MANUFACTURING SUB-SECTORSElectrical and Electronic; Metal Product; Mineral Product; Food and Beverages; Transport
Equipment; Plastic; Wood & Wood based and Cork; Machinery; Industrial Chemicals;
Paper and Pulp; Iron and Steel; Rubber Product; Furniture and Fixtures
SERVICES SUB-SECTORSEnergy; Hypermarket/Supermarket/Departmental Store; Direct Selling; Commercial Land
Transport and Railway Transport Services; Warehousing Services; Port Services; Hotel
Industry; Freight Forwarding; Shipping; Air Transport; Tour Operating Business (In-bound
only); Postal or Courier; Telecommunication; Research & Development; Engineering
Support & Maintenance Services; Security Services; Computer Services; Advertising;
Private Hospital Services; Higher Education; Training; Gas, steam and air-conditioning
supply; Water treatment and supply; Sewerage; Waste management and material recovery
services; Food and beverage services; Production of motion picture, video and television
programme; sound recording and music publishing; Information service; Tourism enterprise;
Building and landscape services; Event management services; Early childhood education;
Health support services Franchise; Sale and repair of motor vehicles; Private broadcasting
services; Driving school; Veterinary services
MINING & QUARRYING
SUB-SECTORSPetroleum and gas extraction;
Mineral and stone quarrying
PEMBANGUNAN SUMBER MANUSIA BERHAD(545143-D)
Call 1-800-88-4800or email to support@hrdf.com.my
visit www.hrdf.com.my
2
38
23

CHECK YOUR
REGISTRATION
STATUS TO AVOID
PENALTY.
REGISTER WITH
PSMB NOW.

M
IB recently had an inspiring interview with Mr.
CM Vicknesvaran, CEO of Human Resources
Development Fund (HRDF) or Pembangunan
Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB), an organization under the
Ministry of Human Resources. First of all, MIB congratulates
Mr. CM Vicknesvaran on his appointment as Chief Executive
Officer of HRDF on 1st November 2014.
"When HRDF was founded in 1993, there was a study on
training institutes, and the result showed that Malaysian
companies are not doing enough training," as a result the
Government decided to start a training fund focusing on
Malaysian SMEs, that’s HRDF, and it works by taking 1%
of the salary as a levy being paid to the fund, which can be
utilized later for future trainings. He added, “For example,
if a company pays RM 10,000 as levy, they can take back
the whole RM 10,000 to be utilized for trainings”. As for
the additional benefits, Vicknesvaran states, “There are no
additional funds but SMEs have a few incentives, where the
Government has allocated including free courses being given
to them”.
Today, there are 14,000 companies and around 2 million
workers contributing to HRDF, and they can utilize the money
whenever they want to conduct training, subject to fulfilling
our conditions. Citing a study by the World Bank, that found
SMEs contributing to HRDF have performed well with a
significant of increase in terms of productivity and profitable
revenue. The newly minted CEO illustrated the woodcutter's
story “one keeps cutting, another one sharpens the axe, and
the one that sharpens the axe cuts more trees,” to the role of
HRDF of trying to inculcate a similar culture by sharing their
knowledge forcefully.
EXCLUSIVE WITH CM VICKNESVARAN:
SKILLS THE MAIN COMMODITY
| MIB-Entrepreneur Awards 2015 Special Editon

A cross-reference with Chamber of Commerce found that
only 30-40 Malaysian Indian owned companies contribute to
HRDF. When HRDF officer visited those companies, none has
utilized the money well; therefore HRDF had to teach them
to use the money. Now, after almost 5 years, the awareness
has increased, and the utilizing rate has gone up to 80%.
He added, “Another thing is, if you look at skills perspective,
an experienced economist from IMF, who predicted the
97 crash, said in 20 to 25 years, the main commodity will
be skills, not crude or palm oil but skills, and the country
with skilled workforce will lead the economy. There are no
particular skills as every worker from the lowest position of
to the highest CEO, you need skills, it doesn’t matter which
field or sector, in whatever you do, you need skills, this is
something I learned while I was with Jobstreet”
During his younger days Vicknesvaran went to Sekolah
Rendah Jalan Pasar and SMK Cochrane, Jalan Pasar,
Kuala Lumpur. He worked with a construction company
for two years upon graduating with Bachelor Business
Administration majoring in Marketing from UKM. His working
life continued at RICOH, a company that specialized in
photocopy machines. This is where he gained vast skills and
sales experiences and also developed confidence, as he was
put in a month of classroom trainings, teaching how to do
sales, demo, as well as technical aspects. He was there for
3-4 years before moving to Sharp, where he did networking
for 8-9 years. From there, he went to a petroleum company
with 70 engineers under him, and then to Jobstreet before
getting an opportunity at HRDF.
Being an Indian, does not matter or hinder him from getting
the support from the system, as hard work and skills are the
most important, “When I worked in Sharp, it was a Japanese
company with Chinese bosses, many people said I won’t get
promotion, but as far as I know, I had the fastest promotion
and biggest salary jump, you just need to put in extra hours
and mix well with others, something most Indians won’t do,
then you show the leadership qualities” and he adds, “ I
always do my best and never complaint because that is a
learning curve”.
In another 5 years, Malaysia will reach 2020 as a high income
nation, and HRDF plays a big role for that, and he said, “the
Governments has fantastic plans, the implementation being
done, and the money is being poured, but my personal view
is that private sectors are not following”. He explained that
in 1997 his salary was RM 2000, and now a fresh graduate
will get the same amount, but the productivity increased by
26% from 1997 to 2014, Consumer Price Index (CPI) went
up, inflation happened, but private sectors are not giving
the additional pays by giving lame excuse of low quality
graduates.
He then recounts his experiences, “When I’m with RICOH,
they didn’t expect me to come with all the skills, and they put
me in a month of classroom trainings. So you need to mould
the staff as you want. You cannot train each graduates into
specific skills, but once they come into a company then they
can be trained accordingly”.
While HRDF plans to expand their coverage to more than
63 sectors, the Government wants the HRDF to expand
to the people as it is the only agency which gives training
that impact and gives benefit to the productivity as well as
income. They are also taking additional responsibility by
giving a value added to the levy and creating awareness to
business owners.
He then said, “If you ask me, my ultimate goal is to see
the dissolution of HRDF, because our role is to make sure
training happens, but our role is only achieved the moment
there’s no need of us, which means the industries do the
trainings without being forced, which happened in many
countries before, and for that we are creating awareness and
publicity relatively more than last time as we want to inculcate
the culture of training among employers and employees”.
As for the Indian business community, he thoughtfully said
two things. First, he said for the Indian business training
providers to follow HRDF standards and give more certificate
programs and technical base programs , secondly, he asked
to the Indian business owners to check if they are liable and
invest in HRDF for trainings and benefits as there are lots of
incentives coming up in the future.
39

Valli Maiyeel Nadaraju
AMAYURA'S BEAUTY & SPA
Beauty Care - Beauty & Spa

Transforming Beauties
With Its Holistic Approach
M
s. Valli Maiyeel Nadaraju is the founder of the well-
known Amayura’s Beauty & Spa, formerly known
as Mayura Bridal & Beaty House, a professional
and acclaimed beauty and bridal business opened in 2003,
with a portfolio of to over 200 collective beauty and bridal
works under them. Ms. Valli, as she is more known as, is
from Penang and the third child born to Mr. Nadaraju and
Mrs. Veediamah. Upon completing SPM, she went to work
as a receptionist, before following her elder sister to Kuala
Lumpur in 1997.
There, she worked as a management assistant for 3 years,
before deciding to enter the Indian beauty industry that
specialized in facial treatment and bridal make up. From
there, she made her first step by taking up Bridal Make Up
course as a part-timer and then widened her knowledge
by taking Beauty Therapy and Salon Management course
in India. She made her major breakthrough debut in 2003,
when she did the beauty treatment and bridal make up for her
sister’s wedding and since then been collecting customers'
testimonial from Malaysia, India, Singapore, Indonesia and
Sri Lanka.
Amayura’s Beauty & Spa was an idea ever since she was
young, and she is really passionate and worked hard into
making it a reality. In those days, she would be preoccupied
with homemade facials and constantly reading books and
magazines on beauty tips. When she realized her desire,
she didn’t hesitate to join Aspra Bridal & Beauty Academy in
2002. Each and every aspect has helped her to grow a lot
of potential in providing the first class quality service, for her
customers. The industry has changed radically in 10 years,
most customers are up-to-date, therefore besides offering
common services such as facial treatments, bridal make-up,
treading, waxing and body treatment, she has updated her
salon to offer Laser treatment, LED light therapy and DNA
facials, to maintain her customer loyalty. The big advantage
of Amayura’s is being well-placed in Little India, Brickfield,
easy to locate, and crowds on weekends and festive
seasons. These factors helped in increasing the revenue
by 10% annually and repeat. Beauty industry is highly
challenging and competitive, and running a beauty spa as a
single woman is even more challenging to compete with the
newcomers. Hence, discipline, dedication and hard work are
much needed to cope with customer satisfaction. Besides
that, they advertise the promotions once in three months
through flyers and Facebook. Customers are always right,
therefore she will, offer discount voucher or complimentary
beauty services when she receive complaint. The barriers
are strong but with proposal of new products and a branch
in Klang ,she plans to never give up.
Key Traits
Up To Date Besides offering common services such as facial
treatments, bridal make-up, treading, waxing and
body treatment, they also update to offer new
developments such as Laser treatment, LED
light therapy, and DNA facials
Strategic Being based on strategic location, it is easy to
Location locate and helps to attract crowds on weekends
and festive seasons
Apologize Customers are always right, she offers
complimentary beauty services and discount
vouchers when there's a compliant
Competitive She is highly competitive as she can handle
the business independently on her own and
maintain the loyalty of customers even when
there are so many newcomers
Dedication She put her thoughts into reality and makes it
successful for more than 10 years with 200
bridal make-overs alone shows her hard work
and dedication
41

Dato' K. Elumalai
OM GANESH ENTERPRISE SDN BHD
Wholesale & Distribution - Prayer Items

Winning
Marketing Strategy
D
ato' K Elumalai or Ganesh as his close friends call
him is the Chairman of Om Ganesh Enterprise Sdn
Bhd, a company that focus on agarpathy business.
He is the founder of Ganesh Group of Companies. It
consists of several businesses ventures, among them are
Om Ganesh Enterprise (Malaysia), Om Ganesh Enterprise
Sdn Bhd, Om Ganesh Enterprise (Singapore), Sawerigading
Blasting & Painting and Natures Essence Sdn Bhd. Om
Ganesh also extended their business into the plantation of
broadbeans or in tamil “Avarakkai” due to the high demand
among consumers. Being able to lead multiple businesses
at a time makes him a business strategist, and a game
changer with a vision ahead of times.
Ganesh as mentioned is a business strategist as he able to
sense and turnaround his business from verge of bankruptcy
to one of most profitable agarbathy ventures in Malaysia.
The venture commenced under brand names such as
Ganesh Puja, Ganesh Chandran, and Jai Ganesh Puja
with most of the packaging printed the picture of Hindu god,
Lord Ganesha. The agarpathy did not do well in the Indian
market; therefore, he thought to change the whole game.
Upon thorough consultation with his Managing Director,
he created a new fragrance under a new brand name
Miracle. Miracle and remove all religions marks to expand
the agarpathy market to the other races. Devoting time on
research and development made Miracle a winner in the
agarpathy market.
Just like any other successful businessperson, he is a risk
taker as well. Ganesh started the agarbathy business in
the mid 2009, although business was not doing well and
on the verge of bankruptcy, he insists on trying again.
Coming up with a new marketing strategy, he took risk
giving out 5 million sticks free at a cost of to RM 300,000.
His company distributed free samples in temple booths all
around Malaysia and two sticks in each Tamil newspaper.
Miracle agarpathy went on to become the most sought after
product, and due to the success; he introduced 7 Miracle
with addition of six more fragrances. Being ready to fail was
a big risk, but failure was not an option for him.
There is no limitation in business for him, and he was
ready to venture into anything. Getting involved and
grabbing attention is a way of self-marketing and he is a
good example of that. His involvements in international
trade fairs show 7 Miracle being marketed in Singapore as
well as entering Thailand. Although the focus of Ganesh
is Miracle agarpathy, he never hesitates to ventures into
other business such as Natures Essence or the cultivation
of Avarakkai plant. His involvement in such businesses
brought unintentional attention to him. He might be new to
this agarpathy businesses; compared to other agarpathy
business; however, Ganesh and Om Ganesh are here to
stay and make the future.
43

THE WAY OF ACTION
Everything comes to us…if we create the capacity to receive
it. Isn’t that a wonderful recipe for success? Tagore was not
making it up. Like Krishna (or perhaps because of him),
the distinguished Bengali poet-laureate understood that,
before we can achieve majesty we need to deploy some
conventional assets that will assist us in doing so.
That’s the secret of all secrets, in business and in life;
creating the circumstances that allow us to receive the
benefits we deserve. To achieve this, the Gita contains a
model confidence-building measure, probably the best
method known to literature, ancient or modern.
In this article, we talk about the way of action and how it is a
useful as a ‘pivot’ to help reorient oneself and how it is useful
in ignoring the signals of fear and how action is the keystone
to building recognition.
“Na me paarthaasti kartavyam trishu
lokeshu kinchana;
Naanavaaptam avaaptavyam varta eva cha
karmani.
There is nothing in the three worlds I need to do,
Nor is there anything I need to achieve and
yet I act.”
Bhagavad Gita 3:22
Anchoring | Cultivation | Majesty
Vedantic Management:
Leadership Lessons from the Bhagavad-Gita
Part 6 - The Art of Cultivation
‘Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it’
~ Rabindranath Tagore

This is an exquisite verse, because it describes the
personality of its speaker and is at once also a subliminal
lesson in the why we should act. Let’s leave aside the issue
of the personality of the speaker for a moment, only because
it is beyond the scope of this article. Still, Krishna’s genius
is his eminence. Most people understand this verse in the
religious context only, but I urge you to look behind the veil
of its plain meaning.
In this verse Krishna is effectively saying that if you don’t act,
nothing changes in the Universe. No cosmic disorder will
result. No special vulnerability will surface. In other words,
if you don’t act…life goes on. In fact he’s more specific. He
says he doesn’t need to act either. Nevertheless the cosmic
law keeps turning as it were. As such, there’s nothing he or
Arjuna (read ‘all of us’) need specifically do for the Universe.
But act we must, because action is crucial for us to achieve
for ourselves and for transcending our otherwise mundane
existence.
We act for ourselves. If we do not, we squander all
possibilities of ‘creating the capacity’ to receive anything we
want. Starting to make sense?
But Krishna has to act, because action begets action. In
another verse, he says
“Yadi hyaham na varteyam jaatu
karmanyatandritah;
Mama vartmaanuvartante manushyaah
paartha sarvashah.
If I don’t act, or keep occupied so as to
set an example,
Humanity would foolishly follow me
into darkness.”
Bhagavad Gita 3:23
So Krishna acts to show us the value of acting. Not only
does he recommend action, he suggests transparency in
action. In this way, his intentions are clear, and people, both
intelligent and foolish can follow. If we don’t act, darkness
and despondency become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Notice
how people who are unmotivated to act always feel down or
have some pessimistic excuse for being, well let’s not mince
words, lazy? Let me make this very clear, there’s no chicken
or egg argument here; lack of action leads to despondency
in the first instance and not the other way around. After that
it becomes a vicious cycle.
Lack of action legitimizes hostility, jealousy, aggression and
mistrust. These things disorient us, as human beings, and
leave us outside the circle of achievement. Acting provides
a pivot or method of rebalancing us when we’re out of sorts
with the world. How can it do that? Simple, it is by action and
action alone that we obtain recognition.
Recognition is the world’s way to telling you that it sees you
and hears you. Without this, we are crippled at an atomic
level. The laws of the Universe thus affect the elements that
make up your body and consciousness.
Action is also very useful in ignoring the signals that
fear radiates. Fear tends to immobilize us and arrest our
thoughts. Action is the natural response to fear. Action at
its very fundamental level involves movement, simple and
steady. That’s why we (sometimes) run when we’re afraid.
We’re biologically designed to act. It goes without saying
that acting/movement promotes health and wellbeing.
Of course action can be subtle, like that of the lion crouching
in the scrub, stilling its breath, patiently waiting for its prey to
come into striking distance.
Leaders act. You remember the definition of a leader;
it’s someone who has followers. Krishna describes his
quandary as a leader of humanity in the Bhagavad-Gita. His
explanation is intellectually simple, as people follow him,
he must act. And, he must act properly. Now let us think
about where Arjuna is stood when he is gripped by fear and
indecision; in the midst of the armies arraigned for battle on
Kurukshetra (the famed battlefield). In fact, it was Arjuna’s
(symbolic) function to begin the battle by sounding his conch
horn. What did he do instead? He froze. And against that
terrifying immobility that he was experiencing, Krishna was
urging him to act; to fight.
LEADERSHIP
• by Anand Naidu
45

“Mayi sarvaani karmaani sannyasyaadhy
aatma chetasaa;
Niraasheer nirmamo bhootwaa yudhyaswa
vigatajwarah.
Sacrificing all that you do to me, with your
mind focused on the Self, Free from hope and
egoism and mental anguish, fight!”
Bhagavad Gita 3:30
If management has no human values, it fails as a discipline.
In fact, nearly every undertaking that lacks human values
will fail. So the administration of management requires a
background of knowledge (being the basis upon which
anchoring takes place), the ‘play of commonsense’ and
lastly, the majesty of commonsense.
Our sense of recognition comes acknowledging that the
science of management and leadership requires a certain
minimal amount of care and attention. Care and attention
represent the necessary action that we must take to achieve
our goals. Enthusiasm for the care and attention will give us
recognition for our actions.
In fact, in lauding the yoga of action, Krishna is praising work.
Good old fashioned, work. Of course it makes perfect sense
because work (as action, meaning right action), increases
order, cleanliness, peace, punctuality, rhythm and a positive
environment. For every kind of ‘outer’ problem or difficulty,
action is the answer to obtaining the result, which among
other things, is proper recognition for what we do and who
we are.
Krishna’s discourse implies that Arjuna has the ability to
overcome his grief and fear. Sri Aurobindo put this another
way when he assured us that people have the ‘power to
exceed’ themselves. I might add, we have the power to
exceed ourselves, despite ourselves. We have the power
therefore to become a more profound version of ourselves,
of becoming ineffably better, of tapping into the splendours
of the spirit and overcoming our common intelligence. At that
point, we will have the capacity to receive the recognition
due to us.
Anand Naidu is a Malaysian-born barrister and law lecturer based in Melbourne. He is also the Deputy President of
LawHelp Australia, a not-for-profit legal advice bureau based in Melbourne. Anand has had a long association with the
teachings of Hinduism and is currently preparing a series of seminars based on drawing leadership and management
principles from Hindu teachings.
andynaidu@vicbar.com.au +61 425 627 116
LEADERSHIP
46

K. Muthupandy
AMBI AGENCY ADVERTISING SDN BHD
Advertisement - Creative

Carving A Niche in the
Advertising World
A
mbi Agency Advertising Sdn Bhd is a professional
media advertising company founded by
K.Muthupandy and his brothers, K.Thirunavukkarasu
and Datuk Dr. K.Mathavan in 1999 with just two customers in
their portfolio. Now, together with its sister company, Rhythm
Heights Corporation Sdn Bhd, they have 50 prominent
clients in their portfolio with 15 expertise workers under
them. A major breakthrough arrived when NTV7 approached
them and gave two hours of slot time called Spice of India
to broadcast then famous Indian serial “KasalavuNesam”,
directed by K.Balachander, and sponsored by Alagappa
Flour Mills Sdn Bhd. They bought the rights for the serial for
advertising purpose; and now they are the leading media
buyers for Astro.
The success of Ambi Agency Advertising should be credited
to their prolific creativity. This media advertising company
would not have run for 15 years without its creativity.
K.Muthupandy as the main creative input, grows up adoring
the Indian cinemas of the 80s, and was always full of
passion to make a movie. He and his brothers owned video
library and shops in KL, but when the viral media piracy
terrorized their business in 1997, their business got slower
and K.Muthupandy turn to media advertising as a last resort.
His passion for film making helped him really well because
advertising does not vary much from movie making, as
media advertising consists of script writing and composing
jingles,.
They poses the precise knowledge of media advertising, as
they need to convey the description, price and the message
of a product in such a short time. They tend to work closely
with each client, and research meticulously for every product
given. They also find the right audience targets for certain
specialized products. Besides that, they also recommend
the best idea and share knowledge with the clients, as to
keep the ads in their budget while maintaining the high
quality. Their qualities in advertising are so capturing, that
clients who left them initially returns eventually. In these
15 years, they have done a successful work of 150 media
advertisings, 650 episodes of drama, 1000 radio jingles, the
famous local film title “Uyir”, and the music video of DiGi
“Oliperuvom” which got into Malaysian Book of Records for
the most number of singers.
K.Muthupandy makes sure that he is competitive among the
other rival advertising companies, to be the best in these 15
years. Most of the qualities mentioned, such as creativity,
precise knowledge of advertising, and returning clients
drives them to be competitive. Some other factors that keep
them motivated are the actual diversity of an advertising
company. Beside television ads and radio jingles, Ambi
Agency also provides video production, event management
and outdoor advertising with various options such as
billboards and mobile cruisers. He stated that television
ads and radio jingles only contribute 50% of the revenue
while the other 50% is contributed by the billboards, mobile
cruisers and outdoor and events advertising. Many of young
generation ventured this business but none last long enough
to make name like K.Muthupandy.
Key Traits
Creative There are no advertising without creativity, as
you need to convey every detail of a product in
such a short time. K.Muthupandy as the main
creative input has been credited for writing the
script and jingles
Precise With 15 expertise workers working under them,
Knowledge they have the precise knowledge of media
advertising to come up with functional and well-
designed ads that actually works
Customer It is his code of moral to grow up with clients
Oriented toward success. He works closely with them in
an interactive discussion giving ideas, advices to
maintain their budget and the quality as well
Competitive He is very competitive as he constantly in search
for new ideas to be on the market for 15 years.
Some of the ideas are the various options of
advertising offered such as billboards, mobile
cruisers and outdoor and event advertising
Diversifying He is very diversifying as he ventured into video
production, event management, local movie and
dramas, and music videos through sister
company to broaden his business horizons
49

Raja Segar
QS CERTIFICATION SDN BHD
Services - QMS Certifications

Foremost Quality
Management Consultancy
R
ajasegar, Director of QS Certification Sdn. Bhd founded the
business in 2011 to represent QS Zurich AG, Switzerland,
which was accredited by the Swiss Accreditation Service
(SAS) and is a foremost quality management consultant that
improves company images through quality work delivery such
as employees’ high morale, wastage reduction, and systematic
documentation. Prior to QS Certification, he worked as a lead ISO
Auditor in another company for three years. Therefore, his vast
experience in QS Certification is a result of his working experience
as quality control and quality assurance [QA/QC] for the past 15
years since 1990.
According to Raja Segar, a lot of SMEs especially those belonging
to Malaysian Indian needs to seek quality management beyond ISO
9001 certification, and yet most of them lack of awareness and does
not understand the importance of being recognized by ISO 9001 or
the long term benefits that can be gained by any business through
the quality management system. While that is a major issue among
Indian SMEs due to lack of awareness, there are also other issues
in QS certification such as the expanding demands of ISO 13485,
CE MARKING, GDP, ISO 22000 and HACCP for medical industries.
His self-confidence drives and navigates him through most obstacles
as there are no proper mentors to guide the Indian community in
regards of quality management system. At present, he is in need
of some qualified auditors and other recognized accrediting body to
issue the quality management certificates. Besides that, he provides
free guidance to Indian SMEs that looks forward to get certified
with quality management system, and this is due to fact, in terms
of quality management, businesses are competing with businesses
that already been certified, in contrast to the conventional way of
businesses our ancestors did long ago.
Raja Segar also constantly is in an effort to create awareness
as most Indian SMEs tends to ignore the importance of quality
management system and prefer not to learn the importance of such
certificates. For example, those in food industries crucially needs
to have ISO 22000, GMP and HACCP to explore the oversea
market such as China, Australia or Europe. He is also in an attempt
to change the negative mindset of Indian business owners that
believes the process cost high and waste of time. Regardless of
those facts, his company has a long list of clients standing from
other races.
As an emerging entrepreneur, his business is still in the growing
process with attention given to food industries and medical
industries, which requires consultation on ISO 22000, GMP, and
HACCP for food industries, and ISO 13485 and MDD certification for
medical industries. It is safe to say that it’s the industry knowledge
and experience of quality management system that contributed to
his successes. Besides that, he also mentioned that public relations
and self-discipline are necessary as well. As the foremost quality
management system, the core proficiency of QS Certification will be
to assist businesses to continuously produce quality outputs.
Key Traits
Industry Knowledge gained from the past working
Knowledge experience as lead ISO Auditor as well as being
in quality control and assurance (QC/QA) for the
past 15 years
Self It is his self confidence that drives and navigates
Confidence him through obstacles as there are no proper
mentors to guide Indian SMEs in terms of
quality management system
Awareness He takes responsibility to create awareness
among Indian SMEs of the importance of quality
management system as most of them tends to
ignore the importance completely
Changing He is also in an attempt to change the negative
Mindsets mindset of Indian business owners that believes
the process cost high and waste of time
Free He is willing to give free guidance to Indian SMEs
Guidance that looks forward to get certified with quality
management system
51

M. Kanagaratnam PJK, PKT
B. MATHAVON STORES
Retail - Trading

Founder of a
Successfull Retail Store
M
. Kanagaratnam PJK, PKT is the founder of B.Mathavon
Stores Sdn. Bhd. that revolutionized the customers
experience since 1978. He was born in April 1951 and
grew up in Kupang Estate in Baling, Kedah together with eight
siblings. His parents were struggling rubber tappers and financially.
wasn’t much of a help to his studies, therefore he decided to work
at 11 years old for RM 30 per month. As soon as he was over with
Standard 6, he went to work in India Store located in Market Street of
Penang; he was then called back to Kupang Estate by his parents,
where he did odd jobs by selling spring hoppers “Idyappam” and
cutting grass.
Later on, he went back to work at Ramasamy Store in Market Street
for seven years until 1977 for an income of RM 240 per month. It
then when he got married to Mdm. Lacheme Yalumalai, who is from
Kupang Estate as well. The thought of doing business came to him
after the birth of his first son, K. Nadarajan, when he wanted to
provide the best for the family. With a little bit of discussion with a
friend and a little bit of luck, he took over a portion of India Store and
initiated B. Mathavon Stores. His wife supported him completely,
being with him through good and hard times.
And now he, together with his two sons K. Nadarajan and K.
Saravanakumaran, owns and runs a few shops in Market Street,
Penang. B. Mathavon Stores specialises in wholesaling and
distributing stainless steel and brassware from India to the shops
in northern Malaysian regions. They also distribute grinding stones
that are used in to prepare traditional Indian cooking. Besides that,
they also market the F&N Diaries-Magnolia Milk to shops in the
northern regions and are the distributing agents for Thurga’s prayer
items, which include the agarpathy, prayer oil and sambrani.
Furthermore, they are the sole importer and distributor of the
National Award winning Royal Sandal Saffron Soap of Andhra
Pradesh to Singapore and Malaysia. The latest addition is
the telecommunication outlet that provides prepaid, top ups,
and broadband services especially Hotlink. Besides giving out
affordable price and having dedicated employees, Kanagaratnam
attributes excellent customer services for their successes, as they
have about 300 loyal customers under them and 5000 customers
in their database.
The endless support and loyalty is a direct result of their close
attachment with customers, as they organize lucky draw and
coloring contest events for the customers. They also personally give
greeting cards, calendar or promotion brochure to their customers
on festive seasons. In addition to all that, K. Nadarajan also follows
the delivery van to visit their customers once or twice in a month,
and unload products for them, as this gives him the opportunity to
meet the customers personally and get to know their requirements.
B. Mathavon Stores came along a hard way since 1978 but surely
is here to stay to give a lot more to the north Malaysian regions.
Key Traits
Excellent Kanagaratnam acknowledges excellent
Customer customer services as the main reason of
Services successes as they work closely with their
customer that depends on them
Diversify Heexpandedhisbusinessintotelecommunication
services such as prepaid, top ups, and broadband
services, as well as prayer items like agarpathy
and sambrani
Follow Up Visiting customers by following the delivery van
and unloading the products for them, or sending
greeting cards and calendars, allows them to
get in personal touch with the customers
Teamwork There is no way to manage and handle 300
customers from different parts of northern
regions of Malaysia without the efforts of great
teamwork from all the staffs
Affordable His business offers the most affordable and
Price reasonable price for all the customers under them
53

Andrew Paul & Abdul Anuar
AKSAYA SDN BHD
Marketing - Online Sales

Look Exotic. Wear Exclusive.
An Insight Into The Origin Of
Aksaya Fashion
A
ksaya Fashion is an online fashion boutique founded and
managed by Aksaya Sdn. Bhd since January of 2010. Their
Directors are none other than the dynamic duo Andrew Paul
and Abdul Anuar. Their product includes hand-picked and custom-
made designer sarees, one-minute sarees, Bollywood celebrity
apparels, designer salwar suits, printed sarees, designer lacha,
exclusive wedding lehenga cholis, sherwanis and many more.
The initial idea to start a fashion boutique came upon a thorough
discussion and research that showed ethnic Indian wears as a
popular wears among Malaysian Indian, especially those in Johor
that goes to Singapore to shop for Indian wears.
Before Aksaya Sdn. Bhd, both Andrew and Anuar worked
as Business Development Managers in the Hotel industry in
Singapore. They gained vast experience from the hospitality and
business development industry. Initially Aksaya Fashion planned to
sell sarees from various part of India like Bombay and Rajasthan
but improved in months with both Directors been involved in the
designing of various Indian outfits. Soon, Aksaya was designing
their own wedding outfits for customers with Andrew sketching
the designs. The heaviest wedding outfit designed by Andrew was
10KG with a long trail.
There’s lots of factors that contribute to make Aksaya Fashion
different from other saree manufacturers, and one of them is
Aksaya being based on online platforms that offers the widest
variety of popular and trendy Indian ethnic fashions. Therefore,
as the boutique being an online business, able to update people
with current trends and designs in Indian fashions through their
Facebook page. People can also stay connected with their new
apparel collections, latest promotion, festive sales and discount
through their website, www.aksayafashion.com. One of the benefits
that their online customers can enjoy is the FREE DELIVERY
service they offer through online purchases.
Within the four years of business journey, Aksaya Fashion had
already been known for their excellent Customer Service and their
original Quality Apparels. The former is due to the fact of their large
amount of recurring regular customers up to now. Aksaya is also
known for selling original Quality Apparel that is made from genuine
quality materials unlike duplication and is the first Indian boutique in
Malaysia to win the Asia Honesty Enterprise Award continuously for
two years, which increased its reputation, thus qualifying its name
as one of the best Indian clothing markets in Malaysia.
Andrew and Anuar faced many problems through this business
journey, but nothing stopped them from making them move forward,
and they are constantly finding ways to elevate in the business
world. They have extended their fashion apparels to boutique
owners all over Malaysia by providing business to business and
with their supports, Aksaya is currently supplying fashion apparels
to nine other boutiques. Aksaya also actively participates in big
expo such as the International Indian Shopping Festival organized
by Agenda Suria Communication in Penang, Johor and KL since
2013 and always continues to success at greater heights in near
future.
Key Traits
Custom-made Founders involved in designing and sketching
Designs outfits for customers according to their needs
Online Beside boutiques, Aksaya also focus on online
Marketing business that keeps the people up to date with
current trend in Indian fashion and keep them
informed on new apparels, latest promotion and
sales
Quality Aksaya sells original Quality Apparel that made
Material from genuine quality materials which won them
the Asia Honesty Enterprise Awards continuously
for two years
Business to Aksaya start providing business to business to
Business other boutiques to extend their business and now
they have 9 other boutiques supporting them
Participation Besides Business to Business, Aksaya actively
in Expo participates in big expo such as International
Indian Shopping Festival in all 3 locations of
Penang, Johor and KL since 2013
57

Yokitha Naidu
GIANT CATERERS SDN BHD
F & B - Local Cuisine

Premium Caterer
R
estoran Giant Caterers Sdn. Bhd. is a top notch
catering service provider initiated by Mr. S.S. Naidu
back in 2002 supported by his 27 year old daughter,
Ms. Yokitha Naidu that takes care of the sales and marketing.
It was started as traditional catering servicing mainly aiming
at Malaysian Indian community, before blooming into a big
player of Food & Beverages (F&B) in Johor providing home,
industrial and premium catering service that includes wide
range of services from food catering to event management.
Giant Caterers is described as one of the first to pioneer
catering industry in Johor Bahru regions, with exceptional
capability of catering for 5000 people or five events at a
time while offering a wide range of food selections prepared
by qualified skilled chefs from North and South India. The
sustainability and the success of Giant Caterers is to be
credited to their quality service as this is indicated by the
satisfied and returning customers as they also implemented
money back guarantee policy in case of food poisoning.
In order to overcome the challenges the company expanded
into multiracial catering that offer variety of intercultural
cuisines. Realizing huge potential in industrial catering as
Johor is becoming a commercial hub for oil & gas, education
and medical sectors. They targeted the industrial catering
services that comprise of mid-range to high end services
that gives him better profits, as it includes setting up main
kitchens and service kitchens according to customers
need and limitations. The company’s new initiatives paid
off as they managed to supply catering services for big
corporates such as Ranhill, Halliburton, Monash University,
Marlborough College, V.S Industries Sdn Bhd along with high
profile personality, such as Former Chief Minister of Johor,
Tan Sri Dato' Haji Abdul Ghani Bin Othman. Their biggest
achievement including catering for 4000 people for an event
organized by Nepal Embassy spearhead by Ms Yokitha and
5000 people for a temple consecration ceremony.
Ms. Yokitha Naidu, a graduate with a Master’s degree in
Economics supported by experienced Catering Management
staffs makes a great team in modernizing the business
by introducing new dishes and entering the high level
marketing. They utilize new age techs such as Facebook,
emails and telemarketing to create networks among younger
generations and corporate clients in order to maintain their
excellent customer services. When the business gets stiffer,
especially with the new coming caterers, they developed a
selection of strategy such as hiring North Indian chefs that
prepare authentic North Indian cuisines. She also hires
single mothers as part-timers to work under them as part of
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and in returns, she
gets catering contact and contracts from various NGOs.
The company founder Mr. Naidu is a multitasking man with
ambitious vision, as he wants his legacy to be continued
for generations to come. He took the first step by hiring a
business consultant to turn his ambitious vision into reality.
As for Ms. Yokhita, her future plans are to hire multinational
chefs to deliver a large variety of F&B services and start
franchising as she saw lots of potential in it.
Key Traits
Multitasking It certainly needs a little bit of multitasking
especially when you are managing, marketing,
and catering food for 5000 people or 5 events at
a time, and Yokitha Naidu never fails to show
her multitasking skills
Diversify Diversified into multiracial catering that offers
intercultural fusion cuisines and also magnified
his traditional home catering into industrial and
corporate catering services
Team Work Although multitasking is essential, dividing
works between them from management,
marketing and handling operations also shown
to be beneficial to company at times
Excellent Their excellent customer service, which includes
Customer money back guarantee policy in case of food
Service poison, is indicated by returning satisfied
customers
Socially They hire single mothers as part-timers as a part
Responsible of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
61

R.V. Ganesh Prakash
MORTGAGE GURU SDN BHD
Finance - Banking & Financial

Boutique Private Banking
& Finance Advisory Specialist
R
. V. Ganesh Prakash is the Executive Director
and the Head of Retail & SME Banking Advisory
Division of Mortgage Guru Sdn. Bhd. It is a firm
providing solutions and guidance to all the topics related to
mortgage and SME loans through private banking services
for businesses in Malaysia. Currently, they are offering their
services to three kinds of client, the Income Earners, the
Small and Medium Entrepreneurs, and the High Net worth
Individuals and their firm have been successful get funding
for multi million ringgit projects.
His father, who was into business after spending his 20
years in the insurance industry, was very strict. He wanted
him to be a doctor, but Ganesh was already planning to be
a lawyer. After completing his school years, he was sent
to London to pursue law and just when he was about to
graduate, the 1998 financial crisis hits the country affecting
his father’s business, and this leads to him cancelling the
CLP in Malaysia and also attending the graduation in London
as Pound Sterling was six times higher than Malaysian
Ringgit at that time. Ganesh, who refused to be sad by that,
was already planning his next agendas positively.
His first agenda was to start up his own business, but
realizing that he was lack of experience at the time decided
to attend interviews and get a job in a bank. He secured an
Executive post in Mortgage Business with the Citibank, and
impressed the bank by elevating to Assistant Manager in 23
months. It didn’t stopped there as he was constantly climbing
the corporate ladders going through various Management
and Credit departments before settling down as a Head of
Mortgage Business in Citibank’s’ new branch at Bandar Tun
Hussein Onn, Cheras.
Banking & Financial Advisory firm was the concept running
through his mind ever since the first time he met Alex
Lim, the Deputy Managing Director of Great Vision Group
of Companies, one of the well-known financial advisory
companies in Malaysia with total investment of RM 600
million. Ganesh was given to take over the Asset Lending
Division after 8 months of casual meet ups. He then
branched out to Penang, Kota Kinabalu, and Johor Bahru,
at where a total of more than 500 advisors were divided into,
to double the booked loan within a year.
At the age of 37, his concept of Banking & Financial
Advisory firm finally changed into a vision of private banking
services, which is the one thing the Great Vision Group of
Companies neglected to offer. Mortgage Guru Sdn. Bhd
was then established with the permission of the directors
from former company and the help of networks and foreign
bank contacts he gathered throughout the decades. Now
they have about 26 workforces under them that expertise
in various banking and financial advisory subjects and 90%
of their clients are the existing clients they have known for
years. His vision never stops here as his future agenda
includes opening Mortgage Banks in Malaysia.
Key Traits
Optimistic Failing to secure a medical seat, failing to
continue his CLP in Malaysia or failing the
first interview never stopped him from thinking
the next step and visualize his bright future
Hard Work From elevating to Assistant Manager in 23
months and then settling down as Head of a
Branch to establishing own firm, that’s a pure
hard work there
Self- Awareness He truly aware of his strength and weakness,
which actually helped him in makinghis decisions,
such as from choosing law before medicine and
getting a job instead of venturing into business
without experience
Well – Planned Everything he does, he makes sure he plans
them well before actually carrying out the plans,
as establishing banking & advisory firm, to
private banking services, everything was well-
planned
Loyalty From Assistant Manager, to various Management
and Credit departments and finally the Head
of Branch, he was faithfully working under
Citibank although a lot of good offers came from
other banks, it’s one thing that every
businessperson needs
63

Subramaniam Kandasamy
SC SOUTHERN TOURS & TRAVEL SDN BHD
Tourism - Tours & Travel

MIB Special Edition 2015

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to MIB Special Edition 2015

Similar to MIB Special Edition 2015 (20)

More from DrBiz Arikrishnan

More from DrBiz Arikrishnan (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

MIB Special Edition 2015