The Making of An Entrepreneur - Wei Chuan Beng - RedTone

Ask RedTone International CEO Wei Chuan Beng what he wanted to be when he was a child and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the answer. The man at the helm of one of the earliest companies to gain MSC status wanted to become a policeman.

“I guess it was out of a wish to help the weak and do some good deeds,” he says with a sheepish smile.

The policeman dream soon changed. The model presented by Bill Hewlett and David Packard, founders Hewlett-Packard or HP, became Wei’s motivator. Wei cites them as the type of ‘inspirational examples’ that he believes are critical to jump-starting the entrepreneur within us all. “I relate to the two gentlemen who started Hewlett-Packard. 60 years ago, these two Stanford classmates started a company which became the birthplace of Silicon Valley. It is a very inspiring example.”

The choice of HP perhaps has something to do with the roots of RedTone, which has its origins in VMS Technology, a company founded by Wei and his classmate at University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Peter Yeow. Like Hewlett and Packard, who started their business from the now famous garage, Wei remembers their two-man team labouring in a 120 square foot office as they worked to get their first product off the ground.

The Road To RedTone

In the quest to understand what it is that makes an entrepreneur, the question of motivation is perhaps the most important.

For Wei, money was not the true motivator of his decision to leave his well-paying job at HP to venture out on his own. “I’d been working in technical support, sales and marketing and I’d finished my management studies so I could understand the entire suite of functions within a business. I always wanted to have the chance to learn about business.”

Yet surely, starting one’s own company and venturing into business is a rather expensive way of learning about the business world?

But true entrepreneurs cannot be driven by money alone. “One must understand that being an entrepreneur is not all that rosy. A person must be prepared to go through a lot of hardship” points out Wei.

Anyways, starting your own business is never a guarantee of millions – on the contrary, it entails a significant degree of risk with no assurance of success.

Adds Wei: “Motivation need not come from monetary gain – it is a factor but then again, in business there is no certainty; there is a lot of risk. Learning about the business world and the financial world – that gives me a lot of energy. Until today, I continue to learn many things.”

A Little Help

Succeeding at a business isn’t just about having a good product although Wei is the first to point out that a strong, well-positioned technology product is instrumental to any entrepreneur’s success.

In RedTone’s case, the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) has been helpful in more ways than one. “Without an R and D grant from the MSC, we would not have committed to such an extensive R and D plan for our product. With the grant, we were able to develop a product that I like to believe, stands out in the world market” Wei states frankly.

Having MSC status has also helped confer a certain pedigree on the company that has helped to build customer confidence. RedTone’s own experience of this came when the company brought senior management executives from Australian telco Telstra to the MSC so they could see for themselves the scope and breath of the initiative, the infrastructure and the level of commitment from the Malaysian government.

“Their confidence in MSC status companies and us increased multiple-fold, giving rise to much business opportunities” points out Wei.

Around the Corner

With the technology market, both locally and abroad, already feeling the pinch of the economic crunch, tech companies need to be well-prepared to face the tough times ahead. RedTone’s CEO has a ready reply to the question of how his company will face the hard times.

Leveraging on a channel-centric business model, managing costs and resource bases through the use of channel partners and making changes necessary to ensure that the company continues to have a healthy revenue stream are amongst the ‘weapons’ RedTone will deploy to face the economic slowdown. The company is also constantly looking into new ways of meeting the short-term needs of the customer, such as flexible payment schemes or promotions.

Finally, Wei points out that surviving in the bad times all comes down to the nitty-gritty of money: “It is also no secret that the accounts receivables must be properly managed – whatever is sold one must be capable of collecting. It is also essential for technology companies to have sufficient funding. Funding does not mean spending uncontrollably – it’s about having enough money to stay competitive throughout the bad times.”