Entrepreneur Sir Robert Kuok: Essay On Traits, Background, And Competitive Advantage. (70 Characters)

This essay is about any entrepreneur who is operates now in one of these countries Singapore,Malaysia,New Zealand or Australia. It needs to be about an Entrepreneur ,not about his/her business. We can give some background information about business,but not too much. This essay should consist mostly about an Entrepreneur,which is ALIVE. 

Sir Robert Kuok born on 6^th October in the year 1923 is a business entrepreneur and investor in Malaysia. The Forbes magazine has published that total property is estimated to be $14.8 billion in March of the year 2018, which makes him the richest man in Malaysia and sixth richest person in Southeast Asia. Forbes List of World Billionaires of the year 2018 has positioned Robert Kuok in the 96^th position. In May of the year 2018, Bloomberg Billionaires Index has estimated total property to be $19.9 billion, which makes him the 48^th wealthiest man of the world. The essay will also evaluate his entrepreneurial traits, the competitive advantage of his business and some of his recommendations for the entrepreneurs.

Sir Robert Kuok has studied in Raffles Institution and English College of Johor Bahru (Ng et al., 2014). He has started his career as a peon and later began his business with the help and support of his relatives. After graduation, he has worked in the department of rice business as a clerk from 1942 to 1945 in Singapore (Chuah et al., 2016). Soon he was promoted as the head of the department of rice business. He learned the business skills from his job of clerk and returned to join his family business in Johor Bahru.

In the year 1959, he has established Malayan Sugar Manufacturing Co. which became very successful. The company became a monopoly firm in the sugar market of Malaysia and produced 80% of sugar in Malaysia and 10% of sugar in the world. As a result, he got the title ‘Sugar King of Asia.' In the year 1971, he has started the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore (Marzuki and Wahab, 2016).  His foresightedness has transformed China a large travel nation and successfully built the largest chains of luxury hotels in Asia. It gave him the title ‘Hotel King.'

As he is a media shy person, so most of his businesses are either managed by him privately or his other family members. He has many different companies in Malaysia and several nations all through Asia receives investments from his businesses. His businesses include from sugarcane plantations business known as Perlis Plantations Berhad (PPB Group), sugar factories, flour mills, animal food, oil mills, investment, the hotel called Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, property, trade, commodity, and publication business (Saravanamuttu, 2017). His stake in Wilmar International which is the biggest palm oil dealer company is his most significant source of income.

His trait of honesty and reliability are one of the main secrets of Sir Robert Kuok as the success of his business. The motivational force behind the development of Kuok Group is his quick family. Kuok Group has been made the leader of the Malaysian market in several areas by the visualization, hard work commitment and excellence of his family for more than two generations. His honesty and reliability have created and sustained trust and confidence in his business (Cheong, Lee and Lee, 2015). It was always found by Sir Robert Kuok that these two features are essential for his becoming a successful businessman.  

Entrepreneurial Traits

As an initiative entrepreneur, he has commenced new project and business that has not been done by other entrepreneurs of Malaysia. He is known for his initiative when he first started the business of sugar in Malaysia.  It was a matter of courage that he introduced his business of sugar where no one has ever involved in this business. He has said that he has taken the initiative to begin his business in sugar industry due to the fact that granulated sugar was extremely vital for the food industry (Ghorbani and Carney, 2016).  He has also understood that business of sugar was an easy business and involves low-cost raw sugar with which a man could become rich. His initiative to start the business of sugar had him the opportunity to form his business empire and gave Sir Robert Kuok the title ‘Sugar King of Asia.'

The foresightedness of Sir Robert Kuok has shown his remarkable capacity to make a strategy or make a long-term prediction. His entrepreneurship presence is extremely impressive. He has displayed his foresightedness to develop China as a thriving travel industry. In the 1980s he went to China and foresight that China can become a booming travel industry in future because of its historical relics and locations (Zamberi Ahmad, Roland Xavier, and Rahim Abu Bakar, 2014). He has also predicted a thriving hotel industry in mainland China. His prediction that China can become a successful travel nation has proved to be true. Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts was built by him to develop and make China popular tourist spot. Currently, there are almost 34 Shangri-La Hotels, and Resorts in China and other 28 Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts are under construction.  His foresightedness has transformed China a large travel nation and successfully built the largest chains of luxury hotels in Asia. It gave him the title ‘Hotel King.'

The trait of time competence has helped Sir Robert Kuok to form his business empire. He has the capability of right timing and can take the benefits of opportunities. Sir Robert Kuok, the richest person of Malaysia, was able to take advantage of the opportunity when it has appeared. His first prediction was to start sugar business when he realized that there is no network of China in this industry and it was managed by British business house known as Guthrie. He took the chances from domestic and foreign markets to develop its business of sugar. In the year 1957, he has made the opportunity and imported low-cost sugar to India and Cuba (Mutalib, 2017). Guthrie was overtaken by him as the vital importer and supplier of Malaysia.  The typhoon of Cuba again gave him the chance to sell the sugar which he had stored fro before and gained enormous profits.   

Sir Robert Kuok is a versatile entrepreneur, and no one can possess as much large business as him. Sir Robert Kuok, who is at present 94 years of age, has tried his hand in industries of sugar, oil, flour, mining, hotels, publication, and animal food and become the success in every business he has tried (Salleh, Ahmad, and Idris, 2014). His life story is motivating story where he began his career as an office peon and later become a clerk in the department of rice business in Singapore.

Competitive Advantage

Sir Robert Kuok is a quick learner, as his job of clerk in the rice department has helped him to learn the principles of business. Later he came back to his hometown and established Malayan Sugar Manufacturing Co. which became very successful (Yue and Kean, 2014). The company became a monopoly firm in the sugar market of Malaysia and produced 80% of sugar in Malaysia and 10% in sugar of the world. As a result, he got the title ‘Sugar King of Asia.'

The Kuok Group has many different businesses in five continents, and they have companies in the field of hospitality, properties, mass media, logistics, marine, freights, environment and charity. The Group believes that behind their success is not only its commitment to serve its clients, change with times and profits, but also contribute to the lives of the peoples and community as a whole.

The competitive advantage of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts is its quality of service the hotel provides to its clients. It is a rewarded and highly recommended hotel as it offers a world-class facility and cordial hospitality (Lim, 2016). The hotel has an excellent reputation all over Asia. Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts also offers attractive promotion and special offers for attracting the customers. This strategy of the hotel has helped them to form a long-term relation between the hotel and their dedicated customer. The attractive promotion and special offers of the hotel consist of special offers of festivals, weekends, and vacations.

Unlike businesses of other commodities such as Noble Group and Olam International, Wilmar International is the only business which has the capability to manage its own chain of suppliers and become a vertically-combined manufacturer. The palm oil business of Wilmar International includes almost the whole value chain of the industry. The company has its own palm plantations, gathers the fruits and makes crude palm oil. Moreover, it has its own shipping chains which carry its products directly to its clients (Cheok Cheong, Lee, and Lee, 2015). All these factors help the firm to maintain its minimum prices and stay considerably unaffected by the increased costs of the commodities.        

• Sir Robert Kuok believes that the success of any organization depends on the unity of its staffs.   He has said that relentless effort is needed to maintain and practice the principles of honesty and reliability. The Kuok Group has supported honesty, trustworthiness, consistency, and discipline from the beginning of the Group on the advice of Sir Kuok. He has said that in any business three qualities are necessary for recruiting the employees; talent, honesty, and stamina.
• He has said that to become a successful entrepreneur an individual has to give 90% hard work and gain knowledge as much as possible. As for example, from his business of sugar Kuok has learned about needs, supply, production, consumption, and the shipping procedure so that the company could stay at the top.
• He believes that every entrepreneur has to work faster than their competitors. He thinks that the competitors are always smarter than each other. He has also said to never fear for collaboration with rest of the world and take the advantages of all the opportunities of the business world.

References:

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