SINGAPORE - As life-changing decisions go, the one food tycoon Sam Goi made in leaving the fields of his hometown in China to find a better life in Singapore would be hard to beat.
The move gave him the perfect environment to exercise his business skills and boundless energy.
The executive chairman of popiah skin maker Tee Yih Jia Group knows just how crucial that initial decision was: "This decision is a game-changer ... If I had not come to Singapore, I would not have become who I am today."
Mr Goi, 65, said in a speech in Mandarin yesterday that he began his business career at the age of 19, working for his father here.
Eight months into the job, his dad loaned him $10,000 as start-up capital to establish a mechanical and electrical engineering business. "In just three years, this company grew from having two workers to more than 200 employees," he recounted.
His business was right next door to Tee Yih Jia, which he later bought in 1977. At that time, it was a small spring roll pastry maker able to produce up to 800,000 pieces a month.
Automation followed and it now produces more than 35 million items a day, said Mr Goi, who was speaking at the Singapore Business Awards after nabbing the 2013 Businessman of the Year prize.
Mr Goi, estimated last year by Forbes to have a net worth of US$2 billion (S$2.5 billion), said he was deeply honoured to receive the award and was grateful to the judges for the affirmation.
Three other business leaders also took home trophies, which were presented by Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin.
The minister told the ceremony yesterday that higher productivity and leaner manpower use "need not be at the expense of business profitability and competitiveness".
Mr Tan Pheng Hock, the president and chief executive of ST Engineering, was named outstanding chief executive.
Mr Tan, 56, has led the firm since 2002. He won for his "outstanding leadership and vision in diversifying ST Engineering into an integrated and globalised defence and engineering company", the award organisers said.
Mr Kenneth Chan, chief executive of McDonald's China, won the award for outstanding overseas chief executive/senior executive of the year.
This was for "sustaining Mc- Donald's business in China and developing it into a highly profitable and powerful foreign brand in the country, and for being an outstanding role model for Singaporeans working overseas", the organisers said.
The enterprise award went to energy services provider Mencast Holdings. Its chief executive and chairman is Mr Glenndle Sim.
Mencast was singled out for its transformation from a small shophouse- based business in 1981 to a leading maintenance, repair and overhaul solutions provider, serving some of the largest companies in the global oil and gas industry.
The awards were organised jointly by The Business Times and logistics giant DHL Express. "All four winners have demonstrated leadership, vision and entrepreneurial qualities at their best," said Mr Alvin Tay, chairman of the awards organising committee and editor of The Business Times.
"We salute them and hope that they, together with SBA winners before them, will be like a shining beacon to all aspiring businessmen and entrepreneurs."
Mr Herbert Vongpusanachai, managing director of DHL Express Singapore, added: "A common denomination underlying their successes is constant innovation, which is the only way to compete in the vibrant global marketplace."
This article was published on April 4 in The Straits Times.
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