Mr. Honda - Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew

A successful entrepreneur in Malaysia, Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew is a millionaire in Pulau Pinang and also the founder of Honda. When he was a kid, he never had a chance to obtain knowledge at school due to the family financial problem. This situation has caused him to work to collect animal’s feces as a plantation fertilizer and also fishing then sell it to gain more income for his family. Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew came from a poor village that called Hui in Fujian, China and then migrated to Pulau Pinang when he was 12 years old with his father to find the sources of income. He was asked by his father to work at a mechanical workshop. The father and son worked so hard to make more money and then send to their family member in China.

Every single night, Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew worked as a bus cleaner with 10 cents per bus as wages. When he was 18 years old, he was interested in starting his own business and trying to make changes to achieve his ambition. With the collection of little money day by day, he bought a few of mechanic tools that costed RM10 and 8 buses that costed RM200 to repair it and become a bus that can use to bring a passenger. These buses had brought him a considerable income, which is RM1.20 until RM1.40 per day. He saved the revenue to become capital in his business. In 7 years, he owned 40 buses, battery and automobile spare parts shop. After the end of The Second World War, Tan Sri Dato Loh expanded his business by opening a second-hand car shop and became an agent distributor of British motorcycle.

In 1958, he traveled to Japan and he saw a motorcycle with a Honda brand that he had never seen in Malaysia. After he found out the manufacturer of the Honda motorcycle, he decided to order 12 units of the motorcycle. After he came to Malaysia, he sold the motorcycle to his close friend with original price. The motorcycle that brought with him was mocked by the citizen due to the problem broken fast. Despite that, it did not deter Dato Loh’s hope to introduce motorcycle to the people. In 1963, the Honda motorcycle became a mode of transport that is favored by all. 3 years later, Dato Loh managed to increase the sales of Honda vehicles to the top three best sellers in Malaysia. Now, he has made his business well-known which is classified as one of the top ten significant entrepreneurs in Malaysia and then also as a millionaire in Pulau Pinang. Until now, the people still remember the achievement of Dato Loh in the field of the automobile business. Although he is an illiterate person, nothing can be his barriers to stop him from realizing his dream and also his career. So, this has proof that Dato Loh has many entrepreneurial skills that enrich his business and then allow him to become a successful entrepreneur.

During the way to becoming the successful entrepreneur, he has demonstrated the five entrepreneurial traits which are proactive, observant, visionary, outcome oriented and open risk taker. One of the characteristics that Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew possessed in becoming one of the notable entrepreneurs around the world is being proactive. Referring to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary International Student’s Edition, proactive is describing a person controlling a situation by making things happen rather than waiting for things to happen and then reacting to it. An example of the late Tan Sri being proactive was his decision in bringing in motorcycles from Japan to improve the people’s lifestyles back in the 1950s.

When he visited Osaka, Japan in 1954, for the first time ever Tan Sri saw a very tiny motorcycle which he described as a ‘cub’. He thought it would be a great idea to import this back to Malaysia. He would follow and chase around motorcycles in Japan just to get a closer look at the details of the motorcycles. He commented that the Honda motorcycle is suitable for petite Asians as it is small and light enough compare to the motorcycles made in Europe which is relatively huge.

At first, the idea did not gain much support from the public and they doubted it will be successful. However, this did not deter Tan Sri’s hope of promoting the motorcycles and marching into the 1960s it has become everyone’s favorite mode of transport.

Besides that, Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew also has the highly visionary want to be a wealthiest in Malaysia. He was an immigrant from China comes to Malaysia to work. He was a mechanic since eighteen years old. He did extra work to increase his saving in order to further his investment in the automobile industry. He had reconditioned the eleven buses and sold them at a higher price. Next, the money that he earns uses to invest into property investment.

As a successful entrepreneur, Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew seems as a highly visionary for the company as he is the person who brings in Honda motorcycle to Malaysia. He believed that the machine with lost cost and high efficiency can create a new market in Malaysia. This can be seen from the construction of the first motorcycle industry in Malaysia which is Boon Siew Assembly Plant owned by Boon Siew Sdn. Bhd. in industry area of Mak Mandin, Pulau Pinang. With the construction of the factory, Honda motorcycle is no longer installed in Japan, the installation process can be done in Malaysia. This can save the cost of installation and sales.

With the construction of this factory, Boon Siew Sdn. Bhd. also introduced several new model of Honda motorcycle began in 1971 which is model Honda S90Z. Besides that, the first Honda showroom also set up at Pitt Street in Penang where near the home of Loh Boon Siew as a sign of respect and trust. Today, Honda has been introduced a various type of motorcycle in the market in order to competitive with others.

Highly visionary is a trait that drives Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew to continue to succeed in the field of motorization. Not all entrepreneurs have the ability to look ahead like Tan Sri. A positive attitude is the main element in his efforts to continue to contribute in the motor industry in Malaysia.

Furthermore, when Boon Siew was 12 years old, his father sent him to work at the machine shop. At that time, Boon Siew started learning about the knowledge of machine components and paying close attention about the process how to repair the machines and the structure of machines. When he grew up to 18 years old, he decided to run his own business and often figure out a way how to get the opportunity. He took out the money that he saved and bought some mechanical equipment, worth RM10.00 and 8 buses that worth RM200.00 to be repaired and used as a passenger bus. The bus came the highly profitable to him was about RM1.20 to RM1.40 per day. After 7 years, Boon Siew had 40 buses and opened a store spare batteries and vehicles. When the Second World War ended, Boon Siew expanded his business by opening second-hand car shop and became distributors of some sort of British motorcycle. As a result, observant was stirred up the interested of Boon Siew to start his business.

Next, Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew was a risk taker entrepreneur. He initially worked as an intern’s car mechanic to gain knowledge. When he was 18 years old, he purchased about 10 buses to repair and seal the buses with the price of 6 times than he bought. Over many years, the first automotive factory was built in Mak Madin, Pulau Pinang.

Honda factory was operating well in 1960, the market demand base in the motorcycle industry was consistently filled by the customer. The reason he wishes to build his own Honda factory in Malaysia which in the case of anything happen to Japan’s Honda company, Malaysia’s Honda factory will not affect because Malaysia has their different management.

The benefit that Boon Siew built his own factory was a good way to reduce the cost of motorcycles indirectly when compared with the motorcycles that directly import from the Japan Honda factory that included import duty.

Even though Boon Siew Sdn. Bhd. has become a famous company in Malaysia, but Tan Sri still maintain the shareholder for his important persons and his family. The main concept of Boon Siew to make the decision was to ensure the stability of Honda company. Nowadays, Boon Siew Honda has monopolized the motorcycle industry in Malaysia.

Last but not least, Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew is someone illiterate and has no formal academic background, but this does not mean that he could not become someone successful. With his strong memory and spirit to advance and succeed that high, Tan Sri succeeds to manipulate his powerful memorizing ability to become successful. This proves by Tan Sri’s success to sell Honda Motor Limited Japan to appoint and nominate him as Honda motorcycle sole distributor in Malaysia.

His ability to sell Honda Motor Limited Japan management perceived as a great success to all Malaysians, due to the difficulty to sell Japan Honda management in a host country which was once occupied by the Japanese army in the early years. With the negative perception from some of the Malaysians that they do not want to buy the manufactured goods from the country that have conquered in Malaysia namely Japan, but this does not affect Tan Sri’s interest to sell Honda motorcycle in Malaysia.

With the high confidence and outcome oriented exist in Tan Sri towards Honda motorcycle, Honda motorcycle total sale in Malaysia has reached over 2 million units until today. Poised to succeed, optimistic and outcome oriented having thought has made Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew a successful entrepreneur in Malaysia.

It is not an easy way to be a successful entrepreneur. One must be prudent in predicting the right product to the market and ensure the product can be compatible with socio-cultural communities. As Tan Sri Dato Loh Boon Siew, his idea of bringing in the Honda motorcycles in Malaysia and make him a successful entrepreneur.