The kacang putih entrepreneur who decided against Harvard

Surentran (left) with Higher Education director-general Prof Datuk Dr Asma Ismail

ENTREPRENEUR Surentran Somasundrum, 29, runs a successful kacang putih business. It is currently worth about RM10mil.

When we met, he was wearing a simple button down shirt and dark pants. He was a panellist at a Higher Education Ministry entrepreneurship forum.

I was told that he once rejected a place at Harvard University.

Curious, I inquired.

“I was never offered a place in Harvard,” he clarified with a smile.

“I was qualified for Harvard’s Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) and was invited to the preview programme in the US. My then MBA lecturers at UniRazak urged me to proceed with the formal application but halfway through, I decided not to pursue it.”

“Why?” I asked.

He replied: “On one hand I wanted to grow my business. I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

“More importantly, however, I want my success to be Malaysia’s success.

“If I go to Harvard, people will attribute my success to Harvard.

“Now, I can confidently say that all I’ve become and achieved is due to my Malaysian education. I had good teachers and lecturers who inspired me and made me who I am today, they deserve the credit, he said.

GOING NUTS OVER KACANG PUTIH

Humble and confident, Surentran’s kacang putih business has grown from strength to strength.

His products are available internationally – in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Clearly then, it’s no ordinary kacang putih business.

In fact, it’s a snack foods business selling more than 60 types of snacks categorised into crispy chips, crunchy nuts, as well as spicy nuts and chips. They have maruku kari, kacang kari and many other curry-based nuts.

Think Bubba Gump Shrimp from Forrest Gump, with equal passion but nuttier.

‘MY EDUCATION IS IN MY SNACKS’

“Our snacks are healthy... As healthy as snacks can get,” he says with a smile, assuring me that they are free from trans-fats.

“All our ingredients are natural, and I’m very particular about how and what we use to make them”.

Aside from an MBA, Surentran also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Analytical Chemistry from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), one of Malaysia’s top public universities.

“I have been able to use my knowledge of chemistry from USM to make my snacks. From the type of oil and how its temperature reacts to the ingredients, to how long we must cook the snack so that it retains optimal nutrients with optimal taste, nothing is left to chance,” he explains with professorial-like glee.

“On the other hand, the MBA has enabled me to fine-tuned and enhance my knowledge of how to run my business. UniRazak’s entrepreneurship lecturers have been fantastic mentors”.

The business is run from Surentran’s hometown of Ipoh, Perak, and in itself has created a vibrant economic ecosystem. He has more than 20 fulltime staff and hires single mothers and locals during peak seasons. Occasionally, he takes interns from local universities and teaches them about the business.

“Everyone who works for me is like family. I hope to take care of my community and provide for them. This gives me the most satisfaction.”

He adds: “I have a great team. They are the ones who have made this success a reality”.
I DIDN’T KNOW I WAS DYSLEXIC

Surentran’s journey is truly an inspiring one.

Early in his undergraduate years at USM, he was diagnosed with dyslexia after a lecturer found something amiss in his writing and spelling.

“How did you manage?” I asked, surprised.

“Thinking back, I was really good at mathematics and numbers, but when it came to writing essays and such, I’d memorise 200-300 words and rearrange them on paper in order to answer. I guess, sometimes, I’d forget the order in which the words were spelt.

“The dyslexia has never been a hindrance. I have faced many challenges growing up. Yet somehow, I’ve always enjoyed overcoming them”.

Being an entrepreneur has always been Surentran’s goal. In fact, during our conversation, I could feel a strong sense of motivation, drive and determination.

“If you really want something, you will find the way,” he tells me.

After dabbling in various small-scale businesses, he started a tuition-centre while still studying in USM. Business was growing but fate would have him return to Ipoh upon graduation as his father had fallen ill.

“My family used to run a small shop in Ipoh. When we had enough money, my father bought a grinding mill. Unfortunately, when he fell sick, business suffered.

“So I decided to buy the grinding mill from my father for RM1, but I inherited RM2.1mil in debt. It was a massive headache and it took me nearly one-and-a-half years to put things in order.

“But in this time, I was able to put my kacang putih business in order,” he recalls.

The rest, they say, is history.

MAKE FOOD NOT WAR

After snack food, he plans to move into the biryani market, providing his own version of healthy and affordable biryani rice. In the long term, Surentran hopes to one day rid the world of hunger.

“If people are no longer hungry, they can be at peace,” he says.

While it’ll take time, Surentran aims to lead the way.

If his past is anything to go by, his future is certainly one to look out for.

“Harvard for that DBA?” I ask.

“University Malaya, doctorate in business strategy,” he replies with a smile.

> The views expressed are entirely the writer’s own.


sources : http://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/online-exclusive/whats-your-status/2016/04/22/kacang-putih-businessman/

Why emerging-market weakness is not a replay of the 1997 financial crisis

LAST Tuesday Malaysia’s currency, the ringgit, did something unusual: it rose against the dollar. Granted, it was a modest one-day rise (.13%), but after a summer of steady declines it was welcome all the same. Asian currencies have taken a beating this year. The week ending August 14th they suffered the steepest drop since 2011. The Singapore dollar has fallen more than 5% against the dollar, the South Korean won and Thai baht more than 7%. But the ringgit and rupiah lead the race to the bottom, having fallen by 10.5% and 14% to their lowest levels since in 1997, when Asia’s economies were in a full-blown crisis. So is that about to happen all over again?

The short answer is no. To start, look not just at the overall decline but at the speed of the fall. The ringgit and rupiah have fallen steadily over the past eight months. Between July 11th 1997 and January 22nd 1998, by contrast, the baht, won and rupiah fell harder and faster: by 38%, 51% and 80%. When Thailand let the baht float against the dollar, it fell by 15-20% in a single day. Currencies came under speculative attack, weakening them further. High domestic interest rates had encouraged companies to seek financing abroad, often as short-term debt for risky investments; when local currencies plunged they faced massive debt-service payments. Foreign capital streamed out of these countries, depressing equity markets. It was, as we wrote ten years after the crisis, a “perfect storm” of financial and economic turbulence.

Today the story is much different. Governments learned from the last crisis, and have more macroeconomic and policy tools at their disposal. Their currencies already float, and none are running current-account deficits with fixed exchange rates. Their foreign-exchange reserves are larger (though Malaysia’s have just fallen below $100 billion for the first time in five years), and their banking systems stronger, with larger domestic-deposit bases. Their currencies have not come under attack—low oil prices are dragging down the ringgit, while concerns over long-term competitiveness are hampering Indonesia—and their economies better able to handle foreign-investment inflows. Big emerging-market firms look slightly less healthy; many have taken on large and growing piles of dollar-denominated debt, which have become less affordable as the dollar has risen in value. But these debts do not yet look a plausible source of widespread systemic financial risk. 

The worry, though, is that governments have equipped themselves well to fight the last war. A panic-driven crisis may not loom, but emerging-market currencies the world over have taken hits from low commodity prices, China’s slowdown and an impending American interest-rate hike. Yet in fact, Asia’s currencies are faring relatively well: the Russian rouble, Colombian peso and Brazilian real have all fallen more than twice as much as the rupiah and ringgit. Low global demand has kept export growth low this year; a weakening yuan will make things worse. Last month Indonesian exports were down almost 19.2% year-on-year, a sluggishness mirrored across the region. Indeed, some now reckon that emerging markets will try to stimulate external demand through devaluation, as Vietnam did last week. That, in turn, suggests a different risk: that much of the world economy will try to cope with economic weakness by selling to the American consumer. Yet the sorts of global imbalances that result from competitive depreciation are dangerous, as the 2000s demonstrated. Americans might borrow too much as they attempt to play the role of engine of economic demand. Or they may simply tire, leaving the world without a source of economic locomotion. 

Dig deeper:
A cheap yuan and a hawkish Fed rattle emerging markets (August 2015)
Emerging-market currencies are plunging (August 2015)

sources : http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/08/economist-explains-17?zid=306&ah=1b164dbd43b0cb27ba0d4c3b12a5e227

As Malaysia central bank chief exits, successor remains mystery

Malaysia's Bank Negara Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz arriving at an event announcing revisions to the fiscal budget in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on Jan 28, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS

KUALA LUMPUR (BLOOMBERG) - Malaysia's central bank Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz will oversee her last interest-rate decision on Wednesday before she exits from an institution she's led for 16 years. Investors are still in the dark about who will replace her in May.

Dr Zeti's leadership began in turmoil, when she briefly acted as governor in the midst of the Asian financial crisis, and will be ending with the nation gripped by what may be the biggest political impasse since independence in 1957.

The rate decision itself is an easier call: All 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast no change to the benchmark, now at 3.25 per cent. Dr Zeti has kept the rate there for nine meetings.

A no-nonsense central banker with a doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr Zeti, 68, has proven one of the monetary policy makers least likely to surprise markets - she has changed the key rate just twice in five years, compared with 10 times by her Australian counterpart.

Known to strike fear into her staff with a stern look, Dr Zeti emerged as a thorn in the side of Prime Minister Najib Razak, as the central bank urged criminal charges against a troubled state-owned fund he partly oversees. The attorney general rejected those recommendations, and both the premier and the fund have consistently denied wrongdoing.

Mr Najib has given no indication who he will pick to replace Dr Zeti when her term ends in April, threatening investor confidence in Malaysia, economists say.

"The fear now is that it's going to be someone from outside who doesn't have the same kind of central banking experience," said Chua Hak Bin, a Singapore-based economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who hails from Malaysia. "It's not a process that really builds up confidence."

Aides to Mr Najib said earlier this month there is no indication when the announcement on the next governor would be made. The central bank didn't reply to an e-mail seeking comment on updates to the succession planning process.

Dr Zeti is one of Asia's longest-serving central bank heads, having taken office in 2000, two years after her stint as acting governor in 1998 amid a then-controversial move to peg the ringgit to deal with capital outflows.

A governance committee under the auspices of Bank Negara Malaysia has the responsibility of vetting internal and external candidates before Mr Najib's government picks one to be endorsed by the king.

Dr Zeti has said there is a succession plan within the central bank, where there are capable people to replace her, and that her successor shouldn't be a politician. She had hoped the committee would conclude its assessment at least three months before she was scheduled to leave to allow for a proper transition.

Apart from the three deputy governors at the bank who could potentially be promoted, people familiar with the matter said late last year candidates mooted to replace Dr Zeti included Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, secretary general of the Treasury; Awang Adek Hussin, the ambassador to the US and banker-turned-government minister Abdul Wahid Omar.

For all the political angst, Malaysia's economy continues to chug along with growth in excess of 4 per cent, handsomely outpacing countries with similar levels of per-capita output, such as Russia or Argentina.

The uncertainty over Ms Zeti's replacement risks distracting the central bank from its focus on managing the economy as a recent rebound in oil prices and the ringgit provides Malaysia with an opportunity to replenish foreign reserves, said Ng Weiwen, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Singapore.

"Bank Negara Malaysia is one of the better central banks in this region, so it has to actually maintain this kind of perception and aura," Mr Ng said. "Otherwise it could risk some confidence deficiency, especially if the reserves" are among the lowest in the region, he said.

sources : http://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/as-malaysia-central-bank-chief-exits-successor-remains-mystery