How To Build A $114 Million Company And A $200 Million Company

By Sant Qiu, entrepreneur and profit strategist

Recently, I read in the newspaper about the successes of two of Singapore's most successful brands – ThaiExpress and Charles & Keith.

I had the opportunity to interview both Ivan Lee, founder and director of ThaiExpress, and Charles Wong, founder and CEO of Charles & Keith for my bestselling books. Ivan Lee's lightning speed success of building his F&B empire is featured in Niche Dominators: Success Secrets Exposed along with a few other multi-millionaire entrepreneurs.

In the book, he shared the strategies he used to build a $114 million restaurant empire and created the world's largest chain of modern Thai restaurants within a short span of eight years. He also shared how he expanded into seven restaurant brands with more than 76 outlets (in early 2010) and in countries as far-flung as New Zealand and Mongolia.

Ivan's other restaurant brands include New York New York American Restaurant, Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe, Shokudo Japanese Restaurant, Double Bay Australian Restaurant, Pinle (soy snacks) and Tang Dian Wang Shanghainese Restaurant. His company has won the Singapore Promising Brand Award, the "Thai Select" Brand awarded by the Thai Government, among other notable awards and accolades.

In 2008, Ivan's business leadership skills and success garnered him the Top Entrepreneur of the Year Award (EYA) and the sub-category award, EYA for Enterprise. He was also listed in the 4th spot in the 2008 lifestyle power list compiled by The Straits Times'Life!. He sold 70% of his company to Thai-listed F&B conglomerate, Minor International, for $80 million, which puts the value of ThaiExpress Holdings at $114 million.

Charles Wong was featured in my other book, Secrets To Dominate Your Niche. Charles started Charles & Keith International with his brother Keith Wong in 1996. Their novel concept of providing trendy, fashionable women's shoes at affordable prices became a runaway success and turned the Charles & Keith brand into a household name. In 1998, the company expanded overseas and today, its global network covers over 270 stores across 30 countries.

Charles & Keith is not only the dominant brand for ladies footwear and accessories, it is also one of the most successful local retail brands that has made its mark internationally. In 2004, the company launched Pedro, its line of men's and women's footwear and accessories, which has since expanded to 26 stores in 6 countries. Recently, they sold 20% stake to French luxury giant Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) for over $30 million, which puts the value of Charles & Keith at close to $200 million.

While interviewing them, I had the chance to grill them and uncover the strategies they implemented to achieve their phenomenal successes. Interestingly, even though their businesses are so different, they have several very similar success philosophies and strategies. Here are some of them:

Being Driven!
When I chatted with them, I could see that both of them are very driven and focused people. They are so driven that you can sense a certain impatience about them. It's not that they are impatient people, but from witnessing how they interact with other people you get a sense that they are operating at a different speed with the rest of the average people. I read that Bill Gates had a similar trait when he was building and running Microsoft. One of my friends, one of Asia's top trainers and a very successful entrepreneur himself also has the same trait.

To them money is not the only driving factor. Their big visions and goals are more important. In fact, Ivan shared with me that to him it's no longer about chasing the additional zeros. The zeros are usually the initial driving force for entrepreneurs, but after a certain point, the zeros just become one-dimensional.

Charles also shared, "I like to do something that is not easily achievable but something that we dare to dream and strive for. If it is easily achievable, then everyone will be an entrepreneur. We always stretch ourselves and embark on big, challenging projects. Even if we do not do well, we will improvise and try again. Whatever challenges that come our way, we will take it positively and fearlessly. This is based on our belief that we can overcome any challenge; it is just a matter of how fast and how soon we can overcome it. This is what keeps us growing and achieving."

In a move that proved he walks his talk, Charles uprooted himself about one and a half years ago and moved to Shanghai to expand the business in the fast growing market that is China. Ivan recently also started a social networking company that is targeted for the China market. Many others would have been daunted by the idea of starting something totally new or venturing into foreign territory and going through the growing pains again, especially after they have tasted success and the good life. But for the driven entrepreneurs, that is exactly the fuel that drives them to move forward.

Being Focused!
When they started, they were very focused with their business concepts. Charles & Keith was started to offer trendy and affordable women's shoes. They focused on that concept for eight years before they started another brand, Pedro. Pedro originally focused on men's footwear and accessories before expanding to include higher end women's footwear and accessories as well.

When Ivan started, he opened a café-cum-nail bar. It barely survived and from there he learned that it is important to be focused in your business and in your offerings. So the next F&B outlet he set up was ThaiExpress, a restaurant that is focused on serving authentic Thai cuisine. At that time there were not many Thai restaurants around. The concept became a hit instantly and the rest was history.

Since then other restaurant concepts he started were also very focused. New York New York offers American food; Xin Wang offers Hong Kong food; Shokudo offers Japanese food; Tang Dian Wang offers Shanghainese food and Pinle offers soy snacks. Each of them is clearly defined and has their own customer base.

Continuous Learning For Continuous Growth
Both Charles and Ivan believe in continuously learning and challenging themselves to grow. Ivan shared that he "learnt one very valuable strategy from this Chinese martial arts series called 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes'. The main character in this show is called Guo Jing. He is known to be a bit dumb and slow in learning, but he later became one of the most powerful martial artists of his time."

"He achieved that because all the masters were willing to pass their Kung Fu skills to him. He was able to master all the different martial arts because he was unassuming, humble and nobody thought he was a threat. I think this is a very, very good strategy to adopt in your life. You will be able to learn a lot from the people around you when you are unassuming and humble. You can adopt the strategy of identifying several 'masters'in the business world and learn from them. To a certain extent, that was how I did it."

"When you start out, you can also use someone as a benchmark for you to aspire to. You can choose somebody who has made $1 million in that business and learn from them to try to reach that level. Then when you have reached the $1 million mark, you can look at the $10 million guy. And when you reach the $10 million mark, you set your sights upon the $100 million guy. If you look around, it isn't hard to find people who are doing businesses that are ten, 100 or even 1,000 times better or bigger than yourself."

Similarly, Charles shared that he continued to learn about business and growing his company from various sources­­­­­—talking to various people, networking, reading books and attending seminars. He said that "Business is about constant learning and trying out new things. I am someone who loves to do things differently and I get motivated when I see things change and improve. If I spot something that can be improved, I will want to change it immediately. You have to keep the speed of your improvement faster than your mistakes."

He also commented, "The reason why some people are stagnant in their business is because they do things halfway. They feel contented about what they have achieved so they stop for a while, so they are unprepared when the next big obstacle comes along and overtakes them."

I think that summarised the essence of how they achieved what they have achieved. It is their constant desire for growth and their unwillingness to accept setbacks that propel them to their incredible success. They simply don't take no for an answer.

They openly shared more success philosophies and strategies with me during the interviews which I revealed in the books. If you are interested to find out more, Niche Dominators: Success Secrets Exposed and Secrets To Dominate Your Niche are available in the bookstores.

---Sant Qiu is an entrepreneur and highly sought-after Profit Strategist who specialises in helping small- to medium-sized businesses radically increase their profits, fast. He is the behind-the-scenes strategist of many business successes and his clients include some high-profile business owners.