INTERVIEWING MR LIM OF THE HALOGEN FOUNDATION

Passion, innovation and vision. Those were the things that helped Mr Lim Soon Hock, Chairman of the Halogen Foundation, achieve success as a businessman, entrepreneur and as a person. He started his career as entrepreneur with the purpose of pulling himself out of the corporate environment and pursuing his dream. At 46, he took Compaq Computer Asia Pacific from US$30 million to US$1 billion in 7 years, which is an astounding feat, and currently, he is the Chairman of the Halogen Foundation providing millions of students with technical training that will help them in the future. Despite his countless successes and high status, Mr Lim remains humble and mingles with the youth that his company trains.

Mr Lim has absolute faith in the youth and believes that Halogen will shape them to become leaders and relate to their roles and responsibilities. Through the training, he hopes to groom the youth into leader-entrepreneurs or entrepreneur-leaders for he believes that entrepreneurship and leadership are mutually exclusive. “Everyone of them can make it big”, said Mr Lim, “but they must not be afraid of dreaming big”.

Success, to Mr Lim, may not necessarily mean making tons of money. It could mean doing great social work, public service and doing charity. Leadership and entrepreneurship, things that are incorporated in education and training can help anyone achieve their definition of success, be it saving the environment or making a corrupt-free government. “Whatever that is worth doing, do it well” said Mr Lim when asked about the definition of success.

Mr Lim’s Halogen Foundation has definitely helped many youngsters come out of their shell. The programme brought in by Mr Lim from Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship in the US to Singapore, was received wonderfully! Teachers loved it, principals loved it and most importantly, the youth loved it! These youngsters who were initially shy and hardly participated in class discussions have now become more confident and are now able to present to a panel of judges. The programmes provided by the Halogen Foundation have given the youth self-esteem and strengthened their conviction.

Mr Lim learned that simplicity is the best. He makes it a point to find the simplest and least costly solutions to his business problems and with this, he managed to break into China, a difficult market. Back then, China was a poor country and unable to afford his expensive computers. The Chinese government could not afford it, let alone the ordinary Chinese citizens. His solution was to merge with Qing Hua University, the top University in China, equip their classrooms with computers and taught them how to use the computers. The joint project boosted sales and the Chinese were buying the computers partly because they wanted the computers but mostly for the certificate presented at the end of the training with the Qing Hua name on it. Mr Lim’s belief in simplicity rather than complexity has proved to attain the desired results.

Oddly, Mr Lim thanks unsatisfied customers. “I always treat every complaint from a customer as a gift”, says Mr Lim. He believes that problems can only be seen when customer points them out and through this, he is able to improve the company. He remembers an incident where he delivered 3000 computers to China. The base of these computers turned rusty within less than 6 months, which made his client very, very unhappy. Mr Lim made a difficult decision of replacing every single computer – for free. He took the fall for his company by incurring a huge loss. After that incident, he gained the respect of that particular client and placed more orders. The client became loyal to him. “It’s not always about making money, it’s about doing what is right”, says Mr Lim after he related the experience.

It is no doubt that Mr Lim is great and successful. His little philosophies has made him what he is now – a humble and righteous entrepreneur-leader. I have filled this article with many quotations from Mr Lim but I will conclude with my favorite one, the one that I find helpful for many teenagers like me out there: “Pursue your passion with conviction, perseverance and confidence”.