Asia Pacific CSR Awards 2015
The Asia Pacific Awards program recognizes organizations for embodying the principles of corporate responsibility in their business philosophy and operations following the principles of the United Nations Global Compact. Awards are given for programs that achieve excellence in terms of services to stakeholders and innovative sustainable solutions to pressing social challenges.
Awardees should demonstrate the company’s leadership, sincerity, and ongoing commitment to incorporating ethical values (anti-corruption), compliance with legal requirements (labour standard), respect for individuals (human rights), involvement in communities, and protection of the environment into the way Moscon do business
Selangor Excellence Business Awards 2016
More than 50 categories were awarded to the most outstanding individuals and business entities at the third Selangor Business Excellence Award (SEBA) 2016. This award ceremony was held at Shah Alam Convention Centre (SACC) on 7th November 2016.
Also present were SEBA 2016 Royal Patron Tengku Sulaiman Shah Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah. Nominees were selected based on their excellent organization achievements, such as sales and profit growth, strong leadership ability, a good record of employee training and human capital development, excellent understanding of the market and customers’ needs, good implementation of innovation, and compelling business strategy.
Golden Eagle Awards 2017
This is the most challenging time for Malaysian businesses, and yet is also the most opportune time to harness greater business opportunities. “Within crisis, are the seeds of opportunity.” Today, innovation challenges the traditional mindsets of doing business; the supply chain needs to improve linkages continuously for better integration. This is the time when businesses have a level playing field for success as long as they are flexible and swift enough to embrace changes and move forward.
Themed “Exploring New Reality”, Golden Eagle Award 2017 aims to fuel the engine of entrepreneurial growth
TOP10 OF MALAYSIA
ISSUE 26 / 2016
COVER STORY, PAGE 26 – 31
A VISIONARY’S FORESIGHT
Developing the Malay Reserved Lands is a challenge few would take up. The lands are protected under laws from ownership change, and to add to the challenge, they are mainly in rural locations with little infrastructure. Despite encouragement from the authorities, projects have stalled or been abandoned. It is not surprising that big players in property development shy away from the Malay Reserved Lands. But far-sighted Dato’ Louis Chai Ming Foo, Chairman of Moscon Group, saw it differently. There is an untapped demand for first-time homeowners among the bumiputeras, and he figured out a sustainable way to meet their needs.
Having started from a project of 50 single-storey houses in early 2000, the group has now completed 1,000 units, including semi-detached residences, and is now a trusted name in the sector. Dato Louis Chai tells Top 10 of Malaysia about his experience and the values that he has imbued in Moscon to take it to the next level.
If one were to ask Dato Louis Chai who his greatest teacher is, he would not be giving out a name. He probably would not be saying that his greatest teacher is a person – he would say that hardship taught him the most. Hardship is no stranger to his life, but he took it so well that it honed his will
and shaped him to be an entrepreneur.
Born into a farming household in Jeram, Perak, Chai is the second child of three siblings. Poverty was a fact of life then, and he is the only child in the family who managed to secure a place in the university.
“I was not gifted academically, yet I was offered a place in a university in Taiwan. I struggled mentally for a year before finally going, because I was too poor to even accept the offer,” Chai explains.
“Family is the ultimate root and the foundation of one’s life,” says the father of two daughters. “First, take good care of your family members; Only then can you take on bigger dream.”
To earn some money for his studies, Chai left his hometown for Singapore, where he worked overtime in an electronics plant and earned about SGD10 plus a day. He pondered about taking a cheaper course to study locally and Singapore’s boom then also offered him a glimpse of better life without having to go to Taiwan. But he persuaded himself that leaving might lead him to greater heights. After a year, he saved up about RM3,000 and, with about RM5,000 more from his parents, he went to Taiwan.
“I could have stayed back in Singapore and rose to become a supervisor, but I wanted my life to be more than just that,” says Chai. “I was in my late teens, and I started thinking – to get out of poverty, one should go into business.”
