Fountain of Confidence

Gwei Tze-Co, Managing Director, Kinderdijk Sdn Bhd

Making business decision is easier for Gwei when CEOs in his Vistage Group seconds his motion.

Gwei Tze-Co, an aerospace engineer by training, is ‘flying’ over the moon, not in a spacecraft but in his fast-growing company Kinderdijk Sdn Bhd. When he joined Vistage six years ago, sales was RM7m. This year (2009), revenue is expected to hit RM70m. He attributes the rapid growth to many factors, the main being ‘hiring the right people’. Sounds simple, but Gwei acknowledges that he needed a lot of reassurance from other CEOs that he was ‘doing the right thing’. This, he notes, is the immense value he gets from being a Vistage member.

Kinderdijk is the name of a village in Holland, made famous in a children’s fable. In the story, a boy becomes a hero as he saves his village by placing his finger on a hole in the dyke. Gwei chose the name it has a good story that relates to children, the market that he targets for his range of children’s products. The company, established in 2003, is a distributor of leading children’s brands such as Philips Avent, Mattel, Fisher-Price and Maclaren. It also distributes the popular Crocs footwear. Close to 600 outlets in leading department stores and specialty outlets in Malaysia sell Kinderdijk’s products.

Gwei considers himself fortunate to have the knack for spotting and securing a good business at the right time. For instance when he was introduced to Crocs, no one in Malaysia had heard of it. Following some market research, he discovered that there was a craze in Japan, Australia and Singapore. He sensed that Malaysians will also take to the brand, and quickly pitched for the distributorship. However, he reveals that he lacked confidence in making decisions in other aspects of the business.

He found his fountain of confidence in Vistage. ‘When you are at the top, you decide by yourself, you don’t know whether the decision is right,’ he discloses. Even if the decision is not right, he adds, he believes that his peers in his Vistage group will offer ideas and perspectives to ‘make it right.’ Gwei is grateful that he can learn from mistakes made by others who have been through several business cycles.

His biggest lesson was in hiring. ‘I was afraid to spend on HR. I could not imagine myself paying people so much,’ he admits. The reassurance came from his Vistage Group members, who told him that he needed to hire and he could afford to hire. ‘They seconded my motion,’ – giving Gwei the confidence to go ahead.

Starting with 5 staff, the company now has 250 on the payroll. Gwei acknowledges that he needed professional managers as he himself had never worked for a multinational company or ran a big business before. ‘It is crucial when a business grows to a certain point. To cope with growth, you need people with experience in a multinational environment,’ he elaborates. Due to the company’s fast track, a lot of new blood has taken over from the old guard. His key people are now only ‘2 years old’. Noting that the company does not have time for people to learn slowly, he is now willing to pay a high price for those who can deliver results.

How does he get results from his staff? Gwei says he holds them accountable. ‘if you hold people high, they will show up. Give them space and opportunities to show their abilities’ he explains. This works most of the time. ‘It is a good test, if they can’t perform, we have to be frank with them and let them go,’ he adds.

With good products and high performance staff in place, Gwei is gearing to push his company to greater heights. His next target is product development where he and his team will create their own brands and range of products.