BRANDED CONTENT
Private uni degree was key to unlock KEK Seafood boss’s business savvy
Two homegrown brand leaders share how their private university experience helped nurture business instincts and fuel growth
Mr Paul Liew (left) and Mr Eugene Lim both opted to study business at SIM’s overseas partner universities in the mid-aughts, and are now leading their respective brands to new heights.
PHOTOS: THARM SOOK WAI
Rachel Chia, Content STudio
Foodies have probably salivated at the prospect of dining at acclaimed Michelin-acknowledged Keng Eng Kee (KEK) Seafood.
What they do not know is that the man behind its popularity had little interest in running a restaurant. Indeed, eldest son Paul Liew, 43, did not see himself joining the family business.
But a degree unlocked his potential – and the fortunes of KEK Seafood, which started as a humble hawker stall at Havelock Road Hawker Centre, run by Mr Liew’s grandmother in 1970.
Back in 2005, his parents had little hope that any of their two sons and daughter would take over the stall, which moved in 1990 to a coffee shop in Alexandra Village.
“It never crossed my mind, and my parents didn’t want us to,” says Mr Liew, whose parents believed that running a hawker stall was hard work with low prospects. “There was a common understanding that nobody would take over.”
After completing his national service, the Singapore Polytechnic engineering graduate decided to pursue a business degree by Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).
He enrolled for the course at the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), which partners with 10 overseas universities, including RMIT, to offer their degree programmes locally to students in Singapore.
Why business? As a teenager, when he helped with taking orders, washing floors and drying utensils, he had looked longingly at the sharply dressed customers who would pop by for dinner, before heading for beers at a pub.
“I wanted that lifestyle,” he laughs. “I wanted to wear long-sleeved shirts and work in Shenton Way.”
But his time at SIM radically changed his perspective.
For one, exposure to global best practices in business management, finance, and marketing opened Mr Liew’s eyes to the business potential of his family’s small coffee shop stall, then staffed by eight employees.
In one memorable instance from his course, a human resources class on employee disputes made him realise the importance of people management, even in the food business.
“Eighty per cent of what we do is handling customers and employees,” says Mr Liew, who is now KEK’s managing director. The concepts he learnt from SIM are still being applied today, he adds, as he oversees 80 staff across KEK’s three eateries in Bukit Merah, Tampines and Punggol.
‘Milo tin accounting’ to million-dollar operation
Inspired, the undergraduate put his newfound knowledge to work immediately, beginning with applying stakeholder management strategies to convince his parents and staff to implement changes.
At the time, the Alexandra Village coffee shop stall had no menu – regulars would simply order what they fancied – and the day’s takings were stashed in a Milo tin. “If there was money in it, it meant we’d made a profit. But exactly how much? We had no idea.”
Mr Liew replaced this with a proper accounting system, created and streamlined the menu, and registered the business for the goods and services tax (GST) in 2008 – all while completing his degree.
The threshold for GST registration is $1 million of annual turnover, reached either by the end of the calendar year, or is expected within the next 12 months.
He was optimistic. “We knew that if we did a little more, we were going to hit up to $1 million,” says Mr Liew.
As productivity and profits grew, so did his confidence. “I saw that I could change things, even though I was still in school. It created a foundation for business sense, and built up my entrepreneurial guts to do things.”
Under Mr Liew’s direction, KEK now generates a seven-figure annual revenue. The Michelin-acknowledged eatery counts celebrity chefs Anthony Bourdain and Jose Andres among past fans, and has played a pivotal role in promoting Singaporean cuisine globally through international pop-ups, chef collaborations, and Singapore Tourism Board events.
A father to two daughters aged eight and 11, Mr Liew credits KEK’s new circumstances to his SIM university days. For instance, lessons on leadership, taken from group work experiences, have led to all three siblings jointly running the show without much conflict.
“Everyone has a different skill set, (and) I'm not the best person to manage everything,” Mr Liew says.
So his younger brother Wayne, 40, oversees the kitchen, while his sister Jia Min, 33 (who also graduated from SIM-RMIT) heads operations. Mr Liew manages the front-of-house. Their father, 69, and mother, 65, are now semi-retired, but remain actively involved.
“I was always an order taker. I didn't know that I could be a boss,” he adds. “What changed is really what I learnt in school.”
Flexible thinking helps him build co-living biz
From time to time, Mr Eugene Lim’s family still jokes about his childhood dream of selling toilet paper.
“I remember telling my dad that if I sell one roll to each person in Singapore, I’ll be rich,” he laughs.
It’s precisely this entrepreneurial streak that helped the 41-year-old find success as chief executive of The Assembly Place, a co-living company he started in 2019. It manages more than 1,800 rooms across 130 locations in Singapore.
Convinced of his destiny as a businessman, the Yishun Junior College student had in 2005 enrolled in the University of London (UOL), an overseas partner institution of SIM.
UOL was a popular choice then, Mr Lim recalls, citing aspiring entrepreneurs and peers with family businesses among his cohort.
True to this focus, the university taught business-relevant topics including accounting, business law and statistics – knowledge the chief executive says he still uses today.
But he never expected to take eight years to graduate.
At the time, Mr Lim’s father worked as a town council property manager. To pay for his education, his homemaker mum returned to work teaching Mandarin.
“I remember her handing me a check for $7,000 (for my first year’s fees),” he says. “I thought: How can a grown man still ask money from his parents?”
So when a friend recommended property sales, he jumped at the chance to earn his own keep. In two years, the star salesman was heading a team of about 300 property agents, and had put his entrepreneurial chops to work, founding a dance studio after joining the school’s hip-hop club.
Naturally, these commitments took a toll on his grades and attendance. But SIM’s response was unexpected: Administrators devised ways for him to fulfil his degree requirements without sacrificing his burgeoning career.
“In some schools, there’s no such flexibility. But at SIM, if you can't do full time, do part time. If you can't do four modules a year, do two,” says Mr Lim. “When the system allows flexibility, it increases the chances of you having the courage to go and try things.”
SIM in 60 years
- 1964
Seeded by the Economic Development Board, SIM is founded to build leadership capabilities among Singapore’s workforce
- 1970s
SIM pioneers three diplomas in management studies, marketing, and personnel development
- 1980s
SIM partners renowned global universities to offer their degree programmes locally, under SIM Global Education
- 2000s
UniSIM, Singapore’s inaugural private university for working adults, is launched. In 2017, it is renamed the Singapore University of Social Sciences, and becomes the nation’s sixth autonomous university
- 2024
SIM celebrates six decades as a leading lifelong learning and private education institution in Singapore
Today, this spirit of flexibility underlies his approach to running The Assembly Place with its 32 employees, catalysing the company’s expansion into student accommodation, and a recent business model change from renting to buying properties via joint ventures.
Both these pivots came about after the chief executive spotted market opportunities that called for significant deviations from the company’s original plan, even as the Covid-19 pandemic hit the co-living concept.
The company’s net revenue hit $15.6 million last year, up from about $280,000 in 2019.
Now a father to a seven-year-old boy, Mr Lim sits on the board of the Arts House, and advises the National Arts Council on managing its heritage shophouse at 45 Armenian Street.
“The main thing that helped me to succeed is the very idea of not giving up,” he says.
“My years in SIM taught me that flexibility allows you to pivot. It was an environment where if there's no option A, there's option B, and option C.
“And when you start something, no matter what, you finish. You owe it to the people who gave you that flexibility.”
This year, the Singapore Institute of Management marks its 60th anniversary. Its social purpose: To enable, empower and equip learners with the tools to thrive, and skills to succeed.
- Click here for more information on SIM’s history and alumni experiences.
This is the second of two articles produced in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Management
