Check out this article from BusinessWeek : Asia’s Young Entrepreneurs.
Maybe my eyes are failing on me but i could only see 2 Malaysians from the 25 entrepreneurs. Both of them are from the same company: Nuffnang, the online advertising company. 1 from Indonesia, 1 from Japan, 0 from Korea. Most of them are from Hong Kong, India and Singapore.
Why is Malaysia losing out so much to these 3 countries? Japan & Korea…..I think, do have a lot of successful young entrepreneurs but they focus more on their own people and not going international for now. Well, that’s just my opinion anyway. But why…why are we losing to the likes of India? Not because of population because Hong Kong and Singapore have smaller population than Malaysia.
In my humble opinion, i think there are few possible reasons for this.
Our education system is one. We’re too exam oriented (some might argue Singapore is the same) and too much spoon feeding. In our uni, we don’t normally do our own research. The lecturers will give us tips and notes. In my uni time, i’ve never touched the text books before. I relied on lecturers’ notes and i managed to do quite well.
Outflow of talents. Most of our talented people do not want to stay in Malaysia. They are everywhere in the world but Malaysia. I know a lot of Malaysians who are working in Singapore, UK, US, China, etc. All these people are smart people and they said there are more opportunities out there….definitely not in Malaysia.
Government initiatives? We have a lot of gov initiatives here and there to boost the market, and to improve our country’s standing in the world of entrepreneurship. You can find new initiatives by gov during Budget announcement. I regard this topic as a little bit sensitive since i might touch on Politics if i discuss further.
Mentality. Or is it because of our own mentality? Some of us living in Malaysia are still living in the 1970s era. We are not ready to challenge the world, not in this state. Some are too lazy…some are too comfortable with their current condition…and some are just too pessimistic to push forward.
Those are the few points that I could think of now.
Those aside, what about those people in Malaysia who have all the required attributes to achieve something big in the world of entrepreneurship? They have great mentality n good education background, yet failed to make the mark?
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agreed with u on the education system we have here in Malaysia which could be the most important point coz our education system does not (in any possible way) encourage enterpreneurship! true on outflow of talents too coz those potential enterprenuers dont seem to see their future here so they explore to elsewhere which they think will appreciate their enterpreneurship! Also agreed with u on the govt initiatives here where our govt have not done enough, and even if any initiative is in place, it’s alot of times somehow very racist…
Entrepreneurship also requires money/capital lah.
There’re not enough of good/honest/decent fund suppliers/VC in this country and there’re many gatekeepers who sit between you and the money because these gatekeepers or rentseekers are your competitor in a way.
If you’re born into a well-connected family of course it is easier to be an entrepreneur with the money they can give you for your startup.
I have to work my ass off for my capital and slowly get to where I wanna be.
Trust me, Malaysian entrepreneurs exist, except they’re not having an easy time, and because they’re not the ‘elites’, either they don’t get funded, or their achievements do not get recognised because they’re not part of the elites or connected to people who thinks they’re deserving enough to be listed, or they just want to keep a low profile in case some rent seeker discover their business potential and wants a cut of it.
I have a decent pool/circle of entrepreneur friends and they’re quite capable people, the only problem is they’re not connected to bigshots. For myself, major reason is the industry I am keen in has it’s funding manipulated/monopolised by a gatekeeper who gets to decide who can be funded based on who is on good terms with him and are his friends and who is a threat to him/his company.
Rent seeker/gatekeeper sitting between the funds and you, so you have to do things the hard way then.
Lack of access to affordable and decent infrastructure and proper regulation is also a hindrance to potential business ideas.
We have no affordable bandwidth speed/price, so no google or youtube-like startups. This of course in addition to lack of talents that you mentioned but they’re not the only part that is the problem.
We have no proper regulation of spam and telco takes too much cut of our profits, so no true big mobile tech companies because of monopolies like celcom/maxis/digi.
All we have are dishonest companies that ruins the consumer confidence and the industry, if you’ve read jeff ooi’s series of sms scams.
Can’t do a lot of electronic online based businesses because internet penetration is low due to it’s cost/monopoly and also lack of credit card fraud enforcement due to organised crime (gangsters/mafia/triads) influence and control/dominance in Malaysia.
Read michael backman’s latest article on Malaysia’s lack of foundation enforcement/values and you get the idea why many entrepreneurs are finding it hard to make it here.
I agree 101% with ShadowFox. When you pay peanut you get monkeys. When you have monkey keepers, how could a genius get to work ?
I saw one guy graduated from Multimedia University, so I thought he was Malaysian. Besides, saw one guy graduated from a Korean Uni too.
I think it’s in the culture too. A lot of time if you want to venture into business, if your parents are not business persons, they will most likely discourage you. In our culture, there are lack of encouragement.
@sharlydia
i blif our education system in malaysia does not, generally speaking, encourage any form of creative thinking. and creativity,
i believe, is needed one way or another in order to be a successful entrepreneur.
govt initiatives, well i think gov is still quite young and they might b experimenting here n there. let’s hope it won’t b too late when
they realized they are not doing it right
@ShadowFox
most of the things in this world require money
yea, i know it’s very hard to find a good or NICE VC in our region. that’s why when Jamy mentioned about angel investors….
it’s quite a new term to me coz i think angel investor is really a very rare breed in Malaysia.
aiya, chinese styled business , all relationship or connection related. ever heard of GAM CHING STYLED management? it happened in
most local companies, or MNC managed by chinaman-styled bosses. those who are good but no connection, will always remain at the same place.
those who hv connection but not good, will be given opportunities after opportunities.
there are a lot of restrictions for one to start a company in msia. there’s this technology limitation…too slow n outdated…too expensive,
and gov not providing sufficient support, etc etc etc.
or could it be the mentality n culture of our own people (the gov, the customers and the entrepreneurs)?
p/s… interesting blog you got there. you’re into anime as well?
@jamy
maybe that’s why i’ve heard of people who wanna fly before they learn to walk. they wanna b the genius and also the money keepers…but this goal of theirs
appeared to be too much…and they ended up nowhere.
@Bee Ean
there’s a guy from MMU? mmm….guess my eyes ARE failing me.
din notice the Korean uni though.
yea, it’s the mentality. asians tend to opt for a more stable income. it’s either they think big but they don dare…or they dont think big at all.
Alvin,
This is not what I mean. “maybe that’s why i’ve heard of people who wanna fly before they learn to walk. they wanna b the genius and also the money keepers…but this goal of theirs appeared to be too much…and they ended up nowhere.”
What I mean is that the M. government workers are worst than monkey.
When I said what I agree with Shadowfox, I mean an environment play a big part in business. Environment in business include government policies, business facilities, people(workers) and market(consumers).
You might have a lot of smart people around (like what shadowfox said about people he/she knew, I don’t know the sex of shadowfox so I use generic here) but if the environment is not ripe or conducive , you hit yourself into the brick wall.
One of the the reason why I like America so much is I am a true capitalist. I believe in free market., America provide a very rich soil for my entrepreneur spirit. I think my kind of personality suit the personality of this country. I hate talking to money because I don’t understand monkey language. It waste my time and energy talking to monkeys.
I can identity myself with an environment which is pro-business, anti-socialism and so I thrive well in that kind of environment.
I remembered reading an article about a guy from Spain. He is a brilliant guy, very creative. He has this brilliant idea about making baju. He said it would probably take him 3 years to get approved from the bureaucracy craps from Span government but he said from getting the application form to getting his shop set up in US only took him less than 3 months.
I won’t be surprise to read this because it is a reflection of Malaysia education system : “In my uni time, i’ve never touched the text books before. I relied on lecturers’ notes and i managed to do quite well.” but it is very frightening what kind of people would an education system bring up “without reading books”.
Politics and religions are 2 things that reflect your identity and culture, I don’t see why you are so afraid to talk about : “I regard this topic as a little bit sensitive since i might touch on Politics if i discuss further.”
Jamy
@jamy
there are a lot of factors for everything. and true, without a proper environment, business cannot grow….and mayb cannot even survive the first few years.
jamy, not reading text books DOES NOT mean people been brought up “without reading books”. TEXT BOOKS are just a small subset of BOOKS.
and BOOKS are not 100% correct. some people prefer to read articles, magazines, bla bla bla. does this mean they’re going to b bad because they are those who have been brought up
“without reading books”?
why should i talk about religion then? my beliefs are different from yours. different people have different beliefs. i believe in all religions but i don’t like to compare which is good
or which is bad…or this is better n that is worse. IMHO, religion is a very sensitive subject. just respect other people’s beliefs, and tat’s good enough. nothing much to discuss.
politics on the other hand, has a lot of stuff to be discussed. but can something be done? is there a solution after all these discussions? nope. if i wanna discuss, i wouldnt discuss it here.
i’ll go to Jeff Ooi or somewhere to discuss because their blogs are about politics and current issues. mine is not.
u can call me coward, afraid, whatever…but my blog, ever since the beginning, is not bout religion or politics.
and i’m still living in Malaysia where freedom of speech is not really tat…. ______ *fill in the blank*.
i hope i’ve made myself clear.
I agree with the part in living in the 1970s. A lot of people are afraid to go forward, to accept change. Easy example would be Proton and VW deal. They called it off, citing that they’re in the mends now. Can do without external help. They’re so afraid of change, so afraid that once an external party takes over, they won’t be the market leader or some sort. Too shallow minded. But good for VW. At least they won’t put their $$ to waste for such a shallow thinking company.
In my former life I used to work with colleagues from Malaysia. They are really top-notch folk who always know their stuff and are quite talented at innovation. Do you think most of the enterprising types right now are using the corporations as sort of a ‘nursery’ or launching ground?
@seaqueen00
yea, the Proton issue is a shame. as a Malaysian, i was so happy that a company like VW wanted to
work with Proton….at least, for once, there was some hope for our national car maker. but some idiots
in there actually called it off because they managed to earn some $$ from their Persona. =_= gosh.
too shallow minded. ah well, if they’re not shallow, they will not be in ‘there’.
@Natalie
yeap, Malaysia has a lot of talented people. jz that we have a lot of restrictions here and there. i believe if there are
no such restrictions…..Malaysia will definitely achieve greater heights and maybe we’ll b able to compete with the likes of
Singapore, Jap or Korea……….. okok,i’m jz dreaming.
I think most people wanna be their own boss (for donno what reason). thus they started off as some veyr low level staff to learn,
and in turn treats their company/job as a stepping stone.
The grapes vine has it tat VW was willing to pay $1 (either USD, Euro or RM I dunno) for the major percentage of the shares in proton. Believe it or not?
Alvin,
.
OMG, what happen to your blog, for days I could not log in, I thought you blocked my ISP to go in
I think you are very defensive when you said this : “why should i talk about religion then? my beliefs are different from yours. different people have different beliefs. i believe in all religions but i don’t like to compare which is good
or which is bad…or this is better n that is worse. IMHO, religion is a very sensitive subject. just respect other people’s beliefs, and tat’s good enough. nothing much to discuss.”
My father in law and my husband have different beliefs and they also believe in different political parties. They discuss and they argue. And that is the beauty of democratic ! Freedom of speech and religion. B
Because you are brought up in a society that there is only right and wrong and if you are wrong, I put you in prison with an ultimate weapon, ISA. No, we don’t operate like that, we discuss, we disagree and we respect.
Nop, I won’t call you coward :”u can call me coward, afraid, whatever…but my blog, ever since the beginning, is not bout religion or politics” but I call you ignorant. Ignorant does not necessary mean bliss.
Just because you do not want to talk about religion, politics in your blog does not mean you can ignore it from your readers. If you set up a blog, it is for open to the floor for public opinions unless your blog is set to only log in via invitation, then that is a different matters. If your blog is open for public , you cannot have the attitude that “Ok, this is my blog, you like it or leave it.”
You will bound to have opinionated readers like me who want to put in her/his opinions and you cannot burried your heads and said I am not going to talk about religion and politics. You might not necessary have religion and politics as your blog theme but to say you don’t want to talk or discuss is very immature !
Cheers and have a good weekend.
Jamy
FIY: One of my best friends is a Silk Indian girl and we talk about our faith and religion often times and we still remain as best of friends.
@TH
i think it’s because Proton holds the ‘monopoly’ or something? coz with gov protection on local cars….the prices on other cars are ridiculously high for malaysians. imagine if proton is able to produce very good quality cars like VW…but being sold at the same price?
it might become a very very big hit.
@jamy
u’re one of the ppl that i’ve learnt a lot from…and i’m still learning a lot from u as we speak.
auntie jamy, i won’t block off your ISP one la.
yea, i must admit i was a bit defensive. maybe because i’ve encountered some people who dont respect my beliefs and keep asking me to convert.
i know to them, it might be something good…they are doing something good by trying to convert me, but for me, i prefer people to respect my beliefs.
that’s why most of the time, i don’t want to discuss religion. i have my own beliefs. i want people to respect mine and not offend me. i also want to respect people.
and if i hv no idea how open-minded the person can be, i opt not to discuss because discussion on religions can cause a lot of misunderstandings if we’re not careful
yeap. i’m afraid of ISA.
I dont want to mess with them by saying the wrong thing which to me and everyone else is RIGHT, but to them is WRONG.
since the beginning, i’ve said that this blog is not about politics and religions. you can discuss with other readers but i do have the right not to discuss them. no?
it’s like you r asking someone to talk about something, but the person chose not to voice out his opinions……and u call him immature.
ignorant, yes. immature? i doubt. i thought we should respect people’s decision? how mature is it, by calling people immature and not respecting them?
it’s all about the way we look at things. having different perspective, different opinion don’t mean i am immature and you are mature or vice versa.
i chose to be ignorant in some things. i care…but i feel it’s a bit hopeless. i only talk about things that i think i have the power to change. else, i wont. that’s me.
maybe it’s not the “RIGHT” thing in your opinion.
p/s… i started this blog to learn from other people. if every readers who come here drop their comments and asked me to close the blog because i don discuss politics/religions,
then i’ll close the blog.
Hi Alvin, sorry I did not get time to read all replies above sorry to say, but here are some of my thoughts to why Malaysia is not more highly entrepreneurial.
I have been here about 2 months now (combining vacation and online work) and I have developed a somewhat biased point of view. Oh by the way, I am from UK so I had no particular point of view on this matter until coming to stay here in Kuching.
1. First off, I don’t think its so much to do with the education system, although education has a lot to answer for in most countries, in my opinion – I feel in general, education systems lack in a number of key areas. No time to go into it though, so this may seem kinda like a pointless statement – but its food for thought.
2. Outflow of talent – yup, most definitely! If there are more incentives on offer to Malaysians to entrepreneurs and highly educated people coming from other countries, then why not get out of your own country and go elsewhere where quality of life is superior?
3. Malay Government – I talk to Chinese Malaysians very regularly (most often over a delicious bowl of laksa in a local hawker center or cafe), so again this point is biased to some degree, perhaps. But, I get a very strong impression that the Malay Gov are very pro Malay people to the cost of the Chinese Malaysian population. So obviously and again, if a Chinese is entrepreneurial or highly educated, why stay here in Malaysia where you will be suppressed by your own government? May as well head to the likes of Singapore, Australia, UK etc where you will receive a much more level playing field. And to be honest, its pretty obvious that the Chinese are the business people here – the ones with the real get-up-and-go type of thinking… I hardly see a single Malay shop owner. I hear that if a Chinese person wants to get into business they should first seek a powerful Malay backer because otherwise the government will not accept the proposal. How is that going to aid an entrepreneurial and forward-thinking attitude???
In bried – thats it from me!
Joseph
@ Joseph
I must agree with some of your points here. But in regards to the education system, I do feel there’s a need to change since our current system is focusing too much on spoon-feeding. Well, if the teachers aren’t motivated and don’t think like an entrepreneur, how can they teach people to become one? There will still be entrepreneurs, but maybe 1 out of 10?
And yes, outflow of talent. A lot of our talented people prefer to work outside of Malaysia where they can get more benefits, have stronger buying power and basically lead a better life. These people include those who our gov is sponsoring…those under gov scholarship.
As for the Malay government or not, in a way, it is but that’s a totally different issue which is a little bit sensitive. I do personally feel that there are opportunities here and people should not blame the government just because they can’t do it. A lot of people have made it, and they found a way to ‘change’ or ‘adapt’ to this kind of policy. Why can’t the rest follow? In the end, it’s a matter of opinion and mindset.