Dialogue Session with Olivia Lum

Olivia Lum is the CEO and founder of Hyflux. The company was called Hydrochem before. The session is organised by NUS Business School. Olivia is an alumni of NUS Science Faculty. Olivia spends 30 mins talking about how she started. Her key driver is "hungry". For her, hungry and want more and better is important for business success. Since young she want to do business. Olivia want to start her own business when she finished her "A" level. She looks at the towkays around and they cannot speak English but can have their own hardware shop. She was convinced by having Bachelor Degree on her name card looks good. So she went for her degree. She was working in Glaxo as a Chemist and decided to leave a cushy job to start her own business. The reason is she work to 10pm every day and she felt it is not possible to do business if she does not spend to time to do research.

Olivia left a $4800/mth highest paid chemist job. She sold her Nissan and . Bayshore Park apartment and with $20,000 started her business. After paying 3 month rental deposit, she is left with $10,000 capital. She bought a motorbike to do sales calls as taking bus will take too long. Singapore was not friendly to startup companies like hers. She venture in Johore and have more business there as her company is "oversea" company. Then she venture into Indonesia. Her business flourish. The first year, she hardly have any salary. The second year, she draws $2000/mth. In the third year, she draws $6000/mth. By 4th year, she is driving her own Mercedes.

She look at China as a big potential market and write a simple business plan which she say will get ZERO marks in the business school. Her 3 Professors in Science Faculty chip in $100,000 each and gather friends and together collected $1,000,000 for the business venture. The first year, she was worried about the money and did not dare to do anything. She says she has lots of missed opportunities. At the end of the year, she call for a partners meeting and told them she will be personally responsible for any losses so that they will not lose their life savings. Then she went to a "spending spree". End of second year, she lost lots of money. However China opens up to foreign investment and foreign factories moved into China. As they say, the rest is history.

Listening to Olivia is an inspiration. She is a driver and risk taker. She is ambitious and business is her life and passion. It is awe-inspiring for me. I would never be like her. While she attained huge success in business, I wonder about her family and personal life. I am glad I have a balanced lifestyle. Training and education is my passion. Will I be able to do great things in this field?