If the title sounds familiar, you have probably
read or come across the titled book by former
Starbucks CEO Howard Behar. Talking about
coffee, I do like this beverage but till today, I can’t
seem to stick to one particular brand. I grew up with
the best coffee in Muar – Sai Kee 434, and have
missed it dearly since moving away from Muar.
There are many locally produced coffee brands,
mostly by SMEs, but disappointingly, not many
have been able to grow their coffee business to the
national level, let alone internationally.
Drinking coffee was already part of the Malaysian
way of life way before Coffee Bean and Starbucks
popularised it. Before these foreign coffee companies
“glamourised” coffee drinking, Malaysians were
mostly patronising local kopitiams, warongs and
mamak stalls. Then, there was a sudden surge of
affluent Malaysians seen crowding Coffee Beans’
and Starbucks’. Was it because of the taste of coffee,
or was something else lying beneath?
Most would agree with me it wasn’t much about
the coffee. As Behar shared in his It’s Not About
the Coffee bestseller, Starbucks was in the people’s
business, not coffee. To my understanding, most
people patronised these coffee places for its ambience
and conducive environment which allowed them to
comfortably sit there for hours. Hence, it became
a practical place to have personal gatherings or
business discussions. Apart from those two reasons,
there were people who visited these places “to see
people” or “to be seen by people”. As you can see,
it’s all about PEOPLE!
If I am right, the first local kopitiam that modernised
the local coffee shop concept was Kluang Station.
Serving local coffee and local food such as toasted
bread, nasi lemak, curry mee, etc, in a tastefully
renovated environment, this modern kopitiam
concept become an instant hit, and Malaysian modern
kopitiam outlets have been mushrooming ever since.
However, it was Old Town White Coffee that brought
this business to a whole new level with its aggressive
yet well structured business plan that sees its outlets
outpace any other Malaysian F&B outlet chain in just
a short few years.
Old Town clearly has an edge over the others and it
has managed to capture the needs and preference of
people. They have won over people.
Another phenomena that started recently was the
donut business. A business that was so ordinary before
an Indonesian-owned donut outlet opened here with a
brand new concept. At its peak, people were queuing
up non-stop to buy donuts. Was it the donuts itself
that they wanted, or was it their business model that
changed the perception of people towards donuts?
The answer is obvious and if the owner of this donut
shop were to write a book, I am pretty sure he or
she will say: “It’s Not About the Donuts.” All these
proved that SMEs can compete and be even more
successful than their foreign counterpart if they are
innovative enough.
Innovation is the key to success in today’s competitive
business environment. Since SMEs lack the funds
to do research and development, they can always
copy and innovate. But you can’t copy and paste as
chances are it won’t work. That is why you hardly
see those who jumped on the bandwagon like roti
uncle, roti untie, roti this, roti that, new town coffee,
big town coffee, small town coffee outperform the
originators. When they copy and paste, it was just
coffee and bread, but “It’s Not About the Coffee”!
It’s about people and they must win customers. You
cannot win customers by copy and paste.
This month we are celebrating the first year
anniversary of our MALAYSIA SME™ newspaper.
We are glad that we have been able to venture this far
and we will venture towards many more anniversaries
to come. When we started this SME newspaper, we
had only one thing in mind; the SMEs. We felt that
since there is so much talk about SME development
and the importance role of SMEs play in our economy,
it was time the SMEs get a media that’s truly SMEfocused.
Hence, the birth of the MALAYSIA SME™
newspaper last July and since then, we have won over
many SME readers.
We will continue to build our newspaper around the
SMEs because right from the beginning, we never
thought or saw ourselves as publishing a newspaper
business. “It’s Not About the Newspaper”! It’s about
the SMEs and in SMEs we care.
God bless SMEs!
Wayne Lim is the Publisher & CEO of MALAYSIA SME™
read or come across the titled book by former
Starbucks CEO Howard Behar. Talking about
coffee, I do like this beverage but till today, I can’t
seem to stick to one particular brand. I grew up with
the best coffee in Muar – Sai Kee 434, and have
missed it dearly since moving away from Muar.
There are many locally produced coffee brands,
mostly by SMEs, but disappointingly, not many
have been able to grow their coffee business to the
national level, let alone internationally.
Drinking coffee was already part of the Malaysian
way of life way before Coffee Bean and Starbucks
popularised it. Before these foreign coffee companies
“glamourised” coffee drinking, Malaysians were
mostly patronising local kopitiams, warongs and
mamak stalls. Then, there was a sudden surge of
affluent Malaysians seen crowding Coffee Beans’
and Starbucks’. Was it because of the taste of coffee,
or was something else lying beneath?
Most would agree with me it wasn’t much about
the coffee. As Behar shared in his It’s Not About
the Coffee bestseller, Starbucks was in the people’s
business, not coffee. To my understanding, most
people patronised these coffee places for its ambience
and conducive environment which allowed them to
comfortably sit there for hours. Hence, it became
a practical place to have personal gatherings or
business discussions. Apart from those two reasons,
there were people who visited these places “to see
people” or “to be seen by people”. As you can see,
it’s all about PEOPLE!
If I am right, the first local kopitiam that modernised
the local coffee shop concept was Kluang Station.
Serving local coffee and local food such as toasted
bread, nasi lemak, curry mee, etc, in a tastefully
renovated environment, this modern kopitiam
concept become an instant hit, and Malaysian modern
kopitiam outlets have been mushrooming ever since.
However, it was Old Town White Coffee that brought
this business to a whole new level with its aggressive
yet well structured business plan that sees its outlets
outpace any other Malaysian F&B outlet chain in just
a short few years.
Old Town clearly has an edge over the others and it
has managed to capture the needs and preference of
people. They have won over people.
Another phenomena that started recently was the
donut business. A business that was so ordinary before
an Indonesian-owned donut outlet opened here with a
brand new concept. At its peak, people were queuing
up non-stop to buy donuts. Was it the donuts itself
that they wanted, or was it their business model that
changed the perception of people towards donuts?
The answer is obvious and if the owner of this donut
shop were to write a book, I am pretty sure he or
she will say: “It’s Not About the Donuts.” All these
proved that SMEs can compete and be even more
successful than their foreign counterpart if they are
innovative enough.
Innovation is the key to success in today’s competitive
business environment. Since SMEs lack the funds
to do research and development, they can always
copy and innovate. But you can’t copy and paste as
chances are it won’t work. That is why you hardly
see those who jumped on the bandwagon like roti
uncle, roti untie, roti this, roti that, new town coffee,
big town coffee, small town coffee outperform the
originators. When they copy and paste, it was just
coffee and bread, but “It’s Not About the Coffee”!
It’s about people and they must win customers. You
cannot win customers by copy and paste.
This month we are celebrating the first year
anniversary of our MALAYSIA SME™ newspaper.
We are glad that we have been able to venture this far
and we will venture towards many more anniversaries
to come. When we started this SME newspaper, we
had only one thing in mind; the SMEs. We felt that
since there is so much talk about SME development
and the importance role of SMEs play in our economy,
it was time the SMEs get a media that’s truly SMEfocused.
Hence, the birth of the MALAYSIA SME™
newspaper last July and since then, we have won over
many SME readers.
We will continue to build our newspaper around the
SMEs because right from the beginning, we never
thought or saw ourselves as publishing a newspaper
business. “It’s Not About the Newspaper”! It’s about
the SMEs and in SMEs we care.
God bless SMEs!
Wayne Lim is the Publisher & CEO of MALAYSIA SME™
