Daily Lesson from Life 10 December 2008

"Wed, Dec 10, 2008 The Straits Times He lost $1m, but did not lose heart

It is a calamity that would drive most businessmen under. But Mr Simon Lim is made of sterner stuff. The owner of Li An Foodstuff lost $1 million when Julie's biscuits were taken off the shelves during the melamine scare.

His company imports the Malaysian-brand biscuits which make up 70 to 80 per cent of his monthly sales of about $800,000.

So it was a terrible blow when the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) banned the entire range of Julie's items in October, after tests found that 12 of its biscuit products were tainted with melamine.


Mr Lim had to cover monthly costs of more than $100,000, for the salaries of over 20 employees and to upkeep more than 10 vehicles, even as cash flow dried up. But the businessman, who has been operating Li An Foodstuff for 28 years, resolved to ride out the scare, adopting measures such as getting staff to go on leave.
His resilience paid off when the AVA lifted the ban on Julie's products last Tuesday.

The father of four daughters recalls the time the ban was introduced: 'I was stupefied. During the first few days, I felt it was not worth it to hang on for so many years and wanted to give up the business.'


But he decided to hang on when he thought about leaving his workers - many of whom had been with him for more than 20 years - without a job. He also had the encouragement of his eldest daughter Stephanie, who helps in the business.

The decision was not without mental and financial pain. He suffered nightmares of recalled biscuits piling up around his bed.


To counter that, he stuck to his daily routine of swimming and jogging to help him relax. He also made frequent visits to AVA to follow up on the issue.

Not wanting to have to lay off any of his workers, he rostered them to go on leave or take unpaid leave, while he carried on the business of importing the other Chinese snacks and instant noodles he distributed.


'I was sure the ban was temporary and things would be back to normal, so I was thinking that I can withstand it. At most, I would have to cut cost and be more thrifty,' he says."

This is a leader with integrity and knew his responsibilities to his staffs, especially in bad time!

The ban has been lifted and his lost business is now able to be sold again though he will be increasing his advertising and marketing and quality control activities to win back lost customers and keep the quality up!

Lessons for me are:

1. in good time it is easy to recognize and do whatever you promised. But in bad time if you STILL honoured whatever you promised with extra efforts, the staffs will become even more loyal and appreciate what the leaders had done for them!;

2. only a leader with integrity and anchored on ethical ground will he or she be at peace with taking temporary losses without resorted to the often criticised Western (I would say certain companies) way of cutting staffs! When your perspective is a on a longer term perspective, you will NOT adopt short term 'feel good' effort but one that will be sustainable and successful!;

3. the actions adopted by the leaders will be seen by many others and they will realize and respect your honesty and integrity. The leaders can then be in a better position to continue to influence others people and swing them over to the leaders' reasoning of pros and cons of doing and not achieving the goals as well as providing potential solutions to any concerns to achieve the mutually aligned goals!

So, anchored on the 7e Way of Leaders foundation - ETHICS - is the most critical consideration!