The back catalogue

119 stories

Every one published so far. Heritage brands, hidden figures, and the decisions that looked wrong at the time.

Showing all 119 stories

The queue is the receipt — proof of a standard they refuse to lower.Plate 119SingaporeLim Chee GuanHe didn't buy the land. He bought the people who drove past it.Plate 118SingaporeC.K. TangThe best businesses aren't built from ambition. They're built from necessity.Plate 117SingaporeMind Stretcher / Kristie LimHis first move was to label every worker's disability. First month revenue: S$97.Plate 116SingaporeKoh Seng Choon / Dignity KitchenThe song you'd defend to the death was written by a foreigner you never knew — and you only learned his name when someone tried to steal it.Plate 115SingaporeHugh HarrisonHe borrowed 1 tical, prayed to Kwan Yin, won 900. The only former slave with an MRT station named after him.Plate 114SingaporeChew Boon LayYou've photographed her work. You've never heard her name.Plate 113SingaporeDr Cheong Koon HeanHe cooked for LKY five times at Asia's #1 restaurant. He was still overlooked. He had to leave Singapore to earn the right to elevate Malay cuisine at home.Plate 112SingaporeChef Akmal AnuarShe entered an all-boys school just to sit the exam. Then she won the scholarship no woman had won in 45 years.Plate 111SingaporeDr. Maggie LimThey were idea #41 out of 40 slots. Nearly rejected twice. Then someone offered them US$100 million. They said no.Plate 110SingaporeCarousell / Quek Siu RuiEvery diner table in America carries a Hokkien word from the Straits of Malacca. Nobody knows it.Plate 109Singapore & MalaysiaKetchupThe woman who built Asia's luxury brand infrastructure has no personal brand.Plate 108SingaporeChristina Ong / Club 21 / COMO GroupThe thing everyone guards against can be the exact thing you lean into.Plate 107Singapore & MalaysiaQ&M Dental / Ng Chin SiauIf Cikgu Asfiah hadn't documented this dish, I wouldn't have known. My mum has forgotten.Plate 106SingaporeCikgu Asfiah AbdullahYour legacy often lives outside your job title — he classified real fish for a living, and the world remembers him for a fake one.Plate 105SingaporeAlec Fraser-BrunnerIt's never too late — and the route everyone else avoids is usually the one that's open.Plate 104Singapore & MalaysiaChang Yun ChungConviction beats credentials. She had no legal training — but she had fury, and it moved a law that lawyers hadn't.Plate 103SingaporeChan Choy SiongShe sold clothes. But she was really in the business of belonging.Plate 102Singapore77th Street / Elim ChewYou don't change the world from a distance. You change it by being in the room where the pain is.Plate 101SingaporeChe Zahara Noor MohamedThe people the system locks out often see it most clearly — so they go build the door.Plate 100Singapore2C2P / Aung Kyaw MoeThey didn't invent it. They bought it. Ownership beat invention.Plate 099SingaporeEagle Brand Medicated OilThe obstacle isn't always what it looks like. Sometimes you can remove it — one page at a time.Plate 098SingaporeAli Ismail / Hotel New WorldThe thing that makes an idea impossible to approve is the same thing that makes it impossible to compete with.Plate 097SingaporeBernard Harrison / Night SafariThe biggest competitive edge isn't on the factory floor — it's in the magazine nobody else is readingPlate 096ElsewhereLi Ka-ShingThe first time I walked through Marina Bay Sands, I noticed something odd at the casino entrance. Not a queue for the gaming tables. A payment machine…Plate 095SingaporeMarina Bay Sands / Lee Hsien LoongThe best thing that happened to Hegen was getting robbed.Plate 094SingaporeHegen / Yvon BockFor 30 years, the best engineers in Japan couldn't solve it. They never thought to ask the person who actually cooked rice.Plate 093ElsewhereFumiko Minami / Rice CookerHe discovered that what people see while eating changes the taste. So he removed everything -- the chef, the diners, the conversation. 90 stores later, people queue for 10 days.Plate 092ElsewhereIchiran Ramen / Manabu YoshitomiThe Game Boy won because it was worse. Deliberately worse. Built on technology from the 1970s while every competitor chased cutting-edge.Plate 091ElsewhereGunpei Yokoi / NintendoTradition is the enemy of the next tradition.Plate 090ElsewhereBubble Tea / Liu Han-Chieh & Lin Hsiu HuiThe unfair advantage nobody sees is the boring business you already built.Plate 089MalaysiaSpritzer / Lim Kok CheongThe best distribution strategy isn't a strategy. It's showing up where people are in pain.Plate 088SingaporeAxe Brand Universal Oil / Leung Yun CheeThe most scalable thing in business is the refusal to scale.Plate 087ElsewhereDin Tai Fung / Yang Bing-YiThe biggest moat in business isn't complexity. It's simplicity nobody else has the discipline to copy.Plate 086SingaporeCHAGEE / Zhang JunjieThey moved the whole building because the ground wasn't right. Most people would've just forced it.Plate 085MalaysiaPetronas Twin TowersDon't inspect the spreadsheet. Inspect the wiring.Plate 084SingaporeLim Kim SanThe best sales pitch isn't a promise. It's proof you already delivered.Plate 083SingaporeTexas Instruments SingaporeI grew up knowing one version of Singapore's founding story. It had one name in it.Plate 082Singapore & MalaysiaKwa Geok ChooSometimes the only way to save something is to make it smaller.Plate 081Singapore & MalaysiaDatuk Captain Izham Ismail - Malaysia AirlinesLegacy isn't what you inherit. It's what you refuse to let die.Plate 080Singapore & MalaysiaEu Yan SangTime horizon is competitive advantagePlate 079SingaporeFei Siong GroupYou don't find markets. You create them.Plate 078MalaysiaRamly BurgerThe Chinese government begged her to IPO. She refused.Plate 077ElsewhereLao Gan Ma / Tao HuabiNobody would hire him. At 8 months old, Lee Thiam Wah contracted polio. Lost the use of his legs. Wheelchair-bound for life.Plate 076Singapore & MalaysiaLee Thiam Wah / 99 Speed MartIn 2017, a Malaysian oil & gas engineer made 200 jars of sambal. He sold all 200.Plate 075MalaysiaKhairul Aming / Sambal NyetHe picked coins from drains as a kid. At 33, he sold his company for $30 million.Plate 074SingaporeVodien / Alvin PohHe left home on a cargo boat with no blessing. 30 years later, his 101-year-old father traveled to Singapore to hear that anthem performed for the first time.Plate 073SingaporeZubir Said / Majulah SingapuraWent from innovation to "ancient tradition" in one generation.Plate 072Singapore & MalaysiaYu Sheng / Lo Hei90 years. Same tiny bottle. They refuse to make it bigger. That's not stubbornness — that's strategy.Plate 071Singapore & MalaysiaYakult / Dr. Minoru ShirotaA kampung kid from Geylang killed the floppy disk. The world just forgot to say thank you.Plate 070SingaporeTrek 2000 / Henn TanShe was famous for 22 years before Bourdain arrived. He just told the rest of the world.Plate 069SingaporeFoo Kui Lian / Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken RiceHe arrived the same year as Sir Stamford Raffles. Raffles came with an empire. He came with vegetables. Both shaped Singapore.Plate 068Singapore & MalaysiaTan Tock SengThree generations: one taught herself to read. One became a pharmacist. One runs SE Asia's largest bank.Plate 067ElsewhereTan Su Shan / DBS Group CEOI use Grab almost every day. Never once thought about the text message that started it.Plate 066Singapore & MalaysiaTan Hooi LingConvenience isn't a feature. It's the entire product.Plate 065SingaporeSuper GroupThe best marketing strategy is no marketing strategy.Plate 064ElsewhereSriracha / David TranThe man Singapore trusted most was once too ashamed to go home.Plate 063SingaporeS.R. NathanThe hardest enemy to kill is the one inside youPlate 062SingaporeSQ117 / Fred Cheong"You have no business running a business." A customer said that to Anna Lim's face.Plate 061SingaporeThe Soup Spoon / Anna Lim50 years of agricultural scientists couldn't commercialize vertical farming. An aluminium factory owner did it in 4.Plate 060SingaporeSky GreensWhen you can't win the primary customer, win the customer everyone else ignores.Plate 059Singapore & MalaysiaSingapore AirlinesHe bought a failing popiah factory as a favor to a friend. Today he makes 30 million spring roll skins a day.Plate 058SingaporeSAM GOI / Tee Yih Jia "Popiah King"Most people quit when it's embarrassing. He doubled down when it was humiliating.Plate 057MalaysiaRotiboyMy wife used to forward me parenting articles. I'd read a few paragraphs and quietly think: this isn't about us.Plate 056SingaporeRoshni MahtaniWhen you're the worst, copying the best won't save you. Copy someone else entirely.Plate 055SingaporePiyush Gupta - DBS BankBeing trapped is luck. What you do while trapped is the choice.Plate 054Singapore & MalaysiaPeter LimHis stock crashed to 5 cents. Creditors were circling. The US$450 million acquisition had blown up in his face. Brookstone — the American retail chain he…Plate 053SingaporeOSIM / Ron SimAn architect sees a city. An economist sees a spreadsheet. Singapore got its MRT because the architect won the argument.Plate 052SingaporeOng Teng CheongThe answer to a complex surgical problem wasn't a bigger machine. It was a smaller one.Plate 051SingaporeNousQ / CLiKXSingapore's biggest charity scandal was fixed by a man who had just retired.Plate 050SingaporeNKF / Gerard EeEveryone said nobody visits a zoo at night. He built the most-visited nocturnal zoo in the world.Plate 049SingaporeNight SafariWhen you can't control the supply, eliminate the need for one.Plate 048Singapore & MalaysiaNEWaterA physics graduate. A stockbroker. Zero retail experience. Now he sells screwdrivers and lightbulbs. 5,000+ stores. $2.9 billion net worth.Plate 047MalaysiaMr. DIY / Tan Yu YehYou don't win by riding the wave. You win by still being there after it breaks.Plate 046SingaporeMr Bean / Loh Jwee Poh & Kang Puay SengIn 1981, a 25-year-old nurse walked into a Malaysian bank with a business plan. She wanted to open a fast food restaurant.Plate 045MalaysiaMarrybrown / Nancy LiewMake it deliberately worse for a different jobPlate 044MalaysiaMamee MonsterThe best design isn't the one people notice. It's the one 5 million people never have to think about.Plate 043SingaporeLiu Thai KerThe best business is the one nobody wants. No interest means no competition.Plate 042Singapore & MalaysiaLim Goh TongNew entrants assume they have to earn their way in. The best ones find what the incumbent can't afford to lose.Plate 041Singapore & MalaysiaLim Chin Beng50 years of failure because everyone was solving the wrong problem. One man solved it in 10 — by refusing to treat the river as an environmental problem.Plate 040SingaporeLee Ek TiengThe CEO of Malaysia's car industry secretly funded the company that would make cars less necessary.Plate 039MalaysiaKhor Swee Wah / GrabThe hospital treating your family in Yishun? Named after the guy who founded Malaysia's biggest bank — after they kicked him out.Plate 038Singapore & MalaysiaKhoo Teck Puat / MaybankThe best founders don't have a fixed product. They have fixed adaptability.Plate 037Singapore & MalaysiaKhong Guan Biscuits1 in 5 condoms you've ever used came from a Malaysian factory. And the company behind it? Started by a family who lost everything.Plate 036MalaysiaKAREXOne object beats five priorities. We're taught to diversify, balance, be well-rounded. Pillay won by doing the opposite.Plate 035Singapore & MalaysiaJ.Y. PillayWhen you don't have the resource, become the place where the resource gets processed.Plate 034SingaporeJurong IslandEveryone has a midnight Indomie story. You know the one. 2am. Dorm room, HDB kitchen, someone's floor after a house party. You tear open the five…Plate 033SingaporeIndomie / Sudono SalimSomewhere in every Singaporean's childhood, there's a flight on SIA. The blue sarong kebaya. The quiet smile before your first drink. That specific kind…Plate 032Singapore & MalaysiaIan Batey / Singapore GirlMost companies hire to compensate for a product that isn't good enoughPlate 031SingaporeHyperliquid / Jeff YanFour times he ignored the experts. Four times he was right. The fifth time, he ignored the people — and it ended him.Plate 030Singapore & MalaysiaHowe Yoon ChongHe invented the pool villa because he had no beach. He invented the tropical spa because he ignored the consultants. Banyan Tree was built entirely from things that went wrong.Plate 029SingaporeHo Kwon Ping / Banyan Tree HotelsMost people in Singapore know two things about Ho Ching. Her husband became Prime Minister. And she lost billions on a bad trade.Plate 028SingaporeHo ChingIf you've ever had half-boiled eggs at a kopitiam, you've seen it. That small yellow plastic thing. Pour boiling water in. Wait for it to drain. Perfect…Plate 027Singapore & MalaysiaHew Ah Kow / Half-Boiled Egg MakerIn 2016, a hawker selling $2 chicken rice in Singapore received a Michelin star. First street food stall in the world to ever get one.Plate 026Singapore & MalaysiaHawker Chan / Chan Hon MengHe gave away half his profits. That's why you know his name.Plate 025SingaporeHaw Par Villa / Tiger BalmHe couldn't cook. So he made the restaurant about everything except the food.Plate 024SingaporeHai Di LaoIn December 2014, two ACS guys opened a nightclub in Clarke Quay. Four months later, they lost $1 million.Plate 023ElsewhereThe Golden Duck / Jonathan Shen & Chris HwangYour biggest liability and your biggest asset are often the same thing. The difference is the question you're asking about it.Plate 022SingaporeGoh Choon Phong / Singapore Airlines COVIDIn 1949, the British army was auctioning off war supplies in Singapore. Everyone walked past the barrels of rotten paint.Plate 021SingaporeGOH CHENG LIANG / Nippon PaintDon't fight the leaders. Create a category they haven't thought of yet.Plate 020Singapore & MalaysiaGinvera / Dr. Tor Lam HuatYour origin shapes your strategyPlate 019Singapore & MalaysiaGardeniaHe replaced luxury tea with Lipton and two-ply toilet paper with single-ply. That's how you save a $50 billion company.Plate 018SingaporeForrest Li / SeaA country of 34 million people was drinking powdered milk and calling it fresh.Plate 017MalaysiaFarm Fresh / Loi Tuan EeSingapore teaches every student about Lim Bo Seng. Almost nobody learns her name.Plate 016SingaporeElizabeth ChoyHe can barely speak. So he let the sambal speak for him.Plate 015Singapore & MalaysiaDAPUR PAK AMIRHe sold to LVMH for $100M. Then walked back in to hand cheques to the dishwashers.Plate 014Singapore & MalaysiaCrystal Jade / Ip Yiu TungThe global standard wasn't set in Silicon Valley. It was set in a Chinatown repair shop.Plate 013SingaporeCreative Technology / Sound BlasterShe has a bunion the size of a 50-cent coin on her left foot. It's from wearing cheap polyurethane shoes as a teenage waitress.Plate 012Singapore & MalaysiaChristy NgIn 1993, a fishmonger-turned-property-developer decided to open a budget hotel. In Geylang. Singapore's red light district.Plate 011SingaporeChoo Chong Ngen / Hotel 81He quit a $500 million Wall Street hedge fund to start a martial arts company. Everyone said it was the dumbest idea they'd ever heard.Plate 010ElsewhereChatri Sityodtong / ONE ChampionshipHis mother wanted to shut down the shoe shop. It wasn't making money. Business was bad. Time to close.Plate 009SingaporeCharles & KeithThe loudest brand in the world was built by the quietest man in the room.Plate 008ElsewhereChaleo Yoovidhya / Red BullThe most beloved snack in Japan was born from the worst day in human history.Plate 007Singapore & MalaysiaCalbee / Takashi MatsuoEvery Malaysian I know has a teh tarik order. Mine's teh tarik kurang manis from the mamak downstairs. Same guy makes it every morning. Same pour. Same…Plate 006MalaysiaBOH TeaA Bangladeshi apprentice of Louis Kahn designed Singapore's most "local" spaces.Plate 005SingaporeAzaduz ZamanTaylor Swift. Beyoncé. Lady Gaga. Selena Gomez. All carrying bags from a Singapore brand nobody had heard of two years ago.Plate 004SingaporeAupen / Nicholas TanHe stole S$900,000. His wife named the company "unconditional love" anyway.Plate 003SingaporeAnil David / Agape Connecting PeopleI used to run past the Raffles statue near the Singapore River on my evening runs. Never thought much about it. Just another colonial leftover, right?…Plate 002Singapore & MalaysiaAlbert WinsemiusEveryone else is retreating. That's how you know there's an opening.Plate 001Singapore & MalaysiaAirAsia

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