The Malaysian Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (MAICSA) is the premier professional body for Company Secretaries and Governance Professionals with aims of promoting good governance and best practices in organisations. Today, MAICSA has more than 4,200 members (comprising Fellows and Associates) and Graduates, 1,800 students and 600 Affiliates on its register.
In its latest issue of ‘Corporate Voice’, MAICSA ran an in-depth interview with Ganesh Kumar Bangah who’s widely regarded as the “Bill Gates of Malaysia” being a serial entrepreneur, startup investor and technology industry leader. He was the Ernst & Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012, and certified by the Malaysia Book of Records as the youngest CEO of a public listed company before listing it on NASDAQ IN 2014.
Today, Ganesh serves as Executive Chairman of ASX-listed Netccentric Limited, and the e-commerce ecosystem Commerce.Asia which he had founded in 2017.
His contribution to nation-building includes serving as Honorary Chairman of the National Tech Association of Malaysia (PIKOM) and Chairman of PIKOM Think Tank called Future Digital.
Ganesh is guided by the belief that the world’s challenges can be solved through entrepreneurship. He believes that true entrepreneurs are not just motivated by money alone, instead, creating impacts to improve societies, while building a better world for our children and the generations to come, are uppermost in their minds as well.
Here’s the full interview by MAICSA for the benefit of readers.
MAICSA: Please share with us your background and also what led you to be involved in the tech industry as early as 20 years of age?
I became passionate about technology since my childhood days. In 1992, when I was 12 years old, my father bought me my first computer which cost RM 6,000.
In my teenage years as a student, I ran a sidegig buying computer parts in Singapore before reselling them in Johor Bahru at higher prices. A turning point came when Bill Gates visited Singapore – I found him very inspiring and told my boss at the time, who later became my partner, that I would be the Bill Gates of Malaysia.
I am indeed blessed with business acumen, having made history by becoming Malaysia’s youngest CEO of a listed company at the age of 23 and was also EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2012.
Since then, I have been recognised as one of Asia’s most influential people according to Society Magazine 2015. I was also regarded as one of Southeast Asia’s Top 30 Tech Founders by Tech in Asia in 2016, and was consequently described as ‘one of the most inspiring Malaysian technology entrepreneurs’ by Top 10 of Malaysia.
All this recognition is very humbling. I attribute my achievements as blessings from the above.
My perspective is that the key to solving the world’s problems lies in the entrepreneurial spirit driving entrepreneurs.
MAICSA: With the rapid developments taking place in the digital world, what are the greatest challenges you have encountered since becoming a technopreneur? How do you keep abreast with issues affecting the digital industry?
I was PIKOM (National Tech Association of Malaysia) Chairman for some years, and today I am the Chairman of PIKOM’s Think-Tank arm called Future Digital as well as Honorary Chairman.
As I alluded to earlier, entrepreneurship can be a very strong motivation or drive to solve the world’s problems. Every entrepreneur and start-up pitch deck will start with one of the world’s problems and how an entrepreneur then finds a solution to that problem.
I believe that if we create more entrepreneurs, those entrepreneurs will be able to solve all of the world’s problems over time. And that’s what has been driving me ever since I first started my entrepreneurship journey.
If you want to be an entrepreneur, do it because you want to do something good for the world. If you see a problem, it is only natural for true entrepreneurs to feel a passion to actually solve that problem. Entrepreneurs are able to leverage their passion and ingenuity to create cost-effective and profitable solutions to those problems.
MAICSA: How would you summarise your personal philosophy towards work and your personal life?
Ideas are precious, for it could be the start of milestones that shapes one’s life while also creating wealth. Never dismiss ideas, however trivial they may seem, because they spark the creative process while opening blue oceans along the way.
Sir Isaac Newton could have had just dismissed the apple falling from the tree. Instead, what many people considered as an everyday occurrence resulted in the Theory of Gravity for mankind to progress.
IDEAS ARE PRECIOUS, FOR IT COULD BE THE START OF MILESTONES THAT SHAPES ONE’S LIFE WHILE ALSO CREATING WEALTH.
My typical day starts at 5.00 am when I would prepare for a half an hour long meditation.
At that time of the morning, I find my energies at its peak and, through meditation, I aim to align all my various states – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – into a cohesive one for the ideas and solutions to flow freely.
Throughout the day, there will inevitably be challenges, whether business or otherwise, and it’s very important to be optimistic if one were to be successful. Most times, the ‘answers’ would often be revealed after I perform my morning meditation sessions.
It’s equally important to always keep an open mind, and to constantly learn from others.
When I was in my early-20s, I was very much a geek and still very green to the workings of the business world. I learnt much from my first investor, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, who introduced me to the ropes of successful business entrepreneurship, and how to solve business challenges as and when they arise.
MAICSA: You seem to have had great foresight when you founded your first company, MOL AccessPortal in 2000. In your current venture, what do you wish to accomplish in the next 5 years to promote this industry further in Malaysia?
The beauty about technology is that it’s constantly evolving, and here I am trying to find the ‘next big thing’. I founded my first internet business, MOL AccessPortal, in the year 2000 at the age of 20.
Through sheer hard work and determination, my team and I developed the business to become Southeast Asia’s leading online payment gateway and Southeast Asia’s first internet company to be listed on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations System (NASDAQ) in 2014.
I also founded the investment holding company, MOL Ventures, which made successful private investments in global social media and mobile internet companies such as Facebook, Friendster and Kakao.
When I started Commerce.Asia in 2016, what I wanted to do was to help local SMEs (small and medium enterprises) adopt e-commerce more effectively so that they can survive as the world becomes more digital.
IT’S EQUALLY IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS KEEP AN OPEN MIND, AND TO CONSTANTLY LEARN FROM OTHERS.
Today, Commerce.Asia works with a database of more than nine million SMEs across seven countries, and 92,000 merchants which posted a GMV of RM6.7 billion last year.
The Commerce.Asia Group was recognised by APAC CIO Outlook as the Best E-commerce Consulting/Services Company among the selected top 10 companies in the Asia-Pacific region in 2020.
Today, Commerce.Asia offers an end-to-end one-stop solution for brands and businesses looking to sell online. It manages all aspects of their online businesses; from developing their own online stores, to managing product sales across multiple e-marketplaces, including warehousing, payment, delivery, marketing and order management.
This holistic approach centralises all business operations for clients, incorporating best-of-breed technological innovations that range from core business operation management, automated dropship functionalities, and big data analytics, to on-demand fulfilment, onestop delivery, and managed services.
Commerce.Asia believes in nurturing ‘win-win’ partnerships with clients while helping them generate sustainable revenue and increase profits consistently. Our Group upholds the philosophy of offering a unified ecosystem of opportunities that would create value and wealth for clients.
Due to the booming domestic and regional e-commerce market, the Commerce.Asia group is set to ride and capitalise on an upward trajectory trend whereby ‘the sky’s the limit’.
Similarly, when I invested in Australian-listed Netccentric Limited, my purpose was to train more influencers across the region and help generate more income for them.
We are ‘Asia’s Pioneering Digital Ecosystem’ and have been behind-the-scenes of some major marketing campaigns conducted recently by some of these international household names.
Our wider reach encompasses more than 15,000 influencers, key opinion leaders, celebrities and content creators who offer a collective reach to more than 20 million engaged social media followers throughout Southeast Asia.
MAICSA: In your opinion, what is the work ethic that you feel is fundamental to be a successful Chartered Secretary and Governance Professional? Why?
Integrity, and to constantly “do and be seen to be doing the right thing”.
As entrepreneurs, we are constantly thinking of technological ideas and strategies aside from improving revenue of the organisation. At times, we may overlook or are not aware of certain issues that may contravene regulations or corporate governance of the organisation. This is where the role of the Chartered Secretary/ Governance Professional is crucial and valuable to ensure any corporate decisions made are proper and in compliance with prevailing regulations and laws.
MAICSA: Please share some words of wisdom with our readers especially about leadership and the importance of passion when choosing a career or profession?
When I started working as a young entrepreneur, I was more of a technology geek; I was a Microsoft Certified Professional systems engineer, as we used to call it. That gave me the fundamental understanding of the building blocks of technology. And because of that, I was able to connect the dots between these different building blocks to create useful applications for end users.
Over time, you start hiring people, and the people you hire tend to start doing that work. And I started becoming more of a visionary and strategist – looking into the future, and seeing how we could use all the building blocks that we have today to develop new solutions for the future that will be useful for consumers and end users.
I’m a big believer of Sun Tzu (writer of the Art of War) and Sun Tzu said: ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’ When you start a business, you need to understand your competitors in the field, your market, and find your product market fit.
Firstly, you have to look at yourself or the leader of the business that you’re investing in or starting. You then have to look at the market or the environment, and how you could potentially capture the market. You also have to look at the timing as well.
You need to start your business at the right time. For example, if you launched an e-commerce marketplace 15 years ago, it’s too early because the logistics infrastructure was not there to support it. If you launched an e-commerce marketplace 6 years ago in Southeast Asia, it may be the right time. If you launch an e-commerce marketplace today, it’s too late because the leaders are already there.
These days, I see myself as a mentor for new entrepreneurs on the scene.
I enjoy helping entrepreneurs more than being an entrepreneur myself, to be honest. Being a member of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 Malaysia judging panel gave me an opportunity to see how the highest level of entrepreneurs have actually grown their businesses. Seeing different entrepreneurs, and how they build their business, how they grow, and how they pivot, has given me a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment – even happier sometimes than my own success.
In fact, one of the proudest moments for me was when I saw the success of one of my staff, who was my intern about 11-12 years ago. He has since become a CEO of one of the affiliate marketing companies in Malaysia, building a business that became hugely successful, with $1 billion in volume.
When I see successes of people that I have trained, whether an employee or an entrepreneur, that makes me very proud, because I had a part in that person’s success.
