Word Smith Sdn Bhd

 Rising Star Award  In 2004, when Shane Mun Phang Choong was still a fresh graduate, he dreamed of creating a technology that will change the world. Together with his best friend Philip Chong, they set up a company named ADEV Ventures Sdn Bhd. The company was named after Adam and Eve in the Bible, who forever changed human history after they had taken the forbidden fruit. The two best friends came up with a business plan to sell condoms online in Malaysia. “ We noticed that Malaysians are conservative and often feel shy to buy condoms in a physical store. That is why we decided to start a subscription model, whereby each member pays a monthly fee of RM20 and they will receive a variation of condoms each month,” Mun said. The pair went on to design the website with much enthusiasm and even sought cooperation with leading condom maker Durex. Unfortunately, the bank rejected their gateway payment application and that was the end of chapter one for ADEV Ventures. Mun ...

  Entrepreneur of the Year Award (SOBA) Started off as a traditional retail hardware shop on Peel Road in Kuala Lumpur, Big Bath was previously known as Leonfast Sdn Bhd. It was a small business established in 1979 with only three staff, including Shane Mun Phang Choong’s parents. Due to its slow business, Mun’s father had to take on a second job as a taxi driver at night while his mother worked as an economic rice seller to supplement the family’s income. Business started to pick up when Leonfast became the main dealer and distributor of various imported products. However, the company again suffered another economic slowdown due to the 1998 financial crisis. Nevertheless, the financial crisis turned out to be a blessing in disguise when it became a wake-up call for the company to not rely solely on other people’s products. “ We realised that total dependence on other people’s products will have a domino effect on the future of our own business, workers and dealers; the fin...

Best in Marketing Award Before the setting up of Big Bath, the company was just a hardware retail shop known as Leonfast Sdn Bhd with only a handful of salespersons. One of them is the founder’s son Shane Mun Phang Choong. Every day, Mun and other salesperson had to go door-to-door to meet clients and market their products. Not only that, the company also spent a lot of money advertising their products in print media. Despite their hardwork, the business was still struggling to survive. However, the exposure has provided Mun the insights on the weaknesses of traditional sale and marketing approach. He realised that this strategy has restricted its target market as each salesperson could only reach out to a small number of customers. “ We could only go so far and many people still did not know about our products. On top of that, the advertising cost in print media is very high and its outreach is limited by time and space,” Mun said. After Mun took over the business from his father,...

Best Brand Award    Shane Mun Phang Choong’s father is not a very well uneducated man. Having gone through only six years of formal education, he has a very limited English vocabulary range. When he was asked to name the new company, which is a spin-off from Leonfast Sdn Bhd that he founded, he decided to call it Big Bath. The name is nothing fancy but he wanted people to remember Big Bath as a place that offers a wide variety of bathroom products. It is exactly what the company aims to do – to offer a wide selection of luxurious bathroom and kitchen products at an affordable price. It also wants to do away with the stigma that the quality of Malaysian products is not as good as those from the United States or European countries. “ Most of the European bathroom and kitchen products are not suitable for Malaysians. For example, their basins for dish washing are shallow and small, which meet their needs but not ours. “ In Malaysia, families tend to enjoy their meals togethe...

 Best Use of Technology Award Big Bath was previously just a family-run hardware retail shop, founded by Shane Mun Phang Choong’s parents who only had a few years of formal education. They did not understand Bahasa Malaysia nor did they know how to read official government letters. They also did not even know how to manage the finances of the company and subsequently failed to collect bad debts from many of their customers. The older generation in the company also did not believe in modern technology; they would rather issue handwritten invoices instead of using point-of-sale (POS) system. The use of accounting software was completely out of question. All these problems in the company eventually landed Mun’s father in big trouble. Not only was he fined for tax evasion, many goods and documents were also confiscated by the Government in a raid. His parents understand that it is difficult to continue the business without the proper knowledge of operating the company so they decide...