Most successful entrepreneur in Malaysia

It is not surprising to find a lot of Malaysians who are milliners. Milliners are expected in any age range in Malaysia.

The following are the list of famous entrepreneurs who are successful in Malaysia.

JIMMY CHOO:

Choo comes from a family where they make shoes in Penang. His actual name is Jimmy Chow but since there was a mistake in his birth certificate, he was then called Jimmy Choo. His company is famous world-wide for its expensive and high-end handmade women’s shoes which was inspired and learnt from his father. He learnt to make shoes by the age of 11. Choo co-founded Jimmy Choo Ltd in 1996 but then he sold his 50% of the company stock to his co-founder, Tamara Mellon. Choo is currently involved for a company which was in London, he was involves in a project to set up shoemaking institute in Malaysia.

DATUK SERI HASMIZA OTHMAN:

Datuk Seri is famously known as Dr Vida. She is one of the most famous successful businesswomen in Malaysia. She is a cosmetic milliner. She is famous for establishing her own cosmetics and health business know has “Vida Beauty”. The company is also famous for its product “Qu Puteh”.

Dr Vida was born in Machang, Kelantan. She has faced a lot of hardship from her childhood days since she lost her father when she was eight years old, mourned for her children who dies in a fire accident and till her 3rd divorce she has suffered a lot and endured it to become a successful business women.

It was not an easy start for Dr Vida to start a business, she was in a stable professor job until she ventured into the business of Herbal and Beauty. She even got a loan of RM 100,000 to start her own business but later when there was a point of shut down she was in a urge of keeping her business alive, so it was during that time she promotes her products to RTM Kelantan FM radio station which then turned out to be a huge success that turned her business into the most profitable business in the country and the world where she also shows herself as the brand ambassador in her products for advertising.

AMIRA GENEID:

She is a founder and CEO of “Zahara”. She first started in Singapore where she came up with the business idea of hala cosmetic brand and came up with an oxygen nail polish. But later her beauty line failed to obtain the halal compliant cosmetics. But now the nail polish can be used by Muslim women who can use it for their wudhu or ablution with even the need to remove it.

TAN SRI SYED MOKHTAR SHAH:

Tan come from a humble village family where his father owns a small livestock business. Tan was a school drop out since his family could not afford his school and examination fees. His father then passed away due to a viral flu which is when Tan took responsibility to take over the family and business. while taking over the business he also additionally included transportation and rice for few years.

At this point of time Tan had a hard time to develop his business where he had days sleeping in lorries and hotels which had bug-infested on their beds while he travelled for business. After a while Tan made inroads into government bodies such as FELDA (Federal Land Development Authority) and MARA (Majilis Amanah Rakyat) while he continued to diversify business interest.

Presently he travels in private jets comfortably and he is one of the most important persons in Malaysia. His net worth is USD 1.8 billion and also holds an impressive record of portfolio and assets which includes MMC Corp and DRB-Hicom group.

JASON LEE:

Is a firm believer in cracking problems. Jason is an enterpriser to adopt NEM blockchain technology to assist in the growth of the company and economic progression. He is familiar with the fintech industry, having co-founded two companies, insurtech startup PolicyStreet and smart city accelerator program Finnext Capital.

TAN SRI DATUK TIONG SU KOUK:

Tan is known as ‘The Father of Hawkers’ he is the founder of CCK Consolidated Holdings Berhad, it is one of Sarawak’s largest producers of frozen seafood.

Tiong came from a fishing background where his father chose him out of the other nine children since Tan was an active child and so at the age of 14, he started taking care of the family’s fish stall. Tan used to work for 16 hours in a day for 12 years in the wet market.  Later when he was 27 years old, he opened Sibu’s first ever frozen seafood outlet at a time when people assumed that “frozen food are stones”. 

For the first 3 months there was no business that at one point of time Tan wanted to change his mindset and he wanted to stop the business. That is when he decided to change people’s mind by distributing free food for people to try. Since then Tan continued his expansion to expand his idea apart from seafood and started venturing business including shipbuilding, ship leasing and property development.

VINESH SINHA

Vinesh is a founder of Fat Hopes Energy. He was a drop out in London ’s School of Commerce. But later he then had an idea to turn waste oils from the food industry in Malaysia into biofuels to be sold globally. Vinesh was also nominated for Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Award of the Year 2017.

RAEESA SYA

Sya is a CEO of Orkid Cosmetics. There was a gap in the Muslim market this gap gave an opportunity to Sya to establish her company which is a beauty line aimed at millennials who fancy accessible, trendy, halal, vegan and cruelty-free beauty products. She’s also recognized as Tech in Asia’s 12 under 30 emerging Southeast Asian entrepreneurs in 2016

DATUK R. DORAISINGAM PILLAI

From his young age Pillai was always interested in doing business since he was a kid. In school he was known to sell stationary items during his school days. Later when he was 15, he flunked in his exams and made his father understand that he wants to get into his father’s business. During that age itself he was able to save up RM500 from his small business that he had done.

With that amount, he bought 25 fishing nets and he was also able to earn back that money on that very same day. Immediately Pillai started expanding his fishing business by buying fishing boats and leasing them out to fishermen. From then on, the business was growing steady and grew his business network and founded Lotus Group which was first started as a Restaurant Jay Villas. He then developed a chain of restaurants and ventured into various sectors from the hotel industry to property development and entertainment.

DATUK DR MAZNAH HAMID

She is known as the “Iron Lady”. At the age of 5 she went through her parents getting divorced. She was then brought up at her grandparent’s place and grew up dreaming to be an entrepreneur. She later did her education in linguistics and became a tutor and translator for several embassies and multinational companies. Later she moved forward to achieve her childhood dream of becoming an entrepreneur and took out all her savings RM 5,000 to start her very own company which can dominate all men.

She first founded Securiforce but she only had little idea about how to run the business but later managed to become a multimillionaire with 6,000- people strong workforce and there are more than 65 branches today.

CONCLUSION:

As seen in the above list there are many successful entrepreneurs in Malaysia. And as it can be right it is shown that cosmetic industry is a very vast successful business sector which can be started in Malaysia.

Related article: How to become a successful entrepreneur in Malaysia?

CAN WE HELP?
+601151177141

Business consultant since 2016