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Entrepreneurship Practice
Entrepreneurship Icon:
Loh Boon Siew
• Loh Boon Siew was born in 1915 in Fujian,
China, one of the poorest province in China.
• He never had the chance to go to school due
to his poor family condition. He spent his
childhood by collecting pig dug that used to
fertilize his family’s plants and bait for fishing.
• At the age of 12, he moved to Pulau Pinang
with his father to gain some money. At that
time, he could speak only Hokkien and had
no formal education. Yet, he did not regard
these issues as the constraint for him to
become a successful man.
• He was told by his father to work in a • Within 7 years he had 40 buses
mechanic shop. They both did not and managed to open a battery
have time to enjoy but worked hard to shop and spare parts of the
send money to families in China. To vehicle.
earn more money, he spent his night • However, In 1942, during World
by doing bus washing services with War II, his money was confiscated
the payment of 10 cents for each bus. by the invading Japanese army.
After World War II ended in 1945,
• The money saved by him little by little, he started selling bicycles, tires and
he later bought some mechanical motorcycle accessories.
equipment worth RM10.00 and eight • In 1958, he visited Japan for a
used buses worth RM200.00 to repair vacation. In Japan, he saw a
and used as a passenger bus. These Honda motorcycle that has never
buses yielded lucrative revenue to him been used in Malaysia and thought
at RM1.20 to RM 1.40 per day. it might get a good market if
brought here.
• After detecting who the producer was, he made an agreement to order 12
units of the motorcycle. This motorcycle is then sold to his close friends
without taking any profit. The Honda motorcycles that he brought were
ridiculed by people who thought it was useless and quickly damaged, but it
did not break his intention to introduce a motorcycle until by 1963, Honda's
motorcycles became the most sought vehicle.
• The first Malaysian Honda showroom was set
up at Pitt Street in Penang, very near the home
of Boon Siew. The Japanese Honda Motor Co
Ltd soon appointed Boon Siew the sole
distributor for Honda motorbikes in the country.