“What is your ambition?” A question that we had to answer multiple times growing up before landing where we are in life today as an adult. It is not an easy question for a child or teenager to answer when they are still just figuring out their identities and exploring what are the available options out there in the real world. Typical answers would be doctor, lawyer, teacher and some odd ones like stewardess and fashion designer. Being a chicken farmer is definitely not among the favourites. Perhaps, it was not the answer given by Dr. Ricky @ Toong Foo Weng either. But the agriculture industry is not what it used to be. Today, Shanshui Chicken, a successful poultry products brand owned by Dr. Ricky, is operating in three different sections of the market as a supplier of poultry, eggs and bio-fertiliser. He is not a typical chicken farmer. The award-winning entrepreneur has a PhD in Business and Management from Management and Science University (MSU).
“Agriculture is the future in business. I am saying this because there is an ongoing global food crisis. It is a human basic need that is sadly still unmet in some parts of the world. Having said that, the agriculture business is really tough. The hours are long because it goes way beyond the typical eight hours of a desk job. I start working early in the morning and only finish at midnight. The daily workload is also quite heavy that I do not think a lot of people can endure,” Dr. Ricky explained.
Starting the business requires a huge capital since everything has to be built from scratch on an empty piece of land. It will take three to four years to break even since the profit is quite small. The business comes with its own set of challenges. For instance, disease outbreaks can rupture the whole prospect of this business in the blink of an eye. Dr.Ricky experienced it twice and he almost went bankrupt because of it. Initially, his venture was challenged by an avian influenza outbreak that killed more than half of his chickens. The second time, he almost lost his business when his farm workers took advantage of his trust and stole from him.
He decided earlier on in the business that he did not want to compete with all the big players in the market. He set his eyes on the more niche market, supplying organic free-range chicken to five-star hotels and restaurants. He also targets customers who are on strict, healthy diets. For instance, women in post-natal and chronic illness patients. Chickens from Shansui Chicken are reared naturally with reduced use of antibiotics and chemicals. One of the new methods discovered in recent years is using the leaves of ‘Madre de Agua’ or ‘Pokok Ketum Ayam’ (Trichanthera gigantea) as chicken feed. Not only does this appear to be a healthier choice for the chickens, but it also minimises the expenditures on chicken feed that can take up 70 per cent of the total production cost.
“For me, education is very important. At MSU, I wrote a research paper on organic, halal chicken. Everything that I learned has definitely helped me in a lot of my decision-making processes. That aside, I learned that there are times when I need to be more practical as a leader and business owner. For example, I manage people who work at my farm from varying educational backgrounds and behaviours. They are mostly foreign workers who come from tough backgrounds and countries with cultures different from ours here in Malaysia. The adversaries in managing them are imminent. While managing and dealing with them is quite a challenge, it is not something that was taught in the book during my studies as we need to improvise based on the knowledge acquired to address the situation,” he added.
Prior to his PhD, Dr. Ricky started his Master in Business Administration at MSU as a part-time student where he struggled to apply the theory that he learned to his own business. With his serious commitment to education, he managed to pull through. Dr. Ricky invested years of his lifetime in education until he finally earned the title ‘Doctor of Philosophy’. He admits the fact that the progression he made has helped him a lot in his business dealings and has opened up many doors for his company.
“I worked so hard juggling my life as an entrepreneur and a student. If there is one piece of advice that I could offer to students out there, I would like to tell them to keep going and never stop until they achieve their educational goals. They have to keep the momentum because if they take a break and put their education on hold, they might lose interest in going back. It will get harder the longer they step away from it,” Dr Ricky said as he urged the future graduates to stay adamant on their transformative journey.
Have a better perspective of Dr. Ricky's journey to sustain his business and postgraduate excellence on MSUPop:
“What is your ambition?” A question that we had to answer multiple times growing up before landing where we are in life today as an adult. It is not an easy question for a child or teenager to answer when they are still just figuring out their identities and exploring what are the available options out there in the real world. Typical answers would be doctor, lawyer, teacher and some odd ones like stewardess and fashion designer. Being a chicken farmer is definitely not among the favourites. Perhaps, it was not the answer given by Dr. Ricky @ Toong Foo Weng either. But the agriculture industry is not what it used to be. Today, Shanshui Chicken, a successful poultry products brand owned by Dr. Ricky, is operating in three different sections of the market as a supplier of poultry, eggs and bio-fertiliser. He is not a typical chicken farmer. The award-winning entrepreneur has a PhD in Business and Management from Management and Science University (MSU).
“Agriculture is the future in business. I am saying this because there is an ongoing global food crisis. It is a human basic need that is sadly still unmet in some parts of the world. Having said that, the agriculture business is really tough. The hours are long because it goes way beyond the typical eight hours of a desk job. I start working early in the morning and only finish at midnight. The daily workload is also quite heavy that I do not think a lot of people can endure,” Dr. Ricky explained.
Starting the business requires a huge capital since everything has to be built from scratch on an empty piece of land. It will take three to four years to break even since the profit is quite small. The business comes with its own set of challenges. For instance, disease outbreaks can rupture the whole prospect of this business in the blink of an eye. Dr.Ricky experienced it twice and he almost went bankrupt because of it. Initially, his venture was challenged by an avian influenza outbreak that killed more than half of his chickens. The second time, he almost lost his business when his farm workers took advantage of his trust and stole from him.
He decided earlier on in the business that he did not want to compete with all the big players in the market. He set his eyes on the more niche market, supplying organic free-range chicken to five-star hotels and restaurants. He also targets customers who are on strict, healthy diets. For instance, women in post-natal and chronic illness patients. Chickens from Shansui Chicken are reared naturally with reduced use of antibiotics and chemicals. One of the new methods discovered in recent years is using the leaves of ‘Madre de Agua’ or ‘Pokok Ketum Ayam’ (Trichanthera gigantea) as chicken feed. Not only does this appear to be a healthier choice for the chickens, but it also minimises the expenditures on chicken feed that can take up 70 per cent of the total production cost.
“For me, education is very important. At MSU, I wrote a research paper on organic, halal chicken. Everything that I learned has definitely helped me in a lot of my decision-making processes. That aside, I learned that there are times when I need to be more practical as a leader and business owner. For example, I manage people who work at my farm from varying educational backgrounds and behaviours. They are mostly foreign workers who come from tough backgrounds and countries with cultures different from ours here in Malaysia. The adversaries in managing them are imminent. While managing and dealing with them is quite a challenge, it is not something that was taught in the book during my studies as we need to improvise based on the knowledge acquired to address the situation,” he added.
Prior to his PhD, Dr. Ricky started his Master in Business Administration at MSU as a part-time student where he struggled to apply the theory that he learned to his own business. With his serious commitment to education, he managed to pull through. Dr. Ricky invested years of his lifetime in education until he finally earned the title ‘Doctor of Philosophy’. He admits the fact that the progression he made has helped him a lot in his business dealings and has opened up many doors for his company.
“I worked so hard juggling my life as an entrepreneur and a student. If there is one piece of advice that I could offer to students out there, I would like to tell them to keep going and never stop until they achieve their educational goals. They have to keep the momentum because if they take a break and put their education on hold, they might lose interest in going back. It will get harder the longer they step away from it,” Dr Ricky said as he urged the future graduates to stay adamant on their transformative journey.
Have a better perspective of Dr. Ricky's journey to sustain his business and postgraduate excellence on MSUPop: