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class and a tiny super-rich section of society. So the strategy is a little bit different, how to position oneself in another country. What is the cost to learn? For us the first few years in China involved spending millions of US dollars just to learn and sustain ourselves there. Thats why there are few successful Malaysian brands in other countries- even the big players have tried to penetrate the Chinese market and had to pack their bags and return because paying that much to be in the learning process is something few companies can afford, warnedSim. Carrying the FlagAccording to Sim - at least in the Australian context Malaysians can do well there because a sizable number of Malaysians reside there. Malaysians private investments in Australia are also quite substantial so there is a level of familiarity of Malaysians in the Australian culture and economy. China, on the other hand, is a different issue altogether. Malaysian (food) brands dont really carry much weight there because to them, there isnt much about Malaysian food that is familiar to them. Our local food is very popular within the country, but not to foreign countries. Those in Beijing and Shanghai do not know what satay and nasi lemak are, but we introduced those products there along with mee goreng mamak and hokkien mee. We are trying to be food ambassadors but the concept of Brand Malaysia is something that needs to be furthered by the Malaysian government. Their task is to promote local brands strongly and support them abroad, which is something lacking in the current situation, in bringing local retail brands abroad. This is unlike, say, the Singaporean government which always makes sure their brands like Capitaland and Temasek are present in their road shows abroad, said Sim. Moreover, Sim laments that it is hard enough that retail brands have to try and break into new markets when the Malaysian government is doing little to magnify the prominence of local brands to foreigners. Take for example, the case of landing in KLIA. Before we land we are shown tourism videos of popular places in Malaysia but they are always filled with images of foreign retail brands. If the government wants to promote Brand Malaysia it should have the will to put forward Malaysian retail brands. It can, for example, impose tax incentives for buying Malaysian products, then people would want to purchase Malaysian products, he added. Being Steven SimThe voluminous awards won by Secret Recipe is testament to Sims capability as an innovator and businessperson. He describes himself as very down-to-earth and a people-person. Anyone who wants to come in and talk to me can do so because my door is never closed. We like people with innovative ideas and we reward those who think out of the box. Our staff is the strongest asset in our company especially the front line people who represent our brand. Thats why we have our own training school to train our staff in service, standards and management. At any given time were training about 20 to 30 people for different departments, where they are taught different modules throughout the day. Research and development is also very important in this company. We have a dedicated department in this matter to come up with new products, said Sim. The food industry has always been very challenging to many because whenever there is an economic downturn, people will start a food business based on the false and simple assumption that people needto eat. The wide range of local food, from the very cheap and diverse hawker food to fine dining already present is a tremendous barrier to entry. After we started this casual dining experience, many people tried to copy what we did but its okay because it pushes us to move forward. We know we have a competitive advantage, which is our products. Now we are the largest chain in Malaysia so we are constantly moving to improve ourselves, said Sim.