Digerati50: Respect and humility go a long way
Digital News Asia (DNA) continues a weekly collection that profiles the pinnacle 50 influencers, movers and shakers who are supporting form Malaysia’s Digital Economy. These articles are from Digerati50, a unique print publication launched in January 2014. For information on customised reprints of Digerati50, e-mail [email protected].
- Still hitting new milestones after stellar music document in dotcom area
- ‘You can’t demand admire just due to the fact you have got acquired them’
FEW could doubt the achievements of Ganesh Kumar Bangah, one in all Malaysia’s maximum a hit entrepreneurs. After all, not many can claim to have performed so much at one of these notably soft age of 33.
His accolades talk for themselves: He become licensed through the Malaysia Book of Records because the youngest leader executive officer (CEO) – he was 23 whilst he become helming MOL AccessPortal Berhad.
He also won the Ernst & Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2012; and stated as one among Top 10 magazine’s 10 maximum inspiring Malaysian technopreneurs who have been resilient enough to resist the check of time and reach new heights.
The founder and institution CEO of MOL Global Pte Ltd has constructed the institution from scratch to come to be one of the most important on line price carrier providers in Asia.
Today, the company claims to have over 680,000 bodily price channels across eighty countries global, handles over five million transactions a month, and its sales is close to the RM1-billion mark.
But possibly what many accept as true with to be Ganesh’s largest coup turned into whilst he successfully obtained Silicon Valley-based totally Friendster, the granddaddy of social networking sites, in 2009 for an insignificant US$26 million.
Not best did he turn the struggling organisation round and bring it back to the black in some quick years, he controlled to manoeuvre Friendster faraway from being a social networking website online toward becoming one among the most important on-line social gaming websites in Asia, similarly enhancing its branding inside the region.
Asked what his maximum precious lesson from that episode turned into, Ganesh says, “The biggest success comes from craziness. What that acquisition did for us turned into to turn MOL into a honestly global player.
“Before that, I wasn’t capable of get answers once I contacted the big boys from the Valley – the likes of Zygna, Facebook and Google didn’t return my calls,” he says. “But now, we are regarded as a global player, and they are in the end taking my calls.”
Still, it become now not all clean crusing for Ganesh in the course of the months previous the purchase.
Quizzed as to what become the most vital lesson learnt when handling some of those tech giants, Ganesh names – recognize and humility.
“The hardest element became earning the respect of my American colleagues,” he stocks. “With humans from the Valley, and certainly from the West, you can’t demand respect just because you have obtained them.
“You should earn that appreciate by showing them which you realize your stuff. These businesses are all about the understanding financial system, so so long as you already know your stuff, they’ll admire you for it. You also ought to have a healthful dose of humility to go together with that.”
These days, Ganesh says his role as institution CEO in MOL is not about the nitty-gritty, everyday operational topics because the companies he owns are already very profitable and run by means of themselves.
“I don't forget when I become certified as the youngest CEO of a listed company, I needed to even look at a way to design my MOL Coupons. Essentially then, it changed into a startup and I had to do the entirety from end-to-give up.
“Today, we are a very unique animal. Our sales is close to RM1 billion (US$312 million) and we are found in 12 countries. My role is a whole lot greater strategic and I handiest act as a guide to the humans beneath me and make sure they are going within the proper route.
“One of those selections includes wherein we would be re-list MOL Global as we put together for an IPO (initial public presenting). I’m spending greater time with funding bankers and my position may be to make sure that I make the exceptional strategic choice for the organisation.”
[Update: Ganesh is preparing to list his company on Nasdaq]