The Straits Times / The Business Times News on OSIM

Marathon man

Ron Sim, father of S'pore icon Osim, tells RAJU CHELLAM why long-distance running gets you in good shape to run a business

RUNNING is something that he doesn't particularly have time for but is something Ron Sim has been doing all his life, both literally and figuratively.

He's taken part in three full triathlons - which includes swimming, cycling and running, in that order - in the last five years. His company, Osim, has been sponsoring the Singapore Triathlon since 2002. He runs five kilometres three days a week when he's not travelling. On the figurative side, he's been running Osim ever since he founded the company in 1989. 'Running is a means to get in shape to run the business,' Mr Sim, the 46-year-old founder and chief executive of Osim International, told BT in an interview last week. 'Life is a marathon. Business is a marathon.'

Last year he got his two youngest children to do the kids' triathlon, which means they swam 100 metres, cycled eight km, and ran a kilometre. A mini-triathlon is double those distances, and his oldest daughter did that. The full triathlon is a 1.5 km swim, a 40 km cycle, and a 10 km run.

'It's taxing but it's fun,' Mr Sim says. 'It builds strength, stamina and endurance. You should try it. The first time it's a torture. But at the end of it, you feel great.'

Mainboard-listed Osim International is now a global leader in healthy lifestyle products. For its fiscal second quarter ended June 30, Osim saw net profit jump 52 per cent to $12 million and revenues were up 47 per cent to $134.5 million, a record.

'The positive response to our expanded range of products is strong, and the remodelling of existing outlets to Osim Focus outlets resulted in a record performance in our fiscal Q2 and in H1 2005,' Mr Sim says. 'We have shareholder approval to invest up to $150 million in our Brookstone Holdings subsidiary. This will help us build a global brand.'

Life wasn't this rosy during his youth. He was fourth in a family of seven children and remembers getting five cents a day as pocket money. 'In the afternoons, after school, I would look for a job,' he reminisces. 'Once I finished my O Levels at the Balestier Hill Technical School in 1975, I quit studying.'

He remembers working odd jobs at a shipyard, in a construction company, and as a waiter in an upmarket cafe at the Hyatt Hotel on Scotts Road. 'It was then called Pete's Pizzeria, now it's called Pete's Place, and I was paid less than $5 a day as a waiter there,' he says. 'One day, a generous and obviously wealthy customer liked my service and left me a $5 tip. Wow! It was like hitting the lottery. I still remember that day.'

After his National Service, he worked as a salesman for a consumer appliances company for two years. 'I sold pots and pans and vegetable slicers and even hawked the wares at Cold Storage outlets,' he says. 'I liked this business model. Find a line of products to sell, import them into Singapore, and sell like hell.'

The idea of becoming an entrepreneur took shape then. What made it easy was his flair for maths and a penchant for sales. 'I'm a salesman who's also good at numbers, and maths was my favourite subject in Secondary Four,' he says. 'I was only interested in maths and history. All the other subjects I found boring. I am not an accounts person, but I can see the numbers and interpret them to make business sense. As for history, I can't put down a history book once I start reading it. I particularly like reading about the rise and fall of dynasties, about the history of China, of Persia, and of ancient Greece. There are valuable lessons to be learnt from history for running a business.'

One lesson: partnerships don't work. His first company was a partnership with three friends when he was 20 years old. 'In 10 months, I found it impossible to work,' he says. 'I quit the partnership and formed Rsim Trading Company in 1980 to retail household products. It became Osim in 1989. The 'O' stands for the globe. And Sim is my name.' Osim went IPO in July 2000 at 52 cents a share, and has declared three bonuses along the way.

Today, it's the globe that matters. And Osim is out to get its products into every country in the world. It already had 700 stores worldwide, and has now crossed 1,000 following its acquisition of Brookstone, the US-based, Nasdaq-listed speciality retail chain. Mr Sim's goal was to cross the $1 billion mark and 1,000 stores by 2008, but 'we will reach the goal three years early', he says with a smile. 'And next year we'll have a new goal to aim for. We can't stop running.'

It was also during a run, or a jog, that he met the woman who would become his wife. On a sunny day in 1983, when the young Ron was 23, he was introduced to the 19-year-old Val, a colleague of one of his friends. But it was a long run before they would marry.

'We dated for eight years before we got married,' Mr Sim calculates. 'It was because I didn't want to get married until I turned 30. I feel guys should get married only between the ages of 30 and 35. That's because when you're in your 20s, you hardly know yourself. You don't know what you like, what you want, what you want to do with your life, and whether you'll continue to like the girl you like now a decade later.'

The Sims have three children: Rachel, 15; Raquel, 11; and Roy, 9. In the late 1980s, his wife used to help him with the accounts. She retired 10 years ago and Mr Sim has no other family member involved in running Osim. He owns 57 per cent of Osim, which at its current market capitalisation of $580 million, gives him a paper worth of $330 million.

Not a bad showing for a person whose dad was a cab driver and mom a house cleaner. 'My dad was more intelligent, had more strategic views, which I inherited from him,' Mr Sim says. 'My mom was not educated; she learnt reading from my dad. But she was a fighter, a survivor, a hard worker. My dad passed away in 1979 when I had just left the army. He died of haemorrhage. My mom is still around and in her early 80s.'

He recalls: 'We lived in a three-storey flat in Owen Road. Since both parents were working, we were taken care of by my grandmother. I remember sometimes there was little food. Hunger makes you strong.'

Hunger is also what he now looks for in his recruits. 'I look at a person's attitude, character, and whether he or she is hungry enough for the job,' he says. 'Academics is important, but that's not a guarantee of success. A college degree is only a licence to practise.'

His poor roots also make him more eager to give to charity. He's contributed $1 million of his own money to the Straits Times Pocket Money Fund so far, is one of the founding members of the Lee Kuan Yew Institute of Policy Studies, and gets Osim to sponsor the Children's Cancer Foundation.

Osim's famous massage chairs sell for $1,000 to $8,000. The latest in the range of healthcare products include the iDesire, which is an intelligent full-body massage chair with specially designed massage programs; the iCare 200, an ergonomically designed eye massager; the iCheck 500, a blood pressure and body fat monitor; and the iTango, a portable electropulse massager and body toner with radio.

The iDesire was recently in the news when Taiwan TV host Zhang Fei came to Singapore for its launch. 'With the Osim iDesire, I won't be needing a wife,' the entertainer told a huge crowd here. 'I usually avoid being associated with many brands and products. But it was love at first sight for me and the iDesire. I have an iDesire at home and I'm in love with it.'

Also in love with Osim is another, more famous personality, the Chinese superstar Gong Li. She's been the international face of Osim for the last two years and is considered one of the world's most beautiful and elegant women. Says Mr Sim: 'Her face depicts elegance, she has a strong international image, she's personally a very nice and humble lady and projects healthiness and wellness, which is what Osim is all about.'

The problem? Her contract in Singapore expired this month. So will he look for a new woman to be the face of Osim? Someone from the Hong Kong movie industry, or from Bollywood, or even Hollywood?

Mr Sim won't comment but has this to say: 'We need a face that depicts all the qualities that Gong Li had. I'm open to exploring any idea. And in view of our Brookstone acquisition, I think it would be best to go look for a Hollywood star.'