Sim Wong Hoo remembers Steve Jobs with newspaper ad

In a move that surprised many, Sim Wong Hoo, Chairman and CEO of Creative placed a full page advertisement in Singapore's top selling newspaper as a tribute to Apple's ex-CEO Steve Jobs.

The ad which cost about U$14,000 was described by a Creative spokesman as "simply a tribute to Steve Jobs from Mr Sim personally". The ad reads: 'Thank you for the great lessons. Thank you for the great products. Thank you for bringing a bit of us to the whole world.'

Reactions to the ad were mixed though most were positive. Most felt that it was a "gentlemen" and "classy" move on Sim's part for his personal tribute to Steve, while others question if the line "bringing a bit of us to the world" is a reminder to all of Creative's ZEN Patent victory against Apple. Whichever is the case, Creative seems to be the winner at the end of the day with the intense media converge (there was a half page coverage of the ad in the papers today which you can read about it here) with many others on Twitter and Forums discussing this ad.

Dave Bullard, editor-in-chief of Macworld Australia, believes that Sim’s decision to take out the ad in memory of Jobs was done with honourable intentions. “After the legal action of 2006, Creative took an ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ attitude and started working with Apple in the Made for iPod program, and has made some excellent peripherals for Macs, iPods, iPhones and iPads over the years,” he was quoted saying in Marketing Magazine Australia interview. Cnet Asia also described the ad as a "creative and tasteful move by Sim".

What are your thoughts on this ad? Do share with us your views in the comments section.

Mum a fighter till the end

Sim Wong Hoo's sister has written a book about their mother who brought up her 12 children alone

She reared pigs and grew fruit in order to provide for her 12 children, one of whom is technology multi-millionaire Sim Wong Hoo, 53, founder of Creative Technology, the renowned Singaporean multimedia company.

Now one of Mrs Sim-Tan Siok Kee's daughters, Madam Sim Siu Yok, 64, has written a book about her, a widow who worked hard to raise her children single-handedly after her husband died at the age of 63 in 1969.

Now aged between 50 and 66, the children work in administration, engineering and business.

The Chinese-language memoir, titled My Mother, is published using funds from the Sim-Tan Siok Kee Foundation, set up in 2007 by Creative's Mr Sim in memory of his mother, who died in 2006 at the age of 94.

He attended the launch of the book yesterday morning at the National Library Building, where he spoke briefly about the hardship his mother faced when he was growing up.

Madam Sim was inspired to write her mother's story to teach youths about the sacrifices of their elders, even though she did not complete her primary school education. The fourth of seven daughters, she is a mother of two and a retired doctor's assistant. She wrote the book over two years.

Life was hard for the family, who lived in a kampung in Bukit Panjang. An elder brother died of fever when he was only one year old after he and his mother were caught in a downpour.

'At the time, there was nowhere to seek shelter, nowhere to find a doctor. The neighbours tried to give him home remedies, but he died,' says Madam Sim in Mandarin. The family was so poor that three of her sisters were given up for adoption. Happily, her mother was able to reunite with her long-lost daughters over the years.

Her father was a labourer before he helped run her uncle's provision shop, so the family could get essentials such as rice and oil. But they still needed money for books, clothes, shoes and other household items. As their father earned less than $200 a month, their mother helped contribute to the household income by rearing animals and growing vegetables and fruit.

'These we could not eat. They were sold for money,' recalls Madam Sim.

When her father died, her mother had to do even more: She went from door to door to sell eggs.

More than steely resolve, her mother had compassion, too. Madam Sim recalls that when she was 10, her parents did not give her pocket money to buy food at school.

'When you go to school and see people eat, you want to eat, too,' she says.

Driven to desperation, she started stealing the money she discovered her father had hidden under the bed.

'When he found out what I had been doing, he wanted to beat me but my mother understood that kids need money. My father listened to my mother, so he didn't beat me and started giving me some pocket money,' she says.

Though life became better when her children started working, her mother was a fighter until the end.

She suffered a stroke in 1998 yet went on to live until 2006, despite doctors' pessimism about her condition.

The proceeds from the book will benefit the Young People's Performing Arts Ensemble, a non-profit theatre arts company that promotes Chinese culture to the young. The initial print-run is 3,000.

Says the ensemble's artistic director, Ms Ma Gyap Sen, 50: 'Siu Yok had the desire to write about her mother and it is great that it relates to our theme this year. We hope the book will teach young people not to take everything for granted and help them forge a connection with their elders.'

The ensemble launched the book yesterday to kick off their year-long series on filial piety, which also includes a health talk next month, a play in March and a holiday camp in June.

Says Madam Sim, who will promote the book in secondary schools: 'My mother was special and she lived in a time when Singapore was very poor. I wanted to write her story so that young people can learn from her story and about what life was like then.'

ysteph@sph.com.sg

Wo De Ma Ma (My Mother) costs $10 and is available at selected Chinese-language bookstores. Call the Young People's Performing Arts Ensemble on 6336-6776 for details.

[LINK]

Creative goes the distance

When it comes to going the distance, no one does it better than Creative. 8 years after the first Nomad Jukebox, Creative is still going strong in this highly competitive PDE market. And in the recent Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, Creative came up as the company with the 2nd highest mileage in the Corporate Distance Challenge with 11, 528 KM, just behind Standard Chartered's 19,236KM and way ahead of companies like Pricewaterhousecoopers (3,835KM), SingTel (2,935KM) and Credit Suisse (2,289KM). As you might have already know, Creative CEO, MR Sim Wong Hoo himself is quite a runner, and it's comforting to see the company united in such trying times. With CES 2009 just round the corner, we're eagerly awiting to see what the company will bring for us this time round ;)

Creative sees the light, thank you for your patience and wants to do an Adidas

Dear Shareholders,

Creative is a company that is known to thrive in adversity. The adversities we are now facing, both internally and externally, will serve to propel us forward, albeit more carefully.

We have a very clear vision of what we want to achieve. We just have to be a lot more focused. We are finally seeing the light ahead of us. The path ahead could undoubtedly still be thorny and challenging, but we have the technology and financial resources to clear the way.

The vision I am talking about is to create a totally new Creative, with a new product line and a new business model, whilst leveraging on the technologies we have mustered over the years, which will again see Creative set a new trend in the industry and open up new opportunities for all.

I am very excited about this new vision, which we will unveil in the next quarter, and anxiously awaits to tell you about it.

Let me now give you a recap of the financial performance for the past fiscal year.

Fiscal 2008 continued to be another extremely difficult and challenging year for Creative.

We had planned to focus on returning to profitability by focusing on several key areas on both the product and operations fronts.

While we started the fiscal year making significant progress in such areas of focus, our plans were shortly thereafter affected by the adverse and uncertain macroeconomic conditions, starting with the sub-prime and housing problems in the US. The ensuing turmoil has during the fiscal year extended to cover other markets, and developed into the current crisis in the global financial markets. These uncertainties have also exacerbated problems facing our products in the weakening US consumer market.

These negative market developments have caused a reduction in revenues and adversely affected planned improvements in margins. In response to these developments, in the second half of the fiscal year, we have taken action to restructure the company with a series of cost-cutting measures to streamline the business operations of the company and reduce operating expenses, the result of which is reflected in the financial results for the year.

Sales for fiscal year 2008 were $737 million, a reduction of 19% compared to $915 million for the fiscal year 2007. Gross profit as a percentage of sales was 22% in fiscal 2008, compared to 19% in fiscal 2007. Net loss for fiscal 2008 was $20 million, compared to a net income of $28 million in fiscal 2007. Net loss for fiscal 2008 included $12 million of restructuring charges, while net income for fiscal 2007 included a $100 million paid-up license from Apple for its use of the ZEN Patent in its products. Creative sold its headquarters building in Singapore, Creative Resource, in June 2008 at a sale price of $181 million, with a leaseback of the whole building for a period of five years with an option for additional periods of three years and two years. Creative made a gain on the sale of the building of $148 million. Although the sale was completed in June 2008, and legal title has been transferred to the buyer, and sale proceeds have been received, for US GAAP accounting purposes, this sale has not been recognized in the accounts for fiscal year 2008. In accordance with US GAAP, the gain on sale of building will be recognized in the accounts only at the end of the initial five year lease term.

In July 2008, Creative repaid the entire $100 million outstanding balance of its syndicated term loan. With this repayment, Creative is now practically debt-free, with no outstanding bank borrowing. This has positioned us well to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the new product line and business model that I mentioned earlier.

Finally, I would like to thank all of you for your patience with Creative. We need this wide breathing space to prepare the company for the exciting opportunities ahead. I believe it will be something you will be very proud of.
To Believe in the Impossible.

Thank you.

Sim Wong Hoo
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

----------------------------------

Creative's 2008 Annual Report is indeed a breath of fresh air. Not only does it spot an au natural cover of a rain forest, even Sim is going all ZEN on us. Despite measures to streamline its operation and return to profitability, unfavourable macroeconomic conditions and adverse market development has caused Creative to suffer a net loss of USD$20 million. Admitting that Creative has been facing adversities both internally and externally and that "2008 continued to be another extremely difficult and challenging year for Creative.", Sim remain confident that Creative has the financial resources and technology to make it throuh the rain. Sim is also going to create "a totally new Creative, with a new product line and a new business model". "We are finally seeing the light ahead of us.", Sim prophesied "I believe it will be something you will be very proud of. To Believe in the Impossible." As long as it's not moving towards the light Sim, I'm all for it.

Reading between the lines:

"Creative is a company that is known to thrive in adversity. The adversities we are now facing, both internally and externally, will serve to propel us forward, albeit more carefully."

Creative created a fantastic PC that had sound, graphics and a Chinese Operating System called the CUBIC CT in 1986 which failed badly because it was simply a product "5 years ahead of its time". In 1996, Creative lost some USD$56million when the CD-ROM market crashed. Apple robbed Creative off it's number 1 position in the MP3 market although Creative has a head start with the NOMAD. As I have said previously, "At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate." I'm very proud that Creative has never given up and look where it is today.

"a totally new Creative, with a new product line and a new business model,"

To recreate a totally new Creative, obviously you have to start from the bottom of the company hierarchy. I'm of course referring to the Sales and support staff. I have heard countless complains about rude sales staff at the Creative HQ in Singapore and mediocre after sales/ RMA service overseas. This point has been raised from time to time and it seems that nothing much is being done. Hopefully someone from up above (where the light comes from) sees this and do something to improve the situation. We have seen Creative moving away from the low-margin, throat cutting MP3 market into other areas like video capturing/conferencing. inPerson and Vado marks Creative's re-entry into the imaging capturing market. I see the Vado as another potential flagship product for Creative as it's highly affordable and there's an actual demand for it in the market. While with inPerson, it has already created a new business model by charging a monthly subscription fee. This seems to be a more lucrative and sustainable business model compared to one where a customer purchase a product, and no revenue is generated further. I see Creative heading towards this direction. Could a new product line be gaming consoles with subscription (like Xbox Live?) or maybe a ZEN Market place?

"Finally, I would like to thank all of you for your patience with Creative."

It's very comforting to hear something like this coming from a CEO. It's like saying: "I know we haven't been performing up to expectations but thanks for sticking with us. Rest assured things are changing for the better!"

"I believe it will be something you will be very proud of. To Believe in the Impossible."

"We are so going to kick Steve Jobs's ass and dethrone iPod! "

What do you think of Sim's message in the Annual Report? Tell us in the Comments Section below!

Coffee with Sim Wong Hoo, the creative runner

SIM WONG HOO, 53, Chief Executive of Creative Technology
HE SHIED away from the limelight some three years ago — about the same time his Creative Technology empire weathered turbulence in the face of a bloody MP3-player battle with United States tech giant Apple and tumbling stocks.

Creative chief Sim Wong Hoo now breaks his silence, saying he’s a new man — thanks to his new-found passion for running.

The trim, sporty 53-year-old will take on another challenge on Saturday night, joining some 300 runners — many of them elite athletes — in the inaugural, 84km Adidas Sundown Marathon, which will also see about 6,000 others going half the distance.

In his first media interview in three years, he tells ANSLEY NG (ansley@mediacorp.com.sg) about his preparations for the race and how to get creative.

You ran your first marathon in December last year, clocking just under seven hours. A month later, you signed up for the 84km ultra marathon. Why?
I knew I wanted to take part in it when I read about the event in the papers. I was in no condition to do the ultra marathon. But I always do things when I am not prepared. That’s the way I have achieved things all my life. You don’t prepare and plan, plan and plan, then decide if you can do the task. I don’t do things that way.

You actually set a goal, then you go. Then you set bigger and bigger goals.

When I set my mind to do the ultra marathon, it was done. There was never a single doubt in my mind that I couldn’t do it. I signed up, and worked towards it.

Have you always been running?
I was never a runner, never an athlete. I had an embarrassing experience when I was young, when I attempted a half-marathon (21km) with some friends during my National Service. This was 30 years ago. It was one of the first few times Singapore had organised such a race, so there was not much support. We didn’t prepare for anything. We just ran until we couldn’t any more and started walking. Halfway through, my friend and I decided to have breakfast, after which my friend gave up and went home. I continued and walked to the finish. When I got to the end, there was nobody there. There was nothing left, even the street was cleaned up.

I don’t know how long I took, but it felt very long. I persisted to the end, but there was nobody there.

Is there a reason you are looking for such physical challenges?
I want to be a new person. I want to be young again. When you are young again, you have a second life. Now, I am more energetic than some guys in their 20s. I have been driving the company crazy.
(laughs)

What’s the longest distance you’ve run so far?
Fifty kilometres, which took about seven hours and 26 minutes in training. Also in training, I’ve done about 170km — the equivalent of four marathons — in 10 days.

How many times a week do you train?
Four times, and I prefer to run at night, since my next race is also at night. When
I run, I am working. I am most productive when running. I am the least productive when I’m here in the office. But when I am running, I am solving all the problems and setting all the big strategies. Every time I go out for a run, I come back with some new ideas that need to be implemented. But when I’m in the office I get distracted, emails and people disturbing you.

A lot of people cannot understand the joy derived from running. Why do you do it?
Running changes your life. When I run, I am synchronised with the universe, so you can become more creative when you run. A lot of great ideas over the past year were crystalised and solved while I was running. Also, my brain is much sharper now. I used to go to meetings and take notes. Now I don’t, because I can remember everything. During my runs, I think about a lot of things and as such, it’s
not boring at all.

Once, I had a problem with an invention, an IT type of product relating to imaging. I had been thinking about it for more than 10 years, and I didn’t have a solution. But in 20 minutes — while running — I found a solution. When I came back, I got my lawyer to file a patent. My lawyer is now stressed. He has 20 to 30 patents behind him, ideas that came up while I was running.

What do you think about when you are running?
The long distance can be boring.
I am either counting my footsteps, or I start thinking about everything else — work, the world, the rising cost of food prices, the environmental problems we are facing, everything.

You are in sync with the universe when you do that. Some people meditate (to achieve that), but I run.

Do you follow a particular diet now?
No. In fact, I am more prone to eating rubbish now. After a run at East Coast, I go to McDonald’s and reward myself with McWings. Normally I don’t take food like that, but now I can afford to.

(Article thanks to www.todayonline.com)

A $20m Christmas gift to charity, courtesy of Creative's Sim

UPDATE: Sim Wong Hoo's mother passed on recently. He further donated another $10million and renamed the Sim Foundation to Sim-Tan Siok Kee Foundation in memory of his mother.

SINGAPORE'S answer to Bill Gates — Creative Technology's Sim Wong Hoo — is also fitting the bill, so to speak, in terms of philanthropic leadership.

Mr Sim, Creative's chairman and chief executive, revealed that he will be establishing two foundations worth a total of $20 million to support the arts, education and the elderly at the digital entertainment company's 25th anniversary celebrations on Monday.

As with his previous donations, the launch of the Kuo Pao Kun Foundation and Sim Foundation was a low-key affair, made known only by a few paragraphs in a commemorative booklet given out at the anniversary celebrations.

"It is hoped that the setting up of these two foundations could inspire the spirit of giving," stated the brief announcement.

Mr Sim declined to comment on the foundations — set up with the donation of one million Creative shares to each, worth some $20 million in all — though details may be released at a later date.

This brings Mr Sim's total donations to charity, in cash, shares and dividends, to some $49 million since 1999.

To date, Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka Shing has given over US$1 billion ($1.54 billion) in grants and donations to charitable projects through the Li Ka Shing Foundation.

And while Asia's philanthropic acts pale in comparison to American billionaire Warren Buffett's US$37-billion donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this year, Mr Sim's act of giving is still rare in a society where the number of millionaires is fast outstripping the millions given to charity.

According to the National Voluntary and Philanthropy Centre's 2004 charity survey, the number of philanthropic bodies has been tailing off since 2000, despite the number of millionaires in Singapore rising by 13.4 per cent to hit last year's record 55,000 individuals of high net-worth — defined as those with over US$1 million in liquid assets.

The last local entrepreneur reported to have set up a foundation earlier this year was Dr Loo Choon Yong, executive chairman of the Raffles Medical Group, who donated 10 million shares — worth $8.9 million — of the publicly-listed medical group to its humanitarian arm, the Asian Medical Foundation.

While Mr Sim would not comment on his personal reasons for giving, Mr Kuo Pao Kun was a long-time personal friend and mentor to him. The foundation in honour of the late dramatist will nurture the performing arts here.

The Sim Foundation will focus on education, the arts and the aged. It will also incorporate the Creative Education and Arts Foundation which Mr Sim founded in 2001 with 1.3 million shares, worth some $20 million based on its market value then.

Without a passion for the creative arts and music, there would be no Sound Blaster soundcard, and hence, no Creative Technology as it stands today, said Mr Sim during a speech on Monday night.

Not forgetting that charity starts at home, Mr Sim gave over $85,000 to staff via a lucky draw and a "Your Dreams Come True" game held during the night-long anniversary celebrations. In addition, some $250,000 was raised for charity over Creative's three-day celebration sale lucky draw which ended on Monday.

Creative reinstallation

SOME ten years after a leadership split in Creative Technology, the three original founders of the company have joined hands again to fight the MP3 war.

At the 25th anniversary celebrations on Monday night, Creative Technology chairman and chief executive Sim Wong Hoo announced that Mr Chay Kwong Soon and Mr Ng Kai Wa — buddies from his Ngee Ann Polytechnic days — have returned to help him.

Mr Chay, who left his post as Creative's chief operating officer and president in 1996, has agreed to return as an advisor to Mr Sim.

Said Mr Chay: "I hope to help set the stage for Creative to harvest its technologies."

Mr Ng, chairman and chief executive officer of InnoMedia — a supplier of broadband Internet protocol technology solutions — rejoined Creative as a board member "a few months ago" after leaving his chief technology officer post in 1995.

Both co-founders were said to have left on amicable terms due to different views on growth strategies.

Singapore's 40 Richest

#29 Sim Wong Hoo
Age: 51
Net Worth: $155 million
Sim is the CEO and Chairman of Singapore based Creative Technology. The company is known for its sound blaster and its highly acclaimed ZEN line of MP3 players.
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