[h=2]School dropout now rubs shoulders with Ministers[/h]
August 1st, 2014 |
Author: Editorial
Hoon Thing Leong with his "bestseller" (ST Photo)
ST featured a story about a school dropout, Hoon Thing Leong, last week (“Coffee boy is now ‘coffee shop king’”, 28 Jul).
It talked about Mr Hoon launching his book on business failures and successes in June and apparently, the book has “become a bestseller”. It was Mr Hoon’s first book and ST reported that all 10,000 copies were snapped up within five days.
The book in Chinese, “The Boss Strikes – Effective Business Practices”, made him a best-selling author overnight, thanks to support from an informal network of mainly Chinese-educated businessmen and friends that he had founded 18 years ago. “I am surprised that so many wanted to read my book,” he said.
Mr Hoon is the boss behind the coffee shop chain, Kim San Leng. In his book, he revealed his past successes and failures.
Mr Hoon was born in Fuzhou, China, and moved to Singapore with his mother when he was five to join his father. He started working as a coffee boy in his father’s shop in Hougang when he was 12. He later dropped out of school when he was Secondary 2.
By the time he was 24, he started his first coffee shop in Bukit Timah with his younger brother. In 1990, he made news when he paid a record $3.52 million for a coffee shop in Bishan Street 13. He still owns the shop, which is worth many times more today. He is said to devote his entire life to the coffee shop business.
In 1996, he and a few other businessmen started an informal business group called, The Bosses Network. The purpose is to organise talks and forums and learn from one another.
Mr Hoon said the group currently organises talks almost every other week, where some few hundred people would attend. They would invite professionals from different fields to speak. They even partnered Shin Min Daily News in starting an annual three-day cruise event. Up to 700 members join the cruise each year, where talks and workshops are organised for them.
Four years ago, it also started hosting its regular “round table” lunch meetings with government officials and ministers. At each meeting, some 20 of its members would meet the authorities to discuss issues.
Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport and Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP, Josephine Teo, who met the group at the Shangri-La Hotel in June, said, “I like the informal setting because I can also be frank with them with my answers to the problems they raise.”
Mr Hoon Thing Leong is a PAP member
Last year, TRE published a piece of news that “grassroots members” were found to be reserving seats for MP at a food court in Block 511 of Bishan for almost 2 hours and were seen “chasing away” food court patrons from the reserved tables (‘Grassroots members chase away foot court patrons to ‘chope’ seats for MP‘). The food court turns out to be part of Mr Hoon’s Kim San Leng coffee shop chain.
A TRE reader asked, “If this MP goes to a restaurant, is he going to chase away all the customers?!?? If this MP goes to shopping centre, is he going to chase all the people away from shopping centre?”
After the news was published, the vice chairman of the Bishan East Citizens Consultative Committee (CCC), Roland Ang, wrote to Stomp to explain that it was the coffee shop owner who reserved the tables and not any grassroots leaders (‘Bishan East CCC: Seats were ‘choped’ by coffeeshop owner, not us‘).
Mr Ang said the owner just wanted to be a hospitable host to the group of grassroots leaders and MP on a walkabout. Mr Ang added the owner was informed that the visit would end at his coffee shop. He explained that unbeknown to his group, the coffee shop owner went ahead to reserve the tables.
Mr Ang said, “We thank the owner for being hospitable but reservation of tables was not necessary or asked for. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to other patrons.”
Later, new information was sent to TRE, confirming that the coffee shop owner, Mr Hoon Thing Leong, is himself a PAP grassroots member (‘New revelation: Bishan coffeeshop owner is a PAP member‘).
The informant told TRE, “It’s no secret the chairman of Kim San Leng group, Hoon Thing Leong, has close relationship with PAP’s grassroots. He is an active grassroots leader (former CCC chairman or something) in Bishan. No wonder the coffee shop was so eager to please the MP lah. They are all own kakis lah.”
Checks on the Net reveal that in fact, Mr Hoon is a long-time PAP member. At the 2011 PAP Awards, he was awarded the PAP Long Service Medal (Silver). He was also identified as a grassroots member of Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC (Bishan East).
And interestingly, he appears to be close to Singapore’s President Tony Tan too. In a Zaobao article [Link], it was reported that Mr Hoon organized a “rah-rah” team of more than 20 supporters to follow and support Tony Tan during the Presidential Election in 2011, starting from nomination day till the end of the election:
ST featured a story about a school dropout, Hoon Thing Leong, last week (“Coffee boy is now ‘coffee shop king’”, 28 Jul).
It talked about Mr Hoon launching his book on business failures and successes in June and apparently, the book has “become a bestseller”. It was Mr Hoon’s first book and ST reported that all 10,000 copies were snapped up within five days.
The book in Chinese, “The Boss Strikes – Effective Business Practices”, made him a best-selling author overnight, thanks to support from an informal network of mainly Chinese-educated businessmen and friends that he had founded 18 years ago. “I am surprised that so many wanted to read my book,” he said.
Mr Hoon is the boss behind the coffee shop chain, Kim San Leng. In his book, he revealed his past successes and failures.
Mr Hoon was born in Fuzhou, China, and moved to Singapore with his mother when he was five to join his father. He started working as a coffee boy in his father’s shop in Hougang when he was 12. He later dropped out of school when he was Secondary 2.
By the time he was 24, he started his first coffee shop in Bukit Timah with his younger brother. In 1990, he made news when he paid a record $3.52 million for a coffee shop in Bishan Street 13. He still owns the shop, which is worth many times more today. He is said to devote his entire life to the coffee shop business.
In 1996, he and a few other businessmen started an informal business group called, The Bosses Network. The purpose is to organise talks and forums and learn from one another.
Mr Hoon said the group currently organises talks almost every other week, where some few hundred people would attend. They would invite professionals from different fields to speak. They even partnered Shin Min Daily News in starting an annual three-day cruise event. Up to 700 members join the cruise each year, where talks and workshops are organised for them.
Four years ago, it also started hosting its regular “round table” lunch meetings with government officials and ministers. At each meeting, some 20 of its members would meet the authorities to discuss issues.
Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport and Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP, Josephine Teo, who met the group at the Shangri-La Hotel in June, said, “I like the informal setting because I can also be frank with them with my answers to the problems they raise.”
Mr Hoon Thing Leong is a PAP member
Last year, TRE published a piece of news that “grassroots members” were found to be reserving seats for MP at a food court in Block 511 of Bishan for almost 2 hours and were seen “chasing away” food court patrons from the reserved tables (‘Grassroots members chase away foot court patrons to ‘chope’ seats for MP‘). The food court turns out to be part of Mr Hoon’s Kim San Leng coffee shop chain.
A TRE reader asked, “If this MP goes to a restaurant, is he going to chase away all the customers?!?? If this MP goes to shopping centre, is he going to chase all the people away from shopping centre?”
After the news was published, the vice chairman of the Bishan East Citizens Consultative Committee (CCC), Roland Ang, wrote to Stomp to explain that it was the coffee shop owner who reserved the tables and not any grassroots leaders (‘Bishan East CCC: Seats were ‘choped’ by coffeeshop owner, not us‘).
Mr Ang said the owner just wanted to be a hospitable host to the group of grassroots leaders and MP on a walkabout. Mr Ang added the owner was informed that the visit would end at his coffee shop. He explained that unbeknown to his group, the coffee shop owner went ahead to reserve the tables.
Mr Ang said, “We thank the owner for being hospitable but reservation of tables was not necessary or asked for. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to other patrons.”
Later, new information was sent to TRE, confirming that the coffee shop owner, Mr Hoon Thing Leong, is himself a PAP grassroots member (‘New revelation: Bishan coffeeshop owner is a PAP member‘).
The informant told TRE, “It’s no secret the chairman of Kim San Leng group, Hoon Thing Leong, has close relationship with PAP’s grassroots. He is an active grassroots leader (former CCC chairman or something) in Bishan. No wonder the coffee shop was so eager to please the MP lah. They are all own kakis lah.”
Checks on the Net reveal that in fact, Mr Hoon is a long-time PAP member. At the 2011 PAP Awards, he was awarded the PAP Long Service Medal (Silver). He was also identified as a grassroots member of Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC (Bishan East).
http://maintmp.pap.org.sg/uploads/ap/987/documents/pap_awards_2011_recipients_list.pdf
Citation: The PAP has remained successful and cohesive all these years because of its loyal and long-serving members who have stayed the course through thick and thin. They did not melt away in crisis. Instead, they rallied to the cause. They did not flinch from the unglamorous work of tilling the ground between elections. Instead, they made significant contributions that have allowed the PAP to win at every General Election. In awarding the Long Service Medals, the Party salutes each of them for their dedication, loyalty and hard work.
Mr Hoon’s other achievements found on the Net:Citation: The PAP has remained successful and cohesive all these years because of its loyal and long-serving members who have stayed the course through thick and thin. They did not melt away in crisis. Instead, they rallied to the cause. They did not flinch from the unglamorous work of tilling the ground between elections. Instead, they made significant contributions that have allowed the PAP to win at every General Election. In awarding the Long Service Medals, the Party salutes each of them for their dedication, loyalty and hard work.
- He received his PBM in 1999 for his contributions as a grassroots member in Bishan East CCC. He was listed as the Auditor for Bishan East CCC [Link].
- Life Honorary President of the Singapore Food Manufacturers’ Association (SFMA) [Link]
- Vice President of the Federation of Merchants’ Association, Singapore (FMAS) [Link]
And interestingly, he appears to be close to Singapore’s President Tony Tan too. In a Zaobao article [Link], it was reported that Mr Hoon organized a “rah-rah” team of more than 20 supporters to follow and support Tony Tan during the Presidential Election in 2011, starting from nomination day till the end of the election:
属下有1000多名会员的老板联谊会的创办人洪鼎良（金山岭美食）说，他们其中20多人就组成了支持陈庆炎的团队，从提名日开始就一路支持他，因为大家认为陈庆炎有世界的眼光，可以把新加坡带到世界的平台上。
