name of nominee(s): nicholas chan name of company...

Name of Nominee(s): Nicholas Chan Name of Company: Fredrik Marine IT Services Pte Ltd Name of Student Interviewer: Debra Geeta Rajwani Date of Interview: 13-Aug-2016

Student Interviewer Kit | (2D) INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Synopsis : (Extract about the Company – this will be the Paragraph that will be publicly used for allprint material in SOE)‐ Life at sea is clearly different from life on shore; implementing effective InformationCommunication Technology (ICT) systems on land and within maritime environments is nodifferent. In a time where maritime systems and technologies have become necessities for theeffective operation of any maritime business, Fredrik Marine is your trusted maritimetechnology partner since 1992 in providing best‐in‐class technology services and equipment across Asia. (Extract about the Nominee – this will be the Paragraph that will be publicly used for all print material in SOE)‐ Nicholas Chan spent over half his life on the battlefields of business, having co‐founded his first tech startup in 1996 when he was 16, co‐founded a consultancy practice and performed his first 7 M&As in 2005, launched a mobile Location Based Service startup in 2006, established an early stage venture capital and startup accelerator firm in 2006 which hasachieved 11 successful exits to date, co‐founded another tech startup in 2008, and in 2013he co‐founded yet another tech startup and also co‐founded Singapore’s first legally licensed military simulation paintball company operating with 1‐to‐1 fully functional paintball marker replicas. He spent the past 10 years running Fredrik Marine, a marinetechnology company he acquired in 2007. Nicholas is a graduate from Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Diploma in Film, Sound and Video. Student’s Comment (your impression of the Nominee and the entire interview process): Nicholas who has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the entrepreneurship worldshared with me many insights about the industry in which he operates. He was clear in hisexplanations which allowed me to follow through with great ease. He was accommodatingand enthusiastic and exemplified a keen interest in speaking to me about his present andpast ventures. As he explains with utter honesty how he had struggled through life as achild, his resilience and fighting fit spirit shone through with his incredible achievements todate. Having started his first business at the age of 16 with a friend, Nicholas’ fascinationwith IT and computers allowed him to conceptualise what he wanted to do with his life. With the guidance of his mentors, whom he had worked with closely, Nicholas was able tobuild himself up into the successful entrepreneur he is today. Q1) What is the nature of your business? Nicholas: Fredrik Marine is a marine technology company. We service ship owners and ship



management companies in the commercial shipping segment. In the oil and gas segments,we serve the operators. On the consumer front, we support the owners and operators ofsuperyachts and megayachts. On land, we work with ports and marinas across South‐east Asia. For these four client types, we provide them with maritime IT services and solutions, longrange communications and comprehensive security systems both on board their vessels andon‐shore. Q2)When and why did you decide to become an entrepreneur / take over your familybusiness? <b>NOTE: If it is not a family business, ask:</b> Do your parents have their ownbusinesses too? Have they inspired you in one way or another? (Select appropriatequestion according to the entrepreneur being interviewed.) Nicholas: Fredrik Marine is not my first company. I decided to start my first business when Iwas in Secondary 4 and in the Normal stream, right after my ‘N’ Levels. At that point in time, it was because my family was poor and we didn’t have much money. I needed to find a way to make money and so my classmates and I saw a gap in the computer equipment andservices space. Back in 1994, computers were still considered a luxury. So, we thought it wasa good sector to go into. However after some advice from my accounting teacher Mr Lim and my mentor, me and my classmate decided to hold the thought for 1 more year till weare done with our 'O' levels. I juggled a few part time jobs while I was still in secondary school; I typically juggled 3 jobsduring the days and nights because I only went to school in the afternoon. After I finishedmy ‘N’ Levels, I went on to finish my ‘O’ Levels the year after. I opened my first company onthe 21st of May 1996 with my classmate and partner with $1,500 in starting capital made upof my savings, his savings and a $500 loan from his father. In a year, we booked in about halfa million in revenue. On the "Why"? It is because I had no money. You see, society is very realistic and the mosthonest, politically incorrect teacher in the school of life. If you are not handsome, not smart, not rich and not educated, you are pretty much screwed. I’m not tall, not handsome, notrich and not smart. To equalise my massive list of flaws, I had to work even harder to make it work for myself. I had two choices. I can continue working and struggling hard by juggling the 3 jobs I had atthe time. Or I could find a smarter way to make money. I was juggling 2 jobs by the time Istarted the first company. I worked as a waiter at Palm Beach Seafood in the evenings and in the mornings, I worked on the business with my partner, S.C.N. Technologies, that was howit went. I started because I had no choice. I really needed to make money to survive. Q3) Like you mentioned earlier on, computers were really a luxury back then, whichmeant they were quite rare. So, how would you say you pulled together all the resources



needed to start the business? Nicholas: I had my first computer when I was 6, it was an extravagant present by my parents to me. I am very grateful for that gift of which I spent countless hours tinkering with it andlearning by self‐experimentation about what I can do with it for many of my childhoodyears. I soldered chips onto motherboards, figured things out on the MS DOS command line. It was just like a typewriter with an interactive screen. It was what I spent my youth investedin – learning how to use the computer and making it perform what I considered to be minimiracles. As I grew older, about 15 or 16, I started to get to know the computer suppliers in Sim LimSquare and discussed with them what they could offer me at a good price. It all started fromthere. I was willing to work hard, find people who were willing to sell me things, and me and my partner just started from there. Of course, when our sales volume started to increase,we started to do import and export and of course, with the increase in quantity and salesvolume our prices went down while our profits went up. My business growth was a very organic process, it is a far cry from the "new" concept that Isee in many wannabe entrepreneurs these days, talking about “I will raise money”, “I will get a grant” and not use my own money for my own company; I was willing to use my ownmoney to start out. In fact, I sunk every cent of my savings I had into the business. I alsomade sure I did other part time jobs so I could keep putting in money into the business rightin the beginning. It was very old‐school, very fundamental. I needed to earn money. Q4) What are your reasons for choosing to do business in this particular industry? Nicholas: The reasons was because I knew IT. When kids were outside playing, I was fiddlingaround with the computer, figuring it out, soldering stuff. Back in my time, there was a movie called War Games. It was about two guys who were in their bedrooms and hacked into a military computer which they thought was a game server.They launched missiles, not realizing that it was real missiles being fired and that was what intrigued me as a kid, about computers and the power they had. Of course, when I grewolder, I realised that it wasn’t so fancy or easy as I thought but the sense of amazement I feltlike there were so many other things I could discover with the computer never left me. The same tinkering equivalence which we have today are Single Board Computers, the mostcommonly known is the Raspberry board, an entire computer smaller than the size of mypalm. These little machines are rated at speeds of 700Mhz; my first computer was just 4.77Mhz. Back then, my first computer I was tinkering around with half a table. More than just the spirit of innovation, the desire in making something truly of value andworthy of what others would gladly pay money for drove me beyond just hobbyist tinkering. This desire did not come immediately, but just like anything else in life, it slowly became



more relevant to me as the market desired these kinds of technologies even more as timewent on. Back when I was still a young boy, typewriters were the norm. Computers and wordprocessing software like Wordperfect (which still exist till this very day) were seen asexpensive novelties. However as time progressed people started to entertain the thought of “Can I use the computer to type documents as well?”. With a typewriter, when you typedsomething wrongly, your typewriter may not have had the eraser function to correct yourmistakes; some typewriters do and some don’t. And so when the prices of computers wentdown and the demand for internet access in the mid 1990s was still in its infancy, this combination drove much of my sales in the early days. We used to use dial up modemswhich meant that when you were on the internet, you couldn’t use the phones at the sametime. All these happened just about the time when I finished my O Levels in 1996, things werepicking up quite tremendously. So to me, it was a matter of being in the right place at theright time and not hesitating in seizing the opportunities. Q5) What are some interesting stories you have about your first few customers/first fewyears in business in particular, when you acquired Fredrik Marine? Nicholas: When I acquired Fredrik Marine from a client of mine in 2007, I felt that it had alot of potential. The maritime sector situation can be described as such – imagine that whatever we see on shore, such as online gaming for example, doesn’t exist at sea at all;there is a 10 ‐ 15 year technological gap. I saw a lot of potential in bringing more and moretechnological solutions to sea, such as the little mercies of WhatsApp in keeping in touchwith friends and family. I also sailed with the sailors and experienced first‐hand the difficulties of life at sea. Most people have stereotypes about sailors, thinking them being crude, lowly educated andvulgar, while there may be some truth to a certain extent, they are still human and theirlives are pretty bland at sea. They just work and sleep because there is nowhere else to go and nothing much to do on board a ship; it seemed almost prison‐like. It was from these experiences that I began to think deeply on how I can use technology to make their livesbetter, and why not? It was a good dream and one that would be profitable too. That wasthe primary motivation behind me acquiring the business from my client at the time. Myclient sold the firm to me as he wanted to retire at his old age. He couldn’t climb up ropeladders anymore, which may extend 30, 40, 50 metres high above the sea and you may becarrying a backpack loaded with 30 ‐ 40 kg of equipment as well. There is only so much thata 50 ‐ 60 year old man can still do. The first interesting story came within the first week of acquiring the business where the first major customer was lost. Not because of problems on my side during the takeover butbecause at that exact same time, that particular customer had a complete management



change. That customer contributed to about 70% of the original company’s revenue and so,you are talking about quite a major disaster for me when I first took over. It was a shock tostart a company with a revenue loss as big as that right at the very beginning. For me as wellas my colleagues, we took a step back to ask “Where are we?” For about 6 months, we started speaking to some of the other customers who were still around and triedunderstanding what the situation was with the customer that left us. We got clarity later onand that was, the CEO who was brought in was Indian and so, we learnt that he gave theinstructions to begin replacing all vendors and all staff with Indians only. Apparently it is acommon trait that has been seen in most shipping companies with similar managementchanges. It didn’t matter if the vendors the companies had currently were good or bad.Instead, it only mattered that they were run by Indian. At least, this is what our peers in the industry also noticed. It was interesting to note that this was not an unusual pattern. We accepted that racism exist in our industry and instead, shifted our focus to addresssmaller customers, focusing on growing with them and hearing their gripes. They sharedwith us things that the previous vendor did not address, possibly because they simply didn’t have the capacity. Others probed about the possibilities of different business ventures. Welistened and it took us about 6 months to come up with a plan that was in line with what thecustomers wanted. Interestingly enough, the large client who had severed the contract with us unilaterally got us back in for a few more jobs as well. I think the key was that we coulddo the job and whoever he had brought on board couldn’t do so. We were brought back to do the handing over for about a year and now almost 10 years later, we still perform workfor them on an ad‐hoc basis. I’ve had customers that spent more time trying to get freebies off us than giving us actualpaid projects. I told them that we’ll be more than glad to help you here and there where we can do some goodwill work for you but not to the point where we get nothing in return forour work from you (the customer). That was another interesting shock. The previousowner advised that we went along with it and so, we soon came to realise that whatever help we gave was not abnormal. They made sure that for all the help we provided themwith, they gave us bigger jobs in return. They would take more time invested into eachclient but they would give us a bigger deal. In my previous companies, I would say that the sales cycle was not as complex neither was it as long. But me and my team got the hang of itafter a while. The maritime industry is a very people‐centric industry, I would say. You will learn to acknowledge that although customers may be difficult at times, it really is a lot about“giving face” and being agreeable with them. That comes with a certain amount of wisdomas well; you can’t keep being taken for a ride. It depends on who speaks to you and aboutwhether or not you can afford to give chances. When I talk to sailors and offer them the opportunity to use an Internet router so they cancall home, for example, they are never snide with me. They are always very happy, verythankful. Even bringing them a whole week’s worth of newspaper will make their faces light



up! This is something that I would say, I cannot get in any other industry on shore: simplehuman appreciation. I see the people in the maritime sector as very honest, verystraightforward, and this is why I prefer the industry to any other industry out there. Themost endearing thing about these people is that they actually talk to each other, they readbooks, they communicate and this is so rare in our society today where almost everyone ison their phones for most part of the day! Q6) What is your company vision and mission? How do you convey these to your companystaff and team members? Nicholas: I think although there may be no clear vision that we could stick on the wall in theoffice, I think what we do have is a purpose. We believe that we can use technology to makelife at sea safer and better. We have technologies that can track people, can tell how engines perform and tune them to run better. We have ways to respond to pirates, terroristthreats and what not. We use technology to deal with these issues in a safer and better way. As for the vision, perhaps it is that we intend to be a trusted developer and designer of certain systems that work at sea reliably. As for how I convey these things to my staff, I will allow Sera to tell you about this. I’d ratherit come from her. Seraphim (Nicholas’ assistant): He gives us a very broad overview of what there is to be done and from there, I will break it down further and delegate the tasks to the rest of theteam. I will take on some tasks on my own such as the more difficult ones and will allow therest to complete the simpler ones. Nicholas: I do my best to recognise that the people are my company. I am merely the personwho is here to check and do the work, I will also go up on the ships, have sleepless nights on board, for example. I think how I convey the vision and mission is leading by example. I will not tell you what to do yet not do it as well. I believe that it is necessary to show thatalthough I may not understand the technicalities of the jobs my R&D team takes on, I can try to work with you to design parts of the process, I will learn from you but I will not get in your way. If you tell me that you know how to get something done, I allow you to speck itout and then, I acknowledge it. I let my team express their intentions and I then tell them to proceed. My role is to tell them if the direction they are heading is right or not. Q7) What are some of the challenges you faced when you first went into business? Howdid you overcome these challenges? Please share some specific examples of the actionyou took to overcome the challenges. Nicholas: In terms of technology and IT capabilities, there were no issues there. However,having to understand the entire maritime industry from ground zero was the biggest challenge. We literally had to understand why things were done in certain ways. It took a lot



of humility to go in, speak to people, bring them out for dinner and keep listening. What I’venoticed about the current generation of wannabe entrepreneurs is that they are alwaysexpecting to bring you out for dinner and pick at your ideas, and your brains for free andexpecting you to foot the bill. That is a disgusting habit I’ve noticed among the youngerentrepreneurs these days which runs contrary to my business philosophy. I spent time witholder businessmen and spoke to them over dinner. They were more than glad to talk andshare. The more drunk they got, the more they shared! The soul of the company is thepeople and I had to understand that things were done in certain ways because of the peoplewho were doing it and they had their reasons. Another challenge was trying to get up to speed with what was happening around the worldin the maritime technology front. At the time, there were fewer competitors and so we were able to innovate a bit more. Now there are more competitors, and there is thecompetition of who is more expensive and who offers cheaper alternatives. The cheaperalternatives tend to be a little bit of an annoyance as their modus operandi is to tell their customers to buy their products at cheaper prices however, customers find out (toolate) that there are extra hidden costs. Then these customers eventually come to us to askfor help and ask if we can pick up the pieces caused by their previous, at no charge. Ofcourse, we can’t do that. At the beginning, we did it for a while as part of goodwill but soonrealised that we cannot help customers who are left in a rut because of our competitors. Wecan't come in to provide our services, solve the problems they took on because of ourcompetitors, for free! We are not a charity! We decided that for us to solve their problems,we couldn’t provide our services for free. Of course, some entitled customers walked away.But we started to realise that it was better for them to walk away than for them to pollutemy business and abuse my staff and take up our time. I decided that we should concentrateon clients who were willing to pay and who are willing to respect our efforts and time given in doing a good job for them. This was a challenge we needed to overcome. Getting people to come on board the team was tough. Like I said, a lot of the youngergeneration would call the work we do at Fredrik Marine as “low class”. We work at odd hours, on ships, under engines, and in noisy areas. It is not like a banking job where you getto dress up in suits. It is not luxurious at all in my line of work. Life in my industry is like lifein the military – very physical and in a sense, very personal. You have to learn to deal with the people around you. People may say that in the military it is all about structure and orderbut you have to realise that within this structures and orders are still people. Finding peoplewas hard because they have to have a desire to lead a crazy life. When I activate my team at2 or 4 in the morning to ask them to load up their backpacks and be at a certain location bya specific time to go on board a ship, I expect them to be there. It is not unlike acommando’s job. You are talking about a life that is so dynamic and many people are justnot cut out for the life. They don’t want to do the job and want a more comfortable life. It isa challenge but at the same time, it is very fulfilling to be able to find such people that you will be glad to call your friends. I believe the people I hire are willing to go all the way as ateam to get the job done.



Q8) Can you remember your worst day in business or a time when you felt like giving up?What happened that made you feel that way and how did you triumph over it? Nicholas: A lot of these days in the recent years, to be honest. Most times I feel like thatwhen my personal life has been very messy or rocky. When this happens, the company goesinto auto pilot and I’m not around. The company still runs but my colleagues will ask whatthe direction is. Of course, in these times, customers are affected as well when you don’t deliver to them for example. It is a downward spiral. There are many of such things that’s happened over thepast 8, 9 years. But it is a matter of snapping out of it and moving forward. It is aboutremembering that if I was given this purpose in serving the maritime community, and if my fellow friends and colleagues see and share the same purpose as well, I cannot let myself orthem down. I cannot allow whatever I have been blessed with, a good team, innovative technology and loyal clients go to waste. The truth is, not everyday can be a good day but that does not mean we cannot make it a great day by ourselves! Q9) What are some of your proudest business achievements to date? And why are they soimportant and meaningful to you? Nicholas: For the company, one of the most interesting things that I am most proud of is thelaunch of our entrepreneurial internship programme. I did this in my venture capital firmalmost 9 years ago in the form of an apprenticeship. I took on my first apprentice in 2006, he stayed on for 3 years during which I trained him extensively in the building and runningof companies and he has made and sold about 7 companies to date. He is about 28 years oldthis year. Using the template of the apprenticeship, I structured an internship version of it which is to run for a period ranging anywhere from 6 months to 2 years in Fredrik Marine. During thelast 2 years, I managed to get 2 really good individuals. The rest came and gone as they wereunable, and sometimes unwilling to do their best. One was a dropout from MJC, is 18 years old this year and completely brilliant! I see the same quirks in him that I saw in myself, beingweird and driven. When I was young, my mentor was the CEO of Sim Lim Group. He guidedme when I was 14 and opened my company when I was 16. I can only hope that hiscompany dreams will start off soon. As for Seraphim (my assistant), I am in the process of helping her in getting her company offthe ground. These are all the proud moments as I no longer have to refer to these people asmy colleagues. They are now my partners as they’ve started companies of their own and we work on a professional to professional basis. I hope that if I ever have to leave FredrikMarine, the company will keep getting better without me. I want not to be able to say thatthese people are under my care but rather, they are my equals or even beyond me. In terms of technological innovation, yes we have built certain technologies for certain



ships. Our R&D department are doing some interesting things at the moment. For example,we are building up a 3G router that works at sea. When you are at sea, internet costs anywhere from USD5 to USD20 per megabyte. Typically the office will subscribe to amonthly plan of 300MB to 500MB of data for $2000 a month so the crew can answerbusiness related e‐mails. With our 3G router, any ship can now to have unlimited access to the Internet for USD600 a month. We are talking about an observed monthly usage anywhere from 30GB to 90GB of data, something unheard of in the maritime sector at sucha price. This is one of the proud moments as well as I am making the lives of these sailors, who are working far away from home, better. A simple call or WhatsApp message sounds simple for us on shore but is so foreign for these people at sea. Bringing this to them is thusone of mine and my R&D team’s proudest achievements. I am very proud of my team. Sure,we earn money doing this but I believe that a greatest purpose of bringing these sailorscloser to home is served. Q10) Where do you see your business in the next 5 years and does this include plans ofexpansion? Nicholas: We are steadily expanding our footprint to the yachting segment in Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar as well as Indonesia. We are working with other stakeholders in theindustry to engage more yatch owners and even the end‐user customers, to be in the segment, within the region. We believe that by doing so, we will be able to increase the maritime richness of the countries involved, especially for Singapore, Indonesia andThailand. At the same time, we can sell more of our products and services to thesecustomers. Interestingly enough, we have received more inquiries from the law enforcement and homeland security market segments quite recently because of some of the technologiesthat we have, that we recognise can help improve reliability of long range communicationon shore and at sea. These two business areas are where we are looking at growing. With regards to our expansion into Myanmar, some of my friends are based there at the moment, trying to lookfor some potential segments to go into. Of course, as the incumbent oil and gas companythere are in a slump, we will still go into the market but probably at a slower pace. For otherplaces such as Indonesia, we are aiming to work with the government on their maritimeinfrastructure upgrading projects. Our focus is still very Asian‐centered. Our HQ is still very much Singapore. For our R&D segment, we are planning in expanding further to include more Singaporeans.It is important that we always try to employ Singaporeans and let them do very fun stuff, atleast that’s the way I see it. I have a team member who is almost completely deaf but brilliant at R&D. I do not hire based on minorities or affirmative action; I hire purely on meritand this guy is a perfect example. I hope to hunt for more of such great talents, bringthem on board, and allow them to tackle more challenging projects and do something great.



I will never hire anyone based purely on their gender, race, age, sexual orientation, etc. I willhire them because they have something interesting, a crazy drive to succeed and know theywant to do something awesome with their life. I like misfits. Over in Fredrik Marine, we are a bunch of very different people. I look at thosewho come here only on what they want to be. Even with disagreements, there is stillrespect. Skills can be deployed based on what you fancy. I want to hire people based on what they think they can do. It is really about these people being the best that they can be. Q11) How do you differentiate your business from your competitors? Please provide somespecific examples. Nicholas: For our smaller competitors, we differentiate based on our service quality. Forexample, if we receive a job scope A, B and C, and when we get on board the vessel we discover that only job scope A is right while B and C are wrong. Adding to that, the captainthen tells us that he needs the scope to be D to Z as well. Our competitors will typically tellthis captain that it is beyond their capabilities. However, me and my team will ask forconfirmation to proceed and get the job done. Even if I had to send in another engineer oreven myself to complete the job, that is what I will do. Commitment to the task from thebeginning to the end, is what many of my competitors may not do. We are also different, in that, we never get into price wars. A lot of my competitors havebeen observed to lower their prices to 4 times, even 9 to 12 times cheaper than us. But theywould then increase significantly the hours they work too. We would never drop prices butpromise our customers that we will get the job done in the fastest period of time. We place a tremendous focus on customer service. For every job we complete, we have afeedback form, a photo with the captain of the ship, his signature and an official chop. Thismay sound weird, but none of our competitors do this. This feedback process continuallyallow us to review our work and our service levels. Our engineers need to form goodrelationships with the captain as well, so that the captain will call us for future jobs. Tomaintain effectiveness, timeliness and friendliness are 3 of the 5 scores which we wouldgauge our services on. We make sure we maintain a high level of quality and service delivery. We also work with respectable brands around the world to integrate these technologies inways that are uniquely functional in a maritime environment. We make things maritime‐ready. Again, it is important that we don’t stinge on cost and do our very best to deliver equipment that will work for years. We engage the community. We are members in good standing with the Institute of MarineEngineering, Science and Technology (iMarEST), Singapore Naval Architects and MarineEngineers (SNAMES) and I also volunteer with the Apostleship of the Sea in the Catholicchurch in Singapore. At this moment, we are trying to start up a new initiative to increase



the consumption of water sports as well as yachting in our community. We are working together with the yachting community, boating community as well as the general watersports community. We encourage this as it is essential to let people know about the sea. Idon’t want to bore them with the tough lives of sailors for example, because sailors are nota pitiful group of people and I know they don’t want to be pitied. We uphold that everythingwe do is in line with the people. The people are the key. If it is all just about the money, I’dtell myself I’d might as well become a banker. Q12) What are some of the business ideas you have had that have implemented tharcreated great results in your business? Nicholas: The 3G router for the sea is one idea. We are also developing a system to integratethe various stakeholders within a harbour. Let me explain a typical day for a ship agent. Let’s say a ship is now in China, and it is going to come to Singapore. It will be entered intothe AIS, the Automated Identification System. The system will then generate an ETA. Theagent who is located in Singapore, will take care of every needs of the ship when it arrives in Singapore. The agent may not be aware that this ship is currently sailing to Singapore. Whenthe ship is reaching Singapore, the captain may call at the eleventh hour to alert the agentthat he may need some help to get supplies. The agent panics as he has only 8 hours to arrange for food, fresh water and other necessary supplies. The agent will probably gathereverything and everyone at short notice, to turn up at the designated pier, and tell them togo on board to get the job done. Then, imagine when all the people arrive, the captain thenalerts the agent that his ship is delayed! People will naturally get frustrated. So, this is what happens in a typical day. We are building a system ‐ with the use of technology, it will alert an agent (whose name is linked to the name of the ship) within seconds, when that the ship has indicated that it willbe coming to Singapore. Also, it will contact the captain of the ship, within 5 seconds, to askif the ship requires any services. The system will also factor in weather conditions and delaythe ETA, by a calculation of time, so the agent is aware of this as well. The system will alertthe agent of the available berths that the ship will dock at, in the event that it needs to loadup containers. We built the system to interlink with the marine engineering folks whorepairs the ships, those who supply the ships and surveyors. Typically each person deservesa separate system and rightly so; we will be building a system that caters to each of their specific needs. We call this the Digital Harbour. By being able to interlink everything, we are,once more, able to make the lives of these people significantly better. We are still in the testrun stages now but estimate that the system will save approximately 500,000 man hours a year just in Singapore, and perhaps even more in time to come as more things will beautomated. My intentions are to automate menial things that will save time. It will be efficient and will make the industry a lot better, not just people’s lives anymore.



We see that this technology is being very well received in Singapore and in the region. Weare therefore, not worried about profitability in the long run, but rather, whether we canscale up as quickly as we want. I would say that the eagerness to try out new technologies inthe maritime sector exists more in Europe than here. So, if this is interesting in Singapore, Ithink it will explode in Europe! We are taking it one step at the time, knowing very well wecan make it happen. So these are the 2 things we have done different in our internaloperations so far. Q13) How do you think your business has made a positive impact or contribute to thecommunity that you serve? For example: creating jobs for Singaporeans or underprivileged; upgrading the skills of employees; improving livelihoods or lifestyles ofcustomers. Nicholas: I do my best to hire Singaporeans. I believe that it is essential to grow a strong and stable company in my own country by first making sure I can help my fellow Singaporeans inmaking a living. I also try to hire those who have faced certain difficulties in their own livesbut of course, are still able to work. For example, I’ve hired Seraphim, my assistant, who is a single mother. She is currently going through a long, drawn out, divorce proceedings. How Iwill help others is through helping her. That help comes in the form of helping her spin offher own company which will, in turn, hire other single parents. This means I am multiplyingher, her administrative capabilities and providing the Singapore businesses with thesepeople. Something that may not seem so direct would be that I volunteer my computer to activelyfind a cure for cancer through a program called the World Community Grid. When mycomputer has spare computing capacity, the World Community Grid program will run in thebackground to process a set of data provided by a researcher from across the world,to analyse and try to find a cure for a potentially deadly disease such as AIDS or cancer. Allmy staff, myself included, run this programme in our computers. I have also encouraged myown customers and friends to do so. I believe we can help these researchers by doing absolutely nothing besides letting our computers run. It sounds simple but every datacrunch is one step closer towards finding a cure for diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis, cancerand other diseases. I’ve been doing for over 10 years now and have gotten to the top 4 in Singapore who have contributed the most computer time to finding cures to these diseases.Researchers have countless samples to crunch to get them closer to their goal. My part inthis would be, by my small contribution I help to alert them of proteins that do not work. It is then easier for them to scale down what may work and how they can move one stepcloser to the cure. In the army, I’ve just been promoted to a Corporal First Class, in simple terms it means I amthe guy who carries the gun and does whatever everyone else tells me. About 3 years ago, Itold my commander that I wish to do more in serving my nation and after 3 long drawnyears, he has finally put me on track for my extension of service and a pathway where I can



learn more in the "managerial" capacity (read: specialist or sergeant). I told myself that if Ican learn more and serve my country at the same time, why not? We at Fredrik Marine also donate to Mercy Ships to help people who are ill in Africa. Theteam at Mercy Ships dock hospital ships in Africa to provide medical treatment for thosewho are ill. I think it is more meaningful to serve the community in other ways rather thanto donate money, but I guess if I can’t physically be there to offer help, I’ll donate. I also give talks to the schools about the maritime sector, to share with these students aboutwhat an adventure a job in the industry entails. I’ll share with these students of my workrunning around the world, sailing in strange waters and in how it really more of a lifestyle choice than it is a job, to be honest. If deep within themselves they hear the call foradventure, where I am is where they may want to be too. The schools I talk at are secondaryschools and sometimes tertiary institutions. Q14) What are some of the entrepreneurship qualities that you have which have helpedyou come this far? Nicholas: Qualities? I am not handsome, not tall, not smart and not rich. If I had these 4things, I would not have had the desire to come this far. I believe that pain can be atremendous motivator. People say you should be motivated by fun, rosy things. But when these smiley things go away, they may move on to something better. But pain; it is primal.You must make sure it goes away and you must make sure you no longer feel the pain. Moreoften than not, to get rid of this pain, you have to keep running, keep fighting, keep succeeding. So these 4 qualities are what I believe, allowed me to come this far. People may think ofthem as negatives, but I see them as blessings. The point here is that, nothing good evercomes easy. The ability to keep taking one step forward is important, no matter how tempting the Siren's call to just "stop and take a rest". Some people either say they give up or they “pivot” at the slightest difficulty and move in a different direction just like arudderless ship. It is about asking yourself, “Can you keep moving forward?”. The key is also to be willing to argue and be willing to defend your position, but at the same time also bewilling to listen and understand the different perspectives of others and be willing toincorporate their ideas as well if they are sound and which could be better than your own. I believe I am not handsome but I also believe I can fight to be attractive. I believe I am notrich but I also believe I can fight for my own success. I am not smart but there are peoplearound me who can do a better job. I am thankful for what I was blessed with because I hadthe opportunity to turn it into something better. Q15) Who or what motivates or inspires you? Nicholas: When I was younger, it was the CEO of Sim Lim Group who was also my mentor.



He taught a skinny, undernourished, Normal stream, middle‐income, HDB dwelling kid that there is a life beyond the HDB. There’s something called caviar and there are different typesof cheese! There are condominiums that exist that are 3 times the size of my 5‐room flat! People can fly every other week, because they can. Because the first time I flew was when Iwas 16 and got my first job as a consultant with AT&T GIS and I flew Singapore Airlines toTaiwan for deployment. Nowadays, kids fly all the time. But you have to understand that Iwas someone who had never flown in my life prior to turning 16. It was all very fascinatingto me. His lifestyle inspired me to think, “I want to be like him”. I realised I became aridiculously extravagant person when I was younger and grew the business because apartfrom the good, I also learnt the bad. Later on, I had other mentors in my life. One of them had been a professional engineer, MrLee Keh Sai. When I first knew him he put me in my place. I didn’t know anything aboutelectrical engineering and wanted to sell his products. I failed to realise that he didn’t evensell the products, instead he sold the process. But that’s the thing – I was blessed to have people right at the top who were willing to listen, willing to give me time out of their daysand more importantly, was willing to tell me the raw, unsweetened truth because I waswilling to fight back and tell them I wanted to succeed and I wanted it bad enough. As I grew older, I started having aspirations to become a priest. As I grew closer to my faith, it was an inspiration of mine to become like St John the Baptist for example, whose ways resonated with mine in a sense. He did not fear the people in power, he does not fearspeaking the truth and he does not fear putting God first. I think fundamentally so there are people who I get inspired by and mentored by and I make it a point to always move onestep higher each time. In summary, when I was younger I was blessed with some “earthly” mentors and thisprogressed into learning further wisdom from my “heavenly” mentors. I think I was not lucky to have known these mentors. Instead, I was just blessed to be given the courage totell them I want to learn, I want to help you to help me. For example, for the first mentor I had (the CEO of Sim Lim Group), I helped repair his secretary’s computer the very first time I met him. And Mr Lee Keh Sai taught me thatnothing is as it seems. There are so many different parts that make up a certain device, forexample. So I would say, it is not luck it is rather the want, the desire to make it happen. Many young people at the entrepreneurial workshops and meet‐ups I host often get angry and offended and feel like I am attacking them when I tell them that their concepts make nosense. Although I am not implying that they make no sense, they still can’t handle the objective truth about their ideas even when they asked me for my honest feedback. Q16) What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business? Nicholas: I started my business when I was 16 but before that, I did over 30 ‐ 40 part time



jobs. I faced challenges like, people failing to take me seriously because I am young. I ask ifthey wanted to get the job done and when they said yes, I told them I could make it happen.My philosophy was that I would deliver as per our agreement. I also didn’t run away whenfaced with problems. The thing that I see with many young people nowadays is that theywill run away when they are faced with problems. They will shut the company down, notanswer the phone, block you on WhatsApp. The fact that I was willing and committed intaking responsibility and paying the price for my blunders, was how I got people to take me seriously. Before that I worked in places like Asahi Glass, which does the monitors for Sony back in the1990s. I was doing the job in 12‐hour shifts, while still in school. I also worked for Levi's, theUnited States Trade office, NTUC Fairprice as a cold store man, an operations staff at Haw Par Villa, a waiter in Palm Beach Seafood, an administrator at Nomura, DBS and also atCitibank. I did administrative work, projects, paper work, logistics, clearing rubbish, filing,storage; basically all kinds of work! An interesting story is that when I was 14 years old, I went into Challenger at Funan Mall tofind myself a job. I went from one staff to another, to tell them I was looking to work there,but was turned away many times until a man came up to me to ask me what I wanted. So I told him I would do any job he offered. He agreed and as it turns out, he was the CEO of thecompany. He handed me his card and asked me to see him in his office the next day! I alsoworked for my aunt who was in the packet drinks and cups line, I did the silkscreen printing for corporate gifts, I did delivery jobs for books, I did telemarketing, all before the age of 16. For any aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly the younger ones, I would advise them to getjobs first and understand the problems your products are trying to solve and that you areeven trying to sell first. Most of the people who come to me tell me of the ways they wantto make things better or change the world, and I ask them simply, “Have you done ityourself before?” and most of them say no. In other words they are claiming to be able toteach me something they have never done themselves before and are convinced that it willwork. It makes no sense. I have seen so many so‐called fresh graduates "consultants" from Universities who claim to be able to consult and help me without even having done a singlejob in their lives themselves! Other issues I noticed in recent days is that there are so many out there who claim to be"business incubators" and tell others they have the ability to coach others to becomeentrepreneurs. But the truth of the matter is that many have not run a business of their ownin their lives. I think it is important to get experience in different types of industries, at leastfor 2 years and the jobs you do must be low‐level. Very often, everyone wants to be a boss and very few people want to know what the job really entails. A lot of young people thinkthat they do not need to know nor care about the consequences of their own actions. That is why to understand the consequences of your own actions and to humble themselves,they need to voluntarily put their faces into the mud and rub their faces in it. It is essentialin understanding how management may treat me, how my clients may treat me. These


Name of Nominee(s): Nicholas ChanName of Company: Fredrik Marine IT Services Pte LtdName of Student Interviewer: Debra Geeta RajwaniDate of Interview: 13-Aug-2016

things build humility. Many may believe that an entrepreneur has got to be very proud, very

egoistic, but this is wrong. The entrepreneur is a slave to everyone. The reason why I

continue to work is because of other people. My success is really based on the success ofother people.

I would advise these aspiring entrepreneurs to learn how it feels to be on the receiving end,

how it is to be under good or bad management and most Important how it is like toquestion critically and objectively. Many believe that what Is said my top management

should be done without asking questions but through this, you do not learn. It Is Important

to be critical thinkers as entrepreneurs. When asking questions, you learn how to respect

others as well as yourself. You understand that everyone has a part to play and even thoughyou may not see a part as important, it is essential in the grand scheme of things. The key Isto understand that you must not assume that the person who does all the low-level, "dirty"work is useless.

The faster you can learn to grow up, the more often you can question and critically think,the sooner you are ready to take on an apprenticeship. Through an apprenticeship is howyou will rapidly be able to learn the structures and the methods and the thinking of an

entrepreneur. And from there, you can go further. First you have got to go through hell tobelieve that the entrepreneur knows what he Is doing and saying. Maybe this is not what

the young people want to hear, but it is my personal point of view about what they willprobably need to go through if they really want to start a company.

Agreed and acknowledged ̂ (Chop &

SignatureNICHOJ^STHANFREDH\K MARINE IT SERVICES PTE LTD

46 EAST COAST ROAD, #07-03, EASTGATE

S(428766)

21-Aug-2016



Prepared and Acknowledged by: ________________________ Signature DEBRA GEETA RAJWANI NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 50 NANYANG AVE S(639798) 21‐Aug‐2016

name of nominee(s): nicholas chan name of company...

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