Riding waves of tech change

WHEN naming a new business venture, words associated with good fortune are often a popular choice to give the business an auspicious start.

The positive association of its name seems to have rubbed off on Raduga Pte Ltd, the top-ranked winner of the Enterprise 50 Awards 2020. Raduga, the Russian word for "rainbow", was suggested to founder and chief executive Alfred Cheong by a Russian friend when Mr Cheong set out to start his own business, now a full-service mobile phone distributor.

"I thought it was a beautiful beginning," Mr Cheong said.

He founded Raduga in 1992, and officially incorporated the business in 1996. It started out importing and exporting electronic items and household appliances, and sought to differentiate itself by offering speedy and flexible service. Following a pivot in the late 1990s, it grew into a full-service mobile phone distributor. The company provides a range of services to mobile phone brands, including marketing and logistics.

GROWTH THROUGH THE YEARS

Mr Cheong got his first taste of trade as a teenager in the 1970s, when he would sail out with his grandfather to trade with sailors on Soviet Union ships docked outside Singapore waters. They supplied consumer goods such as shoes, clothes, umbrellas and other necessities to the sailors.

This introduction to the world of trade inspired him to start his own business commerce company.

The pivot from electronic items and household appliances to mobile phones came when Singapore began to position itself as a global infocommunications hub, and Mr Cheong saw "massive growth potential" in telecommunications.

The move positioned Raduga to ride a massive surge in demand for mobile phones over the next two decades. For context, World Bank data shows that about 12 per cent of the global population had mobile phone subscriptions in 2000; in 2019, the global mobile phone subscription rate was 106 per cent.

Raduga's sales networks have grown to span six continents, and the company has more than 2,000 customers worldwide.

The company's outstanding growth has not gone unnoticed. From 2002 to 2019, Raduga made the Singapore 1000 list, in which Singapore's top companies are ranked by financial performance.

For four consecutive years spanning 2003 to 2006, it attained the Fastest Growing 50 certification for outstanding corporate growth. It placed in the Singapore International 100 ranking of companies by overseas sales turnover for five consecutive years from 2006, as well as in 2014 and 2015.

Of the many markets the company deals in, South-east Asia has a special place in Mr Cheong's heart.

"I am particularly fond of the SEA markets, as I focused on these areas in my early years in the business," he said.

"At the same time, I think there is a geographical advantage that comes with being located in Singapore. With such a strong logistics hub at our backing, Raduga has been able to work alongside other logistics partners to ensure the quickest time-to-market, even to far-out regions."

To guide his business decisions, Mr Cheong learnt from other business partners, ancient war strategies and his own mistakes.

He developed a tri-fold business philosophy for Raduga: "Be quick to identify emerging business and market trends; keep to a flat corporate structure that values each employee's contribution to a cohesive working unit; and above all else, put the customer at the heart of service."

NEXT BIG THING

Agility has been crucial to sustaining Raduga's growth, Mr Cheong said. This has involved conscious efforts to keep its processes and structures lean, and communication open. In addition to investing heavily in digitalisation and automation, Raduga ensures that all employees are given the chance to upskill and reskill to keep up, as the company constantly upgrades its processes and systems.

Mr Cheong referred to a Chinese expression about how all boats naturally rise with the tide, saying: "I know because I invest in my people, they will invest back in the company with me so we can all grow to new heights together."

To maintain Raduga's edge over its competitors, he keeps a constant lookout for the "next big thing" and believes in taking calculated risks to expand into new markets. This approach will be crucial in facing the biggest challenge Mr Cheong expects for Raduga in the next five years - the pace at which the technology market moves.

He noted that 5G technology has just gotten started, and 6G is already under development.

"As the Chinese saying goes, a crisis could also be an opportunity. Riding through these waves of change will be a test for the company," he said.

Mr Cheong said the E50 Award is a "stamp of recognition" for the work that he and his wife poured into the business over the past 28 years. He also gave credit to his long-serving employees who stuck with the company through hardships and challenges especially in its early years.

"I think we never imagined that we could grow from a small shop at High Street to where we are today, being recognised as an E50 company," he said.

"I treat Raduga as more than a business; I see this as my big family. In that sense, I'm working alongside my big family to overcome all the challenges we are facing, especially during this pandemic."