Going with the flow of business

STARTING with a single desk in borrowed office space and just one telephone line, Aik Soon Hardware has grown from a general hardware dealer to a specialist distributor of marine and industrial valves, garnering the Enterprise 50 award in 2017.

Founded in 1982 by Quek Bok Teck, today the family-owned business is in the hands of a second generation with two of Mr Quek's four children and a son-in-law forming Aik Soon's management team. They continue to run Aik Soon with the same company values and principles of customer-centrism that Mr Quek has practised since its inception.

When Mr Quek first started the company, he believed that the key to sustainable competitive advantage was to move away from conventional price competition…