Scaling Success

Chiau Haw Choon Kathlyn D’souza

In the beautifully set-up showroom of Chin Hin Group Sdn Bhd’s latest development project, its group managing director, Chiau Haw Choon, was regaling me with the story of his latest adventure this year. He had just returned from Mount Everest’s base camp and despite being an avid sportsperson who had previously competed in 42k marathons, and works out five to six days a week, Haw Choon admitted to struggling to reach the peak. “I thought it was just a normal mountain trek, but halfway through it struck me,” he recalled. “The oxygen was half of what we have normally, my heartbeat went from 60 per minute to 120… I was having mountain altitude sickness.” Incredibly, he reached the peak, owing to one simple yet significant thing that kept him going: the company flag which he carried throughout his journey up. “That experience made me believe that anything is possible— you just need to work on it step by step, and eventually you’ll get there,” said Haw Choon, who added that keeping himself healthy is as important as his business meetings, as he is responsible for over a thousand employees— having a 1,400 workforce, to be exact. Forty years ago, Chin Hin Group was no larger than a small hardware shop in the small town of Megat Dewa, Kedah. It was founded by Haw Choon’s grandfather, Chiau Kok Heah, whom he speaks of fondly, whenever he is asked about the business. “I always talk about my grandfather, because without him, and without that platform, I wouldn’t have the passion for building materials. I basically grew up in that hardware shop,” he revealed. “Then, when I was in primary school, my family ventured into cement trading and we moved from Megat Dewa to the capital city of Alor Setar.” Life then took a strange and dark turn for Haw Choon. When he was 13, he dropped out of school and got involved in gangs. He was, as he put it, “up to all kinds of nonsense.” The rebellious Haw Choon couldn’t even speak basic English, and at one point at age 15, he got thrown into the police lockup for five days—the ramifications of being involved in a criminal investigation. While he was locked up, he wasn’t allowed to wear a shirt, and was forced to sleep on the floor in a space smaller than most lavatories. “While I was in there, I told myself I wouldn’t want to repeat that. But, nothing changed,” he shrugged, “I think I just had too much freedom, that’s why I believe children must be disciplined and guided.” At 16, Haw Choon admitted that he hadn’t come across anyone worse than he was. However, one of the many agents of change came in the form of his mother, a figure he cited as one who never gave up on him. One day, she had asked him if he wanted to study basic English in Singapore for six months. “I thought, since there was nothing to do in Alor Setar, I might as well give it a shot. But again, my motivation was not to study, but to have fun,” he admitted with a laugh. Eventually, he was sent to Singapore to attend tuition, and was under the care of a guardian (as Singaporean law requires that those under 18 are prohibited to stay on their own). There, the teacher taught him basic English, and fondly, Haw Choon remembered the very first few words he mastered were “‘eat’, ‘ate’ and ‘eaten!’” This teacher too would preach the gospel to him, and out of curiosity, he began attending church. Following that, divine intervention aside, Haw Choon began to selfreflect. “I looked at myself, and I looked at all my friends. A typical Malaysian would have finished their secondary school, but I didn’t. So I felt the need to start all over again,” he