Home to budding entrepreneurs
WHEN Ricky Toong started rearing chickens, people laughed at him. Two farms on, he graduated with a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Management & Science University (MSU) in 2014.
Encouraged by his exposure to the university’s culture of entrepreneurship as a student, he went into entrepreneurial mode. He picked the path less travelled by his peers when he decided to farm chickens.
Raising chickens for a living may have elicited laughter at the start but Toong kept at it while pursuing further study at MSU.
With green chickens as his subject, he chose to study halal chicken production.
“My biggest challenge used to be the mortality rate, which is normally 10% to 15% in an organic chicken farm, but I had 2,000 dead chickens in one day. After learning and changing many things, I managed to bring the figure down to 5%,” he says.
“The chickens’ green diet is also a challenge to maintain because it has to be sourced and put together from various suppliers – for example, soy waste from tofu manufacturers and coconut waste from makers of kaya (traditional jam made from coconut and eggs).
“Dealing with people, suppliers as well as customers is always a challenge in any business. The skill is not something taught in school. You were taught only to be nice, but in business, there is a lot of competition, so you learn to be strong instead.”
Advising those who aspire to be entrepreneurs, Toong says, “When you go through a problematic phase in your journey, keep in mind that you are learning.
“When you have passed this phase, everything will stabilise. Your role then is to gain new knowledge outside and bring it back to your business, just as I am doing now in university.”
Toong is indebted to his family, colleagues and staff at MSU’s Graduate School of Management for all the support and encouragement that they poured in during his research into halal chicken farming. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Business Administration at MSU.
MSU is one of top universities in Malaysia and is placed 217th in the QS Asia University Rankings 2018, making it the top 1.8% among Asia’s best universities.
It offers specialised programmes at postgraduate and undergraduate levels in the areas of business, management, medicine, health sciences, information sciences, engineering, education and hospitality.
As a university that stresses the importance of graduates’ employability and entrepreneurial capabilities, MSU works closely with various industries to ensure its relevance to current needs.
The creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem across the university’s curriculum further provides an environment that nurtures students to be graduates who are deeply rooted in entrepreneurial know-how.
The university has been named the Most Entrepreneurial Private University 2016 by the Higher Education Ministry and accorded Best Brand in Education 2016 by the Asia Pacific Brands Foundation.
The aim of MSU is to make a global impact transforming lives and enriching futures of its students at all levels.
For more information about postgraduate programmes at MSU, call 03-5521 6868, e-mail enquiry@msu.edu.my or visit www.msu.edu.my