Malaysian-born Ben Ling began his entrepreneurial career at the age of 17 whilst studying for his A-levels in the UK.

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Jordan Norton
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Malaysian-born Ben Ling began his entrepreneurial career at the age of 17 whilst studying for his A-levels in the UK.

middle of nowhere. If we wanted food delivered we had to pay for a taxi and that was double the price of the takeaway!

1 Alumnus Entrepreneur Profile: Ben Ling GEMBA16 Serial entrepreneur Having learnt from my successes and failures from building ten companies to date, I now only focus my energies in three synergetic industries within the real estate realm where my true passion lies - hotels, marinas and private equity real estate. I work smarter and live a much more balanced life than before. Malaysian-born Ben Ling began his entrepreneurial career at the age of 17 whilst studying for his A-levels in the UK. The UK School Years As with most teenage boys at school we were often hungry in the evening and although the local Chinese takeaway was cheap it was far from the school which was situated in the middle of nowhere. If we wanted food delivered we had to pay for a taxi and that was double the price of the takeaway! I simply put the menu up in the common room and organised a mass order three times a week. All I wanted was some free food! Since I was young my parents had always instilled the notion of being independent financially and being inventive I was paid to wash the car or do the dishes after dinner - this just seemed natural to me. In 1995 Ben graduated from the University of Nottingham in the UK with a BA Hons in Architecture. He then headed for London where he obtained a Masters of Architecture from the AA School of Architecture in It was during these years that his next venture was born: I ve never been particularly academic, getting bored easily and I always looked for something to do in addition to my studies. It was the early days of the internet and I set up a graphic and web design business on elance.com which worked in a similar way to e-bay but sold services based on the design skills I had learnt at school. I offered

2 graphics, web design, names cards, logos etc. for a relatively low fee. However, I underestimated the success I would enjoy. It snowballed, resulting in me outsourcing the work to designers based in India, China and Russia at a fraction of the fees collected. I was coordinating up to 50 projects at any one time, doing some design and in the meantime making a good living out of it by the time I graduated - all this while working out of my bedroom in my pyjamas. The China Years This comfortable financial position left Ben with a dilemma should he grow the business further and enjoy a generous income or pursue his passion in architecture? He had always intended to return to Asia and decided to cease operations and move to Shanghai where he could pursue his dream of training to become an architect. This was the only time that I have actually been an employee in a company. I soon realised that the 9 to 5 work ethic just doesn t suit me. We worked on a project basis which I would often finish earlier than the allotted time. I was happy to work 20 hour days to complete an assignment, but to me it was obvious there was no point in going into work when a job was completed with nothing to do until the next contract. My boss didn t appreciate this. After one year a friend of mine approached me to design an apartment I knew it was the moment to resign. Together with two other partners, Ben set up a design studio in a small room in Shanghai. The city was growing fast and so did the venture, Vinyl Group: within two years the company had grown from three to 150 employees. The first two years were amazing but hard work. There were months when money was tight with instant noodles the only food I could afford to eat as the credit cards were maxed out, savings spent and with no other source of funding. An important learning from this time was the importance of building a team and trusting them. As an architect, I wanted to do everything myself but as the company took off I just couldn t sustain this. Running a business is all about the people. Since this time I have always concentrated on the team: if my employees are happy the customers will be too. Over the next six years the group continued to enjoy success and took on over 300 projects.

Ben was still in his 20s at the time the world was before him, and he was fearless nothing was too ambitious for him. He admits that I was perhaps a little over confident, and spread myself too thin.

Over the following years he founded and designed a nightclub in Shanghai; he launched a chain of restaurants; founded a retail production company that designed window dressing for large consumer

3 Ben was still in his 20s at the time the world was before him, and he was fearless nothing was too ambitious for him. He admits that I was perhaps a little over confident, and spread myself too thin. But there was no stopping Ben and his partners who began many diverse ventures. Over the following years he founded and designed a nightclub in Shanghai; he launched a chain of restaurants; founded a retail production company that designed window dressing for large consumer companies including Moet & Chandon, Sephora, Diesel and L Oreal among others. And it didn t stop there: Our biggest success was Oasis Boutique Serviced Offices, a chain of serviced offices in various prime locations in Shanghai. There was an abundance of rundown buildings in the centre of Shanghai that we bought and refurbished to use as service offices similar to the Regus model but using smaller properties. We had a much lower cost structure compared to our competitors. We also catered for a younger and more stylish group of clients. By 2009, however, the mad years in Shanghai had started to take their toll on Ben. He had been working 18 hour days for five years followed by partying until the early hours. He was on meltdown and becoming disillusioned with his work. He became increasingly frustrated that he no longer enjoyed what he was doing. He loved the creative aspect of his business yet he spent his days managing projects and fire-fighting design didn t get a look in. The last year I was in Shanghai I was like a zombie going through the motions. Whereas in the first four years I managed to get into work every day early, even when clubbing until 4 or 5 in the morning, I started cruising in at 11.00am simply because I did not want to walk into the office and face another day of firefighting and was becoming demotivated. I had probably burned out but really didn t know what to do. In 2010 his business partner returned from a life-changing holiday in Bali where he proposed to his girlfriend. He announced that he was moving there permanently. Ben had two choices: he could buy back his shares or follow him to Bali.

It took me a second to decide: I packed my bags for Bali. All the ventures we had started were at different stages in their development. The ones with potential we sold and the others we shut down.

4 It took me a second to decide: I packed my bags for Bali. All the ventures we had started were at different stages in their development. The ones with potential we sold and the others we shut down. But it wasn t that straightforward there were real people involved who I knew by the end we employed hundreds of people. It was heart-breaking laying-off these staff that I had hired and were now like family. As a result I left China with mixed feelings: sad that I had to fire these people but my soul and body had gone I had to start again. The Bali Years The following year Ben spent on the beach in Bali reflecting on what he should do next whilst recuperating from the last five years. I decided I would concentrate on projects that I really wanted to do, not like the crazy China days where we were young and believed we could do anything and everything. I was adamant that the next business I started would allow time for myself. Money doesn t mean anything when you are burnt out - dislike what you do and you have no time to enjoy your success. With his business partner, Ben saw an opportunity to build a series of marinas linking yachting routes between Asia and Australia. The first marina would take US$30million to develop. Being new to Indonesia, they decided to take the project one step at a time and began two businesses to familiarize themselves with the local business environment and raise capital for the end goal of the Marina. We began by doing what we knew best and built Equilibria Hotels ( a 28 villa hotel in Seminyak, right in the heart of jet-set Bali. We took it slowly and financed it with our own money. The next two years we spent developing the hotel and learning how to run it. I passed months in the different areas of the hotel from cleaning the rooms to doing the book keeping: learning everything I needed to know to understand the hotel industry. It was also easy to innovate within the slow-changing hotel industry to create a much more memorable guest experience with more personalization. Today,

the hotel has become a cash-cow and it is ready to grow into an independent regional hotel chain. Next Ben co-founded Equilibria Capital ( www.equilibriaproperties.

5 the hotel has become a cash-cow and it is ready to grow into an independent regional hotel chain. Next Ben co-founded Equilibria Capital ( ), a boutique private equity firm that focusses on undervalued property asset classes linked to emergent islands within the Indonesian archipelago. The initial aim was to learn to source and manage third party funds in order to seek larger funding for the eventual marina development. This business has blossomed over the years and brought investors unprecedented 2x annual returns. It is also now almost ready to grow independently with institutional capital at a much larger scale across South East Asia. All was going well until 2014 when Ben had a serious setback in his personal life that once again gave him reason to realise something had to change. This time moving to a different geography wasn t an option as the businesses were based in Bali. He had always thought about studying for an MBA and the time seemed right. In addition, as the marina project developed, he knew that they would be dealing with larger financial institutions and INSEAD would make him look more credible on paper. I began the GEMBA at INSEAD in it changed my life view. From the first day you are surrounded by such diverse, interesting people - from a lady with a PhD in nuclear physics to a guy who has climbed Mount Everest and a banker speaking five languages. There are so many amazing people that I realised I was just a speck in the universe. It brought me back down to earth. Perhaps more importantly I have made genuinely good friends who are on the same wavelength as me. It has grounded me on a personal level in a way that I couldn t have imagined. Meanwhile the marina project (Equilibria Marinas) was taking shape and after four years they were ready. They were able to fund the majority of the investment themselves, and only needed external minority investors. This was the first time that Ben had to raise capital for any of businesses to date. In 2016 they began to design their first marina resort. They plan to complete the 1.8 million square feet development by Q

6 Advice? People often think too much before embarking on a start-up just go for it. There is never a perfect business plan, just dig a hole, jump in, and figure out how to climb out as you progress. The myth that you have a great idea and will easily raise capital just isn t true in my experience. Apart from the marina project where I needed minority funding, we have bootstrapped everything ourselves and never had a loan except if you count the maxed out credit cards! Entrepreneurship is not as glamourous as it seems you will be doing everything from photocopying to cleaning in the beginning. There are no massive salaries at the start. There is a great deal of sacrifice but I don t regret anything - this is what I love to do. As an entrepreneur, you deal with problems and failures every day. I have learnt that there is no point crying over spilt milk. If you can fix it, then fix it immediately. If it can t be fixed, then learn from it, and move on. Experience has taught me that sometimes you need to run at a 100 miles per hour. But sometimes, you need to slow-down to 5 miles per hour. Making time to think and reflect is just as important as non-stop execution. Finding a good business partner is even harder than finding a spouse. I am blessed to have the same business partner for the past 13 years. I have more joint bank accounts with him than he does with his wife, and when he blinks, I know what he is thinking about. If you are not happy with your life, then make a change. Don t just sit there and complain. It doesn t get you anywhere. Learning to trust people is key, but once you have good people on board, let them soar. I am often surprised at how much a person can improve once you give them the freedom to do so.

7 Anne-Marie Carrick, Research Associate August 2016

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