Eu Yang Sang is a Traditional Chinese Medicine group with over 230 retail outlets in Hong Kong, Macau, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia.
IT’S NOT JUST BUSINESS
Richard Eu is no stranger to business; after all, he had known that he wanted to get into the business of selling from a young age. He led a varied career in banking and finance firms before joining Eu Yan Sang. However, it was his experience and ability to see the bigger picture that brought Eu Yan Sang to what it is today. Though he has been with the company for more than 28 years, he still takes joy in seeing the actualisation of ideas happen. “That’s the satisfying part of it,” he says. Not one to shy away from the new, Richard welcomed the ever changing business landscape by embracing technology. For him, technology allows science to support what Eu Yan Sang is trying to say.
“You must embrace technology,” he starts. “It’s an enabler that allows better access of information to the customers, and we make it relevant to them.” He also mentions that instead of technology undermining the importance of Chinese herbs, it instead enhances and shows how these herbs can improve a person’s life. However, Eu Sang Yan isn’t focused on technology. Instead, Richard likens it to a painting – there are many parts that you can bring to life with colour, but you also need to know what the painting is about. At the end of the day, technology is just one moving part that makes up a business. And although healthcare is a broad market, Eu Yan Sang has firmly remained the largest and most well known TCMs by expanding its reach both geographically and by product category.
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BUSINESS MAN AND AN ENTREPRENEUR, BECAUSE THE BUSINESSMAN SELLS , BUT AN ENTREPRENEUR WANTS TO CHANGE THE WORLD.
It wasn’t just the company that continued to grow and win accolades. Richard Eu’s excellence had also garnered attention. In 2010, he was named CEO of the year in the Singapore Corporate Awards, and in 2011 he won the 10th Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the traditional health category as well.
And he’s poised to add another award to his mantle as the SOE-Nexia TS Entrepreneurship Awardee 2019 – an award that is presented annually to a past SOE Honouree who has taken his enterprise to a whole new level. This award is a testament to his achievements.
What advice would he give to aspiring entrepreneurs? He believes in the value that entrepreneurship can bring to the world. “There is a difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur,” he says, “because an entrepreneur wants to change the world.”
AUTHOR BIO
ALAN KOH
Alan Koh is the Founder and CEO of Impossible Marketing, a group of companies renowned for hyperlocal marketing strategies tailored to businesses in Singapore. His professional journey began in the banking sector, where he quickly rose through the ranks, garnering eight industry awards in just four years.
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