ED 49: May-June 2013

30
CO v E r st O r y
We Move
together
Mr Koh Yang Kee has successfully handed over the reins
of his company's leadership to his son | By James Tan
the divide between the older generation and the young
can sometimes be wide: both groups bear different
opinions on the same subject and often have varying
opinions and attitudes toward issues that matter.
Transpose this to a business setting where each
decision made can dictate the future path of a company, and
a touchy – sometimes incendiary – situation may erupt. If left
unattended to, this seemingly small spark may develop into a fullfledged
wildfire, with devastating consequences.
Mr Koh Yang Kee, founder of Yang Kee Logistics Pte Ltd, and
his son Mr Ken Koh, Deputy Managing Director of Yang Kee
Logistics Pte Ltd, have managed to successfully bridge this divide,
transforming the 23-year-old company of modest beginnings to
one of Singapore’s foremost end-to-end logistics and warehousing
enterprises with a robust staff strength of 200 and backed by
state-of-the-art facilities and business infrastructure.
However, the metamorphosis was not an easy one. Beginning as
a small transportation enterprise in 1990, Yang Kee was a small
company with limited business functions. However, it had the
potential to grow, to achieve more, to accomplish even more. Even
if the elder Mr Koh was content with Yang Kee being just a trucking
company, Ken, however, had far loftier dreams for his father’s
enterprise.
The transportation business was doing well enough to keep the
company afloat and running, but the fast-moving business climate
necessitated diversification of the company’s core business.
Joining Yang Kee alongside his father in 2001, Ken brought with
him experience from his stint at Hewlett-Packard as well as fresh
perspective and renewed motivation to Mr Koh’s business.
“I realised that in order to stay relevant and competitive, changes
to the business model would be required,” Ken recounted, “The
expansion into the provision of complementary logistics services
was started, and subsequent events vindicated my decision.”
Indeed, Yang Kee started to offer accompanying logistics services
such as freight forwarding and warehousing in addition to the
transportation function to complete the supply chain, giving
customers an integrated and seamless logistics solution. Alas,
in every endeavour, problems will inevitably abound, but Mr Koh
and Ken worked side-by-side to familiarize themselves with the
May | Ju n 2013
En t r E p r E n E u r s’ Di g E s t