Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr. Teh Hong Piow founder and Chairman of Public Bank Berhad – one of Malaysia’s top financial institutions – was a Boys Brigade member! He revealed this (including a photo of him in BB uniform – a Sergeant, no less!) in two interviews, as part of the his autobiography’s publication.
In it, he revealed that he “was very active in the Boys Brigade” while at school.
This was despite the fact that he had many challenges coming from a humble and modest family situation. Tan Sri Teh’s father worked as a cook for free board and lodging until he had scraped together enough to become a small-time salesman and trader, dealing in clocks, watches, spectacles, vegetables and fruits – turning his hand to anything to make a meagre living. Teh’s mother died when he was six.
“I had to take care of my siblings which made me a more caring person at a young age,” Tan Sri Teh said in the interview.
You can read the full interviews below and learn more about this remarkable former BB Member.
Originally published in The Star here.
Public Bank’s Teh beats all the odds
BY ELAINE ANG
Teh Hong Piow – A Banking Thoroughbred traces the eventful 40-year financial odyssey of Public Bank Bhd founder and chairman. The story tells of how Public Bank is the cornerstone of Teh’s life: Public Bank is him and he is Public Bank. They are synonymous. The book will hit bookstoresnationwide soon. Proceeds from the sales of the book will go to charity.
STARTING a bank by any measure is not only rare but also exceptional.
For a young man – with only 16 years’ experience in the banking industry and sharp business acumen – to set up his own bank and turn it into one of the country’s finest financial institutions was a near impossibility.
Nevertheless, Teh Hong Piow, then 36, beat all the odds and became the founder, owner and managing director of Public Bank Bhd, which opened its doors for business on Aug 6, 1966, in a three-storey building at No 4, Jalan Gereja in Kuala Lumpur.
Even from the start, Public Bank was no mediocre bank and different from the others – its niche was retail banking but with a new twist targeting the man-on-the-street.
The strategy bore fruit and the bank achieved positive results in record time, registering a profit after only five months of operations.
By the end of 1966, the bank’s paid-up capital was RM12.75mil. On Sept 15, 1966, a second branch was set up in Malacca, while Public Finance, a wholly owned subsidiary, started business on Sept 24, 1966. On Jan 7, 1967, another bank branch was opened in Ipoh.
On April 6, 1967, Public Bank was listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange with a paid-up capital of RM16mil, a record then for a commercial bank.
The bank grew at an astounding pace, turning in profits every single year – even during the Asian financial crisis.
To Teh, it was an exhilarating adventure from the beginning. He was never doubtful of the success of his venture. Nor did he see it as a gamble. As with all businesses, one needs to take a calculated risk.
So how did it all start?
Where most ventures do – with ambition – in this case an unshakeable ambition driving the eager young Teh, who began life as a small trader in Singapore.
Teh had dabbled in tin mining, tourism, textiles and garments and property development, none of which gave him the fortune he sought.
When he got a job as a bank teller he found his true, unswerving vocation. He wanted to do nothing else but banking and nothing less than owning a bank.
Teh joined the banking industry as a clerk in Oversea Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) in 1950, at the age of 20. Within five years he was made an officer.
His starting salary was just S$130 a month, hardly enough to provide for his family. Teh has four children – three daughters and a son. His wife, a teacher, was drawing a bigger salary. However, his main objective was not the pay but a chance to learn the banking trade.
OCBC gave him the first defined glimpse of his dream – to start his own bank. Malayan Banking was the seminal phase, which developed him to the point when he was ready to take the plunge and realise his dream.
In 1960, the 30-year-old Teh left OCBC to be part of a small group which helped start Malayan Banking. He was one of the management staff charged with building the bank from scratch.
He rose swiftly through the ranks and became general manager within four years.
In 1966 came the decision to strike out on his own.
One of his earliest breakthroughs – a foray into housing development – generated some RM10mil, which was used as seed money to set up the bank.
For his management team, Teh enlisted the support of one of Malayan Banking’s founders, Khoo Teck Puat, to take with him 10 Malayan Banking staff. One of them was Public Bank’s current managing director, Datuk Seri Tay Ah Lek, who along with the rest were supposedly on secondment. The rest, as they say, is history.
Tan Sri Teh, as he became officially known from 1983, has seen his ambition fulfilled beyond his wildest dreams. And for one who’s not known to rest on his laurels, he aims to take Public Bank to greater heights – making it a world-class player.
Teh has started the ball rolling with the acquisition of Hong Kong-based Public Finance Ltd (formerly JCG Finance Co Ltd) in 1990 and Public Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd (formerly Asia Commercial Bank) in 2006 as well as operations in Indochina.
The bank’s key performance indicators are comparable with those of Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Bank, the most profitable and efficient bank in the Asia-Pacific.
Hence the question, is Public Bank on the way to join the ranks of global banking giants such as HSBC Holdings plc, Citi and Bank of America Corp?
With Teh, nothing is impossible.
Originally published by The Star here.
Teh’s early lessons in virtue of hard work
According to the Chinese calendar, he was born in the Year of the Horse, which symbolises speed and power.
He is the eldest son of a migrant family. His father was an immigrant from Guangdong province, China, who left for Malaya at the age of 15.
His father worked as a cook for free board and lodging until he had scraped together enough to become a small-time salesman and trader, dealing in clocks, watches, spectacles, vegetables and fruits – turning his hand to anything to make a meagre living.
Teh’s mother died when he was six.“I had to take care of my siblings which made me a more caring person at a young age,” Teh told StarBiz.
His father re-married and the family grew to six boys and three girls. “He had to exercise thrift and stringent management of his meagre income to support the family,” Teh said. It probably sowed the seeds of the caring boss he was to become.
Teh grew up knowing what it was like to be poor, speaking of hand-me-downs, which were too large, worn and patched. He had very little pocket money and could not buy food at the school canteen like the other boys but had to make do with bread from home, to the derision of his more fortunate companions.
He used to save his money for a rare treat of his favourite food – beef noodles or mee siam. He also did not possess a bicycle of his own but had to make do with the shop bike with its large, tell-tale carrier at the back.
The Teh family was highly traditional. “My father was a very strict disciplinarian; I took his words as command,” he said.
His father had very little communication with the children, except as an authority figure. Teh had to be home by 9pm even as a teenager.
Teh was bright at school and loved books but unfortunately could not afford to further his studies.
“In school, I was very active in the Boys Brigade. I was also a class monitor. My early ambition was to study law after secondary school, but my father could only support me up to the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate level. I had to start work the day after I sat for my school leaving examination,” he said.
This was nothing new. Teh remembers having to work while still schooling to support his family.
“Being the eldest son, I had to help my father in his business,” he said.
Even then he had an eye for profit, earning money for himself from his hobby of photography. He also enjoys reading and was a keen football fan.
During the Japanese occupation, he sold cigarettes on five-foot way to supplement the family income.
The hardship was not without a legacy. Teh learned very early the virtue of hard work. It also made him very resourceful. Denied of higher education, he had to seek upward mobility in less conventional ways.
If leaders are not born, life’s experiences make them such. In Teh’s case, it was his years at Oversea Chinese Banking Corp and Malayan Banking that were the incubators of his future career.