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Kit Loong Group Celeb
Chen Jet How (left) and the coffee table book editorial team : Kit Loong Group CEO Jacob Chen delivers his Yuan Lin, Shih Chia Chen & Flora Liu Hui Hui ( from right to left) opening speech
21st November was a special day for the Kit Loong Group as it proudly celebrated its 80 years of developments and achievements. An anniversary gala dinner was hosted by the company at the spectacular ballroom of the One World Hotel, PJ.
Over 500 guests, including business associates, suppliers, staff as well as retired staff were in at- tendance for the celebration.
To celebrate the milestone, Kit Loong Group also of- ficially launched a coffee table book, entitled “Heart of Evolution: The Making of Kit Loong in 80 Years” at the event. The author of the book being none other than Chen Jet How, the Chairman of the Kit Loong Group, who is the lynchpin and inspiration behind the group. The milestones of each decade are presented in the book together with valuable historical records, the story of the founder, the spirit of the company, the qualities of Kit Loong’s leader, and how the third generation takes the family enter- prise to new heights, etc. Thus, just as Chen said in his speech, this coffee table book should be of much interest to his present and future family mem- bers, shareholders and staff.
Kit Loong’s corporate culture, said Chen, focuses on the right personal values, which then form the basis of the company’s value in guiding them to success. He also shared an interesting incident that happened recently: A female employee at the company’s reception did not know him and asked him who he was when he stepped into the office. This, he explained, was because he had seldom visited the PJ head office in the recent 10 years since his retirement in 2001. Chen reckoned this was a good thing as this meant the third genera- tion had successfully established their leadership
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with their own teams that can per- form independently.
Since its inception in 1931, Kit Loong has come a long way. Not many com- panies have stood the test of time, but Kit Loong has proven its strength in the market by expanding and exceeding expectations despite the challenges. It has played a leading role in trans- forming the tyre and retreading indus- try by introducing innovative products and solutions over the years.
Kit Loong always strives to build a true successful partnership with its suppliers and business associates as well as customers, which is a win- win scenario; that is the secret of Kit Loong’s success. However, it is easier said than done.
“Is just like two children sharing an orange, ” explained CEO Jacob in his speech, “they cut the orange into half. One took the orange flesh whilst the other one took the orange skin. The former child’s mother used the orange flesh to make orange juice, and the latter child’s mother used the orange skin to make an orange cake. This is not a true win-win scenario, and to achieve true win-win scenario requires effort in communication to reach deeper understanding. The two children should try to commu- nicate with each other and they can then obtain the whole orange flesh or whole orange skin. ”
The DNA of Kit Loong, stands for Direction, Navigation and Action. Jacob explained that the ethics of the company is from the wisdom and guid-
ing influence of the Group’s board of directors, and is under the leadership of an experience and long serving management team. The Group is full of energy and is robust with a youthful and dynamic workforce, together with the support of their valued suppliers and bankers.
“Our direction is clear, and we are focused to achieve our vision. For our passenger car tyre busi- ness, we are actively developing our Tayaria Alliance retail network as the key channel for our multi- brand product offer. Our near term target is to achieve 120 outlets by 2014, whereas for the Kit Loong Commercial Tyre Group, we are aspire to be the largest single wheel-position owner/manager in Malaysia,” Jacob added.
The Partners Appreciation Awards were also given out during the event, in recognition of their busi- ness partners’ strong partnership and support over the years.
With the main formalities over, guests were treated to a fantastic finale of performance and games. It was a night full of laughter as well as excitement, where many wonderful and valuable prizes such as ipacs and LCD TVs, etc, were given away during the lucky draw. A marvelous atmosphere was completed by gourmet food, perfectly chilled drinks, and the opportunity for many old friends to catch up and reminisce about the industry. The celebration contin- ued well into the night.