You started Veritas Design Group not long after you completed your Masters degree in Architecture from Harvard in 1986. Was starting your own company always part of your post-graduation plan?
Well, I’ve never had a boss. I’ve never been an employee except for when I had an internship and I worked for a few months in the US and in Malaysia. The realisation I got from that was — I would be a terrible employee because I disagreed with all my bosses. I always thought I could do things better, smarter and faster than my bosses.

When I graduated, I knew I had to start on my own. And everyone — friends, even some family members — said I was absolutely crazy because 1987 was the depth of the downturn. I was very nervous about it but a friend of my father, a very experienced developer, said, ‘David, this is the best time to start a business because in a downturn, there’s only one way you can go — up.’ In 1987, it was already the bottom, it couldn’t have gotten worse.

So in January 1987, we started business in Kampung Baru. We started with three people; one of them is still working with me today. Our office was a small office above a motorcycle workshop. I was so embarrassed for my clients to come visit us; I preferred to [go and] see my clients. That’s how you start — humble.

Where did you get the funding to start?
Well, the thing about a professional field like architecture — in those days, it didn’t require large capital. There weren’t computers yet. We thought our investment in a fax machine was such a big amount of money. All we needed were typewriters, paper, pencil, ink, so it didn’t cost a lot. Of course, it needed some funding — I had some savings from when I was a student. And I borrowed the rest from my parents.

But the biggest break for me was when I went to see one of our clients. This guy had some faith in me and he wanted to talk about a project. I said to him, ‘I’ll give you a very good price to do this project.’ But, I said, on one condition — ‘You give me an advance.’ And he agreed. With his help and my borrowings from my family and what I had, it didn’t cost much to start. Less than RM30,000, maybe RM20,000.

What were the initial challenges faced by the company?
Well, I was breaking into an old-fashioned profession. It’s very conservative; architects are like lawyers and doctors. Because we were not known, of course we had to do marketing. But the older members of the profession said, ‘You cannot market yourself, you’re a professional.’ I just didn’t listen to them; I made brochures, I did a lot of public speaking, and I got into trouble for some of these things because they’re considered to be ‘quasi-advertising’, which is a no-no.

Those days, there was also a lot of resistance to foreign architects coming to Malaysia. I didn’t believe in that, I thought it was ridiculous. How can we create a monopoly and close doors? That’s not the global system. We opened our arms to foreign designers because we didn’t have the skills that they had. What I believe in is technology transfer.

How did you attract clients back then?
The projects were small. [As] we were unknown, no one was going to give us a big one. When you’re very small, you have to overpromise. If you don’t, you’ll never get anywhere. But the thing about overpromising is that you have to also ‘overdeliver’. If you overpromise and ‘underdeliver’, forget it. I remember meeting clients and they would say, ‘Oh, this job is medium-sized job, you need to have at least a 12 to 15-person firm to do the job.’ Actually, we were five people. But I would tell the client, ‘Oh, I’ve got 15 people.’ Once I got the job, I hired more people.

To break into the big boys club, you’ve got to bend the rules. It’s a monopoly. If you don’t bend the rules, you will never play with the big boys. This is true of any business, by the way. But before you bend the rules, you need to know the rules. You need to know them inside out, upside down and then you know how far you can push it without breaking them. I don’t advocate breaking the rules.

Which client gave you your big break?
One of my important clients when I was starting was my parents. My father wanted to do a small development together with his friends. They did a condo in Jalan Ampang, 1989. That was about two years after we started. Anyway, it came up very nicely and from that job, we were recognised. We also did one of the biggest residential projects in Petaling Jaya in 1990; it was called Gasing Heights. Gasing Heights is six towers, 800 units of condos and we got it partly by relationship and partly by design competition, which is the way architects offer and secure business. We won a design competition and got the job. Until now, people who have lived there say they love that place.

How has the economic downturn affected Veritas?
Well, it didn’t really. Put it this way, we are a big firm. We’re the second biggest in the country in our field and I think what happened last year was the middle ground suffers — the firms which are not very big, not very small, sort of in-between. The small firms actually do okay because they have one or two clients, really strong relationships and very good, high-level service.

The big firms didn’t suffer much because jobs will go to them. A big firm like us, we’re well-diversified — we have Johor, Penang, we have international, so it’s easier for us to move our resources around to opportunities that arise. And our business units do business with each other. So if the Johor office needs some work, I say, ‘Listen, give Interiors a call. Maybe they have some work for you.’ So we share a bit.

Veritas has a significant number of projects overseas. How have you grown your overseas presence alongside your local presence?
Well, we’re very proud that of all the Malaysian architecture firms, we are the most active overseas. In 2008, around 30% of our projects were overseas. This year, it’s been less but I’ve always been a natural adventurer. I love travel and I believe in a globalised world. So, very early on, we started Veritas Global to spearhead the international work.

We’ve opened offices around the world. We’re looking at opening offices in India and Bangladesh this year. We have projects in about 15 countries — China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Burma, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, UAE, Qatar, Sudan and Libya. This is very much part of our DNA. Some of them have been successful. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you get burnt.

What projects will you be doing this year?
Well, we are very busy right now with a number of mega projects. Within one kilometre of our office we have five big projects. When I say big, I mean over RM400 million. Our business in Malaysia has gone up a lot. Our international business is about the same — what we lost in the Middle East, we’re gaining back in India and Vietnam. Because we’re quite a big organisation, we tend to have to do bigger projects. It doesn’t mean we don’t do small ones, we do, but to feed us, we have to have big ones. And I enjoy big projects, I really enjoy the challenge — big, complicated, very, very tough design challenges. If you want to give us a big mega mixed-use development, transportation hub kind of thing, that’s okay.

Last year, the one that I’m glad we finished was the Rawang-Ipoh double track. We finally finished that job, which was delayed, but not because of us. We did all the train stations, including Ipoh. But still the trains are not running yet, as far as I know.

What three tips would you give would-be entrepreneurs?
One, don’t focus on the money first. Focus on the product or the service and if you do that, the money will come. If you focus on the money first, then the product or service will always be compromised. Two, make sure whatever product or service that you are providing is something that the market needs. And three, make sure that this product or service is something you are passionate about and capable of. Being passionate about it is not enough; you need to be uniquely capable.




This article appeared in Manager@work, the monthly management pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 795, Mar 1-7, 2010