Poultry farmer Ho Seng Choon, 90, is still the prince of quails; “We should be billionaires,” said the younger Mr Ho. “But while dad is an excellent and passionate farmer, he has never been a good businessman.”

Poultry farmer, 90, is still the prince of quails

He has tried his hand at goat, turtle and crocodile farming – but at the age of 90 he is now rearing quails with his son. -ST
Melody Zaccheus
Sat, Mar 16, 2013
The Straits Times

SINGAPORE – He has tried his hand at goat, turtle and crocodile farming – but at the age of 90 he is now rearing quails with his son.

Meet Mr Ho Seng Choon, a poultry farmer credited with modernising farming techniques in Singapore over six decades.

Together with son William Ho, 48, he runs Lian Wah Hang, one of two quail farms here. It provides Singapore with 11 million quail eggs every year.

These come from their brood of 130,000 quails and are sold at supermarkets or served at restaurants such as Crystal Jade.

But this could be the “last frontier” for their 2.7ha farm in Lim Chu Kang, said the younger Mr Ho. “Just two years remain on our tenancy and we cannot expand our business on such terms. We are worried about our future.”

The older Mr Ho, who features in the National Heritage Board’s Trading Stories exhibition, has been credited with introducing the battery system for livestock in the 1950s. Born in China’s Fujian province, Mr Ho came to Singapore in 1929. His father ran a provision shop but business was disrupted by World War II.

Mr Ho saw poultry farming’s potential as the population grew, so he sold his dad’s shop and headed to Japan and the Netherlands to pick up livestock techniques.

“Farming techniques in Japan were very modern compared to Singapore where chickens would roam freely and farmhands would have to run around with their baskets in search of eggs,” said Mr Ho. He has published a series of journals on poultry farming and in 1963, he led a rally fighting for a three-cent tax on imported chicken eggs to benefit local farmers.

Two years later, he organised a farming exhibition at Kallang Airport and played host to then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

“We should be billionaires,” said the younger Mr Ho. “But while dad is an excellent and passionate farmer, he has never been a good businessman.” Read more of this post

How cricket has lost its working class tradition; The game is better for having its working-class heroes

Class and cricket

A lower-order collapse

Mar 12th 2013, 19:54 by B.R.

IT USED to be said that when England needed a fast bowler, all it had to do was whistle down a Nottinghamshire coal mine. Harold Larwood (pictured), the most fearsome bowler of his generation, was destined for a life in the pits before he was spotted while playing for his village team and offered a contract by Nottinghamshire in 1923. Nuncargate, the tiny mining village in which he was born, unearthed four further England cricketers, including Bill Voce, who shared the new ball with Larwood during the 1932-33 bodyline tour of Australia.

England’s great batsmen, too, often came from humble beginnings. Jack Hobbs, one of the country’s most revered players, grew up in poverty in Cambridge. Herbert Sutcliffe’s father was a pub landlord in Yorkshire. Indeed, from Fred Trueman, the first bowler to take 300 Test wickets, whose father spent time in the coal mines, to Ian Botham and Freddie Flintoff, working-class heroes have always bestrode the game.

This is not to say that English cricket has not been subject to class division. On the contrary, it is enshrined in its history. The first recorded games, in the 17th and 18th centuries, were often between teams playing under the patronage of the landed gentry, such as the Second Duke of Richmond, who employed local farm hands in fixtures convened for toffs to bet on. Until 1962, England’s first-class cricketers were formally divided into two categories, gentlemen and players—the nobs who could afford to play cricket as amateurs, versus working-class professionals who needed to be paid. At Lord’s, the home of the game, teammates entered the field through separate gates dependent on this distinction. There was even an annual fixture between the two which was, for a while, the highlight of the domestic season (and in which the professionals usually prevailed). It was not until 1952 that a non-gentleman, Len Hutton, captained the Test side.

Class is even enshrined in the game’s aesthetic. Some shots—particularly front foot drives—are to this day considered more elegant, to be purred over by purists. This may be because they are also associated with the upper classes. In “More Tales from a Long Room”, a satire of the game, Peter Tinniswood relates the story of an aristocrat who undertakes “a missionary crusade to the dourlands of the north to preach to the working classes his fervent belief that the cover drive, the late cut and the wristy leg glance were not the sole province of the upper classes.” In contrast, brutal, clubbing back foot shots, such as pulls and cuts, were considered professionals’ shots, born of those who cared little about art and much about efficacy.

Yet if there was once a class battle in cricket, it is on the verge of being conceded. Today, fewer working-class players reach the top of the English game than probably at any time in the sport’s history. If one takes a very broad measure of class—whether a player attended a state or private school—the majority of England’s Test cricketers since the second world war could be said to have come from relatively modest backgrounds (see chart). In 1993, nine of the starting XI who played in the first Test against Australia had been to a state school. By the 2009 series, only half did (one, Monty Panesar, attended both types). In the last Test match England played, against New Zealand last week, that proportion had gone down to a third. Read more of this post

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Founder Anji Reddy Dies; Considered as a pioneer of reverse engineering, Dr Reddy made significant contributions in making pharmaceutical products globally competitive and also affordable to the common man

March 15, 2013, 12:50 p.m. ET

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Founder Anji Reddy Dies

By DHANYA ANN THOPPIL

BANGALORE–K. Anji Reddy, the founder and chairman of drug maker Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., 500124.BY +0.29% died Friday in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. Mr. Reddy was ailing for some time, the company said in a statement, but didn’t give details. Mr. Reddy founded Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in 1984. The Hyderabad-based company, which is listed in India and on the New York Stock Exchange, is now one of India’s largest drug makers.

Founder chairman of Dr Reddy Laboratories Anji Reddy dead

Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: March 15, 2013 21:20 IST

Hyderabad: Kallam Anji Reddy, the founder chairman of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, died today at a hospital in Hyderabad following brief illness. He was 73. He is survived by wife Samrajyam, daughter Anuradha and son K Satish Reddy, who is managing director and COO of the pharma giant. One of the most well-known faces of Indian pharma industry, Dr Reddy was suffering from lung disorder for last few months and was admitted to a private hospital 10 days ago. The technocrat-turned-entrepreneur, who started Reddy’s Laboratories with a meagre outlay of Rs. 25 lakh in early 1980s, transformed it into $1.6 billion global entity. Considered as a pioneer of reverse engineering, Dr Reddy made significant contributions in making pharmaceutical products globally competitive and also affordable to the common man. Read more of this post

Tan Sri Andrew Sheng: The wonton vs sushi story; So what is the right business model for small businesses in the age of massive social and technological change?

Saturday March 16, 2013

The wonton vs sushi story

Think Asian by ANDREW SHENG

MY friends know that I am a noodle foodie. Everywhere I go throughout Asia, I try the noodles, from laksa in Penang, pad thai in Bangkok, beefpho in Hanoi to mohinga in Yangon; each bowl showcases the culture and flavour of the place, through the different texture, spices, and taste. Somehow, I remember a place by the quality of its noodles.

There is nothing quite like the great wonton and noodle shops in Hong Kong. They are not fancy places, but have been in the same location for ages, and have become beloved local institutions with lifetime customers. In the past few months. several historic Hong Kong noodle shops and cafes have closed from rising rents. The closure of the 42-year-old Lei Yuen Congee Noodles in Causeway Bay this January made the South China Morning Post. Hundreds of tourists and residents flocked to the shop in its last days, waiting in hour-long queues at lunch time for their last chance to eat there.

Rising rent in Hong Kong is nothing new. Hong Kong competes with Tokyo as one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets. Yet Tokyo is full of small ramen and sushi shops that have been around for decades brought to international attention recently by the film Jiro Dreams of Sushi about a dedicated Michelin star sushi shop in the Tokyo subway. Tokyo sushi shops also have to pay the high rent demanded by landlords, but perhaps their landlords realise that Japanese culture is poorer if there is no local sushi and ramen shop around. Read more of this post

Money Advice for People in Boom-or-Bust Fields; Jay Reynolds borrowed heavily to buy the company in 1980. He then struggled for nearly two decades as demand suffered until the business finally revived

March 8, 2013

Money Advice for People in Boom-or-Bust Fields

By PAUL SULLIVAN

Jay Reynolds, president and chief executive of Rod Ric Drilling in Midland, Tex., borrowed heavily to buy the company in 1980. He then struggled for nearly two decades as demand suffered until the business finally revived. 

MORE financial advisers are focusing on a single clientele, say, doctors or athletes. That would seem to make sense, since concentrating on a single group of people gives advisers greater insight into the needs of those people. And if the advisers do a good job, they will get that client’s colleagues as clients.

Advisers can, of course, organize their practices in other ways. Many focus on a dollar amount. They promise to give good advice to any client with more than $1 million, $5 million or more, regardless of where that money came from. By taking this tack, they are also eliminating the need to have more, less wealthy clients.

And some advisers organize a practice around a life event, like retirement or divorce. But what does a divorced woman with three young children and a deadbeat former husband have in common with Elaine Wynn, who received nearly $1 billion when she divorced Steve Wynn, the casino mogul?

Still, is managing money for a group of lawyers, say, any different from managing money for another high earner? A dollar is a dollar, after all. Or is it just a way for advisers to market themselves? Read more of this post