This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 26, 2017 - July 2, 2017

IT is a sunny, breezy Friday morning in Monte Carlo, Monaco, where some of the world’s top entrepreneurs have gathered for the coveted 2017 EY World Entrepreneur of the Year (WEOY) Award. And it is on this beautiful day of June 9 that these business elite are greeted by the news that Britain’s election has returned a hung Parliament, the latest in a series of political shocks fuelling the wave of uncertainty spreading across the world.

Coincidentally, this development is apt for the theme of the forum held this year in conjunction with the WEOY Award — “Could uncertainty be your best opportunity for growth?”

To Malaysian business tycoon Tan Sri Francis Yeoh, the latest British poll results, following Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election and the unexpected vote for Brexit, are a manifestation of the disappointment of citizens in their government’s inability to solve their everyday problems, like joblessness, and an opportunity for entrepreneurs to provide the solutions.

One of the mistakes governments have made is not channelling money into infrastructure, he says. “The world is not seeing the elephant in the room. In Europe, since the Marshall Plan after World War II, they have not spent money on infrastructure. In America, since Eisenhower rode the motorway, they have not spent on infrastructure.”

Yeoh recalls that Alibaba’s Jack Ma made the same point at an economic forum when he said the US had wasted over US$14 trillion in fighting wars over the past three decades rather than invest in infrastructure at home.

Infrastructure, stresses Yeoh, can help provide jobs for today as well as tomorrow. “China has been spending money on building infrastructure, including fast trains. Without such infrastructure, could Alibaba have delivered US$17 billion worth of goods on its Singles Day (sending out over 600 million packages within three days)? You can see here how a traditional business like infrastructure backs the new digital business.”

As the managing director of infrastructure conglomerate YTL Corp, it is understandable that Yeoh is passionate about infrastructure and optimistic about the future in the face of the opportunities he sees, especially with China’s ambitious One Belt One Road initiative coming into the picture. “If China does this right, it will certainly herald a lot of opportunities for both nations and companies,” he says.

More importantly, Yeoh, who was in Monte Carlo to take part in a debate on “The Future of the Company”, believes entrepreneurs will be able to see opportunities everywhere despite the fast-paced changes that are taking place across the globe. Yeoh was also Malaysia’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year  in 2002.

Like Yeoh, 90% of business leaders in a recent EY survey see uncertainties in the world today as an opportunity for growth. The EY Growth Barometer study polled 2,340 chief executives and senior leaders of middle-market companies — those with revenues of between US$1 million and US$3 billion — as well as selected high-growth companies of less than five years in 30 countries.

What is most interesting, says EY Global Growth Markets leader Anette Kimmitt, is that the survey seems to indicate that uncertainty has been accepted as the new normal. “Despite geopolitical risks and uncertainties, businesses being disrupted by new technologies and globalisation rewriting the rules of supply and demand, middle-market leaders are not only attuned to uncertainty but they are also seizing it to grow, disrupt other markets and drive their growth agendas.”

Over a third or 34% of those polled plan to grow between 6% and 10% this year — more than double the World Bank’s latest GDP growth forecast of 2.7% — while 14% of them are aiming for growth of over 16%. Moreover, even with Brexit on the horizon, UK startups display the highest levels of confidence among the countries surveyed, Kimmit points out.

To Canadian lentil king Murad Al-Katib — declared the winner of the 2017 WEOY Award at a glitzy gala dinner at Monte-Carlo Sporting the following night — an entrepreneur should be able to recognise uncertainties or threats, analyse the situation, define the problem and then find the solution that can be turned into a business opportunity.

His own start in the global lentil business, which began with a business plan that he drafted in the basement of his house after quitting a job in government, is a perfect example. The son of Turkish immigrants, Murad built the business from scratch in the face of rising food security issues into what it is today — the largest, vertically integrated supply chain for lentils, chickpeas and peas, which are protein-rich crops that are especially popular in India and the Middle East.

“I did what every young entrepreneur does. I thought about the world and realised that the world would need to feed 10 billion people [in the future]. And when I looked at the journey of bringing affordable protein to the world, I saw that Canada had a role to play,” says the president and CEO of AGT Food and Ingredients Inc.

At the time, farmers in rural Canada’s Saskatchewan, which Murad calls home, were starting to grow more pulse crops amid rising demand for good and affordable protein, driven by population and income growth in emerging markets. But the conversion was slow. So when Murad started his lentil processing company in 2003, he convinced Canadian farmers to add pulse crops to their traditional focus on wheat and oilseeds.

“These crops naturally fix the nitrogen in the soil; they’re among the most water-efficient protein sources in the world. They actually boost the follow-on when they plant cereal grains again. So farmers win and the world gains a new protein source,” he says.

On top of that, pulse crops are an environmentally sustainable protein source that produces a low carbon footprint and are extremely efficient in terms of water use. “To produce a pound of beef, we need 1,850 gallons of water. To produce a pound of lentils, it is only 43 gallons. So this [what we’re doing] is part of society’s imperative to feed 10 billion people,” explains Murad.

Today, AGT, which went public in 2007, generates revenue of over US$1.4 billion, employs more than 2,000 people in five continents and exports about 23% of the world’s trade in lentils to more than 120 countries around the globe.

Certainly, geopolitical risks are a big part of an international business like Murad’s. “If you look at my business, which is a basic food protein business, one of my major markets [today] is North Africa and the Middle East. When I look at [incidents like] Arab Spring and all that’s happening there, I see [issues like] food, inflation, food stability, and all that forming a major part of the governments’ programmes to react to instability and stop conflict in the region. So, that became an opportunity for us,” he says.

That is why, to him, the whole concept of social entrepreneurship is going to become the norm in the future because entrepreneurs will help solve the problems of the world. “[Whether it is] clean drinking water, clean air or food security, entrepreneurs will find the solutions in partnership with governments,” he stresses.

China Media Capital Group’s Li Ruigang, who has earned the moniker “China’s Rupert Murdoch”, thinks the world has always been full of uncertainties. “But a lot of these uncertainties are actually blessings in disguise. Only by gearing ourselves up might we be able to accomplish beyond our usual calibre and produce results beyond our own estimation,” he says.

To the investigative journalist turned entrepreneur, who was the China EOY for 2016,  the key is to be open to new ideas. “Staying open is extremely important in this age that is marked by fundamental and quick changes taking place on a massive scale. Media and entertainment in China became a global industry before it became national. The moment we stop being open, we are doomed.”

Li, too, is optimistic about the future. In fact, CMC just acquired a small stake in Creative Artists Agency — the Hollywood talent group that represents stars like Beyoncé and George Clooney — as part of a partnership deal to form a new media and entertainment joint venture in China with the US company, and is now on the lookout for more buys, he tells The Edge, without specifying any targets.

Last year, CMC, which was founded by Li in 2009, extended its Hollywood reach when it bought equity interest in Imagine Entertainment, the production house behind Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code. In 2015, the company, which owns significant stakes in Imax China and Oriental DreamWorks and has joint ventures with Warner Bros, bought a stake in the consortium that controls Hong Kong’s Television Broadcasts Ltd.

In a nutshell, the world, like what Luxembourg’s 2016 EOY and Groupe CWA owner Claude Wagner says,“is undergoing a great change and that means great opportunities, but also a hell of a lot of risks”. Groupe CWA is a conglomerate of over 20 companies with businesses in construction to sport.

But as India’s 2016 EOY and Samvardhana Motherson Group chairman Vivek Chaand Sehgal says: “Crossing the road is risky too ... so risks, well, you got to get comfortable with [them].” His company is one of the world’s largest auto component makers and the biggest in India.

The Edge is the media partner for EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Malaysia 2017

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