Family & Life Magazine Issue 14 | Page 11

However, as Wee Keng put in the hours and got to know the people that made up the company, he began to realise the enormity of his responsibility. The livelihoods of many folks depended on the business decisions that he and his eldest brother, who had taken over TollyJoy after his father’s death, made. As Wee Keng explains, negativity breeds more negative attitudes, which was a characteristic that he hoped would not infect TollyJoy. Wee Keng eventually got into the groove, finally accepting the hand that fate dealt him. Now, he loves what he does, he tells me with pride. THE CLIMB TO THE TOP Wee Keng is not one for impressivesounding positions. When I asked him about the historical details of his eventual ascent to the throne, Wee Keng taps the table and looks to the right, his brain attempting to access the hazy past. A few minutes later, he looks at me with a resigned smile. “I remember joining the company immediately after graduating from university but for the life of me, I can’t recall the exact title I was given. All I know was that I took over after my brother left,” says the father of three. “I never cared about my lofty spot. I never liked the idea of being the person-in-charge without any prior experience. If you want to lead a group of people, you need to have the prerequisite skills. So, even though I was given a fancy title, it never meant anything to me.” What Wee Keng does remember in detail was his attempts at picking up the pieces of a fractured organisation that had fallen on tough times as a result of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. When Wee Keng took over in 2001, TollyJoy’s product sales were in a free fall and revenue numbers in Singapore and Malaysia had plummeted to dangerous levels – the company was in the red and was on its way to becoming a forgotten footnote. It would have been an almost impossible task for any experienced CEO, let alone one just barely out of the cradle of school. Outsiders unaware of Wee Keng’s history with TollyJoy would have probably scoffed at his appointment as a sign of a company desperately grasping at straws. The truth, however, is more complex. Wee Keng has a long intimate relationship with the company since he was a young boy, having regularly worked within the walls of the warehouse during his school holidays. He knew TollyJoy inside and out. BOLD GAMBLES The journey of a hero usually comes in three parts. First, there is a tragedy, a turn