Blog Response 5

Article

$280m Coffee Bean boss queues for his cuppa

A humble, easygoing man, Victor Sassoon makes his debut on Forbes' top 40 richest S'porean list at No. 32 By Nur Dianah Suhaimi WHEN Victor Sassoon drops into the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet in Fifth Avenue near his home to get his caffe macchiato, he queues like everyone else. But unlike everyone, he owns the joint.

In fact he owns 500 or so Coffee Bean outlets worldwide, a business that has elevated the 49-year-old to Forbes magazine's list of Singapore's Richest 40 - ranked 32 with an estimated US$185 million (S$280 million).

And for that, he has his buddy, American Idol judge Paula Abdul, to thank. They have been friends since Mr Sassoon staged her Singapore show in 1992 in his promoting days.

In 1995, he bumped into Ms Abdul at a Coffee Bean outlet in Beverly Hills and the star suggested he buy the company as 'it has the best coffee in the world'.

He took her advice and seven months later bought the franchise from the elderly couple Herbert and Mona Hyman, who founded it.

Forbes said Mr Sassoon and brother Sunny grew the business so fast that within two years they had opened 29 outlets in Singapore and Malaysia - almost as many as the Hymans opened in 35 years.

In 1998, Mr Sassoon bought the entire firm, which by then had 28 outlets here. Starbucks had only 21.

Its latest profit figures are not known but Forbes said in 2003 that Coffee Bean had US$110 million in revenue and an estimated US$9 million in net profit.

Mr Sassoon was born into a wealthy family of Iraqi Jewish descent and his father owned Rubina, a company selling luxury timepieces in Indonesia.

After completing his studies at St Michael's School and St Joseph's Institution, Mr Sassoon left for Indonesia to join the family business.

At 22, he met 13-year-old Michelle Elias who became his wife five years later.

When his father died, Mr Sassoon, then 29, took over the family's watch business.

Today, he is a business partner with Rolex in Indonesia where he runs the Time Place.

In the 1990s, Mr Sassoon was more well known as a promoter and his SunVic firm brought in big names such as Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and Metallica.

Things went downhill during the Asian financial crisis in 1997 but by then Coffee Bean outlets were spreading fast across the island.

But for all his success, it is Mr Sassoon's humble, friendly nature that strikes those around him most.

His pals from primary school recall him as an easygoing boy who was teased about his weight.

He is still listed in the Singapore phonebook, serves on the board of a Hebrew school and is friends with many of his business rivals.

Hour Glass vice-chairman Jannie Tay, who has known Mr Sassoon for 30 years, is a close family friend. 'We get along very well which is special because not many business competitors can be good friends. He's a fun-loving person,' said Dr Tay.

Long-time family friend, lawyer Harry Elias, added: 'Victor is a humble person who gives generously, yet prefers to remain private.'

Mr Sassoon declined a request for an interview last week but did once tell a Straits Times reporter that diva Whitney Houston was his 'worst experience' because she wanted the Singapore Indoor Stadium's air-conditioning off when she sang.

Mr Sassoon lives in a three-storey bungalow in Bukit Timah with wife Michelle and their five children.

The Fifth Avenue Coffee Bean outlet's manager, Mr Jason Fernandez, said of his boss: 'He comes for coffee just like any other customer. He dresses normally and he doesn't check on the staff or fuss around. The staff here never feel pressured that the big boss is constantly around.'

Response

WHEN Victor Sassoon drops into the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet in Fifth Avenue near his home to get his caffe macchiato, he queues like everyone else. But unlike everyone, he owns the joint.

Victor Sassoon is the owner of the million dollar franchise, Coffee Bean, which holds over 500 outlets worldwide. He was recently featured in the Forbes magazine’s list of Singapore’s Richest 40, placed at 32, with an estimated 280 million Singapore dollars. Sassoon bought over the entire Coffee Bean firm from former owners, the Hymans, and opened 29 outlets in Singapore and Malaysia In a short span of 2 years. The business continued to boom and by 2003, Coffee Bean had US$110 million in revenue and an estimated US$9 million in net profit.

In a span of 5 short years, Coffee Bean had struck a name for itself both locally and abroad. This is indeed a very incredible feat. Other than the Coffee Bean franchise, Mr. Sassoon is also a business partner with Rolex in Indonesia where he runs the Time Place. In the 1990s, he was also a well known promoter and his SunVic firm brought in great names of celebrities like Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and Metallica. A single of these achievements would be considered a feat for any ordinary man, but Mr. Sassoon had three of them. And we’ve checked that he is human. So how did Victor Sassoon accomplish all these?

From the article, we can see that it is attributed to his humble, friendly nature. Indeed, a person’s character plays a pivotal role in his life, and to a large extend, the business he or she runs. This is what many of the businessmen in our society today fail to understand. They are too often caught up with the importance of wealth and blinded by the glare of gold and they fail to realise that it is the human character, which labels a business ultimately. So what if you earn hundreds of millions? The amount would only mean something if there is heart in it, otherwise, it would only be mere slips of paper which were garnered by unscrupulous means. And this is where Mr. Sassoon comes in. He should be the beacon for other businessmen in this competitive world.

Quoting his long-time friends, “Victor is a humble person who gives generously, yet prefers to remain private”. Modesty, it is another one of the main virtues in life which we seek. They say that the higher we climb, the harder it is to be modest, but this is untrue for Mr. Sassoon. Even as the owner of Coffee Bean, he queues up for his coffee when he patronizes the business he owns. How many of us can safely say that we would do something like this? We are forever too engrossed in ourselves, too focused on our personal achievements. We always try to make a distinction between ourselves and the weaker ones. We see this happening in schools too, in classrooms. We always want the recognition, we somehow have the need to feel the power granted as superiors. But think about it, what good would it do? Why can’t we be like Mr. Sassoon, and live life, embracing modesty? It is high time we realise that it is only the humble that learns; it is only the modest that succeeds. When we think of ourselves to be so high up, the only way we can go is down. It is only by treating the world as our equal, then can we advance up.

There are many, many lessons we can learn from Mr. Sassoon, and this article highlights perhaps just some of the few qualities which enabled his success. Many of us leaf through the morning papers, and often overlook these stories of successful people, perhaps because we are afraid to harm our own ego, perhaps because we feel that little tinge of jealousy for them, perhaps because we think that they are only merely showing off. But this is not the case. We should instead, open our eyes, heart and mind to these stories for in every single one of them, it brings about a lifelong lesson that teaches and guide us on our own road of success. When these articles are written, the subjects in questions are not using them as means to further establish their fame, but rather, they hope that their stories would inspire and touch.

As a conclusion, I understand my own limitations as a teen blogging on this issue. True, there are indeed too many things in the business world which I do not understand now, but I still hold firm to my view that at the end of the day, whatever we end up doing, we should never ever forget the values and virtues which had been instilled within us through education. And perhaps in the future, one of my classmates will make the list of Singapore’s Richest 40 too.

"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."
- Albert Einstein