KUALA LUMPUR: The strategic evolution of HELP International Corp Bhd over the past 25 years, from a homegrown small education provider into a global player, is a story of sheer passion of its founders combined with business acumen.

The HELP group, which holds HELP University College, was founded by the husband-and-wife team of Datuk Dr Paul Chan and Datin Chan-Low Kam Yoke in April 1986 with just RM25,000.

Today, HELP has a market capitalisation of RM372.2 million. Its net earnings have grown over 20% annually in the past few years, reaching RM19.1 million on the back of revenue totaling RM105.2 million in 2010.

As Chan led The Edge Financial Daily team through the main campus in Damansara Heights last week, it is clear that the group has grown tremendously from its humble origins in a shoplot in Kuala Lumpur’s Kampung Attap enclave, where it started with just eight teachers and 30 students, offering University of London external degree programmes.

“Our library then was in the garage,” Chan quipped.  

HELP has since expanded into a multi-campus entity with a range of offerings and some 12,000 students locally. There are another 1,600 enrolled overseas, mainly in Vietnam, Indonesia and China. As the affable Chan mingled freely with his staff and students, it is a reminder that the group’s growth has not detracted him from his own humble origins as a university lecturer. Nor has it steered him away from his original vision for setting up HELP — to provide affordable and quality education for the people, to help them improve their lives.      

“Our mission is to help people succeed in life and to live a life of significance through education,” Chan said.

He said the journey of growing HELP in the past 25 years had also been a personal learning experience where the founders have developed entrepreneurial skills and at the same time upheld individual values of honesty and credibility.

“The important thing is we should be measured not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively,” Chan said.  

Citing examples, he said HELP is concerned about making higher education affordable even to those who has insufficient financial resources to pursue higher education. He said these students will eventually be important brand ambassadors and spokespersons for the university college in the future.  

Over time, HELP’s portfolio of tertiary education programmes has grown to include twinning programmes with foreign universities, and following its upgrade to university college status in 2004, the group is now offering its own undergraduate and post-graduate programmes.

The listing of HELP International Corp in 2007 was a significant milestone which had further raised the profile of the education provider and put the company, a 51% subsidiary of Selangor Properties Bhd, into global investors’ radar, according to Chan.

As the education group celebrates its silver jubilee this month, the founders’ enthusiasm does not seem to wane as they are still vigorously mapping out the company’s growth path for the next 15 years — both domestically and internationally.

The domestic strategy involves widening its student base and target market by increasing the levels of education and courses, from mainly tertiary to post-graduate, secondary schooling, certificate and vocational courses.

While the present main campus is a far cry from its Kampung Attap shoplot days, it will be upstaged by two new upcoming campuses. The two campuses, in Fraser Business Park, Kuala Lumpur and the flagship 9.4ha Subang 2 campus in Sungei Buloh, will help grow its student base from around 12,000 at present to 16,000 by 2016, notes research firm InsiderAsia.

On the overseas front, it is in the process of setting up new affiliations in several countries, and has recently ventured into online learning via the acquisition of a stake in a Swiss e-learning company. In China, HELP is working on several new projects and hopes to expand to several major cities including Shanghai and Nanjing. Tie-ups are also being made to expand into Sri Lanka, Mauritius, India, Cambodia, the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Chan shares some of his views with The Edge Financial Daily:

TEFD: How was HELP conceived?
Chan: It was 25 years ago when I was still in university. I was dissatisfied by the lack of opportunities for higher education in Malaysia. So my wife and I decided to do something about it. I have learnt a lot during the 25 years. If you do not have a strong conviction and willpower to actualise it, you can’t succeed in anything.

When we decided that education is something we have chosen, we put our hearts into it. We were only driven by one thing, to solve a problem. We help people succeed in life and live a life of significance. It is not about getting jobs per se.

With very limited savings of about RM25,000, we started in a shoplot in Kampung Attap offering external programmes by the University of London. At one time, we needed seed capital but nobody showed interest. We had submitted a proposal to an American company. I was so disappointed when our proposal was rejected.

What is the philosophy driving the expansion of HELP in the past 25 years?
We innovate our expansion and programme, and emphasise on revenue, partnership, geographic markets, customer segmentation, diversification and differentiation.

Diversification means minimising risks, while differentiation means being different from others. Then we have internationalisation as in having a culture with a global mindset, besides having students from many countries, a faculty which is cosmopolitan, and partners from diverse disciplines.

In the compass, we have north, south, east, west, but in my case, I add in the centre. The four cardinal points to look out for in a business are competitors, leadership, assets and markets. When we analyse a company, these are the internal things we cannot run away from.

How did the big break come about?
It was in 1990 when I approached Selangor Properties Bhd. I literally gave away the company (HELP) and never looked back… it just grew and grew. We have done well because we have a good board of directors. Selangor Properties understands what we are doing and leaves us alone to actualise what we believe. It supports us without intervention. That is the best thing a good investor should do. The original investment of RM25,000 have grown to a few hundred million ringgit today.   

How has a listing on Bursa Malaysia boosted HELP’s corporate profile?
We are now known all over the world. This has become a great challenge for us. This journey is not about bottom line per se, but about learning universal leadership values and practices such as integrity, governance, and accountability to stakeholders.

We must be of a certain standard. New questions that needed to be addressed include the new media and younger generation, besides listening to the future.

In education, we must understand our customers, competitors, capabilities, capacity and culture besides having the courage (to execute our plans). Whatever we do now must be consequential. This is to prepare for growth for the next 15 years which include succession plans.

How do you see education sector trends evolving in the future?
There are some disciplines which will always be there. For example, an engineer will always be an engineer but he will need to deal with new materials in the future. There are also emerging new disciplines like animation. It is up to us whether we are good enough to practise the Just-in-Time principle (to adapt to the changes in the education sector).

What is the company’s growth strategy going forward?
We are building campuses and facilities to cope with future demand. In Malaysia, we hope to have 20,000 students by 2018 from about 10,000 now of which 20% are from overseas at present. We are targeting 30%-35% over time.

By 2013, we will have three campuses in the Klang Valley which include our facilities Fraser Business Park and Subang 2 campus. In Seri Alam, Johor we are planning the next campus to offer vocational and technology-based programmes.

At the same time, we are moving out of Malaysia. The model is to be in other countries that are behind us, and rope in partners from western countries.

Their (western countries’ education sector) branding is stronger than ours. Working with them via joint degrees enhances our branding. What we offer is accepted as equivalent, if not identical.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, April 18, 2011.