Open For Business

BFM Media

The flagship entrepreneurship show on BFM, featuring personal business stories from early stage start-ups, all the way to billionaire octogenarians in Malaysia and abroad. Notable guests include Martin Cooper (father of the mobile phone), Julian Assange (founder of WikiLeaks), Ralph Henry Baer (father of video games), Tony Buzan (Mindmap Guru), Isaac Tigrett (Hard Rock Cafe founder), Robert Kiyosaki (Financial Guru), Nick Vujicic (motivational speaker) and more. Tap into this valuable resource of shared experiences for the SME industry, which also touches on news, issues and trends affecting the business community and beyond.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Using “Tiny Homes” To Build A RM150M Hotel Chain

    In 2017, Adrian Chia turned a holiday joke into Big Tiny, a "tiny house" hospitality group that now manages over 1,000 keys across 22 countries. With RM150 million in revenue (2025) and positive cash flow since 2018, the company has big, non-tiny, ambitions ahead. The journey began with SG$200,000 of their own money and a prototype that took six months to build in Adrian’s own garden before being shipped to the Australian wilderness. Backed by SG$4.2 million in funding, Big Tiny now operates an end-to-end model where they design, manufacture, and manage these "tiny hotels" on other people's land. Adrian joins BFM to unpack:  The IKEA of Housing: How a patented flatpack design allows professional teams to ship units globally and assemble a fully functional "tiny hotel" in just three hours. The "Micro-Hotelier" Ecosystem: How Big Tiny connects investors, land partners, and hospitality management. The Asset-Light Loophole: Mitigating land risk by registering homes with VINs so they can be moved if a landowner relationship sours. The "Sale & Leaseback" Engine: How selling units to investors funded rapid expansion while retaining management rights. The Pandemic Stress Test: How transparency saved the company when revenue hit zero, retaining 95% of investors. The 50/50 Goal: Shifting the revenue mix from manufacturing sales to recurring rental income. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    37 min

  2. 4 DAYS AGO

    15 Clinics and Counting. What’s Next For Kyno?

    In Malaysia’s fragmented primary care landscape, Dr. Saifulhaziq Noorman is building something more structured. Through Kyno Primary Care and its 14-clinic Poliklinik Amalmedik network, he’s attempting to scale a healthcare business that blends specialist services with community clinics. And now, he’s raising capital via equity crowdfunding to accelerate that vision. We explore the commercial logic behind the model, how the group generates revenue, why this is the right time to bring in investors, and what it takes to scale a clinic network in a tightly regulated industry.  From unit economics to expansion strategy, this conversation goes beyond medicine and into the mechanics of building a healthcare business in Malaysia See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    29 min

  3. 5 DAYS AGO

    Pulling The Rug From Tradition

    For many heirs in Malaysia’s family businesses, the biggest decision is not how to grow what they inherit, but whether to stay at all. Kelvin Khandhar, a third-generation carpet trader, chose to step away after nearly a decade to start Victoria Carpets from scratch. He joins us to talk about the unspoken pressures of succession, why leaving can feel harder than starting over, and how a new generation is redefining value, quality, and long-term thinking in traditional industries. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    27 min

  4. 15 FEB

    Battery Subscription For Commercial Vehicles?

    What if your truck battery never failed again? For a logistics firm, a dead battery is more than just a nuisance, it’s a broken timeline, spoiled cargo, and lost revenue. Dennis Yong, CEO of VXI Crest, is out to eliminate that risk by turning the humble starter battery into a visible, data-driven asset. Through a joint venture called Advanced Accumulators, Dennis is replacing traditional lead-acid batteries with IoT-enabled Lithium Ferrous Phosphate (LFP) technology. These "smart" batteries store up to 400% more energy at half the weight and allow fleet managers to monitor health in real-time. They even feature an "Over-the-Air Jumpstart", a remote function that lets a manager start a stalled truck from a dashboard hundreds of miles away. Dennis explains why he’s betting on the underserved "marathon runners" of the road, commercial trucks and vans, and how his "frenemy" strategy with industry veterans YSK Marketing and FJ Union is helping him scale a regional battery empire across Malaysia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 min

  5. 12 FEB

    Can A Catering Business Really Scale? RunningMen Did

    Building a catering business is easy to start, and notoriously hard to scale. For Andrew Chee, Founder and CEO of RunningMen Celebrations Group, the challenge wasn’t just serving good food, but building a system that could deliver consistency, creativity, and reliability at scale. In this episode, Andrew breaks down how RunningMen grew from a student-run venture into a multi-format halal catering and events business, the gap they spotted in a crowded market, and the operational decisions that shaped their positioning today.  We explore how the company thinks about revenue, service design, and execution in a low-margin industry, and what the next phase of growth looks like as RunningMen plans ahead See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    28 min

  6. 11 FEB

    The Business of Slow Blooms: Why Nook Flowers is Choosing Principles Over Profits

    In an industry often defined by high-speed logistics and international imports, Brenda James of Nook Flowers is carving out a different path in Malaysia. Known for her "Grown Not Flown" philosophy, Brenda joins us to discuss the intricacies of "Responsible Floristry", from championing local Cameron Highlands growers to championing circular based systems. We dive into the business logic behind her boldest decisions, including stepping back from the Valentine’s Day rush to preserve quality and supply chain integrity. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    35 min

  7. 10 FEB

    It’s Not About Coffee. How ZUS Beat Starbucks.

    From a single kiosk to beating Starbucks and becoming Malaysia’s largest coffee chain in just 6 years. The journey began just months before the pandemic in 2019. Today, ZUS Coffee has cemented the "App-to-Cup" model as the new industry standard, overtaking the legacy giant by outlet count. Venon Tian, Group COO of ZUS Coffee, joins BFM Open For Business to decode the strategy behind the disruption. Unlike competitors that focused on the "Third Place" experience, ZUS treated coffee more like an e-commerce product, leveraging data to convert frappuccino drinkers into espresso loyalists. But the disruptor is now facing its own disruption. With the "Second China Shock" bringing aggressive tech-native competitors like Luckin Coffee into the scene and giants like Mixue crowding the RM10 price bracket, Venon explains how ZUS plans to defend its dominance while expanding into new markets, including Pakistan. We discuss: The "Fun Drink" Funnel: How Zus uses flavoured drinks (like Watermelon Lattes) as a customer acquisition tool to bridge the gap for non-coffee drinkers. Data over Delivery: Why Zus insisted on building its own app rather than relying solely on Grab or Foodpanda, allowing them to track exactly when users drop off or increase consumption. The "Avengers" Structure: How the company navigated the potential chaos of having eight co-founders by professionalising management and adopting Amazon’s "Humble is Cool" culture. Hyper-Localisation: From selling curry puffs in Malaysia to launching Ube Lattes in the Philippines and Tom Yum Americanos in Thailand. The Global Ambition: Why Zus is expanding into Pakistan and how they balance owned-and-operated stores with master franchising for rapid regional scale. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    44 min

  8. 9 FEB

    Can This Startup Rewire Medical Tourism?

    Malaysia has top hospitals, competitive pricing, and a strong reputation in medical tourism yet much of the demand is still controlled by foreign intermediaries. Wan Mahsuri Wan Ahmad Kamal, Founder and CEO of Medisuri, an AI-powered medical tourism platform is aiming to reposition Malaysia as a trusted global healthcare hub. We unpack the gap Medisuri is trying to solve, how the business fits into the medical tourism value chain, its monetisation strategy, early fundraising journey, and what scaling this platform could look like in the years ahead. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 min
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About

The flagship entrepreneurship show on BFM, featuring personal business stories from early stage start-ups, all the way to billionaire octogenarians in Malaysia and abroad. Notable guests include Martin Cooper (father of the mobile phone), Julian Assange (founder of WikiLeaks), Ralph Henry Baer (father of video games), Tony Buzan (Mindmap Guru), Isaac Tigrett (Hard Rock Cafe founder), Robert Kiyosaki (Financial Guru), Nick Vujicic (motivational speaker) and more. Tap into this valuable resource of shared experiences for the SME industry, which also touches on news, issues and trends affecting the business community and beyond.

Information

  • Creator
    BFM Media
  • Years Active
    2010 - 2026
  • Episodes
    1.9K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 BFM Media Sdn Bhd
  • Show Website
    Open For Business

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