Asset-Light Model for Businesses in the Era of Pandemic

A global pandemic can transform a crisis into a business opportunity by turning stress into a competitive advantage and make  a significant change.  With the great disruption faced by labour-intensive, capital-intensive manufacturing and businesses; Asset-light Business Model is more viable to be adopted for businesses in the era of pandemic, whereby a business owns relatively fewer capital assets compared to the value of its operations. To highlight more about the feasibility of Asset-Light Business Model in the era of pandemic, the Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) Department of Economics, and Centre for Entrepreneurial Sustainability (CENTS) jointly organised a webinar titled “How Malaysian Business can survive with Covid-19?” on 23 November 2020 with the aims to share thoughts and experiences regarding business survival during the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Speaking at the webinar was Global Green Synergy Sdn. Bhd. (GGS) Founder & Managing Director Dato’ Joseph Lim Heng Ee who is also the industry advisor for FAM’s Bachelor of Economics (Hons) Global Economics. He elucidated, “A number of start-ups popularly adopts this business model because of its ability to get the company to higher skies when compared to traditional business models.”

Dato’ Joseph Lim (right) sharing his insights during the webinar, which was moderated by FAM lecturer Liew Ping Xin (left)

This webinar started with a talk by Dato’ Joseph Lim and was followed by a dialog between the speaker and participants. Dato’ Joseph Lim stressed, “By going and enabling the Asset-light, businesses can switch between offensive and defensive move whenever needed and make a significant innovative change on businesses.”

“SMEs can focus on product diversification, be innovative and creative, product optimization, R&D enhancement, gathering first-hand market information, and improving the product’s unique selling proposition (USP),” as Dato’ Joseph Lim advised.  The webinar was later continued with a fruitful and insightful Q&A session.

Group photography session with Dato’ Joseph Lim (top row, center), CENTS chairperson Dr Mohammad Falahat Nejadmahani (top row, right) and participants  

Dato’ Joseph Lim is an experienced and successful “technopreneur”, Vice President for the Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce (MCCC), and President of Malaysia Macau Chamber of Commerce (MMCC). He was invited by several International Multimedia Platforms, Global Summits & International Forums as the distinguished guest and key speaker.