UTAR Centre for Corporate and Community Development (CCCD) organised a webinar under the UTAR CEO Talk Series in collaboration with Unovate Centre, Faculty of Science (FSc) and GDEX Berhad on 29 June 2022 via Zoom and Facebook Live. The webinar attracted a total of 101 participants. It was moderated by FSc academic Ts Dr Mohd Azam bin Din.

The webinar titled, From Kampung to Corporate, was delivered by GDEX Berhad Managing Director and Group CEO Teong Teck Lean. Teong, who was formerly a consumer engineer and dealer with OSK Securities, took up the challenge to be an entrepreneur when the opportunity to acquire GD Express Sdn Bhd arose. Together with his team, Teong transformed the ailing last-mile delivery company into a profitable one, successfully listing it as well. Teong also acquired a controlling stake in the year 2000. Currently, besides Malaysia, GDEX has a regional presence in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The webinar covered topics related to entrepreneurship, challenges in entrepreneurship, corporate qualities, management principles and core values for a company’s growth.

The webinar kicked off with an introduction video of GDEX’s background and achievements, followed by a segment on Teong’s background and career path. “I was born and raised in Kampong Merbau, Ayer Tawar, Perak. I am the fourth son in a household of 11 children. Since young, after returning from school, my siblings and I would multitask to help the family business. We would assist to run the rubber shop, rubber smokehouse, petrol kiosk and handle the livestock since we had insufficient funds to hire staff,” he said and added, “I worked as a process and product engineer at Texas Instruments for two years, then I switched my job to Tenaga Nasional Berhad, where I worked as a consumer engineer. Then, I continued to expand my career as a senior dealer at OSK Securities. However, as time went by I began to develop an interest in express carriers and the integrated logistics area.  I felt a strong call to be an entrepreneur; I wanted to be able to shape my own destiny and further my career, so I made a small investment in GDEX, which was a new-start-up express delivery outfit back then in the year 1996. Subsequently, I started working at GD Express Sdn Bhd as the chief executive officer in the year 2000, and became the Group CEO at GDEX Berhad.”

Speaking of the beginning of GDEX, Teong said the journey was not easy as he had to start the basic business revamp and keep trying new and modern systems and processes. He also had to get financial support to keep the company afloat for several months. “I took these adversities as a motivation for me to grow and learn. When I got actively involved in these processes, I was able to train myself and grow more professionally. As the CEO of GDEX, it is important for me to establish the corporate philosophy and value system, understand the company’s vision and mission, build trust, perform restructuring step-by-step, update the accounts and system regularly, and improve GDEX’s quality,” he enthused.

Apart from that, Teong emphasised that GDEX also took part in environmental sustainability through the usage of decarbonised mobility to contribute towards a green environment and to sustain a long-term business. He mentioned that GDEX joined the FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia Index in 2016; joined the mangrove planting programme in 2019; launched the electric motorcycles in 2021; and installed rooftop solar panels to formalised GDEX’s sustainability policy, strategy and plan for the year 2022.

Besides explaining the corporate philosophy of GDEX 2.0, he also mentioned that the vision of GDEX 2.0 is to ensure GDEX is recognised as a company that is technology-driven with digital platforms; has multiple business streams across Southeast Asia and provides innovative digital solutions with expanded services. “Creating GDEX 2.0 vision is also an opportunity for us to relook at our last mile converging ecosystem, namely the infrastructure; logistics, technology; financial; insurance and distributions services. We hope GDEX 2.0 vision will entail the transformation toward a platform-based ecosystem, deploying comprehensive new products and solutions that can be seamlessly integrated into digital platforms. I hope GDEX will become a preferred last-mile provider in Southeast Asia,” he added.

Before ending the webinar, Teong emphasised, “Always be a student at heart all the time.” He also advised, “We must always be keen on learning new things because our learning is not going to stop even after we graduate; it is an ongoing process. No matter during study or work, the more we learn, the more experiences we will get.”

The insightful webinar ended with Q&A and group photograph sessions.

GDEX Berhad

GD Express Carrier Bhd was successfully listed on the MESDAQ Market (currently known as ACE Market) on Bursa Malaysia in 2005 and later transferred to the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia in 2013. GD Express Carrier Bhd was renamed as GDEX Berhad in December 2020 to better reflect the Group’s new direction. Today, GDEX Berhad is embarking on a transformation journey to increase digitalisation and become a technology-driven company.