HTMi – The Fun Never Stops!
Greetings from Malaysia to all my friends and lecturers of HTMi! How time flies when you are having fun!
I started as a Higher Diploma student in HTMi back in 2008, and graduated with a BSc & BA in International Hospitality Management in 2009. I always had the dream to start my own F&B business even when I was a teenager, and I consider myself lucky to have gone through a very comprehensive and fulfilling education course in HTMi. It always makes me smile whenever I remember that back then I could hardly cook anything beyond instant noodles. The lifestyle as a student there and then shaped me to become a much more independent person, as I discovered my new love and talent for cooking and creating my own recipes.
In terms of the environment for studying, HTMi easily ranks among the top in the world, in my opinion, as it is located in the heart of Switzerland’s natural landscape beauty. HTMi also gave me the chance as a student; to not only learn from warm, friendly lecturers who have very wide and deep experience in their field, but also to mingle with a culturally diversified range of students. On top of the subjects that were taught in classes, I also knew that one’s social and soft skills are essential in the working environment, even more so in the hospitality business environment. Thus, HTMi provided the perfect blend of experience that was crucial to my career and personal development. In a nutshell, studying in HTMi gave me the most fun, balanced and wholesome experience in my student life. Who knew studying could be that enjoyable?
In terms of relevance to the present, I still hold many teachings from the various lecture classes I have attended in good memory and to good use. The knowledge that I have gained from HTMi, coupled with my working experience back in Malaysia at Palace of The Golden Horses (as Sales & Marketing Manager) gave me the confidence to start my own F&B business in November 2011. In the volatile, highly competitive and dynamic world of hospitality based business where mistakes made can be very costly in every sense of resources, reliable and solid education makes the ground you stand on so much firmer. I and my partners started out small, 5 feet –wide push-cart stall in a shopping mall located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Half a year later, due to strong demand and feedback from customers, we expanded into a bigger food kiosk in another shopping mall that could enable us to serve a wider range of food and beverage. Today, we have grown into a 70-seater cafe-restaurant located in an area nearby many international and local corporate offices and factories. We have also diversified into the food catering business dedicated to small-medium sized groups of the private, corporate and NGO (non-governmental organizations) sector that number anything from 20 to 800 pax per group event.
Together with a small but highly efficient workforce of 5 employees and 3 partners including myself, we have continued to impressed our regular clients such as Canon (Malaysia), Jaguar Range Rover Sisma Auto (Malaysia), OCBC Bank, National Kidney Foundation (Malaysia), Mondelez International, Merck & Co. (Malaysia), various local colleges, universities, religious societies and regular walk-in customers with our food and service quality. To these achievements, I am grateful to what was taught to me at HTMi as a student.
Remember that I mentioned that I had so much fun as a student in HTMi? Truth be told, the fun never stopped for me even after I graduated. I have shared many things that I have learned from HTMi with the joy of working effectively and efficiently to my business partners and even employees. It is therefore undeniable that the yield of good and positive results in the real working world has its contribution from a strong and solid background of education.
How to keep your staff turn-over low? How to gauge your customers’ expectations and exceeding them? How to successfully manage cultural diversity? How to create a highly effective and efficient business strategy and model? How to ensure the sustainability and survivability of a hospitality-based business? May any student who has the passion for the hospitality industry find the answers where I have found them –in HTMi!
Warm and sincere regards,
Eddie Goh|Urban DelightsCo- Founder & Head Chef
