Summary
BALA Krisnen started off with nothing except a relentless drive to make it in life. Today, he has several hotels in Cameron Highlands under his name. His son Sharavana Kumar is poised to take the hotels to new heights. SHARMILA VALLI NARAYANAN meets the father, son and a dear business partner-cum-family friend to find out what makes them tick.
WHEN Bala Krisnen, 55, was growing up, the son of a poor teal leaf plantation worker, having three square meals a day was a luxury the family could not regularly afford. He had to drop out of school when he was in Form Three to work to support the family. Life seemed stacked against him: he had no money and no education - all the ripe ingredients to send the young man spiralling down a tunnel of depression or turn to a life of gangsterism, as some young Malaysian men have done. But nature was kind to Bala. He had an inborn drive and ambition to succeed in life. `A few of my friends were doing very well and were very proud of themselves. I was a nobody,' recalls Bala. `I was a small wage-earner while they had small businesses. I realised the only way out for me was to become my own boss. Farming was something that I knew very well and I decided to have my own farm.'See the full content of this document
Extract
Highland Hoteliers
With lots of encouragement from friends and with a bank loan, Bala went into farming. He was 23. Today, Bala is a wealthy man and is very well- known in Cameron Highlands. But his fame is not so much for his farms as for his hotels, the latest of which is the Hotel De'La Ferns, a 75-room beautiful boutique hotel. The farmer has turned into a successful hotelier with four hotels co-owned or full...
See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
