What’s PKT Logistics’ secret to success? In a nutshell: MUVC(H+H+H) = E+P+P, says its chief executive. MEK ZHIN gives the lowdown.

SUCCESSFUL businessmen are often asked their secret to success but not many have quantified it quite like Datuk Michael Tio.

The group chief executive and managing director of PKT Logistics has come up with his own formula for success, and it goes like this MUVC(H+H+H) = E+P+P.

Short for “Moving Up the Value Chain (Happiness + Health + Honesty) = Efficiency + Productivity and Profitability”, the formula is something Tio came up with during the second Hull University Business School (HUBS) programme he led.

One side of the equation reflects Tio’s style of business management which centres in on the three “H” culture that he champions at work, while the other side of the equation is the results companies look for in a business.

It’s a strategy for successful entrepreneurship that he believes can be applied to any business and scaled accordingly to match a company’s capabilities.

“Everyone wants the E+P+P result, but the question is how to get it?,” Tio begins.

“My business strategy is to move up the value chain, which means not doing a business with small margins and which is limited by the industries it can be applied to. It also means continuously innovating the business and improving its value. MUVC is why I am able to run a very profitable company,” he says.

He adds that one side of the equation cannot happen without the other.

Tio, who jokingly says he should do a PhD on the equation, joined the business which his father Datuk Tio Sook Keo founded in 1974 under the name Port Klang Trading. When he joined, the company was operating out of a shoplot with an annual turnover of RM2mil.

After almost 20 years of working, Tio has brought the company to new height, with annual turnover at RM500mil, so if anyone knows what they’re talking about it would be Tio.

The formula also reflects his own personal inspiration and philosophy, which he has incorporated into a well-received work culture based on the three Hs.

“My happiness is derived from seeing others happy. It is the inspiration for what I do. The people who helped the company make profits should also be rewarded,” he says.

In a typical chicken-and-egg situation, one cannot have efficiency, productivity or profitability without a motivated staff, and this has led Tio to come up with various strategies to create a fun, healthy and honest work environment.

Among the things he has introduced are gym contests with tangible benefits, snack bars that challenges employees’ honesty because they are supposed to get their own change from the money box, and permission to be on Facebook all the time as the company has made it a compulsory communication tool.

This has the additional advantage of making the company an appealing place to work in for the Gen Y (Millennials) crowd, which makes up the younger crowd in the workforce today.

“I believe if you are not calculating with them, they are also not calculating with you. They put a high value on work satisfaction in a conducive environment among other things,” Tio says, adding that 70% of PKT’s workforce is from Gen Y.

The final jewel in the crown that is Tio’s formula is surely the thousands who are following his company’s talent-hunt Facebook page, and this in itself shows that many are drawn to PKT’s work culture.