To improve their efficiency and connect better with their employees, many companies and organizations in Singapore have been utilizing Management Consultancy Services in recent years. Such consultancy services have seen a growth in businesses over the years, and many management consultancy companies have developed their unique systems to provide the best services they can to tailor to the clients’ needs. Often equipped with proficiencies in coaching skills, process analysis, implementation of technologies and strategies, these companies take their experience in the industry to their clients, providing specialized expertise to those who engage their services.
HIMS Management & IT Consultants LLP (HIMS) is one such business, with a large repertoire of proprietary pace-setting management systems developed over the years. These systems include HIMS (Holistic and Integrated Management System), SDMS (Strategic Deployment Management System), HOCI (Continuous Improvement Management System), SDMS-PC (SDMS Performance Card Management System), KOFK (Key of the Keys Management System) HIMS-QMS (HIMS Quality Management System), HIMS-IRS (HIMS Incentive and Rewarding System), HIMS-OPMS (HIMS Other Operations Management System), HIMS Ecommerce, and HIMS-BEST Business Excellence Software Solutions. These systems assist companies and organizations upgrade, transform, attain sustainable development, and move towards business excellence.
HIMS was established in 2008 by Mr. Fong Ho Keng after providing management consultancy services to the industry as part of his responsibilities while working at a tertiary institution since 1989. With more than thirty years working with the industry, Mr. Fong carries a wealth of experience and expertise while founding the company, setting up HIMS to be a major player with many well-known organizations among their clientele.
What prompted Mr. Fong to enter the management consultancy business in the first place? The Fortune Magazine once reported that “Less than 10% of strategies effectively formulated are effectively executed”. They also reported in an article “Why CEOs Fail”, that “In the majority of failures – we estimate 70% – the real problem isn’t (bad strategy)… It’s bad execution”. With this knowledge in mind, Mr. Fong set out to develop a series of pace-setting management systems to resolve this and other related problems for his clients.
The first system developed by Mr. Fong is SDMS in 2002 when he was working as the Director of Organizational Excellence in the tertiary institution. SDMS ensures that the strategic plans of the organization are implemented effectively, and all employees focus on achieving the organizational goals, mission, and vision. As the Chinese proverb says, “Going against the current, you will retreat, if you don’t advance”. Therefore, to ensure the organization improves continuously, Mr. Fong digitalized HOCI in 2011. In fact, HOCI was developed way back in 1998 when he wrote his first book ‘Productivity and Quality Studies – HOCI’, after he has completed more than 300 productivity and quality improvement projects, including more than 150 projects in Motorola, Singapore. Embedded in HOCI are SDMS-PC and KOFK modules. SDMS-PC provides a preventive based problem-solving system that identifies, monitors, and removes the root causes of all the problems. At the same time, KOFK identifies the key of the keys and possibly disastrous problems in the organization and removes them in the bud.
Concurrently, HIMS was developed as an overarching management system which integrates all the above-mentioned management systems. In 2011, the HIMS Software Solutions was developed and implemented successfully in a manufacturing and distribution company in Malaysia.
In 2014, HIMS-BEST was developed, and the HIMS-BEST Business Excellence Software Solutions was implemented successfully in a distribution company in Singapore. Now, HIMS has become the core system of HIMS-BEST and consists of a three-pillar management system. The three pillars are SDMS, HOCI and OPMS (Other Operations Management System). OPMS includes the traditional systems such as ERP, CRM, ISO series, HR etc., and the high-tech systems such as ECOM, MES, FINTECH, AI, IOT, etc. Through HIMS integration with the pillar systems, and harnessing the Total Factors Productivity of the organization, HIMS-BEST assists the organization move towards Business Excellence. With the successful implementation of HIMS-BEST, HIMS was invited to do a Feasibility Study project in a conglomerate food manufacturing company in New York, USA in 2015. The successful completion of the project and the 24-hour flight to New York made Mr. Fong realize that HIMS-BEST must go to the cloud if HIMS wants to go global. In 2016, the cloud-based HIMS-BEST was developed and implemented successfully in a food manufacturing company in China in 2017. During the implementation of this project, HIMS further developed some enhancement management systems such as HIMS-QMS, and HIMS-IRS. HIMS-QMS integrates HIMS with ISO9001 Quality Management System. This not only ensures compliance with the ISO standards of achieving quality goals for the whole organization, but also achieves the organizational goals, mission, and vision, which will finally move the organization towards business excellence. Furthermore, the organization will also be dispensed of most of the paperwork and internal audit work. HIMS-IRS integrates HIMS with HIMS’s own Incentive and Rewarding System. This not only provides the organization with an open, fair, and just rewarding system, but also incentivizes all employees to focus on achieving the organization goals and core values. It is a win-win proposition for both the organization and all employees.
In 2018, HIMS formulated a long-term world-wide promotional plan starting from China. HIMS Management & IT Consultants PL company was set up to spearhead this plan. It has been successful and has resulted in a few Investigation Study projects. While the business in China was starting to kick off, Covid-19 kicked in. HIMS has no choice but to retreat to home ground Singapore. HIMS turned the challenges to opportunity which led HIMS to embark on the next phase of development in the integration and enhancement management systems. To date, HIMS had developed a HIMS Ecommerce website which allows HIMS to serve its customers anytime anywhere.
Depending on the requirements and needs of the customers, HIMS will develop integration management systems such as HIMS-ERP, HIMS-CRM, etc., and enhancement management systems such as HIMS-MES, HIMS-ECOM, HIMS- FINTECH, HIMS-AI, HIMS-IOT, etc.
Setting up HIMS was not without its difficulties. Mr. Fong explained that one of the constraints is that the economical size of the organization adopting HIMS-BEST is at least 50 employees. That means Singapore is indeed a small market to HIMS. Adding to his woes is that a majority of the companies prefer to tackle visible problems instantly, rather than invest a larger budget into a holistic and integrated management system to solve their long-term strategic needs.
How did HIMS solve the issue of instant gratification and that of a small market? Mr. Fong and HIMS first came up with a two-stage implementation proposal, firstly to provide an Investigative Study, and then follow up with the Software Project Implementation. The investigation study resolves the budget issue while arousing the business owner’s interest in committing to long-term strategic needs. This strategic tactic has shown positive outcomes in China.
Following up on the issues of a low customer pool, Mr. Fong decided to expand regionally, starting from China, and gradually expanding to ASEAN, Middle East, and countries along the Belt & Road Initiative. In China, HIMS has already established strategic partners in Chongqing, and representatives in Beijing, Xian, Suzhou, and Shanghai. HIMS is also working with cloud service providers such as Oracle, and Huawei with a long-term goal of expanding the business worldwide.
HIMS company profile can be summarized with two key words in its vision, mission, commitment, and management philosophy: “assisting customers”. HIMS vision is to assist organizations upgrade, transform, attain sustainable development, and move towards business excellence. HIMS mission is to assist organizations implement their strategic plans effectively, and achieve their corporate goals, mission, vision, and core values through digitalization with our proprietary HIMS-BEST Business Excellence Software Solutions and harnessing the Total Factor Productivity of the organizations. HIMS commitment is “We make things Work. We get things Done”. HIMS Management Philosophy is “Your business is our business”.
To transform the holistic goals articulated in HIMS vision and mission into actionable goals, HIMS formulated fundamental goals to assist organizations enhance productivity, improve quality, reduce cost, and prevent risks. In short, HIMS assists organizations “Make Money with Ease and Peace”.
Moving forward into the future, Mr. Fong plans for the company to capitalize on its successful marketing effort in China and expand into Asia, Middle East and countries along the Belt and Road Initiatives. HIMS will continue to work with Cloud Service Providers to expand its business worldwide. HIMS will also be considering inviting equity partners to assist in the expansion of its business worldwide.
Mr. Fong attributes HIMS’ success to the accumulation of more than 35 years of hands-on experience in developing a series of proprietary pace-setting management systems and implementing numerous customized consultancy projects. What kept him in the business was also his belief in life-long learning, improvement, innovation, and sharing with others, coupled with his passion to help people. These attributes have been clearly discerned in HIMS vision, mission, commitment, and management philosophy. Mr. Fong shares that for an organization to be successful, it needs to have a clear vision to provide the strategic direction and an effective action plan to achieve its strategic goals. The vision and mission should be based on the founders’ aspiration. The action plan should be comprehensive but flexible enough to cater to the changing needs of the market. But most important of all are the stakeholders, be it its customers, employees, colleagues, partners, suppliers and shareholders, and the community in general. The relationship with them must be based on a fair, just, and win-win proposition.
Throughout the years, HIMS has achieved several notable milestones, including developing a series of propriety pace-setting management systems, successful implementation of the proven HIMS-BEST Business Excellence Software Solutions, and achieving recognition by the Singapore government agencies, as well as several Chinese governmental ministries and agencies on his contribution to the industry, community, and society.
One particular achievement was the recognition by the China Commission of Development and Transformation in conjunction with the China International Import Exhibition (CIIE) in an exclusive article entitled “HIMS helps create Industry Leader through the Trilogy of Moving Towards Excellence”, which has solidified HIMS position as a leader of the industry in the region, if not the world.
The most important of all is that, recently, HIMS-BESTTM Business Excellence Software Solutions is endorsed as the China Standard in Business Excellence Software Solutions.
