Lim, educationist extraordinaire

News Strait Times, 22 June 2003

Credited with kickstarting Malaysia’s creative education industry with his Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology – now granted university status – Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing lives up to his creative maven tag, as Francis Dass finds out.

If everyone could ride the linear progression of logic and take things to their logical conclusions, as Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, 56, always does, we’d all be living in a country unparalleled by others in terms of quality of life and quality of ideas driving various businesses in Malaysia.

Alas, not many people have been cast like this former advertising maven, often described by those in the advertising industry as a man possessing one of the sharpest and astute minds in the creative business, as well as in other areas of life.

Earlier in his career, he started out as one of the pioneers of the Malaysian advertising industry, which he quickly conquered (by his 20s he was heading an international advertising firm and, soon after, his own advertising firm). Lim then shifted his focus to pioneering creative education in the country, and took his more than a decade-old baby, Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology, to university status earlier this year.

And so now we have Lim the educationist – the founder of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.

He sees Malaysia’s potential as no less than an education hub which will bring about an economic windfall if realised.

"There are huge implications – in terms of private education growth and our desire to be the (education) centre for the region and even the world – and not just in terms of income from direct investments.

"The students’ parents will visit and they will be here for many days. These are high-quality tourists as those who send their children here come from middle or high income groups – just like Malaysians who send their children abroad.

"What do they do? They buy property, they invest in local companies and they put money in local banks to support their children here.

Their children make friends and these groups of friends may build businesses later or they could do business together as friends," Lim elaborates.

"In this kind of environment, with its international mix of people, students’ learning capacity is heightened," he adds.

"Can you imagine what will happen in 30, 40 or 50 years?" he asks rhetorically.

As far as being a passionate educationist goes, Lim can be said to drive the Malaysian creative industry of tomorrow. After all, graduates from his university are primed to take over the advertising and communications industries as the next generation of creative high-flyers.

It, therefore, comes as no surprise that he believes in speaking his mind without fear or favour on issues such as the status of English language in Malaysian education.

"To be the hub of international learning, the language of instruction has to be English. If we change that, they (foreign students) will go away because to all these people, English is the key to knowledge and prosperity and a chance to be a part of the bigger world.

"Having improved the teaching of English, we now have students from China, Vietnam, Oman, Yemen and other parts of the world coming here to learn English, and then, settle down to do tertiary education," Lim says.

At present, Lim adds, students come to his university to earn their diplomas and degrees. He is sure that those from the diploma scheme will migrate to the university programme.

"I expect that there will be a surge in numbers (for degrees) now that they can obtain a degree right here," he believes.

Lim, who is often mentioned in the same breath when one talks of creativity and the creative industry in Malaysia, has many interesting things to say about a lot of things related to business and creativity.

One of the most insightful comments is that creativity is not an abstraction that is the exclusive gift enjoyed by the naturally imaginative few.

Creativity and creative solutions are processes that can be grasped by anyone who undertakes or bothers to do the prerequisite research.

What is creativity to Lim, then?

"It is innovative thinking! For example, if you design a chair, you look at the chairs available in the market. You do your research and this signals your intention to do better. That is innovative thinking.

"In doing research, you look at other people in other countries and how they fought their ‘battles’ in similar situation.

"Then you will arrive at a business strategy that will increase the market share or defend your market share," he says.

This is why, Lim keeps telling people (although he concedes that not many understand), in a knowledge society, creativity should be supreme.

"With knowledge, you can make things better."

Currently, Limkokwing has six faculties which offer 21 courses, including electronic design & multimedia; industrial design; architecture technology; advertising, multimedia & broadcasting; international business; and e-commerce.

The six faculties, as listed on the university’s website, are: Faculty of Creative Multimedia; Faculty of Art & Design; Faculty of Architecture; Faculty of Communications; Faculty of Business Management; and Faculty of ICT.

A university, explains Lim, means that the institution is a specialist university.

"As far as I know, looking at other parts of the world, it (university) is not a very large university and does not have a wide range of faculties. This is one definition.

More research work

"The second meaning is that it is a very young university that will eventually grow up to be a full-fledged university."

Of Limkokwing, the founder is confident that the university will do more research work as it develops and grows.

And grow it definitely will, with a move to its new premises in Cyberjaya some time later this year.

The university currently has a population of 4,000 students, of which 1,000 are from overseas. It is located in Taman Mayang Jaya, Petaling Jaya.

At Cyberjaya, it will play an integral part in Malaysia Design Technology Centre, an initiative designed to make the place a regional creative hub to allow businesses and professionals from the creative sector to mingle and symbiotically nurture each other.

In this, Lim is determined that the university students will gain priceless exposure and a leg-up advantage over others because they will be interacting with the real business world and culling precious real-world experience, which is an integral part of the maverick’s designs for creative education.

In this, he surely has succeeded and is set to continue on the winning path because, as it stands now – for quite a few years now, before his institute became a university – graduates from Limkokwing Institute have always been held in high regard by employers in the country.

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