Wilson Chua – Accidental SME Owner | Chronicles of Old Singapore

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. After leaving Dunearn Technical, Wilson Chua worked in sales of air freight services for multinationals in Singapore, including the German multinational Birkat. Forced to leave the company, a friend encouraged him to set up his own company. Thus, UT-Ways, a freight forwarding business, was born. Wilson talks about manpower issues, competition from the big companies, treating his staff, and the need for honesty and good customer service. Part 1 | https://youtu.be/eaJEFn0e56o Part 2 | https://youtu.be/DtStzIL-Ewk Part 3 | https://youtu.be/hHEWxorIj1I 00:00 A Novice Salesman in Air Cargo 05:52 The German Company Birkat 11:38 Working in (German) MNCs 14:05 The Air Freight Business in Singapore 19:19 UT-Ways 27:32 Labour & Competition 33:18 My Son Joined the Company 40:03 Advice for New Businesses I’m Dr Loh KS, the people’s historian. I’m interested in the history of Singapore and the lives of its people. In Chronicles of Old Singapore, I speak to people about their memories of Singapore before it became a global city today. We discuss three topics: 1. People and places. 2. Change and continuity. 3. The importance of heritage. As a historian, I try to stay true to the oral history method on a video format and social media platform. I let the interviewee speak, as the ‘voice of the past’ as Paul Thompson put it. No clickbait, no BS, no posturing. The aim is to canvas a wide range of voices on various aspects of Singapore history and heritage – physical, social, cultural, economic. Do like the video, share your memories below and subscribe to the channel for future episodes. Write to lohkahseng@chroniclesresearch.com if you have any of these stories to share: • Old places or kampongs. • Communities – their way of life & culture. • Childhood & schools. • Work or business. Support Chronicles of Old Singapore on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChroniclesofOldSingapore Follow the channel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551786759344 Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loh-ks TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lks992002 Chronicles Research & Education is my research consultancy on the history of Singapore: https://www.chroniclesresearch.com/ Caveat: this is above all a podcast based on personal memory. As has been well-documented in oral history, memory is not always reliable and what is recalled here should not be taken as fact. However, as Alessandro Portelli noted, the subjectivity of oral history is also its great strength, and what is inaccurately remembered may point to how deeply meaningful the past is to people. #singaporehistory #memory #heritage #nostalgia #oralhistory #socialhistory #history #singapore