COFFEE TALK WITH DR. LIM

Hi, Dr. Lim, here. Today we shall conclude our story about the development of the market in the Philippines. The Philippines is the first major market of DXN after Indonesia and remained a major market until today. The market in Indonesia did collapse and not really recovered to its previous glory. But the market in the Philippines did fall a few times but eventually recovered back and better than the previous sales record.

You may wonder, DXN is sharing the same products, same marketing plan, the same management team from Malaysia, why the market there collapsed and never gained back to the past glory. Still, the Philippines every time recovered and superseded the past peak in sales. The main reason is the training of the leaders. In Indonesia, at that time, the market is not handled by the leaders but by the marketing key person in DXN. And in Indonesia, we are lucky that when the monetary meltdown paralyzes other MLM companies, DXN was the only MLM company that went very strong in the market. So, the leaders basically need not do anything. Anybody that joins DXN when they stick to the system long enough shall achieve a high position and high income. There were a few problems with the leadership in Indonesia. First, they never knew the company well, and they did not do much and are also promoted to high positions. This is actually due to the superiority of the DXN marketing plan, which is true even today. Whoever sticks to the plan long, sure enough,h will experience great success. Since we never educate the leaders, what is a real MLM company that works for sustainable growth, and what is a money game pyramid MM company that hits and runs for quick money and never sustains more than a few years in the market? When the economy of Indonesia stabilizes, a lot of MLM companies started to come back. The first group that comes back is always the money game companies. They promote quick money, and their meeting was very colorful and exciting. They employ famous actors as their spokesperson, and they invite some known personalities as their shareholders. They engage famous singers to sing on the anniversary. Also, they have a lottery to give out cars and motorcycles, and some luxurious items.

DXN never projects ourselves to the market this way. We work for sustainability. It is very costly to hold a meeting like them, engaging the famous singers and dancing and music. This is unsustainable. A lot of money needs to be spent, which adds to the cost of the products. So this kind of company, their products are extremely costly and non-sustainable in the market. However, the leaders in Indonesia did not view it that way. When they compared the meeting, they started to feel that the meeting of DXN was dull and not interesting, and many of the leaders is not trained for the meeting. They also talk non cohesively and use a lot of information from the internet. Even I advise the leaders not to use the information from the internet, as many of them are at fault and not tested. Like one professor in Japan asking people to take vitamin C, few people know that he has invested interest in it because he is the spokesman for vitamin C for one company. One professor talked about germanium, put germanium into the drinking water, eventually caught by the authorities, and spent many years in jail. Some doctors advise patients of high uric acid not to take mushroom; those doctors never know that mushroom is good in detox the uric acid; before it is removed, it has to be flushed and carried out by the blood system. When they test the blood and see high uric acid, they did not know it is common during detox and advised against using mushroom.

Some parties heard that Ganoderma could thin the blood and advised those taking blood-thinning medicine to not take Ganoderma. They never realized that Ganoderma is a regulator. When the blood is thick, it makes it thin, and when the blood is thin, it makes it thick. But those uninformed leaders got a lot of false information from the internet. Instead of educating the market, they confuse the market more. The worst of all is that they have doubts about the company, that DXN is not really the producer but getting the products from third parties, etc. Due to a lack of confidence in the company and lack of skill to handle the market, Indonesia's market collapsed and never gained back to the past glory. When DXN developed the Philippines market, we stopped employing the marketing staff to activate the market. DXN became the first company to push the lead into the frontline, and they have to face the market, not the staff. This strategy worked.

When leaders faced the market, they faced many challenges, like the story in Cebu, they face competition from the American company. I lead them to encounter all allegations by the competitor, which later collapsed due to competition from DXN and internal problems, the founder fighting with her own brother and husband and ruined the company. The Philippines did face a serious market as in Indonesia. But due to the leaders facing the market from the very beginning, we always have a group of leaders who know the strength of the company and have good confidence in the company. After the monetary meltdown in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Philippines' economy started to stabilize, and a lot of companies started to come into the market.At that time, there was one American company that came very aggressively. They targeted DXN, as, by that time, DXN had become the largest MLM company in the Philippines. That American company started to use the money to headhunt the top management, the top key staff of DXN. Promised a salary that doubled and tripled that of DXN. And offer a crossover fee for DXN leaders, give them some lump sum money, and fixed monthly income. That time we have about 9 key staff and on top of about 50 common staff. 6 of them joined the competitor, and almost half the remaining staff followed suit. Besides offering good salaries and transfer fees for the leaders, the competitor invited DXN leaders to go to Hong Kong with free trips.

In DXN, you have to work hard to qualify for the year-end international travel incentive. That American company simply stated that as long as you are the leaders of DXN, you can join the tours. The competitor projected himself as a rich and huge company. Then, as usual, spread the rumors that they are the original supplier of coffee to DXN. Now they decided the handle the market by themselves and stopped the supply to DXN. And the quality of the coffee of DXN deteriorated, and the taste is not constant. Their coffee all the time tastes the same. With such an all-out onslaught, the sales of DXN affected tremendously. As two-thirds of the top management jump shop and half of the staff joined them, some leaders joined the Hong Kong trip and jumped ship. This is the worst crisis that DXN has encountered before. The sales almost dropped to half. I have to go to the Philippines in an emergency manner to salvage the market. First, I hold the key management meeting. There is three key staff who did not turn out for the meeting. One of them had a stomach problem, and the other one, the aunty, passed away. Of course, these were only excuses. They were opportunists and wait for me to double and triple their salaries to retain them. Only one key staff came very late to the meeting. And his attitude is arrogant and tough. He refused to discuss and insisted that I have to reinstate him as the country manager before we talked. In the early days, I did not engage the local management today. I left it to the regional coordinator and the key staff with almost non-interaction with me.

Every time I went to the Philippines, I always went to the market to attend meetings with the leaders; I never had any staff meetings. So, the first staff meeting I held for the Philippines fared badly; two key staff refused to attend the meeting and demanded a higher salary. The only one that attended came very late and demanded that I must reinstate him as the country manager. I fired all of them and immediately advertised for the post. At that time, many people needed jobs, and in only a few days, I reestablished the top management in the Philippines.

DXN is well known for one world, one market, but few realize that we are one world one management too. We can transfer any staff from one country to the other immediately without any management shock because the system is the same. I immediately transferred two Indonesian key staff and one Malaysian to the Philippinestemporarily to hold the top managemily and recruit new staff. In just a weeks’ time, the management team in the Philippines stabilized. By then, you should realize the one world one management system is a powerful management system. After stabilizing the management, I immediately faced the market and gathered about 600 diamonds in one big meeting. Due to the rumors spread by the competitor, many leaders doubted the quality of the products. During the meeting, one leader brought few packages of coffee, and on the spot, he made few cups of coffee from that, and then he asked me to taste the coffee.

There is some variation in the taste. Then he criticized the coffee as being low quality, and may be the competitor is right. The meeting turned into confusion, and many leaders demanded an explanation from me. The competitor was using a dangerous gambit. And I would hit back with full force to destroy them. This kind of false allegation to the DXN product was a double edge dagger. It may harm DXN, but it may also kill them. That time leaders turn agitated and noisy, almost impossible for me to talk. Then I asked the crowd loudly, what is the best apple in the Philippines? The crowd burst into laughter. As they asked me about DXN coffee and asked them about the apple, it could not be funnier than that. Finally, someone answered that Fuji apple is the best. Then I ask the crowd, do you agree Fuji apple is the best apple in the Philippines? All of them agreed, and the hall quieted down as they wanted to know why suddenly I asked about apples. I asked the crowd again; is the apple you eat is the real apple or synthetic apple. All of them burst into laughter again. They assured me it was a real apple. Then I asked the crowd, can you ask the farmer of Fuji apple, give me the apple that is exactly the same size, same color, and same taste all the time? Many of them shook their heads; the apple is a natural apple, how to get the same color and same taste all the time? Then I opened the card. And telling them the coffee of DXN if real coffee, not synthetic coffee. Can you demand real coffee of the same color and same taste all the time? The hall suddenly became dead quiet, and all of them looked at me with eyes wide open. Then I raised my voice and almost shouted to them that only synthetic coffee will have the same color and the same taste all the time. Now, all of you, please decide, you want real coffee or synthetic coffee? Of course, all of them want real coffee. Who wants a synthetic one? Then I asked the crowd if the coffee of the competitor always looks the same and tastes the same, can it be a real coffee? The crowd answered loudly: No...it is not real coffee! The competitor committed the same stupid mistake by claiming to be the supplier of DXN. I told the DXN members, we were selling more than forty containers of coffee every month. More than one container a day. It must be a huge factory to produce the products. And where is the factory of the competitor? Ask them to show their factory and tell them Dr. Lim wishes to visit. And do not tell us the factory is below the water or high up in the sky, unreachable for the public. We wanted to know where their factory was. Very quickly, the competitor was facing two questions: if your coffee is real, why is the taste the same all the time? If you are the supplier of DXN, where is your factory? Not only could the American company not answer those questions, but they also defaulted on the payment for the trip to Hong Kong, and the tour company sued them to court. Their salaries collapsed and did not pay the salaries for the staff and bonus to the market. Many staff asked to come back to DXN; we took back none of them. Those leaders that joined them and were terminated by DXN; we never take them back. It is not that we want to take revenge; this is the discipline in the market.

Once the discipline is gone, the market is gone. If we take them back, then staff and leaders will join and jump ship in the future. When things are not favorable, then they ask to come back. We must make sure such events shall not happen again in the future. That American company collapsed completely, and DXN gained back the sales in a year’s time and superseded the old record. I must express my appreciation for the royalty and the trust of the Philippine leaders who are with us till this very moment, and the market is still expanding. The crisis actually makes DXN stronger and bigger. See you again, folks, bye-bye!