The Numbers Game

Goh Peng Ooi suggests that he hasn’t worked a day in his life. Instead, he’s a thinker who pushes his brain to the limits. In fact, he can go into deep thought and zone out completely. “My wife never allows me to drive long distances,” he says nonchalantly. “I’m thinking all the time and it’s very stressful. I can wake up in the middle of the night with something on my mind, and I’ll need a computer to quickly type it out. As a result, I don’t have a fixed sleeping pattern and I tend to let the body recuperate naturally. I also play golf to keep myself in shape and it’s a mental relief to some extent as I derive a lot of enjoyment from it.”

There are those who say he isn’t the easiest person to interview as he’s steeped in intellectualism.  Yet, he can be enlightening to converse with. Self-control and a logic-based centeredness define his personality as well as his company, and he stays out of the limelight as much as possible. As Silverlake Axis’ Group Executive Chairman, Malaysia’s first tech billionaire remains his own man. His fervent application of Game Theory in his business has also proven to be highly rewarding.

He believes there are “human values, utilities, desires and purposes” that determine our decision-making process in life. He adds: “We think it’s philosophical and, when John von Neumann published his findings, he struggled to gain acceptance for his work and Game Theory was very lonely, with only a few players.” Goh has since sharpened his understanding of the seemingly abstract concepts down to its rather humorous crux: “In 1951, John Nash came to the conclusion that ‘all games end in symmetry’ (see box on page 66) and he won the Nobel Prize in 1994. I think it’s funny that the committee took 43 years to read the six pages that comprised his research. As a young boy, I didn’t know about Nash’s Non Cooperative Game Theory because it was more or less buried by academics.”

In the few short years since listing on the Singapore Exchange, Silverlake Axis is now a major player in the banking and digital economy solutions arena, with 40 per cent of South-East Asia’s leading banks using the Silverlake Axis Integrated Banking Solution (SIBS) to process their daily transactions. Goh explains how the use of Game Theory has cemented his winning ways. “They are all games,” he reasons. “I don’t see it any different from the betting on the page number of a book that is randomly flipped open,” he points out. “I was educated in Chinese schools and delved into the teachings of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Laozi’s Tao Te Ching, which had huge influences on me, and it occurred to me that you needed to harness the power of mathematics to win your battles. I’ve always enjoyed solving problems and it’s clear that you need mathematics to support Game Theory and physics to witness it. In a sense, I was already exposed to facets of Game Theory without even knowing it.”

The rewards for his vision have come with remarkable results. Financial data released by Silverlake Axis in 2014 looks like the right kind of Christmas in December: net profit is a heady MYR248.9million, bettering the previous fiscal year, while total revenue is up nearly 26 per cent to MYR500.7million. The company’s balance sheet is healthy, with net cash of MYR334.3million, and there’s mention of a 45 per cent increase in total dividend declared, which will have shareholders jumping for joy. A slight dip in share price in January did little to dampen Goh’s spirits. His gift is his mind and his economy of expression is befitting one who could lose his billions (Forbes lists him as the ninth richest man in Malaysia) without flinching, as his digital enterprise solutions also serve the insurance, stockbroking, retail, e-commerce, aviation and healthcare sectors. His net worth has more than doubled in recent years and he has big plans for the company, including expanding its geographical reach to push the organisation past the ten billion dollar mark.

Village paradox
Goh still reminisces about kampong life – his father was a butcher and he is the seventh of 10 children – and considers it ideal circumstances to have grown up in. “As a young boy living in an impoverished village in Penang, I spent the first 12 years of my life playing games,” he recalls. “We were left to pursue whatever we wanted, and were allowed to learn and assimilate with our surroundings. These days, I might be financially well-off but I still yearn for the carefree days of my youth.”

He went to the University of Tokyo on a Monbusho Scholarship and initially studied nuclear physics before switching to electrical engineering. “If given the right tools, there is a chance that you can master anything if you just put your mind to it; but it eventually sunk in that mathematics has a significant role to play in most fields,” he says. “I wanted to contribute to society and even be a professor at one stage. However, being Malaysian, I worried whether I could get a job; as a result, I turned down a fellowship in the United States.”

When it comes to business, the 61-year-old Goh adopts a combative approach. “The thing about acquiring knowledge is that once you have it, you command it,” he asserts. He began his working career at computer giant IBM. “Working with computers rounded up the concepts I was exploring. It wasn’t about information technology or processing capabilities, it was about warfare. Life is about warfare, mathematics is warfare.…”

Goh served IBM for nine years and rose to become a marketing manager before deciding to strike out on his own in banking and finance. Thus began his odyssey to consult with the best minds – racking up frequent-flyer miles in the process – that eventually led him to form his own company, Silverlake Axis, in 1989, with the notion that a company rooted in Game Theory could make money. It doesn’t hurt that Goh is methodical, as he thinks before acting. “I made it a point very early on that our success would not be based on how well we please clients or establishing favourable contacts,” he explains. “It’s about sending a clear message that what makes Silverlake Axis successful is the accumulation of knowledge and our application of Game Theory to every aspect of our company.”

His accomplishment is akin to solving a complicated mathematical question and providing solutions that were previously not available. “Just as stepping out of IBM has been intentional, it also became quite clear that I had to go to where the money is,” he admits and Goh isn’t too keen to rest on his laurels; his next cloud computing venture in China looks to be a lucrative one. “Financial institutions are often the best paymasters and it was common sense to look for clients who had the funds to pay consistently.”

War room
Goh and his company have gone through the upheavals of several economic slumps and emerged wiser and better for it.  With 25 years of mathematical intelligence under its proverbial belt, Goh believes that Silverlake Axis is in a strong position to grow market share. “With our accumulation of collective intelligence, it’s very hard (for others) to play catch-up.” He is also a contrarian as he believes that “if you can’t rectify the norm, you go and solve the exception”. For a ‘game’ to be valid and playable, he believes in accounting for factors that are already a given in any scenario. “Exceptions are choices that are available in Game Theory. For example, if you’re a horrible char kuay teow cook, don’t keep at it. It’s futile, especially when you can be first in line for something else that works for you.”

The rare commodity that is his objectivity extends even beyond what’s amiss with the Malaysian economy and he’s game to provide a holistic approach to seeing the forest for the trees. “There isn’t a perfect political system,” he says. “So, what is right and wrong is dependent on an individual’s point of view. We are all Malaysians, but an aborigine living on the fringe of the jungle will have a completely different set of values system from a middle-class suburbanite. Yes, there a few missteps along the way and a game like chess depends on the players involved. The question is: is Malaysia still valid for you? If the answer is ‘no’, then look for the exceptions.”

While the Internet has offered new avenues for business expansion, Goh says Silverlake Axis was not dependent on it. “Even if the Internet had never existed, we would still be able to find the means to succeed.” Distilling Silverlake Axis’ strategy, Goh says it takes a three-pronged approach. The company first identifies a demand it could meet. It then arms itself with the necessary logistics and support system to fulfil the demand. Finally, it creates a ‘banking solution’ based on its collective intelligence to meet the demand effectively. The solution should also be robust enough to take into account and adapt to unforeseen scenarios, says Goh. “Unification is the strategy, but it isn’t always as logical as we often assume. Our connotation of ‘logic’ is a simplistic view and there are always infinite possibilities that we’ve yet

to consider. In our instance, our armoury is our mathematical intelligence, while the Internet is merely the logistical route by which transmission is made possible”

Mind your own business
This writer recently commissioned an informal WhatsApp survey of male bankers and finance high-flyers in their 30s and 40s. When they were polled about who the coolest Malaysian billionaire was, Goh was the clear choice by a wide margin. One can only surmise that Goh’s ability to transform his brainy ideas into tangible success is what endears him to many of these professionals.

However, this morsel of fun fact about his ‘rock star’ status or even his EY Entrepreneur Of The Year win last year do not leave him dizzy with excitement. Expressing his practical side, Goh snaps back to his sober self, saying that while he’s happy about the recognition, it’s still business as usual for him and his company. “A reputable award is an affirmation that we’re on the right track,” he says. “I can be happy for such a win, but it all boils down to realigning my equilibrium and moving forward. After all, Confucius was the one who commends doing your best as a start, before moving on to manage your family well and eventually serving mankind.” He makes us feel genuinely hopeful in how education can better any situation and that it’s possible to be analytical and open-minded, while holding on to old-school values that err on the side of calculated pragmatism rather than caution.

And, because he travels frequently, Goh is thinking of buying a private jet. His only ostentatious purchase that is justifiably handy as he still needs to cover the region. “Things are more affordable,” he jokes, telling us that he doesn’t need a luxury watch, but his personal flying-machine is fast becoming a necessity. “I’m travelling a lot and, hence, I’m contemplating the purchase of one.” He hastens to add that his decision is Darwinian in nature: “Again, this has to do with coming back to the reference point that nothing changes. But then, you have to adapt – that’s where an understanding of I Ching (the ancient divination text also known as the Book of Changes) is applicable, because it’s often not the strongest or the most intelligent being who survives, but the most adaptable. At my age, I may need a tongkat (walking cane) soon. If there is an important meeting that requires my attendance, it would not be sensible to send a proxy.”

On what brings him joy today, he says “building a significant theory gives me happiness”, not money. “That’s why I want to allow my children (a son and a daughter) to be themselves and find their own way. My 27-year-old daughter is already handling one of my investment arms. She claims she will never be a mathematician and, yet, she studied economics and mathematics. It’s a natural inclination. I’m able to guide her and bond with her. If she had become an artist, it would have been much harder for me to do so.” When it comes to employee development, Goh stresses the importance of recognition. He looks for capable staff and guides them along the way. “Once they mature, I’ll surround them with a team and put them under auditors and lawyers, and leave them to their own devices. I’m easily bored, so I’ll move on to other projects after that.”