Exception to the rule of game

Silverlake, with a market capitalization of $2.9 billion as of Sept 30, is no exception, having begun quite by accident.

In 1980, after graduating from the University of Tokyo where he studied electronics, Goh's first career choice was to be a research professor. But his perfectionist personality prevented him from choosing research as a full-time career. He also met his first girlfriend in Japan.

"If you truly understand research, it's not easy to have a wife," he says, with a pause.

"Researchers are devoted people. If you are not, you can only be a (mediocre) professor. Then it doesn't really matter where you work - IBM is still a very technical company."

After almost a decade at IBM Malaysia, Goh discovered that banking and finance were very sensitive to "exceptions". A small exception, or deviance from the norm, can result in tens of thousands of complaints from customers.

In short, the fewer the exceptions in a software, the more comprehensive it is and the more it covers compared with your competitor's product.

"You start with 100 exceptions and expect one year later to have 90, and eight years later to have 20. It is the reverse of that thinking process that makes you bigger and bigger," he explains.

"Everyone can make a phone, but the challenge is to make an exceptional phone. Everyone can build software, the challenge is to make exceptional software," he says.

In 1989, Goh decided it was time to venture out on his own in the business world. He quit IBM to concentrate on what he was passionate about - attacking problems of exceptions and disruptions in software.

"A researcher can't work in a normal company. The norms will kill you," he says.

At 33, Goh held a position at IBM that was the envy of his peers. Back then, his yearly salary would have easily bought him a bungalow in Malaysia, he says.

Goh left at a time when the IT industry was still in its infancy. Asked if he made a risky move by starting his own business, he says: "I didn't quite care. I quit (because) to a certain extent, I thought I had the capability."

Silverlake has grown into a listed company on the Singapore Exchange with a staff of over 1,000 and a presence in 16 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, including all 10 member economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Notable clients are Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp and United Overseas Bank, Kuala Lumpur's CIMB Group, and Bank Mandiri, the largest Indonesian bank in terms of assets.

He is fairly optimistic about the impending ASEAN regional integration. The fact that Silverlake operates in all ASEAN economies, in 40 percent of the largest banks in the region, is symbolic.