Brief History & Milestone

Brief Personal History of the Founder

The corporate path treaded by NV Multi Corporation Berhad (NV Multi )’s founder and Group Managing Director Dato’ David Kong Hon Kong epitomizes the unyielding attitude and perseverance of a self-made man who is prepared to scale every mountain and overcome daunting defeats and adversities to emerge as the eventual winner, not once but twice. The second time around he leapt much higher and didn’t look back since.

Born to a rubber tapper in Kuala Lipis in 1954, Dato’ David Kong left school at the age of 18 to work as an apprentice at a pawnbroker shop and then as a delivery boy in a general merchant store.

He later took to selling life insurance and it was from this sector that he got increasingly interested in the business of finance and slowly built his extensive network in the field.

At the age of 28 he partnered with a few friends to set up Korona Credit Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur and became the Managing Director of this leasing and credit company. His first million was made during those heady days of the early eighties. At a turn of events, however, the economic recession that followed swept away all that he had fought for and plunged his fortune into the abyss of virtual bankruptcy.

Yet he didn’t submit to defeat. Rather he went back to his roots to eke out a living from selling fast moving consumer goods. But somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind, he knew he would strike a come back.

That day came after five years of struggle. In 1990 he secured the license to develop 50 acres of land in Kajang district near Kuala Lumpur into a private’ garden-like, scenic memorial park. The rest is history. Today, Nirvana Memorial Park, Kajang is a sprawling 515-acre necropolis and NV Multi Corporation Berhad, the holding company, is a Main Board listed company with six local and one overseas branches. The latest is a 209-acre burial land next to the existing Nirvana Memorial Park, Kajang. The western ambience and the contemporary landscaping of this new necropolis will be a significant departure from the oriental appeal of Nirvana Memorial Park.

Leadership and Innovation

With Dato Kong ‘s leadership, NV Multi approaches challenges from a whole new perspective and it is this that has unearthed great opportunities in the bereavement care business when others see only taboo and grave uncertainties. And that means combining vision and understanding to relate the sensitive aspects of bereavements with customers on a more intimate level.

Fifteen years ago, the simmering potential in professional bereavement care was grasped as offering the grieving market with refined versions of traditional funeral services to secure that all important missing twin elements of old-fashioned care and total peace of mind for the bereaved family during the most pivotal moments of their lives.

Innovation has become the catch word in NV Multi and this means shaping expertise and empathy around the needs of customers. With innovations, NV Multi has gone from strength to strength and managed to overcome one hindrance after another to fully realize its vision and mission.

It is recognized that in this relationship business, customers must be in control of what constitutes a dignified closure. 85 %of NV Multi’s sales come from pre-need purchases, i.e. customers are planning in advance their choice of final disposition and the preferred rites that will go along with the ceremony.

Clear focus on attentive and orderly service postured by staff during wakes and funeral processions over the past is beginning to change market perception, leading to greater acceptance of advance funeral planning as the essential fillip to long term personal financial planning.

After-the-event services keep reminding families that there are still assistances being rendered after the closure for many generations to come. Perpetual maintenance of the park, computerized register of committal particulars and reminders on important dates are fine examples of follow-through services that demand meticulous attention.

With success and good will , NV Multi Corporation continues to attract professionals and graduates to join its team. The 300-plus workforce comprises staff from multi-disciplines, with some holding MBAs and a few pursuing doctorate courses. Each has carefully articulated role and responsibilities housed in a clearly defined organization system.

Main Board listing in August 2000 at the then Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange is the telling evidence of a strong powered performance team that managed to turn a bereavement care business into an energetic success story within a mere ten years.

Financial Management

Public accountability and transparency have been the hallmarks of NV Multi’s management philosophy. As a firm believer that his bereavement care business carries with it strong communal undercurrents and social redemption values, Group MD Dato’ Kong sees it befitting that NV Multi volunteers to subject its books to close scrutiny and continuous surveillance by reputable and independent third-party financial experts. The objective and impartial assessments made by these analysts are made public in verbatim through media announcements.

NV Multi Corporation Berhad was rated AA3 long term and P1 short term by Rating Agency Malaysia Berhad. Beside a financial score, these ratings reflect RAM’s composite opinion on the overall business prospects, market position, operating efficiency and management competency of the Group. As of 31st May 2001, there were only 13 non-utility companies rated by RAM in the coveted stand-alone AAA/AA category.

In 2005, the same ratings held true : AA 1 long term and P1 short term.

To further promote corporate governance, NV Multi appointed internationally affiliated actuary firm, William M. Mercer Zainal Fraser Sdn Bhd to assist in managing the Group’s cash flow and payment default risks. At the same time, BHLB Trustees Berhad was empowered to invest funds deposited with them on a fully independent basis.

Marketing Management

While death is a subject that often stirs up sentiments of taboo , NV Multi has succeeded in overcoming apprehensions by constantly searching for solutions that lie beyond the obvious.

In short , NV Multi believes it is not enough to remind prospects that death is a certain event that can happen at an uncertain time in the future.

The real challenge in marketing bereavement solutions goes beyond selling a good product or service. The crux of the matter is to change mindsets and the deeply entrenched manner things have been done over the past generations. The mission is to create a new mourning culture and towards that end, NV Multi has managed to pave significant progress within a short period of 15 years.

The focus is on delivering “peace of mind” in advance funeral planning and “orderliness, empathy and care” when servicing committals.

In 1994, the multi-level system was applied to speed up the marketing reach in the most populous central region of Malaysia . Soon after, a vast network of agents went through a filtration process to single out the most productive and service oriented performers.

A closer circle of district service agency directors replaced the multi-level system, with each managing and spearheading the growth and developments in their respective designated regions.

While head office provides centralized training all year round, each and every district agency is responsible for expanding their sales force and personalized coaching at the ground level. To date NV Multi has groomed some 30 active district agencies.

NV Multi also spreads its geographical reach beyond the central region. With a proven district agency system, more memorial parks and agency forces have opened in various parts of the country, including Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Seremban, Johor and Segamat Serious discussions are also in progress to transport our winning formula to other countries in Asia, the most immediate market being in Vietnam .The first overseas branch is in Jakarta ,Indonesia . NV Multi Corporation stamps its leadership position in the local funeral market by being the first and only bereavement care provider to be listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. For the record, NV Multi is the only other listed death business in Asia after Japan .

That leadership position is amplified by the fact that NV Multi Corporation is the sole fully integrated bereavement provider in the market. Beside burial grounds and columbaria, these being disposition products, the company offers various Funeral Services Packages to cater to the varied needs of the non-Muslim communities, may they be Buddhists, Taoists or Christians (Protestants and Catholics).

NV Multi Corporation distinguishes itself as the one-stop center for all bereavement solutions and that divergence is gaping wider as the Management continuously strategize to combine insight, knowledge and original thinking to create new opportunities. Innovations and perseverance join forces to render a distinctive winning strategy that has put NV Multi way ahead of others.

In 2005 , NV Multi upgrades itself through NV Family Treasure to promote family heritage . These have put NV Multi into the realm of highlighting culture and it is the promotion of cultures —-bereavement culture , filial piety and family heritage —-that have witnessed the more recent growth of the group.

Operations Management

When NV Multi started in 1990, there was no measurable yardstick or market benchmark to chart the growth, directions and progress of memorial park developments. Dato’ Kongdecided to create a scenic memorial park that can look like anything, except a cemetery. He wanted to revolutionalize how people dealt with death. He wanted them to face death squarely as the final awakening to a celebration of life.

He dreamt of a garden that could breathe meaning and vivid memories into families as they gathered around and little ones hustled pass lush greens that had become the final resting place for their departed loved ones. That dream has finally conceived “Nirvana Memorial Park” as we witness today.

Acceptance by the local population is the sine qua non for business survival. Dato’ Kong was pushing the envelope when he tried to gauge his ten-year old against the stringent demands of global standards.

The result was accreditation by the Germany based, TUV CERT Certification Body of Rheinisch Westfalischer TUV e.V, with ISO 9002 certification. Again, NV Multi Corporation was then the first company in Asia to be certified as such. In 2005, similar accreditation was accorded by BM Trada.