By Francis Chan

NOT many people would know much about Mr Luke Lim or the company he founded in 2001.

And that is just the way he likes it.

The chief executive of local branding consultancy A.S. Louken prefers to let his clients' success do the talking instead.

Today, his portfolio of close to 300 clients reads like a 'who's who' list of corporate Singapore and leading small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) here.

They include many Singapore-born and bred firms that have established themselves as key industry players, such as bakery chain BreadTalk, ladies' footwear firm Charles & Keith, spa chain Rustic Nirvana and the Tung Lok Group of restaurants.

Over the last few years, A.S. Louken has managed to carve out a niche in the branding industry as a brand-builder for local SMEs.

Mr Lim attributes some of that success to his two-year stint as a young officer with the former Trade Development Board (TDB), or what is now known as International Enterprise Singapore.

'The best part of my training was travelling all over the world with SME bosses during my TDB days,' he said.

'Not only was I facilitating trade missions, but I was also hunting for opportunities for these growing enterprises.'

It was during those trips, and through his close interaction with local SMEs, that he was able to identify a gap in how smaller firms promoted their businesses.

'We have great companies, but there was a shortfall when it came to marketing themselves, and I felt that these SMEs needed to better brand themselves in order to grow,' he said.

A.S. Louken provides a wide range of services to help firms develop a competitive edge over their rivals. Besides branding, its services include intellectual property management, design and other advisory services that involve identifying a client's strengths to help it take its business to the next level, said Mr Lim.

'What we are doing is engineering growth,' added the Nanyang Technological University engineering graduate.

'When you look at any case from an engineering perspective, you will be able to solve any of the growth issues.'

Another key strength of the firm is the fact that its 32-strong team of like-minded individuals - hailing from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain - is passionate about growing local brands.

'We understand the heart and passion of our clients...and are able to match our clients' philosophy to the market - and that integration from a brand perspective is very important,' explained Mr Lim.

Being a Singapore-built brand consultancy also helps in attracting local firms looking for brand-development services.

'Clients have told me that the reason they chose us was that a lot of other consultants don't really know the local scene,' said Mr Lim, who is in his 30s.

'They (the other consultants) had very strong accents and did not speak the clients' lingo, but we do and we can understand their needs better because we are also an SME.'

Mr Lim aims to help clients replicate their core strengths via a franchise or licensing platform. He also wants to make use of their intellectual property to drive their growth overseas.

Aside from its local clientele, A.S. Louken has also worked with businesses based in other parts of Asia and beyond, such as India, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Middle East.

In recognition of its global reach, A.S. Louken is also a member of Ebeltoft Global, a consortium of companies from 16 countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, India and Australia.

Mr Lim's reputation and the track record of A.S. Louken have seen him appear frequently on the regional lecture circuit to speak about branding.

Business organisations, such as the Singapore Retailers Association, Restaurant Association of Singapore, Franchising and Licensing Association, Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Singapore Jewellers Association, also often extend invitations to Mr Lim to speak at their conferences.

But despite his success, he keeps a low profile within the industry.

Mr Lim maintains a client-servicing ethos of being the 'little men' quietly and diligently working behind the scenes to help build strong Singapore brands.

'I'd say that we're a rather small SME but we are serving regional customers, and progressively we're still growing,' said the father of a newborn girl.

'In fact, we have already seen 20 to 30 per cent year-on-year growth over the last nine years. And being a growth advocate, we naturally have to strategise our own growth well.'

• What is your biggest dream for A.S. Louken?

Obviously we want to be a regional player, and I hope to have offices in key cities around Asia because we are an Asian company.

The way I look at it, the next wave of growth for the world will come from Asia.

And having developed multiple experiences working with Asian companies beyond Singapore, we are quite well-poised for growth in the region.

We already have clients and partners in China, so naturally we should have a base there.

In fact, we are intending to set up representative offices in China by the end of the year or the beginning of next year.

We also definitely have opportunities to go to other markets like India and Indonesia - markets where we already have customers.

So we want to grow with our customers and be the most well-networked consultancy in this part of the world.

• What do you need to achieve that dream?

We will need a more sustainable number of clients in the region, and - as and when we see that happening - we will set up our base to service them.

But we will have to go through a conservative, but progressive, growth methodology to understand the market well enough before we enter and set up base.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.