Cash flow, and not cash, is king

IT was a joy listening to how seasoned businessman Tan Sri Francis Lau of the Leong Hup group talked about the poultry business. He rattled off the vital statistics of running the chicken business without a second thought, right down to the amount of feed per chicken per day.

He knew exactly the ideal size of a closed house to rear chicken, that each bird needed 110 grammes of feed per day, and the average life cycle, mortality rate and eggs to be produced. But beyond that, he pointed to an important cog in the machine that has kept his business empire, which spans across the Asean region, going.