Founded in 1888 as a purveyor of oyster sauce, Lee Kum Kee has evolved into a renowned supplier of premium oyster sauce, cooking sauces and other seasoning products. The key to this transformation from a traditional Chinese sauce maker to a niche leader in global food products was the acceptance of modernisation and internationalisation into its corporate culture, as well as the timely adaptation to changing times and tastes of modern life.

Along its journey into the 21^st century, Lee Kum Kee has made judicious use of the latest information technology. Four years ago, it set up a corporate web site (www.lkk.com), which is improved and updated continuously. The company also created a series of IT strategies, implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and made gradual improvements in productivity, supply chain management and customer relations management, priming the springboard for making a big splash in the international food market.

"Our company's objective is the promotion of Chinese food and the enjoyment of cooking," says Benny Lam, Corporate Director of Information Technology at Lee Kum Kee. "Given today's modern lifestyle, we focused primarily on the customer when we planned the content of our web site and avoided making it a place for product hard sell."

A Helping Hand in the Kitchen
Lam points out: "People who browse the Internet are not there to look at the advertisements; they want something useful. So we thought, 'why not offer them something convenient?'" The result of this thought process is a range of recipes and cooking tips to suit everyone's taste buds placed prominently on the site.

Providing this service is actually an excellent opportunity for customer relations management and, armed with this advantage, Lee Kum Kee maintained its confidence, even during the global low tide for e-commerce. The company is now promoting interactivity on its web site. "The Kummunity column on our site features some interactive elements. If you are looking for some input about what to cook for your three daily meals, you can find ideas - and voice your feedback - there," says Lam.

In essence, the site serves as a communication link between the corporation and consumers and this strategy has worked, enhancing the positive experiences of Lee Kum Kee customers. For example, as a result of interactive communication, consumers' level of knowledge about the product and their loyalty to the brand have both gone up. Moreover, the experience touches an emotional chord of ethnicity among overseas Chinese and the Lee Kum Kee brand has become a symbol for a sense of community.

Tools for Success
As the saying goes: "A handy tool makes a handy man." Lam believes that IT can be a sharp tool in business development, a tool that can turn dreams into reality. The fact that the Lee Kum Kee brand is now spread far and wide is due largely to the benefits of advanced IT support. However, before this was achieved, both internal and external challenges had to be faced.

The external challenges included human resources shortages a few years ago when e-commerce was red hot. At that time, professionals involved in IT work were so much in demand that they were hard to hire. As Lee Kum Kee was neither an IT nor a network company, the task was all the more difficult. In addition, IT upgrades take place at such an incredible speed that using an old tool with a new programme results in low speed and high costs. Of course, replacing the old tool with a new one is easy, but someone still has to know how to use the new tool!

An example of the internal challenges faced by Lee Kum Kee was its attempt to get senior management's consensus regarding the nature, characteristics and development trends of IT so that the company could make the right investment decisions.

Another was how to manage IT personnel and avoid the blind pursuit of innovation that might lead to acquiring brilliant new technology with no relevant use.

According to Lam, the main objective of the Lee Kum Kee web site is to provide substance, allowing visitors to come when they want to and ensuring that they leave satisfied. Lam says that there is no need to pay too much attention to the actual number of visitors to the site. "What we needed," he notes, "was not huge exposure over a short time, but to be able to maintain a relationship with our customers. Our on-line work was coordinated with the company's marketing strategy and organising lucky draws or community activities are proven examples of this targeted thinking."

Keeping its Lead
Developing the corporate web site was just one important way of maintaining communication between Lee Kum Kee and its conusmers, and nurturing the emotional link . The company's IT strategy also includes a detailed B2B plan, including an SAP solution as the main product for introducing an integrated ERP. The programme simplifies internal operations and boosts productivity, allowing supply chain management and customer relations management to be implemented at the appropriate times, which very much depend on the overall speed of development within the industry.

Over the next three to five years, Lam expects Lee Kum Kee's development strategy to be growth with stability. He believes that if the company wants to keep its leading position in the industry, then it should draw inspiration from the experience of American retail businesses, in particular the decline of K-Mart and the dominance of Wal-mart. "One of the main factors contributing to Wal-Mart's success was the smart use of IT. It consolidated its leading position in the industry by not only reducing internal costs, but also bringing down costs along the entire supply chain, including those of its business partners, and sharing those benefits with customers," adds Lam.

Faced with fierce competition in an increasingly integrated global economy, a company's success or failure may depend on its ability to respond quickly to market changes. The objective for Lee Kum Kee in implementing ERP is to integrate all its isolated systems. Lam likens it to opening up all the channels of the body, as in traditional Chinese medicine, making it possible to treat the body as a whole. For example, if any changes occur in the warehouse, related departments in sales and accounting are updated immediately. This makes the company more flexible and adaptable to change.

"Always be ready" is Lee Kum Kee's goal when deploying its IT strategy. To keep its leading position, the company aims to be first to identify a business opportunity in the global market and to boost its own competitiveness in the process.