Creative Technology CEO still maintains personal touch, selling his own products at IT show

Singapore – Creative Technology, a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products, has become a household name in Singapore for its Sound Blaster cards. Having been called a rival of Steve Jobs, Creative’s CEO and Chairman, Sim Wong Hoo, has remained determined to stay in the game against all the odds and was able to make a remarkable comeback after nearly going bankrupt.

The comeback

The company’s comeback is due to Creative’s revolutionary Super X-Fi. Considered to be a game changer, the technology used in the app creates a “holographic audio” experience tailored according to the shape of the user’s ears.

The Super X-Fi app snaps a picture of the face and ear shape of the user, predicts how he or she hears sounds and uses an artificial intelligence engine to provide an optimal listening experience.

More details about the Super X-Fi below:

The CEO

Another plus point is the fact that Mr Sim himself was spotted at the IT Show 2019 explaining how tech worked exactly like one of his sales team.

Singapore’s largest tech show, the annual IT Show, was held in Suntec from March 7 to 10 this year. Hardwarezone.com senior member shooterskull started a thread on March 10 with a photo of Mr Sim at the tech show.

He wrote: “Mad respect to the CEO for going down and literally talking to customers and selling them like a sales staff.” (sic)

Dressed very simply in what looked like a race singlet, he was busy explaining to another man how the products worked. The photo garnered much respect from netizens.

Shooterskull posted a follow-up post which said, “I didn’t take from another angle, but he was also wearing a tiger balm plaster-ish thing on his neck, probably neck ache or something, yet he is still there on the ground. saw a couple of people taking photos with him also and he is very willing to pose with them.” (sic)

About Creative

Creative was founded in Singapore in 1981 as a computer shop by Mr Sim and his friend Ng Kai Wa. With S$6,000, they strived to keep the business alive, offering computer classes, hardware repair, and software development.

In 1986, Creative developed the Cubic CT, the world’s first multimedia, multilingual computer.  From here, the Sound Blaster was born.

Three years later, Creative went on to become the first Singaporean company to list shares in Nasdaq. By 2000, Mr Sim had became the country’s youngest billionaire.

Dark periods came when tech giants like Apple came into the picture. Creative had a hard time keeping up with the rapid advancements in technology and even went to war with Steve Jobs over their portable music players.

Amidst everything that was happening, Mr Sim never backed down. “During the darkest period of Creative, I became enlightened. I decided that nothing is ever going to hurt me,” he said. “Ever since, I thrive on adversities.”

Chua Kee Lock, a managing partner at Vertex Ventures, said the following about Mr Sim: “We rarely see entrepreneurs like Sim who have the tenacity and determination to stay with their ideas against all odds.”

“Can he pull off a comeback with the Super X-Fi? He has a decent chance,” said the early investor at Creative.

“We rarely see entrepreneurs like Sim who have the tenacity and determination to stay with their ideas against all odds." Chua Kee Lock shares his take on Sim Wong Hoo's comeback. https://t.co/6ocQxzxJcX pic.twitter.com/xdkrMyCSV7

— Vertex Ventures (@vertexventures) February 22, 2019