"I WAS DRIVEN BY THE CHALLENGE THAT I WAS A NOBODY AND BY DESPERATION AS WELL, MY WIFE HAD JUST QUIT HER JOB AND WAS PREGNANT WITH OUR SECOND CHILD.'

-Mr Chettiar, on how he started Stansfield

The wheel turns full circle for head of education group

COMEBACK KID: Mr. Kannappan Chettiar, 40, Chief Learning Officer and Chairman of The Stansfield Group, holds a master's degree in law from the National University of Singapore. He is married with four children, aged between five and ten. His wife, Cenobia Majella, serves as Stansfield's Vice President of Human Resources.

TURNAROUND TALE: Mr. Chettiar, his father, and four siblings were among the shareholders and directors of the Singapore Institute of Commerce (SIC), a school for University of London law degrees and diplomas. They had conflicts over how to run the school. Mr. Chettiar left in November 1992 with little cash to show for his efforts in turning the school around. It was during this time that he was inspired to start Stansfield. "I was driven by the challenge that I was a nobody and by desperation as well. My wife had just quit her job and was pregnant with our second child," he said. He borrowed $20,000 from Citibank and $8,000 from a graduate student loan scheme by United Overseas Bank. "Luckily, HDB only required a one-month rental deposit which was $8,400 and I was able to get credit terms from my suppliers for three to six months... otherwise, I would have had no money to go on," he mused.

The private education scene was then filled with schools that depended on part-time lecturers, which translated to minimum risk in terms of salary outlay but a low commitment to quality on the part of the schools. Instead, Mr. Chettiar went to Britain and recruited six expatriate lecturers, four of whom held PhDs. Stansfield's initial recruitment drive was a success. By September 1993, 200 students were registered, and the rest is history, as it went from strength to strength. The school was profitable from its first year of operation and continued to expand in Singapore. Showing that the wheel can turn full circle, Mr. Chettiar acquired SIC in 1999, and the school became part of Stansfield. Currently, the group includes the Stansfield School of Business, SIC, St James School of English, and the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

For the year ended March 31, 2002, the group registered a $1.8 million profit on the back of some $9 million in sales. Mr. Chettiar expects to end the current financial year with more than $2 million in profit and $10-$11 million in sales. Last year, he was named one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs of the Year 2002 by the Rotary Club and the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, and the group was ranked 32 in the list of Enterprise 50 companies. As for his family relations, he is now on good terms with his father and siblings.

HIS DREAM: "We are now ready for exponential growth and will regionalize over the coming years. Five years from now, I am targeting a revenue of $100 million," he said. "I do not aim to get scholars in this place but I want to make their lives better... to enable late learners to progress and achieve what scholars can do and much more." He himself has not stopped trying to achieve more: He is pursuing a master's degree in education management and hopes to complete a book on risk-taking soon.