1. Bases on your evaluation, what were the factors that has contributed to the success of Les’ Copaque’s first animated movie.
Kuala Lumpur based studio, Les Copaque released its maiden animated feature film Geng (3D Animated, 90 Minutes) in February. Budgeted at US$1.15 Million plus an additional US$ 18 000 spent on marketing, the film which stars the already popular characters Upin Ipin became an instant inst ant rage r age across a cross Malaysia. The film fi lm released releas ed with 56 prints p rints across the t he country, co untry, ran for more than 8 weeks and has at last count grossed around USD 1.8 Million. Geng had some strong marketing around it, but word of mouth as well as the popularity of its characters resulted in the audience volumes that the film amassed. Says, M Safwan, (Designer) of Les Copaque, "Interestingly, the second week's gross was better than the first week and it just goes to show not only the anticipation, but the film we delivered to the audience worked with them" 56 prints is quite substantial for a country which has a total of 83 screens counting single cinemas and multiplexes. But then the makers knew they had a winning product on hand. Besides being the first "Made in Malaysia" animated feature to hit the screens, as well as its Box office record, the film has several other firsts to its credit. Most important and interesting is how Les Copaque hit bulls eye by releasing a TV series around lead characters Upin Ipin, even as the feature was under production and Upin Ipin rose instantly on the popularity wave. Says Les Copaque Managing Director Haji Burhanuddin Mohammed Radzi, " Before we released Geng, we have released Upin Ipin characters in the form of a TV series to make them popular. We began by releasing 6 episodes of 5 minutes each which was broadcast on TV 9 during Ramadan in 2007 and the characters instantly connected with the kids and got to their hearts. We got a rating of around 1.5 Million viewers per episode”
"The instant ratings of Upin Ipin resulted in us producing 12 more episodes in 2008 and we are now producing 42 more episodes for season 3. We always knew from the beginning that Upin Ipin's popularity would drive kids and Malay families to the movie halls as well and they did!" commented Haji. "For the first two weeks, I was at the theatres every day and the audience was full of kids and families as well, in fact in some cases we had entire generations from grand children, mothers and grannies coming together to the cinema halls to watch the movie" shares Safwan. He added that besides Kuala Lumpur, Johore and Penang also contributed a lot to the film's B.O gross. Internationally, so far the film is slated for release in Brunei in June, and Indonesia in September. The total number of prints for both these regions will be 20 and will carry subtitles in Bahasa Indonesia. Les Copaque is directly dealing with Indonesian Multiplex chains for the release. The company shared that talks were also on with an Indian company for releasing Geng in India. Animation is a character driven business and the film as well as the tv series revolve around the characters. Team Les Copaque has left no stone unturned even when it comes to Licensing & Merchandising as well. Products related to Upin Ipin include T-shirts, stationery items, accesories, soft toys, and back to school. Tshirts are among the most popular product lines with sales volumes reaching 15 000 + pieces. In terms of DVD and VCD sales, the amount has reached 25 000 units which sold in Singapore and Indonesian market as well. For the TV series on Upin Ipin, the same were uploaded on YouTube and the ratings per episode average of 180 000 views. The Maximum number of views is 300 000. For International tv sales, Upin Ipin has been sold to Hilal TV Turkey and dubbed into Turkish language.
Les Copaque was formed by Haji Burhanuddin to realize the dreams of 3 young filmmakers who were passionate about 3d animation (Mohd Nizam Abd Razak,Mohd Safwan Ab Karim,Usamah Zaid b Yasin). Shares Safwan, "For the first year of incorporation, we invested most of our time into researching the pipeline and optimizing the technicalities while learning on how to do business. By the second year, we hired more fresh grads, and started to teach them the pipelines. The reason why we did not hire experienced artists was simply because in their mind, to pull of a good 3D animated feature film with just 40 manpower and USD 1.15 million budget with 2.5 years time would be simply impossible. Fresh grads are more willing to learn and more optimistic. And that's how we did it and made it to the top of the Malaysian Box Office as well as TV ratings!"
2. Deduce what is the bundle of resources deployed by Les Copaque that had lead to the success of Les Copaque’s first animated movie.
Les’ Copaque Production Sdn Bhd was established in 2005 with an ambition to create Malaysia’s first full-length 3D animated feature film. Their vision soon became a reality
when Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula (Geng: The Adventure Begins) hit the silver screen and raked in the second highest ticket collection in the history of local film. The project hit a roadblock when the team realised that they were hampered by limitations in the artists’ experience, knowledge and resources. To achieve success, they
needed to find the right balance between high-technology animation and a good story with compelling characters, culture and realistic environment. They spent a year researching on pre-production and technologies required for the production and made a sneak peek of the film to gain some preliminary feedback. To the surprise and joy of the team, the short film won three awards at the Short Film Award 2006 for best direction, animation and overall categories.
The Upin & Ipin series quickly achieve a loyal following, which led to TV9 investing in a continued series. Armed with the accolades, Les’ Copaque proceeded to win the confidence of the sponsors, including Malaysian Development Corporation who invested in the project. The sneak peek also gained interest from TV9, a local terrestrial television station who contracted Les’ Copaque to produce a mini -series for children named after the twins.
Eventually, viewership of the series came in second after the most-watched Japanese cartoon series, Doraemon. The Adventure Begins
The project began in January 2006 with the development of the main characters in the story, leading to the birth of mischievous twin brothers Upin and Ipin who loved to run around finding excitement wherever they went. The process of designing and developing the characters and scenes was a timeconsuming phase. Modeling, a process to form the characters and objects in still format, required at least a day per character. Rigging, or specifying the internal skeletal structure and defining the motion, typically takes up another day per character. Rendering is another long process using an ordinary computer. Additionally, there were several other mandatory processes required to ensure quality film, including texturing, animation, compositing, audio, editing, and more. “We understood that we had a relatively low budget, but we knew we couldn’t compromise on the quality of output,” Tuan Haji Burhanuddin, managing director of Les’ Copaque.
The challenge: to deliver Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula on budget, on time in three years. Intellectual and human resources include the knowledge, training, and experience of the entrepreneur and his or her team of employees and managers. It includes [lie judgment, insight, creativity, vision, and intelligence of the individual members of an organization.
Entrepreneurs often perceive great opportunities where others see only competition or chaos; therefore, entrepreneurial perception is a resource. The values of the entrepreneurs and their beliefs about cause and effect can form the initial imprint of the firm's culture. In addition, human capital includes relationship capital as a subset. Relationship capital refers not to what the organization's members know but rather to who the organization's members know and what information these people possess. Networking gives the entrepreneur access to resources without controlling them. This minimizes the potential risk of ownership and keeps overhead down. Entrepreneurial networking has become standard practice, and the old view of the "entrepreneur as the rugged individualist" has been modified to reflect the realities of today's complex business environment. Frequently, the most important and valuable resource that the new venture has is the founding entrepreneur. These are unique people with their own special characteristics, histories that cannot be duplicated, and complex social relationships. Technological resources are made up of processes, systems, or physical transformations. These may include labs, research and development facilities, and testing and quality control technologies. Knowledge generated by research and development and then protected by patents is a resource, as are formulae, licenses, trademarks, and copyrights. Technological secrets and proprietary processes are resources as well. There is a distinction between technological capital and intellectual capital. Intellectual capital is embodied in a person or persons and is mobile. If the person or persons leave the firm, so does the capital. Technological resources are physical, intangible, or legal entities and are owned by the organization. REPUTATIONAL RESOURCES
Reputational resources are the perceptions that people in the firm's environment have of the company. Reputation can exist at the Les’ Copaque product level as brand loyalty or at the corporate level as a global image. While technological resources may be short-lived because of innovations and inventions, reputational capital may be relatively long lived. Many organizations maintain high reputations over long periods of time. Fortune magazine's annual survey of corporate reputation indicates that seven of the top ten corporations in any given year have appeared in the top ten many times before. The Fortune survey uses eight different criteria for their rankings: • The quality of management
• The use of corporate assets
• The firm's financial soundness
• The firm's value as an investment
• The quality of products and services
• Innovativeness
• The ability to attract, develops, and retains top people
• The extent of community and environmental responsibility
ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCES Organizational resources include the Les’ Copaque structure, routines, and systems. The
term ordinarily refers to the firm's formal reporting systems, its information-generation and decision-making systems, and formal or informal planning. The organization's structure is an intangible resource that can make the difference between the organization and its competitors. A structure that promotes speed can be the Les’ Copaque most valuable resource. In the post industrial economy, organizations will be required to make decisions, innovate, and acquire and distribute information more quickly and more frequently than ever before. Organizational structures Les’ Copaque that separate the innovation from the production function speed up innovation, while those that separate marketing from production speed up marketing. The appropriateness of designs depends on the complexity and turbulence in the environment .Organizational resources also show up as the skills and capabilities of the people. For new ventures that have emerged from the embryonic stage or those that are a spinoff or business development effort of an ongoing firm, other intangible resources are available. Collective remembered history (myth) and recorded history (files and archives) may also be considered organizational resources. These are part of the organization's past, and to the extent that "past is prologue," organizational history will be incorporated into the culture of the new venture, providing a set of rules, norms, policies, and guides for current and future behaviour. FINANCIAL RESOURCES
Financial resources represent money-assets. Financial resources are generally the firm's borrowing capacity, the ability to raise new equity, and the amount of cash generated by internal operations." Being able to raise money at below-average cost is an advantage
attributable to the firm's credit rating and previous financial performance. Various indicators of a venture's financial resources and financial management skills are its debt-to-equity ratio, its cash-to-capital investment ratio, and its external credit rating. Yet while start-up Les’ Copaque see that access to financial resources is the key to getting into business (it is certainly a necessary component), most agree that financial resources are seldom the source of Sustainable competitive advantage.
Autodesk
Maya,
a
Natural
Choice
It was a natural decision for Safwan Ab Karim, one of the art directors and the Board of Directors to select Autodesk Maya in helping them realise their ambition. The software needed no introduction to them as they were already familiar with the features and functionalities back in academia. The open architecture of Autodesk Maya software, combined with an industry-leading suite of 3D visual effects, computer graphics, and character animation tools enabled the team to realise their creative vision for their film. Safwan contacted Caveman, a reseller for Autodesk Maya. Through consistent support and consultation over six months, Les’ Copaque successfully assimilated Autodesk Maya into its
production operations. In less than one day, their animators were able to start work. “We are prepared to make a significant investment on Autodesk Maya as we believe it is definitely worthwhile,” said Safwan. Model
faster
And
Manage
Complexity
Autodesk Maya enabled designers and animators to meet production demands with fast, efficient tools and workflows which offered new creative possibilities.
During their pioneer research, the team developed their proprietary pipeline that not only improved the efficiency of design and animation, but also helped organise files and define the identity of 3D animation products created by Les’ Copaque.
Throughout the process of developing Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula, they found that Autodesk Maya worked consistently well with the pipeline they developed. Tuan Haji Burhanuddin added, “We believe that Autodesk Maya is one of the best software tools for movies. The plus point was that our team was already familiar with it. The software is flexible and it worked seamlessly with our pipeline, and we clearly see the results and value right from the start.” Iterate and Collaborate
Autodesk Maya allowed them to intuitively helped the team discover ways to simplify their job. The flexibilities and shortcuts in using the software delivered the same results faster, without compromising on the quality. Safwan commented, “The software was open and seamlessly integrated with the script we developed for rigging, which significantly cut the total time required for modeling and rigging combined by more than half.”
A movie like Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula typically requires about a year to render. Using mental ray® at the Render Farm hosted by MIMOS helped reduce rendering time to about four months. Another advantage of using Autodesk Maya was that the animators, designers and artists, mostly local graduates, were already familiar with the software. They knew how to use and operate the software and did not have to go through rigorous training before getting down to work. In fact, a huge community of Autodesk Maya users on the internet share research outcomes and tips to help other users.
“Autodesk Maya was genuinely a tool that was instrumental in making our feature film a reality,” said Safwan. The project was completed in September 2008, with a total budget of
RM4million (USD1.15 million). The film came in six months ahead of plan; savings gained from the collective amount of time saved especially from the modeling, rigging and rendering processes. Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula officially opened for screening on 12 February 2009, at 90% less budget, and with half the time and resources required for a typical Hollywood animated feature film. The film was also notable as it was the first 3D animated feature film in Malaysia, recognised by the Malaysia Book of Records. The Adventure Gets Better Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula saw an official closure with a ticket collection of RM6.3 million from a total of 813,604 viewers. Not resting on its laurels, the company is now looking to further expand its operations and teams in Malaysia, focusing on discovering home-grown multimedia talents and spurring the animation industry in the country. Les’ Copaque aims to grow the size of the organisation from 50 to a total of
100 staff by end of 2009. “Now is the time to grow the whole ecosystem for the country’s animation and multimedia
industry. It is the right time to showcase to the world that Malaysia has the home-grown talent which makes us more competitive than our neighbours Thailand, India and Singapore. It is time to make this a key contributor to our economy,” said Tuan Haji Burhanuddin.
As at January 2009, the company received opportunities from across the world, including co-production jobs from Los Angeles, Argentina and Australia. Locally, TV9 has signed up with Les’ Copaque for 42 new episodes of Upin & Ipin and another new 52 -
episode series with Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM).
3. Evaluate the area of diversification that Les’ Copaque had ventured, give your comment in term of competitive advantage created and how would Les’ Copaque sustain its competitive advantage.
Les’ Copaque is an animation pioneer in Malaysia and a film production company that was
established in 2005 to bring Malaysian stories to the world. A Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status company, Les’ Copaque has been producing high quality 3D animation for
television serials as well as advertising and public service messages. Their first feature film, Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula in 2009 has been awarded with the best animation film by the Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival. Other accolades received include Viewer’s Choice Award from the Kids Film Festival and Best On-Screen Chemistry Award (Shout! Awards). Les’ Copaque believes that good story -telling is the core of their business. Launching
off with five-minute shorts screened during the Ramadan in 2007, Les’ Copaque’s iconic Upin & Ipin is now a regular television series screened over 17 countries. It was the first fully made by Malaysian animated series that was picked up by the Disney Channel Asia and TPI of Indonesia. Upin & Ipin is aired in both Bahasa Malaysia and English, garnering devoted fans from all over the continent and beyond. Their YouTube presence has made Upin & Ipin available globally to fans as far away as Uzbekistan and Europe.
The enthusiastic reception of Upin & Ipin the animated series paved the way for the animation blockbuster, Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula (Gang: The Adventure Begins). This animated film presented a watershed in Malaysian cinema as the first locally made animated film to hit the box office. The film was also screened in Indonesia to an enthusiastic reception.
The company has also launched a new animated series inspired by the folktales of Malaysia. The Pada Zaman Dahulu (Once Upon a Time) imprint is the first Malaysian 3D animated series to feature 2D animation techniques, narrating the adventures of two city kids, Ara and Aris, as they explore life in the kampung with their grandparents along with stories of the irrepressible Sang Kancil (The Mouse Deer) from Malay folklore. Pada Zaman Dahulu made its television debut on December 3rd 2011 on TV Al-Hijrah as well as Astro Ceria and MNC TV, Indonesia. Building a World Class National Brand
From five-minute shorts to full-length feature films, Les’ Copaque has been expanding their reach beyond animation. The company has since diversified into merchandising, working with their partners to produce licensed goods bearing the imprint of Upin & Ipin. These range from stationeries, comics, toys, DVDs, books, gift ideas, household goods and tumblers to chocolate and candies.
Les’ Copaque has also brought the Upin & Ipin brand into the food and beverage arena with the opening of Geng’s Corner. The flagship restaurant in Shah Alam and the
newly opened branch in Taman Melati serves local and Western-inspired dishes in a family oriented environment with signature dishes such as Nasi Ayam Upin & Ipin (Upin & Ipin Chicken Rice) and Gulai Kawah Opah (Opah’s Pot Gravy dish). It also caters for birthday
parties, corporate events and other family functions. Fans can also opt to enjoy the Upin & Ipin Fan Club events such as “Malam Bersama Geng” (A Night with the Gang) and other
themed occasions.
Les’ Copaque has never been content to rest on their laurels. This is why the company
is in negotiations to set up an Upin & Ipin Theme Park in Sepang, in the State of Selangor,
Malaysia. It is expected to make its mark in three years, featuring park rides and other attractions centred around the Upin and Ipin brand. Les’ Copaque is open to exploring
business opportunities with international partners who are interested in new avenues with an established brand with market presence of over 300 million consumers. There are many ways to compete, yet most companies tend to focus their strategies on only a few of the many ways to gain a competitive advantage. This limits their ability to create and sustain true competitive advantages. In order to have a lasting competitive advantage, it is important for Les’ Copaque to develop a competitive strategy that includes a wide spectrum of techniques to gain advantage. They can compete on time, reputation, values, technology, image, experience, service, design, innovation, quality, information, knowledge, consultative value, loyalty, and process. Sustaining competitive advantages can depend on some factors and certain fundamental steps such as:
1. Monitoring the organization’s competitive advantages constantly and regularly.
Certain methods may be applied depending on the nature, culture and structure of your firm’s organization.
2. Being keen to the subtlest changes in the organization, management, operation market condition, customer needs, government regulations, competitors and their strategies and other external factors that directly or indirectly affect the organization. An example of this is the constant change in market preference and responding instantly to any change in parallel to the organization’s strategy.
3. Working on existing competitive advantages and helping them revitalize before attempting to make any new set of competitive advantages. It is more effective and inexpensive to make use of the existing competitive advantage.
4. Collating the organization’s people and presenting a set of decisions and i mproved
strategy rather a reformed one. Be attentive to any sentiment or idea from your people regarding the sustainability or possible replacement of existing competitive advantages and if new advantages should be pointed out immediately. Making a brainstorming would be a suggestion.
A sustained competitive advantage can be a better option. There are certain advantages that don’t require immediate alteration. However, if keeping an attribute and having it in
stagnation mode could impede an organization from keeping up with any change in the market and ultimately affect its profitability, then doing otherwise would be the needed solution.
4. Make your appraisal on Upin & Ipin product in term of its resource attribute (resource characteristic).
What is a resource? A resource is anything or quality that is useful. No two entrepreneurs are alike, and no two new firms are identical, either. Our resource-based theory of entrepreneurship makes sense for the study of new venture creation because it focuses on the differences that characterize entrepreneurs and the founding of their companies. Entrepreneurs are individuals and they are unique resources to the new firm, resources that money cannot buy. The theory says that firms have different starting points for resources (called resource heterogeneity) and other firms cannot get them (called resource immobility). Our theory values creativity, uniqueness, entrepreneurial vision and intuition, and the initial conditions (history) under which new ventures are created.
What are the origins of new firms? Economic organizations that have their origins in the resources of the entrepreneur and the assets that entrepreneurial team controls, can potentially acquire, and, finally, combine and assemble. Les’ Copaque begins their history with a relatively small amount of strategically relevant resources and skills, and each company's uniqueness shows how these resources are expected to perform in the marketplace. Les’ Copaque theory has a rather simple formula:
Buy (or acquire) resources and skills cheaply
Transform (the resource or skill) into a product or service deploy and implement (the strategy)
Sell dearly (for more than you paid).
However, this is only possible if cheap or undervalued resources and skills exist. And their availability depends on market imperfections and differences of opinion about prices and events.
Les’ Copaque resource-based theory holds that sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) is created when firms possess and employ resources and capabilities that are:
1. Valuable because they exploit some environmental opportunity,
2. Rare in the sense that there are not enough for all competitors,
3. Hard to copy so that competitors cannot merely duplicate them,
4. Nonsubstitutable with other resources
Why are these four characteristics so important? When Les Copaque possesses and controls resources with these four characteristics, it can withstand competitive pressures. If the new enterprise can protect these resources and maintain these four qualities, it will have competitive advantage over the long term. New ventures that form with some of these characteristics but not others have short-term or minor advantages. Firms with all these qualities, but not in full measure and without a plan to protect the resources, will have a competitive advantage until other firms are able
to copy and imitate them. If Les Copaque goal is to achieve SCA for the new venture, then they must create a venture that are rewarding and enduring.
It is also important to distinguish between competitive advantage and sustained competitive advantage. Competitive advantage occurs when the entrepreneur is implementing a value-creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential competitors."Value creating" in this definition refers to abovenormal gain or growth. Sustained competitive advantage is competitive advantage with a very important addition: Current and potential firms are unable to duplicate the benefits of the strategy. Although SCA cannot be competed away by duplication, this does not mean that it can last forever. Changes in the environment or industry structure can make what once was SCA obsolete. Important strategic factors in one setting may be barriers to change in another or simple irrelevant.
VALUABLE RESOURCES
What makes Les Copaque resources valuable? Resources are valuable when they help the organization implement its strategy effectively and efficiently. This means that in a (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of Upin and Ipin product towards firm performance, a valuable resource exploits opportunities or minimizes threats in the firm's environment. A valuable resource is useful for the operation of the venture. Examples of valuable resources and capabilities are property (Merchandise StoreUpin and Ipin products), equipment (computers and sodtware), people (staff Les
Copaque), and skills such as marketing to promote Upin and Ipin, and financing by getting sponsorship.
RARE RESOURCES
How rare does a resource need to be to generate a competitive advantage? A unique and valuable resource clearly gives Les Copaque SCA. A resource can be considered rare as long as it is not widely available to all competitors. If supply and demand are in equilibrium, and the market-clearing of the resource is generally affordable, it would cease to be rare. Examples of resources Les Copaque that may be considered rare are things like a good location for Merchandise Store to promote Upin and Ipin products and managers that are also considered good leaders which is Tuan Haji Burhanuddin that has a broad experience in Oil & Gas business.
HARD TO COPY RESOURCES
Les Copaque with rare and valuable resources clearly have advantages over firms lacking such assets. Indeed, such strategic endowments often lead to innovation and market leadership. However, at some price even rare resources can be obtained. If the price is so high that no profit is made, there is no SCA because the firm has spent its advantage on the resource. Where duplication is not possible at a price low enough to leave profits, the resource is said to be hard to copy (also called imperfectly imitable). There are three factors which make it difficult for firms to copy each other's skills and resources: unique historical conditions, causal ambiguity, and social complexity. In the Upin and Ipin products there are
only historical conditions and social complexity factors that make Upin and Ipin products hard to copy. Unique Historical Conditions The defining moment for many organizations is their founding. At birth of Les Copaque is imprinted with the vision and purpose of their founders. The initial assets and resources that accompany the organization's origin are unique for that place and time. Les Copaque founded at different times in other places cannot obtain these resources; thus, the resources cannot be duplicated. Examples of unique historical foundlings abound, for example, the creation of a new venture by introducing Upin and Ipin products in the market.
Complex Social Relationships Social complexity is the second reason Upin and Ipin products capabilities and resources may not be easily duplicated. As long as a firm uses human and organizational resources, social complexity may serve as a barrier to imitation. Why? The interpersonal relationships of managers, customers, and suppliers are all complex. Someone, for example, could identify that our customers like our salespeople, but knowing this does not make it possible for competitors to copy the likability of our salespeople. The competitor could even hire away our whole sales force, but even this may not reproduce the original relationship, since the sales force may now work under different conditions, with different managers, and for different incentives. Perhaps the most complex social phenomenon is organizational culture. The new venture's culture is a complex combination of the founder's values, habits, and beliefs and interaction of these elements with the newly created organization and the market, The culture might be, among other things, very supportive, highly authoritarian, very aggressive, extremely gritty, or combinations of all these and additional factors. As organizations grow,
subcultures form, adding additional complexity Organizational consist quantitative measurement and that makes them almost impossible to copy.
NONSUBSTITUTABLE RESOURCES
No substitutable resources are strategic resources that cannot be replaced by common. For example, Upin and Ipin products are non substitutable because of the unique merchandise of the Upin and Ipin trademark in every merchandise or products. The branding Upin and Ipin itself make the products no substitutable resources.
5. Beside Les’ Copaque existing diversification, recommend two more area of diversification that should be exploited by Les’ Copaque on the Upin & Ipin Product.
Besides Les’ Copaque existing diversification, the two more area of diversification that should be exploited by Les’ Copaque on the Upin and Ipin Products are venture in the hotel
resort industry that is unique use the theme of Upin and Ipin characters and products. In general, the hotel industry in Malaysia experienced an encouraging growth rate in 1994. The industry recorded a significant growth of 64 percent in tourism receipts, from RM5.1 billion generated in 1993 to RM8.3 billion in 1994. Malaysia will be hosting the Commonwealth Games in 1998. In addition, the new Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang when completed will cater for 25 million passengers per year and help establish Malaysia as a major
centre
for
international
air
travel
[Source: 1995 Annual Report of Olympia Industries Berhad].
in
the
region.
Malaysia has been regarded as one of the world famous holiday and investment destination. The country has attracted more than six million of overseas people holidaymakers and businessmen to Malaysia each year. The Government of Malaysia has been promoting Malaysia tourism aggressively both locally and overseas. The country is blessed
with
numerous
holiday
sites
and
business
centres.
The colourful multi-ethnic group practising multi-culturalism in Malaysia has attracted million of foreign visitors to the country. The people, the food and the customs have impressed many foreign visitors. The country is continuously improving its basic infrastructure such as telecommunication, transportation, and public facilities in order to attract more foreign visitors. As a result of the impressive economic growth, one cannot stop being amazed by the amount of land-related development projects which are going on in Malaysia presently. More hotels, resorts and business centres have sprouted everywhere. Light Rail Transit project has been constructed and near completion. All these development attempts to set Malaysia
as
a
centre
for
holidaymakers
and
foreign
investors.
Hotel industry in Malaysia has contributed tremendously to the development in the Malaysia tourism industry. As a result of the continuing tourism development, the hotel industry in Malaysia is also continuingly developed to cater for more foreign visitors and provide
better
services.
The hotel industry in Malaysia is large. It offers accommodation ranging from lodging houses to five-star hotels, ranging from an inexpensive RM30 per day to an average of RM250 per day and can be as high as thousands. The visitors have a wider range of accommodation selection depending on their budgets. There are accommodation providers practically anywhere.
Another diversification for Les Copaque is opens their own cinema in Malaysia. Malaysia currently has more than 75 running cinemas throughout the country. The only state without a cinema is Perlis, Kelantan and Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan. The largest cinema operator is Golden Screen Cinemas. There are other large operators such as TGV Cinemas, MBO Cinemas, Lotus Five Star and Big Cinemas. Other than these operators, there is a smaller operator who does screening in a small scale. The first cinema in Malaysia was the Coliseum Theatre in Kuala Lumpur in the year 1928. However it ceased operations in 2010 and transformed into a cultural centre. In 2012, Lotus Five Star reopened the cinema with 2 digital halls. The first multiplex with computerized ticketing system in Malaysia is Golden Screen Cinemas in Leisure Mall in Cheras. It has 4 screens and 1610 seats. The first IMAX theatre in the country was located in Berjaya Times Square which host one screen and 555 seats. Operations was ceased in 2010 and is currently occupied by GSC MAXX. The largest cinema in Malaysia in Midvalley Megamall which is also Asia's largest cineplex. This outlet has 18 screens and 2332 seats. The cinema with the most number of seats is located in Sunway Pyramid with 2598 seats whereas the cinema with most number of digital hall is in 1 Utama, Petaling Jaya. The largest digital hall in Malaysia is the GSC MAXX at Berjaya Times Square which has 555 seats. Sunway Pyramid and 1 Utama currently host the two IMAX theaters in the country. The country's only 4D theatre is located in the First World Plaza in Resort World Genting and also at A'Famosa Resort in Melaka. The Malaysian Government through the national Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) is creating an infrastructure that will be conducive to the development of high value adding content to meet the unprecedented global and domestic demand for content as the result of convergence of computing, telecommunications and electronics. The objective is to put Malaysia’s innovation, cre ativity and entrepreneurship at the forefront of the global
multimedia content supply chain and to make this industry an engine of growth (and contributor to our national GDP). Fresh from the Malaysian Government’s announcement of its plans to develop a
singular digital content industry strategy as revealed under the ETP. FINAS (under the Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture) in collaboration with MDeC is set to place full commitment and dedicated efforts in promoting Malaysia’s creative content and application businesses. As the global consumer spending is estimated to be worth US$ 1.7 trillion (Price Waterhouse Coopers), the Malaysian Government is aggressively enhancing its plans and strategies to be able to target and capture a significant share of the anticipated expansion value of estimated US$ 470 billion in Asia-Pacific alone. Under the “ MY Creative Content ” parallel to the ETP initiative, Malaysia targets to achieve a Gross National Income
(GNI) of US$ 1 billion by 2020, creation of 10,300 jobs, and secure an export of 45% of its GNI targets. Today, Malaysia has developed its industry into a very strong positioning where its local content demand is now bringing significant revenue to many local animation and film producers, as well as becoming “exportable quality” contents worldwide, eg. The Malay
Chronicles: Bloodlines, SeeFood, Geng: The Adventure Begins, Saladin: An Animated Series, Bola Kampung, Bala Bowl, Supa Strikas, Mustang Mama, Upin & Ipin , etc. Malaysia is now known as a very attractive and stable economy for content development, as there’s an
abundance of English-speaking creative multi-racial talent pool, aggressive government support, state-of-the-art studio infrastructures, as well as a relatively affordable venue for world-class studio operations. The key strengths of the Malaysian film and animation studios would be its richness of its culture and heritage, as well as its strong resources. All these can provide the affluent material resources for developing the animation and TV/film industry. Additionally, with the
highly talented workforce, strategic geographical location and economic stability, it allows the country to provide a unique position as being a multi-lingual, multi-cultural and rapidly growing market. As we enter into the next phase of the exciting contents and application sector, the global market continues to grow from strength to strength. Since Malaysia’s inception of the
Creative Multimedia Initiative in 2006 announced by the Prime Minister, “ Creative Malaysia” has risen to be a prominent player in the world content market. According to The
National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom India 2010), the global growth of the animation industry is projected to grow from US$ 25 billion to US$ 35 billion in the next three years. Malaysian Films in the past few years have also made vast developments and accomplishments within the digital content industry. Four years ago Malaysia had 68 cinemas and 287 screens and now Malaysia has 97 cinemas and 577 screens nationwide. Total box-office takings improved from RM 380.72 in 2008 to RM 518.16 in 2010. (FINAS, 2011) In line with the growth of cinemas and the drive by the Government has led to an increased in the demand of localised contents. The Malaysian industry itself is estimated to be worth RM16 billion based on advertising, animation, digital content, TV/film, games, music and video. Last year, the Malaysian entertainment and media industry generated overall RM 9.4 billion revenue, employed more than 45,000 creative industry professionals and contributed 1.27% to the National GDP. (MSC Malaysia Creative Industry Baseline Study, figures include advertising, TV/film, radio, animation, games, music, interactive software, new media, etc.) In conclusion, Les’ Copaque need to crab the opportunities for the company diversification strategy that related with government ambition for develop more talent pool in animations beside Les’ Copaque increase their source of finance by having own cinema and
venture in hotel resort industry.
