Master Baker

Than Quoc Lam, chief executive officer and president of Ba-Le Inc. comes from the school of hard knocks.

Two years ago, Ba-Le Inc. owner Thanh Quoc Lam and his wife were out having dinner at night when his cellular phone rang. It was his biggest customer, Hawaiian Airlines. There had been a flight delay and the airline had to throw out its supply of Ba-Le sandwiches. Could Lam get 300 more together in an hour?

“We stopped dinner. We paid. We came to the bakery. On the way to the bakery I used the cellular phone to call supervisors and employees. When we got here, there were six employees here waiting, so we made 300 sandwiches in less than an hour,” says Lam. It’s that kind of service that’s led to booming business with $5 million in annual sales, so that Lam can say with confidence that all of the airlines serving Hawaii serve his products. And it’s that kind of growth — from opening up his first Ba-Le restaurant in 1984 to today, where he operates as a bakery wholesaler, Ba-Le Inc. dba Ba-Le Sandwiches & Bakery, supplying airlines and 20 local Ba-Le franchises and making pizza dough for Papa John’s in Hawaii — which has earned him the Hawaii Small Business Administration’s 2002 award.

Say Cheesecake: Thanh Quoc Lam's Ba-Le Inc bakes Kona Coffee Cheesecake and so much more.

You fled Vietnam at the age of 20 and became a U.S. citizen in 1986. You’ve had a very challenging life before becoming a small business owner. What have been the biggest challenges involved in becoming an entrepreneur in Hawaii?

Frankly, I try to work very, very hard and take care of the customers. It doesn’t matter if they are a big customer or small customer, we treat them the same way, with respect, honesty, quality and good service. Because you don’t know. Today, they are a small customer. Two years later, they are a big customer. Another thing is my philosophy: It doesn’t matter if they are a big or small customer, without customers we’ll never survive. Right? So $1 a month or $50,000 a month — it’s still a customer. That’s what I tell my management employees, that a customer is a customer. Not because they are $5 or $10 a day do we talk to them not that nice.

I will be very unhappy if they do that.

Do you consider Sept. 11 your biggest challenge so far?

Yes. I do worry after the 9-11. In January we were down about 25 percent and in February it was about 30 percent. In November, we were down to like 20 percent and December about 10 percent compared to the year before. For me we are still very, very lucky. After 9-11, I cut some employees, but then I hired back, so there’s a few more employees than before 9-11.

How large do you plan to be eventually, and what are some of the difficulties ahead in getting there?

For Hawaii, I estimate the maximum I can do is $7 million a year. Just the population in Hawaii is that big so the maximum I can grow is $7 million and then (hit the) ceiling already, cannot expand or do anything else. That’s why I would like very much to concentrate and forecast to expand to Japan. So now I try to spend a lot of time on how to promote and how to make Japan an example and then the next step is we go to another country and another country.

You might have Ba-Les around the world.

Not around the world, but I wish in a few more countries. I think in China we can do very well. Because the food I serve for the Oriental people is very close — different taste, but close. They can accept it right away. Not like Europe or other countries. So Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and China. I would like very much to expand to China. I went there a couple times. I may go again this summer.

Please tell us about your motto and explain how you’ve applied it to the way you do business?

Very simple: Work hard, keep your promise, the customer is No.1 and take good care of your employees. It’s very difficult for other people to steal my employees. A lot of people from other companies are looking for workers from me, but it’s hard for them to steal my employees. I take care of them. I pay them more than enough, so I don’t worry that another company can take away my employees.

What do you think other people can learn from your experiences? What is important for other people to know about being a small business in Hawaii?

I dare not to say that they should learn from me. But, whoever wants to start a business, they should do it when they are young 25, 30. Do it. Because as people know, before you turn 30 you can work 16 to 20 hours a day, but when you’re 40 or 50, you may go down to eight to 10 hours, so whomever I talk to, if they’d like to do some business, I advise them to do it. If it’s 50-50, do it, because when you are young, if you fail, you can stand up and do it again, but if you just wait and worry then, when you are 40 and 50, it’s difficult to try. So one thing for whoever would like to start a business: Do it. Work hard. Try your best. Fail? You work for another company and then save money and do it again…

I learned from my experience that if it’s slow and you can do it by yourself 16 to 18 hours a day. If it’s busy, you can hire other people. It means that you use your own labor, so the chain to fail is very little. Because if it is slow, you work everything by yourself, like I did. Open the store. Make the bread, until closing. So the first three years, I slept maybe four hours a day. I couldn’t afford to hire more people.

How many hours of sleep do you get now?

Oh now it’s about six to seven, but mentally, I’m still thinking a lot. Now it’s different. Before it was physical, working by hand and now I don’t do physical or by hand a lot, but I’m always talking or thinking. So now I come here early maybe eight to 10 hours a day. But the customers have my home phone and cellular phone number so they can call me 24 hours, even now.

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