Biography Datuk Jimmy Choo And His Traits

BIOGRAPHY OF DATUK JIMMY CHOO

Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat as known as Jimmy Choo was born in Georgetown, Pulau Pinang on 15 November 1948. He was born in a family of shoemakers. Choo was immersed in the world of shoemaking from an early age. His father really wanted him to follow their footsteps. Jimmy Choo had made his first pair of shoes when he was 11 years old. Choo said that when the first time he tried to learn how to make a shoe, his father wouldn’t let him to make the shoes but he only said to him to sit and watch.

Choo grew up and attended primary school in Malaysia. After he finished his studies in Malaysia, he went to Britain to further his studies. In 1983, he graduated from ‘Cordwainers Technical College’ in Hackney. Now the college is a part of ‘London College of Fashion’. Choo did several part time jobs including becoming a cleaner at a shoe factory just to pay all of his bills.

               After he finished his studies, he opened his first shop in 1986 at Hackney in an old hospital building. Choo’s shoes were featured in an eight-page spread in Vogue magazine within two years of opening his shop shop. His unique design and superior handmade craftsmanship made him instantly successful as customers took notice. He always tried hard to create designs as what his customers wanted was just to make sure that his customers were satisfied with his work. Two years later, his notoriety received an additional recognition when cultural Princess Diana the ‘Princess of Wales’ became his regular customer.

               In 1996, despite his popularity, he still did a small operation by making just 20 hand-made pairs shoes in a week. He became more popular when Tamara Mellon, an accessories editor at Vogue hired Choo to make shoes for fashion shoots. Mellon also became a co-founder to ‘Jimmy Choo Ltd’. After he sold his 50% stake in ‘Jimmy Choo Ltd’ in 2001, Choo focused more on the exclusive ‘Jimmy Choo Couture’ even though the company was still under the control of Mellon.

In 2000, Jimmy Choo received an award from the Sultan of his native state in Malaysia.This recognition made his name to become Dato’ Jimmy Choo. He also received several awards such as ‘World’s Outstanding Malaysian Designer’ and ‘Design for Asia’s Best Award’.Today, Choo has returned at a small shop that he opened at London. Now, he also trains a small group of students on how to make an exclusive footwear.

His Traits

Visionary

Jimmy Choo is a creative and innovative entrepreneur. He is also a highly visionary person. He was inspired and his inspiring designs were extracted from nature and the environment. Although he encountered many obstacles before the attitude of enthusiasm helped him to overcome many obstacles in order to pursue his ambition to lead the brand of Jimmy Choo up until now.

He was involved in a project to set up a shoemaking institute in Malaysia, where his iconic status raises often inspire budding shoemakers and fashion designers. In addition, the outlook for success in any business of Datuk Jimmy Choo never considered himself the best because this principle is very important even if one day you become a famous fashion designer in the world. Besides that, the success obtained today is taken as a ratio for natural and comtemporary fashion designing. If determination had him to choose between career and family, Jimmy quickly answered that he would choose to share love with their big family.

Open culture

The purpose of the open culture is also related to people’s lifestyles outside the range. As a entrepreneur, they must know the culture of the foreign country to ensure that products marketed meet consumer preferences.

Jimmy Choo was responsible to ensuring his successful business. His management style is reflected in the theory of Mintzberg. There are three categories of Mintzberg theory, interpersonal relationships as a leader, manager and people in contact with outsiders. He carry out his duties friendly to his customer. For instant, Jimmy Choo is a shoe designer who is favoured by Princess Diana during his lifetime because the style of his management and his nature being customer-oriented.

Outcome oriented

Datuk Jimmy Choo is one of the entrepreneurs who runs a result-oriented business. He is considered to be a result-oriented entrepreneur as he will sell the shoes on demand and customer needs. It is because each design has almost tens and hundreds of thousands of ringgit. For example, he received an order from the late Princess Diana who was interested with his designs.

Moreover, Datuk Jimmy Choo’s shoes were inspired by natural resources like a tree flowers, plants and the environment such as interior designs and the places he had visited. He was careful in making mold shoes as the top, the base and heel of the shoe, because he wanted to give comfort to his customers. This shows that Datuk Jimmy Choo runs a business based on the orientation of the results because he made them shoes and through his vision.

Observant

Jimmy Choo started from the bottom, learned from his father. His father was a successful shoemaker that taught him most of his skills which led to his success. He would watch his father painstakingly hand stitch the soles of his customer's shoes and soon with his father's guidance made his first pair of shoes for his mother when he was 12. His father's words steered him in the right direction which the word emphasized on the importance of skills.

Besides that, he is alert and always keeps up to date to the latest fashion trend. He describes that a good pair of shoes is designed with strong foundation, and we should apply this principle in our daily life. Lastly, Choo also sticks to his main goal, which is to focus on creating couture footwear for individual clients who he seems to prefer and does best and appears relieved that he stepped out of the limelight. He also thinks shoes can change a woman's personality and love plays an important role in their lives. He said: "We all wear shoes, every day - we have to. So they are a very important part of your wardrobe. They say something about the way you hold your body. Shoes must be elegant, comfortable. They affect the person's personality. “

Networked

Dato’ Jimmy Choo has displayed good networked traits as a successful entrepreneur. His network started in 1988 when he was showing his designing shoes at London Fashion Week. At that time, nobody knew Jimmy Choo but he was very lucky as Vogue’s Kate Phelan saw his shoes and told him that it would be put in the Vogue magazine. It was a great start for Jimmy Choo and it then drawed the attention and interest of Princess Diana who donned his Choo’s footwear almost at every place that she went. Vogue has raised up Jimmy the Choo brand and then it also drew attention from an accessories editor at Vogue named Tamara Mellon and then both Choo and Mellon became partners when they founded Jimmy Choo Ltd.  However, after their collaboration stopped, Jimmy Choo’s network has not been put to a stop.

Datuk Jimmy Choo’s network further developed when he worked very closely with Tourism Malaysia in 2004. He was chosen as an ambassador and to organize plenty television shows as well as press interviews. Besides, he also worked closely with London College of Fashion with the sole purpose of promoting education and more new designers to come to Malaysia.  Furthermore, in recent years, Datuk Jimmy Choo has also became an Ambassador for Footwear Education at the London College of Fashion and spokesperson for the British Council in its efforts to reach out to foreign students.