Lessons from Selling Fake Rolex

Lessons from Selling Fake Rolex in Singapore NTU

An Incredible Entrepreneurship Case Study

I first met Tah-Nan (not his real name) before 2010; a young Singaporean of mixed ethnic origins.  I had spotted him in some of my lectures but could not recall seeing him in any tutorial class. A couple of years later, at the end of an MBA session where he had participated actively, he approached me.  Tall with black bushy hair and a perennial smile on his face, he communicates firmly and inspires his listeners easily to persuasion. He said he was interested in my watch and asked to have a closer look. He examined my watch, seems surprised, and handed it back to me, with a wry smile, saying “omg, it’s a genuine Rolex!”  I was amazed by his remarks and told him: “It’s a vintage Rolex with a Roman numeral face. I bought it about 20 years ago in Bern, Switzerland. Why are you so surprised?” We proceeded to The Coffee Club to continue the conversations, which led to the astonishing discovery of the existence of the most lucrative business enterprise operating openly in secret on NTU Campus – the sale of Replica Rolex watches.   

In his early 30’s, Tah-Nan graduated from the prestigious NTU Nanyang Business School (NBS) with business and finance degrees before entering the Technopreneurship program at the Nanyang Technopreneurship Centre (NTC). 

Excerpts of our conversations:

Tah-Nan: I was already trading in leather bags, electronics and wine from my suppliers in China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.  I don’t like the word “fake” since the products are very real.  Some are really replicas or imitation of better known or famous brands. Others are genuine factory surplus production. During the NTC Program, I began to develop a unique Replica Business that would be exceptional in their marketing and distribution impact.  In just 6 years, the business has grown to $9 million annually and nothing is slowing the momentum.

Me: So why are you still in NTU?  Surely, it’s time to leave the nest and internationalise or globalize?   

Tah-Nan: Actually, I work in NTU in the President’s Office responsible for market development and students mentoring. No fanciful job title. Just maintaining a low profile, and provide my bosses with good optics and credits from my performance impact.  I am nobody, and nobody will look for me there, here or anywhere on campus.

Me: I see, the hiding-in-plain-sight strategy?

Tah-Nan: Well, I am certainly not hiding. I manage my supply and value chains through the internet and co-ordinate my sales teams using social media and mobile apps.  Drop boxes facilitate convenient pickup for delivery to customers. Singapore Posts is used for express and home delivery with no shipping charge.  This is a cash-only business and therefore has no receivable issues.  Inventory is distributed at strategic locations known only to me.  Sale team-leaders receive their goods via a 3^rd party logistic network. 

Me: Why and how is your business sustainable?  What are the key sustainability factors?

Tah-Nan: The key lies in brand correspondence.

Me: Brand correspondence?  That’s not in any marketing literature.

Tah-Nan: It’s my perversion of brand mapping.  That is, creating a trust and reliable brand in the buyers’ mind by projecting a profound sense of brand layers.  A good example would be, say, a “Kobe Ham” sandwich wrapped in Gardenia bread and packed in a MacDonald box.  The sandwich is called The McKobe, of course! And it will start its product life as a credible trusted product when sold at MacDonald’s or from the shelves of Fairprice, Sheng Siong and 7-Eleven! No one would even know that Kobe only produces beef and not ham (or pork).

Me: Interesting.  Tell me your inspirational sources and case studies, of any. 

Tah-Nan: NTU is my main inspiration, seriously!  I was working in NTU in 2008 when NTU’s fall from greatness, fully 29 places from 2003, was reported. NTU in 2003 was ranked 48 by a major University Rankings Standard. In 2006, NTU “slides” to 61 and by 2008 has “plunged” to 77! Panic and pandemonium broke out in the President’s Office that morning, enjoined later by NTU senior Professors, Managers and student leaders.

Me: I remember that day too.  I am still baffled why none of the esteemed Professors in our Universities had bothered to examine the validity and reliability of the presumptuous “World Rankings Standard”. Many higher education experts, Professors and research scientists by that time had already questioned and condemned the dubious nature of the Standards and the spurious relationships of its various measurements.  Anyway, what happened next?

Tah-Nan: It was obvious to many NTU Professors and graduates that the relegation of NTU to pariah status made no sense at all, especially when we saw the many Universities who were ranked higher and supposedly better than us!  The Rankings were as bogus and fake as my replica Rolex. However, my products are replicas of the real Rolex, which is a genuine brand.  The World University Rankings standards are essentially fake, fraudulent, unreliable and a scam.  Their criteria have no validity.  They are simply empty nothingness, really!

Me: Yes, the World University Ranking standards have since been condemned by the United Nations, UK Government and the EU Nations, in addition to several distinguished Professors who are eminent authorities on Higher Education.

Tah-Nan: In the days and weeks immediately following, meetings and brainstorming sessions were held on how to “game” the fraudulent World University Rankings. NTU needed more foreign Professors and many, many more foreign students in order to rank ahead. Strangely, teaching and learning were immaterial and irrelevant for a better University ranking!  

Me: Yes, by 2014, NTU was ranked as the Top Youngest University in the World by QS Ranker, and ranking just 39th Worldwide.  Indeed, what a “climb” from 77^th in 2008!  So what are the lessons for your business?

Tah-Nan: To me, the main critical lesson from NTU is that a fake and bogus brand is better than no brand at all.  We became a replica of fake, bogus quality excellence!

Me: I believe NTU was already arguably among the top best Universities in the region before we encountered the bogus fraudsters calling themselves University Rankers.  By April 2001, NTU's research had resulted in 20 spin-off companies, many of whom funded by venture firms, and 150 disclosures, 76 patents filed and 30 patents granted. The research papers of its staff and students in refereed international journals also won numerous awards in international competitions and conferences. 

Tah-Nan: Sure, we had some impact, but no branding!  Most of the senior Professors had no confidence and very low self-esteem since their boast of having high journal and research paper outputs belied the underlying practice of false authorship.  Subordinate and junior Professors are “persuaded” to include their supervisory seniors as main authors on journal papers which they did not contribute to. Other than fake publications, they had no other impact evidenced by consulting with industry players or innovations or startup ventures.  

Me: Sounds like Harvey Weinstein’s sexual demands to budding actresses before he cast them in his movies!

Tah-Nam: Essentially the same, I think. Perhaps that’s why we did not dare to denounce the results of the World University Rankers. Our NTU leaders and senior Professors probably were afraid that the Rankers were correct, and that they knew most of our research papers and their authorships were fraudulent. 

Me: I see now!  Brand Correspondence!  Brand Mapping! Use a fake and bogus Brand to wrap our excellence, and pack it into an authentic Singapore box!  What a brilliant idea, indeed!

Tah-Nan: Before they came to Singapore, the World University Rankings were already suffering from real serious validity and reliability issues to render them impotent and as meaningless as beauty contests. Their acceptance by the only 2 premier excellent Singapore Universities, NTU and NUS, gave them a much needed credibility boost.  

"We confer credibility and legitimacy to the World University Rankers so that they in turn would provide us a “World” Brand of Quality albeit a questionable, meaningless one without validity.  Awesome!"

Me: So you concluded that having NTU as your business base together with the Rolex box, logo and name would provide a greater sense of “credibility” to your Replica Rolex watches, in a similar way that we confer credibility and legitimacy to the World University Rankers so that they in turn would provide us a “World” Brand of Quality albeit a questionable, meaningless one without validity. Really superb! Simply awesome!

Tah-Nan: Now you understand why I use NTU as my base for the Replica Rolex business.  It provides a great façade and cover for credibility.  I have students, staff and Professors as Sales point facilitators. They are rewarded and incentivized by quarterly cash and Original Rolex watches.  Many of my Sales people wear Original Rolex watches even as they persuade others to buy the cheaper Replica versions. The conflation of Original and Replica Rolex watches in marketing completes my understanding of brand correspondence using brand layers. If discovered, NTU is unlikely do anything to me since I am simply learning and imitating her strategy!    

Me: That’s quite original, man!

Tah-Nan: Let me tell you a bit more about Replica Rolex buyers. They are responsible for some 30% of internet searches on watches. Some years ago, a consortium of high-end Swiss watch brands known as the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) mounted a public relations campaign with the message that "Fake Watches Are For Fake People" to educate people into buying the real thing, with little impact. Fact is that replica or imitation watches exist to satisfy the desires of people who cannot afford "the real thing" but want to portray the same status symbols as those who can. It’s stupidly ironic.  The notion behind the desire to wear a status symbol that you know is not authentic but would appear authentic to ill-informed people and those of low self-esteem. That’s why I only reward my top sales people with Original Rolex watches.

Me: Do you think NTU needs to stop participating in the annual fake and bogus World University Rankings standards?

Tah-Nan: Of course! It is disgusting! A bogus brand is worn to impress plastic minds. The only objective to use a bogus brand is to fool others.  It is dishonest. A fake is and will always be a fake, and so is the person or the organisation who owns one.  And those who persist in wearing a bogus brand cannot be taken seriously and so their reputation will suffer in the long run. No wonder ever since NTU began to pursue the Rankings, she had also ceased having new ideas to patent, or creating innovations and spinoff ventures with her students. If NTU seriously care that the world should think positively and highly about us, NTU should stop brandishing and flaunting the fake and bogus World University Rankings brand as our quality standard. Take this advice from one NTU-trained entrepreneur with a successful replica Rolex business!

Me: I think you would qualify to be the Most Distinguished Young NTU Alumni!  Your nomination and citation may however be quite controversial and contentious though.

Tah-Nan: Thank you.  Would you want to invest in me? 

All of a sudden, I found myself in a familiar place – on my bed.  It was a strange dream, or was it a real journey to the future in the past, I wonder?  What is Tah-Nan doing now?  Is he genuine and for real, I wonder?  Would he become the Jack Ma of Singapore?  Time will tell, I am sure, by my Original Rolex. 

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