Andrew Yap — a successful entrepreneur, FIU professor, author and the current general manager of Moon Thai restaurants in Cutler Bay and beyond — was a guest speaker during the Sept. 8 meeting of the Cutler Bay Business Association (CBBA).
Yap spoke about the importance of good business planning and networking. He also catered the well-attended luncheon for free to prove his point.
“Ultimately, I want people to know that the restaurant has superb quality, superb customer service,” Yap said. “We are there for the people, anything that they need with regard to events, catering, anything like that. We believe in 100 percent customer satisfaction. Many businesses tend to forget about that, and then they try to scramble. The core of our business is customer service.”
Yap praised the CBBA for the benefits it offers area businesses.
“I think the CBBA is a very good organization, because I believe in networking 100 percent,” Yap said. “You can only do so much advertising, but personal word of mouth is much more powerful. I think it’s a great opportunity for any business to be able to go out there and try to network.
“Right now the economy is tough, and it’s only the tough businesses that are going to survive. The ones that are the most memorable are going to survive. That’s one of the reasons that we as a company are going out to increase awareness whichever way that we can. So if most people haven’t been to our location, we’re going to bring the location to them. Once they try the food, they’ll come back, because that’s all it takes.”
He advised business people to have a clear sense of direction for their companies and growth.
“I have always been in search of ways to increase the opportunities for success and identify methods of reducing the fear of failure,” Yap said. “A famous person once said, ‘If you don’t know where you are going, you are going to end up somewhere else,’ and another said, ‘Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. These are just two very powerful quotes that demonstrate the power of direction and perseverance.”
Yap is president of LEASA Industries Co. Inc.; president of the Florida Association for Food Protection’s South Florida Division; an author of more than 25 textbooks and supplements published by Prentice Hall, McGraw-Hill, and Wessex Publishing since 2005, and was an inductee into FIU’s Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2004.
An instructor in Florida International University’s College of Business Administration since 1997, Yap has taught courses in Organizational Behavior, Managing Change in Organizations, Crisis Management, Strategic Management, International Management, International Business, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Research, Consumer Behavior, Sales Management and others. He earned his BBAand MBA from FIU and completed several PhD level management research courses there as well.
“I firmly believe that life has no limits and a person is only restricted by what he or she believes,” Yap said.
Moon Thai is located in Southland Mall at 20505 S. Dixie Hwy. The website isand phone is 786- 293-5599.
