By JIANG RUIMING, NGUYEN TUNG ANH and PHAM QUANG DAT

RAJIV Singh, managing director of Synergic Industrial Materials & Services (SIMS) is a firm believer in building relationships. Not just with his customers, but with every party that his business is associated with - suppliers, creditors, employees and even the media and academic institutions.

In fact, Mr Singh proudly says: 'SIMS stands for Sincerity + Integrity + Motivation = Success.'

When dealing with customers, suppliers and creditors, he places a premium on sincerity and integrity. And this, coupled with appropriate motivation for his staff, has helped make SIMS successful.

Mr Singh worked in the base metals industry for 10 years, and after obtaining an MBA, went on to found SIMS Singapore in 2000. Initially, the company was a manufacturer's representative for copper, aluminium, zinc, lead and tin products. For example, it helped source and ship raw copper from Russia, Malaysia and Australia to production plants in India and Asean.

In 2002, a worldwide shortage of copper presented SIMS Singapore with the opportunity to significantly increase its net worth. 'The shortage of copper sent copper prices skyrocketing,' Mr Singh recalls. 'We were in the right place at the right time and were able to grow rapidly.'

In 2005, the company shifted its focus to concentrate solely on copper and has since seen phenomenal growth in its net worth, from $1 million in 2005 to $70 million at March 2009.

Today, it supplies copper to the wire and cable industry in several parts of the region, including India, Malaysia, Indonesia and, of course, Singapore. It also provides risk management services to selected clients to help them with price volatility, inventory management, foreign exchange exposure and cashflow planning.

Mr Singh's vision is for SIMS to be a recognised brand name in the copper industry, not just locally but internationally.

Although timing and opportunity were the key to the company's rapid rise, Mr Singh is quick to point out that these things alone would not have been enough to lift it to where it is today. Relationships are what really matter, he says. And he starts with building and maintaining them in-house.

SIMS has 18 staff, half of them in Singapore and the others in its Malaysian office. Mr Singh attributes his company's success to his team. 'I'm really blessed to have such dedicated people,' he says. 'In fact, we are more like friends and extended family.'

Mr Singh also reckons that to boost productivity, it is vital to give staff the right tools and support to do their best in day-to-day operations. As such, various measures have been taken to improve operations, including transforming the company's management system from a manual approach to an enterprise resource planning system.

To help contain costs and to add value for customers, SIMS is also developing its own downstream plant to process copper in specific ways that best meet their needs, especially in the copper wires and cables market.

Another key element of growth is the emphasis that Mr Singh places on relationships between the company and its customers, suppliers, associates and bankers.

Most revenue comes from regular customers, which is why he places a lot of emphasis on trust and sincerity when dealing with customers. The copper supply industry has very low profit margins, so SIMS has to rely on huge volumes to grow revenue. And because the industry is so specialised, there are only a limited number of suppliers who can provide the company with the huge quantities of raw copper that it needs. Word gets around quickly should there be unreliability or other problems. It is, therefore, crucial that SIMS maintain close relations not only with customers but suppliers too.

As for bankers, Mr Singh learnt the importance of capital when he suffered a dearth of it during the company's start-up stage. With the support of partner banks, the company was able to ride the hard times early on, and then again when commodity prices started to rocket in 2002.

'Relationships with creditors are even more important today,' says Mr Singh. 'With the economic downturn, more and more businesses are finding it difficult to access credit. Better mutual communication and understanding can help increase confidence between banks and SMEs, which is definitely beneficial for both parties.'

By maintaining good relations with partner banks and suppliers, SIMS is able to keep prices down to maintain its competitiveness.

Banks and trading partners aside, Mr Singh is very active on the local SME scene. He is not only passionate about building his own business but about contributing to the local business community as much as possible.

Not one to be content with where he is at, Mr Singh has two major plans for SIMS.

First, he wants the company to build a bigger foreign market share. Using Singapore as a base, SIMS Singapore is poised to establish a much wider presence, beyond Malaysia and Indonesia and as far afield as the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East. In fact, SIMS is taking advantage of the economic downturn to establish itself internationally. As Mr Singh points out: 'Such times produce many good opportunities to expand.'

Second, SIMS aims to add more value to its line of products and services. With low profit margins, Mr Singh is convinced that the only way to get further ahead is increase the volume of their business and tap new areas of business.

As such, the company is looking to take on a bigger role in the upstream and downstream manufacturing of copper products. This way, instead of simply providing raw materials, it will be able to tap into a larger market by providing a wider portfolio of products such as copper cathodes, rods, wires and piping.

The writers are students of the NUS Business School

This article was first published in The Business Times.