UTM Center for Student Innovation & Technology Entrepreneurship (UTM XCITE) had organized numbered of entrepreneurship talks with the involvement of successful entrepreneurs to share tips and knowledge in starting a new business. The talks were open to all UTM students through the Facebook live platform since in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the talks was ‘Strike a Balance’ by Sr. Gs. Mohd Radhie Mohd Salleh on 3 May 2021.

Sr. Gs. Mohd Radhie Mohd Salleh, who also being called, Mr. Mohd Radhie is an experienced Managing Director (I Net Spatial Sdn. Bhd.) with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry, skilled in GIS Application and Remote Sensing. He completed his Bachelor of Science (Geoinformatics) degree in 2014 and graduated with a Master of Philosophy (Geoinformatics) three years later. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at UTM and at the same time manages to start his career as the CEO of I Net Spatial Sdn. Bhd with Sr. Hairi Karim, the Finance and Marketing Director and Mr. Yushazwan Yusof, the Technical Director. 

I Net Spatial Sdn. Bhd. was incorporated under Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM) in January 2017. The company which 100% owned by ‘Bumiputera,’ and located at Taman Pulai Flora, Skudai, Johor, is a multi-disciplinary company that focuses on consultancy and supply. Their vision is to be the leading and trustworthy entity in delivering related consultancy services that mainly concerned with the client needs and satisfaction via sharing professionality with the latest technology.

Their missions are to provide effective consultancy services in Geographic Information System (GIS), IT, Networking, Cartographic, Remote Sensing, Real Estate, Environment, and Hydrological fields as well as to deliver up-to-date technologies of hardware, network, security, software, device, instrument. The company consists of 50 team members with around 15+ interns every year.

Mr. Mohd Radhie has started his own company without receiving any salary for the first two years. Instead, he spent all the money he should have on the company. The employees experienced a payment delay due to poor cash flow management. He had highlighted FOUR challenges which were Time Management, Cash Flow, Strapped Budget and Human Resources.

Mr. Mohd Radhie said there were ways to manage time wisely by creating a goal list and eliminating unnecessary tasks. He had come up with an effective business model to solve the problem of human resources. The company is currently spending more money on employee well-being and with a limited budget problem, the company has prioritized which project should spend more money on.

Mr. Mohd Radhie was then emphasized Work-study-life balance. He had offered some advice on how to manage our work and study time. Some of his insights were making a proper schedule to organize our activities is crucial to having a balanced work and social life, prioritizing and planning activities by deadlines are important, whether we are students or employees, we should take a break from our work for our physical and emotional well-being, socialization is beneficial to people’s mental and physical well-being, and students should frequently connect with their supervisor at least once a week to stay informed about their progress and receive prompt feedback.

Five pieces of advice for young entrepreneurs were also emphasized; challenge yourself, find a mentor, take the risk, manage your time, know what you want. UTM XCITE had successfully organized numbered of talks that able to change the mindset of UTM students on entrepreneurship. The programs had been an eye-opener to UTM students on how impactful entrepreneurship can be in students’ and graduates’ lives.