At full gallop
Never one to move at anything less than full speed, Dato’ Chevy Beh is the founder of the online healthcare platform BookDoc, which he set up in 2015 to help connect patients in Asia to healthcare professionals anytime and anywhere. A proud Ipoh-ite, he served five years as Managing Director of his family company, BP Healthcare Group, and – as an extremely enthusiastic polo player – regularly returns to his hometown to play at BP Polo Club Malaysia. Earlier in year, he and the BP Polo team hosted a polo match on their home turf against an Argentinean team in partnership with Royal Salute, during which Robb Report Malaysia was able to get a taste of the action.
On BookDoc
I’m extremely surprised by how BookDoc has progressed since it was first launched. We celebrated our second anniversary at the start of this year, but honestly, I never envisioned all of this: the countries we’ve entered, the partnerships we’ve established with healthcare players or corporate and insurance clients and our user-based biometrics.
On teaming up
BookDoc’s partnerships with service providers and retailers reward our users for staying active. We recently teamed up with Zalora and Chow Tai Fook, but it’s always a very relationship-driven process at the beginning. As people begin to see the partners you’ve garnered, they’re willing to talk with you on an equal footing because of your credibility. That inflection point where the dynamic changes is really fascinating.
On creating a startup
Starting BookDoc from scratch was like having a baby for the first time – I didn’t know where to begin! It was very different to joining an established company like BP Healthcare Group, which had the bricks and mortar, workforce, manpower, profits, sales and brand name. With a startup, as opposed to scaling up, you face far more headwinds than a big, traditional company, and you feel their effects much more clearly.
On being competitive
My blood pressure differs according to the type of polo game I’m playing. If I’m warming up, training, or playing a charity match, of course I rein in the adrenaline. But during a competitive game, I’ll go all out to beat the other team.
On polo
I was lucky to be the first Malaysian to play in Palermo, Argentina, which is considered the Wimbledon and Mecca of polo. Another incredibly fun and memorable place that I’ve played at is the Honolulu Polo Club in Hawaii, which has a polo field right next to the beach. You can’t beat that.
Playing polo has given me many milestones that I can look back on as ‘wow’ moments in my life. I suppose with my current handicap of four, I could play professionally – and I wanted to do so when I was young. But polo, like any sport, has a battery life where you train, reach the pinnacle, and then degrade over time. When you run a business, however, you grow and structure gradually so it becomes evergreen enough to outlive you, and leave behind a good name and legacy.
On driving
Of my family’s car collection, I’m particularly fond of Porsches. Driving to Ipoh in the early morning or evening with the roof down on my Porsche Boxster RS 60 Spyder is such a great experience.
On Scotch
There are two ways of enjoying Royal Salute, depending on whether I’m a player or a spectator. If I’m not playing, watching a polo match while sipping on a glass of Scotch is great, or I’ll enjoy it after the game when playing. Perhaps one of the best places I’ve had a dram of Royal Salute is at The Yale Club in New York, which sits right in Midtown and offers a view of the city’s skyline.
