Dr. Wilson Goh answers his emails diligently, and replies to text messages almost instantaneously that it’s difficult to tell whether he is in town or in Europe, where he typically spends six months out of a year. While others who travel frequently casually mention upcoming trips as a warning that they will have intermittent access to the Internet, Dr. Goh gives no indication that he may be in a different time zone or has other important things to see to.
He simply answers his emails, almost promptly, often encouraging the sender to write back or contact someone in his office in Singapore if further assistance will be required. Within minutes of meeting him, one is convinced of his courtesy and mindfulness.
Business commitments keep Dr. Goh equally busy in Singapore. He remains involved in GPA Dental Group, the progressive dental practice that he founded and grew for about 23 years, as well as a couple of other businesses that he set up recently.
He is about to assume the chairmanship of a committee at Scholars Network, an initiative of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SCCCI) envisioned to promote the idea of ‘receiving from community, giving back to community’.
- A FAMILY'S DYNAMICS
- A SMALL START
- A TURNING POINT
- THE TECH ADVANTAGE
- THE 'Z' SUITES
- SEEING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
A Family's Dynamics
Giving back to the community is an idea that the Gohs are very familiar with: The family runs a self-named foundation in Vienna, which collects rare musical instruments, which rising and established musicians can use as part of a philanthropic arrangement for the development of music and musicians. Every member of the family is involved in the activities of this foundation.
The family’s continued support for the arts and education in Vienna is bringing them prestigious recognition. In April this year, the Goh family will receive the Flame of Peace award, which is given to individuals and organizations with notable contributions to promoting peace through various agencies. Organized by the non-profit Association for the Promotion of Peace, the award is handed out by its founder and president, a descendant of the royal House of Hapsburg.
Dr. Goh’s wife, Mrs. Karen Goh, lives in Vienna with their children, and is an appointed director at the Amadeus Music and Arts Academy, under the Amadeus International School Vienna, which the Goh family owns, and where their children Brendan, 18, and Dana, 16, are students.
Brendan, currently ranked among of the top young cellists in Europe – “perhaps even the world”, Dr. Goh shares – is pursuing cello performance, while Dana, herself an accomplished violist, aspires to pursue a career in visual arts. Dr. Goh, who does not share personal stories easily, is refreshingly candid and understandably proud of his children’s accomplishments. “Both of them are also doing very well in academic studies in school,” he offers.
Business collaborations take Dr. Goh throughout Europe, but in Vienna, where he is involved in important matters relating to the school, the real draw for him is spending as much time as he could with his family.
“As a family, we have very open conversations about our businesses, particularly about education and the family foundation. I think this is part of leaving a legacy, so it is important that every member of our family gets involved to ensure the continuity of the groundwork Karen and I have started.”
- A FAMILY'S DYNAMICS
- A SMALL START
- A TURNING POINT
- THE TECH ADVANTAGE
- THE 'Z' SUITES
- SEEING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
A Small Start
Dr. Wilson Goh began his dental practice in a small clinic – all of 80 square feet – in 1995. Success followed quickly, and he found himself assembling a team to help him cope with the work. “I barely had time to attend to the needs of my patients properly. In order to continue providing quality care to my patients, I decided that to recruit dentists who would duplicate my system of practice was the best way to ensure quality care to patients,” he explains.
Today, GPA Dental Group has four locations across Singapore, 17 dentists and about 50 staff in total.
“Leveraging on technology not only helped me provide the latest care to my patients, but also provided an equalizing platform for all dentists of the GPA Dental Group. This way, the Group was less dependent on the human variables, and every dentist was able to provide consistently high quality dental care to all patients so that they could receive the same top quality care regardless of the schedules of dentists in the group.”
Dr. Goh emphasizes that he did not neglect the development of the soft skills of dentists. “They were constantly developed through concerted and regular in-house trainings.
- A FAMILY'S DYNAMICS
- A SMALL START
- A TURNING POINT
- THE TECH ADVANTAGE
- THE 'Z' SUITES
- SEEING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
A Turning Point
GPA Dental Group’s annual turnover of about S$7million to S$8million, along with its brand value and growth potential, has made it attractive to investors. In 2010, an M&A offer from a medical conglomerate finally came through. “I felt that other than the possible synergy for the business, (the merger) would also help to monetize my investment (in GPA), and allow me to look into other possible opportunities, particularly in education,” Dr. Goh shares.
The completion of the merger allowed Dr. Goh to explore new ventures, eventually landing him in Vienna as a founding investor in the Amadeus International School. Today, he holds a 25 per cent equity in GPA, and serves as both managing director of the Group and chairman of its board.
The M&A necessitated the restructuring of the Group, during which it was decided that the in-house dental laboratory, originally conceived and set up to service GPA’s own dentists and patients instead of being a profit center, would cease its operation.
“I didn’t want our technicians to be retrenched because of the restructuring; at the same time, I saw the rising trend in digitizing dental laboratories worldwide, so I decided to collaborate with 3M Espe to bring in the Lava technology (a full CAD CAM dental laboratory system), and get our technicians trained in this revolutionary way for dental laboratory.”
With the move, Dr. Goh succeeded in bringing the then best dental laboratory technology into Singapore and the region, and ensured a smooth transfer of the Group’s technicians to a new entity, Atelier Z, where they could continue to be gainfully employed.
- A FAMILY'S DYNAMICS
- A SMALL START
- A TURNING POINT
- THE TECH ADVANTAGE
- THE 'Z' SUITES
- SEEING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
The Tech Advantage
With the primary objectives of Atelier Z fulfilled, Dr. Goh began looking into strategies to grow the business. “Dental technology adoption rate in Singapore is particularly slow, and I was well aware of such a situation given my experience in the field of dentistry.
“But we are prepared for it to grow slowly as we waited for further development of dental laboratory materials and technology, and for the dental market to mature enough to take Atelier Z to the next phase.
Atelier Z is currently seeing increased adoption of CAD CAM dental laboratory technology by dentists. Material development in CAD CAM dentistry has also achieved major breakthroughs over the last two years, Dr. Goh observes. For instance, Atelier Z is still the only 3M Espe authorized milling center in Singapore; it is also the only Amann Girrbach life partner in Singapore through a deal that was set in place in late 2017.
Today, Atelier Z is able to make advanced technology available to all dental clinics in Singapore and the region. The new entity is fully owned and funded by Dr. Goh and his wife. Atelier Z’s current turnover is about S$600,000.
- A FAMILY'S DYNAMICS
- A SMALL START
- A TURNING POINT
- THE TECH ADVANTAGE
- THE 'Z' SUITES
- SEEING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
The 'Z' Suites
“At Atelier Z, we collaborate only with the most advanced dental laboratory researchers and manufacturers in the world. While we recognize the slow growth in dental technology adoption among dentists in Singapore, we also acknowledge that the most advanced technology will eventually be adopted here given our global exposure,” Dr. Goh says. He has invested about S$1.5 million in a bid to turn Atelier Z into the most advanced dental laboratory in the region.
Dr. Goh is not nearly done growing Atelier Z. A digital portal is being completed at the moment—a rather fresh idea in the dental laboratory business. Given the rapid pace of digital dentistry adoption worldwide, the creation of the said portal is a necessary move to secure a leadership role in the whole dentistry ecosystem, Dr. Goh explains.
“It will enable us to connect to dentists all around the world to offer education, product information, and a price point advantage. It will also serve to engage all major dental laboratory technology and material manufacturers in the world for a possible participation in data collection on the behavioral patterns of dentists and patients worldwide.”
Eventually, the portal will also serve as an information center for consumers and patients, Dr. Goh revelas. “I believe the time has come to ‘de-professionalize’ knowledge in order to empower the end-of-line consumers to make informed choices when it comes to their own treatment. Consumers should have their say in choice of technology and materials, instead of being entirely dependent on dentists to make the choices for them—basically, a truer form of knowledge and information flow as far as dentistry is concerned.
“We are expecting to scale up to at least S$2million turnover within a year. Thereafter, I do not do a projection as we enter uncharted waters. The upward scalability should be interesting.”
- A FAMILY'S DYNAMICS
- A SMALL START
- A TURNING POINT
- THE TECH ADVANTAGE
- THE 'Z' SUITES
- SEEING BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
Seeing Beyond the Obvious
Although Dr. Goh has been able to grow his businesses steadily, he admits to having taken a step back in the past. “Having invested and engaged in a failed dental stem cell storage business in Singapore over the past three years due to a partnership with a candidate of poor ethics, I realized that the science behind the whole storage process still need some relooking and refinement.” This thinking has led to the development of yet another entity, Innova Z. Recently, the installation of Innova Z’s cryopreservation facility has been completed, and the team is now looking at collaboration with scientists to re-evaluate the storage protocols of dental stem cells.
Dr. Goh has not established time line for the business. “The entity is now set up with a clear purpose of refining and establishing better dental stem cells storage protocol than what is currently available. However, given the fluidity of development in this field, it is not inconceivable that it can develop into a commercial entity.
Dr. Goh admits that he does not plot out long-term visions for any of his businesses. “It has always been one step at a time, and allowing development in trends to determine the next directions to take.”
Dr. Wilson Goh has unwittingly made observers second-guess where he was headed, and anticipate what his next big venture would be. But time and again he has made it clear to everyone that some things are best dealt with a firm hand, and some things have to be left alone.
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