FOOTBALL club chairman Teo Hock Seng has good claim to being Singapore's No 1 sports fan, now that he will also be driving the country's inaugural Formula One Grand Prix race.

Mr Teo is the chairman of Tampines Rovers - last year's Singapore Cup champion - as well as the managing director of Komoco Motors. He is also part of the management team which will stage an F1 championship race here next year. So it is no surprise to learn that he believes sports and business complement each other, and that sports-loving people display a certain vibrancy in their working life.

'Sports keeps you alive. The rhythm in sports is the same as in business. You have to keep costs down and you need your players to give you 100 per cent effort. The right motivation and the right attitude are key,' he says.

Mr Teo should know - he has been a big sports fan all his life. One former schoolmate of the ex-SJI boy remembers him playing every game on the field, then going indoors for a round of chess.

After those early years of football, rugby, cricket, hockey and athletics, in which he represented his school, he is now most preoccupied with the motor business. The colourful boss of Komoco oversees a number of marques - Hyundai, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Harley-Davidson. The first one, Hyundai, is today among Singapore's top-selling makes - more than 10,000 units a year.

It is a far cry from the sales levels when Mr Teo, together with property tycoon Ong Beng Seng and Metro boss Jopie Ong, started marketing the Korean marque here in 1986.

'We were looking for a new business during the recession and even though the motor trade was seen as a sunset industry then, we plunged in,' he says.

Many people were surprised when the businessmen took on the franchise. Komoco offered just two Hyundai models when the showroom opened in August 1986 - the Stellar and Excel.

'We sold the first shipment of 32 cars, so I doubled the order for the next shipment. The price was right,' Mr Teo says, referring to the US$3,000 cost of each car, 'and this is the same formula we've used.'

Komoco ended 1986 with 273 vehicles sold. The following year saw 1,500, and there were 4,238 sold in 1988.

'We continued to do well with two models,' Mr Teo says. 'Then the Sonata came in 1988, which was our first year to make money.' That was the same year Komoco won an award for being the Hyundai distributor of the year worldwide.

In 1990, the distributorship for Australia was up for grabs. After discussing with the principal, Mr Teo took it on and from under 20,000 cars a year, sales grew to 60,000 in 1995.

'It trebled in four years. Until today, that record has not been achieved.'

The Australian business was later sold off in 1998 but in 2000 came another accolade. Komoco won its second worldwide distributor of the year award, followed by 2003's distributor of the year for Asia-Pacific.

Mr Teo's passion for the automotive business is evident from the way he landed the Chrysler franchise. Flying to Detroit, he turned up at the US car maker's office unannounced. Although Chrysler told him the car was not ready for the right-hand-drive market, Mr Teo persisted. Eventually, the company relented and the Voyager MPV and Neon compact sedan arrived on Singapore shores, followed later by the Jeep Cherokee and Wrangler SUVs.

He attributes his drive to his early training in the airline industry. 'I started work in Cathay Pacific, and in 1975 when I was 29 years old, I was made area manager for Singapore. I ran an airline with high revenue returns at an early age and that training in one-upmanship - that you must do better than your competitor - inculcated in me the spirit of always trying to do better than others.'

As a leader, he says his management style at Komoco is casual, but firm. Don't expect him to admonish his staff to 'Die for the company', but rather 'Put your best foot forward'.

We do our best to take care of them, he adds, and this extends to free meals at the in-house canteen, where staff can lunch up to four times a week at the company's expense.

Employee loyalty at Komoco is high. Eleven staff members have been with the company since it was formed 20 years ago, while almost 50 have logged up more than 10 years of service each.

'We get along well,' explains Mr Teo. 'We are like a close-knit family.'