Starting Fires: Brian Soo’s Way with the Family Business

01 Oct 2026

7 Min Read

Nellie Chan (Editor)

IN THIS ARTICLE

If there is one thing Brian knows about, it is fire. As Chief Innovation Officer of his family’s fire safety business, fire is quite literally his business. Yet for someone whose work revolves around preventing and putting them out, Brian has spent much of his life doing the opposite—starting them. ‘In my business, if there’s no fire, there’s no business,’ he says. ‘After all, we’re Fire Fighter.’

Today, the Fire Fighter name needs little introduction. Its fire extinguishers, those bright red cylinders found tucked into corners, mounted on walls, and kept close at hand, are perhaps the most familiar face of the business. Founded by Brian’s parents in 1974, the company has since grown into a broader operation, spanning products, services, and systems designed to keep people and places safe.

Brian, meanwhile, had his own early introduction to the company long before he was old enough to call it a career.

Learning by Doing

He was five when he first ‘worked’ at the company, stamping documents and filing them away. The stamping was simple enough; filing was another matter. He had yet to master the alphabet, and the lettering on the files meant little to him. So, he came up with a workaround, counting the files from one to 26. His pay for the day? McDonald’s. A reward he admits is still hard to resist.

That pay became a little more substantial as Brian moved through school: money for every A he scored. He responded accordingly, scoring straight As. By Taylor’s College, the stakes had changed. He already had an offer from an American university; an essay and three Cs in his A Levels were all that stood between him and a place there. His time at Taylor’s, as he puts it, was ‘a fun time’.

And he made the most of it. There was no shortage of people to meet or things to try at Taylor’s, and Brian found his way into both through the Student Council. He put himself forward for Marketing Director, plastering posters of himself around campus and making the rounds for votes—and won. What followed was more than a role to fill: friendships that stayed with him, and a logo he redesigned that stayed behind.

Making It in America

University of California San Diego (UCSD) was a good school, but what really drew Brian to it was where it was: America. Growing up, American media had made the country seem like the centre of everything—the place where stories were born, adventures were had, dreams were made real, and every now and then, aliens would invade. Now, after years of seeing America through a screen, he was finally there.

And if he learnt to make the most of what came his way at Taylor’s, he learnt to make something of his own at UCSD, starting with a Malaysian club. He found its co-founder at the gym, of all places. Spotting someone he thought might be Malaysian, he went over. ‘Are you Malaysian?’ then, ‘Do you want to start a Malaysian club?’ Two questions later, they were in his dorm room for their first meeting, with 12 others. Malaysians in America (MIA) grew from there, bringing Malaysian students and the wider Malaysian community in San Diego together, with its annual Chinese New Year celebrations soon filling a hall.

Then, there were the start-ups. He was accepted into the university’s start-up incubator and took on a part-time role at one founded by a university mate—the same start-up Bose would later acquire. Somewhere along the way, he crossed paths with Steve Hsia, then a board member of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). Hsia took a liking to Brian and pointed him towards its Silicon Valley Immersion Programme. And there he was, tagging along with Malaysian start-ups on visits to Facebook and Google, both of which had once been start-ups themselves.

Coming Home

Coming home was never part of the plan. Then life took a detour when his father suffered a stroke. He has since recovered, but the episode got Brian looking a little more closely at the family business. His parents weren’t getting any younger. He had a decision to make: the life he had been building in America, or the one his family had built at home. He chose the latter. Then COVID-19 arrived, and the Movement Control Order (MCO) rather conveniently left him stuck in Malaysia.

It didn’t take Brian long to discover that the family business was, well, boring. But boring had its advantages. The industry had settled into its ways, and the competition had settled in right alongside it. A little change, then, could go a surprisingly long way. He came into the business as Chief Innovation Officer, after a friend from the start-up world took one look at his ‘Creative Director’ title and decided it wouldn’t do. His first move was to take the business somewhere it hadn't really been before: online.

Online sales were slow at first, until an unusual order caught his eye—60 one-kilogramme fire extinguishers for Grab. They were for its drivers, but Brian was already thinking beyond the 60. He offered a lower price in exchange for a spot on its e-commerce platform, putting his extinguishers in front of thousands more. The deal was done, and then... nothing. For days, then weeks. One afternoon at 4 pm, just as the office was winding down, his phone started vibrating. One order came through. Then another. Then another. Before long, he and his graphic designer found themselves on packing duty.

Tending the Flame

Brian Soo standing in front of a large controlled fire at night at an outdoor training ground

Six years on, Brian has built a team of 14, and their job is, in many ways, to start fires—new products, new services, new ways of doing things, all before the competition catches on. He even put together a customer experience team. Alongside answering queries, they create content for TikTok, Instagram, and beyond, getting people thinking about something they would rather not think about. After all, if nobody cares about fire safety, someone has to give them a reason to.

The trouble with starting fires is that not everyone appreciates the heat. In a family business where personal and professional are never entirely separate, that appetite has made for some combustible relationships. So far, he has been asked to leave the company five times, for pushing too hard or sometimes too far. Perhaps that comes with ‘parachuting’ into a business rather than working your way up, as Brian puts it. Respect, he learnt, was earned—and owed to those who had been there long before him, too, even when they agreed to disagree.

And they had more than seniority to offer. Most of the company’s managers have been there for four decades or more—nearly as long as the company itself—picking up the kind of know-how that rarely makes it into a handbook. With many nearing retirement, Brian was not about to let all that knowledge retire with them. That led to the Fire Fighter Academy, putting seasoned hands in the same room as those still finding their feet. Set up much like a school, it takes employees from technical to interpersonal skills and everything in between.

Keeping the Fire Burning

Brian Soo speaking as a panellist on stage beside two other speakers at a business forum

Of course, the Fire Fighter Academy cannot teach everything. There is no syllabus for being the second generation. The business already has its history, its name already has its reputation, and, from the outside, it can even look as though someone has already left the seat warm for him. But Brian had to earn the respect of people who had been there long before him, learn when to push and when to pull back, and figure out what kind of leader he wanted to be. Six years, five requests to leave, and more than a few serious sit-downs with his parents later, he seems to have figured it out. After years of being ‘Ah Boy’, even in meetings with clients, he is these days simply Brian.

And what does Brian make of it? He once had a sticker on his whiteboard that read, ‘Comparison is the thief of joy’, and he seems to have taken it to heart. The only person he compares himself with is the one he was yesterday. By that yardstick, there is plenty he can call success: the clubs he started, the start-ups he chased and, eventually, the family business he came home to. Yet when he talks about success, he talks less about what he has done than about what he has helped grow—the people, the culture, and Fire Fighter itself. And for someone who has spent so much of his life starting fires, perhaps there is something fitting about finally finding one he wants to keep burning.

If Brian’s years at Taylor’s College sound like the kind of start you are after, explore Cambridge A Level at Taylor’s College and see where it could take you.

LEARN MORE ABOUT CAMBRIDGE A LEVEL

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