ASK most people what their hobby is and you would probably get mundane answers like reading, travelling or sports. Not many will name inventing as a hobby, but Ting Sie Bing, founder and managing director of SPM Syarikat Permainan (M) Sdn Bhd, is one who does just that in his free time.

Those unfamiliar with the company's name will definitely have heard of or played one of its board games. The more popular ones include the Bahasa Malaysia crossword game "Sahibba" and property trading game "Saidina".

For the 61-year-old Ting, it was the decision to commercialise one of his inventions that changed the course of his career. "Inventing was my hobby. Since childhood I always wanted to play with something different, was curious to see how they work, and always put things under the microscope to see what is behind them," Ting said.

Describing himself as eccentric, he said it was an interest that prompted him to attend technical school in the 1950s and become an engineer. All this while, Ting continued to pursue his hobby which garnered him a long list of awards from various Government and private bodies.

His ideas include detachable chopsticks to eliminate the waste of disposable chopsticks. For this, he won the Malaysian Invention and Design Competition in 1992. Last year SPM was awarded the Malaysian Design Council's First Malaysian Good Design award for a foldable and colourful "Congkak".

Realising the domestic and international recognition for its products, SPM is vying for Ministry of Trade and Industry's Industry Excellence Award 1998. It is submitting entries for the product innovation, development of a Malaysian brand, and design excellence categories. Interestingly, SPM's first award came from Miti in 1987 for Product Excellence in the-toys and games category, for its convertible and portable game table.

In January, SPM was one of four companies given the licence by the Ministry of Sciende, Technology and Environment to carry a Standard Good Design Mark on its Congkak game. The company will also be making an entry in the Malaysian Book of Records.

Recounting the events that led to his foray into business. Ting said it all started in 1976. He was then a senior instructor in a Government industrial training institute when he came across some colleagues using the English Scrabble board game to play in Bahasa Malaysia "They found that they couldn't use Scrabble and so there was a lot of debate as to why it was not possible. I thought that it needed some improvisation for Bahasa Malaysia. "So I did some research, into the frequency and how often the letters appear in Malay words, and to find the percentage of usage," he said in an interview at his office which sits atop its factory in Puchong, Selangor.

Working part-time, it took him three years to perfect the game, and another two to three years to source for contractors and manufacturers to make the parts and to put the finishing touches to Sahibba.

"Eventually I quit my job and started the company to market and sell the game. I started out very small and I was operating from my home", he laughed. Sahibba became the company's first crossword puzzle game and is also copyrighted.

In the company's infant years, revenue was modest, several hundred thousand ringgit per year. This has grown to RM2.6 million last year, or about RM5.2 million in terms of retail value of the games sold.

Next SPM introduced Saidina, a Malaysian property trading game. Quickly becoming its other best selling board game, Saidina comes in several versions, including one on the Penaag property market and another on Malaysian State capitals. Saidina and Sahibba continue to be the company's best selling and most popular games to date.

SPM now produces 42 different board games divided into the strategic games, educational games, skill games and games of chance categories. Strategic games are the most sought after, of which the company makes about 25 types, including congkak, Go and Pusingo (tic-tac-toe).

Ting said SPM typically kicks off the introduction of a new game with some 3,000 sets in department stores where there is high turnover. Its buyers' profile is mainly parents with schoolgoing children residing in the Klang Valley and Selangor. The bulk or 40 per cent of SPM's sales are from the Klang Valley and Selangor, with other urban areas also registering strong sales.

To date the company owns over 60 published copyrighted work for board games and 21 trademarks. With 25 full-time staff, six authorised agents in Malaysia and one in Singapore, SPM made about 245,000 sets of board games last year, which are sold in over 1,500 retail outlets nationwide.

Next on his cards is the game carrom, which Ting is currently working on. Showing the blueprint for the design, Ting said he has redesigned the carom table to make it foldable for portability. It will be made of high-technology plastic, and players are assured of a smooth table without the need for talcum.

"You can take it away from the shopping centres, it can be folded, or do-it-yourself, and is colourful like our congkak sets. "The main thing is to save our jungles because we will not use wood," Ting said. Production is set to begin in two months. The company is also getting ready to launch four models of chess and checker sets.

Having been in the business for 22 years. Ting is ready to steer the company to export its board games to Asean countries as soon as the regional economies recover. Asean is viewed as a huge potential market for SPM's board games as the countries typically share the same culture and language. Games like the congkak, carrom and Sahibba are expected to sell well.

Ting lauded the Government's decision to recognise ideas and inventions about 10 years ago and for giving the first national scale award in 1987. Laws on intellectual property were changed and enforcement beefed up. "Because of all this recognition, it has helped change our country. Who wants to invent when anybody can copy your ideas?"

"Inventing is no big risk, not like opening a coffee shop. It is more like writing a book and publishing it, the satisfaction you get for your invention, he concluded.