It may be a matter of fate or simply down to DNA, but many executives find key themes recurring throughout their careers. They can switch sector and seek out brand-new challenges, but somehow certain innate skills or hard-won experience are once again called for and, logically enough, must be put into action.
“Looking back, I can see that a lot of my career has been about change management, getting people to do new things, to open their minds and be receptive to different ideas,” says Malcolm Chan, the Asia-Pacific managing director for leading telecoms firm BICS. The Brussels-headquartered company provides wholesale clients with a global network of secure mobility, voice and data solutions and acts as a bridge between other telecom operators.
With a team of 30-odd specialists and covering an area stretching from Pakistan to New Zealand, Chan’s brief is essentially to instigate change and stay close to clients as they move into a purely digital world. It’s about engaging new markets and being central to a process of transformation that continues apace in world where businesses and device-wielding consumers are demanding high-speed connectivity, seamless roaming, enhanced security features and, increasingly, ready access to the internet of things (IoT).
“For me, that change starts with learning the latest technologies and then trying to tie the old and the new,” he says. “To work successfully with customers, you must move them from traditional areas into the digital space with new services and products.”
The sense of urgency, the push to improve, required to build the business and run a team of 13 different nationalities is, in many ways, second nature to Chan. That’s because he grew up in Singapore during the 70s and 80s, a time of huge transformation and progress. The country was intent forging its own destiny and creating a better future, and that inevitably had a big impact on his outlook and attitude to life.
Chan’s father worked as an admin officer for insurance company Swiss Re, while his mother looked after the family. Educated in the Catholic school system, he did well enough to win a place at the Singapore Institute of Management and studied business administration and finance there for two years before completing his degree at RMIT in Melbourne. Overall, it was a great experience, but on graduating in 1992, Chan still had no specific career plans, other than a determination to start earning as soon as possible.
“I wanted to stay on in Australia, but my parents had expectations, and I got a phone call telling me to come home,” he says. “I was, though, gunning to get into the workforce. I took my last exam on a Friday and began at a software company in Singapore on the following Monday. I felt it was important to get off the start line as fast as you can.”
That first job lasted a bare couple of months before insurance giant AIA confirmed a coveted spot on their management trainee scheme. Chan grabbed the chance and soon made his mark running a year-long in-house ISO 9000 quality project. Having impressed there, he was next “parachuted in” to run a unit with staffing and morale problems after a mass defection, and that led to subsequent stints in sales, marketing, credit insurance, and risk management.
What these varied roles had in common was the need to stabilise the business, hire and build a team, implement new practices and procedures, and then move on and up once things were ticking over satisfactorily.
However, things took a new and unexpected turn in late 1999. A recruitment firm called Chan to propose a job in a different sector that would also require a leap of faith. Starhub had just won Singapore’s third telecoms licence and was putting together a start-up team of ambitious individuals – 80 per cent came from outside the industry – who could win customers, run a slick operation and, ultimately, change the way a service provider could go to market.
Chan liked what he heard, noted the possibility of generous share options, and signed on the dotted line.
“I joined the telecoms industry with zero experience and nothing to lose,” he says. “I decided to give it two to three years to figure out if it was right for me because I believe you should try everything once in your life and give it a chance to work.”
His first big assignment was to set up a call centre, where headcount went from 30 to 600-plus in just 18 months.
“We were ‘on steroids’, eating and living the business 25 hours a day. But it was a great ride, and the momentum just carried you through.”
In due course, he moved into product management and then ran the firm’s international business, culminating with a five-year streak of annual growth touching 30 per cent. By 2010, though, needing a break after years of untaken vacations, he quit with no fixed plan other than to take an extended trip through Europe with his wife.
“People thought I was crazy, but that was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done,” Chan says. “It clears the head and gives you time to take stock, though it can get pretty boring after a while.”
Back home again, an exploratory chat turned into a job as principal deal architect at Vodafone, and the move to BICS in 2014 reconfirmed Chan’s standing within the sector.
These days, he is on the road more than 50 per cent of the time, but as a proud Singaporean also enjoys welcoming friends and business contacts to the city and explaining its intricacies.
“In fact, I’ve qualified as a licensed tour guide,” he says. “It’s always a pleasant surprise to hear about new things and link the dots. I believe if you know yourself and your country, the path forward is a bit clearer.”
