So This Is My Why

We're back with Part 2 with Dato' Sri Idris Jala - the former CEO of Malaysia Airlines, Managing Director of Shell Sri Lanka and Senator & Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office, and current Chairman of PEMANDU. In Part 1 of this So This Is My Why feature, we delved into his tribal origins, how becoming top of his class was a matter of life and death, and his journey to becoming the Managing Director in Shell Sri Lanka - still his toughest gig to date. Listen here: https://youtu.be/KekuCGZJYlk In Part 2, we go even deeper, exploring things like: 🔸 If Dato' Sri Idris would act the same way if he had a chance to redo everything? 🔸 How Shell moved Idris out of Sri Lanka because he was taking huge risks and they thought, “We should take you out before you kill yourself!” 🔸 What he learned from Michael Black 🔸 How he put Eddy Leong as the first CEO of Firefly because “he’s a bit crazy but he has the tenacity to push it” 🔸 Why he gave up the job he really wanted - to be the Chairman of Shell - to become the CEO of Malaysia Airlines 🔸 The advice he has for his sons Want to learn more? You’ll just have to tune in. Highlights: 0:00 Introduction 1:30 If you had a chance, would you redo anything? 6:01 Shell was a fantastic school of management 6:43 Why Michael Black left such an impact on him 10:52 If you really want to do the real impossible stuff, you must put everything on the line 12:06 The line between the impossible goal v being foolhardy 14:54 The best way to tell you what you don't want to hear? 15:39 Why did you reject your dream job?! 16:46 Huge leap of faith - MNC to GLC 18:46 Launching a budget airline, Firefly 23:36 Common values of incredible people 24:43 Making it sustainable 29:07 Common issues 35:27 Lessons from PEMANDU operating in other countries 37:23 Check into Hotel California 39:14 Having a soulmate 44:16 SOW Club - Scared of Wife Club 48:58 Advice to sons 53:46 Legacy you want to leave behind? 54:03 What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful person? 🙊 Want to support STIMY for as little as $0.10/day? https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/ 🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/lhIUOf7jSKs 📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/148 💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/profile

When Arthur Kiong, CEO of Far East Hospitality, failed his A Levels, he thought his life was pretty much over. His dad even told him, "I’m sorry, you had your shot but you missed it" and in Arthur's own words, "I was lost and I was discouraged and I was in a great deal of pain and despair." Arthur ended up selling slimming products on the streets because it was the only job he could find before applying to Mediocorp to become a stage technician. Things took a turn when he was asked to take a voice test and he ended up with a celebrity radio DJ because he could pronounce "Thursday the Thirteenth”! Overnight, Arthur found himself rubbing shoulders with the who's who and celebrities of the world and you would’ve thought that this was where Arthur’s career was on a rapid trajectory upwards save that he gave it all up to work to become a greeter at Prego. People were astonished. Why would he take on such a 'demeaning' job?! But Arthur was adamant. And Prego signalled the first step that Arthur took into the world of hospitality, where you'll find that he's had more than his share of incredible luck, ingenuity and adventures. Including: * Being 'saved' by a war and lauded as a genius * Landing his dream job (at Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong) because his dog, Silky, fell sick! * Launching a successful marketing campaign straight after 9/11 (despite being in the thick of a fight between the head office & owner!) To find out more, you’ll just have to listen to this STIMY Ep 147 with Arthur Kiong. 😏 Highlights: 2:49 Adrian Tan 3:52 You have to be on the right escalator 6:18 Being in despair 6:53 Selling Japanese slimming starch 7:04 Becoming a celebrity radio DJ because he could pronounce ‘Thursday the Thirteenth’ 9:01 Giving it all up 10:36 No future? 12:17 Becoming a waiter at Prego 12:55 Oh Lord, what have I done?! 15:00 Sales wasn’t easy! 15:26 First big breakthrough in hospitality 16:33 Interesting initiatives 19:39 Being saved by a war 22:35 I found nothing! 23:58 That scares me… I like being in control! 25:21 The difference between knowing and knowing 26:35 Landing the dream job at The Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong because of my sick dog! 28:09 It was a spooky experience 30:42 Returning to Singapore 31:18 The significant career break that allowed him to get into the Ritz 33:42 Superman in New York 36:21 When the cucumber turns green, it means the time is ripe 37:43 If things go south, will the corporate body defend me? 39:37 I wanted to architect my resume 41:10 Why Singapore? 42:11 Building a Singaporean Hotel Brand 45:18 Living by Christian Values 49:05 Challenges of a CEO (that most don’t see) 50:23 Do you believe in God? 51:32 The Second Act in your career? 53:00 Biggest career advice 54:23 Do you feel like you’ve found your why? 55:18 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? 55:37 What are the most important qualities of a successful person? Special thanks to Limpeh Studios for making this in-person interview possible! 🙊 Want to support STIMY for as little as $0.10/day? https://www.sothisismywhy.com/support-stimy/ 📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/147 🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/lJkY_8igcxQ 📚 Download 5 Stones & a Sling: https://www.fareasthospitality.com/-/media/StayFarEast/Five-Stones-and-a-Sling 💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062 * Official Biography Arthur Kiong is the Chief Executive Officer of Far East Hospitality, which is part of Far East Orchard Limited, a listed company under Far East Organization. Since Arthur joined the organisation in July 2012, he has been instrumental in growing the company’s hospitality management business through joint-ventures and acquisitions. Over the last nine years, Far East Hospitality's portfolio grew from 18 properties in Singapore to 105 hotels and serviced residences in nine countries – Austria, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore, with more in its development pipeline. In more than 35 years of his career in the hospitality industry, Arthur has worked at prominent international hospitality brands including Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, The Ritz-Carlton (Singapore and New York), Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (Hong Kong), Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Westin Hotels & Resort. Arthur also plays an active role in championing change in the hospitality industry, and currently serves as First Vice President of the Singapore Hotel Association. In 2020, he was appointed as the hospitality representative in the National Jobs Council – a task force set up to establish jobs and upskilling opportunities during the Covid-19 pandemic. In Nov 2022, Arthur received the Executive of the Year – Hospitality & Leisure award from the Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards for initiating transformative changes to FEH’s operations and steered the group’s expansion in recent years despite the pandemic. Arthur was a recipient of the Special Recognition Award from Singapore Tourism Board in 2016 for having played a key role in rallying support for driving productivity and manpower development initiatives in the hotel industry.

Growing up, Woon Tai Ho - Channel NewsAsia founder & Bestselling Author of books like the George Yeo trilogy, Soul of Ink, Riot Green- didn’t know he was poor. Until he invited his friends over and was asked questions like: ❓ Where’s your phone? ❓ Where’s your sofa? None of which he had. Which made him realise that actually, he was pretty poor. 😅 But he was never ashamed of it. When his sister invited him to stay at the house she was working at as a domestic helper, that changed his world. “I couldn’t believe it, the way they stayed… these people had a dimension of luxury that I didn’t know about. So I told myself, I need to work very hard.” And work very hard he did. We know Channel News Asia as one of the preeminent TV news channels in Asia, but that wasn’t always the case. As Tai Ho shares, the earliest days of CNA was very much a ‘wait and see’ game. It was hardly easy too. “Television is a very, very hungry animal. A news channel is a very, very hungry animal. Every hour, every minute, every second needs content. Otherwise it's black.” ❓So how did Tai Ho build CNA from the ground up? ❓Position CNA amidst other giants like CNN & the BBC? ❓ Gain support from the likes of former Singapore foreign minister, George Yeo? ❓Handle challenges like when he was summoned to China for their coverage of Falun Gong? You’ll have to listen to Part 1 of this STIMY episode to find out. 😉 Part 2 will come out next Sunday! Highlights: - 3:00 Would you consider yourself successful? - 6:34 Family - 8:27 Becoming a chef? - 11:00 Singapore is a pretty good place! - 13:29 “I never thought about being the best” - 14:20 “When I was a kid, I didn’t know I was poor” - 15:50 Mediacorp - 16:53 Founding Channel News Asia - 20:48 The reality of founding a news channel (that most people don’t know) - 23:09 How do you define “quality content”? - 24:28 Establishing the boundaries for quality - 26:01 Looking at competitors to figure out CNA’s value proposition - 28:33 No government support?! - 31:14 Pushing the Singapore government’s perspective? - 34:32 Getting into trouble with the Chinese government - 37:56 Knowing which stories and perspective to put forward - 40:51 Time to move on? 🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/146 💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

Gero DiMaria knows what it means to go truly viral. He's an Italian chef & owner of Kucina - Singapore's first authentic halal food restaurant. But he's also a bona fide Italian culinary superstar with over 500k followers on social media - 256k on Instagram & 252.6k on TikTok! He took the world by storm with his recent series of viral reels on choosing the best pasta/cheeses in grocery stores, and that had a real trickle down effect on his business. So we dig into all the juicy stuff, including: ❓ What does it mean to actually go ‘viral’? ❓ What kind of measurable impact has social media had on his business? ❓ What is his advice for leveraging social media for businesses? ❓ What have his toughest moments been? ❓ And who exactly is Gero?! The goal: To understand the role of social media today, what it really means to go viral & how one can leverage on that social media reach to build your own business. Highlights: 1:55 Italian childhood 4:11 What do Italians eat every day? 5:38 People in Asia aren’t taught to think?! 10:58 Entering the food industry 12:13 Work hard to earn your money 13:33 Your first job sets the bar 14:49 That English breakfast shift 16:52 Knowing that the F&B world was for him 17:33 How to cook the perfect pasta 20:04 Moving from London to Singapore 21:58 First job at Pasta Fresca 23:19 What’s an authentic halal Italian restaurant? 25:59 Chefs can only be chefs, they can’t run a business 29:43 Going into marketing & the lost $3000 31:22 The turning point 32:39 Content strategy 35:14 Going truly viral 36:18 Acting debut 37:58 Why accept collaborations? 40:00 Separating his personal brand from his Kucina restaurant 41:24 The content creation team 42:48 Advice for entrepreneurs 44:06 Do you feel like you’ve found your why? 45:25 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? 46:15 What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful person? 📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/144 💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062 ✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

Meet Lucas Lu - Head of Zoom Asia. And also a fellow Sarawakian! Lucas has had an illustrious career going from GM of Systems Technology Group at IBM Malaysia where they closed large deals within the first 6 months, leading to Lucas winning ASEAN Rookie of the Year - his first big recognition. He ended up staying at IBM for 10 years and won 2 Global Golden Circle Awards before moving on to become: - General Manager, Astro - GM (Tech Sales Malaysia), Oracle - Senior Director (APAC Enterprise Commercial Sales & Industry), Microsoft, Prior to his current role heading the Asian arm of Zoom, covering ASEAN, South Korea, Hong Kong SAR & Taiwan). While at first glance, Lucas appears to have had a very varied career, he has also been very intentional about every career move he’s made. And has had no zero regrets with how it has turned out. So we dive deep into this episode into all things career development: ❓ How has Lucas chosen the roles that he has? ❓ What is his secret sauce to climbing the corporate ladder? ❓ How should one find mentors/career sponsors? ❓ How does he plan his career & life (he has a plan for everything, including for his family members!!)? Please do listen & leave a rating & review! Highlights: 1:50 My first 15 years 2:27 Shell City 4:22 No one leaves Shell, but I did… 5:26 Getting the call from IBM 6:05 Switching to tech 6:59 Lucas’ unfair advantage over other people 7:50 Lots of planning & reflections 11:55 What should you do when you first take on a regional role? 14:06 Career sponsors 14:41 Secret to landing career sponsors 15:22 The first time doors opened for Lucas? 16:15 Moving on after 10 years 17:14 Bringing a corporate mindset to the startup world? 19:09 Measuring returns for media projects 19:41 Moving to Oracle 21:01 Kilimanjaro 22:55 Element of luck 24:16 Dealing with failure 25:55 No regrets? 27:37 Moving to Microsoft 29:14 Takeaways from being fully immersed in a country 32:00 Did hiking change how he approaches sales and work? 32:25 Why Zoom? 33:43 Checklist for Lucas’ next career move (no compromise) 34:24 How to determine if someone is the right person to work for? 35:33 Most influential person in Lucas’ career 37:28 Managing the strawberry generation 39:15 What Lucas hopes to achieve at Zoom 43:58 The second act in Lucas’ career 46:45 What STIMY listeners can help Lucas with 🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/142 💌 STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062 ✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

Sponsor: Descript - an AI-enabled software that makes it possible to edit weekly videos efficiently because it transcribes a 1.5 hour interview in 1 minute - and allows all editing to be done via the transcript! To find out more: https://www.descript.com/?lmref=sjT9JA * It’s not every day that you get to inherit a 100-year-old family business, but that’s exactly what Fong Wai Kheng has done. Fong is the fourth generation of his family to run Tong Heng - Singapore’s top confectionary shop most known for its trademark 💎 diamond-shaped egg tarts. Ask pretty much any Singaporean (I did), and it feels like 99% of them will have heard, eaten and love those egg tarts! So of course, I got curious. And asked Fong if he’d be up for a STIMY interview! After all, family businesses are tricky. There is: 🍿 The legacy you’ve inherited & must now maintain 🍿 The relationships you need to navigate (you can’t split family/work) 🍿 The challenge of keeping your brand relevant (a huge issue for Tong Heng at one point until they went through a massive rebranding exercise) 🍿 All the ups and downs of keeping a business alive. A business that first came about because of Fong’s great-grandfather who fled China in 1901 (end of Qing Dynasty) to work as a coolie in Singapore. His great-grandfather eventually earned enough to start his own pushcart coffee business but… the local “gangs” came around for protection money. The great-grandfather had none, but promised to have the money ready next time. Unfortunately, the gangsters won’t hear of it. And proceeded to beat him up. Or at least, they tried too. Because what they didn’t know was that Fong’s great-grandfather had been trained in martial arts by the soldiers in the Qing Court (+ he was also 1.87m tall!). So Fong’s great-grandfather beat up those gangsters instead. 🤣 News spread. The community gathered and gifted him with a pistol before appointing him as its protector!! Want to know what happened thereafter? 😏 You’ll just have to listen to this STIMY episode with Fong to find out. Highlights: 2:54 Childhood 5:00 Expectations in joining the family business? 6:32 Have you had enough fun? 10:26 100-year-old confectionary shop - the origins of Tong Heng 12:22 Tong Heng’s trademark egg tarts 14:22 Gangs & protection money 14:44 Martial arts 16:50 After the war 17:55 His two aunts 20:24 Pulling a surprise 25:06 A new shop 27:38 Cracking thousands of eggs?! 29:40 Massive rebranding exercise to appeal to the Gen Zs & Gen Alphas 33:23 Tension in the family? 34:41 Going viral 35:00 Branding decisions behind Tong Heng’s trademark yellow packaging 36:15 Tong Heng’s faithful customers - the grandmother & her grandson 37:30 The future & staying in their own lane 39:35 Advice for other family business owners? 🌟 Special thanks to Limpeh Studios for making this recording possible! If you want to do any studio recordings while in Singapore, be sure to check out: https://www.hepmil.com/limpehstudios 🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/kSXxRHrWWas 📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/141 💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062 ✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442

Want to know how a lawyer became a successful hotelier with 40 hotels & 9 Michelin-starred restaurants in Singapore, London, Ireland, Shanghai & Sydney?! Look no further than today’s STIMY guest: Loh Lik Peng, the founder of Unlisted Collection. Lik Peng grew up expecting to be a doctor, like his parents. But ended up practising as a commercial litigator for 3 years. During that time, the world was hit with the Asian Financial Crisis and a rundown property called Hotel 1929 came onto the Singapore property market. Hotel 1929 was located in Singapore’s red light district and Lik Peng saw potential in it, so he took a year off from law to develop the hotel with the full intention of going back to being a lawyer thereafter. But life didn’t turn out that way. He ended up opening his first restaurant at Hotel 1929, then another hotel and restaurant, and another and… In fact, he bought so many properties in the area that his friend once remarked that the street should be renamed “Peng Road”! 🤣 Lik Peng has now become one of Singapore’s most established hoteliers (he struggled with imposter syndrome for a long time when people called him a hotelier!) despite starting out by taking projects “by the seat of his pants”. And his Michelin-starred restaurants include: ⭐️: Burnt Ends, Marguerite, Nouri ⭐️⭐️: Cloudstreet, Da Terre ⭐️⭐️⭐️: Zen So do you want to know how he did it? Let’s go! P/S: This is Part 1 out of 2 of Lik Peng’s episode (Part 2 is coming out this Weds). Highlights: 2:32 Dad as the Chief Glutton 3:24 Boarding school were the best years of the life 4:42 Being a lousy doctor 5:32 Learning important lessons from the Asian Financial Crisis 7:14 Hotel 1929 8:24 The “Peng” Road?! 9:15 Worried about being in the red light district? 10:41 Family thought he was insane?! 11:30 Turning the corner 12:43 Being hit with SARS 13:55 What crisis management looks like in a hotel 14:52 Expanding to London 17:54 Romanticism overruled my logic… 20:57 The secret to getting things done 22:35 Managing risks 24:11 When Lik Peng thought he could call himself a “hotelier” 25:43 The magic behind what he does (while being pragmatic?!) 26:48 What properties interest him now 30:24 Any regrets investing in Old Clare, Sydney? 34:41 Navigating unsexy regulations & red tape 35:46 Surprising things about the Australian hospitality market? 36:45 Dr Stanley Quek 40:37 Family friend to business partner? Special thanks to Limpeh Studios (Hepmil Media) for the studio! 📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/140 🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/w22CAJupO48 💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062 ✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442