What traits do you look for in your talent or how do you decide who is right for a job?
We always prefer to hire fresh talent where we have a greater chance of nurturing them. For that, we always look for a hungry-to-learn, ambitious yet humble, person.
We place more emphasis on how much further can you go than how far have you gone.
We do that because as a high-growth business, the skillset requirement is fluid and, often, we place fresh graduates to roll out projects. Thus, itâs critical to hire based on these traits.
What advice can you offer those looking to start their career/own business?
Step 1: Choose your boss, not pay, to start a career. A boss/superior who mentors you.
Step 2: Be generous with working hours; when you are young, your biggest gift is your endless energy. Be like a sponge to learn, contribute and ask for more. Never be stingy or calculative, thatâs how you outshine others.
Step 3: Wear the âwhyâ hat to challenge the status quo. The better you get at asking and offering solutions, the greater value you are to your company. And, eventually, you may find a solution to a problem that you can build a business upon it.
We all know about the industrial revolution, are we in for a technological revolution? Your thoughts.
Industrial and technological revolution are essentially the same. They are a tool to improve productivity. Investing in tools, and upskilling talent arguably is the single most important investment a company should make because the latter is nothing without talents.
I believe there will be more revolutions to come, and they share the same function â improve productivity. The worst time to adopt these tools is when you absolutely have to, so embracing change is constant.
How do you expect policies on climate change to impact businesses in the future?
The clarity in policies helps businesses to set a roadmap for transition. Environmental, social and governance is the way forward to measure company success.
We were harvesting a lot from the earth, the easy way out, just need to be hardworking and operation excellence. The future is about efficiency, creativity and technology to achieve a carbon-neutral economy.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional life?
I didnât have a specific mentor. Most of my learnings were by reading, observing and Googling. Reading gave me a lot of foundation to build on. Observing gave me insights to cause and effect. Googling gave me crowdsourced best practices. Lastly, I triangulate the best way forward.
What do you want to accomplish in the next five years?
To take Speedhome.com ecosystem regionally, offering super transparency, system-oriented and value-driven business. The property market is too slow in adopting new productivity tools, and thatâs the gap we would fill to ensure the consumer is getting the best possible service.
Ultimately, I foresee Speedhome to go public. I hope to give back to society whenever and where ever I can
Best piece of advice you ever received on your career.
Be the change.
Most-admired business leader? Why?
Alan Mulally â he turned Ford around when everyone questioned his credibility because he was not from the car industry. He was from Boeing. His response to the critics was a great one – something about if he could run a business that flies, how hard is that to run a business on runs on land?
People always ask for relevant experience, but running any business, they are fundamentally the same, albeit with different domain knowledge. In fact, sometimes outsider brings fresh perspective to a business. Bill Gates and Elon Musk, they didnât start as a great philanthropist or rocket scientist. That is also why we always hire fresh talent because itâs not about how far youâve gone, but how much further you can go.
How do you stay abreast of issues affecting your industry?
I do not always stay up to date with issues because they can be noises, and we can get distracted especially in this hyper-connected era.
Choose a few issues that you have a keen interest in, and be the best in them. The rest, you have other experts to rely on.
What has been the biggest challenge you have faced? What did you learn from it?
Running Speedhome is the biggest challenge. We created a whole new business model for property rental, empowering landlord and tenant to rent directly safely. Creating a new way forward means you need to earn peopleâs trust, earn peopleâs buy-in, put in extra hours to learn as you go as an outsider, put in extra extra hours when things hit the wall and extra extra extra will power to persevere on.
What I learnt was to keep calm and figure out many solutions. People always seek the silver bullet, but the truth is, there ainât no silver bullet. You need to shoot many bullets until it solves the problem.
A must-read for every business owner/manager is …
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt.
Tell us a joke.
Our life is a joke, literally. You only live once, so be happy and do the right thing.
