“The 10 Most Influential Business Leaders In Singapore

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Volume 02 | Issue 06 | 2020

THE MOST INFLUENTIAL

BUSINESS LEADERS IN

SINGAPORE!

Kien Foh Lo President & CEO

KIEN FOH LO A Dedicated Front Runner Driven to Achieve Excellence

The Leading Torchbearers of the Business World

Editor Ananda Kamal Das

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oday’s business world is highly competitive, where every player has to step up their game to make a mark. A dedicated leader has to overcome every obstacle and walk the path less taken, while accomplishing the intended objectives. They have to hone their skills with changing times, which cannot be defined using traditional parameters. The business landscape is gradually evolving today, demanding every front runner to employ innovative maneuvers to tackle every situation effectively.

Leaders of the current era understand the need of the hour and act accordingly to bring about the desired outcomes. They are selfreliant, courageous, competent, and persevere during difficult situations.

Every day, we come across success stories of business leaders who have built an empire out of scratch and have embraced innovation with open arms. They have looked every difficulty in the eye and have transformed every dream into reality.

Many leaders had humble beginnings; after overcoming numerous challenges such as being homeless, uneducated, and repeated failures, today they stand at the top of the mountain. They never gave up on their dreams and went on to build an empire out of scratch.

Every leader has a story to tell – a journey filled with hard work, dedication, sacrifice, and a never give up attitude, which has helped them to achieve success. These stories are a beacon of hope for all those budding entrepreneurs, who focus on bringing change and transforming their ideas into path-breaking business ventures.

Thus, Insights Success introduces the issue “The 10 Most Influential Business Leaders In Singapore” to highlight the change leaders who are revolutionizing businesses activities

EDITOR’s NOTE in Singapore with their unique maneuvers and a positive mindset.

On the Cover, we have Kien Foh Lo, the President & CEO of Continental Automotive Singapore.

He is a dedicated spearhead, who is focused on achieving excellence through his hard work and innovations. Kien is driven by the burning desire to achieve more and the strong passion to put Continental Singapore consistently on the world map. By establishing Continental Singapore as a well-recognized and competent R&D powerhouse in the automotive industry, Kien constantly focuses to provide excellent services to the customers.

This issue also showcases Alvin Ea, Co-Founder and CEO of Haulio Pte Ltd; Claire Chiang, Co-founder & Senior Vice President, Banyan Tree Holdings; Edward Van Leent, Chairman and CEO, EPI Group of Companies; and May Yap, Chairman, Managing Director and CEO, LHT Holdings.

Lim Teo, Managing Director, Accenture; Pamela Maynard, CEO, Avanade; Paul Wong, Managing Director, Panasonic Asia Pacific; and Yuko Nakahira, Managing Director, 3M. We have also included special articles written by industry experts such as Markus Ulrich, the Founder and CEO of Geniusthingks; Bryan Zheng, CEO and Founder of LIVALL; and Shiva Kris, Chief Technology Officer at Ad2pro Group.

Also, we have included articles “Mistakes to avoid during difficult corporate conversations” and “Strategies to encourage focus at work” written by our in-house Editors.

Hence, browse through the pages for more information on these exceptional leaders. Happy reading!

Furthermore, this issue includes Forrest Li, Founder, Garena; Lay

Ananda Kamal Das

Cover Story

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Alvin Ea A Budding Trailblazer of Logistical Arena

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22 Claire Chiang A Passionate Leader Determined to Achieve Perfection

Kien Foh Lo A Dedicated Front Runner Driven to Achieve Excellence

Coporate Talk

ARTICLES

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Mistakes to Avoid During DifďŹ cult Corporate Conversations

Contents 18 Astute Thoughts Can You Really See Your Customers?

32 Edward Van Leent A Leader Who Changed the Data Centre Training and Audit Industry Forever

28 CXO Standpoint Effect of Business Intelligence and its advantages

36 May Yap Driving Growth and Sustainability through ProliďŹ c Leadership

34 Starting Young

Editor’s Choice Strategies to Encourage Focus at Work

How to overcome obstacles when starting young

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Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Ananda Kamal Das Publishing Control Team Shruti, Rahul Quality Control Team Darshan, Sneha, Abhishaj Contributing Editor Shreevarshita Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Associate Designer Poonam Mahajan Art & Picture Editor Karan Gaikwad Co-designer Sapana Shinde Business Development Manager Megha Mishra Business Development Lead Ashwini Pahurkar Sr. Business Development Executive Asif Patel Technical Head Pratiksha Patil Technical Specialist Amar Sawant Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale SME-SMO Executive Uma Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

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Kien Foh Lo A Dedicated Front Runner Driven to Achieve Excellence

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successful business leader is eďŹƒcient in making sound decisions and treats everyone equally, no matter the circumstance. He/she leads the team with enthusiasm and works hard to instill in them qualities such as dedication, perseverance, teamwork, integrity, and so on. They never give up at the face of adversity and introduce innovative solutions to every problem. Their sole focus is not only to achieve company goals, but also to ensure the development of each and every employee.

One such success-driven and growth-focused leader is Kien Foh Lo, the President & CEO of Continental Automotive Singapore. After graduating with a Bachelor in Engineering from the Nanyang Technological Institute in 1988, he joined Philips Car Systems as an electronic engineer. He worked on schematic circuit, ranging from analogue and power circuitry to digital signal analysis. Eventually, Kien Foh expanded the scope to perform PCB layout, starting with single and later multi-layer PCB design. Throughout his service tenure, he gained the valuable experience of working closely with the automotive OEM customers in Australia, transforming their requirements to product realization by performing numerous in-depth joint ďŹ eld tests with the customers. Eventually, Kien Foh moved on to obtain his Master of Engineering in 1994.

An Inspiring Journey In 1998, Kien Foh headed the Electronic, Mechanical, and Software teams and later on, the complete Product Development group which included product validation in 2000. He proceeded to lead the R&D team in Singapore to design and develop infotainment and multimedia

Cover Story Kien Foh Lo President & CEO

products for the aftermarket and automotive OEM customers worldwide.

Kien Foh took over the position of Director of R&D in 2004, followed by the Vice President of R&D in 2006 where he led both the teams in Singapore and China to design and develop all interior electronic systems in the vehicle for the worldwide aftermarket and OEM customers.

In 2007, he ascended to the position of COO, overseeing the complete life cycle of all programs, projects, quality, processes, purchasing, human resources and finance & controlling. To broaden his knowledge, Kien Foh later obtained a Master of Finance in 2010.

Kien Foh eventually took responsibility of the Singapore office and became the Managing Director of Continental Automotive Singapore in 2010, where he also served as a Director of the Board. Throughout his rich tenure of over 30 years with the company, he has experienced various company mergers and acquisitions. Kien Foh’s dedication paid off and finally in 2019, he was appointed as the President & CEO of Continental Automotive Singapore.

An Enthusiastic and Cooperative Leader “I will just use three words to describe myself. I am forward-looking, positive and pragmatic”, states Kien Foh. He is a person who always looks forward with a positive attitude, to seek for practical and workable solutions. He believes in staying consistent in behaving and working with others. Kien Foh further says, “I do what I preach or in other words,“Walk-the-Talk” is what I expect from myself and my leaders. I enjoy giving my leaders the freedom to act and the empowerment to perform and grow”.

He is driven by the burning desire to achieve more and the strong passion to put Continental Singapore consistently on

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To me, success means reaching a point beyond the limit we set for ourselves

the world map. By establishing Continental Singapore as a well-recognized and competent R&D powerhouse in the automotive industry, we continuously contribute to Continental as a whole and thereby adding values to the customers.

The Success Mantra For Kien Foh, success means reaching a point beyond the limit one sets for oneself. Under his ardent leadership, the company focuses on enhancing the customers’ competitiveness and exceed stakeholders’ expectations, through value addition and innovative solutions. “If customers come back to us with more business, our shareholders are happy with our performance, and our employees and people in the industry see us as the employer of choice, I would be happy to say that we are successful”, adds Kien Foh. He attributes the company’s success to its matured leadership team and the dedicated staff in the organization.

With the right leadership, attitude, capabilities, the relevant technical competence that it is constantly building up, and the strong passion-to-win mindset, the company is enabling itself to propel far in the industry. While embracing change, the company is not afraid to make changes to stay relevant.

Kien Foh believes that this attribute will lead them to where they want to be, a renowned R&D Center.

The company also believes in lifelong learning and the intensive sharing of knowledge which are necessary to the development of innovative ideas and solutions. The employees are constantly trained to develop new skillsets or enhance their existing diverse competences.

Tackling Challenges Head-On This fast-paced technological age calls for each player to stay abreast with the rapid evolution of technology to remain at the top of the mountain. The company’s products have become more sophisticated, packed with advanced features, which need to remain increasingly interconnected.

This constant increase in complexity has always remained a challenge for Continental, which it faces confidently.

Kien Foh feels that growing from just one product line to a multi-product line organization will definitely help in handling this complexity. Building up more specialized and competent teams and at the same time creating synergy among the product lines, allows the company to tap into the different competences from the different product lines. This will provide a good leverage in utilizing and multiplying its resources.

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With the right leadership, attitude, capabilities, one can propel far in the industry

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“In the rapid buildup of our R&D competence center, we are constantly focusing on the recruitment and placement of the best engineers, training them and getting them ready for the most suitable task in the shortest time. For me, this is a challenging yet one of the most rewarding tasks for our organization”, he says.

About Continental Established in 1871, Continental develops pioneering technologies and services for sustainable and connected mobility of people and their goods. It focuses on delivering safe, efficient, intelligent, and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. In 2018, the company generated sales of €44.4 billion and currently employs more than 240,000 people in 60 countries and markets.

Continental in Singapore consists of mainly R&D engineers. The company’s current workforce is more than 1,400 employees, and it plans to grow the number to more than 2,000 in the next few years. The focus in Singapore is to innovate technology, create product platforms and develop in-car products for its automotive customers. Other than that, it is also working with the automotive and nonautomotive customers on mobility solutions and services.

The Success Saga Under the exceptional leadership of Kien Foh, Continental has achieved many noteworthy landmarks. Throughout his 30 years of experience in the company, he has led many mergers and acquisitions. The company opened its first R&D center in Singapore in 2012 to meet the demand of its growing engineering capacities, and then its second building in 2014, followed by the newest addition – the third building in 2018. “Those were great milestones in our quest to grow the organization in Singapore, and it did give us the sense of achievement”, says Kien Foh.

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We believe in lifelong learning and intensive sharing of knowledge

For him, one of the most satisfying moments was when the company managed to have a safe and successful launch of a newly developed product and deliver to the customers according to their requirement and specification. The numerous recognitions given by the customers over the years made Kien Foh proud of what Continental has achieved.

Another great achievement within the company is the leadership team that has developed and matured together over the years. “Without this team, we will not be where we are today”, he adds. From this leadership team, more competent leadership and engineering teams have emerged.

Other than that, Continental in Singapore has successfully formed good collaborations with industry players, the government agencies, and the universities. For example, the joint lab with A*STAR’s I2R and TUM CREATE resulted in the launch of the Park&Go @SG mobile app in 2015.

Working with universities like NTU, SIT, DigiPen, just to name a few, has also yielded very positive and fruitful results. A good example is the successful creation, definition, and implementation of a new university degree curriculum to enable more engineers to be ready for the automotive and ITS industry.

Future Forward Kien Foh believes that with continuous expansion in the location, the company will grow in manpower and technical competence to more than 2,000 employees in the next few years. “Our key focus is to create an innovative and inclusive competent workforce, to strive to be ahead of time and be future ready – foreseeing the future and developing the right technology for the future”, he says. Kien Foh also adds that the key goal of Continental is to create and add value to the customers and stakeholders by providing innovative, quality-driven, and environmentally-friendly solutions.

Valuable Words Addressing the emerging entrepreneurs, Kien Foh says, “We are living in a VUCA world. The business environment is transforming, consumer behavior is changing, and customer expectation is rising. New technology is evolving in a faster pace than what we imagine. Hence, for budding entrepreneurs, your passion is your driving force”. He asks the youngsters to weather the challenges and ride on the opportunities that come along the way. Kien Foh encourages them to be bold and versatile to adapt quickly to stay relevant in the changing environment.

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We believe in talent and leadership building

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ALVIN EA A Budding Trailblazer of Logistical Arena

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ith the vision of saving time and resources for hauliers, while improving visibility and reliability for end customers, one entrepreneur thought out of the league, and crafted a brand new eco-system to overhaul logistics operations.

Alvin Ea is that trailblazing leader who is on a mission to bring value to the various stakeholders within the container trucking space. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Haulio, which provides a revolutionary collaborative B2B platform to get containers moved.

Mesmerizing Entrepreneurial Journey Alvin started his logistics profession through his family business HUB Distributors Services, a local SME 3PL firm in Singapore since 1988. He decided to start the company’s container haulage arm in 2013, and from there built it up from scratch – from a fleet of 1 to 15 trucks – in the span of 3 years.

“The process was painstaking, as I built it through the traditional way. It wasn't easy meeting the expectations of customers and juggling the demands of an unpredictable job that lacked operational stability,” asserts Alvin.

After years of toiling in the traditional logistics industry, Alvin understood the importance of technology and observed the likes of eCommerce companies changing the entire landscape in ridiculous speed.

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He was very happy with the remarkable growth of his company but wanted to do something different. He was tired of trying to make a change to solve his own company’s daily struggles, when in actual fact these problems resonate with the rest of his other “friendly competitors”. The turning point came when Alvin met Sebastian Shen, the co-founder of his company, who had the same grand vision as him – to change this traditional industry through technology.

Haulio’s Offerings Alvin’s company offers a web-based platform that bridges the information gaps across the industry today by simply matching demand to supply.

“Due to the consolidation of vessels upstream and increasing vessel sizes, there is an increased volatility in spikes and troughs of shipment. Haulio helps to even out haulage resources through the sharing of resources,” added Alvin.

As the CEO of Haulio, his goal is to maximize haulage resources through industry level sharing to improve job productivity and asset utilization. He also gives equal emphasis to add value to end customers by providing realtime visibility and reporting of fleet operations.

Further, Alvin continuously pushes his team to read widely and to document their learnings. He wants each of them to grow with Haulio – be it as a UX researcher, a product designer, a software developer or a marketer. “I

hope that through Haulio, they will build and develop into professionals in their respective fields,” stated the CEO. Alvin’s Biggest Feat Alvin considers his biggest achievement till date with Haulio is the validation of the work that he is contributing. He cannot emphasize enough about the role that the trucking community plays in the industry and by seeing the impact that they have on the industry regardless of the size of the customer, is what drives him forward.

“A notable achievement would be getting one of the largest Port Operator in the World to be our investor and client where we managed to develop on a project that was once their “Innovation of the Year” and servicing a contract with them from the start of our incubation till today,” stated Alvin.

Viewpoint on Leadership and Entrepreneurship Alvin believes that a leader should lead by example. As the leader of the company, “I represent the core values that the company stands for and the best way to set the culture is to be the one who display the values within,” added Alvin. Moreover, walking the ground and getting to interact and know more about his colleagues is another way which he uses to influence employees in a positive and interactive manner.

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I AM CONNECTING CONTAINERS TO CONSUMERS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF EVERY

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STAKEHOLDER For budding entrepreneurs, Alvin has a piece of advice.

He says, be the change you wish to see in this world.

There is no problem too big to solve. He has already stepped into a highly fragmented industry like haulage to try and make a difference. According to Alvin, there will be many walls and obstacles that will come your way, just learn to deal with them, one at a time. It always seems impossible until it’s done, reflects Alvin.

Furthermore, he added, there are also many stakeholders and departments involved, each with differing agendas - the challenge will be to get companies to fully adopt the changes and move towards a digital platform for the booking and execution of their daily Container Haulage requirements.

On recalling his future lookout about the industry, Alvin said many interesting things. “I see Haulio as the future of haulage – this is what haulage SHOULD be. Haulage today is still stuck in the 80s, and this needs to change,” concluded Alvin. “I hope that in 10 years, haulage will be digitalized, with Haulio leading or partnering with others, to bring this change.”

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Alvin Ea, Co-founder and CEO

Alvin’s Take on ‘Challenges’ and ‘Future Outlook’ Alvin considers that the biggest obstacle that occurs in most of the businesses is of longer conversion cycles.

He explained, to effect reformative changes in the traditional industry like haulage needs longer time as more time is needed to change the mind-sets and business processes.

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Can You Really See Your Customers?

About the Author Shiva Kris is currently working as Chief Technology O ďŹ cer at Ad2pro Group. Prior to this, he has worked at Yahoo!, Hyperion (Oracle) and [24]7.ai in US and in India.

He has more than 20 years of rich experience in engineering, product and program management, data science. Shiva is passionate about technology, especially AI and big-data.

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Shiva Kris Chief Technology O cer

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Astute Thoughts

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he more data we get about our customers, the more we realize we don’t really know them.

Because there’s no way to put all that information together and see them in one 360-degree view. Some tech providers and marketing consultants promise a view of the customer journey, but it’s really partial at best.

Businesses are spending more and more resources, and depending more and more, on a wide range of digital innovations aimed at increasing convenience, intensifying experiences and tracking involvement with brands.

AI, AR, and VR lead most conversations and conferences, and investment keeps escalating.

According to recent research by Accenture, one-third of companies are planning to increase their innovationrelated investments by more than 50 percent, as worldwide spending on technology and services to enable digital transformation reaches approaches $2 trillion by 2022.

Similarly, ADWEEK published a summary of leading applications. And Gartner published a spend survey showing that 63% percent of CMOs expect their innovation budgets to increase in 2019.

At this rate, you’d think we are making quantum leaps in marketing efficiency and customer development. But all the investment is actually falling short of the grand expectations that B2C and B2B technologies have created.

The biggest problem, despite years of focus, is the inability of organizations to establish the user’s identity across the ever-increasing channels, devices and data sources. Forrester recently

February 2020|

confirmed that the ability to establish users across data sources remains a top-priority problem for businesses.

In other words, we still can’t really see our customers. No amount of what magic from the Internet of Things toolkit can overcome this fundamental problem.

So what good is it to advance marketing innovation if we don’t know who we’re marketing to?

If we don’t establish user identity, we can’t accurately profile behavior across channels or journeys across multiple sites. That makes it impossible to budget and communicate optimally to the right audiences, particularly for those companies that have many distinct brands with offline presences.

What’s more, it compromises the quality of automated experiences they can offer customers.

When you can see your customers, it’s transformative. Unlocking the profile and journey of users showed a show company it was misdirecting its marketing at 20- to 25-year-old men when married women were actually buying for their husbands and sons.

But the overwhelming majority of marketers end up like the growing digital commerce electronics company that still struggles to find what its consumers are doing just before landing on their website. Were they searching on Google or commenting in Facebook? Were they making mobile purchases, and what banks and payments systems did they use?

marketers to operate from unprecedentedly clear vision on their platforms, the customer vision stays inside the wall. The user data provided by platforms amount to a pinhole vision; typically, small cohorts of users specific to channels rather than a 360degree spectrum of behavior across digital, offline and real-world action.

DSPs, CRMs, and DMPs all provide value, but none deliver a unified user view in a cross-media, cross-channel, cross-device, online and offline arena.

Many third-party sources readily offer a list, but by the time that data has been segmented, joined, uniquified and optimized for user identity, weeks pass by and the prospect has long disappeared from the business radar.

But what if we had one universal user ID system? Using blockchain, it would be possible to establish and maintain a single view of user identity that evolves with activity. By consolidating the various user tracking pixels, event emanating scripts and other first-party data generators, we could unify firstand third-party data. We could see customers across platforms and technologies.

It’s possible. Privacy concerns can be satisfied with anonymized data and the security of blockchain technologies.

And the intensely competitive walled gardens can come to realize it’s essential to the growth of their businesses when marketers give them no choice. Because in the years ahead, marketing innovation and business growth will depend on how clearly and completely we see our customers.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to seeing customers is the irony of the FAANG proprietary systems we now refer to as walled gardens. While they allow

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Claire Chiang A

successful business leader faces every challenge with a positive attitude, while coming up with innovative solutions. They think out of the box and always believe in taking the company ahead. Such leaders believe in working together as a team and are dedicated, hard-working, and possess a positive attitude.

actively involved in directing the Banyan Tree Management Academy on organizational and human capital strategies.

Furthermore, she chairs Banyan Tree Global Foundation Ltd, overseeing the evolving process of the group’s commitment to sustainability and its mission to ‘Embrace the Environment, Empower the People’.

One such goal-oriented leader, who has a zeal to achieve excellence is Claire Chiang, the Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Banyan Tree Holdings. Her singlemindedness – the passion and determination to champion and drive sustainability for the organization way ahead of time, has assisted her to realize the importance of personal responsibility, self-resilience, and continuous improvement day-by-day, step-by-step by not giving up.

Recipient of Numerous Accolades An advocate for gender equality, Claire was engaged with many women’s issues while working with Aware and Society Against Family Violence. She was a nominated member of Parliament from 1997 to 2001, raising issues on nurturing the social capital in building a more robust society.

An Eminent Front Runner Banyan Tree Holdings, a leading independent and multibranded lifestyle hospitality company, is a global developer and manager of premium resorts, urban hotels, residences, spas, retail galleries, golf, and destination integrated resorts in 24 countries around the world. Claire has pioneered the group’s retail business, Banyan Tree Gallery of over 70 outlets.

She has been honoured with several awards, including the 2014 Singapore Public Service Star BBM for implementing work-life integration and the inaugural Women Entrepreneur Award 2017 Supernova. Claire was inducted to Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame established by Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations and received Asia’s Top Sustainability Superwomen Award 2018 for impactful sustainability leadership.

Since 2006, as the Chairperson for China Business Development, Claire has focused on acquisition of new management contracts and in the last two years, has become

Overcoming Challenges Confidently Claire states, “on gallery work, it was arduous searching for the artisanal communities in different destinations, and communicating with them mainly through interpreters, then getting them to try many times over with different color schemes and material medium to develop new products.”

“Believing and living the values which drive your passion is in itself an extraordinary life experience ” 22

The process from village to gallery store was a journey characterised by cross-cultural adjustment, high dose of mutual trust and understanding, enduring stamina in finding solutions on all issues from production to operational efficiency, and from logistics and quality control. She shares that gallery business is about empowering women in these cottages to become more than a daughter, wife, mother, and February 2020|

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grandmother. In her conversations with them, she has come to know about the sacrifices women are willing to make for their families. By encouraging their entrepreneurship in becoming commercially viable and independent, Banyan Tree Gallery is creating a win-win work-family situation for all and proving how business can be a positive transformational force.

However, she believes that these challenges are not any different in other aspects of Banyan Tree business. The world we are moving into is VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. “I find myself forever changing operational models and adapting mindsets in order to tackle reality with a new VUCA toolkit, by being Versatile, Unwavering, Connective and adopting an Attitude that never say die”, she adds.

Claire opines that the mind, like any muscle of the body, can be trained to think, reason, feel, and direct in a positive way. It is the most precious and accessible capital that an individual owns, which is invaluable and inalienable, as it serves as an anchor of strength, even at the worst of times.

About the Banyan Tree Group The Banyan Tree Group’s primary business is centered on four brands: the award-winning Banyan Tree and Angsana, as well as newly established Cassia and Dhawa. It also operates the leading integrated resort in Thailand – Laguna Phuket. Two other integrated resorts – Laguna Bintan in Indonesia and Laguna Lăng Cô in Central Vietnam–complete the status of the group as the leading operator of integrated resorts in Asia and a thriving lifestyle ecosystem.

The Achievement Journey Claire has led Banyan Tree towards achieving many noteworthy landmarks. Since the launch of the first Banyan Tree resort in 1994, the group has received 2,611 global awards and accolades for its strong corporate governance and experiential brands.

Under her leadership, the group has also received recognition for its commitment to sustainability for environmental protection and emphasis on corporate social responsibility. Last year, the company won 8 top sustainability awards. To name a few, they included: Ÿ Sustainable Business Awards 2019 Best Land Use and Biodiversity Ÿ Sustainable Business Awards 2019 Special Recognition February 2020|

Claire Chiang Co-founder & Senior Vice President

Strategy and Sustainability Singapore Apex Corporate Sustainability Awards 2019 Sustainable Business Category Ÿ 2019 AMCHAM Thailand CSR Excellence Awards – Gold for Laguna Phuket Ÿ

Advice for the Leaders of Tomorrow Claire advises the upcoming entrepreneurs to persevere and not to give up. She encourages them to continue to follow their passion and find the meaning and purpose in the work they do, with the people they relate to, and the partners they meet and grow with.

She states that one may not get the extraordinary material outcome they expect from the market. There might be many disappointments and perhaps many business setbacks.

However, it is essential to believe and follow the values which drive their passion. This will help the leaders to pursue their journey to success, while experiencing something extraordinary and life changing.

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Mistakes to

Avoid During

Difficult Corporate

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Corporate Talk

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orporations are formed to achieve certain goals, objectives, and to further their business agendas. In order to achieve these objectives, it is essential that organizations ensure smooth workflow. Communication is the key factor that facilitates smooth flow of work in an organization. The topics of communication are vast and it is not necessary that everyone knows everything. However, understanding the conversation and comprehending correctly is of high importance.

Corporate conversations are mostly regarding work, which usually makes it a formal one. It is important that the message being conveyed is delivered correctly from one person to another. Improper communication can lead to friction in the work. Clarity in communication can save time and misunderstandings among the team. However, there are some situations which demand the managers to have difficult conversations with their subordinates. In such a case, people tend to commit a few mistakes that can make the conversation awkward.

too. All the feedbacks should be seen as a lesson to learn from and should be taken positively. It would be better if people take this in the right sense and improve from it. Ÿ

Don’t Assume: It is not possible for everyone to know everything, so it is important to start from the beginning and not assume. Assuming that other people know what is being discussed or informed is wrong. This causes many mistakes due to misunderstanding or not understanding the particular topic at all. Sharing what is going on in the office or what a meeting is about in a clear manner is necessary. This also doesn’t mean providing extra or irrelevant data is alright. The correct and precise information must be provided to the employees.

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Avoid Loosing Sight of the Objective: The key to a meaningful conversation is to keep it to the point.

Keeping in mind the objective of the talk is needed for the talk to make sense. Difficult corporate conversations which lead to heart burns, high emotions, etc. always have the risk of losing objectivity. Sticking to goals eases the conversation without loosing the actual motive of it.

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Lead from Within: In difficult situations, the conversations also become difficult. In such hard times, leading from within is the best. Difficult situations ask for skills and instinct, that is what helps come out of such problems. It is completely trial and error based.

This trial tests the skills of the person, brings out warriorship and awakens the sympathy in ones heart. All this brings out the kind leader in every person.

Some mistakes that people should avoid during difficult corporate conversations can be seen here: Ÿ

Don’t Shut Down: During difficult conversations, keeping a mindset of inquiry is helpful. One should be open to listen and observe what the other person is saying. This helps a good leader to understand the situation and react accordingly. This approach puts everyone at ease and helps people bring out their best.

One should avoid putting the other person down to show who knows better. Doing so will only make the other side cowed down and will not bring their best out.

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Avoid Showing Emotions: In the case that difficult conversations need to happen, emotions like anger, rage, frustration, irritation, etc. should be avoided. But such emotions sometimes do come out leading to unpleasant feelings. If possible, find ways to release the emotions before time could control them during the actual time of the meeting or conversation. When emotions are in control, finding solution to any problem becomes simple.

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Avoid Taking Things Personally: At times, managers have to point out flaws and mistakes to their subordinates. The purpose of pointing out is that the employees can improve and grow. Such reviews should not be taken personally as they are only professional reviews for the good of the company and the individual

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Difficult conversations are not something that people face everyday, but it is important to know how to handle them.

The usage of words matters the most in difficult corporate conversations. Keeping the concept clear eases the flow of talk. Sticking to the objective, avoiding emotions and keeping the tone neutral is the best way to get through these discussions. Making disagreements flare will navigate the talk to a productive outcome keeping the reputation of the person intact. Mastering the art of getting through difficult corporate conversations could be considered as an additional skill.

- Shreevarshita Gupta February 2020|

CXO Standpoint

Effect of

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE and its

Advantages

I

t is always said that “Better decisions can be made with better business insights” and to get better Business Insight industry uses Business Intelligence tools. Business Intelligence or often called as “BI” is application programs and technologies which is mainly used for collecting, storing, analysing and providing access to data. BI is all about creating business value for any organizations based on data & facts. BI provides more relevant information to any enterprise business user which helps them to make better decision more faster.

Business Intelligence uses methods and programs to collect the data, convert the data into meaningful insight. BI collects large amount of data generated by enterprise and presents into meaningful actionable way. On a very high-level BI can be used for: • • • • • • • •

Performance Management Analytics Predictive Analysis Data Mining Access of organized data Identifying inefficient business process Identify hidden customer pattern Identify areas of strength and weaknesses

There are many types of BI applications that can be built like reporting, data mining, ad hoc query and data visualization tools, online analytical processing software, dashboards & performance scorecards. There are many BI Products in market which enterprise can use to fulfil their Business Intelligence needs. These BI Products

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February 2020|

About the Author A company Co-founder & Director, Nasim Ahmad Ansari is now associated with Facile Consulting and JCC Bowers and serves as Director So ware Development.

Nasim is technologist who has held senior leadership role in So ware Services & IT Consulting Company. Nasim has led large so ware development team and has worked as O shore Development Head. Nasim has worked with companies and customers like Sapient, CIBER, AFS Technologies, Toyota, TESCO, Xerox, Disney etc.

Nasim now works on technologies related to BI, Cloud, IOT & connected, intelligent, and autonomous transportation technologies (connected autonomous vehicles).

February 2020|

Nasim Ahmad Ansari Co-founder & Director

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comes with option of On-Premise or Cloud BI Software, and companies can choose to use any of these based on the best ROI and the resources they have to manage these BI software. There are many companies who offers BI products such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and many other SaaS companies who offers BI products and offering.

Using some of cloud based BI tools can help you to create very powerful & scalable data models and insights.

Cloud BI offers users to connect, analyze data and share insights on web, mobile or custom build applications.

Using Cloud BI users can create interactive reports and easily scale their BI reporting solution.

Effect of Business Intelligence for any organizations are many e.g. Identify the knowledge/insight from the huge structured and un-structured data, find out what contributes most for your revenue/business, single view of customer data, discover why & what motivates customer behavior.

Any good and effective BI accesses all business data, from all of platform in a singular & unified dashboard system. This includes customer data from various systems like POS, E-comm System, OMS, CRM, email & campaign marketing, customer chats etc. and all data is aggregated into a single view of the customer and their interactions with any enterprise business.

In today’s world of huge data and various ways customer interacts with business it is very important to have a single view of customer. Using BI, it is possible to create a single unified view of customer from such a vast data and drive lot of business insights which helps business and drives more revenues. That’s why most company these days uses business intelligence which has helped them to grow their sales. Business Intelligence helps business to find when and where they should invest for marketing.

It is believed that retaining an existing customer costs less than making a new customer. And Business Intelligence is one such tool which if used correctly can help to retain existing customer. Now a days most of the companies are using Business Intelligence for improving Customer satisfaction, customer retention and customer loyalty. To improve customer retention there are ways which we can use in Business Intelligence. Here are few of the ways.

• Analyze your customer based on their journey on your website and predict their behavior. To do this we need to collect as much data as we can from various source of our business be it social media, campaign, order management system, CRM, their click path on website, chat with customer care, chat with bots or support agents. Once we have collected customer data from various sources, Business Intelligence tools allows us to deeply analyze data and understand customer behavior and pattern. Once we know customer behavior and pattern we can design better and improved User Experience and attract them to come back to business.

• Use Business Intelligence tools to influence customer behavior. Using BI tools, we can monitor and track customer response for a marketing campaign or advertisement. And based on this we can design and influence customer behavior as we know what is working for them and what they are liking. Various campaign can be run based on their demographic information, Gender, Age, Customer Journey on website. Using these customer information business owners can run specific campaign which works for their customer and it means more business and better customer retention.

Summary In Today’s world, customers are demanding and to achieve customer satisfaction, customer retention and increased business, Business Intelligence has become necessity for all businesses. So if you are not doing it yet, May be its time to spend some time and see how BI can help you increase business as it is doing for others.

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February 2020|

E

xceptional leaders are dedicated, honest, and confident. They have an indomitable will to overcome insurmountable odds and lead their team towards success and deliver services which add value to their customers. Such leaders are inspirational, possess excellent communication skills, and have an innovative streak. One such pioneering leader with an undeterred will to succeed and make a mark in the industry is Edward Van Leent, the Chairman and CEO of the EPI Group of Companies (EPI).

Edward pursued his education in economics, electronics, and electrical engineering. After leaving school, he gained work experience in designing chips and printed circuit boards. From there on, he joined the world of Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Engineering (CAD/CAE).

Eventually, he moved into highavailability computing environments, through which he entered into the data center domain. Then, Edward was hired by EPI to setup the Asia business.

Two years later, he ascended to the position of Chairman and CEO of the company. Edward turned the organization around from a data center design and built organization and transformed it into a data center services company. From there, the company quickly grew into the largest data center training and audit organization in the world which currently has nine offices covering all continents and having a large partner network.

Conquering Challenges to Attain Excellence Under Edward’s visionary leadership, EPI overcame many challenges from

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Edward Van Leent A Leader Who Changed the Data Centre Training and Audit Industry Forever

being an unknown company from Europe trying to establish itself in Asia and other continents, as well as moving from a design and built company into a data center services company. As a result, the company had to transform completely in terms of their positioning, services, marketing, processes, competences, and so on. “I was lucky in that in one of my previous organizations, we had to move the company from a hardware organization into a solutions-based organization which had a major impact,” says Edward. The lessons learnt there made it easier for him to carry out the transformation at EPI. Ensuring Development with Effective Communication Edward believes that direct communication is essential to make sure everybody understands the big picture and comprehends the reasoning behind the decisions he makes. He says, “I always find that if you make a decision and indicate to the staff why you made it, highlighting both the good and bad reasons it makes it easier for them to understand and accept the decision”. Edward believes that the challenge is always when one has information which they cannot disclose yet, for some reason, and they have to take a decision without prior

explanation to the staff. It could lead to the staff not fully understanding why a decision is made.

A Result-Focused Entrepreneur Edward has a clear perspective for himself and his team. He is focused on the goals and objectives of the company. He says, “I believe it is one of the most single important thing to do being in a management position which is to make sure that everybody understands where the organization is heading and what is expected of everybody and what role they play in the total scheme of things”. Edward is of the opinion that it is important for everybody to understand how they contribute to the overall success of the company. “I am blessed with having an amazing team”, he adds.

Edward’s source of Inspiration Edward believes in making the most out of life and to always do the best one can. He takes inspiration from his previous managers as well as Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore.

Edward moved to Singapore in 1997 and he admires the country for the way it transcended from where it was to where it is today. He says, “Lee Kuan Yew changed this country in a mere 30 years from what people called at that time “a swamp” to a first world

February 2020|

10

T H E

MOST

INFLUENTIAL

BUSINESS LEADERS IN SINGAPORE!

country and keeping harmony in a multicultural environment. He was a focused leader and although not everybody always agreed with his ideas and way or getting things done, the results of his achievements speak for itself ”. He gathers inspiration from various videos where Lee Kuan Yew provides his amazing insights and views on life and the world. Edward believes that Lee Kuan Yew was, without a shed of doubt, an amazing leader putting Singapore on the world map and one the world will probably never find again.

Remarkable Accomplishments Throughout his illustrious career, Edward has achieved many noteworthy landmarks. There are many accomplishments which he fondly looks back at from a work perspective. He has achieved various accolades throughout his celebrated career. These include getting his first management job, winning his first big award – the ‘Chairman Achievement Award’ at Mentor Graphics, and achieving the position of Chairman and CEO at a relatively young age. “The ultimate position of being a CEO is which so many aspire but yet so little people realize what it entails. It has been a very exciting and rewarding career and life”, he says.

Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs Edward recommends emerging entrepreneurs to focus and work hard to achieve the desired goals. He suggests them to listen to customers and always look at how to help them with their business. “There are three steps every entrepreneur should think about. First of all, have a good strategy, make sure you have an operating model in place to execute the strategy and finally, make sure you hire the best people you can to make it all work”, Edward concluded.

“It is not about hours people work but it is about the output/value they can create” February 2020|

Edward Van Leent Chairman and CEO

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Eugene the Cheng is Partner & Creative Lead at HighSpark, a company that provides presentation design services and consultancy to Fortune 500 companies. He also mentors for a video production company: MotionSauce

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February 2020|

,

February 2020|

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May Yap in exploring opportunities in new markets.

May’s responsibility is to monitor market developments and to ensure that the company’s product development efforts are aligned to market demands. She is actively involved in the pallet rental business in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.

May holds a Diploma in Sales and Marketing from the Marketing Institute of Singapore and has successfully completed the Operation Management Innovation (OMNI) programme conducted by The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) in 2011. She is also a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors.

May Yap Chairman, MD & CEO

What is the true meaning of Leadership?

We at Insights Success believe that leadership is exclusively defined by every individual who is given that responsibility.

We believe it is about always knowing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It is about being unapologetically vocal in expressing one’s opinions. Moreover, we firmly believe it is about inspiring and empowering others to become leaders.

In the light of this rendition of leadership, we’d like to introduce you to May Yap, the Chairman, Managing Director and CEO of LHT Holdings, who has been driving the company’s growth for more than twenty years, and has been setting her own benchmarks of leadership.

May was appointed as the Acting Managing Director on 26.02.2016 and was re-designated as the Chairman, Managing Director and CEO on 10th February 2017.

Leveraging her 20+ years’ experience, she plays a key role

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May draws inspiration from a role model—who has always been and continues to be a visibly prominent inspiration in her life—her mother. “I am learning from her to talk less and work more, like what the common saying goes, ‘actions speaks louder than words’. She exhibits perseverance, determination, and has a never die attitude. She has a kindness portrait appearance does many good deeds, and is always filial to her seniors. As a woman, she has an attitude that she can do whatever a man can do. She self-built her farm houses for chicken and pigs and had to oversee eight siblings without any complaints,” May expresses.

The Ascension towards Progress Established since 1977, LHT is one of the largest manufacturing companies of high-quality wooden pallets, boxes, and crates in Singapore. The company has a staff strength of 180 involved in the areas of administration, manufacturing, and warehousing. The Company mainly engages in the manufacture and supply of wooden pallets and cases for the packing of industrial products. The timber-related products segment is mainly engaged in the trading of raw timber-related products. Most of its clientele is in the electronics, petrochemicals, solar, warehousing logistics, and engineering sectors.

February 2020|

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T H E

MOST

INFLUENTIAL

BUSINESS LEADERS IN SINGAPORE!

As a traditional wood pallet manufacturer, LHR saw changes in the timber industry over the years. “At LHT, we face many challenges, beside innovating products, we are facing the new generation gaps where it is hard to find workers and staff entering in timber trade. We are fortunate that our government provide funds to cope the digital transformation,” May expresses.

Since 2009, LHT has taken the opportunities to collaborate with A*STAR which is a catalyst, enabler and convenor of significant research initiatives among the research community in Singapore and beyond.

“Our objective is to reduce our carbon footprint. However, low-carbon shop floor machineries, equipment and processes come with high price tags which makes the final product costly and uncompetitive. But, if we could recycle waste and convert it into some raw materials in our processes, we can be a game changer in our sustainability journey,” she adds.

The collaborated projects with A*STAR ensure LHT’s ability towards providing long term sustainability to associates, customers, partners, stakeholders, shareholders and friends, and recognize the team efforts, goals and the company stability.

To know more about LHT Holdings and its innovative products, www.lht.com.sg Exhibiting Excellence Talking about the company’s proud achievements, May recalls, in 2004, in Asia, with many countries adopting implementation of ISPM15 (International Standard Phytosanitary Measure, version 15), a guideline of which required ‘Wood Packaging Material(WPM) For International Trade’ to undergo heat treatment process or fumigation.

Pertaining to this, LHT started innovating and re-engineering its pallets under the category ‘Innovative Process Products Convention. With this turn around the company began to see its sales recover and escalating from the downfall it witnessed in 2003. As a result, LHT’s products transformed the market using a lower carbon footprint processed wood that was made from waste wood materials.

“Deforestation is one major cause to climate change.

Recycling is one of the many efforts that reflects LHT’s commitment toward mitigation climate change and global warming” and EcoFriend Awards by NEA. The use of this wood waste recycling technology terminated the company’s own wood waste disposal fees and saved a few hundred thousand dollars, and in contrary saved 4,500 trees annually.

Passing on the Keys to Success Showing her support to the younger generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs, May says that LHT always welcomes and encourages budding entrepreneurs. The company believes that if someone can do better and do good deeds to the earth we live on, we should let them perform. May firmly follows the saying, “From the day we born we bring nothing to this world, and upon our death we take nothing back too And by doing good deeds, we learn from the society and give back to the society. By giving kindness to everyone it is giving kindness to ourselves.”

Talking about the company future, May states, “The company future is optimistic, as we have achieved zero waste green manufacturing since we are successful in our wood waste recycling by turning wood waste into useful green products. We are now performing an R&D project in looking up new ways on how to recycle plastic waste with wood wastes. Mergers and acquisitions are in the planning phase, to make the business more sustainable and induce longevity growth and transformation into 4.0 smart factory.”

“We are always conscious of our role in the conservation of natural resources. Recycling is one of the many efforts that reflect our commitment towards mitigating climate change and deforestation,” she adds.

In 2018, LHT was awarded the Climate Action Champion February 2020|

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STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE FOCUS AT WORK

M

“

ay you live in interesting times”. The ‘interesting times’ here don’t mean ‘good times.’ It points to times when you work extra-hard, yet get nowhere in terms of productivity and results! A Chinese proverb, it’s actually a curse and seems so true of the present when one has to work extra, extra hard just so that the needful gets done.

But then, with time and efforts, strategies and steps can be worked out which gives one the ability to work hard, really hard, and give results beyond reasonable expectations!

Some of these steps to encourage the ability to focus on our daily work are mentioned below.

1. Sleep well Hard work calls for hard-sleep. Without a good 6-8 hours of sound sleep, your mind is not rested enough to take on the rigours of work the next day. The brain takes up maximum strain in the normal order of work, and like a good muscle (which incidentally, it isn’t!), needs plenty of rest. Melatonin, norepinephrine and dopamine alternatively affect our brains and make us go from feeling rested to feeling sleepy depending upon the levels of energy in the body. So, to concentrate well on the work at hand, SLEEP WELL (but NEVER on the job)!

2. Exercise Exercising hard to get the blood coursing full blast through your veins is what is called for, at least 3 times a week. In doing so, it helps carry loads of oxygen from your nose to the lungs which enriches the blood and boosts the body’s performance of even the toughest of tasks. Immediately after the exercise, dopamine starts to affect your senses which gives you the feeling of calm and serenity. Together, they make you energetic and relaxed with full of confidence, energy and vitality to carry on all the activities of the day.

3. Use diaries wisely to plan your day You are well rested and exercised, right there behind the comp in your favourite place in the office. Yet, things don’t seem right. Reason? You haven’t planned the day properly and waste time, energy and concentration on mundane things leaving important tasks aside. Result?

Work suffers and you don’t get the desired output.

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Solution? PLAN. Use a diary effectively to chalk down what all you intend to do. Try planning in advance so that you have all your tasks covered right down to the minutest of details. This way, your whole day is used productively and at the end, you are way ahead of what you had planned and still have time to pursue a life!

4. Keep distractions to a minimum The 21st century isn’t short of distractions! It starts from the time you open your eyes in the morning and turn on your side to pick up the phone. A smart wrist-watch, an AI-assisted assistant, a PC, a smart this and an awesome that. We have a never-ending list of platforms and gadgets surrounding us. And as and when we get time from these, we need to perform to facilitate a living! If you think that it’s getting tough, it may just be the right time to limit the time you spend with gadgets. Do that to just a few hours broken down into regular intervals so that the rest of the time you concentrate on important jobs at hand.

5. Make a point to sit for work at your desk at appointed hour At the appointed hour, your switch off all distractions and concentrate ONLY on work. Nothing takes place other than work then. All gadgets are done away with, emails inspected and replied to, and mundane activities either done or kept away. These 90 minutes cycles are meant ONLY for hard-core work at hand and nothing else, at the end of which a brief break is taken which may include a stroll, some exercises and if possible, a small nap after which, its back to work.

6. Do difficult work first while concentration is high When you first sit to work, your ability to concentrate is really very high. To make the most of it, get going by first doing the tough jobs first which ask for loads of concentration, calculations, thinking and answering. That done, the mundane ought to be done when the mind is tired and needs to either rest or otherwise go slow. In doing so, time and efforts are utilized best.

7. Eat light Instead of eating 2-3 reasonably heavy meals, eat after every 2 hours but eat light. In doing so, the body’s energy February 2020|

Editor’s Choice

needs are met and one does not frequently encounter sleep- an act which takes away precious time. Sleep and eating are directly connected. More the food consumed, more the likelihood of feeling sleep. Eat just so that hunger is done away with, and one gets the feeling of being full.

8. Get up from your desk at regular intervals to stretch, catch a breath and just walk Sitting continuously beyond 30 minutes is bad for the body, its posture and structure. Humans, a part of the animal world, were never meant to sit in one place for long hours. Our humanoid ancestors moved continuously and sat in one place ONLY due to a reason, food, rest and relaxation. Contrary to our way, they moved a lot, and remained surprisingly fit because our entire structure meant for movement got its quota of exercise. It was never meant to be at rest for long periods of time which is the norm these days. We in fact hardly move these days, a consequence of which is that we remain perennially unfit & exposed to all manner of diseases and health issues.

9. Breath deep when you get up at regular intervals When hard at work, it’s the mind which uses approximately 50% of our oxygen and energy. That being the case, the lack of it only causes fatigue and lack of concentration. To overcome this and give the best productivity, one must breath deeply at regular intervals so that the body’s need for oxygen is more than met.

10. Tidy your work desk A work-desk covered with stuff, either papers, files, books and other things shows badly on the person’s abilities to work efficiently. It shows that the person February 2020|

does not have a sense of priority and has his/ her/ their priorities not clearly cut out. Also, when things just pile-up, it is difficult to approach each job efficiently given that the right resources would be lost in the jumble of papers and things on the desk. It is thus advisable to take up jobs in an order, complete them, file all the corresponding papers, and then move to the next issue such that each job gets done efficiently.

11. Get some caffeine into the system Studies show that caffeine boosts mental capacities!

And there is one source which has immense quantities of it. Coffee! While hard at work, take a break to brew your favorite cuppa. A few sips are all that it calls for to get your energies and concentration back. Do not overdo this as caffeine is said to affects the quality of sleep later. For this, it may take a while before you are clear on how much caffeine works best for you.

12. Shut-down when you feel you are getting drained!

In the end, there ought to be an end. Feeling tired and fatigued, most give up for the day, shut down the system and go home for rest and relaxation. If that suits you, never give up the chance to rest. Two things happen.

You feel low, tired and irritable, AND by resting these cease to exist. Our body processes all the information in the right order only during sleep and not when we are awake. That’s the reason we get dreams. It’s almost like filing papers after a day’s work. If not filed properly, problems may arise when we most want pieces of information. Our brains too work like an informationstorage system that needs to be shut down every once in a while.

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