‘ Think big but start with baby steps’

> In this week’s column, we feature the thoughts and views from GD Express Carrier Bhd manging director and group CEO Teong Teck Lean on his rise to corporate leadership

How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?

I believe having grown up with 11 siblings in a small village, learning to give and take, study, play and work together gave me a good start in life.

The challenges, success and failures that came later during my tertiary education, my first and second job as an engineer, working as a dealer with a stockbroking firm also helped to shape my leadership skills.

The last 15 years, having to take on a leadership role in an organisation provided me with so many challenges as interacting with people of diverse backgrounds became a daily routine. Being able to prioritise on all matters, including time for family, became an equally challenging ability, so is the engagement with regulators, shareholders, business partners and suppliers.

The experience has taught me to stay focused and spend most of my effort for customers and employees. I have now learned to let go and empower more as I believe that I need more leaders that are young and capable to help build a stronger organisation.

This way, I can lead my organisation more effectively.

How has your previous employment experience aided your current position?

My previous job as a dealer required me to be on the lookout for news on global and domestic events that may affect markets, businesses, etc. It instils a habit of pursuit, current trends and technologies that are essential in strategic decision making for the group.

All my previous employments gave me an opportunity to play different roles in an organisation, and helped me to understand how to run an organisation that works as a team. The nature of our business requires the organisation to react fast to the needs of customers, and to provide responsive solutions. It is essential to understand all the procedures and the parties involved to work in a synchronised manner.

What advice can you offer to budding entrepreneurs/ women/youths who want to start their career/own business?

Think big, act small. It is alright to have big dreams but what is important, is to approach the business in baby steps. This is to make sure that the damage is limited if anything goes wrong. Once it has been proven that the business is viable and profitable, then by all means, be more aggressive. Never give up easily as one will become better over time, if enough effort and passion are put into your business. And also do not put too much pressure on yourself or your employees, as a business is normally long term and you would not want to burn out too fast, physically or mentally.

How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal lives?

Mentorship is a very important part of personal development for me. I am fortunate that I have many mentors, a few of whom are unaware that they have helped to shape me. I would ask many questions from the people I know, and would try to read as many books about certain great leaders by different authors who have different perspectives about them, and this has helped enrich my understanding and ultimately, skills in leadership as well. It is important to know which kind of leadership quality suits me, so that the leadership that I have is accepted by my team.

What do you want to accomplish in the next five years?

Hopefully, with everyone’s blessings, GDEX will become more visible in the Asian region. I hope GDEX services and offerings will be more accepted by the communities and that the company will become one of the more prominent employers in the region. We also hope to be able to provide training to those who did not have much opportunities to further their tertiary education.

How do you stay abreast of issues affecting your industry?

Attending conferences organised by the industry regulators, event organisers and trade fairs is one way to find out what are the best practices in the industry.

The other ways are doing analysis on complaints and industry surveys to understand the strength and weaknesses of the organisation.

It is most important to constantly communicate with our customers to have a better understanding of their continuous needs and the challenges in meeting their expectations.

It is also important to further engagement with both internal and external auditors to access the risk situation in the organisation, and to continuously look for better solutions to mitigate problems and risks in the processes.

If you could have an hour with any thought leader in the world, who would it be and why?

Barrack Obama. I will ask him about his dream to be the president of the United States when he was young, and how he was able to overcome personal obstacles in having such a big dream, even though it must be almost impossible to think of that before he really got support for it. I will also ask him how he manages to balance family and working life, given the enormous task that he has to do as president of the most powerful country in the world.

A must-read for every business owner/manager is ...

The Age of Fallibility by George Soros. Georges Soros has been a controversial billionaire making billions by anticipating big swings and cracks in the financial markets. As domestic markets are somehow intervening with global financial markets, The Age of Fallibility is a good read, even though George Soros may have his own agenda to talk about many of the important global issues in the world during the Bush era.