Revolutionary Road
Michelle Yong, Winnie Chan and Yu Yah-leng share with Hong Xinyi and Terence Lim why and how they decided to go against the grain of conventional wisdom to forge creative new paths for their businesses
Business minds Michelle Yong, Yu Yah-leng and Winnie Chan reveal why and how they went against the grain to strike creative new paths for their companies
MICHELLE YONG DECONSTRUCTING THE FAMILY BUSINESS
When she was about to graduate from her studies in economics, accounting and law at the University of Bristol in the UK, Michelle Yong received a letter from her father, Yong Tiam Yoon, deputy chairman of construction conglomerate Woh Hup. In the letter, he told her she should not join the family business, which had been founded in 1927. Michelle’s brother Neil received a letter from him too, but his missive informed him that he would be joining Woh Hup as a member of the family’s fourth generation. Why the different messages? Many family businesses have a tendency of not lasting beyond the third generation (only 3 per cent make it to the fourth generation, according to a 2016 PWC Global Family Business Survey). “My father wanted to spread the risk,” Michelle explains. “It didn’t come as a surprise. He hadn’t been grooming me for a role in the family business, and I understood the rationale.” Still, there was something about the idea of a family business that intrigued her. When she subsequently began her master’s degree in economics at the University of Oxford, she decided to focus her thesis on the third-generation curse that had
“I want to help us grow in lots of different areas. Beyond construction and real estate, we hope to go into co-living, co-retirement and co-learning projects, and Found8 will be a catalyst for these ideas”
so preoccupied her father, positing that one way to break this curse was to launch ventures in adjacent markets, business models or technologies, and keep the leadership of these units within two generations of the family. A few years later, her insights in this area were further informed by professor Marc-michael Bergfeld, an expert in the field who characterised the core family business as a “castle”, and new growth opportunities as “settlements” that family members could develop into profitable “villages”, which may in turn mature into “castles” in their own right. As it turned out, Michelle’s interest in this subject has served her well. In 2007, after working as a management consultant, her father asked her to take on the challenge of running Aurum Land, a Woh Hup subsidiary that focuses on boutique property development. Drawing from her previous experience, she implemented a greater degree of rigour and accountability in the business, and worked hard to earn the trust of the family elders on the Woh Hup board. “It was not always easy to get their buy-in, and it took me a long time to show them that I understood the business and the market. But I was very persistent.” Distinctive projects such as Mount Sophia’s award-winning 1919 have since turned Aurum Land into an internationally acclaimed developer, and it will be launching the 18-storey condominium Nyon, which fronts East Coast Park, this month, and The Hyde in the coveted District 10 later this year. Over the past three years, Michelle has also developed a more expansive vision that looks beyond property development. The Aurum group now also includes venture capital fund Aurum Investments, which invests in proptech start-ups; and Core Collective, an Anson Road co-working space for fitness and wellness professionals. Most recently, Collision 8, the co-working brand she launched under Aurum in 2016, has merged with fellow co-working brand Found to form Found8. Here, again, Michelle was driven by an incisively analytical strategy. “Collision 8 was started to bridge the gap between the traditional corporate business world, and the tech start-up world,” she explains. “These two worlds don’t often mix, and we wanted to be that connector.” To bring this vision into its next phase, combining Found’s expertise in running innovation programmes for corporations with Collision 8’s strengths in tech start-ups, real estate and customer service will hopefully prove to be a winning formula. “It’s a natural fit,” Michelle believes. Co-working brands have mushroomed in Singapore in recent years, and the merger is a good opportunity to reinforce a specific niche. “For us, co-working is about putting people at the heart of innovation, and creating a supportive environment that accelerates growth, creates change, and advances community. Both Collision 8 and Found had a very strong focus on innovation. Together, we want to create a bigger voice, stand apart from the crowd, and be known for the business growth support we provide.” One of Found8’s key initiatives, launching later this year, will be the Asian Family Business Lab, which aims to provide bespoke accelerator frameworks for under-performing family business units. “We’re looking for participants with a growth mindset, who want to implement change, rather than just hypothesise,” says Michelle emphatically. It’s obvious that her abiding interest in family businesses has not waned in the least. “Family businesses make up a very high percentage of all businesses in Asia,” she reminds us. “They are the lifeblood of many economies.” On a personal level, she is driven by a desire to build a thriving legacy for the next-generation leaders in her family. “The third generation has done incredibly well, they beat the curse. So those of us from the fourth generation better not drop the ball. I want to help us grow in lots of different areas. Beyond construction and real estate, we hope to go into co-living, co-retirement and co-learning projects, and Found8 will be a catalyst for these ideas.”
While Bynd Artisan’s operations have seemingly grown from strength to strength, it has not always been smooth sailing. Winnie admits that the very first iteration of the brand concept, which took on a Western slant, did not quite resonate with local consumers
WINNIE CHAN THE WRITE NOTE
While most parents remind their children not to overindulge in the world of all things fashionable and covetable, Winnie Chan is the direct opposite. Like many youngsters today, her son Josh likes collecting rare sneakers. But instead of ticking him off, the founder and CEO of Bynd Artisan, which customises paper and leather goods, poses him a question: “In the future, how you do create a huge demand for the next limited-edition sneakers or product?” Clearly, Winnie’s approach to parenting is anything but conventional. But this unorthodox way of tackling issues and challenges in life has been an asset, especially when it comes to her business, which she set up with her husband, James Quan, in 2014. “We wanted to build a brand of our own instead of being dictated by wholesale and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers in my family business,” says Winnie, who had previously worked for her family’s bookbinding and stationery firm, Grandluxe, for 22 years. The couple first launched Bynd Artisan with an atelier in Boon Lay in 2014, before being invited to set up a corner in Tangs at Tang Plaza later that same year. The business has since flourished to include a flagship atelier in Holland Village, standalone retail stores in shopping malls such as Ion Orchard, Takashimaya and Raffles City, a shop-in-shop outlet in multi-label fashion boutique Pedder on Scotts and a store in a luxury shopping mall in Shanghai. “What we have done with Bynd Artisan is to apply business innovation to an old-school product and seemingly sunset industry. It resulted in us opening our atelier, an experiential space that differentiates us from other retail offerings and piques one’s curiosity to step inside,” she says, adding that this different approach has given the group of old but highly experienced craftsmen from her family business a second wind. It has also given Bynd Artisan an edge over other similar brands in the market. “It has allowed us to make use of our craftsmen’s existing skill sets on a different platform and essentially reinvent and value-add the good old notebook together with other leather goods.” While its operations have seemingly grown from strength to strength, it has not always been smooth sailing. Winnie admits that the very first iteration of the brand concept, which took on a Western slant, did not quite resonate with local consumers. “We wanted to give the impression that we were a foreign brand,” she explains. “Especially when we grew up thinking that foreign brands are better than local ones.” So, the couple went back to the drawing board to develop a concept with “a compelling story” in what we know as the current version of Bynd Artisan. “Leveraging on our heritage and Asian roots, the brand was able to ride on the growing public interest in local design that gained momentum in the years leading up to Singapore’s golden jubilee celebrations,” explains Winnie. She adds that the key differentiators for Bynd Artisan include personalisation services and encouraging consumers to customise and monogram on all its products. “These services were all provided in-house and live. Ultimately, they became our unique selling points.” In fact, these have become the brand’s calling card, earning top-of-mind recall among consumers, allowing Bynd Artisan to blossom into a strong proposition for shopping mall operators and investors as offers to open overseas outposts start
pouring in. Winnie and James are not against the idea of overseas expansion but rule out the possibility of running these operations on their own, preferring to work with selected partners who are aligned with them in terms of beliefs and principles. “We are quite lean, and I believe in being high value-added. That’s why the type of people that we hire are very hands-on,” she says, adding that her total staff strength stands at 28, including those at the Shanghai outpost, which opened in late 2018. When asked how much research they do before plunging into an overseas collaboration, Winnie explains that the company does not employ a structured process so long as the country in consideration is developed and has denizens who are able to appreciate the finer things in life. Of course, the right business partner matters too. “We have had quite a few interested parties asking us to partner them in Australia, Indonesia and China. Ultimately, it boils down to synergy and also similar aspirations. It’s a balance of remaining artisanal, having a relatively wide appeal and maintaining the brand equity. We started operations in Shanghai because we felt our China partner is aligned with our strategy and we were convinced that they will focus on building our brand for the long run.” Four years on, Bynd Artisan has amassed various accolades such as Design of the Year at the President Design Awards 2016 and Best Shopping Experience at the Singapore Tourism Awards 2017—proof that the business is on the right track. Winnie acknowledges the success and admits that she is “satisfied on all fronts” including its brand equity and annual turnover. It is still early days, however, to determine if Bynd Artisan has the legs to grow into a legacy business, Winnie believes. But she is glad that her children, Josh and Vera, are keen to join the business. During her university term break, Vera even interned at Bynd Artisan and experienced for herself the pride and joy her parents derive from seeing customers leave the store with a personalised notebook. In line with her atypical parenting methods, Winnie is ready to take risks if the time comes for the business to grow. With steely determination, she says: “If we have to engage professionals to take us to the next level, we will go that route. The brand must be bigger than one individual.” Until that day comes along, Winnie, together with James, will continue nurturing and parenting this child of theirs.
YU YAH-LENG A STRANGER AT HOME
When designer Yu Yah-leng first moved back to Singapore in 2006 to be closer to family after spending 15 years studying and working in the US, she knew she wanted to set up her own studio rather than work for someone else. “It wasn’t easy, because I had no network of designer friends here. I didn’t even know basic stuff like the printers to go to,” she recalls in her soft-spoken way. At the time, she had already been running a design agency specialising in websites and interactive interfaces in New York for several years. “I wasn’t interested in very template-based design that didn’t have much creativity.” Instead, she wanted to contribute to the burgeoning growth of independent design studios in Singapore. “I wanted to try and change the way things were being designed in Singapore, and break that stereotypical approach towards everything from wayfinding to packaging.” With that ambition in mind, she set up Foreign Policy Design Group with husband Arthur Chin, who now spearheads the studio’s business strategy while Yah-leng is creative director.
They started to build their network by attending Designsingapore Council events, and landed some work from government agencies after learning how to use Gebiz, the procurement platform for the public sector. A key turning point for them was getting to know hotelier-restaurateur Loh Lik Peng, which led to Foreign Policy working on design and branding for several of his establishments under the Unlisted Collection. In fact, forward-thinking entrepreneurs such as Loh and Wee Teng Wen of The Lo & Behold Group have been instrumental in catalysing a new golden age of design in Singapore, Yah-leng believes. “They are visionaries who have been exposed to the importance of design through living, working and travelling abroad. So they knew exactly what they wanted when they started their businesses in Singapore, and their belief in design inspired other entrepreneurs, helped to set a new trajectory for Singapore design and really changed the landscape here. Without people like them, designers, however talented, would not have had the chance to work on projects that allowed them to stretch.” After all, as she likes to say, a project is only as good as the client behind it. And the impact of this golden age is still evolving. She has observed more independent design studios here, with younger designers deciding to set up shop for themselves straightaway rather than work for larger agencies. “That’s quite a healthy sign; it shows that there is enough business for everyone, enough interest in good design,” she notes optimistically. “It shows that Singapore is no longer just a hard-edged city interested only in finance and numbers. We now care about aesthetics, about how the softer side of things can help our way of life. That’s quite important.” As for Foreign Policy, the studio is now turning its attention to helping more traditional businesses as a younger generation of owners take on the challenge of making these family enterprises relevant to a new age. For instance, it’s helping to rebrand carpentry company Roger&sons, whose second-generation leaders are keen to pivot to a more design-centric, bespoke business model and will be unveiling a public-facing showroom and event space for the first time in Jalan Besar later this year. It’s been really interesting to help such businesses transition into a new phase, says Yah-leng. “These traditional businesses helped to build Singapore, and contributed to the identity of Singapore. I believe we should try to help them evolve, so that the younger generation can be reminded of our roots. It’s important to keep as much of our culture as possible, because culture is identity. And design can help to communicate that in a different way to a new generation, to engage and excite them.” These are issues that she feels strongly about, and that she probably wouldn’t have thought about if she hadn’t moved back home over a decade ago, Yah-leng concedes. And there are plenty of new frontiers she hopes to explore this year. A key initiative in the works is a collaborative effort—foreign Policy has formed a collective consultancy with lifestyle website High Net Worth and Mileage Communications. Named The Consortium, it aims to provide a more complete spectrum of business solutions through consolidated expertise that includes design, public relations and content services. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen the transformation of the creative class in Singapore. People have become more informed about design, and I see the impact we can make,” says Yah-leng. “Creatives are a bit crazy; we are the ones who can help to change the expected course of something, by tweaking the way things are done.” Indeed, the potential profitability that results from creative thinking has been embraced by the public and private sector in recent years, in the form of a methodical framework known as design thinking, so named because it supposedly draws from the problem-solving approach of designers. But Yah-leng has a much simpler suggestion for those seeking to nurture some right-brain flair. “You can’t teach design thinking to a primary school student. It’s not a thing. If you want your children to be creative, let them play. Let them make mistakes, and have the freedom to express themselves. To me, that is design thinking.”
“People have become more informed about design, and I see the impact we can make. Creatives are a bit crazy; we are the ones who can help to change the expected course of something, by tweaking the way things are done”