The Constant Learner

CapitaLand Retail CEO Lim Beng Chee believes in giving his staff the same opportunities he's been given.

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Mr Lim Beng Chee sharing insights with China colleagues visiting Singapore.

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In many ways, Lim Beng Chee, CEO of CapitaLand Retail Limited and CapitaMall Trust Management Limited, could be a poster boy for CapitaLand's 'Building People' philosophy. The former physics teacher and IT sales executive decided to switch career in his early 30s, going back to school fulltime to get an MBA (Accountancy) at Nanyang Technological University before joining DBS Land in 1999, a year before its merger with Pidemco Land to form CapitaLand. With little experience in the property market, he started at a lower-level position than he could have expected with an MBA in his pocket, but he was given many opportunities to stretch himself with new projects and quickly rose through the ranks.

Looking back at the 10 years he has been with the company, Mr Lim believes the key to his success was "not so much about the decisions I made but about the company giving me the opportunities."

"I've been fortunate enough to have very good colleagues and bosses, who gave me opportunities to grow. This company is quite open; people share information readily so it's really a matter of whether you want to learn. I've always looked for experts in the company and picked their brains," the 42-year-old admits, adding, "My advice for young recruits is, 'learn from each other, appreciate each other and work as a team.'"

A Journey of Learning

One of Mr Lim's first projects was working on the initial stage of what would later become the company's first Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) launched in July 2002 as CapitaMall Trust (CMT), which is today the largest REIT by market capitalisation and asset size in Singapore. Mr Lim admits he knew very little about REITs and with the support of those around him, he learned as the project developed. "My boss then, (Mr Pua Seck Guan) was very good at throwing people in the sea and letting them swim. I think it's actually a great way to learn, learning on the job, because you can never teach everything in the classroom. It's also important to learn from your colleagues."

"I really believe in learning from each other. There is always something that you can contribute to the other party and the other party can teach you. That's why it's important when it comes to communicating within the company to have a lot of honesty; if you don't know, you should say so," Mr Lim adds.

When DBS Land and Pidemco Land merged, Mr Lim was pulled onto another new project, giving him the opportunity to develop new knowledge and skills: fund management.

"The opportunity came about when I was tasked to work on the Eureka Office Fund. That was a very interesting learning experience, because I didn't know anything about fund management," recalls Mr Lim who was soon put in charge of the fund in 2001. At the time, the fund controlled all the offices and 38 percent of the retail units in The Adelphi. It had a 19.92 percent stake in Temasek Tower and owned Pidemco Centre in South Bridge Road (later redeveloped as One George Street).

"In a way, I was lucky because the fund started small and simple which gave me the opportunity to learn because we later started doing things a bit more complicated," he says.

In 2004, Mr Lim moved to become an investment manager of CapitaMall Trust Management Limited. He moved through the ranks to Acting Finance manager, Deputy CEO of CapitaMall Trust Management Limited, and then to become the CEO of CapitaRetail China Trust Management Limited when CapitaRetail China Trust was listed in December 2006, which led him to spend the last two years in China, before returning to Singapore to take up his current position.

Opportunities abound

Mr Lim is a strong believer in moving internationally to further one's career. "Working abroad gives you a different perspective. When you're in Singapore, it's easy to be complacent because everybody knows CapitaLand, but when you go to a third-tier city in China, nobody knows who CapitaLand is. So you need to start build your brand, build customers from scratch. In a big city, you can get bullied by the big boys out there, so you learn to be a bit more resilient and thorough in your business strategy," he points out.

Given CapitaLand Retail's strong retail presence, with 95 malls all over Asia, including 28 in China and 9 in India to be developed, there will be plenty of opportunities for staff to further their career internationally over the coming years. "There is a lot of scope for growth in the Asian retail scene, especially in countries like India and China, and we can play a part in that development," Mr Lim says. He points that in India organized retailing only represent 3 percent of the overall retailing market, while in China, domestic consumption takes up only 36 percent of the country's GDP, a figure that is bound to increase over the coming years. But while the company has expanded very rapidly in China, Mr Lim anticipates a more cautious approach in India. "In China we expanded very rapidly, maybe because we're comfortable with the market as a group, we've been there since 1994. But in India, as a group we're still new to the market. It's important to learn with those first projects, understand the country a lot more, before we start to expand rapidly."

Mr Lim also sees Japan as another market with strong potential in the current portfolio that CapitaLand Retail already has. "It's a tough market to expand in because of cultural and language differences. But we do see a lot of value there and we need to establish a strong platform quickly over the next two years or we may have to exit if we fail to do so," he said, pointing out that CapitaLand will open Ito Yokado-Chitose shopping mall in Hokkaido by end April. "Even though it's been a bit painful - because we're moving from a single tenant to a multi-tenant space in this difficult market - it's an exciting project that will open up opportunities for us if we can do it well."

Mr Lim wants to give his staff the same opportunities he has been given through his career. "We always try to pull one or two junior staff in on a new project, so that they themselves can learn on the job," he says.

He is also a strong believer in the Project Control Group and Asset Control Group systems that his predecessor, Mr Pua, instituted. "This is something I want to keep and strengthen. I want to make sure there is a lot of buy-in before we start on any new project. In the past we would develop a property by first having the design people doing the plan then the leasing people coming in; but in a way, it's a very ad-hoc arrangement. We want to institutionalize a workshop practice where everybody gets involved from the start. The challenge is how to pull everybody together and move fast."

Mr Lim says he is looking for people who are knowledgeable in their own area of expertise but who are also willing "to learn and interact with other people."

"Teamwork is a very important criterion for me, along with integrity and honesty. Straight-talk is very important. We don't like shadow-boxing here. And as we have to communicate and be very transparent with our investors, we should also be so amongst ourselves," he said.

"What is important is that the culture of CapitaLand allows us to do that. We can talk to Mr. Liew, our CEO, directly. That makes a lot of difference. It's important because we're a people business; otherwise we're just brick and mortar."

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Posted by: CapitaLand INSIDE, Tuesday, 14 April 2009

Nurturing Talents, Building People

CapitaLand's President & CEO Liew Mun Leong believes talent development is the key to success, particularly during economic crises.

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Leadership development: CapitaLand President & CEO Liew Mun Leong shared with staff at RE100, a 100-hour in-house accelerated real estate course.

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Some call him the architect of New Asia, but Mr Liew Mun Leong, President & CEO of the CapitaLand Group who is known in the property industry for his Midas touch, calls himself a ‘nu cai’, or ‘servant’ in Chinese. He has an interesting interpretation of the word. “‘Nu’ means labour, and ‘cai’ means talent, so, talent is my labour,” says the affable Mr Liew. “I’m the chief of labour talent, that’s all.Sometimes I call myself 'Chief Slave'!"

Humble words from a man who has been named Asia’s Best Executive (Singapore) by Asiamoney magazine and Best CEO in Asia (Property) by Institutional Investor in 2008. But his words actually reflect that as ‘chief of labour talent’, he is instrumental in the success of CapitaLand by exercising his vision of hiring the right people for the right positions within the company.


A civil engineer by training, Mr Liew joined Pidemco Land as CEO in 1996. In November 2000, CapitaLand was formed after Pidemco Land merged with DBS Land. Since then, CapitaLand has grown into one of Asia’s largest real estate companies, Asia’s largest owner-manager of retail malls, the world’s largest international serviced residence owner-operator and a leading REIT/real estate fund manager manager in Asia. The Group’s operations span about 120 cities in over 20 countries, with over 10,000 employees in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

 

The People Developer

The key to success, according to Mr Liew, lies in managing talent and not just property assets. The company’s credo of Building for People to Build People, Building People to Build for People illustrates Mr Liew’s belief. “Bad times, good times – once you have the human capital, you can do a lot. If I get good people, even at bad times, they will be able to solve the problem.”

A firm believer in cultivating talents that grow the business and in turn, contribute to the societies within which CapitaLand operates, Mr Liew is also a passionate communicator. His book, ‘Building People: Sunday Emails from a CEO’ is a collection of what he calls ‘hobby emails’ penned to his staff over the last nine years. This hobby continues to this day. He also makes it a point to have breakfast with his staff one-on-one during the week to stay familiar with the business on the ground.

Ms Ho Ching, executive director and CEO of Temasek Holdings, says in the foreword of Mr Liew’s book, “Mun Leong is tireless in looking out for young people, as well as in teasing out the best in all sorts of people, including older as well as less-educated people. He is always giving people an opportunity or second chance to test themselves and grow.”

 

A Rich Talent Pool

And grow, CapitaLand’s staff did. Out of the 20 CEOs at CapitaLand today, 18 were nurtured in-house over the years. CapitaLand’s strategy is to identify and cultivate talented employees through job exposure and leadership courses, and groom them to take on greater and broader responsibilities when the opportunity arises.

The Group also makes a deliberate effort to recruit people at different points in their careers – young talents, mid-career professionals and experienced “silver hairs” – as collectively they are able to adopt a balanced approach for turbulent times.

One initiative that gives its staff an edge is the CapitaLand Institute of Management & Business (CLIMB). Launched in 2007, the in-house training institute has a dedicated campus on Singapore’s Sentosa Island, where Mr Liew, senior management and external lecturers provide leadership training to its staff. In 2008, CapitaLand launched a new programme at CLIMB called RE100, a 100-hour in-house accelerated real estate course customised for newly-recruited mid-career executives within the Group.

CapitaLand’s efforts to develop its human capital have led it to pick up awards for outstanding human resource practices, including the Most Admired ASEAN Enterprise Award (Employment Category) at the 2007 ASEAN Business Awards.

 

Downturn an Opportunity to Cultivate Leaders

Mr Liew believes the current economic crisis will be an opportunity for a new generation of leaders to be trained within CapitaLand.

“The current crisis is a good example of how we coach new leaders, as some people might not have gone through the SARS or Asian financial crises, so we tell them how we handled the challenges we faced.”

As this year looks to be quieter, he says it is an ideal time to train staff, consolidate operations, correct any weaknesses in the company system and build up the balance sheet.

“This time around, we will come out of this crisis even stronger as the company has gone through past crises and is a much stronger ship than before. The crew of the ship is also more experienced in handling a crisis.”

It looks like CapitaLand is in good hands.

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Posted by: CapitaLand Inside, Saturday, 28 February 2009