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Jul 11, 2010, The Sunday Times
She wanted to prove her father wrong
Ascendas CEO shows women can make it in male-dominated world
Ms Chong Siak Ching, 51, remembers overhearing a conversation between her father and one of her elder brothers when she was a teenager growing up in Penang.
‘They were discussing what my brother should study at university. My father wanted him to choose engineering which, he said, was very good for boys, not for girls,’ says the president and chief executive officer of industrial developer Ascendas.
The remark irked her enough to want to prove her salesman father wrong.
So Ms Chong, the youngest of seven children, became the only girl in her school to take double mathematics for her A-levels, a strategy adopted by students set on an engineering degree.
She got what she wanted, but after two weeks in the University of Malaya’s engineering faculty, she left for Singapore.
‘That was the year when the medium of instruction changed from English to Malay in Malaysia,’ recalls Ms Chong, who decided she would be better off accepting an offer by the then-University of Singapore to study estate management.
That her decision meant she was likely to end up in the male-dominated construction, building and real estate industry never bothered her.
‘My thinking has always been, as long as it is a job I’ve been trained and am qualified to do, I would do it,’ she says.
And she has done very well, thank you very much.
She graduated in 1981 and became a licensed valuer two years later. She cut her teeth in the real estate industry, working for DBS Land and Lauw & Sons – steadily climbing the corporate echelons to become head honcho of Ascendas in 2001.
In-between, she got married, had a daughter who is now 17, obtained her Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the National University of Singapore in 1991, and completed a Harvard Business School advanced management programme in 1998.
Last year, Ms Chong became the first woman to win the Outstanding Chief Executive honour at the Singapore Business Awards, an annual event organised by The Business Times and DHL.
Looking chic in a fetching Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress at Ascendas’ headquarters in Science Park 2, she laughingly lets on that her first instinct – when told of her award – was to reject it.
‘I really dread the limelight and I was stressed out by the idea that I had to give a speech and shoot a video,’ she says, laughing.
But a spot of reflection, and some advice from compadres in the business fraternity, convinced her to quash her apprehension and trepidation.
‘I realised that it would be good for the morale of colleagues and staff, especially in the light of the financial crisis. The award also means that all the hard work that has gone into Ascendas is being recognised in the marketplace,’ she says of the company she has steered from Day One of its inception in 2001.
Since then, Ascendas has seen its assets under management grow from $1.2 billion to about $10 billion today.
The conglomerate develops, manages and markets industrial space, from business and science parks to manufacturing centres and urban offices in more than 30 cities in 10 countries. Its flagships include the Singapore Science Park, International Tech Park Bangalore in India and Dalian-Ascendas IT Park in China.
The company was formed from the merger of Arcasia Land and JTC International’s Business Parks & Facilities Group, both subsidiaries of JTC Corporation, to create a stronger competitive advantage as an Asian real estate player.
Ms Chong was deemed the perfect candidate for the job. After all, she was then both chairman of Arcasia Land and deputy chief executive of JTC.
It was a big challenge.
‘Statistics show that more than 70 per cent of mergers fail,’ says the very congenial and assured Ms Chong, who became a Singaporean in 1998. ‘But to me, if the rationale for the merger is strong and makes good sense, you’re one big step ahead.’
She put great effort into uniting the staff.
‘One has to recognise that every entity has its own culture, behaviour and belief systems and probably for the right reasons,’ she says.
‘I wanted to bring out the best of both sides and I had to be careful not to let the strengths of one side subsume the other.’
One of the first things she did was to settle on a new name.
‘I knew that in order for everyone to come together, we needed a new name and I got everyone involved so that they could say ‘I had a part to play’,’ says Ms Chong, who chaired the Apec CEO Summit held in Singapore last year.
‘I made sure that every area has a team of people to drive it, with each team comprising people from both companies. Even the senior management team had people from both sides.’
She says her management style is very much modelled on well-known business strategist Peter Senge’s concept of a learning organisation.
A learning organisation sets out to create its own future, by constantly learning, adapting and transforming itself in response to the needs and aspirations of people, both inside and outside the organisation.
It has five main features: systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision and team learning.
‘It’s a lot of involving people in things, asking the right questions, equipping them with the skills to uncover what’s wrong. A lot of it is self-awareness, being aware of environment, critical thinking,’ she says.
She takes her role as leader seriously.
While she doesn’t seek out leadership, ‘once I have been entrusted, I make sure I meet that expectation’.
‘If people have confidence in you and they’re prepared to entrust you with responsibilities, all the more you shouldn’t let them down.’
There is an approachability about the chief executive, whom staff and colleagues affectionately call Siak, which hints at a high EQ.
It probably stems from growing up in a very close-knit family.
Ms Chong, who has four elder sisters and two elder brothers, says: ‘Growing up, I felt very loved and secure and that made me confident.’
She adds: ‘If you give, whether it’s love or support, you will receive it back and I see that in the family. If any of us is in trouble, the others will rally around.’
She is guided by the same philosophy at work.
‘People create problems but people also solve them. And if organisations address people issues, and encourage communication, a lot of problems will fall away.’
Ascendas has very family-friendly practices, including flexible working hours for staff – men and women – who have children.
‘I do believe that only when you are firmly settled down in terms of family, can you be firmly settled down at work.’
Asked how she juggled motherhood and career, she lets off a tinkling laugh.
‘I must say I am extremely lucky,’ says Ms Chong, who is also deputy chairman of Spring Singapore.
She took up a very close friend’s offer to look after her daughter Samantha, when the latter was born.
‘I dropped her off every day before going off to work, and felt very assured that Sam was very well taken care of. My friend has a very lovely family and she kept telling me to focus on my work, and travel if I had to,’ recalls the mother, adding that the family does not have a full-time maid.
It helps that her husband – a former army officer and independent director of a listed company – opted for early retirement and is around to take care of things.
Samantha, she says, is now a well-adjusted and self-driven 17-year-old junior college student.
‘I never had to sit next to her to coach her for exams,’ she says.
She laughingly recalls what one friend said when Samantha became the only pupil from CHIJ Our Lady of Good Counsel in Serangoon Gardens to get into the Gifted Education Programme at Raffles Girls’ Primary School one year.
‘My friend said, ‘That’s so wonderful and to think that she did it all by herself, without your help.’ That’s so true.’
Her face takes on a bemused expression when asked if she might have enjoyed full-time motherhood.
‘I don’t know, I might have enjoyed it.’
Candidly, she lets on that she sometimes regrets that she did not spend more time with her daughter.
‘But the regret would be even deeper if my daughter were not as wholesome as she is today. Then I would have felt that I had contributed to that.’
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