“Bouncing Back from Adversity” Article Series #6: Brandon Lew

Overview

The COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore dormitories for the last few week highlights a weak link in the Singapore well-run system. The infection cases are going up very quickly by the day (404 cases yesterday). It is a good time for the country and industry leaders to reflect deeply on how are we treating the large foreign workforce (>200,000 workers) who are living in very dense living conditions.

Caption: Foreign workers at the S11 Dormitory at Punggol on April 6. Photographer: Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images

I have a high trust in the multiple agency approach of the Singapore government, but it seems like we are caught off-guard and not well-prepared for such an outbreak scenario. However, I have strong confidence that we will learn from this crisis and emerge stronger as a nation, just like what happened after SARS. Singapore will certainly be a more resilient country!

Introduction

In my sixth interview on April 16, Brandon Lew, VP HR from T-Systems Singapore had the interview with me via FaceTime. He manages the Singapore workforce of 100 employees and act as a strategic advisor to the business leaders. Interestingly, he was wearing a T-Systems polo T-shirt, while I was wearing a George Washington University (our alma mater) polo T-shirt, as we are both working from home.  

Here are the excerpts from our interview:

Ricky “R”: Hi Brandon, great having you today! Can you share with us your overall perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic situation?

Brandon Lew “L”: I’d like to put things into context. Singapore is two-third the size of New York and represents less than 0.1% of the world population. So, my perspective would be from the lens of a small country managing international influences.

In the beginning of the crisis, we were doing well until we did not. This overconfidence has brought us down a notch in terms of global investor confidence. We are saved by the fact that we are small and efficient enough to correct our protocols in a very short time. The circuit breaker should be called a “sledgehammer breaker”. Look at the sudden increase and severity of action steps. I’m all for it! But what I learnt is not to celebrate too early. Eyes on the ball and keep focus on your end goal. 

My perspective is that we need to work with the cards that we are dealt with and be practical about every day, not about every month. This is important because despite all the opinions out there, every country is evolving. You should have a long-term goal, but you can’t have a long-term strategy at this time.  

Caption: Asics Trainers. "Are you ready to run?"

Business leaders will need to have an evolving strategy and optimise the business based on a day-by-day basis. You can’t advise the management that this is what we do for the month. We need to be super-fast and nimble.

My running shoes are on and I’m ready to run!

Impact to business and talent attraction & development

R: What is the impact to your business?

Reality is the best selling point

L: Reality is the best selling point. Previously, we have clients who reject our proposals to shift to a customized cloud solutions. Today, these clients are definitely reflecting on their previous decisions. In the long-run, we believe that the industry will need to look at crafting smart maintenance solutions, in order to generate consistent revenues. It will no longer be business as usual where clients are paying for manpower and hardware.

R: How about impact on talent attraction and development?

L: Internationally, everybody is learning something. We observe that the ground staff have more time for learning. I’m pushing for the employees to complete their online courses and fill up their training passport.

However, at the higher levels, our managers have lesser time for such online learning courses. They are busy handling calls and reporting due to this telecommuting scenario. It is actually more stressful for them. The positive thing is that they are quickly learning how to manage people remotely and they are ‘forced’ to uplift their leadership competencies in this crisis.

Opportunity to grow quality of talents and capture business

R: How are your customers reacting? What’s your HR strategy to support the business? 

L: Currently, customers are busy minding their own businesses. Everybody is busy trying to ensure profitability once the COVID-19 pandemic calms.

In terms of HR, this is an opportunity for us to consider what the critical roles within our organisation are. For our employees, this is also the best chance to prove their value and show that they are critical for the company.

T-Systems is using this rare opportunity to grow in quality, but not in size.

In terms of talent attraction, this is the best time to poach talents from other less stable organisations to join us. We are actively going after good candidates that are already in our talent pipeline.

T-Systems is using this rare opportunity to grow in quality, but not in size.

R: Where do you see the opportunities in the current situation? 

L: I don’t think the stereotypical online solutions is the way to go as all these solutions are dime a dozen in the market, and we are not the cheapest. We want to go for solutions that would allow customers to take us as ‘a holistic solution’ and not just one area of their ICT solutions. We want to make it convenient for companies to buy their entire suite of IT products and solutions from us in order for them to focus on their core business.

Although this is a very difficult time for the IT industry, we believe we can capture new opportunities in the market.

Successful engagement with team members virtually

R: How are you managing your team and workforce?

L: For my HR team, I propose to them not to interfere too much with the employees who are working from home. We want to allow colleagues to have an opportunity to “miss” having hyper care HR services and onsite counsel. In the first evening, my HR team was uncomfortable. After 2-3 days, the employees and business managers started coming to them for HR services and solutions. Instead of breathing down the employee’s neck, let them pursue you for a change. We believe this is one strategy to build trust with our colleagues without being too intrusive.

We need to be agile towards the evolving situation (day-by-day strategy) and make decisions quickly.

For some of our workforce, we told them that we will have a daily check-in session. We need to be agile towards the evolving situation (day-by-day strategy) and make decisions quickly. People feel that it’s disorganised compared to normal days where we are used to being very structured and have a consistent routine. But these are interesting times. We need to adapt. Fortunately, our leaders are able to shift into this agile mode very quickly.

Don’t trust expert advice and think!

R: What advice do you have for business leaders?

L: My first advice is “don’t trust expert advice!” Customize all the solutions out there and don’t take any proposal wholesale. Think deeply on what works for your organisation. Nobody can give you the perfect solution.

Also, this is a good time for business to consider who is truly critical for your team. After the COVID-19, leaders will know who to promote, to develop and who to be on a performance improvement plan (PIP).

Conclusion

I have known Brandon for more than 10 years, first as a GWU school alumni and later as a client. My key takeaway from the interview is that companies need to be agile and be able to decide / act quickly. We need to park our structured and long-term oriented approach aside, and make decisions that is relevant to the situation. It is a great time for leaders to learn how to manage their teams remotely and develop their virtual leadership competency.

If you are interested on how to build an agile leadership team and sales force in APAC, drop me a note at [email protected]. I'm happy to share with you on successful case studies that have worked for my clients.