Leading the way to overcome adversities and forge ahead

Despite the road blocks, the team’s prudent measures eventually paid off. 

While many businesses struggled during a period of lockdowns, Jardine C&C remained profitable in 2020. The company’s net profit rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels in 2021. And in the following year, it posted a record underlying full-year profit of US$1.1 billion. 

“The challenges of a global pandemic taught us invaluable lessons, such as focusing on today and planning for the future,” Birks said. 

“One encouraging positive was that this challenging time also showed the resilience of our market-leading businesses – which could produce strong recoveries.”

Despite the good results, the helmsman says there is still more to be done. 

Birks sees strategic transformation to change the way Jardine C&C works as a long-term action plan.

“It will take time and effort to produce the positive changes that we want to see in the businesses, whether they are in the management approach and mindset, or in behaviours and operations,” he said.

For now, the company is aiming to grow “faster than South-east Asia”, by investing in market-leading businesses across the region.

In particular, Indonesia and Vietnam are of key interest to the company.

It sees potential in Indonesia, given that the market’s contributions to the group’s earnings have been consistent throughout the years. 

“We aim to continue growing these businesses, but at the same time, work towards increasing the contributions from our Vietnamese investments,” said Birks.

Championing industry growth

Jardine C&C is not alone in its Covid resilience story. Others, too, have reflected on their growth during the pandemic, and on how they’ve come out stronger as a team. 

Seah Kiin Peng, chief executive officer of BRC Asia, recounted to The Business Times how Covid-19 had been the “one most challenging event the group faced”.

“We suffered unprecedented stress on our cash flow and operations, particularly during and in the immediate aftermath of the ‘circuit breaker’,” he said. 

But with the help of an experienced management team, coupled with support from both its internal and external stakeholders, the company eventually managed to overcome these hurdles. 

“In fact, how we dealt with the crisis galvanised our people, built trust, and grew the company’s reputation, enabling the group to come out of the pandemic stronger, more motivated and united,” Seah said. 

To him, the ability to communicate effectively and bring people together has been key to his success at the company. 

Seah was named the Best CEO in the mid-cap category, for companies with market capitalisations of between S$300 million and S$1 billion.

Beyond serving the needs of his people, Seah has set his sights on improving the wider industry.

This led him to set up the Prefabrication Association of Singapore for Precast & Steel. The association looks to collectively represent the interests of those in the precast and reinforcing steel sectors – two key segments of the local construction supply chain. 

It also aims to initiate and increase adoption of productive technologies and sustainable practices in moving towards a more advanced, integrated and progressive sector. 

It now represents about 80 per cent of the precast sector and around 90 per cent of the reinforcing steel sector in Singapore, said Seah. 

Looking ahead, Seah targets for BRC Asia to expand its presence beyond Singapore. 

For the next five years, Seah said the company will be exploring ways to deploy a more “digital, integrated, and automated set of processes” along with its expansion. 

It will also look to deepen collaboration with various stakeholders across the entire supply chain, to contribute to industry-wide decarbonisation efforts in Singapore. 

But these focuses are different across industries, and vary depending on the size and needs of the company. 

People power

As the world shifts its emphasis towards green energy, Baker Technology CEO Jeanette Chang spends a lot more time mulling over the long-term sustainability of the company.

Her job at the helm of Baker Technology – a manufacturer and provider of specialised marine offshore equipment and services for oil and gas players – is already a tough one, amid rising inflation and volatile oil prices. 

But it gets even more challenging.

Companies in brown industries such as hers now also face high financing costs and difficulties in obtaining fresh funding, particularly as institutions move to focus on green financing. 

“With oil price volatility, the Covid-19 pandemic, high inflation and geopolitical issues, we have encountered obstacles and difficulties as many other companies did, especially in our sector,” said Chang. 

The secret sauce to overcoming these challenges lies in having the right people on its side. 

Baker Technology has made it through time and again, despite seemingly insurmountable hurdles, with the support of its employees, clients and vendors. 

In fact, these challenges reaffirm Chang’s belief that the company’s people are its most important asset, and the key to its success

Chang was named Best CEO in the small-cap category, for companies with market capitalisations of under S$300 million.

“I don’t believe that there is anything that makes me unique as a leader, but I believe in having empathy (and) in teamwork to deliver,” Chang said.

It also helps to keep one’s focus on their clients, and to know which battles to fight, she added. 

While the company’s short-term objectives have been met, Chang is not resting on her laurels. 

She continues to gun towards longer-term objectives. Some of her key priorities include adopting more tech into the company’s work streams – to reduce reliance on manpower and increase efficiency – as well as maintaining its competitiveness, even as costs continue to rise.

Baker Technology also seeks to grow in the renewable-energy sector in the next five years, Chang said. She added that the company currently already supports the installation of wind farms.

“Our objective is to remain active in the marine and offshore sector, and to continue to expand further into the renewables space.”