1) Please share with us your background before joining AnyMind Group Although I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, I took a different career path than expected – becoming an expert in e-commerce. Before joining AnyMind Group in 2021, I was handling e-commerce businesses in the tourism industry for companies in both the public and private sectors. It was a wonderful journey and I am glad to have those opportunities to groom me into who I am today.
2) Explain like I’m five: What do you do in your role, and how does it fit into the wider range of AnyMind Group’s business? As an e-commerce manager, I work in AnyMind’s D2C business line (from business development to helping customers to maximize our e-commerce technology) in Singapore. In recent years, e-commerce has transformed phenomenally, and AnyMind has been grabbing this opportunity to “make it exciting for everyone to do business.” Therefore, growing the D2C business through our technology and solutions is a key focus that enables AnyMind Group to be a successful end-to-end commerce enablement technology company in this region, if not globally.
3) How has your time been at AnyMind so far? What are the things that stand out to you about the company? Since joining in August 2021, I have been enjoying myself tremendously in the AnyMind family. I have met many wonderful people online and offline in this company, and am still looking forward to meeting many of you in the future.
In my past close-to-two-years experience in AnyMind, I can safely say that “change is the only constant” and AnyMind is adapting to the changing environment very well, thanks to the company’s five values (Be Open, Be Bold, Move Faster, Stay Updated & Achieve Together) which guides us to reach continued heights of success.
4) How is it like working as part of your local team and also as part of the wider regional unit? Given the nature of the department, I need to work with different teams, locally and regionally, in order to deliver a professional and exceptional solution for our clients. It is interesting to find out the roles and responsibilities of other co-workers from different departments and create interdepartmental synergy to achieve our goals collectively.
While working with local and regional teams, I noticed that openness and curiosity are commonly found across AnyMind despite having different cultural backgrounds. This really helps us to know each other and create a more inclusive work environment in AnyMind.
5) What are some key traits that you feel people in your role should have, and why? I feel that critical thinking, resourcefulness and creativity are key traits that an e-commerce consultant should possess.
With critical thinking, we are able to gather relevant information, perform rigorous analysis, and propose solutions or alternatives effectively. Of course, we must always put ourselves in the shoes of clients or other stakeholders so that we could understand their pain points clearly, and propose recommendations accordingly. I like to ask “why is it so?” to dissect the problems until I can get to the bottom of them, and to brainstorm solutions or ideas, either by myself or with other co-workers.
Being resourceful helps us to find out how we can achieve something more effectively. I believe that there are many resources around us that can help us to obtain our objectives more effectively and efficiently. Besides talking to co-workers or partners, I also like to “communicate” with my great teachers on Google and YouTube to find out various methods and solutions. Believe it or not, I also get inspiration from some random video finds on TikTok as well!
“Thinking outside the box” is crucial to our role as well, be it in providing solutions to our clients or promoting products to end-consumers. This is how we can make ourselves stand out against the competition in this fast-paced world. Don’t be afraid to propose “weird” ideas; who knows it might become a viral trend in the future!
6) What is an often misunderstood aspect of your role? Many people think that we are simply providing standard managed services in e-commerce operations. However, I would say that the role is much more complicated: we also provide our own technology, along with customized solutions depending on the market and client’s needs. For example, many companies in Singapore are looking for solutions that can improve their work efficiency instead of using a managed service as they have their own e-commerce team to handle it. Therefore, apart from providing platforms such as AnyX, we can also customize our solutions according to their unique needs whilst convincing them to leverage our technology so that they can repurpose their resources to focus on other aspects of the business.
7) What is one AnyMind platform that you cannot do without, and why? While there are many tech products developed by AnyMind, AnyX is the AnyMind platform that I use the most. By integrating with many other platforms, this super app (I like to describe it this way to the client) allows users to do various things (e.g. merchandising, customer service and analytics) more efficiently in just a single platform. For clients, this product is able to help them with their operational efficiency.
8) What is that one favourite local food that you would like to introduce to readers? Satay is my favorite local food. After selecting your preferred meat (chicken, beef and mutton are common satay choices in Singapore), the cook or hawker will grill them on charcoal and serve it to you while it is still hot. And the key to unlocking this delicacy properly is dipping it with kuah kacang, or satay peanut sauce (of course, please make sure that you do not have a peanut allergy before trying it). You can also eat satay with ketupat, a diamond-shaped rice cake, or other sides such as cucumber and onion. It is easily found in Singapore’s hawker centers such as Lau Pa Sat, which is near our Singapore office. So, please try it when you are in Singapore!
Photo credit: Miss Tam Chiak
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