1. It takes years to gain professional experience and expertise in the communications industry. Share with us how your past experiences have shaped who you are today. 

CJS: I have been shaped by both people and industries. I have had some amazing mentors - some who didn’t even realise that they were real mentors to me. Experience has always come from being thrown in the deep end, and it being a sink-or-swim experience. I started as an Academic Tutor at the University of Auckland when I was 18 - perhaps one of the youngest to be put in such a position. I had something to prove. I had a career for forge. And that I did. As I moved up the ‘education ladder’ from Tutor to Lecturer to Senior Lecturer to Head of Department to Principal - I listened, observed, asked questions, and simply did what I had to in order to succeed. 

Then came business. I was fortunate that I lectured business subjects, so the textbook approach gave me a skeletal framework - but the truth is, the textbook tells us nothing! I learnt through doing, and through asking for counsel and feedback along the way. I made mistakes. I learnt from them. I didn’t make them again. 

As I moved more into the Communications industry, I was fortunate enough to have Farrell as my business partner - he offered me the skills that I didn’t have, and I hope vice-versa too!

The reality though, nothing is too hard, and everything can be tried. We must give ourselves permission to step outside of our comfort zones and try something new. This is the only way to learn, and in my opinion, it is the best way.

FT: The thing about life is that you can plan as much as you want, but more often than not, things don't go according to plan. I never planned on being in communications; I just knew that I wanted to be in an industry which would allow to be who I am. I think my parents wanted me to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer (obviously), but I knew from an early age that I'm not cut out for a 'professional' job. Fast forward 20 years, and I've BECOME a professional -- just a different type.  

So, I started in advertising (also by chance) as an Ad Executive, and I then moved into event management, before I was 'introduced' to PR by my mentor, a lady called Ann Kwan. I think she saw someone who, again, did not really 'fit' into a particular box within communications, but knew that this would be the right industry for me. My understanding of PR (at the time) was relegated to what I had read or via the people I had met. I was thrown into the deep end, had to learn to swim quickly. 

Luckily for me, I was a quick learner (still am), and before long, not only did I understand the industry enough to be able to pitch and win a few new accounts for the Agency I was with at the time, I was also able to establish strong contacts with media professionals, which until today, are friends of mine, who I occasionally call upon for work-related advice or assistance. From then on, I was headhunted from one position to another, working on brands that I never thought I'd be able to work on, until I met Craig who convinced me to give it a go as an entrepreneur.

In between all that, and prior to starting Orchan Consulting Asia, I was freelancing for a little while (as I needed a little break from the industry) so I already had 'experience' working for myself. There wasn't a 'light bulb' moment which led to the setting up of Orchan, but more a series of (I'd like to say serendipitous) moments which led to me waking up and thinking... 'I have to do this now (before I get too old) or I'll never know if I have what it takes to make it on my own'. So that's how I came to be. 

2. What does it take to be an entrepreneur or organisational leader in this industry?

FT: Ask anyone in this industry, and they'll tell you that you need patience, perseverance, passion and the confidence in yourself to know that you do have something to offer. I personally think that you need all that AND thick skin because you're going to be told 'NO' time and time again. This isn't an industry for the faint of heart. It's constantly evolving i.e. changing, and you need to get with the times or you'll be left behind. This is why, when we set up Orchan, we knew that our proposition needed to centre around change being the ONLY constant in life.

CJS: Big b……! OK, kidding. It takes patience. Nothing happens overnight, and that which does is often very short-lived. It certainly takes passion, and a desire to do things differently - creating new experiences for clients, team members, and ourselves.

3. As Metanoia specialises in managing change, reputation, and Communication; how do you engage with potential clients in building a strong business strategy? 

CJS: Clients either seek reassurance that they are on the right track, or someone who can put them on to the right track. Engaging with clients is both on a personal level - the synergy must be there in order for trust to develop - and a business level - by understanding the ins and outs of their business as much, if not more, than they do. A sound audit of the clients business will help to understand the brand, the processes, and the areas of opportunity that are currently being under-utilised. This is always a first step.

FT: Agreed. What has always worked for us is the 'personal touch'. I mean, we both get involved in the projects we work on. We don't have the luxury of having a huge team who would do the work, while we develop business. We develop business AND we head the projects ourselves. Clients seem to really like that. 

4. Do you perceive failure as an essential ingredient in achieving business success? Are there ways to avoid reaching ‘failure’ before success?

CJS: Yes, we all fall over as we learn to walk. Life is not a 100% walk in the park. Just as we as entrepreneurs have to understand each step in our business journey, including that of what our teams experience, we also have to experience some form of failure or rejection. This makes us normal.

There are ways to minimise risk; but these are intuitively embedded in us as we develop and learn from our and others mistakes.

FT: Again, you'll never learn unless you fail. Whilst you can work hard to ensure that you minimise risk or failure, there will be things you'll never be able to predict. The most important thing is that when it happens, you learn from it, and you never let it happen to you again. It's not rocket science -- it's, well, life.  

5. “What comes easy, won’t last. What lasts, won’t come easy.” What are your thoughts on the saying?

FT: Nothing in life comes without a 'cost' attached to it. Even the most influential or rich entrepreneurs have had to endure some form of hardship in order to get to where they are. A lot of times, people only see the end results. They don't see the mistakes or sacrifices made to get them there.   

CJS: Fully agree! Hard work has always been, and will continue to be, the number one mindset required for achievement.

6. What are the significant challenges that you encountered for your role, or your entrepreneurial journey? And, how did you live through the breakthroughs and challenges?

CJS: For me, the shift from academia to consulting was a huge change. I was fortunate that my early consulting opportunities were in the tertiary education sectors, but there was still a lot to learn. I had to learn the financial side of business. I had to learn how to interact with people far more intelligent and experienced than myself. I had to learn how to hold my own. And I had to learn where to draw lines - this was perhaps the toughest learning curve of the lot.

FT: For me, it was getting used to doing everything myself. In my 'previous' life, I only needed to worry about my role within the company. With Orchan and now Metanoia, I have to worry about EVERYTHING. Luckily for us, we do have a good team, which I think, is reflection of who are, as bosses / business owners, and type of consultants we wish to be for our Clients. 

7. How do you stay ahead of the game in the industry? 

CJS: I read a lot. I talk to a lot of people. And I get involved in the industry at different levels. I listen closely to experienced clients and I learn from them. 

FT: Likewise. I think you need to read, interact and learn as much about different industries as possible. We've been quite adamant about doing different things that interest us; and not being pigeon-holed. As a result of that, we're able to undertake (nearly) everything that comes our way. It's more a matter of a project piquing our interest in order for us to work on it.

8. What would be your best advice for other passionate entrepreneurs to continuously build and improve their business strategies, and to develop better brand building? 

FT: Never stop learning. And never worry about asking for help. It's better to admit that you don't know something, and learn from the person you're asking help from, than to pretend that you're omnipotent.

CJS: There is more to being an entrepreneur than just having a great product / idea. Step back and learn. Be open-minded, and be willing to accept advice. Don’t be too stubborn - but equally, don’t roll over like a puppy.

Image Source: 

(1) faith.com 

(2) thesimplechic.com

(3) toddstocker.com

I decided to join Metanoia Ltd’s Directors, Craig J Selby and Farrell Tan for lunch this past week, to discuss a few ideas on the broad topics of change management, crisis management, and reputation management – core foci to Metanoia’s areas of expertise.

1. What is your take on the importance of change management strategies within a business? 

CJS: Having a strategy, even if it is fluid in its approach, is always important. Change is always going to be hard, and its important to be aware of ramifications of each possible action. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take that action; it just means that you are better prepared. The old saying, “you cant please 100% of the people 100% of the time” will always ring true; hence, ensuring that there is a strategy and a direction to changes being undertaken is essential.

Do all strategies work out? No! That does not mean the strategy was wrong – resistance to change is often greater than one can imagine. It just means that the hard decisions have to be made. It’s ok to make hard decisions – when the future of your business is at stake, be it turnaround from failure, desired expansion and growth, or just taking it to the logical next level, these decisions have to be made. Having a well-thought out strategy in place enables a smoother transition, rather than a series of disjointed, knee-jerk reactions. 

2. Why is change management a challenge for business leaders? 

CJS: Because people, and ultimately organisations, are inherently resistant to change. We like our comfort zones a little too much, and stepping outside them is a major inconvenience for people. Our job is to prepare people for change, as part of the actual change initiative.

FT: Change can fail. Take the recent MAS attempts by Christoph Meuller. It is rather directly obvious that the organisational culture is highly resistant to change. Unions protested the termination of 6000 employees – at the risk the airline would shut down and over 20,000 of their members would be unemployed. Need we even examine recent minister comments about “sleeping on the job”? 

CJS: Ultimately, people are always the biggest factor, and the hardest factor to placate. This is why change is so challenging – its not about growth, adjustment, etc – it is about balancing ego’s and ultimately disappointing some of them.

3. Is it ever advisable for a company to sweep the truth under the carpet when trying to manage a crisis? 

CJS: Never. We have seen in several high profile scenarios over the last eighteen months, the truth always comes out. 

Lets look at this from two angles. 

First, ethics – we all embrace organisations and people that we perceive as ethical. Even if someone “thinks” that you are hiding something, regardless of the reality here, the perception is negative. People want answers, and deserve answers. As human beings, we don’t like not being told the full picture. As kids, when a decision was told to us, we always ask why. We want to know more – even if its painful.

More practically, and as a sign of our times, is the second point. We live in a digital culture. In the 80’s, it was considered the surveillance society – big brother watching over us. Now its big brother, little sister, grandma and her mahjong buddies. With a huge proportion of our society being digitally-enabled – having smart phone and internet access; recordings, pictures, and that thing, the truth, is bound to be out there somewhere, waiting to go viral. You just can’t take that risk any more that evidence isn’t out there.

FT: Our advice to clients is always take it on the chin, acknowledge what went wrong, and work with your stakeholders to better the situation. Hiding information will just push them further away, making it that much harder for you to get them back onside later.

4. With social media becoming a popular venue for ascertaining news, we see a lot of

businesses using holding statements. Are these holding statements valuable and

contribute to the overall perception of crisis management, or do they play poor lip

service to insincere businesses?

CJS: Holding statements are a double-edged sword. In a nutshell, they look contrived, placed, and unauthentic. But they are just a holding statement. They are, at the very least, an acknowledgement that the organisation is aware, and working on an issues. They also hint at a modicum of preparedness – something which should inspire confidence in an organisations ability to wade through the issue soundly. I personally view them as valuable – at a time when the team needs to be focusing on understanding the issue at hand, they offer a communicative front, allowing the team to draw together and understand the situation, enabling them to present facts, rather than guesses.

5. Should we be reading our textbooks and following the typical models of change in

today’s world? 

CJS: If one uses textbooks to determine ones actions, we would be a very homogenous bunch, wouldn’t we? The rules of change, change in an instant. So, my answer is no. But, with every action of change, there are commonalities, and it is these universal commonalities, which help us to strategise the best course of action.

6. How difficult is it to erase something negative once it is online?

CJS: Almost impossible. But then, that’s not the goal. If 100% of the population is shouting your praises – no one will believe it. I know a lot of businesses want to erase negativity about them from online sources, it’s a normal reaction. I know restauranteurs who create fake profiles just to drown out bad reviews on platforms like trip advisor; but that’s not the way forward.

I firmly believe in the power of positivity, and the only way to counter a negative experience is with a positive experience.

For SMEs, that may be as simple as inviting the negative party to re-experience your offerings, to engage with them on what really went wrong, to show them improvements, and to get them to update their perspective on your brand.

For all organisations, it reinforces the importance of building a digital fortress – a stockpile of positive perspectives on your organization across platforms and media, so that even in times of difficulty, a basic search will result in a higher proportion of positive perspectives.

7. Can you ever recover from a crisis?

CJS: In most cases, yes. If you want to. But it takes time. Time to rebuild trust; to rebuild relationships; to attract new customers and brand supporters. It is most likely not an easy road, but it can, and most often will, happen.

FT: However, you must remember, things will be different. You will have learnt, and those learning experiences hopefully will shape you for the better. Ultimately, this is a good thing.

8. How much is your work reactive versus proactive?

FT: Well, I think the fact that we always recommend to Clients to have a crisis management plan in place highlights that as an agency, we are proactive. Sure, regardless of how detailed a plan may be, there will be some things that you, as an Agency, will never be able to foresee. Having a plan in place buys you a bit of time; and in the digital world, where everyone wants answers ‘yesterday’ when an incident happens, brands only have a matter of hours to chart their immediate next steps. So, by being proactive, brands will appear a bit more collected, as opposed to being reactive, in a time of crisis. 

9. Is change management always for the positive? 

CJS: No. Change management is always for a result – but that may not always be positive. It also is determined by what side of the equation you lie; do you personally benefit from the action, or does it impact you negatively? Change management may be to downscale – a result of a financial downturn, or perhaps the result of an entrepreneur who doesn’t want to expose their resources (including time) as much as previously.

Change is simply about doing something differently. Ultimately, it should be for the general good of the decision maker, but that is not always so. 

10. How do you manage change in a family business especially when you have

unproductive siblings / family against progression?

FT: Again, as brand guardians, our job is to put everything on the table, and highlight to each stakeholder the pros and cons of a situation. Ultimately, we are consultants, and therefore, our role is to consult. The ultimate decision, no matter right or wrong, is ultimately dependent on the Client.

CJS: In Asia, family businesses add another layer of complexity to what they do in the west. Familial ties that bind are stronger, and often we see siblings work together even though they clearly don’t want to. The key point to remember, family or not, is that it is business, and decisions made are for the best of the business. Sometimes, family need to take a step back and appreciate that the best change will come when family is not so deeply involved.

It’s always challenging to effect change in a family business – but the key to survival is to embrace change and realize that with it, benefits accrue to all stakeholders.

11. Can you manage your reputation solely through online platform?

CJS: You can, but is that advisable? One should always look at multiple methods to create a public persona.

FT: It is also dependent on who the target audience is. Sure, having an online presence is great; and whilst many Malaysians are digitally-savvy, we also need to remember that the older generations still rely on traditional means of getting their news. In time, this will change, which is why a lot of media outlets are investing heavily online; but for the time being, a mix of both offline and online platforms will ensure that your message(s) are clearly communicated.

12. How do you attempt to handle brand saboteurs?

FT: A brand can’t be everything to everyone. There will be consumers that won’t like the brand (for whatever reasons), and brand saboteurs that will only wish the brand harm. However, the trick is to ensure that the brand cultivates more positive news to downplay the negatives. Consumers these days are smart; they’re able to sift through information in order to make up their minds. The best move is not to appear defensive, and to open up a channel of communication offline (which is then highlighted online – once the issue was addressed) to help appease grievances. As long as the brand is seen as being calm, logical and pragmatic in their response (easier said than done), the likelihood of brand saboteurs being able to cause harm will be greatly reduced.

Image Source:

(1)   pinterest.com

(2)   tompkinstimetraders.net

(3)   k-carlyle.tumblr.com