What's your role at Emma like?
In line with Emma’s commitment to improving how people from all over the world sleep, we’ve brought the Emma products to the Southeast Asian region. I, along with my team, am at the forefront of growing the business and the brand across six key markets.
My first focus is accelerating the growth of Emma in Singapore by growing the brand through multi-channel and multi-platform initiatives. Day in and day out, I work on different strategic marketing topics to ensure strong brand positioning.
On a regional level, I wear different hats. I drive partnership development to build impactful collaborations with other brands in the region. Using competitor and industry knowledge, I find ways to increase the competitiveness and share-of-voice of Emma in the local markets. Lastly, I work with our affiliate partners, so our customers know what sets Emma products head and shoulders above other sleep products!
What's your background?
One thing that really made a big impact in my life is leading the prom committee back when I was in high school. Rather than relying on external partners, we took on the key areas and roles to deliver a prom for over 1000 people. That experience really taught me the value and impact of taking ownership.
In college, I took up Political Science, major in Global Politics, and graduated with Magna Cum Laude honors. Beyond my academic life though, what really shaped me were the different roles I took on throughout my stay in college.
All of these culminated in me leading AIESEC in AdMU, Blue Roast, and the OrSem Entertainment committee in my senior year. As a former leader of an organization championing youth leadership and leader of big teams for university events, I found that there was nothing more powerful than purposeful, passionate, and effective leadership.
Jumping into the professional world, I was choosing between a career path fit for my course or for my co-curricular experiences. I soon realized that these did not have to be mutually exclusive. While my academic background seemed tangent to a role in marketing, it really brought a unique perspective to business development and marketing – leading to me becoming a regional marketing manager for a global IT company.
Looking for a role that would really catapult my growth as business development and marketing professional, I applied to Emma. It’s been a little less than five months since I’ve joined, but I can definitely say I’ve already grown a lot.
What's the coolest thing about your role?
The impact of what I do reaches far beyond the confines of the company. At the heart of growing the business in Southeast Asia is empowering everyone who comes across Emma to be their best selves.
Working on partnerships and affiliates, it’s incredibly rewarding to work with other organizations to spread awareness on the importance of sleep. We also ensure that our marketing isn’t just about selling the actual products – we highlight the often-forgotten power of getting quality sleep.
I see every Emma product unboxing as someone unlocking their full potential, and it’s incredibly cool to play a role in that!
What can you say you are proud of accomplishing at Emma?
While my stay in Emma hasn’t been that long yet, I’ve already driven impactful initiatives for the business and the brand.
Leading strategic partnership development and affiliate network growth, I was able to secure collaborations with various organizations across our key markets. These partnerships have allowed us to increase brand credibility while showing our partners that Emma is a reliable partner.
Driving the growth of the Singaporean market has constantly challenges me to think of ways to scale up the business. It’s incredibly exciting to work on growing a market showing a lot of potentials for Emma to really shake up the industry
What’s the toughest part of your role?
With Emma’s strong and deeply rooted growth mindset, goals are always very ambitious. Admittedly, these goals can sometimes seem daunting and impossible.
What’s also true though is these goals really drive Emmies to create, implement, and execute strategies that enable the achievement of these goals. As an effect, I know that I’m growing in and with the company.
There’s also a lot that needs to be done, and you feel somewhat limited by what you think you can do. I often surprise myself with the things I’m able to do. I do know that I’m really diversifying and deepening my skills as a BD manager!
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
Don’t get so absorbed by the expectations from you by the organization you lead and the school events you organize! Take a step back, look at the bigger picture. Don’t forget to take the time to enjoy the journey and cherish everyone you meet along the way.