Up Close & Personal with Yeoh Chen Chow - Co-founder, Fave Group
“I believe it is good to plan but in this VUCA world, plans may be derailed easily, that’s why I choose to focus on the present and enjoy the moment.”
Yeoh Chen Chow, Co-founder of Fave Group
About Fave Group
Fave is the next generation Digital Merchant Platform that empowers offline merchants to grow and connect with their customers in a whole new way.
With a strong base in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, Fave is on a mission to accelerate the offline world’s transition to the digital economy by putting growth at the centre of our merchants, our customers, our people and our partners because growth is good for everyone.
Fave connects merchants and consumers to deliver seamless payment experience and merchant rewards. It serves as a payment aggregator for the most popular cards and e-wallets. Integrated with other strategic partners, Fave offer merchants more value add and more customer exposure through marketing, data, financing and operations. Merchants can now focus on what they do best for their customers; because everything else is taken care of.
Chen Chow, what’s the one defining moment for you in your entrepreneurial journey?
A brief background on my career. I started my career as a management consultant at Accenture then I went on to be a product manager at JobStreet.com. It was a huge learning curve for me moving from a corporate job to work in a start up.
I joined Joel Neoh, founder of Fave Group at Groupon in early 2011, and we have been working together for 8 years since. I was in Groupon for over 4 years, started out in a domestic role in Malaysia before stepping up to lead the Operations for Asia Pacific.
Fave, the “next generation merchant digital platform”, grew out of Joel and my first startup together, KFIT, a Malaysian fitness subscription app. This combined with the buyouts of Groupon's businesses across Southeast Asia forms the Fave Group.
The rest is history. Today, Fave connects millions of customers to their favourite businesses every month, with a mission to help these businesses grow more customers and more revenue through digitization.
The consumer platform is constantly evolving but I have discovered that SMEs are still using the same technology platform since 10 years ago. That was a defining moment for me at Fave that we decided to focus on the SME segment as we saw the opportunity to solve the SME problem.
How do you keep yourself abreast of innovation to ensure that Fave is constantly innovating?
My team and I talk to people as we believe a lot of new insights can be uncovered through conversations. Personally, I try my best to network at events, ask questions and I pay a lot of attention to technology innovation that is happening in China, India and USA. There’s where a lot of learnings come from as well. By drawing insights from different sources, I connect the dots and take the discussions back to my team to brainstorm.
What’s keeping you awake at night these days?
Haha, I can fall asleep within 30 sec anytime of the day, anywhere.
I usually use my downtime like my drive home or when I am alone to reflect on the day. How did I show up, was my communications clear, what impact did I make to the people I interacted with, what did people get out of their interaction with me.
These reflections are important as it helped me internalize and get to correct what’s not done well and a way to help me chart the direction forward. I like to ask questions too as it helps me get better clarity and understand the other person’s perspectives.
In my weekly meeting with my team and I get them to reflect on their work and the impact their work has on the business as well as on their professional level. It helps them grasp a better perspective on balancing work and the outcome to be more efficient at a professional and personal level.
How do you de-stress/recharge?
I recharge by doing a digital detox and not check the social media platforms. Short walks in the park and me time also helps me to recharge.
I make an effort to take short breaks every 1 to 2 months to destinations where I can get close to nature with sea and mountains. I find it very therapeutic. Recently I went to an island in the Philippines - Sabang where I was the only person on the beach! It was not a perfect beach but I love the tranquility and peace that frees up my headspace about work.
Once I rented a room in a house at West Lake, Hangzhou that used to be Mao ZeDong’s residence. It was just serene staying in the house and looking out at the vast sea.
I also de-stress by focusing on giving back to society. Today I spend my weekends mentoring youths on entrepreneurship and started a Non profit organization for young professionals (Young Corporate Malaysians) where Malaysians youths aged below 30 network and share ideas.
Since 2006, I have been coaching promising Malaysians in their application to top US universities and helping them in their interviews. It has been a very rewarding journey paying it forward. Those who graduated came back to pay it forward too.
Who is your role model and why?
I have 3 role models and each of them inspired me differently.
Joel Neoh, founder of Fave.
He is visionary and good at connecting the dots. From him I learnt to manage people and be a better leader
Mark Chang, founder of Jobstreet.com.
Despite his success, he never shows it. His humility and care for his staff helps him blends well with everyone on his team. He taught me the value of being prudent in a start up and leads by example.
Anthony Tan, Founder of Grab.
He amazes and inspires me with his ability to balance many aspects of his life - work, family, church and fitness. He is very dedicated to his family and church work and finds time to exercise everyday. This is despite a heavy workload and busy work schedule.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? Professionally & Personally?
I like to focus on the present. Directionally I see myself continuing to do things I love and making an impact which is what I am doing now.
I believe it is good to plan but in this VUCA world, plans may be derailed easily, that’s why I choose to focus on the present and enjoy the moment.
What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs? What are the 3 Takeaways?
Focus on problems you try to solve rather than the idea/solution. Fall in love with the problem, not solution.
Focus on real impact on consumers and merchants –how is your solution easier, cheaper and faster.
Focus on People – do we care about the future of the people who works for us, how have they transformed? I get tremendous satisfaction seeing some of my team going on to pursue bigger dreams e.g. working in the Silicon Valley, or pursuing a higher education at Harvard University etc.
Guest Contributor: Adeline Tiah
Insights Driven Marketer & Executive Coach