theceomagazine.comtheceomagazine.com | 19 | 19FOR VINDA PRESIDENT OF SOUTH-EAST ASIA SU TING NEE,
BEING A GREAT LEADER REQUIRES A SIGNIFICANT
AMOUNT OF SELF-AWARENESS.WORDS SHARON MASIGE • IMAGES ROB WALLERhen it comes to
leadership, Vinda
President of South-East
Asia Su Ting Nee
doesn’t believe in
pretending to be strong.
She says sometimes it’s good to show a bit of
vulnerability. “I encourage everybody to be
themselves,” Su tells The CEO Magazine. “That
it’s okay to say you don’t know something, or
you are facing a challenge, or you need help
and encouragement. I empower my team and
I come in when they need me or when I can
add value to them.”
An industrial engineer by trade,
Su developed a strong background in
manufacturing and quality control. Since
then, she has spent 19 years with a hygiene
company, going through three management
changes before securing the role of President
of South-East Asia with Vinda.
Over the years, Su has been able to learn
about different cultures, backgrounds and
environments at Vinda, which has been an
enriching experience. She says the biggest
change in the business during the time she
has been there has been in the peoples’
mindset. “We started as a very small and very
new company,” she says. “And I’ve seen
people learn, be exposed to different things
and grow from that.”
Another aspect that has evolved is a shift
away from micromanagement. “When you
are a small company, you tend to go into a
lot of detail,” Su continues. “We have grown
out of it into a level where we are able to
communicate more comfortably. People have
become more mature in their thinking and
more professional. With a small company,
everything you learn is by doing. We still
learn by doing in some ways, but I think
we are a lot more structured.” »Interview | INSPIRE