Six roles between a department store and a regional boardroom

Mandate

Turn a Singapore-run, English-language marketing function into one that builds three brands in the languages and channels where they are bought, and bring the group's online selling under proper control.

Outcomes

• Held the Helaimas sachet at 9 ml for Rp1,000 in 2022 and capped the sachet premium at 30 per cent; Indonesian general-trade value share rose from 11.2 to 13.4 per cent by the end of 2023.
• Withdrew a recyclability claim in 2023 and funded collection of 640 tonnes of flexible packaging in Surabaya and Sidoarjo by June 2026.
• Rebuilt live selling around a claims card and spoken disclosure; returns on live orders fell from 12.1 to 6.9 per cent.
• Moved Embunsari's source language to Bahasa Indonesia; brand revenue rose from S$171 million in 2020 to S$252 million in 2025.
• Launched Embunsari in Vietnam in 2025 with advertising written in Vietnamese and no halal-led positioning.

Decisions in context

I joined Lumarind in April 2019 at the invitation of its executive chairman, Rahimah Dzulkarnain, when group revenue was S$548 million. The company had grown from her father's hair oil into three regional brands, but marketing was still briefed in Singapore in English and then translated, sachet prices had been set by precedent, and online selling was growing without anyone checking what was being said. I report to our group chief executive, lead 186 people across six markets through seven direct reports and manage an advertising and promotion budget of S$83 million. The decisions that defined the role were less about growth than about what we would refuse to do: shrink a sachet, advertise a recyclability we had not earned, pay hosts for claims we could not support. Revenue reached S$742 million in 2025. Since 2022 I have also served, in an executive capacity, on the board of commissioners of our Indonesian subsidiary.

Reason for the move

Current role. Not seeking an executive move; considering one independent directorship with the consent of Lumarind's board.

Mandate

Modernise the marketing of a family company whose brands were well known but ageing, without losing its sari-sari store base.

Outcomes

• Moved the largest corn-snack brand into Filipino-language and Visayan advertising; its volume grew 31 per cent between 2015 and 2018.
• Rebuilt the small-pack ladder around ₱5, ₱10 and ₱20 packs with a published minimum weight for each, after two years of fill reductions.
• Launched a 3-in-1 chocolate drink in single-serve sachets that reached ₱1.2 billion of sales in 2018.
• Cut trade promotion spending from 9.8 to 7.1 per cent of revenue by replacing quarter-end schemes with paid display agreements.

Decisions in context

In October 2014 I left Velmaine for Bantaya Foods Corporation, a listed, family-controlled maker of corn snacks and powdered drinks with its head office in Pasig. Its brands were known in every barangay, but the advertising was written in English for Manila, and the small packs had lost weight twice in two years to hold their peso prices. I reported to the president and chief executive, Consuelo Ilagan-Bautista, led about seventy people and managed an advertising and promotion budget of ₱1.5 billion by 2018. We moved our largest snack brand into Filipino and Visayan advertising, rebuilt the small-pack ladder around ₱5, ₱10 and ₱20 packs with a published minimum weight for each, and launched a 3-in-1 chocolate drink in single-serve sachets. Two severe typhoon seasons taught me to plan distribution and promotions around interrupted weeks. I left when Lumarind offered me the CMO role in a category I knew better.

Reason for the move

Invited to become CMO of a listed regional personal-care group, in the categories where I had built my career and with direct access to its board.

Mandate

Give two hair-care brands a common position across seven markets while leaving the writing and execution to each country.

Outcomes

• Replaced seven country positionings with one regional idea per brand, written locally in each language.
• Cut hair-care variants across the region from 212 to 140.
• Built a sachet-to-bottle price-ladder model used in every country's annual price review.
• Set up a shared library of substantiation for the region's hair-care claims.

Decisions in context

In July 2010 I moved from Jakarta to Velmaine's regional hub in Singapore as brand director for hair care across seven markets, with a team of twenty-two and a regional advertising budget of about S$64 million. I had no country profit-and-loss authority, so everything I achieved had to be agreed with seven country marketing directors who did. When I arrived, each country had positioned the two brands its own way, and the result was seven half-funded ideas. We replaced them with one idea per brand, written locally in each language, and cut the region's hair-care variants from 212 to 140. I also built a price-ladder model, from sachet to bottle, that each country used in its annual price review, and a shared library of evidence for hair-care claims. By 2014 I wanted responsibility for a whole company's marketing, which a regional category role could not give me.

Reason for the move

Wanted to lead marketing for a whole company rather than one category inside a multinational.

Mandate

Grow a sachet shampoo brand in Java's general trade and stop its loss of share to cheaper local brands.

Outcomes

• Grew the brand's general-trade value share from 9.4 to 12.8 per cent between 2005 and 2009.
• Introduced a Rp500 sachet for rural East and Central Java that added 4 per cent to brand volume.
• Commissioned the brand's first campaigns written by Indonesian writers rather than translated from English.

Decisions in context

In April 2005 Velmaine's Indonesian marketing director asked me to move from sales into brand management on the company's sachet shampoo, which was losing share in Java to cheaper local brands. I became senior brand manager in 2007 and by 2009 led a team of six with an advertising and promotion budget of about Rp180 billion. My sales years were the reason I was there: I knew what a warung owner would do with a promotion before it was printed. We introduced a Rp500 sachet for rural East and Central Java, rebuilt the price ladder from that sachet to the family bottle, and commissioned the brand's first campaigns written by Indonesian writers rather than adapted from English scripts. The brand's general-trade value share rose from 9.4 to 12.8 per cent between 2005 and 2009. I moved to Singapore in 2010 on promotion to the regional role.

Reason for the move

Promoted to the regional hair-care role at Velmaine's Singapore hub.

Mandate

Extend distributors' direct coverage of small shops in East Java and stop promotions reaching shops after they had expired.

Outcomes

• Raised the number of shops served directly by distributors from about 24,000 to 38,000.
• Cut distributors' stocks of expired promotional packs by two-thirds by matching promotion calendars to van routes.
• Introduced a monthly check of sachet-strip availability at 400 sample shops.

Decisions in context

I joined Velmaine's regional sales programme in January 2001, spent three months in Jakarta and was then posted to Surabaya as area sales manager for general trade in East Java. I led nine salespeople working with eleven distributors, and by 2004 the area sold about Rp210 billion a year. Most of my mornings were spent in distributors' vans, which is how I learnt Bahasa Indonesia and how small shops actually buy. We raised the number of shops served directly from about 24,000 to 38,000, matched promotion calendars to van routes so that offers stopped arriving after they had expired, and began a monthly check of sachet availability in 400 sample shops. The work taught me that a promotion is only as good as the van that carries it. In 2005 the marketing director asked me to bring that knowledge into brand management.

Reason for the move

Invited into brand management in Jakarta by the company's marketing director.

Mandate

Support cosmetics and fragrance buying across four stores and run the department's counter-sales reporting.

Outcomes

• Built the department's first weekly counter-sales report by brand and store.
• Negotiated gift-with-purchase allocations with 23 brands across the four stores.
• Reduced end-of-season fragrance markdowns from 14 to 9 per cent of sales.

Decisions in context

I graduated in 1998, when the regional financial crisis had closed most of the advertising jobs I had applied for, and joined Haverlyn Department Stores as an assistant buyer in cosmetics and fragrance. Working for the senior buyer, I shared responsibility for about S$38 million of annual purchases across four stores, though I had no buying authority of my own. I built the department's first weekly report of counter sales by brand and store, negotiated gift-with-purchase stock with 23 brands and helped cut end-of-season fragrance markdowns from 14 to 9 per cent of sales. Standing at the counters on Saturday afternoons, I watched beauty advisers decide which brand claims they could repeat and which they quietly dropped. I left at the end of 2000 because I wanted to see how products reached the millions of shops that no department store would ever serve.

Reason for the move

Wanted to work for a manufacturer and learn how products reach the shops no department store serves.