Exclusive Interview with
SCAO Basic Chemicals Dept No. 1 GM Ms Jenny Yap
“Be yourself.”
Ms Jenny Yap
Basic Chemicals Dept No. 1 GM
Sumitomo Corporation Asia & Oceania Pte Ltd
You have been the one and only female Business Dept GM appointed in SCAO Singapore office so far. What are the secrets to your career success? What are the challenges and advantages of being a female leader in a male dominated field?
I have been lucky to have several supportive and encouraging bosses and seniors who guided me well, willing to share their knowledge and experience with me and always believing in me, providing many opportunities and room for me to learn and grow. The colleagues in Sumitomo Corporation have also been very nice, supportive and co-operative and SCAO is like a second home.
My working philosophy is – Just focus on doing my job, be sincere and humble, respect others and try to learn from them, do not tell any lies to your customers, suppliers or those who support and trust you. I also believe that learning is never ending and a life-long journey. There are too many things that I do not know and have yet to learn.
Dinner with customers. “Rose among the thorns”
The challenges of being a female leader in a male dominated field will be some potential biasness that some people may have and may question the capability or suitability of a female in the leadership position and therefore expectations could be higher and may scrutinise your performance more. Some bosses may also assume that you will be more comfortable and happy in a less stressful role because you are a female.
The advantage of being a female leader will be there are also many people who will show extra support and willing to give a helping hand as encouragement just because they rarely see a female leader in a male dominated field. It is very heart-warming to hear encouraging words from them. Another advantage is more people may pay attention to what you say since they may be more curious about what you have to say or share. As a female leader in a male dominated field means I can offer a different view from another perspective.
SC 100th anniversary celebration in Taipei during Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference 2019 in Taiwan
What are your goals for SCAO Basic Chemicals Dept No.1 under SHIFT2023?
- Growing core earning pillars by leveraging on current strengths we have in each business.
- Improve profitability by creating values and ensure we stay relevant so that we will not be kicked out in the race.
- Trend watching to seek opportunities for growth in sunrise sectors and gradually forgo sunset businesses
- More D&I in my team
What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
I was quite good in painting as a kid and was always topping my class in Art and winning trophies and awards in art competitions. Some of my classmates thought I would become an artist.
Taking a break with colleagues back in the old office at Ocean Building
in the 90s
My first company trip (Genting Highland, Malaysia) after joining the company for less than 3 months.
Seen here with some of the people from the then Chemicals Dept
Department Karaoke competition during Penang company trip in the early 90s
Company trip to Penang in the early 90s
Dinner with my team, Basic Chemicals Dept No. 1
Dressed as Maleficent in SCAO’s Movies themed Dinner & Dance
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SNAPSHOT
I strongly believe in… respecting everyone
I spend most of my time.. working, reading, doing light exercises, watching dramas, documentaries, learning all kinds of things from YouTube videos and playing words games
The food I crave most often is… sashimi and sushi
One personal rule that I never break is… none
The thing that cheers me up whenever I think about is… shopping
One thing I really want but can’t afford yet is… taking a couple of years off to travel the world and staying longer at some places to understand their culture and way of living and getting to know the local people
If I could go back in time, I would… study architecture because I think it is a nice combination of arts and science
If I have enough money to live comfortably without having to work, I would… travel the world and organise charitable events to raise funds for the underprivileged
