Smarter APAC Operations Start Here

It began with a cold email. No warm introduction, no existing relationship — just me writing to a pharma MNC in Malaysia whose other plant was already running our solution and loving it. That site had freed up packers, cut out redundant steps, and reclaimed floor space they didn't know they had. I figured the Malaysia site deserved the same.

A few days later, the supervisor replied. He wanted me to come in.

The first visit went well. I showed them what was possible, and they asked me to step back while they discussed internally. Then silence. A few weeks later, I called. The supervisor was polite but lukewarm — no real interest. I nearly moved on.

Two weeks after that, he called me back. The Operations Director wanted to meet. I went back in, re-presented everything, and this time the brief changed — design a solution that would connect three floors of packing operations into a single, end-to-end process. That was a much bigger ask.

The original automation lead on our side had already resigned. I was effectively running this alone, working with an integration partner I'd only just met a few weeks earlier. We got on Zoom and started designing.

The budget was never comfortable. Every revision meant going back to the drawing board — not to add features, but to find ways to deliver the same outcome for less. We went through at least five rounds.

Midway through the process, I found out a competitor had been brought in to work on something similar. I hadn't been told. That changed the stakes.

When I finally presented the full proposal to the Director, she cut 30% off my price on the spot. No negotiation preamble — just a number, and a look that said take it or leave it. I went back to my integrator. We went line by line through the cost structure. It took time, but we got there — a price that worked for both of us and still made sense for the customer.

My first job was designing packaging cushions — protectors that kept customers' products intact in transit. Six months in, the service engineer resigned. I was asked to cover his role alongside my own, with no overlap and no handover period. Just me, showing up in front of customers and working it out.

That turned out to be the best thing that happened in my career. Standing in front of customers with real problems and real stakes changed how I saw the job entirely. It stopped being a technical function. It became a relationship. Customers started to trust me. Orders grew. I found out I was good at this.

Over the years I expanded from Singapore into broader Southeast Asia, then across Asia — technical support, commercial support, regional management. When the company decided to enter Vietnam, I was nominated as Chief Representative to work alongside the local distributor.

The baseline was modest. Annual sales: USD 20,000.

I did what I'd always done. Listen first. Understand what the customer actually needs. Don't sell — solve. Show up consistently. Have honest conversations. Bring value, not presentations.

No hard sell. No flashy launch events. Just steady presence and genuine follow-through.

When I was tasked to grow our right-size box closing solution across Asia, China was always going to be the defining market. A project came in — a serious one — with three globally recognised systems integrators competing for it.

I proposed the same package to all three. Same solution, same terms, same price. No favourites. Two months later, one integrator won. Then the negotiation started.

The winning integrator came back asking for a 40% reduction. The customer needed a lower price, they said. Faster delivery too. Forty percent — on a first-of-its-kind right-size box closing solution in the market.

I'd been doing this long enough to know when that kind of ask would stick. This one wouldn't. The customer understood what the solution was worth. I held my position.

The integrator didn't accept that. They started looking for alternatives — equivalent solutions, different suppliers, anything they could take back to the client. That search took six months.

It's one thing to believe your solution is the right one. It's another when a motivated buyer, under real commercial pressure, spends half a year trying to replace you and comes back empty.

The client was a globally recognised luxury goods brand. They knew what they'd evaluated. They knew the quality and value of this specific solution — and they wouldn't move. After six months, the integrator came back. Nine months had passed since they won the contract. The project was now urgent.

We negotiated again. We held our position.