Always lead from the front, with ownership and people

On occasions – before the voice recorder is switched on – executive interviews start with a quick alignment on background facts.

Often benign context that involves confirming point A and clarifying point B. Nothing more than simply getting the journalistic ducks in a row.

Sometimes however, the pre-chat creates a trigger point for the entire conversation.

“How long have I been at the company?” asked Tian Beng Ng. “Well, that’s actually funny because my eldest son is turning 23 but I’ve been at Dell for 26 years – so I guess that’s the benchmark.”

More than a quarter of a century. That’s three Singapore Prime Ministers, five US Presidents and eight British Prime Ministers.

“It’s been a long time and a privilege every step of the way,” said Tian Beng, in recognition of his upcoming departure from Dell Technologies.

Summarising a career spanning over two decades is no easy task, having first walked through the company office doors in Singapore. Riding that corporate rollercoaster of highs and lows – from Y2K to GFC and now AI.

The time was June 1998 and a young Tian Beng had just finished his first corporate sales role at Sony. Fast forward to today and the charismatic leader will leave the Dell business as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Channels across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ).

“I can categorise my leadership style in two ways,” he shared.

“Number one is ownership, that is very important and something I truly believe in. Ownership for me personally is leading from the front – a good leader has to be seen driving forward with their team members.”

Akin in many ways to the age-old leaders on the front line and down in the trenches, gallant tales from hundreds of years ago that still shine as examples of motivation in the corridors of corporate power today.

Less of the emails, video calls and WhatsApps – more of the face-to-face interaction.

“That’s why I travel so frequently across different countries and regions to spend time with team members and channel partners,” Tian Beng added. “Put in the effort to visit because you always need to be seeing and engaging, not just sitting down and listening to people.”

Secondly, understand the importance of people.

Not in the surface-level sense that is good for marketing, rather putting in the groundwork to understand the individuals behind the company, the product or the deal.

“That’s why I spend a lot of time with people, whether they are our team members or our partners,” Tian Beng added. “The success of any leader is dependent on your team members and on the relationships that you hold with customers and partners.”

For Tian Beng, both attributes are interlinked. Ownership cannot be achieved without the support of those around you while people are best heard when you meet them in the field.

“When you’re out there you constantly learn on the job by engaging with people,” he noted.

“You don’t need to learn from a senior person, you can learn from anyone that is out there in the field because they see and experience many things that you may not as a leader. Learning takes place on all levels.”

The fuel for such energy is being in a state of constant curiosity. Whether face-to-face or head in a book, be open to feedback and new ideas.

“I also learn a lot from attending leadership development programs and I’m always reading and speaking to people,” Tian Beng said. “There’s never a time when you know everything and if you ever think that is the case then that will unfortunately be your downfall.”

Leading from the front

Tian Beng’s first true taste of the market action came during his time looking after global accounts during the early 2000s. Clients included Citibank, General Electric, Microsoft and HSBC.

Natural progression continued into South Asia and Korea as Vice President and Managing Director between 2007 and 2013, having first taken over Singapore and Brunei markets.

“One of my most memorable and proudest achievements was our work in South Asia and Korea,” he explained. “We actually set up the business of Dell in many of those countries, such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

“We created the legal entities of the companies, hired teams and built those markets from scratch. It gives me a great sense of pride to continue watching Dell progress in those emerging countries, growing from starting out to market leader.”

The same impact of Tian Beng and his team extended to Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar, all of which were 100% channel and powered by a strong base of local partners.

“I have many fond memories of visiting buildings in lots of different cities across South Asia searching for offices, as well as hiring team members locally,” Tian Beng recalled. “They have all rapidly built up since those early years.”

Following that, an 18-month assignment as Vice President of Greater China and Korea was also fulfilled, ahead of one of the most seismic shifts in technology history.

The acquisition of EMC by Dell for $67 billion in USD sent shockwaves across the market. And as the ink dried on the historic merger in September 2016, Tian Beng prepared to take the reins of the combined partner ecosystem regionally on November 2016.

“My second most memorable moment was setting up the Dell EMC partner program,” he detailed.

“Both vendors obviously had their own partner programs but we had to start from scratch and those were challenging times. We had to listen to a lot of feedback from the partner community and work with the global team to implement the changes and launch the program.”

Building a global program to service thousands of partners from the ground up was one thing however, driving home the message of change to the masses was another matter entirely.

That involved putting in the hard yards for Tian Beng and his newly formed channel team in APJ – leading from the front, winning mind share and securing commitment.

“It was a great success and aligned to the mantra of being simple, predictable and profitable,” he said.

“Launching the Partner Advisory Board [PAB] in 2017 was also a highlight, we started with about 30 partners attending our first meeting in Perth, Australia.

“From day one, it was important that members realised the value because if they didn’t, they simply wouldn’t attend. We’ve engaged several times every year and aside from the great relationships built, we’ve received a lot of valuable insights and feedback from the channel.”

Leading a channel requires finesse. Taking command of a network of thousands of partners – notably of different sizes, different types and different geographies – through indirect influence is a skill that must be continually honed.

There’s no direct control here, partner organisations are independent and have the power of choice and freedom in vendor selection. They can pivot at any moment and switch lanes; they can pull in contrasting directions without warning.

“This is absolutely true – all partners have a choice and all customers have a choice,” Tian Beng acknowledged. “Partners can select which vendor they want to work with and that’s always been our responsibility to create that mindshare in the market.

“It requires constant engagement and forms part of a relationship that is built on trust. I engage with many senior partner executives and my objective is to build trust as a first priority, then we can talk about partnerships.”

In other words, there’s no place for command and-control leadership. The “I leader, you follower” approach inevitably ends in failure.

According to Jay A. Conger – formerly Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the London Business School and now a Fortune1000 Executive Educator – exerting influence without authority requires a healthy dose of lateral leadership.

This counts among a leader’s most essential skills, and comprises a “constellation of capabilities” – from networking and coalition building to persuading and negotiating.

“Trust with the community is everything,” Tian Beng added. “Once you build trust, you can execute a lot of initiatives because they just become easier.

“And consistency is an important part of that. Having a strong and stable team of leaders building relationships in each country is an invaluable asset.”

Proud achievements aside, Tian Beng was quick to accept that high performance comes with high pressure. Mirroring the ethos of Michael Dell – and his Play Nice But Win mantra – standards within the company are high and expectations are even higher.

“There’s high standards at Dell which is very similar to other technology companies,” Tian Beng shared. “There’s nothing unique to Dell in that sense but that expectation is always there.”

On high performance, take the All Blacks as a case study – one of the most successful sporting teams of all time and three-time Rugby World Cup champions.

They learned to treat the pressure of expectation as a “privilege” and understood the value of ramping up intensity during training to execute their routines, in a “skills ladder” approach. In other words, practice pressure.

As a strong advocate of ownership, perhaps it’s unsurprising that Tian Beng thrives in such scenarios.

“The pursuit of high standards is one of the things that I have loved most in my roles, otherwise I wouldn’t have stayed for 26 years,” he stated. “These conditions motivate individuals to improve and excel because it creates good character.”

On day one of joining the business in 1998, this was primarily a PC company with bold ambitions. Now in 2024, the organisation has morphed into an industry behemoth with end-to-end capabilities across the entire technology stack.

“We have totally transformed,” Tian Beng said. “Never in my wildest imagination could I have envisaged that.

“We’ve been very blessed to have Michael as the founder and CEO of the company but despite the company size being dramatically different, the culture has not changed. The scale is huge yet the leadership principles have remained constant throughout the years.

“That’s why so many long-timers have stayed at Dell, they have enjoyed that journey.”

Power of people, contributing to the community

In theory, spearheading a team of hundreds and an ecosystem of thousands should offer little room for extracurricular activities. Alongside his “day job”, Tian Beng has many “night jobs” as well.

One of which is Singapore Site Lead, a role which resulted in the launch of a Global Innovation Hub (GIH) in the city-state during 2021, backed by an investment of $50 million in USD and the creation of more than 160 local job opportunities.

As the first-of-its-kind innovation centre situated outside of the company’s global headquarters in the US, the GIH is designed to accelerate research and development (R&D) in key areas such as cyber security, artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing and supply chain analytics.

“I’m very passionate about making Singapore an attractive destination for companies to do business,” Tian Beng said. “There’s so much potential in Singapore and encouraging Dell to bring more global functions into our country was a very proud moment.”

Ensuring Dell is well-represented in the local community has been a personal and professional ambition of Tian Beng for many years, evident by his commitment to joining industry bodies and associations.

Namely the serving of many leadership positions – such as Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Councillor – in the Singapore IT Federation and Singapore Manufacturing Federation.

“Contributing back to the community beyond technology is also very important,” Tian Beng detailed.

Tian Beng has been sponsor for the company’s engagement with adopted charities in Singapore for over 10 years, working closely with MINDSG which is one of the nation’s largest and oldest social service agencies.

Founded in 1962, the organisation provides persons with intellectual disabilities (PWIDs) and their families with quality services across their lifespans through strong support from various funding bodies, the community, corporations and individuals.

The work of Tian Beng and his team in this space has been recognised by the National Volunteer And Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) for three years running.

“Being honoured as a champion of good is recognition for how much the team has contributed back to the community in Singapore,” he added.

Representation with WorkWell Leaders is another passion, Singapore’s first non-profit that is singularly focused on building a community of CEOs and leaders across public, private and people sectors to highlight well-being as a strategic priority for their organisation.

“I believe that much more needs to be done to drive awareness in the area of mental wellness,” Tian Beng advised. “Removing that stigma in the workplace remains a top priority, which can be achieved by encouraging companies to adopt policies that address mental wellness in Singapore.”

Leaving a legacy behind, looking ahead

In a direct message to the channel community, Tian Beng displayed “gratitude” for many years of partnership – a heartfelt thanks also extended to his own team of leaders across APJ.

“First of all, I definitely want to ensure that all of the great work carried out over the years with our partner community will continue,” he said. “I’m confident that will happen with the new go-to-market changes.”

Manish Gupta will assume leadership of APJ channel engagement, strategy and development, in addition to Alliances sales execution. Channel sales teams in APJ will now report into their country sales leaders, with “tight connection” to Gupta.

“The channel is set up for great success going forward and partners will benefit from working closely with local channel and country leaders, together with Manish,” Tian Beng added.

“I have witnessed first-hand the transformative power of technology and the dedication of our team and partners to make a positive impact on the world. The future is bright and I am confident the next generation of leaders will continue propelling Dell and our partners to even greater heights.”

Having supported a smooth transition, Tian Beng will leave the business in December 2024 to pursue other opportunities.

“I’m definitely very enthusiastic about staying within the technology industry,” he confirmed. “I’m exploring other opportunities and will hopefully have the chance to engage with many partners and customers in the future.”