Let’s Talk: ‘Go Wide And Dig Deep,’ Says Kenny Ong
Play the video above to watch the interview.
Leading in the digital age has pushed leaders young and old to adapt faster, especially if they don’t want to be found left behind.
The team from Leaderonomics caught up with Kenny Ong, managing director of Universal Music for Malaysia and Singapore during the Employee Benefits Asia 2016 event by HumanResources in August, to gain first-hand insights on his leadership journey in the music industry.
It was particularly interesting to know how a computer science graduate ended up in a music company, something I personally could relate to in terms of our educational backgrounds and doing something very different in our careers later.
Today, Ong is enjoying what he does, having the chance to rub shoulders with artists all around the world and being connected to the universal language of the human soul, i.e. music.
See related article: How We Can Relook At Employee Compensation And Benefits In Talent Management
Key lessons
Here are some of my key takeaways from our conversation:
- We sometimes need to break away from the norm by hiring people who are not from the same industry to be agents of disruption. You gain a different perspective from such talents, and fresh new ideas on how to do things differently.
- The future of the workforce is such that organisations no longer have full autonomy over their employees. There is a lot of give and take that needs to take place between employer–employee so both sides can achieve a common middle ground and share similar destiny.
- Leverage on data analytics to help you make sense of information and trends so it can help you make important decisions for the organisation.
Food for thought
Ong left us with the following wise advice:
- Remember you are not immortal. So, make the best out of your life and add value to it. Ensure that tomorrow is better than today, and today is better than yesterday.
- Life is never fair, so stop complaining about everything under the sun. Continue to do what you need to do to achieve what you have envisioned. Benchmark only against yourself, not others.
- Start by building a wide set of skills. As you gain more experience, pick one or two skills and really dig deep into them. Focus on the selected skills and be the best subject matter expert you can ever be.
Want to know how you can lead effectively in a digital world, no matter what industry you are in? Talk to us by emailing us at training@leaderononomics.com. For more video interviews from Leaderonomics Media, click here. To watch and read our video articles, click here.
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