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Sulian Tan-Wijaya is an inspiring leader and seasoned professional with a multifaceted career spanning law, banking, and real estate. As an Executive Director at Savills Singapore, she is recognized for her leadership and mentorship in the industry. With a strong foundation in law, having qualified as an Advocate and Solicitor with an LLB Honours degree from NUS, Sulian transitioned into banking, where she excelled as a senior corporate banker in Indonesia.
From the Early Spark to an Industry Leader
Sulian graduated with an honors degree in Law from the National University of Singapore. During her university days, she gained diverse experiences playing keyboards in a pop band, modeling, DJing, and co-hosting a music variety show on TV. After being called to the bar, she pursued a career in banking, quickly rising through the ranks as a corporate banker in Indonesia. Later, Sulian transitioned to the hospitality sector, overseeing hotels in different nations, before moving into real estate. Her real estate experience included working with a group that owned prime shopping malls and office buildings, She later became the general manager of The Fullerton Heritage before her final stop at UK-listed real estate consultancy Savills, where she joined in 2008 to set up the Retail and Lifestyle department for their Singapore office.
Guiding Philosophy across Diverse Careers
Sulian’s diverse experiences, from competitive sports to diverse jobs as a model, DJ, and TV host, instilled in her the motivation to pursue new career journeys with positivity and courage. Competitive sports also supported her in developing a competitive spirit and teamwork skills.
The Inspiration behind the Career Transition
Sulian’s career transition from corporate banking in Indonesia to Singapore’s retail and lifestyle sector was more “accidental” than planned. She embraced the changes, seeing them as opportunities to test her abilities in new horizons. Sulian believes that while domain knowledge may vary across careers, essential skills like work ethics, tenacity, resilience, and soft skills remain constant across all businesses.
Mentorship Experience through SCWO
Sulian’s experience mentoring young women through SCWO gave her insights into challenges many women face in advancing their careers, especially for single working mothers. She recognizes the importance of a strong support network, encouragement, and supportive bosses in helping women overcome career and family challenges. Conversely, she has also seen the damaging effect of toxic bosses on one’s mental well-being and self-esteem.
The Primary Leadership Traits for Multidisciplinary Teams
A good leader is expected to know more than their team members in order to gain their respect. Having a good understanding of the different character traits and skills each member brings to the table is also critical in ensuring they work well together to achieve a common goal.
An effective leader recognizes and accepts that it is not possible to please everyone, and yet still be able to motivate every member to bring out the best in them.
Being part of Gen X, Sulian is in a unique position to relate to and understand both older and younger cohorts, which makes her a natural galvanizing bridge between generations.
Fostering Innovation in Real Estate
Sulian encourages innovation with an adaptable mindset and evolving business styles to navigate changing market landscapes. In her view, resilience is crucial to survive and thrive in the industry, especially in retail real estate, where rapid changes can often be disruptive. Through embracing change, real estate professionals can stay relevant and avoid redundancy.
Leading with Empathy
Sulian leads with empathy by understanding the distinctive experiences and challenges of young professionals. She notes that Gen Z employees, having graduated during the pandemic and amidst economic uncertainty, may be more prone to anxieties and fears. Acknowledging these concerns help her build their trust and nurture them with the self confidence required to achieve great results.
Career Advice for Women in Male Dominated Sectors
Sulian often reminds women of their strengths, including resilience and the ability to juggle careers and raising kids. She believes these qualities make them excellent leaders. Their nurturing and empathetic leadership styles also enable effective communication to achieve win-win outcomes for business partners.
The Most Defining Moment in Sulian’s Career
Sulian’s defining experiences came during her time as a banker in Indonesia. She faced multiple challenges, including having to learn a new language and culture, overcoming skepticism over her being a young expat woman, and surviving the late 90s riots and the Asian Financial Crisis. These experiences, including having to raise two toddlers during that time ultimately shaped her into the person she is today.
Fostering an Ideal Work Culture
Sulian describes her department’s culture as open and collaborative. She focuses on honest and constructive feedback to help team members grow and avoids micromanaging. She encourages team bonding through informal get-togethers like coffee breaks and attending social events together. When a team member encounters difficulties, all team members would sit down to solve the problem together.
Maintaining Long-term Relationship
Sulian highlights the importance of earning clients’ trust by acting in their best interest. During negotiations, she prioritizes fairness and what is right. It may not always be a popular approach during tense negotiations, but over time, these clients will grow to understand and appreciate that all deals require fairness and a win-win outcome in order to succeed.
Aligning Client Expectations with Market Realities
Sulian notes that managing clients’ expectations during adverse market conditions can be challenging. It requires patience and understanding to bridge gaps between client expectations and market realities, especially when clients need to take ‘haircuts’ during bad times. It requires a lot of patience and resilience to endure occasions when deals fall apart because the gaps in expectations of both parties cannot be bridged.
Significance of Mentorship in Talent Development
Sulian emphasizes the crucial role of mentorship for staff development within her team at Savills. Mentorship is a two-way process, where older superiors impart knowledge, experience, and skills to younger colleagues, while also learning new skills from digital-savvy younger team members.
Retail Real Estate Outlook in Southeast Asia
Sulian’s vision for the next 5-10 years in retail real estate across Southeast Asia is optimistic. Despite global trade obstacles, Singapore remains an attractive haven, drawing new overseas market players to establish a regional hub for future expansion into Southeast Asia. This trend is expected to continue, driven by Singapore’s stability and business-friendly environment.
Evolving Lifestyle Space for Gen Z and Gen Alpha
Sulian notes that Gen Z consumers are savvy trendsetters, even in the luxury market. Despite being digital natives, they enjoy physical retail experiences, reviving retro music such as ’90s hip-hop and fashion trends like Y2K. Gen Zs are discerning luxury purchasers, favoring brands with strong cultural capital and relatable brand stories.
Emerging Trends in Retail and Mixed-Use Developments
Sulian is most excited about new lifestyle brands emerging from Asia, particularly in toy collectibles, e gaming, and cult streetwear brands. Asian brands, she notes, tend to be edgier than their Western counterparts. She highlights the success of Pop Mart’s Labubu collectibles from China, Asian coffee chains like %Arabica from Japan and M-Stand, a partnership between Chinese and Japanese investors.
