As managing director of Eng and Co. LLC, Rachel Eng has almost 30 years of experience as a corporate lawyer. Her legal practice specializes in “corporate advisory, M&A, REITs and funds, listing and corporate governance advisory work.”
Before founding Eng and Co., Rachel Eng served as the “deputy chairman of a major Singapore law firm with regional offices in various parts of Asia.”
Rachel Eng brings to Eng and Co. the experience she gained in corporate advising and transactions, REITs and business trusts. Likewise, for the company, she “advises boards and management on corporate governance issues.”
Aside from Eng and Co., Rachel Eng serves as the “board director of Central Provident Fund Board of Singapore.” Prior to this, she sat as a member of the Committee on the Future Economy, “formed by the Singapore Government to develop economic strategies to position Singapore for the future.” Meanwhile, she also holds a seat at the Corporate Governance Council, “established by the Monetary Authority fo Singapore. Finally, she is also a member of the Appeals Panel of Abu Dhabi Global Market.
For her work at Eng and Co., Rachel Eng has received numerous distinctions from several legal publications. These include “Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, IFLR and Who’s Who Legal.” In 2018, she was named by the Asia Business Law Journal as one of Singapore’s Top 100 lawyers. In the same year, she was also named into the “top 300 leading female transactional experts globally by IFLR1000’s Women Leaders Guide.”
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Therefore, it is important to work for a firm who treasures talent, and who recognises that the talent has another life outside the firm, and is ready to work closely with the talent to find ways to create an environment that the talent can continue to produce the best output. Rachel Eng, Eng and Co.
Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Rachel Eng: In the firm that I joined next which I eventually stayed for 23 years, I enjoyed the trust and confidence of the founding partners. When I was expecting my first child 23 years ago, my senior partner offered me the opportunity to set up a home office. They had experimented with a female talent from another department but was excited that they could use someone like myself from a highly demanding corporate M&A department as guinea pig. Today, we will proudly call this proposal a feature of a firm’s D&I programme. But 23 years ago, my firm was already thinking of ways to retain female talents.
I went home to consult my spouse on the idea of setting up a home office, where the firm will set up a desktop computer, telephone line, fax machine (yes, we used fax machines back then!) and a printer in my study. My spouse said that he preferred that I had the flexibility of working from home when needed (eg when our baby was sick) but not to work at home. If I worked at home and our telephone line is listed in the yellow pages, we will not have privacy and there will not be any division between home and office. Eventually, the firm set up all the equipment for me, except the fixed line.
My law firm’s attitude in encouraging me to continue working even when I started a family and thinking of ways to support me in my work was instrumental to my ability to continue to pursue a challenging corporate legal career.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Rachel Eng: It is not easy to stay on top of the game and not suffer a “burn out”. Therefore, it is important to work for a firm who treasures talent, and who recognises that the talent has another life outside the firm, and is ready to work closely with the talent to find ways to create an environment that the talent can continue to produce the best output.
Jerome Knyszewski: None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Rachel Eng: I worked closely with a colleague who is 5 years my senior. He is both my mentor and sponsor. As service providers, we often have to work according to clients’ timing. During the early 2000s, there was a dot com boom and companies were rushing to list themselves on various stock exchanges. We were expected to work round the clock for days to prepare the legal documents. Recognising that I had to look after my children at home, my colleague will show up at my meetings at night past 11, to take over from me for the “graveyard shift”.
I believe a “great” company has to be innately good.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. The title of this series is “How to take your company from good to great”. Let’s start with defining our terms. How would you define a “good” company, what does that look like? How would you define a “great” company, what does that look like?
Rachel Eng: I think a good company will likely have a good brand or reputation in its industry and carries on a profitable business. I believe a “great” company has to be innately good. A great company is akin to someone who has strong morals and conscience. It treats its employees with care and respect, it practises meritocracy, and manages its stakeholders with integrity and trust.
Jerome Knyszewski: What would you advise to a business leader who initially went through years of successive growth, but has now reached a standstill. From your experience do you have any general advice about how to boost growth and “restart their engines”?
Rachel Eng: I have come to realise that people generally fear change. If, however, the business has reached a standstill, the business leader has to take a hard look to assess which of the areas will grow, stagnate or deteriorate in the coming years. For the areas which are showing signs of deterioration, the leader should start finding ways to upskill the team to move into new areas. The business leader has to rally the teams who are still growing to keep up the work while transforming the rest of the organisation. In the short term, there may be a need to restructure the compensation so that those who are working hard to support the entire organisation are well compensated while the rest are going through transformation.
Jerome Knyszewski: Generating new business, increasing your profits, or at least maintaining your financial stability can be challenging during good times, even more so during turbulent times. Can you share some of the strategies you use to keep forging ahead and not lose growth traction during a difficult economy?
Rachel Eng: During an economic downturn, the cost and competition to hire a star employee is lower. Thus, even while going through a difficult economic period, we need to have one eye above the horizon to look out for new areas of growth, or potential talent for hire. Bad times don’t last forever and thus, it is also important to capture the upturn when it comes.
A successful leader is like a general of an army, who must know the strengths and weaknesses of each of his soldiers.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Rachel Eng: People management tends to be most underestimated. A successful leader is like a general of an army, who must know the strengths and weaknesses of each of his soldiers. In many companies, people management is delegated to the HR department. Some leaders like to generate business for their organisation but find it challenging to speak to their team about their weaknesses. With such disconnect, the leader will not be able to assemble the team with the right attributes to complement him.
Jerome KnyszewskI: Great customer service and great customer experience are essential to build a beloved brand and essential to be successful in general. In your experience what are a few of the most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience?
Rachel Eng: Customers recognise that the company has many customers. However, if the company is able to show its care and concern about the customer in a unique and unexpected manner, it will definitely wow the customer.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are your thoughts about how a company should be engaged on Social Media? For example, the advisory firm EisnerAmper conducted 6 yearly surveys of United States corporate boards, and directors reported that one of their most pressing concerns was reputational risk as a result of social media. Do you share this concern? We’d love to hear your thoughts about this.
Rachel Eng: As consumers are relying on social media for news and updates, companies will need to be engaged in social media to connect with its customers. However, the company has to ensure that the messages which are put out presents a coherent and authentic story about the company.
I would say that good employees should be well rewarded while poor performers should be counselled out appropriately. Rachel Eng
Jerome Knyszewski: What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Rachel Eng: When CEOs and founders start a business, cashflow tends to be tight and therefore they tend to underpay employees. They might want to save costs by hiring less experienced staff when in fact the work demands more senior personnel. They might tolerate poor quality employees for fear of not having enough bodies to do the work.
I feel that companies should be fair to employees and for new setups, they should treat staff with even greater appreciation. I would say that good employees should be well rewarded while poor performers should be counselled out appropriately.
Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Rachel Eng: Having had a challenging career, I am personally passionate about supporting the development of female talent. I think if each female talent could go on to mentor 10 young female talent, who in turn goes on to each mentor 10 others, then in time to come, society will hopefully be able to address the talent drain.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Rachel Eng: You can follow me on my LinkedIn.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
