Innovating and pioneering in the digital era has always been the focus of Vivian Chew’s profession. Back in 2008, at the start of her career, she had the opportunity to help businesses study and embrace analytics and cloud at a time where most were still not ready. In 2010, she won a major innovation award from her company for helping a key client to transform digitally with the cloud.
Fast-forward to 2020 and before the pandemic struck, many businesses were still dithering over cloud adoption and digital transformation. With her wealth of experience, she understood the concerns of business leaders and the challenges they struggled with, especially when the pandemic necessitated speed to market, financial optimisation and the implementation of safety measures in the workplace. She believes that NCS is well-positioned to help organisations overcome these challenges, with its strong combination of domain knowledge, technical skills and resources to help its clients succeed.
passion in her work
Riding with clients on the rollercoaster of digital transformation is something that Vivian is familiar with. Over the course of her 18-year career in the IT industry, she has worked for leading IT and consulting companies and now NCS, where she is the sales lead for Land Transport.
Her forte lies in handling huge, complex end-to-end deals which involve piecing together end-to-end solutions from NCS’ diverse business portfolio and helping clients to design their IT transformation journey.
As someone who adopts a client-centric outlook to work, Vivian believes it is important to understand the business of the client, the problem statement and also the outcome they hope to achieve. Being in a sales role also means that she has to balance business acumen with technical knowledge and take responsibility for the bottom line – the profit and loss arising from a project.
Along the way, Vivian finds herself guided by values such as commitment and authenticity, and a firm belief in the importance of building long-term relationships with clients. “I always ensure that what I sell will help clients succeed in their project or organisational goals, and that it is delivered to the highest standard and does not fail them,” she said. “I also ensure that even after the sales is closed, I am present to help them if they encounter any difficulties.”
being your authentic self
An avid reader with over 700 books in her Kindle collection, Vivian cites authors Brene Brown and Carla Harris as two key influences on her life.
Brene Brown, the author of “Dare to Lead and Rising Strong”, has a quote that inspires Vivian when the going gets tough: “You have to walk through vulnerability to get to courage.” From Carla Harris, vice chairman Morgan Stanley and author of the book “Expect to Win”, one of the key takeaways for Vivian is to “show up with your best self every day”.
Vivian admires both authors for their ability to overcome vulnerabilities and define their own story, giving power to the voice of authenticity.
“As a leader authenticity matters a lot. It’s the courage to be the ‘real you’ that makes a difference to a conversation,” she said. “Authenticity also enables you to build bridges and achieve positive results despite some of the rough edges that are inevitable when we learn to work as a team. When you are authentic and respect your co-workers, when problems arise, you can solve it together and achieve better outcomes.”