Peggy brings over 20 years of experience across Asia Pacific and Europe, excelling in leadership roles in key markets like China, Hong Kong, and Germany. A leader with expertise in P&L, strategic growth, and process excellence, she drives global business performance through collaboration and innovation.

In a conversation with the Global Woman Leader Magazine, Peggy emphasizes that in today’s volatile global market, industry leaders in China and Southeast Asia must strategically balance aggressive growth with sustainable practices, prioritizing environmental and social governance amidst emerging trends in sustainable growth.

In the current global market landscape, with volatility and rapid changes becoming the norm, how do you foresee the next wave of transformation impacting businesses in China and Southeast Asia? What strategic pivots should industry leaders consider staying ahead?

Transformational change in operating model is inevitable for many organizations especially from those well-established market leaders originating from the West given the China+1 strategy and geopolitical shifts impacting importation and exportation threatens existing ecosystems. Increasingly a fair share of sizeable Chinese based large conglomerate is setting up presence in Southeast Asia and Europe. Regionalization and localization model has become pivotal as businesses recognize the value of tailoring their offerings to local markets especially to increase market shares and build customer loyalty. In dynamic Asian markets, being agile in executing changes is a key differentiator to be able to increase speed to market whilst collaborating with selective strategic partnerships to double down the combined unique value propositions to market amplify offerings to compete.

Given the significant growth you have driven in financial earnings and EBITDA, how should industry leaders balance aggressive growth targets with the need for sustainable business practices, especially in regions where environmental and social governance is increasingly critical?

The fundamentals that underpinned Asia Pacific’s dramatic growth over the past three decades includes the pivotal role in the effort for environmental and social governance as inevitably this region contributes to more than half of the world's energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and this is expected to continue to rise as the population and economies continue to grow. It is imperative for businesses to recalibrate the organization around the pursuit of economic and environmental goals. Environmental initiatives are to be weaved into corporate strategies with quantifiable boosts in turnover and cost savings, to improved brand reputation and customer experience. Key markets within the region like China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore have each seen important ESG regulatory and market developments in recent years and as a result the different jurisdictions and markets have varied approaches to disclosure requirements and regulations, creating a complex landscape for businesses to adapt and localize its ESG approach. These more developed key markets are sizeable thus more impactful hence remain key focus for businesses to pilot, scale at pace and replicate approach for the remaining markets within the region.

Digital transformation is reshaping industries across the globe. In markets like China and Southeast Asia, where digital adoption rates vary, what strategies should business leaders employ to ensure that digital initiatives translate into tangible financial performance and not just technological upgrades?

Digital transformation is now transforming the business across the world while the rates of digital adoption differ in the regions such as China or Southeast Asia; the attention of the leaders should be shifted toward the ways of how to allocate digital initiatives and where the concept results in tangible financial performance rather than just technological changes. Leaders should change the perspective that digital investments = Feature/functionality upgrades rather than the tech-savvy customer experience upgrade. Relevance cannot be overemphasized for accelerating sustainable growth and development and this requires a thorough analysis of the relevant market. As seen from Table 2, Singapore stands third in digital competitiveness in FY23 while China is ranked at 19th place, these two markets are indicating that specific regional strategies should be developed. To ensure that the digital results are linked with other strategic objectives, overall goals must be set correctly when it comes to digital and the latter should be established as one of the critical enablers of business. Apart from the financial, operating, and productivity KPIs that are focused on the financial aspect of the organisation, a number of customer-oriented KPIs like customer cost, NPS, social media attitude, customer ratings and reviews give a broad, customer-centric perspective of the organisation in the days following the digital adaptation.

As sustainability becomes a non-negotiable aspect of business strategy, particularly in high-growth markets, how can companies balance ambitious growth targets with the need for sustainable practices? What are the emerging trends in sustainable growth that industry leaders should be paying attention to?

Enterprises that want to make a positive impact on the planet while ensuring long-term financial stability need the right combination of strategic partnerships and AI-infused technology to put their business sustainability goals into action. Sustainability must be embedded in core decision making and incentive structures, such as KPIs, ROI assessment, product road maps and design principles. This influence the obvious implementation of some low hanging fruit initiatives such as green fleet; renewable energy operations; biodegradable packaging to increasing resilience in supply chains is coming to the forefront of companies’ sustainability goals. Industry leaders have recognized an opportunity to stay on the forefront via “collaborative innovation” through partnerships and alliances with universities, industry associations and advanced research institutes. While investing in such emerging technologies may be outside the comfort zone for many organizations, I strongly believe the potential economic and environmental payoff from successful commercialization is worth the long-term investment of the operating model ecosystems.

With the increasing role of technology and innovation in driving business growth, how can leaders in traditional industries integrate digital transformation with their core operations without alienating existing customer bases or diluting brand identity? What innovations are crucial for maintaining a competitive edge in these rapidly digitizing markets?

As technology and innovation become key factors for business growth, senior leaders in GLB’s traditional industries need to find ways how to leverage digitalization in their business while avoiding that the traditional customer base is losing its orientation or the established brands are losing their uniqueness. Solutions like generative AI and cloud services are being adopted to build better customer interactions and interfaces, whereas other solutions like, machine learning and robotic process automation are being adopted for supply chain management. They are important for market competitiveness in industries which are experiencing high levels of digitization. However, successful integration requires a shift from traditional thinking to a more collaborative, experimental approach. Companies must balance reinvention with maintaining their core values; ensuring technology enhances rather than disrupts the customer experience. While some companies are pioneering connected strategies, most are in the transformation stage, focused on building sustainable competitive capabilities through innovation. Ultimately, technology is not just a tool but a core enabler of efficiency, agility, and value creation for employees, customers, and shareholders alike.

As you drive strategic directions for high-growth ambitions, how do your future-proof an organization against unforeseen disruptions? What frameworks or models should leaders adopt to ensure their businesses remain resilient in the face of future challenges?

Tomorrow is full of fog and volatility. Markets, supply chains, technology, and consumer trends are hazy and transforming rapidly. Personally, I find the guide from “What VUCA Really Means for You by Nate Bennettand G. James Lemoine (What VUCA Really Means for You (hbr.org)” provides a great overview and approach. In practice, the four elements are related – it is more challenging to predict a high complexity and volatility industry and thus making it more uncertain. All four elements presence in our environment in the context of the world geopolitical changes; the market with tariffs and regulations and the industry with dynamic disruptors. The ability to anticipate and adapt to changes swiftly; to think strategically and to develop value adding solutions are some of the essential leadership styles to maneuver through disruptions.