In Luye Medical Group’s journey towards globalization, the global management team is constantly overcoming challenges, embracing changes and redefining themselves during this integration process. As the CFO of Luye Medical Group, Conal is steering Luye towards greater success in his new working environment.

Conal and Luye have a "special fate". He was integral in the evaluation work in Luye Medical's acquisition of Healthe Care Hospital in Australia in early 2011 when he was working for an investment bank. In Conal's more than 10 years of rich experience in finance, he has overseen many cases of corporate mergers and acquisitions, which has given him a profound understanding of a company's business strategies. Luye's acquisition of Healthe Care in 2016 was one of Conal's most memorable cases, and also led to his subsequent involvement with Healthe Care as well as his position as CFO of Luye Medical.

 

Conal Henderson， CFO of Luye Medical Group

In December last year, in response to the needs of Luye Medical’s global business development, Conal relocated from Australia to Singapore starting a new chapter in his life. In this issue of "Luye’s Big Boss", we are honored to invite Conal to share his experience regarding his role in Luye Medical's globalization efforts.

The following is the original interview.

Looking at your past ten years of professional experience, from being the Head of Healthcare Consumer& Retail of Barclays Investment Bank to the CFO of Healthe Care Australia to the CFO of Luye Medical, what has driven you to pursue these positions?

With background in accounting and finance, one of the key decisions I faced early on was which sector to focus on. I chose to go into healthcare for a number of important reasons. Firstly it is growing and will continue to grow, it’s a sector I feel passionate about and one we can all identify with and lastly,I thoroughly enjoy working with like-minded people who are committed to improving people’s lives. Choosing the right sector is a key factor in any career success.

Having spent the early part of my career in investment banking, I was able to develop advanced sector knowledge and corporate finance skills – furthermore it afforded me the opportunity to engage with companies at the highest level (CEO/CFO and Board) on a range of strategic initiatives and advise on a number of important decisions.

Having supported numerous clients in growing and achieving their strategic goals, I too wanted to be part of building something special which eventually brought me to Healthe Care and Luye.  I feel privileged to have been involved from the birth of Luye Medical and support the business as it continues to grow and flourish.
 

In your rich financial career spanning over 20 years, you have led in the acquisition of multiple companies. What has been the impact of these experiences on your career development? Luye Medical's acquisition of Australian HealtheCare is one of the important projects that you were responsible for. What has been the most unforgettable aspect of this merger?

Any M&A transaction is the culmination of months of work and more often than not years of planning. The most valuable thing I have learned over the years is the importance of understanding your client’s strategy and strategic objectives. This is critical as it frames your approach, the financial analysis, the due diligence focus and importantly the cultural fit of the target.

Healthe Care was indeed the platform acquisition of what has become Luye’s health care services business Luye Medical. Critical for Luye was finding a platform with scale, in a market with leading healthcare services and a management team with the requisite skills to support the growth into China.

We spent several weeks bunkered down in Sydney with Luye deal team evaluating this acquisition opportunity. One of the most memorable moments of the merger was watching the chemistry develop between the Luye and the Healthe Care management teams.

Cultural fit is often the most defining success criteria for any M&A deal – Chairman Liu, an entrepreneur visionary in his own right, Steve Atkins, one of the founders of Healthe Care and Charles Wang, a founding member of the Luye Medical team came together and quickly found common ground on important values such as clinical excellence, people first, people always and being bold on growth! – This enabled them to establish a shared vision for the group which is critical to the success of the acquisition.

During Luye’s globalization, the management team has experienced challenges, and has needed to adapt successfully in order to continue the company's growth trajectory. As a member of the management team, what have you gained in the integration process? How do you feel about Luye's corporate culture?

Good questions, there is no doubt the Australian hospital sector has experienced a number of headwinds over the past few years. Australia is a very mature market with some of our hospitals being almost 100 years old – with this comes a set of very well-established mature management systems that have been highly effective in making Australia one of the world’s leading healthcare markets.

With the Australian market softening, it is now time to challenge the status quo and look for opportunities to innovate. This is something Luye is very passionate about and has challenged the management team to move out of their comfort zone. The management team will need to change their way of thinking and embrace rather than resist change.
 

With the trend of digital transformation of corporate information, what do you think will be the direction of future innovation of financial work?

I think digital transformation has had a profound effect on financial management. These changes include the quality and timeliness of information, decision makers expect real time data/financial information delivered to their mobile devices whenever they needed it. Furthermore, as systems become more integrated, we are also more exposed to security and cyber threats. We will need to ensure controls and protections are in place to mitigate these threats.
 

Financial management is evolving from retrospective reporting and analysis to predictive forecasts based on operating KPIs,trends and critical decision support – making sure financial management keeps pace as the business develops and grows is critical for future success.
 

As the CFO of Luye Medical, what do you think are your priorities in your role in the near future?

Financial management is a critical component to every organization’s management system. Key medium-term focus for me is upgrading our financial management systems and enabling better integration with Luye Life Sciences management systems. Key focus will be on internal controls, accuracy and timeliness of information and seamless integration with other management systems to support real time strategic decision-making.

As the business becomes more global and we make big strategic decisions on the future direction of the company, providing detailed financial analysis and challenging underlying assumptions will be critical for decision-making and risk management.

 

What is your management style and ideal team culture?

My preferred team culture is one in which we have a shared vison of success – there is little point in celebrating high quality financial reports / internal controls if the underlying business is not performing well. If we have a shared vision of success, we can better align focus and energy to achieve a broader range of goals including financial management, decision support and business case analytics.

 My goal is to break down the silos within the business units and develop a collective view of success for the finance team (and indeed the business).

We know that your family moved from Australia to Singapore with you over the past year. Did your family provide strong support to you during this process? How are you adapting to the new environment and culture?

My move to Singapore better enabled me to achieve my work goals. Having been appointed to the Luye Medical group CFO role in 2018 there was a need to strengthen the regional leadership team,  provide on the ground leadership on a number of important corporate finance and capital market initiatives, further integrate a number of our Singaporean subsidiaries as well as set up the financial management infrastructure for Luye Medical as a group. 

 

 

Conal with his family

Conal with his children

There is no question relocation puts a great stress on your family as they say goodbye to family and friends. Furthermore, I depended on my wife to do the majority of the “heavy lifting” to enable the move. I strongly urge others to make sure their partner is on board before doing something similar.

The moving process was very smooth and VERY well co-ordinated via HR.  Settling down and feeling like we knew our way around took around 4-6 months.  Singapore is a relatively easy place to move to because it is very global and everyone speaks English. I have enjoyed the experience as it has helped me forge better working relationships across our global organisation, and provide me the opportunity to learn from international colleagues.

What is the working atmosphere at Luye's Singapore Office? What kind of local employee activities have you participated in?

In Singapore it is very quiet !!! Employees get in later and work later in the day.  In Australia, employees get in earlier in the morning and tend to leave earlier in the evening. In Singapore, employees usually eat lunch together, turning it into a social occasion.  In Australia, it is not uncommon to eat at your desk or on your own.  Although in Australia you are more likely to have drinks after work (especially if a Friday or a celebration).

The HR team in Singapore has been very proactive and effective in organizing team events, from monthly birthday celebrations, a badminton tournament and of course the annual Chirstmas party! 

The Halloween Party organized by OncoCare Cancer Centre

 

 

Singapore Office colleagues gathered together to celebrate the last day of Lunar New Year

with a “potluck party" indulging in a widespread of delicious food.

 

How do you spend your weekends? Do you have any interesting hobbies?

This year I have definitely devoted a lot of time to exploring the great variety of new restaurants (including tasty hawker centers) that exist in Singapore (probably explains how I have put on so much weight!) – We have also enjoyed wonderful walking/biking  trails – there is always something exciting to do in Singapore. I am of course an avid rugby supporter and thoroughly enjoyed watching my home team win the world Cup.

 

 
Exploring the new restaurants with his child 

After working in the healthcare sector for many years, what do you think is  "health" to you? How do you maintain a healthy lifestyle?

The obvious answer is exercise and diet! In truth, I think it’s much more complicated. Sleep and stress management are equally important and in some ways harder to achieve (for me at least!),particularly when you set bold targets for yourself and the business. The art is trying to stay in the moment, which allows me to focus on things within my control without the distraction of other stresses in my life.

 

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