Editor’s note:
In order to advance its international growth strategy, Luye has a long-standing commitment to develop more growth opportunities in key and emerging markets around the world, including Luye Malaysia team. This young team was established in 2021 to further deepen Luye Pharma's commercial operations in Asia Pacific. This month we have the pleasure to invite some colleagues from the team to get to know this dynamic and happy team.

Q： Thank you all for taking this interview, to start with, could you please give us a brief introduction of yourself?

 
Poh Ow Ee, Regional Commercial Manager

Poh: My name is Poh Ow Ee, industry colleagues and friends call me Poh., I come from Penang, an island state in the north of Peninsular Malaysia. I completed tertiary education in Kuala Lumpur and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Chemistry & Biology.

Speaking of how I enter into this industry, it is actually quite funny. My father runs a small retail shop selling outdoor equipment in Penang. I got to know about pharmaceutical sales jobs from a regular customer who frequented the shop. I joined the pharmaceutical industry shortly after graduating from university. It will soon be 20 years in the industry by now. I have been in various roles from sales to marketing to business development, and business management with other organizations. I joined Luye Pharma in June 2021 as Regional Commercial Manager. Currently as the Regional Country Manager, overseeing the business and operations for Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan.

 
Gan Chew Hong, Associate Business Manager

Gan: My name is Gan. I am a registered pharmacist in Malaysia, and I hold a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) degree. I recently joined Luye in April 2022 as an Associate Business Manager and I am holding Luye Poison License. My role is to oversee sales and any matters relating to OTC in Malaysia as well as to support APAC Commercial Team for business development.

 
Choong Pei Yan, Sales Representative

Pei: I’m Pei Yan, and I’m currently in the sales team. I had both my pharmacist degree at the University of Nottingham back in 2017. After my graduation, I secured a job with my government hospital for 2 years, and that was before I decided to try the retail line. I wanted to try a different environment while I have the all the energy and opportunities laid upon me. Ultimately, I finally had the chance to join Luye, for a year+ as the sales representative granting me the opportunity to exploit another interesting field in the pharma industry. It’s more on the B2B business with the channel partners, compared to my past experiences, my clients are patients, and the communities. And now, I’m working with the prescribers and KOL, to do products sharing and to organize events to promote products. It’s a totally different experience from what I did in the past, and thanks to the platform in Luye, I’m learning different things every day.

Nick Chew, Business Manager

Nick: My name is Nick Chew. I graduated from the University of Nottingham with a BA (Hons) Economics and Finance in 2016 and entered the pharmaceutical industry in the same year. I joined Luye Pharma as a Senior Product Specialist in April 2021, covering KL and East Coast. In Jan 2022, I was promoted to Associate Sales Manager and fast forward March 2023, I was given an opportunity to work as a Business Manager in Luye Pharma Malaysia.

Q: Thank you all. Since this is our first staff interview with the Malaysian team, could you please give us an introduction of Malaysia?

Pei: I had been studying in the UK for two years and I’m still prefer back to Malaysia for my career. Malaysia is amazing, we have potpourri of culture, which comprised of three major races, Malay, Indian and Chinese and other small ethics in the east Malaysia where we have so much of the diversities of culture, traditions, customs and especially the food! When you speak of Malaysia, usually food is involved, especially the local town in Ipoh, which is my hometown. Other than these, Malaysia is gifted with variety of landscape, like we have 130-million-year-old rainforest in Pahang, the Mulu Caves, the largest caves system in Southeast Asia and not forgetting the world class beach and diving spots in Sabah!
 

Taman Negara National Park

 
Street view of Ipoh

Poh: Malaysia is a tropical country bordering Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia. It is a diverse country with 33 million populations with multiracial and multicultural backgrounds. Sometimes you can hear people using 3 different languages in just one sentence, this is quite unique. It is a beautiful country with tropical islands, rainforests, mountains, bustling cities and serene countryside. In fact, the Mountain Kinabalu is the highest mountain of the Southeast Asia region. Come to Malaysia, we can bring you around to the sea, to the mountain, the cities and the Kampung (villages).

 
Pulau Perhentian

Q: Why did Luye Pharma International choose to build a team in Malaysia？ What are the roles and responsibilities of Malaysia office?

Nick: It’s the Malaysian dream, to build the country as a center of excellence for mental health in the APAC region. Mental illness is on the rise in Malaysia and we are at the forefront of building better medicine accessibility to these patients.

Poh: Luye started to build the team and office in Malaysia since 2021, that was a difficult time for the team considering we were still in the lockdown because of COVID-19. However, our local leaders and sales managers were able to expand the team and engage with stakeholders. We are confident that we can excel in the local market and further expand the business to other countries in the region. It is a launchpad for Luye Pharma International in this region and more so as an incubator. The Malaysia team is constantly testing new ideas, and new ways of working, falling forwards and improving on it. Malaysia is the centre of excellence or reference for us to other countries. This also instilled the “Can Do” attitude among the team to keep challenging the status quo.

Q: Talking about the core spirit of your team “Happiness ABCDO”, what does it mean?

Gan： “Hapiness ABCDO” is actually inspired by our APAC Director Andy. A stands for Attitude, B stands for Behavior, C stands for Commitment, D stands for Discipline, and O stands for Ownership. He emphasizes these key factors for achieving success: having a positive mindset, acting responsibly, being disciplined, and giving our best effort. Ultimately, we take pride in what we do and aim for excellence.

Poh:  Among these, the most important to me is ownership. Because ownership is built from a positive attitude, then you can have proper behaviour, commitment and discipline. When people can take ownership both personally and professionally, they own their performance, they own their career, responsibility and results. So this is how I understand “Happiness ABCDO”: happiness leads to ABCDO, and O is built from ABCD. This will need proper time and effort, and in the end, it will lead to a happy life because we gave our best and live life to the fullest.

Q: How does “Happiness ABCDO” inspire you in your daily work or even in your daily life?

Pei： I agree with Poh. Embracing a positive attitude towards life and work is important to manage failure and setbacks, learn from mistakes and do better in future.

Behaving professionally and ethically are important characteristics for a sale rep to build trust and rapport with the prescribers, by prioritizing their needs and always standing in the patients’ shoes. 

Commitment, a must of being reliable, responsible for the tasks and sticking to the deadline, to dedicate the time and skills to go extra mile to achieve expectation of the superiors. Having clear objectives and goals can provide directions, motivation, and a sense of purpose in your work, likewise, for every call we make with the prescribers has to have an objective or something to achieve. 

Nevertheless, maintaining discipline is essential for staying focused, organized, and productive in a fast-paced and demanding work environment. Especially for all the things that I have mentioned. It means prioritizing your tasks, managing your time effectively, avoiding distractions and procrastination, and following a structured approach to problem-solving and decision-making.

Ownership- Dedication and own the result. Take more initiative and responsibility for your growth and the success of the team.

Q：Can you share with us your takeaways and feelings about working in an international organization and synergizing with other teams from different countries and regions across the Group?

Poh： My work covers multiple countries in Asia, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan and others, which is very exciting and challenging. Working across countries, you have to be prepared that the way of work is totally different, and also the culture, language and expectations are different. I see this as a cross-learning opportunity. We must be open and flexible and listen first to understand and to be understood. We always build trust via similarities before we try to work on the differences, without this, it can be quite difficult to work cross-culturally. In my daily work, I have the chance to work with colleagues based in LATAM, UK, Japan and other countries and regions, this actually enhances my experiences. I can learn from them by asking questions. I do appreciate the opportunity, and hope one day I can meet oversea colleagues in person,

And also, country visit trips are in fact very beneficial, unlike online communication, face-to-face visit and discussion are an opportunity for the country team to hear from you, ask questions, explain, and share different perspectives. This is a positive way to strengthen relationships and rapport.

Gan: Because my work needs to support APAC commercial team, so I have the chance to expose in all the meetings. I also have the chance to visit partners in Singapore and Cambodia as well. I have the opportunity to learn from a diversity of cultures, views, perspectives and expectations in practice. I find it enriching and stimulating to exchange ideas, insights, and feedback from different teams across the Group. I also respect and value the differences and similarities that we have. I appreciate the opportunity to learn from and contribute to the Group’s growth and development.

Nick: It has been an eye-opening experience at Luye Pharma. I do work with some colleagues from other countries on certain tasks, and I learnt a lot from cross-functional meetings and discussions with my peers and manager. Prior to this, I worked in numerous international pharmaceutical companies and I believe that Luye does have one of the best team culture. We’re like one big family and we foster a close bond to everyone.

Pei: I’m working with Malaysia team, with Poh and Nick and few of my colleagues from different background and experience. Working in such an environment leads to an exchange of ideas, knowledge, and expertise, which can result in new approaches to problem-solving and enhanced efficiency.

Q: Can you share with us some team activities that you have organized to enhance team work and cohesiveness?

Gan: We play badminton together biweekly, usually on Wednesdays after work. This is a fun and healthy way to foster good relationships and release some stress. We also invite our business partner and doctors to join us. We also celebrate some of the festive seasons together. We share our traditions, cultures, and food with each other and learn more about our diversity. We also exchange gifts and greetings and show our appreciation for each other. We have team building sessions, kick-off meetings, where we participate in various activities and games that require teamwork, communication, problem-solving and creativity. These activities help us to build trust, respect, and friendship among ourselves and make us a stronger and happier team.

Pei: Last year, we even participated in the 25km trail run in Taiping, persuaded by Andy. It wasn’t just a ‘wear your snickers and run’ kind of run. And so, that day was raining heavily, the trail was slippery, and it was nightfall. We supported each other emotionally and physically, and we managed to complete the run in the end. It fosters a sense of comradeship, that we help each other to achieve our individual goals while contributing to the success of the team. I was so glad on the emotional support from the team.

Poh: We also had go-kart racing as  team building activity. This was a very memorable experience because for the first time, you learn how to drive with full acceleration without stepping on the break. It reminds us that when we take a little bit of risk, for just a bit more, we can make things happen. What I have observed and learned from the go-kart racing experience is that when everyone exerts positive pressure by going a bit faster, the whole team will improve and deliver better performance.  

White water rafting was another great outing together. You can see people all have different ways of rowing the boat, but eventually when we know that we are heading nowhere, we learnt that we have to listen to instructions: go left row, go right row, stop, forward or reverse. It is a good experience for everyone to know the importance of acting together in one direction.

 

Q: Last but not least, could you please share your expectations for Luye?

Gan: My expectations for Luye Malaysia are to continue growing, expand rapidly outpacing the other pharmaceutical company and be the best role model for the APAC region. I hope that in years to come Luye Malaysia can establish its name and present as the number 1 leading pharmaceutical company in Malaysia and across the world. Also, to be the top pharmaceutical company providing its best expertise in Oncology and CNS.

Nick: I believe Luye Pharma will continue to grow in the future, especially with our upcoming products like Rykindo and Rivastigmine MD to build our CNS stronghold in Malaysia.

Pei: Luye Pharma Malaysia has positioned itself as a leading pharmaceutical company in the country, specializing in the research, development, production, and sale of pharmaceutical products. It is expected that the company will continue to leverage its vast experience and expertise to develop more innovative and effective pharmaceutical products, especially CNS products for the Malaysian market and benefit Malaysia populations.  Additionally, the company is expected to maintain a high level of professionalism, ethics, and transparency in all its operations, build strong partnerships with healthcare providers and patients, and maintain a strong position in the Malaysian healthcare industry.

Poh: Under the leadership of Nick, Business Manager for Luye Malaysia, the team is expected to deliver results year after year. The team will strive to improve their knowledge, skills, and rapport with the customers and be the best in the industry. Luye Malaysia will be recognized as the reference country among APAC region when come to innovation and execution.

Pipeline expansion is another expectation for Luye Malaysia. With new pipelines and products launching in Malaysia, Luye Malaysia will continue to grow the business in the country. The team can leverage on the new launches in the CNS portfolio to establish Luye Pharma as the CNS company becoming the preferred partner for healthcare professionals in Mental Health in Malaysia.  

Q: It is really great opportunity to know more about Luye Malaysia team, thank you all for your wonderful sharing.