Had a great lunch with Mr. Ross Chia, a name that many would be familiar with if one is from the Malaysian Telco Industry during 1995 – 2005.
Ross started his career with P&G before moving to Maxis in 1995 when it all began. His people skills had lead him to set 5 big records in Maxis, helping them to churn out profits by the 5th year. His presence in Maxis has changed the perception of many that a person with FMCG experience can definitely handle the Telco world. He used his own 5 marketing strategies (hence the 5 fingers) to penetrate the market, especially during the 1998 crisis, to compete with Celcom back then.
His secret has always been his motivation skills and warmth towards people. When I first known Ross one and a half years ago, he is definitely one of the nicest boss I have ever seen. My colleague, Andrea, nicknamed him the Angels without wings.
During our lunch together, he mentioned his first book was Dale Carnegie’s awesome How to Win Friends and Influence People, which lead him to be such a great leader. That is definitely a good buy, believe me.
I really appreciate what Ross taught me during lunch about Sales and Marketing. Understanding one’s target market is really important and he taught me few things for my new venture, myBurgerLab. Will definitely keep those in mind.
Thanks Ross.