"Pavo, pavo, pavo", LiBin Sim sings the lyrics of a Latino song. He’s telling me about a Latino dance course he took.
Sim, who is from Singapore, wanted to learn to understand the Spanish lyrics of the songs so that he could really get into the salsa, tango, chachacha, and mambo.
What on earth is a pavo, he used to wonder.
“Pavo means turkey. The whole song was about cooking a turkey,” he laughs in a video interview.
Sim decided to take a dance course because he wanted to learn about the Latin American culture. His job in the consumer goods development industry had led him there. The course gave Sim an understanding of the Latino culture and dance skills. It also gave him a wife.
"It's amazing how learning opens doors and reveals new paths"
Learning about other countries and cultures is important to Sim, a chemical engineer. Optimizing production chains and calculating prices is easy when you understand the people working in the chain.
At school he was a fast learner, but also learned there was a lot he didn’t know. Languages caused him pain, and in geography lessons he wondered how anyone could possibly be interested in the ecosystem of a river.
But geography proved to be a turning point.
“When you have a good salary and a high-ranking position, you risk slipping into complacency. But you must always remember that you don't know everything.”
“Live to be old, learn to be old, that is, never stop learning,” Sim quotes his geography teacher, who in turn had quoted a Chinese proverb to the young Sim.
Sim is still on that path.
“When you have a good salary and a high-ranking position, you risk slipping into complacency. But you must always remember that you don't know everything.”
A constant thirst for knowledge propels Sim forward and towards new things.
“It's amazing how learning opens doors and reveals new paths.”
Learning to drink beer and to understand cockney
After school, Sim continued his studies in London. The chemical engineer's first job there was at the Procter & Gamble factory on the outskirts of the city. He was the only Chinese person in the factory, among the cockney-speaking Englishmen.
He wanted to acquire a thorough local understanding, because Sim believes this transcends to almost everything at work.
“Well, for example, they drank beer. Let´s go and grab a pint, they’d say. At first, I drank water at the pub, because I’d never had a beer.”
Sim learned to drink beer. He also learned to understand cockney. And he excelled at his work at the detergent factory.
"Learning is much more rewarding when it happens in a group"
Because of his engineering background, Sim understands how production works. He describes himself as a number cruncher.
“I know numbers. I understand how prices work, how the pricing of the value chain works. I think that's important.”
Working in the food and beverage industry, he also learned about his customers, distribution and the commercial side of the business.
However, he wanted to deepen his expertise even further. And so, Sim completed the Aalto Executive MBA program in Singapore.
"We talked and we learned, we had very different perspectives, and this helped us grasp things better."
LiBin Sim found his current job through his networks.
The participants had a wide range of backgrounds: finance, human resources, operational management.
“We talked and we learned, we had very different perspectives, and this helped us grasp things better. Learning is much more rewarding when it happens in a group. You learn better in a group.”
Sim recently attended Aalto EE’s weekend-long program on sustainability with his wife Defelyn Tay, who works in the luxury products industry. Once again, he found groupwork and discussions with professionals from different backgrounds inspiring.
One of Sim's philosophies: networking
Twenty years ago, while living in London, shrimp-loving Sim used to go to Billingsgate seafood market to buy himself a treat.
Today, he visits seafood wholesalers in Singapore and quizzes the vendors all about fish and shellfish. There’s plenty to learn: there are 50–100 kinds of shrimp alone.
His curiosity stems from the fact that Sim has just taken up the position of Director of the Seafood Industries Association Singapore (SIAS). Working closely with the government, the association's mission is to support and promote Singapore's seafood industry.
Seafood is a crucial source of protein, so Singapore’s government provides considerable support to the sector. SIAS acts as an intermediary between the state and the sector’s businesses.
One of Sim's philosophies is networking. “It’s through networking that I found my current job.”
This interview was first published in the Aalto Leaders' Insight magazine's 12th issue in June 2024. You can download and read the whole magazine here!
