Dynamism
and discipline.
Women success stories are becoming a daily habit. For other
women, who seek to join this rank of elite women, there is a lot
we can learn from them. Here is the story of one another exceptional
woman. And here, we focus on those traits that have made her taste
success in this world where very few women continue to reach such
heights.
If
Chan Yue Yee had to be described in a word, it would have to be
"vibrant." A 43-year old Malaysian woman of Chinese ethnicity,
she has made a name for herself in interior designing.
Chan has been running her own interior design consultancy, Equus
Designs, since 1986 in Kuala Lumpur. One of Chan's recent undertakings
is the prestigious Petronas Art Gallery on the third floor of
the Kuala Lumpur City Center Twin Towers in Malaysia. Among the
many awards to her credit are the Anton Design Award for the Asia-Pacific
region in 1988 and the Best Resort Award sponsored by the FIABCI
in 1996. Chan has also judged various design competitions in Malaysia.
Discipline.
Her eyes shine like onyxes as she roller blades over a range of
topics with total involvement in what she's saying. "Disciplined"
competes closely to be the epithet that encapsulates her.
"Discipline,
discipline, discipline," she says, tapping her forefinger emphatically
on the table,. As an interior designer with more than 15 years'
experience, she believes discipline is a key element in making
interiors work.
"When
you're younger, what you want comes out because you want to show
people what you can do, but the thing is to let what the interior
needs to come out," she says. "This comes with experience and
discipline."
Knowing what is important and channeling the energies into success
stories and rejecting those that will not help you in your way
to the top.
She
started out doing home interiors, but found that frustrating because
the wife would want green and the grandmother would want purple
and the brief would keep changing all the time. For the time and
effort spent, it just didn't seem worthwhile. Chan now focuses
on business interiors - hotels, offices, galleries and stores.
"Control is better in commercial projects," Chan explains. "In
such projects, the parameters are more clearly defined in terms
of budget, corporate image expectations and deadlines. Work is
better channeled," she adds.
Doing
things differently from the competition, going beyond what is
expected, aiming towards true customer satisfaction.
In
doing a business interior, Chan believes in "the interplay of
the esthetics with the functions successfully and systematically."
She often works with other consultants and starts with the practical
aspects.
· She puts down what is relevant on a layout.
· Then she studies her client's brief
· Subsequently, the layout is modified to match the client's requirements.
Now, she's ready to tackle the soft side: what the business is
and the hidden objectives the space must fulfill. For instance,
a showroom is meant for promotion and marketing and the interior
must do this subliminally. An office interior must layer in the
corporate image of the company.
Responding
to change by being proactive.
Chan
doesn't have any pet pieces that she's done; neither does she
have any interiors she regrets and wishes she had done differently.
In fact, she wouldn't like to go back in time because interior
designing is a face-forward business that is constantly changing,
Chan observes. "It's a moment in time that is not as fast as fashion,
but shorter than architecture. The life-span of a hotel interior
is perhaps five years," she says. "Ten years ago, the hype was
about supermarkets, but today we're talking about hypermarkets;
now it's no longer coffee bars, but cyber cafes. In our field,
which is ever growing, nothing can be repeated. We have to respond
creatively to change," she adds.
And
more discipline
Much
of her success could be attributed to discipline, Chan thinks.
"To achieve, one must first think 'I want to do this.' The difficult
part is then doing it. That's where discipline is important,"
she explains. Perhaps the responsibilities she had to shoulder
made her learn discipline. But she remembers always being determined
and disciplined, even as a child. "I think I was born that way.
I don't know," she says.
Prioritizing
is key to time management.
Chan
begins her typical workday by perusing her message book. Her first
order of business is to take care of urgent messages. Then she
makes her own list of priorities for the day. After this she either
jumps into a project or spends time with her staff. Before she
ends her day, she makes a summary of what she has achieved that
day and plans for the next.
Facing
challenges and accepting them as part of life.
"Every
day I wait for a new challenge," Chan says. She is very involved
in her work. If something should go wrong with anything she's
done, is the first to be on the spot to troubleshoot. "You should
be embarrassed to fail," she says. "When there's a crisis,
the first thing to do is to acknowledge it. Then you discuss the
problem and when the options have been agreed on by all parties,
you implement the solutions."
-
Chan Yue Yee in conversation with Nachammai Raman
