Ms Lim Jia Mei who joined Frasers Property as its pioneer batch of Management Associate programme, is currently with the Investment team under Frasers Hospitality, assessing potential investment deals. She also looks at investment activities in the Singapore residential market. It is a dynamic role which involves a wide range of soft skills such as people management, negotiation and collaboration beyond technical expertise.
Lim Jia Mei, Manager, Investment, Frasers Hospitality Asset Management
It has been over three years since I joined Frasers Property as its pioneer batch of Management Associate Programme right after graduation. I could still remember the sense of excitement yet uncertainty when I accepted the job offer. ‘Will I be able to get along with my colleagues? How will the company culture be like? What happens if I don’t perform well?’ This is after all my first full-time corporate job and I had no idea what to expect.
It has been a wonderful decision which I thank myself for. No doubt the learning curve has been steep but help and guidance is always available. My mentor once shared with me that he believes in knowledge-sharing and mentorship because only by empowering every individual in the team to do well, the entire team can then grow and progress together. I think this truly exemplifies our core values of ‘Real’ and ‘Collaborative’ at Frasers Property, through the collaborative culture and team effort I have witnessed. This has a significant impact on shaping my personal development and serves as a motivation for me to pass on this positive culture to my incoming colleagues.
Innovation at the cornerstone of our business approach: From 800 minutes to one minute
An interesting project that holds dear to my heart is a pilot project that I have embarked on together with my three other Management Associate batchmates. With innovation and progressiveness at the cornerstone of our business approach at Frasers Property, we had initiated a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) proof-of-concept where we conceptualised and developed two robots to support our shared services team in the financial reconciliation process. What used to take 800 minutes to do can now be completed under a minute with RPA technology, leaving more time for strategic work. The greatest takeaway for me was being able to drive this innovation journey together with my colleagues as we embraced the challenge of starting with little knowledge on RPA to eventually rolling out the pilot robots. As they rightly say, teamwork makes the dream work.
Jia Mei (second from right) was part of a team that initiated a Robotic Process Automation project where they developed two robots to speed up the financial reconciliation process from 800 minutes to one minute.
Dynamic role calls for hard and soft skills
Currently, my role with the investment team of Frasers Hospitality involves assessing deals in the market for potential investment and analysing our existing portfolio for divestment opportunities. Beyond just number crunching, I find that soft skills like people skills, negotiation, networking and collaboration are important traits required to excel in this role. Behind every transaction, we are required to liaise and work very closely with brokers, counterparties, legal advisors, tax advisors and other relevant authorities and stakeholders to identify potential issues and find solutions. This makes the role a very dynamic one as it sees through the entire process of deal sourcing, understanding the asset and formulating an asset plan, underwriting, and eventually down to negotiation and execution.
Due to our global investment mandate, I have been given the opportunity to assess deals across various countries, which has broadened my horizons. I could gain a deeper understanding of not just the tax, legal and regulatory aspect of a particular jurisdiction where I am assessing deals in, but also of the micro-location, culture and catchment pool which are equally important in formulating my assessment.
Jia Mei enjoys relaxing and chilling out at Robertson Walk, a commercial property situated by the historic Singapore River waterfront and which offers guests alfresco dining in a Mediterranean town square. Her experiences at Frasers Property have taught her that It is not just about delivering a product to customers but more importantly, how the team is able to value-add and provide a differentiating factor for customers.
Not just a product for customers
I am also looking into the investment activities of our residential business in Singapore, where I evaluate and conduct feasibility studies for sites launched under the Government Land Sales programme and en-bloc market.
In March this year, Frasers Property emerged as the top bidder of a residential site at Fernvale site in Sengkang. We are developing an executive condominium to meet the needs of the growing Sengkang and Punggol towns. I am involved in the design and product development stage to ready the project for launch. This entails conducting market research, competitive analysis as well as conducting discussions with the architectural, design and creative professionals to formulate our product positioning and marketing strategies.
Throughout this entire process of ideation, benchmarking and validation of ideas which place our customers at the centre of our product design, I have come to see the residential project as not just a product that we are selling, but also the offering of a lifestyle to homeowners and to help them curate a home which they can proudly call it theirs.
More ready and prepared than ever
At Frasers Property, we are unified by our belief of ‘Experience Matters’. To me, ‘Experience Matters’ can take different forms. Besides having a positive work culture for employees to thrive in, we are also driven by the belief that our customers’ experience matters and I have seen how this commitment drives the way we approach our work. It is not just about delivering a product to our customers but more importantly, how we are able to value-add and provide a differentiating factor for them.
Being in the Management Associate programme has opened doors to many opportunities and learning experiences which I am more than grateful for. While there were moments where I was being caught in challenging situations and had to venture out of my comfort zone, they also led to my professional and personal growth. Now, I am more definitely more ready and prepared to embrace what is to come.
Looking to establish a strong career foundation in the real estate industry? Come join Frasers Property’s Management Associate Programme – one of the industry’s most coveted and exclusive talent development programmes in Singapore.
As our Management Associate, you will get ample of opportunities to be placed at the frontline of our diverse, multinational operations and work alongside some of the finest minds in global real estate, as we collaborate on creating experiences that matter to our customers.
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