Intro 0:01
Many aspire to reach the upper echelon of the healthcare industry, but few are able to successfully navigate the corporate ladder. C-Suite Partners sits down with international healthcare executives, asking the tough questions and unpacking the personalities of the top industry leaders. Welcome to the Boardroom.
Michael Murray 0:35
Simon, thank you so much for being a part of C-Suite Partners’ “In the Boardroom”. I think the audience would like to know a little bit about yourself and your current role. Could you tell me a little bit about that?
Simon Chuk 0:45
Thanks for having me. So I am a Partner at Templewater, which is an Asia-based private equity fund. We actually started in late 2018 as a first-time fund. Currently, we manage approximately 1.7 billion of AUM in US dollars, and that’s split into three parts. So, we have a mid-market buyout strategy, which I lead. And then we also have an energy transition decarbonisation strategy executed by a separate team. And then we also have a real estate strategy, that’s a team in Australia that does commercial property investments.
Michael Murray 1:20
Tell me about your first job in investment banking.
Simon Chuk 1:20
Ah, tough.
Michael Murray 1:24
Right?
Simon Chuk 1:24
So back in New York, it was a huge amount of work, very, very long hours every single day, Monday to Sunday, right? With no time off, literally. There were a lot of nitty-gritty details that everybody was laser-focused on. It’s really about paying attention to detail. And why do you do that? Because you want to be seen as professional in front of the customers.
Michael Murray 1:56
Healthcare, which you invest in, is very different to investment banking. I’ve worked in investment and institutional banking myself. What do you think that is, when you look at it from a general perspective, the major differences between healthcare and investment banking?
Simon Chuk 2:11
Actually, I see more similarities. I think in investment banking versus healthcare, you’re more client-, patient-, or consumer-focused, that means you’re really always on standby in case your customers or patients give you a call. For doctors within our Tamarind Health Group, for example, they actually work very hard. They’re on standby, on call even late at night, just to make sure the patients are okay. Translating that to investment banking, I think it’s the deal size, the stakes in terms of dollar amounts, that are actually very large. So, there’s heightened focus in terms of speed to delivery and quality of delivery. It’s a bit different in that finance is obviously more capital- and monetary-driven, but in healthcare, you’re laser-focused on patients.
Michael Murray 2:32
What do people get wrong about healthcare in Southeast Asia? Because there’s always this perception of growth – large economies, large populations, emerging middle class, all the things. It’s like you’re reading the same thing over and over. But you and I have both worked in it, and it is very different. What are your views on that?
Simon Chuk 3:32
So, if you take a top-down view, you always see the market size and the growth opportunity. But in reality, if you do a bottoms-up analysis, healthcare in general is a more conservative sector. Things take longer to change because doctors are generally more conservative. Regulation requires a higher level of due diligence before anything is approved. So that transition is actually slower in healthcare. As I mentioned, it’s always been more of a growth market, but you need to first invest in the infrastructure, invest in the technology to build out the healthcare sector in the region, before you can actually think about realising the growth.
Michael Murray 4:26
Makes sense. And when you’re going through the due diligence of companies, are you starting to bring in the AI element now? Because yes, it’s infrastructure, it’s bricks and mortar, it has doctors, but with the emergence of technology, there’s the opportunity.
Simon Chuk 4:30
I think AI is something that we have to think about, but in terms of the maturity and how applicable it is to the businesses that we look at, I think it’s still early stage. We need to move these healthcare services groups into more data-driven groups first before we can actually apply additional technology. With Tamarind Health, for example, we’re actually going back to step one. Across the region, we’re having all the GMs think about the data collection process, what kind of data are we collecting, and then we need to coordinate among the groups to standardise the metrics across the entire region. So, we’re not even thinking about AI yet. But AI needs to be in the back of our minds, because once we do have the data collection done, then we can think about the application.
Michael Murray 5:47
Let’s redirect to workforce. When you see someone who’s got a great CV, they interview fantastically, the references are flawless, and then six months in, they’re not right. What do you think that is?
Simon Chuk 6:03
That happens all the time. I think the firm doing the hiring needs to communicate clearly in terms of what the job is, but also who the team members are that you’re working with – what they’re like, what the culture is like. For the candidate themselves, they also need to think about what’s right for them. I think that’s where the mismatch actually happens. You can do everything perfectly in terms of communicating what it’s like working at your firm, but if the candidate is not actually undergoing the right-thinking process, there could be a mismatch.
Michael Murray 6:43
And in terms of workforce on the side of buying an organisation and taking it over, there’s always going to be some fear of that new owner coming in. How do you handle that? Because doctors like to run their own ship. I definitely know that.
Simon Chuk 7:00
Yeah, yeah. I think it’s about communication. We set up communication plans before closing an acquisition, so we know exactly what the key messages are that we send to various stakeholders. We ensure that we come in and provide the background in terms of why we made the acquisition but also tell them that we will involve them in how we set the vision and mission for the business going forward. So, it’s a lot of communication, but it’s also a lot of work in terms of the number of hours you need to spend with everybody in the beginning just to set the right tone.
Michael Murray 7:47
And if you had to describe your career in a couple of sentences, what would it be?
Simon Chuk 7:53
A couple of sentences? I’m just a “buyout lifer.” Very simple.
Michael Murray 7:59
Well, Simon, thank you so much for being a part of “In the Boardroom“.
Simon Chuk 8:02
Thank you.
Michael Murray 8:02
I enjoyed the conversation.
