Lai Hoong Lee

This is a 6-month contractual role which I undertook, at invitation of the International Division, to lead the strategic transformation project for market & share reporting across the 4 core regions (Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle-east & Africa); when I was planning a career break due to family reasons.

As Project Leader, I was accountable for:

• Engaging with the developer for data validation, harmonization, white-boarding and visualization
• Performing Users Acceptance Test (UAT) and identify areas for enhancement post the UAT
• Stakeholder management with Senior Leaders at Global, Region and Country level to drive adoption of new ways of working via one single source of truth. This included in-house studies pre / post the transformation to understand impact & monitor adoption
• Accountable for developing rollout plans, train-the-trainer materials as well as implementation of the training programs in the regions

• Part of Senior Leadership Team in Pacific Asia region.
• Identify learning & knowledge gap and set strategic learning plan for region, ensuring alignment with strategic business goals.
• Accountable for driving consumer-centricity in organization by enabling data-driven insights to support strategic business sustainability and growth.
• Led market and share forecasting for quarterly business planning cycle as well as setting and monitoring market and share goals for region and country levels.
• Led strategic planning analytics (RoI Analysis, Pricing and Cost to Compete Analysis) as well as market and competitive intelligence to support business & commercial excellence
• Led team of 14 Insights Professionals in region and responsible for hiring, training and development of team.

Reasons for leaving: Took a career break from this full-time role due to family reasons and took on the 6-month contractual role at the request of the International Division I am now ready to return to full-time employment.

Have been working in Sanofi since 2006 and have been appointed to various market research / insights / strategic business support roles, supporting the ethical / prescriptive as well as over-the-counter / consumer health care divisions in the regional office due to organization restructuring.

Specifically, the leadership roles I had held in Consumer Healthcare Division included:

• Jan 2016 – Jan 2017: Consumer & Market Insights (CMI) Lead / Asia Japan & Pacific Consumer Healthcare Division
• Jan 2015 – Dec 2015: Director, Consumer & Market Insights – Asia (INCLUDING China) and Japan & Pacific Region | Sanofi Consumer Healthcare Division
• Feb 2014 – Dec 2014: Director, Global Consumer Insights – Global Feminine Care Category | Regional Market Insights – Asia Consumer Healthcare Division, Sanofi
• Apr 2010 – Feb 2014: Director, Market Research & Business Support / Asia - Japan & Pacific Consumer Healthcare Division, Sanofi

Key responsibility included:

• Setting up market research function to support regular performance analysis via regular reporting tool via validated, harmonized data for the region
• Developed successful consumer-centric product portfolio & innovations. This included product positioning, packaging, marketing and communication media strategies and tactics.
• Support development of robust consumer-centric innovation process to ensure robust product pipelines across the core product categories. This led to successful launch of innovations that have been qualified by consumers, supported by qualified marketing campaigns for HCPs and consumers

Headed the Market Research function for Sanofi Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Division between October 2006 and March 2010.

• Set up market research function to support regular performance analysis via regular reporting tool via validated, harmonized data for the region and responsible for managing Regional Learning Plan including HCP / DFU Tracking, Innovations Proof of Concepts, Pricing Analytics for Pharmaceutical Businesses (Cardiovascular, Diabetes, Metabolic and Oncology Divisions) as well as Market Access
• Develop comprehensive market & competitive intelligence to support strategic alliance / M&A initiatives
• Support commercial excellence to support Segmentation & Targeting, right resourcing of Healthcare Professional (HCPs) and development and qualification of HCP materials (Detailing Aid, Science Stories etc)
• Support business strategies to identify new business opportunities in light of patent-cliff of blockbusters – resulting in identification of new business including vaccines, consumer healthcare and generics

This is my first job after a career break between August 2002 and March 2004 where I lived in Boston, Massachusetts, USA as a homemaker.

Accountable for the Consumer and Market Intelligence function in the Global Innovation Center for Mainstream Connected Displays which is based in Singapore.

Key responsibilities included:

• Drive consumer-centricity in product planning & innovation process by embedding fact-based consumer insights to enable seamless connectivity in the TVs & Monitors as well as the User Manuals. This included the development of Business Excellence Process to ensure that we have the right consumer voice in the product development process.
• Collaborate cross Division with Philips Lighting, Home Entertainment and Domestic Appliance to drive "Future Home" innovations in terms of consumer experience, connectivity (wireless, streaming hub etc)
• Future proofing collaboration with Philips Design to develop innovation pipeline for Connected Displays via market, consumer and competitor intelligence to identify design innovations for Philips Mainstream TVs and Monitors
• Support quality mindset in R&D by managing the customer satisfaction studies along with the Region / Country Sales Offices
• Partnership with Finance / Business Planning in market and share forecasting and pricing analysis
• Support Marketing Activities by embedding consumer voices in Marketing Toolkits as well as presentation to key B2B customers (e.g. WalMart)

• Managed Account Team of Research Managers and Executives. Responsible for client management and business development for a diverse portfolio of key MNC clients in FMCG, F&B, Banking, InfoCom and Media & Entertainment
• Responsible for development and training of Junior Researchers in region to prepare them for client interface as well as project management for Quantitative and Qualitative approaches and analysis
• Engagement with external and internal stakeholders to drive innovations in research approaches improvements to enable faster and more efficient of data-based insights to clients

First Asia Pacific Market Research hire for General Motors in the region.

Accountable for the following:

• Providing strategic insights for the China Market Entry Strategic Project by providing consumer voices to identify the right product for launch in China. This included consumer usage and attitude understanding, brands perception, understand key consumer requirement for a car in China as well as providing market & competitive intelligence. This entailed working with China Partners in this strategic project
• Strategic inputs for Southeast Asia Manufacturing Facility in Thailand by identifying the right car make to be build, the right brand as well as corporate image marketing to support Made in Thailand car. This included conducting multiple projects covering multiple countries in the region to provide inputs in market & car segmentation and forecasting as well as quality benchmarking
• Support strategic alliance projects in Japan with key Japanese Car Manufacturers in the areas of customer satisfaction, car drive-ability & quality studies in Japan to support business growth of GM car makes in Japan.
• Support future innovations for mid / long term portfolio planning by conducting intelligence in future macro / market trends related to automotive industry. This included support in new car technology and innovations (e.g. navigation systems)
• Support M&A and strategic alliance studies (e.g. acquisition of a Korea car make) by providing insights to support brand valuation

Prior to 1995, I have also been building my market research capabilities in the following roles:

• May 1995 – Dec 1995: Regional Market Research Manager, Nielsen-SRG International (now known as Nielsen)
• Oct 1993 – May 1995: Senior Research Analyst, Whirlpool Southeast Asia Pte Ltd
• Apr 1990 – Oct 1993: Research Executive / Senior Research Executive, Survey Research Singapore (now known as AC Nielsen Singapore)
• May 1989 – Apr 1990: Management Trainee / Operations Executive, DutyFree Shoppers Singapore