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Singtel Singapore CEO flying the national flag high after bidding goodbye to corporate America
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Mr Ng Tian Chong became the head of Singtel’s newly-combined Singapore consumer and enterprise businesses in June 2023.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
SINGAPORE – Mr Ng Tian Chong had called American tech firm Hewlett Packard (HP) home and, over the course of 33 years, he built a career that spanned multiple geographies.
But when the globe-trotting veteran, whose last role at HP was senior vice-president and managing director of Greater Asia, decided to call it quits with corporate America in 2022, a defining moment presented itself.
“I’ve always had the ambition to apply my experiences at HP in a ‘Singapore Inc’ environment,” said Mr Ng, 61, in his first in-depth interview since
taking the helm at Singtel Singapore in 2023.
Growing up in fledgling post-independence Singapore, he had deeply admired the local brands that earned international acclaim, such as Singapore Airlines, DBS, Singtel and ST Engineering.
He had always wished for a lead role in the developing Singapore Inc story. The opportunity came in 2021 during a networking session with key Singtel executives, after he spoke at an online panel on sustainability.
The centenarian telco had just embarked on a major reboot to drive its next stage of growth. It wanted to bring in a leader with no baggage to shake things up internally, to drive efficiencies and innovation.
The stakes are high. Singtel is one of Asia’s leading telecommunications groups. With its wholly-owned subsidiary Optus in Australia and regional associates in India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, the group serves a massive customer base of over 800 million mobile users in the region.
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Singtel has the lion’s share of the Singapore mobile customer base too, with 4.5 million subscribers.
The telco eventually found its new leader in Mr Ng. After some two years of courtship, he became the head of Singtel’s newly-combined Singapore consumer and enterprise businesses in June 2023.
“Before I joined, Singtel had a consumer business and an enterprise business, each with its own CEO and two separate teams. I was brought in to bring the teams together, to create one Singtel Singapore, and lead transformation in the combined company to be an AI-first, a digital-first telco,” said Mr Ng.
Among the things that needed to change was corporate culture. In particular, managers had little tolerance for failures.
“In the past, we were perfectionists… and, you could say, also a little bureaucratic. We’re starting to shift now,” Mr Ng told The Straits Times, in an interview at the telco’s Paya Lebar office.
“We want to have a flatter, more open organisation. And we want to have a culture where we are bolder to fail fast, learn fast and then… innovate quickly,” he added.
An internal competition created in 2024, called Singtel’s Big Fearless Fund, best illustrates this effort. Backed by a kitty of $1 million to support new business ideas, the competition has attracted about 200 pitches so far. Any of Singtel’s 5,000 Singapore employees can participate.
To walk the talk, he ensures that there would be no consequence even if money was spent to develop ideas that eventually did not work and had to be spiked.
The shake-up was imperative as average revenue per user (Arpu), a key metric showing how much revenue a company gets from each customer, has been falling – particularly over the past five years in the industry.
Increased competition came after Simba Telecom, Singapore’s fourth telco, started a price war in 2020. The entry of dozens of virtual mobile operators – which lease network capacity from full-fledged telcos instead of building their own infrastructure – also accelerated price undercutting.
The next thing Mr Ng tackled was to get the different business units and their leaders to jointly own the falling Arpu problem by establishing company-wide key performance indicators (KPIs).
“We changed the way we look at our KPI, so that it’s company-wide, versus everybody having a KPI in their own swim lane,” he said.
One idea that came up during the Big Fearless Fund competition to reverse falling consumer Arpu became an actual product launched in May 2025 after a few tweaks.
Called Priority Plus, the 5G mobile plan targets consumers who value smoother gaming, streaming and browsing island-wide – even in congested spots like concerts or malls.
For a price starting at $55 a month, consumers get business-quality assurances such as four times faster surfing than regular users, unlimited local data allowances and automated protection from phishing and malware. The concept was borrowed from what Singtel has been offering businesses.
Technically, the concept is difficult to execute for the masses as some radio engineering modifications had to be made to ensure the 5G signals that ensure faster, safer lanes for surfing blanket the whole island. Most business implementations for such priority surfing do not need island-wide coverage.
Mr Ng was coy about revealing the business returns from the new plan, but said: “We’re seeing very positive results and are continuing to innovate to offer more value to our customers.”
Several other ideas are also being hatched into actual products, but he said they remain confidential for now, for competitive reasons.
AI disruption is yet another transformative force companies such as Singtel have to adapt to.
Almost all Singtel’s 5,000 employees in Singapore have completed foundational AI training including the use of commonly available tools like ChatGPT and Gemini AI for summarisation and research.
The telco is now training 3,000 AI practitioners and 300 AI specialists.
Singtel, which provides data centre services, is anticipating that companies with sensitive use cases, such as those in the banking and healthcare sectors, need to process their data locally. The telco is also using AI to optimise network performance, automate troubleshooting, identify scam messages and counter cyber threats.
“I am working closely with human resources to rethink organisational structures and job scopes as AI becomes part of everyday work,” said Mr Ng.
“We’re moving towards a flatter organisation, where leadership isn’t just about managing people, but about the scope and impact of the work. In the future, someone may hold a more senior role because they’re leading teams that include both people and AI-powered virtual employees.”
Showing his mettle
The 33 years Mr Ng spent in HP have prepared him for the high-stakes corporate tasks at Singtel.
It all started in 1988, when Mr Ng, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business from Menlo College in California, worked as an intern in HP’s Silicon Valley office.
The six-month stint left a good impression, as HP’s organisation was flat and everyone, including interns, got to interact with senior managers.
In 1989, after completing his Masters in Business Administration from Haas School of Business at the University of California in Berkeley, he joined HP as a financial analyst in its Hong Kong office.
He quickly rose through the ranks. By 1997, he was already the general manager for HP’s Indonesia business, based in Jakarta.
His new role as a country head was a baptism by fire. Soon after he took office, Indonesia’s most tragic riots took place in May 1998.
Days of riots triggered by corruption, economic problems, mass unemployment and the death of student protesters from police firings in Jakarta left over 1,000 people dead. Mass violence was directed primarily against the Chinese-Indonesian ethnic minority, their businesses and property, as well as sexual assaults on Chinese-Indonesian women and girls. The riots left a stain in Indonesia’s history for many years to come.
As looting and violence escalated, many foreign companies evacuated their expatriate employees and families. Mr Ng moved back to Singapore, and the option to relocate was also given to all of HP’s 50-plus other employees in the country, even though they were mostly Indonesians.
He also prioritised plans to help business partners such as customers and distributors stay afloat.
The riots, which occurred right after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, caused the Indonesian rupiah to collapse and the economy to go into severe recession. This led to massive inflation, high corporate debt in foreign currencies, and the loss of investor confidence.
Under Mr Ng’s leadership, HP used foreign exchange hedging and the reorganisation of credit lines to help its local partners absorb some risks from the collapsed rupiah and ensure their continued access to essential capital. This effectively protected the partners from the brunt of the financial crisis and helped them maintain business operations.
“Because we stuck through thick and thin with our employees and with our business partners, we earned their trust. When the business bounced back, people remembered the loyalty and they were more willing to do business with us,” he said.
Having proved his mettle in navigating the crisis, Mr Ng was chosen to lead HP’s newly-created channels and marketing division in South-east Asia from Singapore, after the tech firm completed its global merger with rival firm Compaq in 2002.
He also got involved in HP’s printing business in Asia. When he left the company in 2023, he had amassed diverse people and business management skills across 16 varied roles. The die-hard Premier League club Arsenal fan often likens his experience to that of the club’s manager Mikel Arteta, a former footballer.
“It helps to be a manager who’s been a player, and that’s usually the career of most of the famous managers,” said Mr Ng.
And because he had – in his words – been a striker, midfielder, left wing, right wing, goalkeeper and now team manager, he is now able to relate to the challenges of all his staff and offer viable recommendations when problems arise.
Not taking security for granted
The tragic riots in Indonesia in 1998 and the years of globe-trotting also helped him appreciate the peace and security here, inspiring him to fly the Singapore flag with greater pride.
These overseas postings were a precursor to many years of volunteer work at the Singapore Armed Forces after he completed his reservist cycle.
He took on several command and staff positions – including as battalion commander, brigade commander and chief of staff division hub at the 2nd People’s Defence Force that focuses on homeland security.
He retired from the SAF as a Colonel at the mandatory age of 55, but remains an officer mentor to coach and inspire junior leaders. In many ways, the young soldiers remind him of his five children, now aged 22 to 32.
“Over time, I began to value the peace and security of Singapore, which I understand I cannot take for granted. My family and I benefited. I wanted to play a role in securing Singapore’s safety, and so it’s much larger than myself.”
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