Our Philosophy
BUILDING PEOPLE
The success of any organisation crucially rely on its people, their talent, and leaders. The aggregate of their talents, competencies and experiences make up the Human Capital of the organisation and is an intangible asset in its “Balance Sheet”. Often overlooked or under-estimated, Human Capital is usually the critical factor in determining how the organisation performs.
We consider people to be human capital only when we invest heavily in them. Our founder and principal consultant, Liew Mun Leong, advocates for a central organisation strategy of “Building People” that prioritises continuous efforts to train, nurture, and develop talent and leadership.
The concept of “Building People” was championed by Liew Mun Leong when he was the CEO of CapitaLand during the transformation of Pidemco Land into CapitaLand in the late 90s, which later grew to become one of the largest real estate companies in Asia. The idealogy is that people can be economically and socially developed, or “built”, when they have access to a better-built environment. Singapore’s public housing by the Housing and Development Board is a prime example of how a good built environment can vastly improve the social and economic welfare of its citizens.
CapitaLand’s drumbeat was captured in two taglines, one for external and one for internal use: “Building for People to Build People” and “Building People to Build for People”. These taglines emphasized the importance of building a proper living environment for people to enhance their welfare and training the company’s people to build a good environment for others.
The two key words, “Building” and “People”, were eventually combined into a simplified version of “Building People”, which became CapitaLand’s management mantra and mission for over a decade. In contrast to the conventional wisdom in the real estate industry of “Location, Location, Location” or “Timing, Timing, Timing” CapitaLand emphasized “People, People, People”, which ultimately contributed to the company’s remarkable success.
As professionals progress through their career, they often experience a series of “S” curves, characterised by periods of learning, growth, and maturity. However, at the top of each curve, there may be a plateau where growth slows or even halts due to factors such as a lack of advancement opportunities or a shift in priorities and interests.
“Building People” is a corporate strategy that focuses on developing talent and helping talent scale and find their next “S” curve. By investing in their development, organisations can help their talent navigate these plateaus and continue to grow and succeed throughout their careers.
About our Founder & Principal Consultant
Liew Mun Leong started his career in 1972 as an engineer during the early days of the Ministry of Defence. He went on to work on the Changi Airport project, building its first Runway and ended up as the Chief Airport Project Manager in the development of Passenger Terminal 2. After Changi Airport, he was posted to Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research (SISIR) as its Chief Executive. He concurrently acted as the Chief Executive of National Science of Technology Board (NSTB), the forerunner of A*Star.
He left the public sector after 22 years to join the private sector, heading L&M, a public listed specialist engineering construction group. He then went on to start his real estate career heading Pidemco Land which later merged with DBS Land to create CapitaLand Group, with him as its founding group CEO. He retired from active employment in 2013 at 67 after 17 years leading CapitaLand, which under his leadership had become the largest real estate company in SE Asia by market capitalization. He continued his corporate leadership as active chairman of Changi Airport Group and founding chairman of Surbana Jurong Group.
He retired his active chairmanship in 2020 and formed his business management consultancy company “Building People Consultancy Pte Ltd” and has been actively running the firm as its Principal Consultant till present.
During his career he was appointed Registrar of the Professional Engineer Board and was elected President of International Standard Organization (ISO). He was chairman of Temasek Polytechnic for 10 years. He was also appointed Provost Chair Professor (Practice) in NUS Business School, Engineering Faculty and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, all on a Pro Bono basis. He was awarded the National Day Meritorious Service Award by the President of Singapore and conferred France’s highest civilian and military award – National Order of the Legion of Honor. During his private sector career, he received numerous awards and accolades including Outstanding CEO in 2006, CEO of the Year 2007, Asia’s Best Executive and Best CEO in Asia (Property) in 2008.
Liew Mun Leong wrote regular Sunday emails depicting business management lessons from life experiences to his colleagues and friends for more than 20 years. These were progressively published into five books centered around the theme of “Building People -Sunday emails from the CEO”.