Deliveroo’s Singapore GM Sarah Tan: ‘I love thinking about food’
Growing up in an ethnically diverse household in Melbourne, Australia, it almost seems pre-destined that Sarah Tan would eventually land in multi-cultural Singapore.
Tan's eclectic background begins with her parentage – dad is Malaysian-Chinese while mum is Croation – and continues in the kitchen, every bit both parents are avid cooks and introduced Tan to an assortment of cuisines from their native lands from babyhood.
During high school, Tan even did a mini apprenticeship at an Italian pastry shop and as well studied Mandarin in school "like a skilful Asian daughter".
Afterward graduating from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, Tan moved halfway beyond the world to work with British Airways in London in 2014.
Before the large motion, though, she made sure her father taught her how to cook enough Asian dishes to continue her from missing home too much.
Her original programme to stay two years in the Big Smoke ended upward extending triple that. And then two more than jobs with EY-Parthenon and PepsiCo later, she and then found herself moving to Singapore with her partner to assume the role of growth and marketing manager of UK-based Deliveroo in 2019.
Barely a yr later, Tan was promoted to land general manager in April 2022 – only every bit Singapore went into lockdown.
"What drew me to piece of work at Deliveroo was not so much the start-up surround but the connection to F&B. I dearest thinking about food," she said candidly, as we chatted in the pantry of Deliveroo'southward newly-renovated function in a Tanjong Pagar shophouse the week Phase 2 (Heightened Alarm) restrictions were lifted.
"Taking on country leadership was a actually large step upwards and that in itself would have been daunting at the best of times. The biggest challenge for me was how to be a new leader at that signal – and to lead remotely – only it was 1 that I really wanted," she added.
It's empty and oh-then-tranquility every bit we're the simply ones in the office, with all staff even so working from domicile, merely one tin hands imagine the buzz in this infinite not too long ago, given the exponential growth of the food commitment business in these extraordinary times.
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'It'S BEEN A CRAZY YEAR'
To exist sure, the past thirteen months take been i helluva adrenaline-fuelled ride for the leaders of food delivery platforms like Deliveroo, foodpanda and GrabFood.
With people stuck at home during the Circuit Breaker period concluding year, demand for food delivery went through the roof. And while some may telephone call it a happy problem for a business organization, coping with the sudden spike in need was no incertitude a logistical nightmare.
"It's been a crazy 13 months," Tan professed. "Overnight, food commitment became like an essential service for Singaporeans. Nosotros had thousands of people enquire most signing upward equally riders considering they had either lost their jobs in other industries and this was the new flexible work they could get."
"What drew me to work at Deliveroo was not so much the first-up environment but the connexion to F&B. I honey thinking most food."
Like nearly businesses that plant themselves swimming confronting a tidal wave of change amongst the global pandemic, Tan institute herself steering a young organisation with an equally immature workforce through a crisis the calibration the world had never seen earlier.
"The company and the industry are even so working itself out and on summit of that, you accept a workforce where the average age is somewhere in the early on to mid-20s so yous demand to provide a lot of direction. We had to attempt a lot of different things and ninety per cent of information technology didn't work the get-go time around; it helps that the mentality within the arrangement is to examination-and-acquire," recalled the 33-year-old country managing director, who says she'southward a large abet of "over-communicating" vision, company goals and expectations with staff.
As a leader, Tan prefers to apply an "authentic and straightforward" leadership style, and believes in nurturing a collaborative workforce with a bias for action.
"It was a very challenging catamenia to accept over but with the challenges came a lot of opportunity for me personally. So last year was incredibly hard but also incredibly rewarding," she said.
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AN UNVIABLE Business concern MODEL?
As a visitor, Deliveroo has been in existence just seven years, with only v of those in the Singapore market place. Information technology arrived hither later foodpanda and UberEats, which has since been caused and alloyed into the Take hold of fold.
While it doesn't have an expert to run across how COVID-19 has ignited need for food delivery, it's also a business model often criticised by economists for being unviable due to questionable profitability owing to high operating expenses and depression margins in an exceedingly competitive space.
This may take been why Deliveroo's initial public offering (IPO) in the UK in early April was considered an unmitigated disaster. The visitor, in which Amazon owns a 7 per cent stake, had been valued at £vii.half-dozen billion (South$xiv.one billion) by investment bankers Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. However, its share toll plunged by a quarter on its get-go day of trading, signalling a gross overvaluation and erasing billions from expected market place capitalisation.
While not quite the success story the company had hoped for, the IPO did yet raise £ane.5 billion and provides a clear roadmap for the investments that can now be made in its various markets.
"The growth opportunity with food commitment is limitless. It's still a very immature category that did not be ten years ago; not in Singapore anyhow. In that location'due south still huge potential for us and the affect of the IPO on the Singapore business is that it gives us more conviction to be able to get afterwards the areas nosotros want to grow in over the side by side couple of years," said Tan.
"It's been a crazy 13 months. Overnight, nutrient commitment became like an essential service for Singaporeans."
'WE DON'T Want A VERTICAL PIZZA Feel'
When Deliveroo get-go entered Singapore five years ago, information technology distinguished itself with a premium positioning via a portfolio of quality restaurants listed on its platform. Information technology has since expanded to include a wider range of hawkers and casual eateries merely unlike its local competitors, its differentiation strategy remains fixed firmly on food.
"Deliveroo equally a company globally wants to be the definitive food visitor and then we're merely playing in the food space. Where our competitors are becoming more diversified and moving into lots of different verticals be it non-food deliveries and ride-sharing, our focus is on investing in making the food experience better for customers and for restaurants," Tan explained.
"It comes downwards to the pocket-sized things like making sure the rider'south delivery purse is optimised for food because nosotros don't want people having a vertical pizza experience," she added.
The only new vertical that came onstream in the past yr, therefore, has been grocery delivery, with Deliveroo partnering with specialty food retailers like The Providore and more recently, the Dairy Farm group.
The latest partnership was launched in May, during the 2nd circular of Stage ii, and consumers can at present order groceries from more than 25 Cold Storage and 30 Behemothic stores via the Deliveroo app and accept them delivered inside thirty minutes.
And then, no plans to become a super app the likes of Catch, then?
"No ambitions to diversify to that extent," she assured.
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'I MAKE SURE I DON'T Open THE DOOR IN MY PYJAMAS'
This strategic focus too allows Deliveroo to direct more attention towards the welfare of its 9,000-strong stable of riders.
Once a quarter, for example, the company invites a pool of 10 to fifteen riders for feedback sessions with the boss, conducted via Zoom or Google Hangouts since the pandemic hit.
"We spend an hr chatting and I give them an update of what we're doing as a business, and they accept an opportunity to give me feedback. I really like that touchpoint with them," shared Tan.
From these, Tan and her team have grown to empathise that flexibility is what riders value most and have thus built it into the passenger model.
Chatting with riders when they deliver her food orders (about 3 times a week) provides some other golden opportunity to obtain additional feedback, anonymously. And, only in example they recognise her, she makes sure she doesn't open the door in her pyjamas.
On the topic of passenger welfare, Tan addresses a misconception the boilerplate consumer may accept about delivery fees: "The delivery fee that the consumer sees doesn't reverberate the fee nosotros pay them, for Deliveroo at least. And so we feel confident that they're paid well."
According to Tan, delivery fees are the top barrier to consumers ordering food delivery and then the platform is always looking to brand information technology more affordable with month-long promotions like S$one commitment, which it did in April.
The company also offered a one-calendar month complimentary trial of its subscription programme, Deliveroo Plus, which is priced at Southward$xvi.xc for unlimited deliveries per calendar month and has been around from twenty-four hours ane.
It's a pretty unique proposition in the marketplace, said Tan.
"The competitors have had variations of such promotions only they usually have a lot of limitations similar beingness but applicable to certain restaurants."
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'COOKING IS MY MEDITATION'
It'south a curious phenomenon, this cooking affair.
For some of us, slaving over a stove is more stressful than information technology's worth. For others similar Tan, it's a way to destress from the pressures of a job she describes as "intense".
"In that location's simply something relaxing about chopping, stirring and watching something come together. I don't like yoga so cooking is my meditation; it's therapeutic," she mused.
You will notice Tan in the kitchen upward to five nights a week and her impressive repertoire includes "a very good simply healthy" version of char kway teow – without lard – merely with lup cheong and the works forth with other Asian signatures like chicken rice, which she cooked more of when she lived in London.
Outside the kitchen, you might discover her queuing for the popular Hokkien mee and fried fish soup at Tiong Bahru Marketplace. Or at her favourite foodie spots like Forty Hands cafe in Tiong Bahru, Wanton Seng'due south, Fotia, Pastabar and John's Pizzeria & Bakery in Alexandra for her "guilty pleasure": American-fashion pizzas.
"I don't like yoga so cooking is my meditation. There's just something relaxing about chopping, stirring and watching something come up together. It'due south therapeutic."
Now that she tin get the best of Asian fare right here in Singapore, Tan tends to melt more Arabic nutrient these days.
"I savour cooking falafels and flatbreads and I exercise a very nice lamb meatballs in harissa sauce then it's quite spicy. It's a dish I basically ripped off a restaurant in London that I miss," she said.
Now how did the Australian citizen come to be able to order food in almost any linguistic communication?
Well, when you lot and I were reading Harry Potter growing up, Tan was reading cookbooks. She's got about 60 of those and more than in storage in London and at her family unit home in Melbourne.
"For me, it's about understanding the history and the stories of how different types of cuisines developed. I've had that curiosity around why people swallow what they eat and it'due south allowed me to understand different cultures through food over the last 30 years of my life.
"And then if I understand plenty well-nigh the cuisine, I'll have an informed view and be able to gild food in about languages in most western markets," explained Tan, who besides speaks a bit of Croatian and says her Mandarin qualifies just well enough to order nutrient at hawker centres.
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'I BOUGHT A BICYCLE Similar EVERYBODY DID'
What's curiouser all the same, is how someone who loves food so much manages to stay so slim.
"During Circuit Breaker last year, I bought a bicycle like everybody did, so I'll put the bike in a Take hold of and go to E Coast Park and and then ride xx- to 25km habitation on the weekends," said Tan.
In between, she does spin classes and reformer pilates to stretch her body out and help with posture. She as well enjoys circuit class: "I similar that element of non knowing what's coming; I like being able to turn up to a class and notice out this is what we need to practise for the next 45 minutes and the door is closed and then I can't escape and simply have to get on with information technology."
When classes were on hold, she would clock 5km to 7km runs in the mornings four to v times a week.
"I'd download The Economist podcast to stay on top of international news, politics and business concern and by the time I'grand back habitation and outset my day, I experience similar I've already accomplished something," Tan shared.
Staying fit and on height of concern ought to brand a good recipe necessary to chart the next chapter in Deliveroo's growth story. Just ask the CEO of any start-up enjoying a super growth trajectory right now.
"There's still huge potential for united states of america and the impact of the IPO on the Singapore concern is that it gives us more conviction to be able to go afterward the areas we want to grow in over the next couple of years."
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/people/deliveroo-singapore-general-manager-sarah-tan-270311
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