Cooking up a bright future

You don’t need to be a celebrity chef to know that the quality of food is pivotal to the success of a restaurant; the dishes on a menu are just one of many ingredients needed for a thriving restaurant business. After all, there’s a reason why only 60 percent of small F&B businesses survive the first five years of its operations. These statistics are seen in a 2014 study by Spring Singapore. Seasoned industry professionals know how important business acumen and management skills are to a profitable venture.

Polishing these skills is why David Heng decided to pursue an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) from the Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) in Singapore Management University (SMU).

After graduating from the renowned culinary school Le Cordon Bleu, David spent over four years working in fine dining establishments and he eventually took on the position of Executive Chef at Food For Thought (FFT), a social enterprise supporting initiatives like Living Water International and Food Bank Singapore. After eight years of helming the kitchen, David wanted to contribute more to the business. “I started off working from a chef’s perspective – striving for food perfection, sourcing produce, building team dynamics and focusing on operations. However, with time, I wanted to contribute to other aspects of the business, in sales, branding, partnerships and collaborations, the other intricacies that impact the business,” he explains.

It was with that mindset that he took up ad-hoc business classes like Advanced Buffet and Catering Management, Marketing, Design Thinking, and even attained an Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment (ACTA) but he still felt those were insufficient.

Triggered by plateauing growth in his ninth year at the job, David decided to take the leap and signed up for an EMBA programme with SMU. He wanted to gain “insights into how corporate giants and different industries perform”. Specifically, he wanted to improve his skills in leadership, negotiation and corporate navigation. He wanted to learn more about successful business models and strategies and gain global exposure at the same time. The SMU EMBA made sense to him as the programme is designed for candidates seeking personal growth and the opportunity to learn business innovation.

Thanks to the SMU EMBA pedagogy, he was able to pick up concepts very quickly and he acquired insights into the mindsets of top management at large organisations. “The lessons were in depth and enriching as they were taught by professors who had a wealth of experience,” he says. “The contexts for each module focused on real issues that would arise in varying situations, and a variety of solutions would be presented to address these problems.”

Of course, that didn’t mean the entire programme was smooth sailing, as David had little prior knowledge of business administration. Accounting was a particularly tough topic for him. “It was like learning a whole new language,” he says. To get through his coursework, he committed to a lot of late-night studying and readings, as well as support from his classmates.

All the hard work of knowledge acquisition paid off as he managed to transit into a bigger managerial role upon graduation. He is now a senior manager at the fast-growing café and bakery chain Paris Baguette, whose parent company is South Korea’s SPC Group.

Based on his own experience, he believes that many chefs in Singapore could benefit from a business education, especially if they hope to run their own establishment one day.

“It definitely broadens one’s thinking,” he says. “Being a chef means an endless pursuit of perfection in a dish, which is meant to convey an idea, message or experience to the diner. A programme like the EMBA would be a great tool for chefs who want to sustain or grow their business to reach more people."