Practicing Continuous Learning with Ibaham Math-Ly Roun S3 I Ep2

In this episode of the Career Transitions Podcast, Ibaham Math Ly Roun, Vice President of Retail and Spa for the Clarins Group, shares his journey navigating career transitions across Asia. 
Highlights include Ibaham's experiences at ESSEC Business School, his diverse roles in the luxury sector spanning various countries, his transition to Singapore during the pandemic to join Clarins, and insights into living in Singapore. Ibaham emphasizes the importance of staying curious, continuous learning, and embracing feedback for career growth. The episode concludes with gratitude for Ibaham’s energy and his insights from his career journey.

This podcast episode stands out for several reasons:

·                                Diverse Career Journey: Ibaham Math Ly Roun's career journey is incredibly diverse, spanning various roles and locations across Asia. From his early days at ESSEC Business School to his current position as Vice President of Retail and Spa for the Clarins Group, Ibaham's story is one of adventure and growth.

·                                Inspiring Insights: Throughout the episode, Ibaham shares valuable insights gleaned from his experiences, emphasizing the importance of staying curious, embracing continuous learning, and seizing new opportunities. His perspective offers listeners actionable advice for navigating their own career transitions.

·                                Global Perspective: The episode provides a glimpse into the dynamic world of luxury retail in Asia, offering listeners a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities within the industry. Ibaham's firsthand experiences in markets like Korea, Japan, and Macau enrich the conversation and highlight the importance of cultural understanding in business.

·                                Personal Connection: As hosts of the podcast, Vanessa Iloste and Vanessa Teo bring a personal touch to the conversation, sharing anecdotes and memories of their interactions with Ibaham throughout their careers. This adds depth to the episode and creates a sense of camaraderie among listeners.

Overall, this podcast episode stands out for its engaging storytelling, insightful commentary, and actionable advice, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in career transitions and professional development.

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

· Vanessa Iloste (Host)

· Vanessa Teo (Host)

· Aaron Wu (Producer)

Transcript

[00:00:00] Vanessa T: Welcome everyone to the next episode of the Career Transitions Podcast. This podcast is a collaboration with the ESSEC Business School in Singapore. The Career Transitions Podcast is where we explore what it takes to successfully navigate through career transitions, no matter which stage of life or career you're at. 

[00:00:24] Vanessa I: On this episode we are excited to speak with Ibaham Math Ly Roun, Vice President of Retail and Spa for the Clarins Group. ESSEC Business School was the getaway for springboarding his career in Asia. His diverse career journey across so many markets has not only deepened his expertise in the luxury space but also broadened his leadership repertoire.

[00:00:46] Ibaham shares his perspective on living in different countries. Particularly his transition to Singapore. 

[00:00:53] Vanessa T: We invite you to listen into this episode and reflect on the power of a career journey in Asia. Thank you for listening to the Career Transitions Podcast. 

[00:01:04] Hi everyone, and welcome to our new episode of the Career Transitions Podcast.

[00:01:08] We're your hosts, Vanessa Iloste and Vanessa Teo. Today on the Career Transitions, ESSEC collaboration episode, we're speaking with our friend and colleague, Ibaham Math Ly Roun. Welcome to the show, Ibaham. 

[00:01:21] Ibaham R: Hi, Vanessa. Hi, Vanessa. And to all the listeners, I'm very happy to be with you today.

[00:01:26] Thank you for having me. 

[00:01:27] Vanessa I: Thank you, Ibaham. Let me introduce Ibaham. Ibaham is a Senior Global Retail Executive with over 20 years of experience in key leadership positions across the Louis Vuitton, Moet Hennessy Group, and he is today the Vice President of Retail and Spa for the Clarins Group. 

[00:01:45] Vanessa T: His diverse experience spans across various luxury categories, and he has also lived and worked across many cities across Asia Pacific Including Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Okinawa, Taipei, Tokyo, and Seoul.

[00:02:00] You're an amazing global citizen. Vanessa and I crossed paths with Ibaham at various points in our careers at the LVMH group. And it's been such a pleasure to see your career progress. 

[00:02:13] Vanessa I: And personally, I have a very strong relationship with Ibaham because we were classmates together at the ESSEC business school.

[00:02:21] And I have very fond memories of you, Ibaham, when the two of us, we were close to 20 compared to now. So my first question to you will be, tell us about your time at ESSEC, and what made you decide to pursue your MBA at ESSEC? 

[00:02:35] Ibaham R: So I was studying in Paris, I passed my baccalaureate, I joined a prep school, I got admitted at ESSEC at the first trial, which was a happy moment.

[00:02:43] And it's true that attending a SICK program was very, a life changing experience for me. In addition to the academic classes, business management, there was also a lot of flexibility in the program, right? Because you could travel, study in so many different places, and that was quite amazing. On my end, I was super lucky to do an internship in Japan for Canon.

[00:03:02] It's a famous Japanese copy company, and you know, I had to study Japanese, and I was with Vanessa in the class, I remember. But Vanessa, you were way better than me. Also, when I was in a stake, I joined a competition organized by LVMH group, and I was one of the students selected. And I went to Vietnam for one month to study the rise of entrepreneurs in a communist country.

[00:03:23] And again, that was a long time ago. And my major in ESSEC was economics. So it was quite relevant. After this experience in Asia, I joined Parfait Christian Dior beauty company, which is part of the LVMH. Part of the ESSEC Apprentice Program, where I could work part time for the company, and my tuition was paid by my employer.

[00:03:41] It was a very special arrangement. So I spent six months in Hong Kong for two years in a row, and I really started to learn the business of beauty and brands. I also travel around Asia and I was in Hong Kong, I went to China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam. I have to say that this really opened my eyes to this part of the world and that set the tone for my future career because I spent 24 years now in Asia and 20 years with the LVMH group.

[00:04:07] So when I reflect today, I have to say that all these opportunities really came thanks to my education at ESSEC. 

[00:04:14] Vanessa T: And tell us a little more about that. I'm curious about your diverse experiences. So what was it about your time at ESSEC Business School that impacted the way you thought about your career?

[00:04:25] Ibaham R: So I remember specifically, you know, we had the job fair where companies match up with students to look for jobs, internships, and so on. And I was passing by, and ESSEC, we have finance, famous finance class, marketing class, and I just passed by the LVMH booth, and the reason I got in is because it was a giant bottle of perfume of Dior.

[00:04:44] Like that's the only reason I got in. I didn't know that eventually I would work in that industry, right? And when I was at ESSEC, I of course attended all the required courses, marketing, finance, but major was economics because I was really fascinated how economics can really explain how the world we live in today.

[00:05:01] And I think this is really the foundation to do a lot of things that we understand. It's really economics, nothing really hard to comprehend, anything. Something else that really was, I mean, amazing memories. I was pretty involved in all the student associations. There are different things going on in the school.

[00:05:16] And I was the president for a job fair. But for top business schools and engineering schools in Paris, so not only ESSEC, but also other schools. And at that time, if you remember, hopefully you do, we talk about the Asian Tigers in other countries, it was Rowing Tigers, and we were matching up students from those top French schools with the L'Oreal, LVMH, those big French companies of the world.

[00:05:38] So it was my first sort of a leadership role, and it was fun. It was unpaid. It was a lot of late hours, but turned out great. We are like over 30 companies, we've got a hundred students. And then when you get into the sort of entrepreneur role, right, you kind of get your hands dirty and then you don't stop.

[00:05:53] And this really happened at Essec of the internship, the travel, the activities. It was really sort of shaping the foundations for my teacher. 

[00:06:00] Vanessa I: I also remember you, Ibaham, in Korea, when you did the opening of Kenzuki, which was, I think, the number one country in the world to launch Kenzuki. And you did an amazing job on that one.

[00:06:12] I mean, can you share with us? Because it was very close to your graduation. I think you had been graduated for maybe one or two years at that time, no? 

[00:06:18] Ibaham R: Yeah, I did. That was my first job. And it's funny that you mentioned Korea because after I graduated from ESSEC, I was offered by LVMH the opportunity to continue with LVMH and I joined Kenzo Perfume, which, you know, it's also a French company and Korea was a booming market for the brand.

[00:06:35] So I remember meeting the HR director for LVMH and asked me, do you know anything about Korea? And I said, absolutely nothing. Do you want to go? And I says, of course I want. to, I was in Korea and I spent four years in Korea and I joined this perfume brand and yes, we launched a skincare brand called Kenzuki.

[00:06:52] But you have to put Korea in the context of what it was back then. K pop was here, but it was not on the map as it is today. I can tell you that. And Korea just went through the IMF crisis in 98, right? So that was a while ago. We used to work on Monday to Saturday, right? There's no weekend. And the country was just reopening, but by now it grew very fast, right?

[00:07:13] So my role was to really sort of develop the cancer brand. tap into perfume, tap into skincare, because Korea has a major skincare market. And that was really interesting because we had to be very entrepreneurial. So we opened a store in Apgujeong. We did a lot of events. It really had to understand the culture, the way that Korean people think.

[00:07:32] And I had to say that Korea was the first place that I started to develop my career in Asia. So that was really a great moment for me. 

[00:07:39] Vanessa I: I still remember you telling us in Hong Kong about the way you had developed the brand and the way you had started it from scratch. And I really remember the sparkle in your eyes about this project and how much it made you, I mean, which was right, very proud because there was so much accomplishment in it and this was not the first time I was, With you, because we had been classmates already, but I was so happy as your classmate to see you developing yourself so fast and to have access to incredible opportunity to really get your hands dirty and to really showcase all your abilities.

[00:08:14] So my next question for you is when I look at your incredible career in Asia with so many countries, seven countries across Asia, how did you springboard your career in such a diverse way? How did you think about this career building? 

[00:08:30] Ibaham R: So thank you. Thank you. That's a, it's a great question. And maybe a bit of context.

[00:08:34] My parents are from Cambodia. They moved to France in the early seventies, sort of steam war. Settled down in France. So when I grew up, I was in a very multicultural sort of environment, but I was always only Asian kid in class in school until I was probably 18. So I was French by culture. I watched French cartoons on TV, right?

[00:08:53] I wasn't really aware of my origins and thanks to this internship at, in Japan with ESSEC and Vietnam with LVMH, it just opened my eyes, right? And when I landed in Tokyo for the first time, I spent the first time in Shinjuku, which is a very dense and urban part of Tokyo, and I was like, what am I doing here?

[00:09:11] And then I spent three months in a factory making photocompressions for Canon. And a month later, I was in Vietnam eating Wonton on a foreign street and roaming around on a scooter. So, I was like, hmm, between Tokyo and Ho Chi Minh, there's a lot of places that I can visit. And I decided this is what I'm going to do.

[00:09:28] So, back in track, after my internship in Doha, I was in Hong Kong. Then I went to Korea to work for Kendo Perfume. And I was very lucky because LVMH has this internal mobility program where if you do well, you have given options to move to other brands, other countries, other roles. So I moved to Japan and Japan still remains one of the major economy in Asia and worldwide.

[00:09:51] And I was hired by Parfait Christian Dior again to manage what we used to call the duty free market. Now it's called travel retail. Back in the day, it was the number one market worldwide. Japanese travellers were really the number one kind of travellers. So I studied Japanese again, spent four years traveling all around Japan in airports, and it was really amazing experience. Obviously Tokyo, an amazing city, so much food, culture, gastronomy, arts, fashion, it was eye changing. And I think thanks to all this opportunity and obviously with Japan, I had a bit of history. So going there was sort of a natural choice. So after Japan, again, going for mobility, I pick another brand, another company and another role, something very different.

[00:10:30] I moved to an Italian company called Fendi. Very famous for fur and also handbags, ready to wear. And I joined the brand in Taiwan as a brand manager and a country that I had no idea about. And I had to totally change gear. I had to start learning Chinese. And so it was like a change of direction. And then back in the day was the financial crisis in 2008.

[00:10:54] So I left Fendi after a bit. And what happened is that I met my wife at the time and I went to school. I went to Taipei National University. I started to study Mandarin Chinese very intensively, which helped me after that. And what happened is that a company called DFS group called me and asked me to join their operation team in Okinawa, another exotic destination.

[00:11:16] And for the ones who are not aware, but Okinawa is an island south of Japan. It's around two or three hours from Tokyo. It's a bit like the Hawaii of Japan. It's sunny all day long. Beautiful landscape and beaches. And I spent 18 months in this tropical island, managing operations in the airport and downtown store.

[00:11:33] If you haven't been to Okinawa, if you love Japan, I highly recommend. It's a very different place. It's a very different setting, right? Tokyo can be a little bit of a very urban and stressful. Okinawa is the exact opposite. And by the way, there's direct flight from Singapore now, famous airline. So after Okinawa, unfortunately the story doesn't stop.

[00:11:52] DFS asked me to move to Macau. So I had been to Macau many years ago. It's a one hour ferry from Hong Kong. And the first time I went to Macau, it was a very quiet Portuguese fishing village, there was nothing there. By the time I moved to Macau, it had become the gaming capital of Asia, seven times larger than Las Vegas in terms of revenues, very different city.

[00:12:13] And my role with DFS in Macau was to renovate a store that we operate. It was around 80, 000 square feet. We expanded it to around 350, 000 square feet, 100 luxury brands, all the big luxury brands that you know. We opened the first shoe salon in Macau in order to differentiate the offering. I learned everything about the casual business, how to sell luxury products to gamers.

[00:12:36] It was very intense, very stressful. And Vanessa, you remember when we had to hire 300, 000 associates in six months, impossible mission, but you know what, we did it. And I remembered it was very unforgettable when we cut the ribbon, the opening ceremony, like we did it. It was quite amazing. And after that, DFS called me and said, you need to go to Hong Kong.

[00:12:56] So I moved to Hong Kong. The headquarter for DFS is in Hong Kong. So I joined the unit team at HQ. I was the global director of operations and traveling worldwide to all the locations of DFS in the US, Australia, Asia, obviously. So after landing in Hong Kong for the first time in 97, which was a hell of a year, 20 years later exactly, I was back in Hong Kong.

[00:13:18] So the loop was crossed. 

[00:13:19] Vanessa T: Ibaham, I, I really love how you talk about such a diverse career and moving to different places. And obviously I think it has a big part to do also with your upbringing, as well as the education that you had. I'm curious now that you've moved to Singapore and I'm curious to know, you moved here to Singapore four years ago, right during the height of the COVID pandemic, and you made another bold move.

[00:13:43] You moved here to Singapore and you joined the Clarins group. Yet another transition to make with the family and this time the added complexity of the pandemic. So tell us more about this bold career move. 

[00:13:56] Ibaham R: After 20 years working for the number one luxury group in the world and kind of moving to a different maison, I was eager for a new challenge and I wanted to join a smaller company, great potential and needed my experience, expertise to grow.

[00:14:11] So Clarins is a family owned company. It is the number one skin care brand in France and Europe, but it has a lot of room to go in Asia. So four years ago, they embarked on a journey to open directly operated stores in Asia, and especially in China, right? It's the whole DTC experience. And with my experience at LVMH and DFS, I was in a position to help them to structure the activity, infuse a retail mindset to the teams, both in APAC, but also at Headquarter and obviously again, market share for the brand.

[00:14:41] It's been four years already. I, yes, COVID was intense because I was hired to travel to China and I couldn't travel to China. The last year was a major catch up year for me, but it's been a great experience. As you know, the beauty industry is highly competitive and it's all about agility. You have to move very fast.

[00:14:57] And Clarins being a little bit smaller, we can move very fast. We can make mistakes, we can try, we can experiment. And I spent a lot of time traveling over the region, especially China. I spent my entire day visiting shopping malls. It sounds like it's fun, but trust me, it's not always fun. And I can leverage everything that I learned from my previous experience for this company that is growing very fast.

[00:15:16] And being based in Singapore is really a great place to be for this role. 

[00:15:20] Vanessa I: I still remember the day you sent me a WhatsApp to let me know you were moving to Singapore. And because of the COVID, it took us a long time to finally meet face to face. I wanted to ask you, Ibaham, how is it for you to live here in Singapore?

[00:15:35] How would you describe it for the listeners and the people who are also considering ESSEC in Singapore? 

[00:15:41] Ibaham R: I would say that Singapore, it's a very multicultural place by history. And today you can see that when you walk in streets, it has an amazing food scene. Right? So a variety of different food and surprisingly it has a thriving tech sector as tech companies are based in Singapore, right?

[00:15:59] The Amazon, the Meta, the Twitter, they're all based in Singapore. Microsoft is also based in Singapore. So it's a high tech city. I love the fact that there is a high density of green space in the city. Easily accessible. You have many parks, hiking trails, the Botanical Garden is a bit like a central park, right? Of Singapore.

[00:16:18] It's very easy to travel. You can be in Thailand in an hour and a half, but you can be in China in four hours, right? So it's actually super central to travel around. I would say Singapore is a great place to kickstart a career in Asia. And again, you have Singapore lunch hours everywhere. Like you said, it's a hub.

[00:16:34] Vanessa I: What are the things that surprised you? Because you had been to places that were most probably considered with bigger hardship, I mean, especially when you went to Vietnam so many years ago, you went to Korea when it was still opening up. So what surprised you Ibaham? 

[00:16:49] Ibaham R: I would say how advanced is the digital ecosystem in Singapore.

[00:16:54] Digital banking is very advanced. You don't need to use cards or cash. You can just carry your phone. A bit like in China. And beyond that, even the government tasks, any paperwork that you have to do. You can even do everything online, QR codes, security. I even heard that in a few years in the T5, the new terminal, we won't need a passport to go through immigration.

[00:17:17] It's facial recognition. So on that front, as a daily living, Singapore is very surprising. Highly digital, but such a small place. This really impressed me quite a lot. 

[00:17:27] Vanessa I: For an intense traveler like you, it would be really, really something positive. But one thing you need to make sure is that you don't forget the passport for the other side.

[00:17:35] Ibaham R: Appreciate it. 

[00:17:37] Vanessa I: Because otherwise you are going to be stuck in the middle and maybe this is not what you are after. 

[00:17:42] Vanessa T: Ibaham, having watched your career through the years, I've always appreciated your agility in making those bold career moves across different roles, across different countries. And I've also seen how you've done so much in terms of your own continuous learning.

[00:17:57] Not always easy given the demands of family and work. So I'm curious, what motivates you to keep this learning momentum? 

[00:18:05] Ibaham R: Well, you're right. I try to attend executive program, at least one per year, if time permits. Look, the world of business is changing very fast and even faster, right? With AI, we're living in a exponential world.

[00:18:17] The amount of knowledge that is available is going at exponential rates every day. So it's important to remain updated. I mean, I've I love my education at ESSEC, but that was quite a while ago, a few years ago. I mean, I need to be updated. On that note, ESSEC offers a great catalog of executive programs. 

[00:18:34] Singapore and just an anecdote here, and you remember Vanessa that back in Hong Kong, we used to host the ESSEC MBA luxury students every year. We're presenting the activities of the company, arrange store visits, and we even recruited quite a few of them after the visit. So we take it at heart. There's another benefit of executive education, it's networking.

[00:18:54] Obviously, you know, I'd say that as you grow in your career, first you're being hired for what you can do, but later on, you're being hired for who you know. So it's important, right, to start early, to expand a network, and education is a great way to do it, because you meet like minded peers, you also want to develop themselves in different field of work, different companies, different nationalities, and being at ESSEC, I think it's a great place to really expand that. When you travel around, so even if I don't have my passport, I can meet friends that can help me to find my way.

[00:19:25] Vanessa T: It's true. 

[00:19:25] Vanessa I: You've got many friends. 

[00:19:27] Vanessa T: I can really vouch for this. I can attest to that too. 

[00:19:31] Vanessa I: Yeah. Vanessa T is another one. One of the things that I wanted to share with our listeners is, I still remember the first class I took with Ibaham, I think it was many years ago. And I was amazed by his seriousness when it came to taking the class very, very seriously.

[00:19:46] And we were surrounded sometimes by people who had been partying the day before. But Ibaham was always very much focused and asking the right question. And I think this is something you have kept all along your careers. I want to congratulate you for being at the same time a very approachable, very kind, very gentle person.

[00:20:07] But on the other hand, someone who takes learning extremely seriously. And I think you are the person you are today because you have done that from the very beginning. So if some of the listeners, they want to understand more about the approach of Ibaham, you can always DM him and he's always happy to support and to help.

[00:20:25] So, but one thing to learn from him definitely is attitude when it comes to learning and his ability to network across Asia. So this is the end of the show. I wanted to say thank you, a big thank you to Ibaham for spending time with us. But before we end, what are the top three pieces of advice that you would like to give to the listeners who are looking for a change in their career?

[00:20:49] What have you learned from there? And what are the things you could, you could share with them? 

[00:20:53] Ibaham R: So number one, stay curious. It's a big world. Life is short, so embrace every opportunity. Number two, keep learning, learn everything, keeps your brain active and thinking. And number three, I think it's important.

[00:21:06] It's something that probably I picked up. I'm not too late, but I wish I had done it a bit earlier is learn how to receive feedback. Feedback is a gift and you don't always realize it's actually helping you a lot to grow and to have self awareness, which is essential if you want to be a successful leader.

[00:21:22] Vanessa I: Well, this is very inspiring. Thank you so much, Ibaham. We really enjoyed it. 

[00:21:25] Ibaham R: Thank you so much, Vanessa and Vanessa. 

[00:21:27] Vanessa I: Yeah, we enjoyed the time with you today. We are sure that many people will be so interested in your sharing and we thank everyone for listening to the Career Transition Podcast. See you soon!

[00:21:38] Ibaham R: Thank you! Bye bye! 

[00:21:40] Vanessa I: Bye bye!