Brand Champions

Nelson Lim

Chairman

Nelson’s favorite quote is from Alan Kay, a well-known computer science pioneer:

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Nelson is a tireless innovator who is constantly exploring new ways to create a better future where The Triple Bottomline of People, Planet and Profit are served in equal measure by the businesses that he helped to establish.

Nelson believes that speed is critical to success and you have to run twice as fast today just to stay where you were yesterday. One of his key ideas when he co-founded I.F.F.I is to speed up the pace of change in the farming industry because he knew that the old ways of doing things are not scalable nor sustainable.

This is the reason why he decided to call the company I.F.F.I as it stands for Indoor Farm Factory Innovation.

What keeps Nelson up at night is an unquenchable curiosity about what might happen in the future and how he can get ahead of these future trends so that he can stay two steps ahead of everyone else.

Alfred Tham

CEO & Co-Founder

Alfred’s favorite quote is from Peter Drucker, the father of modern management:

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.”

Many years earlier, Alfred already saw the need for a new way to grow crops in order to meet the ever increasing demand for food and to combat the ever declining nutrient content in vegetables due to overuse of soil, climate change, pollution, droughts, natural disasters and the damage caused by chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Alfred believes that if you want something to change, you have to be the agent of change. That is why he founded I.F.F.I to create new ways of urban farming that will result in crops that are much more nutritious; can be grown all year round in any environment; and completely free of chemicals and pesticides.

What keeps Alfred up at night is his relentless quest to find new ways of growing crops that are better, faster and cheaper. He doesn’t believe in anything that is merely good enough. He also believes that perfection can be improved upon.

Kelvin Ng

Chief Operating Officer

Kelvin’s favorite quote is from W. Edwards Deming, the father of total quality management:

“It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best.”

Kelvin is very meticulous when it comes to the systems and processes that are deployed in I.F.F.I because he believes that for any company to work properly and achieve its goals, the systems and processes must not only be well-designed but they must be simple enough that everyone will know what they are and how to use them.

Kelvin often tells people not to mistake complexity for sophistication because it is easy to make things complex but it takes real skill and sophistication to make complex processes simple and effective.

He believes that you need to measure everything because if it cannot be measured, then it cannot be improved upon. As I.F.F.I’s Chief Operating Officer, he focuses on optimizing every system, process and operation in the company for maximum output and then he will start all over again because to Kelvin, being the best is just the starting point for everything.

Veronica Lee

General Manager, HR & Corporate Services

Veronica’s favorite quote is from Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group:

“Train people well enough so that they can leave. Treat them well enough so that they don’t want to.”

As General Manager, HR & Corporate Services, Veronica focuses her energy on critical human capital issues because while I.F.F.I is an automation business, it is still the people who drive the company.

She believes that while one machine can do the work of 100 ordinary persons, no machine can do the work of one extraordinary person. That is why her goal has always been to create a corporate culture and environment where ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.

She also believes that when a company hires a person, they need to hire based on character and attitude because skills can be trained but no amount of training can improve character or attitude. She is fond of telling people that in life and at work, it is your attitude and not your aptitude that will ultimately determine your altitude. It is a motto she lives by every day.

Dorothy Wong

General Manager, Finance & IT

Dorothy’s favorite quote is from P.T. Barnum, founder of the world’s largest circus:

“Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant.”

As General Manager, Finance & IT, it is Dorothy’s job to ensure that the company’s money is properly used for worthwhile projects that can improve its ability to serve customers better and better every day. That way, she ensures that the company’s money is the servant and not the master.

Dorothy involves herself in every aspect of I.F.F.I’s operations because everything that happens in the company affects its finances and how the finances are deployed also affect the company’s ability to stay two steps ahead of the competitive curve.

Dorothy believes that investing in knowledge will pay the best dividends because we live in a world that is powered by knowledge, and I.F.F.I is a knowledge enterprise. Dorothy also knows that knowledge is a living thing and if you don’t feed it, it will wither away. That is why she encourages her colleagues to keep learning new things.

Ann Lee

Accountant

Ann’s favorite quote is from Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors in the world:

“You have to understand accounting because it is the language of business.”

As an Accountant of I.F.F.I, it is Ann’s job to ensure that its accounts are properly structured and managed so that management will always have accurate data to base their decisions on.

She believes that it is the accounting data that she furnishes that will enable good decisions to be made and that is why she takes her work very seriously always.

Ann believes that creativity is a great thing except in accounting. That is why she applies very strict protocols in the company’s accounting processes.

She likes to tell people that the most important principle of accounting is G.I.G.O. which stands for Garbage In, Garbage Out because if a business doesn’t not make sound decisions based on good data, it will not generate the right kind of results for itself, for its people and for its shareholders.