According to him, simply replacing the word “shareholder” with “stakeholder” in companies’ mission statements would be a catalyst for significant change. editor 2019-06-12T04:36:25+00:00. Crafting the Banyan Tree Narrative. If you were a city hotel, you would never consider Mandai. This is a resort that we are doing with Mandai Park Holdings. So I got in there – a stupid student at 19 years old – got thrown out. I got in trouble at Stanford because of my being sceptical of the Vietnam War and in fact, in retrospect, I think I’ve been proven right compared to the Singapore establishment of that time, which thought that Vietnam was fighting a war of Communism and if the Vietnamese won the war – which they did – it would lead to the Domino Theory. Mr Ho: I think I ask why just as sceptically of things as I have always done, but I don’t necessarily act on it as foolhardily as I did in the past: write articles and throw stones, get me thrown in jail in America, thrown in jail in Singapore, get thrown out of university. I became very clear in my own mind that I wasn’t going to go and spend 25 years in jail, which you can and there have been people who have: Chia Thye Poh and Poh Soo Kai. Of course, part of my asking why would be: ‘Why do you have such views?’, ‘Why are you able to propagate these views?’, ‘Why should we not engage you in a debate?’. When you get to my age now, and I ask myself ‘Why do I study?’, I probably now go deeper than the issue of careers etc., because my career’s already gotten going. The industries that are immune to COVID-19. I got charged because I shouted and screamed at my officers, because I thought they were mistreating us, so I basically screamed an expletive at him. For his services to his home country Singapore, Mr Ho has been decorated with the Meritorious Service Medal and the Distinguished Service Order by the Singapore government. You also have to look at innovation. What aspects of Mexico attracted Banyan Tree Group that the brand would choose the country for expansion? You really have to tap on the local Brazilian market, the Chilean market, which are very continental markets that we don’t have many inroads in. He is also the founding and current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Singapore Management University and Chairman of The Singapore Summit. These properties will evoke a strong sense of place and the culture of the places where they are located. By the same token, Singapore Zoo and its sister wildlife parks in the Mandai area today are the top attractions in Singapore. Business and Leisure. Lijiang reflected many aspects of the Chinese culture and the beauty of its natural landscape. We, in our generation, created the environment for them to live in an affluent context. 1:53:45. We will have more brands as such, but even if we have more stylish or funkier brands, our overall voice does not change. By Howard Lee. So, in our context, I fully support many of the restraints on free speech that we have in Singapore, but not all. Main photo: Former SMU Chancellor Mr Yong Pung (2nd from left) standing next to his official portrait which will be hung in the SMU Boardroom, together with (left to right) SMU Chairman Mr Ho Kwon Ping, SMU Chancellor Mr J Y Pillay and SMU President Prof Arnoud De Meyer. Your Excellency Honourable Prime Minister Dasho Tshering Tobgay, Prime Minister of Bhutan, Your Excellency Dr Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Finance Minister of Indonesia, While you were younger, you might not have been able to do so. Because when we just started Banyan Tree, we had nothing. Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Singapore 2,189 views. A lot of opportunities have come over the years for us to do a spa in Singapore, but the locations were not really ideal except for our spa at the Marina Bay Sands where the setting is really beautiful. If you want to tap their market, you have to go to them. Mr Ho has also been conferred honorary doctorates by Johnson & Wales University and from Hong Kong Poly University. In jail, I was held in solitary confinement with no sense of day or night because the lights are on all the time, and no human interaction – you are taken out to go to the loo, taken out to go take a shower. It’s a very thin line and it’s usually the most sensitive, intelligent and idealistic people who become these people. I believe in learning lessons, but I don’t believe in regret. We actually wanted to enter into the United States market. Ironically, I ask that question ‘Why do I study?’ with the same simplicity as a three-year-old, but with much greater depth in my answer. Some might fall off but there would be guys who would be able to ride on the waves. Mr Ho joined the Banyan Tree Group (“BT Group”) as Associate Director of Corporate Development in 2010. Which of the many fields in which you are a leader - civil society, business, education and academia, and journalism - do you hold to be key to who you are? In fact, there is a lot of wellness associated with it. Employee Satisfaction. You have to know the boundaries, and to me, I really accept and fully support those boundaries. He cited how the chairman of resort developer Banyan Tree, Mr Ho Kwon Ping, had said in an interview with Channel NewsAsia (CNA) published … They have their own standings which are absolutely world-class, and they evoke a very strong sense of place. And I said let’s start a spa but back then, nobody had any idea what a spa was. Mr. Ho Kwon Ping, Banyan Tree Co-Founder . In Cuba, for example, we got two properties open, and two properties under construction. IPS-Nathan Lectures Singapore: The Next Fifty Years - Lecture III: Security and Sustainability by Ho Kwon Ping. I don’t think COVID-19 has changed the fundamental topography of the seabed. Mr Ho: The climate today is no longer how it was like during my time. I’ve always felt that your mind is always your best friend – obviously – but it can also be your worst enemy. They are building a new Bird Park, and this huge project is part of the government’s plans to rejuvenate the Mandai precinct into an integrated wildlife and nature destination. People would think you were crazy because the hotel had no beach. Mr Ho: In terms of the questions I asked, they were completely different – a different set of questions but with the same origins. And they are just getting more famous building their own brand, and they would just “squeeze” you more and more. Dear Straight People, I was recently asked by the founders of the Pink Dot movement to write something to commemorate the tenth edition of Pink Dot. Executive Chairman, Banyan Tree Holdings. Our approach promotes wellbeing through diversity, satisfaction, health, safety and welfare to increase productivity and improve employee and customer satisfaction and loyalty. What did you find you had been lying to yourself about given that you say jail was a time when you found that you could no longer lie to yourself? Then, by luck, my wife, my brother and I were walking around Phuket in the 1980s. From a journalist to forging the brand of Banyan Tree, the journey has been amazing. For youth who are idealistic today, there is room and space in Singapore, actually, for you to express yourself. Learn from something and not do it again. You have to think through it; if you want to say these things, is it responsible? Mr Ho was appointed Director on 6 May 2020. Some of them are pretty unpleasant personal caricatures, which I find quite distasteful. What do you wish you had known before you started out on your careers. It was also what the Americans felt, and what people like myself were protesting against because we thought it was a war of national unification, and that if they won, they would just stop there. It is not against our values if we were to do a resort with a vineyard in Mexico or California. Illustration of Mandai Eco Resort. Copyright © 2020. I am an accidental hotelier. Mr Ho Kwon Ping, SMU Chairman, at the launch of the SMU School of Law building on Wednesday, 15 March 2017 Guest of Honour, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong; The Honourable the Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon; Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen; A very good morning to all of you. Back then, we saw the wave for romantic boutique hotels and resorts, and we got on our little surfboard and we kept on going and going. Mr Ho Kwon Ping is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings and Laguna Resorts and Hotels, and Executive Chairman of Thai Wah Public Company. About the alumnus: Mr Ho Kwon Ping is currently the Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings and the Chairman of the Singapore Management University. But you also have to have the decisiveness to make the call that if this wave isn’t going to work, you jump out into the sea and then you try again. Ho Kwon Ping is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings and Laguna Resorts and Hotels, and Executive Chairman of Thai Wah Public Company. We wanted to go into the Caribbean, so we are now into Bahamas. Mr Ho Kwon Ping Mr Ho Kwon Ping. Ho Kwon Ping 2014 S R Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore 12 November 2014 Auditorium, Shaw Foundation Alumni House, NUS . Sometimes, you would break out in a cold sweat because time just goes on and on, and you have no sensation of time – it just drags on. On the other hand, Mexico actually has a lot of features that we are very familiar with. My whole point to young people is: find a purpose. And I did get charged, by the way. From your time as an undergraduate at Stanford University to your time as a mature student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), how do you think you changed as a student and person? Mr. Ho Kwon Ping is the Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, a Singapore-based premium hospitality brand with global business interests. We are only part of this multi-billion-dollar project, in the sense that we manage the resort. But the one thing that really got me kicked out of Stanford even though I was very involved in Vietnam War activities, was my participation in a student disruption of the class of a Nobel prize-winner, William Shockley. Even if we do adopt a more stylish approach to our brand voice, the culture of our company stays the same – not to brag about ourselves and to be garish, but more to be authentic, and highlight our brands’ DNAs in relevance to the themes emerging in the market in an authentic way. Our hotels are full of culture. I was supposed to be the Sword of Honour recipient but I got downgraded and almost kicked out for this staging of a little bit of a mutiny. So, we felt that to be associated with the Mandai Park Holdings was in alignment with our brand. We would be manufacturing shoes for Nike and Adidas or other brands. I’m not a Chia Thye Poh. Those times are not the times as these times. Senior Advisor : Mr. Ho Kwon Ping. Always 20/20, but it is a lot of them come to Asia Kuan or... – a methodology “You can shout anything and it’s like a whole bunch different. Other brands had mr ho kwon ping before you started out on your careers as these.! 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