Khai Abu Bakar, 39, is a Senior Manager of Key Global Accounts (APAC) and the Country Lead for the Philippines at the global nutrition, beauty and health company dsm-firmenich. He worked in a range of manufacturing and R&D roles before transitioning to sales where he now oversees major accounts that generate tens of millions in annual business. Khai holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the National University of Singapore.
 

1. What is your role exactly and can you describe what a regular day at work is like?

My job is to oversee the regional and commercial strategy of our key global accounts in the APAC region, which includes major companies in the beverage, dairy and savoury sectors. Besides day-to-day account management, I also have strategic discussions with our team of account managers to better understand the needs of our customers so that we can determine how best to support them in driving sales, from meeting their innovation requirements to supply chain optimisation.

Let’s say my client might have a very popular beverage in Europe that they would like to reproduce and launch in Singapore within a matter of months. I will have to connect with our European innovation team to get whatever is necessary so that we can manufacture the product for the Singaporean market within the stipulated time. Or they might be inspired by new technologies in Japan, for example, and want to recreate certain sensations or textures in their own product while localising it to the markets they are based in. To facilitate this, I will speak to the R&D team in our Singapore lab to see how we can achieve faster time-to-market. It’s essentially my job to ensure that everyone is aligned internally so that we can make things happen for our customers.
 

2. How did you end up in this role at dsm-firmenich, and what have you learned through your experience at the company?

I always wanted to have a job abroad to be exposed to different parts of the world. After NUS, I was travelling in Europe for a bit when I decided to gatecrash an open house by DSM* for university students in the Netherlands. I had previously applied to different European companies but had never gotten a response, so I thought I’d just go straight to the source to try my luck. I landed myself an interview right there and then. To show my commitment to moving overseas, I even did the whole interview in basic Dutch. That got me the job and I’ve been with the company for 13 years now.

As my background was in chemical engineering, I ended up working as a manufacturing engineer in my first role with the company. Then I moved to managing more large-scale capital projects for about six years, where I used my knowledge of the manufacturing environment to make investment decisions on plants and upgrade our facilities to make them safer and more efficient.

After my stint in the Netherlands, I returned to Singapore and took on an innovation-based role in materials science. Participating in product demonstrations gave me my first brush with sales. From that experience, I learned that you really need to believe in the product you’re selling to be able to sell it well. That got me interested in how we can better sell our broad, diverse portfolio to customers across different industries, which led me to eventually make the move to sales and account management. I was also very fortunate that every boss I’ve had was always looking out for me in terms of where I wanted to go next in my career and gave me the support I needed to pursue different roles within the company.

*The Dutch chemicals company DSM merged with Swiss fragrance and flavour leader Firmenich to form dsm-firmenich in 2022.
 

3. What’s most meaningful to you about your role?

I’ve had the chance to see many different sides of the business in my time with the company and am grateful for the opportunity to grow my career here. Now that I’ve taken care of a key account regionally, my next step is to see if I can take on a strategic lens to figure out the market strategy for a country as the Country Lead for the Philippines. I don’t speak Tagalog, but I hope I can pick it up in the future.

As technology advances, we are able to provide more options in the products and solutions we develop, from plant-based beverages for those who are lactose-intolerant or health-conscious to  bio-protection solutions that improves shelf-life to reduce food waste. It makes me excited to be a part of these efforts in driving food innovation for our customers. To be able to pick a product off the shelf and say to my kids, “Hey, Dad helped to make this!” makes me proud.