THE JOURNEY TO A BETTER WAY FORWARD...

United Colours of TCRA - 6 people and 5 nationalities............ At the peak of "Internationalism", we had 15 people representing 12 nationalities speaking more than 20 languages since everyone spoke a minimum of 3 languages fluently.

(Lionel- France, Elaine-Spore, Yves-France, Pierre-Canada, Olivier-Suisse & Carlos-Spain)





TEAM BFG @ the GWIT Event, Gold Coast Australia
(Pierre, Pascal, Evie, Antoine, Jo-Ann, Elaine & Olivier)

BFG Bad Boys with an attitude - yes, the boys (bosses Pascal & Antoine) completely understood the positioning .......

Ms BFG - It was such great fun launching this brand!!! Endless months labour studying product performances, choosing tread patterns & names, conducting focus groups, labouring over launch strategies, communications campaigns .... Everything was worth it at the launch! The feeling is almost akin to child-birth!!! Unfortunately, post-natal blues set-in pretty early on and we have not been able to shrug it off....

BFGoodrich team making news in the Malaysian papers with our parties........ (It was all in the interest of brand-building with the hip & young!!! No fun for us AT ALL!!!)

BFGoodrich Team @ the launch of g-force Sport & Sport TA in Bangkok (and if I remember correctly, it was followed-up by some serious celebrating + team-building BKK style till 5am in the morning before I got dropped-off straight at the airport...........)

"TCRA angels"- In fact, we were Antoine's Angels and there are only supposed to be 3 of us. Evie, my "partner-in-crime" & I were the 2 constants and we had a rolling 3rd person in the form of Liz, Jo-anne, Diana, Wendy etc.... Shirley is the espion from Supply Chain who usurped our roles and is now in Corporate Communications!!! Seriously, Shirley was probably one of my greatest contributions to Michelin as I recruited this gem...
(Wendy, Shirley, Elaine & Evie)

Yes, Ollie is referring to me, Elaine Tay, Brand Manager aka. Ms Quick-Quick-Quick.

Diversity Team - I was the poster girl for Asia; woman, manager, single mum, 3 young children......... and they expatriated me to start up a new agency!!!! Talk about a progressive company.

(I am actually trying to locate a "women in power" photo of the Michelin Malaysia Mums-united-in-Management Team! Monica, Veron, Salena & Elaine..... )





Another rowing team-building event. Notice that Jack is not rowing!!!! Anyway, I thought we made tyres, so what's the deal with using non-pneumatic transportation? We kept going round in circles! Isn't there a Better Way Forward? (Just a few weeks before this, we were in beijing @ a marketing meeting and had to dragon-boat in the freezing cold & rain for a team-building exercise. This was only a tad more popular than the climb the Great Wall Expedition the previous yr, where half the team had to miss the event because of "important meetings"!)

TCRA Team lunch (Lionel, Olivier, Pierre, Oy, Tachana, Elaine & Praneeth)
Looks like TCRA spend all their time eating, drinking or partying.......... I think it is fair to say that we played hard but we worked hard too (just no photographic evidence since we were working on highly confidential D1 material. haha) BTW, we have 7 people representing 6 nationalities in this photo........






Product Marketing Meeting in Port Dickson - Yes, I remember this cos OB put us in a god-forsaken hotel in the middle of nowhere to limit the after-hours "team-building" so that we could all focus on the 8am-8pm meetings!!!









TCRA dinner @ White Bait & Kale (This was post-Tsunami and I was still in a cast. A waitress dropped a tray of glasses behind me and I burst into uncontrollable tears and had to go home. Yes, my dear TCRA colleagues did see me through some tough moments!!! When it was time to go back to work, Lionel packed me off to the KL RPM meeting in a wheelchair..... I am sure I was an invaluable part of his team and contributed tremendously to the work we did, but I think it was anti-depression therapy and he just wanted to get me out of the house and back to work actively; wheelchair, cast and all!!!)


Pilot Preceda PPII launch in Taiwan - Yes, I was highlighting those sexy sipes to the journalists........ Product Marketing however adviced that I should not point at the tyre but caress it with much more tender love & care in future shots!!!











MPE Team in Sepang playing with expensive toys!!! Getting to drive fast cars was one of the perks on the job; wind blowing in my hair, smell of burning rubber, adrenalin rush as I hit a corner and Regis scaring the wits outta me on one of his signature drives .......... But, it wasn't all fun (in fact, it was not fun at all). Those MPE events were a nightmare of 15 hr days on your feet smiling at guests and coping with the most mundane matters! My most memorable MPE experience has to be vacuuming the F1 booth in Shanghai @ 6am (Yes, ME: Project Owner, Steering Committee member, Big boss (I thought) and cleaner!!!) cos the cleaners we hired did not show up and our event managers were too hung-over from too much partying to do the work!!!
TCRA -RPM meeting @ I have no idea where (looks like it could have been somewhere exotic like Bali or Phuket but nah......... it's TCRA and not PLPA, and those extravagencies were reserved for the big tyre boys only. haha.
On the other hand, we PC people had a good excuse to hang-out in LMC factory, team-build @ the go-kart tracks & racing circuits of Bira and down "screaming orgasms" @ Hard Rock Cafe Pattaya!!!!




Penang Dealer Meeting (Paul, Tung, Philippe, Elaine, Yves, Chandan, Eugene) I had always heard horror stories of sales & marketing teams not working well together but it was a pleasure working with Philippe's team. We had our little spats, but sales & marketing were definitely on the same page and fighting the same battles........ A pleasure to work with.

Phi-Phi & Elaine partying it up @ Sanjay's bday bash.

Introducing Yves to KL dealers and saying bye to Ronald.

Michelin Malaysia company holiday in Kuching - Someone on the team had the great idea to send us to a tribal village in East Msia to do charity work building wooden benches. It was quite an interesting exercise (and very noble) but half the benches we built probably would not have stood the test of time & rain and have probably already fallen apart. We were rewarded to a scrumptous dinner of delectable sago worms (local delicacy) followed by some joyful merri-making and loads of singing! Oh, and I could not bear to eat the worms so I gave them to the kids and we kept them as pets until they died cos we had no more sago bark to feed em. Ya, I know, how awful..... I tried feeding them other trees from our Bangsar garden, but their delicate stomaches were probably not used to the foreign flavors from West Malaysia.

Msia Marketing Team - what a horrible mug-shot!!! I was trying to find photos of us doing some really cool things like dancing the salsa in Hangzhou, eating worms in kuching or GK serenading ......... but could not find any!!! No photos, but the memories will be with me forever...........
(GK, Brian, Yung, Ruan, Goon, Elaine, Karen & HooiEng)

LATITUDE launch in Malaysia - Ronald, Elaine, Philippe & Bibendum..... what a great team we made!! (fights, laughs and all......:))

Real Work - I tried hard to locate photos of me doing some "real" work in Michelin and managed to dig up these 2 (notice both photos are taken in Msia. Not to say that the 7 yrs spent in TCRA was a holiday, but they did work me hard in KL!!!) Karen & I congratulating a dealer in KL after running a tyre-fitters promotion and me interviewing a East Msian dealer during our roadshow.

No spiel about Michelin would be meaningful without the mention of Antoine. Not only was he my boss, he was my mentor, a friend and an inspiration........ Stand by your team, choose your battles, love life, family 1st ........















Special thanks to Olivier for the "It would not have been possible without you" slideshow; source of the majority of photos above and inspiration for this little piece. I tried desperately to search for photos of my earlier years in Michelin (supply chain days with Hugues Watin - the man that recruited me, Philippe Guibourd - my guru that introduced me to the wonders of excel, Vlookup & pivot table; Alberto Tapra-the colourful and unforgettable who, together with Jean-Pierre Lamour, taught me everything I know about tyres and Eric Jugier, to whom I announced in my 1st yr in Michelin that I wanted to be RPM by 37, and to which he kindly responded that I should concentrate on the journey and not focus on the destination! What a wise man!) Alas, Shirley enlightened me to the fact that it was pre-digital era and we just did not take photos that often then.......... OR, Supply Chain just do not have as many parties as marketing............ haha

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I am now in my last week with Michelin and frankly, it is scary... After nearly 10 years with this company, I cannot help but wonder what the future has in store for me. There is something to be said for the safety in the monotony of having somewhere to go every morning, a pay-check in the bank at the end of the month, and the dream of wanting to do something better and more meaningful (and the excuse of a job not to do it).

Michelin gave me the opportunity to break-away from the clutches of eternal damnation in accounting hell. It opened the doors to a corporate wonderland that constantly kept me on my toes with new experiences and exciting adventures: From Supply Chain to brand management to marketing to distribution to leadership training to business organization…

The fun & games in Michelin seemed never-ending; Travels across the globe, partying at hip events, playing with fast expensive toys and hanging-out with cool dudes. Eeeeeeerrrrrrrrr, some of you are probably wondering if we are working in the same company…… Ok, it wasn't REALLY that glam. It is funny how time and nostalgia warps reality!! (Travels across the globe where to exotic locations like Clermont Ferrand, Ohta, Shenyang and Greenville.... Partying at super hip-events like the Dongguan dealer convention with cool Ah-Pek tyre dealers that don't speak English and wanna get you drunk. Haha. )

In all honesty, it wasn't all that bad. I did get to travel extensively and to some really nice places , organized and attended some really great events and worked with some of the most amazing people within Michelin and outside; many of whom will remain dear friends in the Michelin after-life.

The business achievements and professional successes of these past years in Michelin will be penned in my resume but these will pale in comparison to the incredible journey of learning, the excitement of creating and the pure joy of laughter (and of tears) shared with so many of you. These will be etched in friendships that will surpass the boundaries of corporate Michelin. Being part of the Michelin family was so much more being a good manager or a good marketer; it was about being part of a community that believed that the sky was the limit, a team that wanted to make a difference and had the guts and passion to make it happen.

It is extremely difficult for me to leave Michelin; I have tried since Sept 07 and it has taken me nearly 8 months to finally say good-bye. But Good-bye, it must be. I take solace in the thought that GOD must have a greater plan for me (than selling big, black & round rubber!!!) What that might be is still to be discovered.

I thank all my wonderful friends, colleagues and bosses in Michelin for allowing me to be part of this great establishment.

A BETTER WAY FORWARD……… Through roads yet un-traveled…