Today we’re interviewing Sew Chang Chew, Head of R and D at Hybrid Dairy Alliance, a new business that focuses on dairy manufacturing.
Welcome to Malaysia! This is the first interview I did hours after I landed.
I actually met Sew 9 years ago at IFT when our colleges were both competing in a product development competition. I believe it was Developing Solutions for Developing Countries.
Sew has a lot to say about the food industry in Malaysia and gives a good introduction about what the food is really about. Not just industry, but he describes food really well.
I think what’s great to take away from this interview is the point of view. What’s amazing about traveling to all of these countries and interviewing everyone is you get to see not only the differences but the similarities between what’s going on and Sew highlights a lot of challenges that I feel I’ve faced in my career.
You’re also going to get a lot of practical advice! Sew is essentially a manager and gives some good tips on how to teach and motivate your employees! His advice is very simple, and methodical.
I never realized how similar I was with Sew, we both have worked many jobs, around 2 year stints, and he himself traveled the world.
What’s up with Adam
Happy New Year everyone. I hope you had a good one.
In my four days in Malaysia, I’ve had some pretty fond memories.
I’ll tell you, my flight to Malaysia was interesting. Basically, we flew from Singapore and our pilot announced they couldn’t get a wheel working! Then after that, he circled back to Singapore halfway through and luckily nothing happened. Then after an hour, we flew back and I landed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where in about 3 hours, I met with Sew Chang and did the interview at my cheap hotel in one of the biggest places there.
I never expected to go to Malaysia but After realizing a few friends were there and that it was super close to Singapore, I decided to put it in the itinerary and I gotta say, it’s probably the most underrated part of my travels. I knew nothing about Malaysia before I got there but I think it had one of the most memorable landmarks (known as Batu Caverns) and really good food. Ironically, I had some of the best Japanese pork katsu and Chinese Char Siu in Malaysia.
Quick note: Kuala Lumpar is known as KL for the locals so you’re going to here Sew Chang say KL a lot.
Links
Lot 10 in Malaysia
Developing Solutions for Developing Countries
OEM and Copacking
Chicken in Malaysia
Penang
Ippo
Research and Development Executive is just a Technologist
Cargill
Bean to Bar Chocolate
Gardenia Bread
Bakles Group
Sew Chang Chew’s LinkedIn
Kolabtree.com
End of Show
So let’s talk about keeping in touch. This interview was because I put up a post on LinkedIn telling everyone I was traveling the world and Sew reached out.
I remember back in college during IFT, we just won our first preliminary product development competition and were entering the finals and met the other teams.
This was actually the first time I believe I made contact with a food science student outside of my university and it was great!
I think we inherently think that competition breeds enemies, and you shouldn’t talk to them. In my opinion, IFT competitions are the best way to meet likeminded people who love food science as much as you do.
I’m so glad I reached out and said hi to the Malaysian team back in IFT and I’m amazed that we kept in touch even after all of these years. If this trip has taught me anything, it really is the value of long term connection. That as long as you keep in touch with someone, who knows where it ends up. I travel around a lot and I realized that I take a good amount of time trying to reconnect with people I haven’t talked to in years and go out of my way to visit them. I find the conversations enriching and surprised that when it comes to change, some people change more than others, and it’s given me more perspective on how much I’ve changed as well.