At Priority Consultants we pride ourselves on our diversity and “walk the talk” with eight nationalities, 14 languages and ages ranging from Interns to Seniors. In the middle of the pandemic we welcomed an Egyptian national into our team as a Graduate Intern.
EA: The journey started with education and a passion for journalism and writing. Malaysia was affordable offering great educational credentials plus a sense of adventure in moving to the tropics. Early 2021 I won a place at Monash University Malaysia, School of IT, to do a Masters in Business Information Systems. Malaysia quickly became “home” – I am comfortable in the culture, addicted to the food – but also needed a job to support myself financially.
EA: The diverse culture was very appealing, and the work blended two of my passions – storytelling and technology. Priority provided the opportunity and the training to use storytelling to share how our clients’ technology impacts and supports their customers’ daily lives.
From a diversity perspective, I was excited by how the company slogan, “We Live Asia,” represents the mentality to absorb and integrate the plethora of cultures and identities in Asia. It differentiates Priority and our approach to public relations, and from the outset, as an outlier, I appreciated being treated with absolute inclusivity within the Priority Community.
EA: I had some corporate communications background from my bachelor’s degree although focused more in the hospitality sector. At Priority, enterprise technology was new and I took advantage of the training programmes, including Foundation Skills, and also the individual coaching which was a real bonus.
One session that stands out from the early days used the analogy of a Dragon to represent the business problems that our clients solve for their customers, and our job is to share and promote the value our clients bring as the Dragonslayers. That narrative equipped me with the technical PR know-how plus the creative twist that brings the pitch to life. We do not work on a “one size fits all” approach and the learning was to truly understand the client’s business and map it against the different opportunities in each country.
EA: Absolutely. Working on Zoho, an integrated platform for digital transformation, I had real world examples for my classes on topics like Business Process Management, Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise Systems. There was even a discussion on chatbots for marketing that I was able to bring into my classes on Neuro-linguistic Programming. So work became an education in itself.
Concirrus was one of my favourite clients who specialised in shipping insurance, applying data analytics to track the risk profile of shipping containers. The company CEO brought a “dry” subject like insurance to life through highly engaging and charismatic presentations. This domain knowledge helped with my Data Analytics module in terms of how both to create an insightful narrative out of data and how to visually present it.
EA: When I think about the expertise I’ve developed in the last two years, its nothing short of global in terms of the standard that has been set. What makes it more special is that it has been 100 percent remote working. Some of my colleagues who are closest to my heart are thousands of miles away, and yet we were able to become closer as people and professionals, building both enterprise relationships and fundamentally human connection unencumbered by distance.
The key words here are flexibility and trust. I was trusted by my management – here are your goals and we trust your ability to achieve them. It doesn’t matter where you are, we trust you and support you with the training and the toolkit to achieve these targets. This level of trust empowered me as an employee to not only achieve results, but to grow as a professional irrespective of where I was in the world. For instance, I spent 6 months in Indonesia and a month in Cambodia, and continued to secure broadcast opportunities across Singapore and Malaysia; the diversity of locations and the capability of remote working has been nothing short of awe-inspiring! This approach has not only shaped me as a professional, but also showed me that ethnicity and nationality are irrelevant when we share common values that drive us as people and professionals.
At Priority Consultants we pride ourselves on our diversity and “walk the talk” with eight nationalities, 14 languages and ages ranging from Interns to Seniors. In the middle of the pandemic we welcomed an Egyptian national into our team as a Graduate Intern.
EA: The journey started with education and a passion for journalism and writing. Malaysia was affordable offering great educational credentials plus a sense of adventure in moving to the tropics. Early 2021 I won a place at Monash University Malaysia, School of IT, to do a Masters in Business Information Systems. Malaysia quickly became “home” – I am comfortable in the culture, addicted to the food – but also needed a job to support myself financially.
EA: The diverse culture was very appealing, and the work blended two of my passions – storytelling and technology. Priority provided the opportunity and the training to use storytelling to share how our clients’ technology impacts and supports their customers’ daily lives.
From a diversity perspective, I was excited by how the company slogan, “We Live Asia,” represents the mentality to absorb and integrate the plethora of cultures and identities in Asia. It differentiates Priority and our approach to public relations, and from the outset, as an outlier, I appreciated being treated with absolute inclusivity within the Priority Community.
EA: I had some corporate communications background from my bachelor’s degree although focused more in the hospitality sector. At Priority, enterprise technology was new and I took advantage of the training programmes, including Foundation Skills, and also the individual coaching which was a real bonus.
One session that stands out from the early days used the analogy of a Dragon to represent the business problems that our clients solve for their customers, and our job is to share and promote the value our clients bring as the Dragonslayers. That narrative equipped me with the technical PR know-how plus the creative twist that brings the pitch to life. We do not work on a “one size fits all” approach and the learning was to truly understand the client’s business and map it against the different opportunities in each country.
EA: Absolutely. Working on Zoho, an integrated platform for digital transformation, I had real world examples for my classes on topics like Business Process Management, Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise Systems. There was even a discussion on chatbots for marketing that I was able to bring into my classes on Neuro-linguistic Programming. So work became an education in itself.
Concirrus was one of my favourite clients who specialised in shipping insurance, applying data analytics to track the risk profile of shipping containers. The company CEO brought a “dry” subject like insurance to life through highly engaging and charismatic presentations. This domain knowledge helped with my Data Analytics module in terms of how both to create an insightful narrative out of data and how to visually present it.
EA: When I think about the expertise I’ve developed in the last two years, its nothing short of global in terms of the standard that has been set. What makes it more special is that it has been 100 percent remote working. Some of my colleagues who are closest to my heart are thousands of miles away, and yet we were able to become closer as people and professionals, building both enterprise relationships and fundamentally human connection unencumbered by distance.
The key words here are flexibility and trust. I was trusted by my management – here are your goals and we trust your ability to achieve them. It doesn’t matter where you are, we trust you and support you with the training and the toolkit to achieve these targets. This level of trust empowered me as an employee to not only achieve results, but to grow as a professional irrespective of where I was in the world. For instance, I spent 6 months in Indonesia and a month in Cambodia, and continued to secure broadcast opportunities across Singapore and Malaysia; the diversity of locations and the capability of remote working has been nothing short of awe-inspiring! This approach has not only shaped me as a professional, but also showed me that ethnicity and nationality are irrelevant when we share common values that drive us as people and professionals.
