How She Leads Half A Million Employee - Jessica Tan | Endgame #205 (Luminaries)

Key Concepts

• Meritocracy
• Systemic Engineering Mindset
• Needs-blind Financial Aid
• Management Consulting
• Homogeneous Market
• Cultural Gap
• Hard on Issues, Soft on People
• Fact-Based Decision Making
• Homogeneous Market
• Hard and Soft Infrastructure
• Entrepreneurial Spirit
• AI in Healthcare and Education
• Clinical Decision Support System
• Gen AI
• Interoperability
• Digital Divide
• Federated Learning
• Multidisciplinary Approach to AI
• Sustainable Business

Early Life and Education

Jessica Tan's parents were working-class immigrants from Malaysia to Singapore. She benefited from Singapore's meritocratic system, where hard work and education were emphasized. Her father, an engineer at Texas Instruments, instilled a systemic engineering mindset in her. He encouraged her and her sisters to justify their requests, such as for more pocket money, with essays.

Tan attended MIT, initially driven by a desire to make her father proud by pursuing electrical engineering. Her father insisted she not take a Singapore scholarship, wanting her to experience working in the U.S. This placed a significant financial burden on her family, especially during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. MIT provided needs-blind financial aid, and she worked three jobs to support herself.

At MIT, she pursued optical engineering and worked with Professor Hermann Haus, a renowned scientist, on her master's thesis, which led to publications and experience at Bell Labs. This experience instilled in her the belief that she could achieve anything she set her mind to.

Career Path

Upon graduation, Tan turned down offers from Microsoft and the opportunity to pursue a PhD at Bell Labs. She joined McKinsey in Chicago through a special program for science and engineering graduates. She worked in various industries, including retail (Victoria's Secret), airlines, and e-commerce, and helped save telecom companies from bankruptcy during the dot-com burst.

She moved back to Singapore after her husband, a physics and political science scholar she met at MIT, grew tired of their long-distance relationship. In 2003, she entered China for the first time and worked with Ping An as her first client. She led a project to centralize Ping An's operations and build a shared services operation center in Shanghai, which housed 30,000 people.

In 2013, she joined Ping An, taking a chance on a Chinese company despite having a successful career at McKinsey. She became the group CIO and CEO of the tech company within Ping An, managing a team that grew from 3,000 to half a million people.

Leadership at Ping An

Tan emphasized the importance of knowing where you're going as a leader and mobilizing people to execute. She focused on working with people, hearing different points of view, and encouraging them to take risks. She hired new talent from Silicon Valley and integrated them into the existing IT team.

She stayed grounded by remaining familiar with the numbers and being hands-on with strategic projects, such as building the elderly home care business. She maintained a "hard on issues, soft on people" approach, being analytical and data-driven while also caring for her employees.

Culture and Decision-Making

Tan believes a good leader needs to be strategic, analytical, and able to execute through people. She starts with a five-year vision and works backward. She uses numbers to understand the business and encourages a fact-based culture.

She makes up for her "scary" demeanor by showing care for her employees, writing birthday cards, and being involved in their evaluation and development. She also loves team events.

Regarding decision-making, she believes big decisions should be debated in a small group, with the leader ultimately deciding. Smaller decisions should be more widely debated. She emphasizes the importance of taking risks and being willing to admit when you're wrong.

Technology, Healthcare, and Education

Tan discusses the importance of hard and soft infrastructure and entrepreneurial spirit in China's growth. She highlights the role of technology and the need for investment in R&D.

She emphasizes the importance of data, talent, and use cases for AI. She believes Southeast Asia has vibrant markets and young, mobile-friendly people, but needs to address the talent issue.

Tan is passionate about education and believes AI can improve the quality and productivity of doctors and teachers. She discusses Ping An's AI medical initiatives, including clinical decision support systems and AI doctors.

She advocates for changing the mode of operating in healthcare, shifting from acute care to primary and preventive care. She also sees opportunities for AI in early childhood education.

AI and the Future

Tan believes AI can help with mental illnesses, but the industry needs to be more regulated. She discusses the economic and social challenges of longevity and the need to support the elderly.

She sees the potential for AI to become further decoupled between the US and China, but hopes for interoperability to ensure global connectivity. She emphasizes the need for a multidisciplinary approach to AI and worries about the potential for it to further elitize the narrative.

Tan is optimistic about the potential for AI to democratize entrepreneurship and solve real-world problems. She encourages the younger generation to be passionate and pursue their goals.

Message to Young Women

Tan encourages young women to be confident, not apologetic, and to keep asking for what they want. She emphasizes the importance of self-resilience and changing systems where they see injustice.

She advises women to be comfortable with their own leadership style and not feel like they have to conform to certain standards. She encourages them to build confidence by trying new things and not taking no for an answer.

Conclusion

Jessica Tan's journey from a humble background to a leadership position at Ping An is a testament to the power of hard work, education, and a willingness to take risks. She emphasizes the importance of data-driven decision-making, a people-centric approach to leadership, and the potential of technology to solve real-world problems. Her message to young women is one of confidence, resilience, and the importance of making a difference in the world.