CEO Talk Series: Eco World - Old Business, New World

Dato’ Chang sharing his thoughts and experiences

The Centre for Corporate and Community Development in collaboration with UTAR Unovate Centre organised the CEO talk series on 12 August 2020 via Zoom. EcoWorld President and CEO Dato’ Chang Khim Wah presented his topic titled “Old Business, New World” at the webinar which saw more than 200 participants.

Dato’ Chang said, “The new world business is very important. We need to learn to evolve in the new world. When you do a business, you must entrench into the community that you are serving and that will make the business become whole. You will be successful for many years to come if you can keep the business model sustainable.”

“When we first started EcoWorld, we wanted to make a product that is different from everyone else. It’s not just a place to live but we wanted something that makes living better. When we do business today, it’s not just about constructing a building, we need to look at building the entire environment and strive to achieve a certain level of the ecosystem that is natural as possible,” added Dato’ Chang.

“Our philosophy is DNA. ‘D’ represents Design, ‘N’ represents Nature and ‘A’ represents Art. The architect’s inspiration must complement the developer’s philosophy. When you take pride in the place you live, you will maintain it. When you maintain it, there will be certain value added to the property. Nature is very close to our hearts, thus we always develop the parks and greens before we develop the houses,” said Dato’ Chang as he explained the EcoWorld’s philosophy.

EcoWorld places a lot of emphasis on the ecosystem in each of their projects. “We look at the green footprint when we do our development. The existing flora and fauna are very important to us; thus, we avoid natural forest areas. We try to preserve the natural trees as much as possible or transplant them so they can continue to live. ‘You either innovate or you die’ phrase has pushed us to what we are today. We have also gone digital by designing a mobile application where neighbours can connect with each other and us. Robotics is also important to us as it improves efficiency, empower employees and enhance customer value,” continued Dato’ Chang.

EcoWorld uses social media to engage with the customers

He advised, “Be willing to do anything even if it deviates from your job scope because you will only gain more experiences which adds an advantage to your career prospect. It is also important to do something that you are passionate about, but in the meantime, explore other areas to add more skills which would be beneficial to your career. The biggest enjoyment is to bring young teams around as they provide different viewpoints, ideas and energy which are able to overcome challenges.”

The talk was then followed by a quiz session hosted on Kahoot! The top ten winners with the highest scores received prizes from EcoWorld.

Top three winners from the quiz session

Eco World Development Group Berhad or better known as EcoWorld Malaysia is a public listed Malaysian company, led by some of the most well-known and respected players in the property industry. Its CEO, Dato’ Chang leads the charge with approximately 1,400 employees (70 per cent millennials) to push forward EcoWorld’s vision of Creating Tomorrow and Beyond by staying relevant to the needs of the market, rethinking industry norms, innovating fresh ideas and crafting new products that enrich life experiences for generations.