From Crisis to Culture

Transformation is rarely defined by a single initiative, it is the result of countless decisions, consistent execution, and a shared commitment to improvement. In our recent conversation with the Tee Hor Chang, Chief Operating Officer of Jebsen & Jessen Packaging, we explored the principles that have shaped operational excellence across the region over the past decade. Through candid reflections on business turnarounds, organisational change, and leadership during uncertainty, the conversation reveals how discipline, collaboration, and a long-term mindset have become the foundation for sustainable success.

Q: We’d love to get to know you better, who are you as a leader within Jebsen & Jessen Packaging, what path led you here, and how would you describe yourself outside the workplace?

A: As COO of Jebsen & Jessen Packaging, I oversee regional operations with a strong focus on execution excellence, sustainable growth, and delivering reliable, high-quality packaging solutions. My background across operations, general management, and performance improvement in multi-country environments has shaped a pragmatic and people-centered leadership style. I believe in aligning strategy with execution, empowering teams, and driving continuous improvement through collaboration and data-driven decisions. Outside work, I value lifelong learning, personal growth, and maintaining balance through family, reflection, and meaningful connections.

Q: With nearly a decade of leading the operations in Jebsen & Jessen Packaging, what are the most impactful success stories you can share with us, and how did you turn them from vision into realities? ​

A:

Across the businesses I have led, I have come to believe deeply that discipline and teamwork, applied consistently, can transform even the most difficult situations into stories worth telling.

Our Malaysia Sungai Buloh plant is where it began. Back in 2018, the business was bleeding losses year after year. But we rolled up our sleeves, got back to basics, and through streamlining the client base, optimizing process and manpower efficiency, we turned it around. By 2019, profitability was restored and the team had found its footing again.

Then came the Malaysia Nilai plant in 2023, and this one still excites me. Within just six months, we went from losses to turning a profit. Via operational optimization, we were able to remove the needs of contract workers and renting of external warehouse. That momentum carried forward year after year, with NPBT growing the following year and grew further by 2025. When execution is sharp and people are aligned, there is no ceiling.

And then there is our Indonesia plant. In 2025, revenue fell more than 20% due to market conditions, the kind of drop that would once have meant certain losses. But the discipline we had embedded held firm, and we still delivered some profit for the year.

These stories remind me that how we lead and execute matters more than any framework. Done right, it becomes a mindset that turns adversity into opportunity.

Q: Organizational resistance is common during transformation. How did you manage and overcome it from the leadership and frontline level’s perspective?

A: At the leadership level, the biggest challenge I faced was scepticism. Many saw new operational implementations as just another initiative that would fade away. To overcome this, I clarified the purpose consistently. It was never solely about cost-cutting, but about simplifying processes, improving reliability, and making work easier. I stayed actively involved, grounded every discussion in facts, and remained committed even when progress was slow. Over time, leaders began to see that it was here to stay, and more importantly, that it worked.

At the frontline level, concerns were more personal. People worried about job security, extra workload, and fear of judgment. So, we started with real, everyday problems people were already frustrated with, like late deliveries and rework. Rather than telling people what to do, we solved problems together and made it clear that mistakes were part of learning.

What made the difference was that people began to see results with their own eyes. Processes became clearer, problems were caught earlier, and constant firefighting started to ease. When people experience that kind of change firsthand, resistance transforms into ownership.

Q: Numbers tell a story, but not always the full one. When you introduce something new operationally, what does success look like to you, and how do you measure it in a way that is meaningful to the business and the people on the ground?

A: In Jebsen & Jessen Packaging, we measure operational success not by the number of tools nor theories we use, but by the real impact we see on the ground. For me, it comes down to four key areas that together tell the full story of whether something is truly working. ​

The first is business performance: on-time delivery, short lead times, inventory level & accuracy, reduction in rework, and optimized productivity. The second is process stability, where deviation is kept minimum, our people are adhered to standard work, have the visibility to potential problems and prevent them before they happen. The third is problem-solving capability: Providing the right counter measure to the right root cause quickly, and able to eliminate the chance of any reoccurrence of issues. The fourth, and perhaps the most telling, is people behaviour. Are leaders asking the right questions? Are frontline teams involved in improvements? Is there less firefighting and more structured thinking? ​

When all four are moving in the right direction, the organisation becomes calmer, clearer, and more predictable. And to me, that is the truest sign that the work is paying off.

Q: Many people associate operational crises with a negative sentiment. What's your perspective on facing them, and how does that perspective drive you to overcome them?

A: I don't see the crisis as an isolated event. I feel it as a signal that something in the wider system needs attention, not just the one visible part that failed. That perspective pushed me to look beyond the immediate fix and examine how that part connected to everything else. Addressing it at the system level, rather than in isolation, is what got us through the crisis with a setup that was genuinely more resilient than before.

Q: The idea of cost cutting via headcount reduction often triggers concerns around job security. How did you address these concerns among your people?

A: Headcount reduction doesn't have to mean job losses. That's the key message I try to get across. Our real focus is on productivity: producing the same output with fewer people, not by cutting people, but by working smarter. The manpower we free up isn't let go; it's redirected to support new business growth, which means we avoid hiring additional headcount elsewhere. That way, our people keep their jobs, we manage costs effectively, and the business keeps growing, all at once.

Q: Waste reduction remains one of the key levers for improving productivity. Could you walk us through a few real-world examples of how this has been implemented across our sites?

A: The first example is the seiryūka (整流化 / flow rectification) concept that I've share with our people in the Malaysia Nilai plant. We picture a heavy rainfall entering at 1,000 cubic meters per hour, while drainage capacity allows only 10 cubic meters per hour to exit, flooding becomes inevitable. We identified a similar imbalance within our production flow. By measuring input and output rates at each process stage, we pinpointed the bottlenecks and redesigned the overall production flow to eliminate stagnation and ensure smooth, continuous throughput. ​

A comparable initiative took place at our Vietnam plant. During scheduled floor restoration works, we leveraged the opportunity to conduct a full process re-layout. Previously, production stages were positioned irregularly across the facility. We reorganized them into a linear sequence aligned with the actual production flow, significantly reducing unnecessary transportation and material handling waste.

Q: What advice would you give to a team leader looking to create real change in their team's mindset?

A: Lead by example, not by lecture. We've learned that the same message doesn't land the same way across every level of the organization. So instead of talking to factory workers about "overall vision and direction," we showed them more efficient ways to do a simple, everyday task. And whenever they came back to us with their own ideas for improvement, no matter how small, we made sure to recognize and appreciate it. That's the mentality we want to inspire in our people: change starts with action, not announcements.

Q: Can you share with us a real story of converting a reluctant team, and how do you sustain the momentum?

A: Seeing is believing, results speak for themselves. One of our sites had been labelled the worst-performing company for over three decades, never achieving more than 5% NPBT. After we turned it around and improved both profitability and everyone's yearly bonus, people started to believe. Even senior managers who'd been with us for decades, once they saw the results, became convinced, some even took the initiative to drive further improvements. As we continued putting in the effort and seeing the results, our people grew more open to new ideas, began treating the business as their own, and developed a stronger sense of belonging. That's what makes change sustain itself.

Q: Change is never easy to introduce, especially early on. How did you manage to get your team to that first "okay, I'll try" moment, when trust hadn't been built yet?

A: Honestly, this is one of the hardest parts of the entire transformation journey. There's no shortcut, it takes education, patience, and a lot of cultivation. For those who hadn't seen results yet and were still holding on to the old ways, we had to keep explaining the "why" behind the change and what it would lead to. Change doesn't happen overnight. A seedling won't grow into a tree if you only water it once. It was through consistent effort, day after day, that we slowly earned our people's trust and began moving forward together.

Q: What is your vision for the future of operational excellence in Jebsen & Jessen Packaging?

A: Manufacturing has always evolved around a defining idea. Using the automotive industry as example, Ford, Chrysler, and GM built the era of mass production. Toyota introduced the discipline of quality. Today, it's speed, especially out of China, that's setting the competitive pace. Our vision for the next five years is to bring these strengths together: staying rooted in high quality manufacturing as our foundation, while digitalizing manual tasks with built-in AI. That's how we aim to build a holistic, lasting advantage in the market.

Q: To close things off, what would you like to leave our readers with?

A: Having a meeting is often like a medical check-up, it focuses on identifying what's wrong but doesn't by itself improve the outcome. Real improvement comes from action. Action shifts the focus from diagnosis to results. That's why I believe in speaking less and acting more. ​