; Inside Retail: How did you get into the industry?  Shze Min Yah: I was a civil servant for close to 20 years before joining Amazon Singapore. I started out as a film classifier at the then Media Development Authority before moving to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), where my work involved negotiating free trade agreements between Singapore and other countries.  After that, I moved to Europe where I was part of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Singapore in Geneva, taking care of goods negotiation.  When I came back to Singapore, I returned to MTI, then moved to the International Engagement Department at the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, and finally the Standards Division of Enterprise Singapore, where I looked at services standards, like hospitality and retail standards, including e-commerce standards.  Despite this rich experience, I knew I needed a big change in my career to continue to learn and grow. So, I decided to pivot to the private sector. I looked for opportunities with large companies that I believed would provide the change that I needed while offering the structure and process that I had enjoyed working for the Singapore government.  I came across the Southeast Asia public policy manager opening, for which I thought that my knowledge and experience in trade, IP and standards would be helpful. I applied for the role and after successfully going through the loop interview process I joined Amazon’s public policy team in 2021.  IR: How did you handle the challenge of making this pivot?  SMY: I was worried about moving to the private sector after so many years being a civil servant. My own father – a civil servant all his life – couldn’t believe I was doing this!  I discussed this thoroughly with two close friends of mine; one who had made the same pivot successfully and the other who believed I could – and this was the confirmation I needed that I was making the right decision. When I started at Amazon, I realized that ways of working at Amazon were not completely different from what I was used to. Both the Singapore government and Amazon have a culture of pragmatism, are solution-focused, and strive for efficiency and effectiveness, with a high bar for everything.  For example, at Amazon, meetings start with 20 minutes of document reading, because instead of looking at a PowerPoint presentation we read a detailed document (we call it a “narrative”) that fleshes out the ideas that are up for discussion.  Only after that do we start the debate. I was used to a similar process while in the civil service, but instead we called these documents “submissions” and they would have to be read before the meeting.  However, Amazon’s culture is unique or “peculiar” as we often say. Our Day 1 Culture – doing everything with the energy and entrepreneurial spirit of a new organisation on its first day – and our 16 Leadership Principles form the bedrock of everything we do.  This can be surprising for people outside the company but actually, the thorough hiring process makes sure that successful candidates will most likely fit in and enjoy the culture of the company.  IR: What does a typical day look like for you? SMY: There is no typical day really because I deal with so many topics that touch on a variety of government regulations and policies.  My role is to ensure that if there are new rules proposed, or rules up for review, the government understands how they will impact local businesses like Amazon and potentially considers whether there are other more business-friendly ways in which to achieve its objectives.  I’m also responsible for participating in public consultations and making the case for a fair and proportionate approach to these policy developments. In short, I act as a bridge between the company and the Singapore government and as such I get to work with many different teams internally (legal, PR, the business) and various government agencies at all levels.  IR: What do you love about your job?  SMY: I find my job particularly rewarding because it gives me the opportunity to help Singaporeans protect themselves against bad actors, such as scammers.  For example, last year, Amazon participated in the Digital for Life Festival organized by the Infocomm Media Development Authority, where I was able to connect with different groups of Singaporeans and tell them about our efforts in combating scams and fake reviews.  Many of those who visited our booth were not tech-savvy, so it was gratifying to educate them.  I also had the chance to engage with the Ministry of Home Affairs to explain to them the stringent measures we have in place to verify the identity of our sellers in our store and also how we protect our customers from all types of fraud.  This resulted in Amazon.sg achieving the highest rating possible for a second year running in Singapore’s 2023 E-Commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings, an annual evaluation by the Ministry of Home Affairs of the quality of anti-scam measures offered by online retailers in Singapore. IR: Do you have any business heroes? SMY: My mother is such an inspiration to me, she is my hero! She is 80 years old and worked as a bookkeeper for a small Chinese trading company until she was 73.  When she was in her 50s, the regulatory requirements in Singapore for bookkeeping changed, and not only did she have to switch from using Chinese to English, she had to learn a set of new standards.  To be qualified, she had to take an exam so she could fulfill these new requirements. So, whenever I encounter difficulties, I tell myself, if my mother could do something so tough when she was in her 50s, I can do this too!  IR: What’s your approach to work-life balance? SMY: I am a single mother of two, so work-life balance is an important topic to me! Amazon gives me the flexibility that I need and I can work from home up to two days a week when I want to.  In my experience, everyone at Amazon is respectful of each other’s personal time. Even during busy periods, and when meetings take place across time zones, there are only a few times a year when I have to attend meetings in the wee hours of the morning. And that is acceptable to me because we are a multinational company. IR: What are some of the key leadership lessons you’ve picked up over the course of your career?  SMY: Two of the Amazon Leadership Principles particularly resonate with me: Earn Trust and Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit.  From coordinating across functions and across teams, I have realized that earning trust from colleagues and external partners is essential to achieving great results.  When people trust you, it becomes easier to bring everyone on board, especially for complex issues. I earn people’s trust usually by keeping them fully informed, seeking their views, and listening carefully to them, in an open discussion before critical decisions are made.  The second Leadership Principle means that leaders are obliged to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when it is uncomfortable. But once a decision is made, we commit to it.  Sometimes, it can be intimidating to challenge a more senior leader in a meeting. If I think a decision we make will not go down well with an external stakeholder we are working with, I have to do my job and say so.  But if I’ve already spoken up and highlighted the issue to the best of my ability, and if the final decision is still pushed ahead, I will commit to doing it.  I think this is a very difficult leadership principle to achieve, and I am still trying my best to do better, but it is very important if you want to get a job done well.