Speaker

Shafie Shamsuddin

Shafie Shamsuddin, 50 years old, Singaporean, is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of AEON Co. (M) Berhad (AEON:MK & 6599) & AEON Big Sdn Bhd. He is currently serving as the Deputy President of Malaysia Retailers Association.

AEON Retail (Malaysia) is  owned by  AEON Co. Ltd, the biggest retailer in Japan, with the annual revenue of USD 80bil. AEON currently present in 14 countries with more than 550,000 employees worldwide.

Shafie is also the independent non-executive director of Petronas Dagangan Berhad (PDB), the principal marketing arm of PETRONAS listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia. Shafie is in the Board of Adviser for the Alumni Nanyang Business School in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore since 2014.

Upon his graduation from NTU, Shafie joined Carrefour Singapore as a management trainee and became the first Asian CEO of Carrefour at the age of 35 years old. He has led Carrefour in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Shafie was also based in Paris as the Executive Director of Global Talent Management and Organizational Development in Carrefour Group. Shafie has extensive experience in human capital development, the consumer goods industry and over 20 years of immersion in the ASEAN  region.

He then took up a role as CEO of Trans Retail where he led the first phase of transformation of Carrefour Indonesia to Transmart from a typical hypermarket business model into an evolving lifestyle targeting middle income population.

During his 6.5 years tenure in Trans Retail, Transmart has grown the number of stores from 83 (400,000 sqm) to 130 (750,000 sqm) with major improvement in profitability where the company has recorded a double digit % of EBITDA against revenue. Shafie has also made significant progress in the leadership development towards the readiness of human capital beyond digital.

Career Milestones:

AEON Co. (M) Berhad, AEON BiG (M) Sdn Bhd   
Jan. 2020 – Current (Kuala Lumpur)
CEO / Managing Director 

  1. AEON Co (M) Bhd., a public listed company, incorporated in September 1984 operating in multiple business formats such as General Merchandising stores (34 stores), supermarkets (9 stores), shopping malls (28 malls – one of the leading mall operator in Malaysia with 14mil sqft in NLA) and other specialty stores with a total number of employees of 9,500.
  2. AEON BiG (M) Sdn Bhd, formed after acquisition of Carrefour in 2012, operating under hypermarket format, operated 22 hypermarket stores with a total of 1,700 employees.

AEON Asia Sdn Bhd                                                        
Jul. 2019 – Dec. 2019 (Kuala Lumpur)
Chief Strategy Officer

  1. Responsible to develop the growth strategy for AEON Group’s business in Malaysia along with a mid-term management plan to materialize the growth
  2. Responsible for the Company’s vision, organizational structure and management, while providing leadership, accountability and mentorship to improve internal systems for higher work productivity.

Trans Retail Group
2013 – Jun.2019  (Jakarta)
President Director & CEO

  1. Strengthen Board of Directors and human capital in Trans Retail including aggressive expansion plan to open more than 20 stores with retail space of 250k o 300k sqm annually.
  2. Strategic plan to have 200 stores across 60 cities and the employment of 45.000 employees in Indonesia by 2020.
  3. Transformed and integrated brick and mortar retail stores with online and digitalization through innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship.
  4. 2013- 2014 : Crafted the vision and mission for Trans Retail, successfully develop new business models and led the culture integration of Carrefour Indonesia (MNC) with CT Corp.
  5. 2015-2016 : Transform Carrefour brand into Transmart, proven new business model led to the acquisition of 17% of Trans Retail by GIC (Government Investment Corporation of Singapore) at SGD 500mil (30 x EBITDA).

Carrefour Group        
2011 – 2012  (Paris)
Executive Director of Global Talent Management & Organizational Development

  1. Developed bottom-up process of talents worldwide through a revamp performance appraisal, developed mentoring and coaching for top talents to be CEO, with almost 500 senior leaders within the Carrefour Group worldwide including Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Asia.
  2. Promoted the balance between HR academics with strategic business pragmatism and strategic alignment between each country CEOs with organization and human capital for the 20 countries.

Carrefour Indonesia
2009 – 2011  (Jakarta)
President Director & CEO

  1. Led Carrefour Indonesia with 81 stores in 27 cities across Indonesia with annual revenue of SGD 1.2bil
  2. Transformed and solved complex issues within Carrefour Indonesia from negative to positive profitability and executed strategic initiatives including 40% shares acquisition from CT Corporations in 2010 for the company’s future growth and development

Carrefour Malaysia & Singapore
2006 – 2009  (Kuala Lumpur)
CEO

  1. First Asian and the youngest CEO of Carrefour worldwide (35 years old) with SGD 750mil annual revenue (8,000 employees with 4,000 direct associates)
  2. Managed more than 20 hypermarkets plus new expansion of convenience stores in Malaysia and 2 stores in Singapore.

Carrefour Malaysia & Singapore
2005 – 2006  (Singapore)
Managing Director for  Carrefour Singapore
South Regional Director Operations for Malaysia

  1. Fully responsible for general management, expansion and profitability of operations development in Singapore with an annual revenue of SGD200mil.
  2. Regional Director in operations and expansion for Southern region in Malaysia.

Carrefour Group
1996 – 2005
Various Roles 

  1. Management Trainee
  2. Assistant Department Head
  3. Department Head and Division Manager– Carrefour Singapore (Based in Singapore)
  4. Bazaar Merchandise Manager – Carrefour Indonesia (Based in Jakarta)
  5. Store Director
  6. Marcom Director
  7. Non-Food Director
  8. HR – Carrefour Singapore (Based in Singapore)

 

AllSessions

Day 2
October 21, 2021
8:45 am

Concurrent Session C: “Reviving Retail: The Way Forward”

21 October
Time:  8:45 am - 9:45 am
Location: 

The retail sector, including malls, is one of the worst-hit sectors during the pandemic. Due to lockdowns, the retail sector contracted 16% in 2020, its worst performance since the 1998 Asian financial crisis*, with double-digit contractions for apparel, footwear, and fashion accessories. Even hypermarkets, supermarkets, and convenience stores recorded a drop in total sales due to lower footfall. Online shopping, however, has seen a substantial increase in sales, with e-commerce revenues shooting up 30% in 1Q 2021 y-o-y, after registering steady growth in 2020**.

The statistics indicate the need to migrate to, or incorporate, e-commerce, even for traditional shopping malls that rely on footfall. What are the difficulties that lie ahead, and is there a sweet spot that combines the best of traditional retail and online shopping?

*Malaysia Retail Sales Report (March 2021)
**Department of Statistics Malaysia