Transcription
If they give you criticism, they do actually want you to do better, right? So I think if people have bothered to give you constructive criticism, take it on and see how you can turn it into an advantage.
Tan Su Shan is the CEO of DBS Group, South-east Asia’s largest bank. She stepped into the role in March 2025, and was soon named sixth on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business list. I’m Sumiko Tan from The Straits Times. I’m meeting the banker at Zui Yu Xuan Teochew Cuisine on Amoy Street. Over a set lunch, she reflects on her leadership style, why working women need strong networks, and how she has learnt to handle criticism and grow from it.
Why did you choose this restaurant?
This chain, Jumbo, is a very long-term old client of ours. They’ve been a client for many years and we’ve seen their evolution. I come here a lot. I’m Teochew, I love Teochew food, so it’s familiar. The food’s great and we want to support our customers. This is an opportunity for us to showcase their food.
What is your day like?
Every day is different. There’s a lot of strategic stuff that I have to do, set the scene with my team. Engage internally and externally. I spend a lot of my time trying to understand better about what’s going on in the world. It could be geopolitics, it could be the tremendous change that’s coming upon us with technology. And so when I exercise, I listen to a lot of podcasts from people who are, I hope, experts in the field about what’s going on. Oh wow, people are putting data centres into space now or how is agentic work going to change the way we work today? And try to reimagine the future and bring it back to DBS and the relevance to DBS.
What has been the biggest change you’ve had to make in DBS?
The biggest change I’ve had to make at DBS is for everyone to embrace the changes upon us. I mean, the change that will come with what’s happening around AI is already here. It’s learning to work with machines and AI. I want to keep this cadence of innovation and self-disruption, if you will, but also to stay relevant and resilient. In a way, it’s our USP, right? People come to DBS like they come to Singapore for our safety, our stability, our predictability. And so I want DBS to be that dependable lighthouse in a sea of volatility. But at the same time, recognising that the world of technology and change is fast. And it’s coming faster than ever before. How do we keep that eye out in the long term for that change that is coming at us, faster and faster.
How would you describe your leadership style at home and at work?
I am not a leader at home. My kids will complain. In fact, it’s quite funny. We used to have a basket at home where my kids would insist that we all throw our phones in and we focus on talking to each other, but now they always accuse me of checking my phone too much. My leadership style... I think I’m open in my communications. I think I’m very team-oriented. I hope I’m a clear communicator. I do think that over the years, I’ve learnt to be structured and strategic in my top-down framework and views, and then we kind of input more micro, bottom-up views and details. So I think my leadership style has changed from one that’s being more business, operational, customer-oriented to now being more big picture as well as, you know, looking at the minutiae when I have to. It’s like being ambidextrous, right? So having that eye on the telescope, for the big picture, future stuff, and then also having another microscope for the immediate micro stuff. And realising that I can’t focus on everything, but to make sure I have the right people focusing on both, and to make sure that the ship is running smoothly, and in the direction that we want to go to.
Your mother has had a big impact in your life.
Mum was always a working mother. She was brought up by a mother who was also very strong, but not educated and self-taught. And when my mother had kids, grandma helped mum to take care of us, whilst mum could go to work. And so when my sister and I had kids, my mum helped us take care of our kids whilst we went to work, and it was kind of like it was natural, because that was what we knew. My mum never stopped us from pursuing our individual hobbies. My sister loved music and she had bands. She was DJing. I was doing dance, tap dancing, speech and drama. She was very encouraging. And when I look back, all that side of outside-of-school fun that we did really helped us to be more rounded and more balanced. I think it made us able to juggle, to be nimble, and also to communicate and to be creative. I think those are skills that are life skills.
How important is it for a woman leader to look out for other women?
I think it’s really important. I’ve always in my life believed in helping other women, from when I was in Oxford when we started the women’s group, the Black Jade, to starting the Financial Women’s Association, to my support for younger women entrepreneurs. I speak at a lot of women’s groups, et cetera. In the past, there was always an old boys’ club, and in Singapore, men had NS to kind of be networked in, and women didn’t have that. So creating that network for women, to get to know each other, to help each other, both professionally and personally. But also to be able to be a sounding board, a trusted kind of personal board of directors, so to speak. It’s good to have a sisterhood.
What advice do you have for women who aspire to be someone like you?
I’ve always said this and I want to credit my friend Ron Sim. “When things are good, don’t lose your head; when things are bad, don’t lose your heart.” I really ascribe to that philosophy. You need to make sure you have the ambition and ability. And if you don’t have the ability, find people who can help you to get there, right? So, my advice would be to have mentors, not necessarily just senior mentors, but also people who might be younger than you, but who can give you, for example, technology, AI, give you that sort of insights you need about how the world’s going to look in the future. I will say be agile, be humble, know that what you know today may not be relevant tomorrow. To get mentors to be independent, objective. To be able to tell you the truth. And then take it constructively so that you can get better. I’ve had a lot of criticism thrown at me over the years. There were times where I felt, you know, very discouraged, but then I tried to take a more constructive view of the criticism, and I tried to learn. I seek the same feedback from the people who then criticised me, “What did I do wrong? Tell me how I can do better.” And most people, if they give you criticism, they do actually want you to do better, right? So I think if people have bothered to give you constructive criticism, take it on and see how you can turn it into an advantage.
Thank you very much for having lunch.
Thank you, Sumiko. Thank you.
Tan is Teochew, she loves the food, and the restaurant group has been a long-time DBS client.
Has life changed in any way for you since becoming CEO?
Yes, life has changed but not significantly, my hours are pretty similar, but I guess what I do has changed, right? I spend a lot more time on different stakeholders. A lot of them are business leaders, even politicians. I travel more. A lot more public media engagement.