The Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) CEO, Lee Meng Tat, who joined in March 2012, admits he is not ‘an animal kind of person’, but he keeps his ear to the ground to bring fresh perspectives and expertise in helming the organisation. By Lee Pei Qi
Did you imagine you would be helming WRS?
No. I have never been an animal kind of person. But I believe things always happen for a reason and the previous appointments were opportunities that (led me to the present job).
So how did you land this job?
After 12 years at F&N (Fraser & Neave), I felt it was time to move on and started looking out for opportunities.
When the headhunter first put this portfolio on my table, I told him he must be joking and said: “Let’s have a good laugh and move on.” But I decided to really take a look at it and it took me a weekend to decide that I wanted to take this up.
You were at F&N for 12 years. How has that helped your current role?
At F&N, it was about getting the right product and brand across. Here, I am working with the marketing people to get our branding right.
We have four parks under the WRS umbrella brand that promise everyone the ultimate wildlife experience in a safe and controlled environment.
If you want a day experience, we have the Singapore Zoo and the Jurong Bird Park for bird lovers; for the night experience, we have the Night Safari. Now, with our latest River Safari, you can see giant fishes in a freshwater environment.
We have a mix of everything for everyone. So this is the brand I want people to know when they think of WRS.
How has the past year been?
In the beginning, it was all about learning and getting to know the people. You can’t get going until you know the people and what they have done.
It is important for me to understand the business first. Apart from my weekly staff lunches, I also make it a point to walk around the park to put my ear to the ground.
WRS has been very well-run and has done a great job. The key thing is not to be a CEO who comes in to change everything. We continue what works and tweak what needs to be improved. Over the past year, we have been busy getting our River Safari up and running so that is where I have been spending most of my time on.
How do you ensure your parks stay as Singapore’s top attractions?
I am currently looking at a 10-year masterplan to refresh and rejuvenate our parks. We have just agreed on the framework and a timeline so we are now at the first stage of implementation.
What we are doing first is to review our animal and exhibit collection in the parks, which has been around for 40 years. We want to look at which are the ones to keep, why, and what is the conservation value. Then we want to make sure we can create an immersive experience.
This masterplan has a 10-year cycle so when I talk about change, it is not a dramatic reconstruction but a programme that will introduce things in phases so we can have a continuous refreshing experience to bring people back after their first visit.
What makes WRS stand out from the other attractions?
We already have the product, but the differentiating factor is our service excellence. This is something simple to say, but difficult to execute. The product is always there but how you deliver it is our winning edge. Our people are the difference. We do not pay the best salaries but we get the most committed and passionate people who love animals and service.
What else is new in the parks?
We are now inviting our guests to come backstage to see how we care for animals and to have rare, close encounters with our reptiles or baboons.
We did not show them before but these are actually fascinating experiences that we can share and which we are promoting now, to much success.
What are the challenges with handling animals?
These living exhibits move around, so you may not see them all the time.
We do try to design our spaces in such a way that visitors can see almost everything, but if the animals want to rest in a hidden spot, we need to give them the space to rest. We cannot be poking the animals to wake them up because they have a right to sleep too.
The animals are living their lives and we should appreciate the fact that they may be asleep. People need to understand we are not showcasing an exhibit that is always there and that we are participating in the animals’ way of life.
How do you measure success at WRS?
We are a self-funded organisation, which means we must (earn) our own keep.
All the revenues we get must go back to taking care of our animals, exhibits and staff, so we need to balance between doing good and doing well.
If you talk about doing well, we look at the commercial part and it is of course about visitor arrivals. For the financial part, are we making enough money to be self-sustaining?
But on doing good, it is not about money but about the types of conservation projects we have and how we are contributing to the sustainability of wildlife. It is a bit harder to quantify the doing good part because there is no monetary value; it is more about making sure all animals are well taken care of.
Some have commented that your entrance tickets are too expensive.
As a self-funded organisation, we have to make sure that whatever we earn is sufficient for whatever we spend and that we have enough left over for the rejuvenation of the parks.
We need to make a profit but the key thing is we are not profiteering. We have done benchmarking exercises on entrance tickets with the rest of the attractions in Singapore and we compare well in terms of pricing and the experience we provide.
Where do some of the costs go?
We need to feed our animals. You won’t believe the amount of fruits and vegetables that come through our zoo everyday. We have more than 13,000 animals in all four parks and each of them must get their nutrients. We need to buy the right food for the animals because they are living things too and they cannot just eat anything.
How do you cultivate a relationship with travel consultants?
There is definitely a lot of dialogue going on and we like their valuable input and innovative ideas. We have good relationships with the consultants to make sure their programmes dovetail well with what we can offer. And we make sure we invite them for fam trips and provide them with updated information (for their) packages.
So having been a non-animal lover, has that changed now?
(Laughs) No, it’s a bit hard to change that given that I have not been an animal kind of person all my life. But I can say that coming here has provided me a new perspective and taught me how to appreciate animals better.
