¡ã Wendy Chen CEO (Ãâó: techshake)

A Woman of Intellectual Prowess

Wendy Chen is the CEO of Omnistream, a data-driven customer experience company that is currently based in Singapore. Their service expansively caters around Southeast Asia. It is her mission to efficiently improve the operations of business development models for new and established retailers alike. A former Systems Engineering student at the University of Waterloo, she learned how to enhance the importance of the present technological advancement with her profound ideas. Upon graduating, she harnessed her skills of data analysis, business strategy, and development through her work experiences at Wallstreet, Jane Street Capital, Qualcomm, Barclays Capital, and Research in Motion. This became her training ground to the many possibilities that she has presently channeled into reality.

Wendy along with her family struggled with being in the lower socio-economic class in China. As a result, they opted to move to Canada for a better future. This led to her acquiring a good education, which then allowed her to develop her passion for building systems and business models through her own dedication and innovation. She is particularly interested in studying war journals and reading business portfolios because it helps her envision other business opportunities. She is continuously inspired to become an effective CEO upon reading the book ‘Zero to One’ by Peter Thiel. It has guided her in immensely understanding the process of starting her own business.

Finding the Right People with the Same Vision

Upon her return to Asia, Wendy realized the vast difference between East Asian and Western retailers. An example given was that moving consumer products in the Philippines is faster and in the form of sachet products. Whereas, in the Western countries, most products are bought by the bulk. With this, her interest in newfound business opportunities in Asia grew, realizing that retailers need data analysts and business developers in order to maintain their growth aspirations in what’s becoming a very competitive landscape. The imminent desire to create positive change was instilled within her, which is why she brainstormed on an idea that strategizes business models for start-up retailers as well as existing players entering the South East Asian markets. For her, it is all about finding the right strategy against previous products, “Even if you’re an underdog, you can win as long as you move faster than your competition.”

With this in mind, she formed Omnistream, a company that provides services by developing retail business models through the merging and study of hyper-localized internal and external retailer data. Wendy’s focus has been on taking advantage of the automation that technological advancements have brought, whilst at the same time, being able to identify and adapt for edge cases in order to productively connect with the needs of their clients. As the founder of Omnistream, Wendy sees the potential of other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, where she shortly plans to open a branch in Manila. For her company to expand, she presently prioritizes finding the right people for the company, people who have the same vision of helping other entrepreneurs structure their dreams towards success. This is her motivation, to build up her own mini-empire to give away someday, as her own gift to the world.

Technology as a Means of Data Improvement

Personal intelligence and predictive solutions - this is what Omnistream provides to retailers with automation and speed. It is through their real-time study of change, varying data sophistication and complex business models that they have improved the business performance of retailers.

Omnistream have built their proprietary business models with a focus on automation, to be able to analyze immense amounts of data with high levels of accuracy and speed. They typically propose a proof of concept trial to customize their models to the specifics of each retailer, to make sure that the retailer operations can execute their recommendations and to demonstrate the bottom-line benefits. A trial like this can take anywhere from one to three months, which includes in-store trials and post-trial analytics. Apart from that, they see that establishing trust is key to forming good relationships with their clients.

For Wendy, it has always been her passion to study business models and finding ways to optimize their designs. Now, through Omnistream, she continues this superb trait that assists others’ business dreams to prosper effectively no matter the difference between demographics, culture, and economics of each country that she caters to.