Ep 140.2: The Secret to Picking F&B Winners & Winning Michelin Stars | Loh Lik Peng (Founder & CEO, Unlisted Collection)

So This Is My Why

Hey STIMIES!

Welcome back to Part 2 of the So This Is My Why Podcast with Loh Lik Peng - CEO & Founder of Unlisted Collection.

In Part 1, we covered Lik Peng’s journey from wanting to become a doctor (just like his parents) to becoming a commercial litigator and purchasing his first hotel property: Hotel 1929.

The property that kickstarted his crazy career pivot.

But the F&B industry is a tough place to be. You need a good dose of hard work, luck and… a talent for spotting F&B talent (which Lik Peng has!).

In this episode, we dive into the intricacies of his international hospitality business, tackling questions like:

• Why does he give equity to his chefs?
• How does he identify and convince culinary talents like Rishi Naleendra to come on board?
• How does he work together with the chefs to ensure that they have everything they need to build a thriving business?
• How attaining a Michelin star flipped a switch within the chefs he works with
• What are his thoughts on brand building?
• When is it time to pull the plug? (His most painful failure was with One Leicester Square in London)
• His big passion with museums; and
• So much more

If you haven’t heard Lik Peng’s origin story, listen to the previous STIMY Ep 140 Part 1 episode first.

And if you have, then stick around for Part 2!

Are you ready?

Let’s go.

Highlights:

• 2:52 Lik Peng’s hands off approach
• 4:20 Discovering Rishi Naleendra & being a good spotter of F&B talent
• 5:51 Did Lik Peng conduct any due diligence on his potential talents?
• 6:56 Building the infrastructure for an F&B business
• 8:20 “I didn’t understand what P&L was before. If I knew, I would’ve never said yes.”
• 9:06 Keep an eye on the numbers!
• 10:12 Winning a Michelin star flipped a star switch…
• 11:18 When are chefs ready to strike out on their own?
• 12:05 Brand building
• 13:30 Overcoming moments of blind panic
• 14:46 When do you let go?
• 15:33 Biggest failure
• 17:57 Passion for museums
• 21:30 Do you still identify as a lawyer?
• 21:43 Which pivot was the easiest and why?
• 24:01 Finding your second & third act in your career
• 25:14 What book are you reading now?
• 25:14 Art of finding the right talent
• 27:00 Any non-compete clause?
• 27:38 Three key things that you’d attribute your success to
• 30:14 One COVID casualty
• 31:23 Luck

📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/140

🍿 YouTube: https://youtu.be/w22CAJupO48

💌 Weekly STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062

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