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How Banyan Group Survived a Volatile Industry Without Compromise
How Banyan Group Survived a Volatile Industry Without Compromise
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Sous-titres (152)
0:00
From a piece of land that no one wanted,
0:02
to one of Asia's most recognizable luxury hospitality brands.
0:08
The story behind Singapore's Banyan Group is one built on bold bets and tough lessons.
0:14
Have you got 6 hours?
0:17
For founders Ho Kwon Ping and Claire Chiang, survival wasn't luck. It was strategy.
0:22
I need three pots of reserve. You always will have something to pick up and go again.
0:34
This piece of land in Phuket, Thailand, was seen by most as a lost cause.
0:38
But Ho Kwon Ping and Claire Chiang saw a blank canvas.
0:43
In 1994, it became the home of the first Banyan Tree resort — with low-rise villas,
0:49
private pools and a focus on restoring the land.
0:53
That vision would grow into a global network of resorts,
0:57
built on one principle: transforming overlooked places into destinations.
1:03
We wanted our lives to have some meaning in development and uplifting communities.
1:09
I think success is really sometimes not the way as you plan it. For us it was such an accidental
1:16
encounter but I think after we'd got that abandoned piece of land and thought about
1:22
hospitality, and not knowing what to do with it - we got experts who come in to first demonstrate
1:27
and we learn - the whole journey, the 30 years, incrementally then becomes a journey of learning.
1:33
Today, Banyan Group spans 12 brands - including Laguna, Folio,
1:38
Garrya and Homm. But its crown jewel remains its flagship luxury brand, Banyan Tree. In an
1:45
industry known for its volatility many brands don't last, but Banyan Group is still standing.
1:52
To me, growth is more a byproduct of being able to survive and then succeeding. But growth for
1:59
its own sake doesn't really mean anything much to me. Survival does, because in this business,
2:06
not many of my peers have survived if they are single branded luxury brands.
2:12
I’ve got good friends, the founders of Six Senses, the founder of Aman, Alila and others,
2:20
they have had to sell their companies and so on, because it's a very capital intensive business
2:24
and it's a very volatile business and you know my philosophy is let a hundred flowers bloom and then
2:31
when the garden is really big, or we may want to sell the brand, or we may merge it with something
2:37
else, but if you're not willing to try and do new things and you only stick to one single playbook,
2:45
which a lot of people do and countries do also, then you may not survive.
2:50
Banyan Group's businesses span three core areas. Owned and operated hotels, branded residences, and
2:58
fee-based services, including hotel management, galleries, and spas. It's a model designed to
3:04
balance growth and resilience, supporting a global portfolio of about a hundred properties. But for
3:11
founders Ho Kwon Ping and Claire Chiang, the journey has been anything but straightforward.
3:16
Did you not have any doubts?
3:18
Oh yes. The word was, did you give up? No. We never gave up. Did I have many doubts?
3:23
Lots of doubts obviously. And not only doubts, there were moments of near death.
3:29
Near death.
3:29
Meaning for the company. We went through SARS. We went through the tsunami. We've gone through
3:34
the financial crisis. Covid was the first time, in fact, I was telling to my children,
3:41
we've tried to protect them from the vicissitudes of our business,
3:45
and the only time our children ever saw me cry was at the height
3:51
of Covid when there was a moment when I thought we wouldn't get through this.
3:55
You cried?
3:56
Yeah. In front of them. I felt so ashamed.
3:58
Did you see him cry?
3:59
We were all there. Yeah. It's tears of frustration and helplessness,
4:07
which is without our ability to control the circumstances.
4:11
It's scary.
4:12
It's scary. Yeah. Yeah. But...
4:15
You pulled through.
4:16
Well, yeah.
4:17
Yeah.
4:18
That's why I've always said 90% of success is survival, as long as you last long enough.
4:25
Here I must make a note though of gratitude to all our associates who were there with
4:32
us. They took unpaid leave. They switch off all lights, water, to save energy,
4:37
any expense, any cent they can keep, and we take no salary in order to be able to distribute...
4:44
But companies have gone under.
4:45
Those were tough years.
4:46
Yeah.
4:46
Sustainability has always been central to the Banyan Group but after all,
4:51
at the end of the day, it is still a business. How do you balance purpose with profit?
4:57
I don't think there is a choice you have to make between profits and purpose. I think you
5:02
can achieve both at the same time. If you're trying to maximize stakeholder's benefits,
5:08
then you've got the community interests in mind, you've got your associates interests in mind,
5:12
then you have to balance many other considerations,
5:15
in which profits is very important and is one of probably the top three considerations,
5:22
but it's not the only consideration. So, it's balance that I think is very important.
5:28
Purpose is about values, and values drive leadership and as leaders we took it as
5:37
something that we believed in, and we do. And because we do, we work hard on it,
5:42
we get the profits, whether it's short-term or long-term. So, I don't think it is dichotomous.
5:49
And for Chiang and Ho Kwon Ping, sustainability isn’t just a
5:53
principle – it's something they’re willing to act on. Even when it means walking away.
5:59
Claire, you've always been the moral compass of the company. Have you ever walked away
6:03
from a deal that KP has proposed just because it just didn't meet your sustainability standards?
6:09
We have had some proposals, but we didn't chase it, put it that way. The biggest debate we had
6:18
was with Macau because it's a casino place. The partner our owner, and us as operator,
6:27
reached a certain understanding, there's nothing to deal with gambling in the hotel.
6:33
But I'll give you another example, you say walk away from deals. We have always believed that any
6:39
hotel that charges a service charge must pay out the service charge to all its employees.
6:45
If you don't charge a service charge at all that's fine, you just pay a tip. And we have
6:49
given up projects where owners did not agree with us, we've taken owners to court to enforce
6:55
the right for us to pay out the service charge because it's always in our management agreements.
7:01
So, sustainability is not just about the physical environment. Too many people
7:05
think it's about trees and climate change. Sustainability, the very word sustainability
7:11
means in every aspect of sustainability. How can you be sustainable if your associates are
7:16
not aligned with you? If your associates don't trust and believe in the company,
7:20
and that's something that we work hard to sustain the trust and respect of our
7:25
own associates, and if you don't walk the talk they won't trust you anymore.
7:28
Last year, the Singapore based Banyan Group returned to its roots, opening its
7:33
first resort in the country. A milestone that marked its 100th property globally.
7:39
This is your first resort in Singapore after 30 years. Was it a big homecoming for you?
7:44
It's very important for us. We really wanted to plant a Banyan Tree here and
7:48
it had to be special. And you know, there are a lot of other nice places,
7:53
but the Mandai Wildlife Reserve is iconic, and we've just won an award for one of the
7:58
ten best resorts in the whole world, within less than a year after opening,
8:04
so we think it's been a right choice. This whole location I think has really
8:09
been what we've always wanted our homecoming to be in Singapore, something very, very special.
8:14
Is this your favorite?
8:15
No, the next one is always the favourite.
8:19
For Chiang, the group’s Rainforest Mandai Resort is personal, shaped by years of involvement with
8:24
Singapore’s Mandai Wildlife Reserve – one of the country’s key conservation projects.
8:30
I was eight years chairperson of WRS and then eight years afterwards as a
8:36
board member of Mandai Park. Sixteen years of my connection is with this destination,
8:43
so in that sense it's like a continuity of what I've been doing. And, of course,
8:47
I carry along with me the whole Banyan Group's earlier notions of connectivity to nature,
8:54
conservation and rehabilitation etc. So, it's really a unique destination of the world.
9:04
I first visited the Hos’ family home in 2019.
9:09
Now, they’ve welcomed me back, offering a rare glimpse into the family behind Banyan Group,
9:15
and the next generation's stepping up.
9:17
I think what struck me the most about them is probably around vision, and in particular
9:21
resilience. I think there's a part of the business which is obviously romanticized right,
9:25
Banyan Tree being an exceptional story. But particularly seeing how they can lead
9:29
a business through cycles, through the ups and downs and the tenacity to blend that vision,
9:35
both creatively and also the resilience of how they've been
9:38
you know really stalwarts, that has been very inspiring me over the years.
9:42
I feel like one of the most memorable things and the biggest takeaways is everywhere we went in
9:48
different hotels and different locations, it was always about mutual dignity and mutual respect,
9:53
which I think is at the heart of why they started tourism and hospitality.
9:58
As the youngest Ren Chun, what was it like for you?
10:01
Yeah, I mean I think to add on to that, is also to never forget the values behind business. I
10:06
mean they have backgrounds as my mother's a sociologist, my fathers like a development
10:10
economist, and I really think that those values also inform the way they look at business,
10:16
like embracing the environment, empowering people, trying to leave the community better off.
10:20
Both your mom and dad built the business over 30 years. If their chapter is about building,
10:25
creating vision, what would be the next generation chapter?
10:30
I mean 30 is quite young for a company, and I think that more than ever that vision is
10:36
even more relevant. There's a lot of work still to be done.
10:39
I think that there's also opportunity for us to diversify our family platforms. One thing that
10:45
our generation is also very actively involved in is the building of our family office into
10:48
public investments, private investments, impact investments. I think there's also opportunity
10:52
to grow the businesses through acquisitions into adjacent sectors, industries, aligned
10:57
companies. So, I think we're in a place where it's go deep, go wide, right, at the same time.
11:02
Let's say the first phase was around like building and flourishing. I
11:05
think what motivates me the most is there's an element of transformation,
11:08
but the element of transformation is something over a period of time.
11:11
So, I think for us over the next 10, 20 years if we can, as a team you know,
11:15
work on moving the different jigsaws of transformation in different ways,
11:19
either through business model, either through talent, either through culture,
11:22
either through other means, and transform it steadily over a certain long period of
11:26
time. I think that would be something which you know we commonly agree is extremely meaningful.
11:31
Okay let's bring in your parents and see what they have to say. Mom and dad. Claire,
11:36
KP you spent more than 30 years growing building Banyan Group,
11:41
alongside raising a family. Did the business shape the family, or did the family shape the business?
11:49
For me it's always family first. So, I would say it's a business family. In
11:57
their growing up we exposed them. We bring them on journeys. We bring them to where we work,
12:03
so that they see and absorb what we do. And over the years incrementally, we talked to
12:09
them you know and they got to understand what parents do. That's how it came about.
12:16
For me, it was never the intention that because I'm in business and my father was in business
12:24
and so on, that it would be taken for granted that the children need to go into the business.
12:31
I think the transformation is inevitable because they all come from very different
12:34
backgrounds. And that's what we're hoping for and looking toward,
12:37
and that is going to be the exciting part that they will create and regenerate.
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