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From scaling teams across the region to embedding a culture of empowerment, Airwallex’s APAC GM Arnold Chan shares the leadership shifts and operating principles behind building a high-performing organisation.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in Hong Kong’s economic landscape. According to the Trade and Industry Department, as of December 2025, there were approximately 360,000 SMEs in the city, accounting for more than 98% of the total number of enterprises and employing around 1.2mn people.
Recognising the impact of this essential community, HRO is proud to launch SME Lab – a dedicated space bringing together practical, real-world insights from the SME sector itself and those working closely with them, to support sustainable growth across the sector.
To mark the debut of this section, HRO’s Tracy Chan speaks with Arnold Chan, APAC General Manager, Airwallex, who began his journey with the company five years ago leading its SME business in Hong Kong. Since then, he has expanded his remit to now oversee a team of more than 200 commercial talents across APAC, supporting the company’s expansion into new markets.
From transitioning out of the “player” role to championing a leadership style centred on empowerment, Arnold shares his “operating principles” for scaling teams, aligning diverse markets, and building a high-performing organisation.
Q: You started at Airwallex by leading Hong Kong’s SME business and now oversee more than 200 commercial talents across APAC. What were the biggest challenges and leadership shifts required in moving from a hands-on “player” to a coach who empowers large, distributed teams?
The transition from a “player” to a coach is perhaps the most significant evolution for any leader in a high-growth environment. In the early days of Airwallex’s Hong Kong’s SME business, success was often about personal output and direct problem-solving. As we scaled to a 200+ person team across APAC, the challenge transformed to creating a repeatable system of excellence driven by empowerment.
The biggest leadership shift was moving from executing to enabling. I embrace the principle of “taking ownership” not just of my own tasks, but of the environment in which my team operates.
In order for my team to succeed, I focus on empowerment – not simply delegating work to others. The difference between the two is that the former is about providing the resources, clarity, and ensuring psychological safety for team members to make their own high-stakes decisions.
As a coach, my role is to remove blockers and provide the strategic “why” behind our goals, then step back to let the team own the “how”. I’ve learned that empowering a distributed team requires a high degree of intellectual honesty. You cannot be in every room, so you must build a culture where people feel safe to bring up honest opinions and take calculated risks.
When you empower people to lead, you aren't just scaling a business – you’re scaling leadership itself.
This transparency and trust are what allow a large team to remain agile and pivot quickly without waiting for a “top-down” command.
Q: As Airwallex expands into diverse APAC markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand, how do you balance local talent needs and market nuances with the consistency, speed, and standards expected of a global challenger brand?
APAC looks unified at a macro level – high growth, digital adoption – but operationally, every market has a different system. What works in Singapore or Hong Kong often doesn’t translate to Indonesia, Vietnam, or even Malaysia without adjustment.
We manage this by staying anchored to our principle of “Prioritising our Customers”. While our technology is global, our empathy must be local. We hire local talent who possess what we define as “Obsessive Curiosity” – people who don't just follow a global playbook but seek to understand the specific pain points of an SME in Malaysia or Hong Kong.
To balance between rapid speed while upholding standards, we provide a global infrastructure and core operating standards (the “what” and “how”), while giving local leaders the autonomy to adapt the “go-to-market” strategy.
“Move Fast with Conviction” is another of our operating principles – this translates into rapid decision‑making and execution with a strong, well‑reasoned belief in the chosen direction. In the meeting room, we welcome people to challenge decisions, but once a call is made, everyone commits fully. We understand that success comes from respecting local complexity, while building a platform that can scale across it.
Q: You’ve mentioned having clear “Operating Principles” for leading large, distributed teams. Which principles have been most effective in aligning people around shared goals?
Three principles stand out as the “North Star” for our APAC commercial organisation:
- Never settle: In a competitive fintech landscape, the moment you become comfortable is the moment you lose your edge. This principle ensures that whether a team member is in Sydney or Seoul, they are constantly raising the bar on the customer experience and their own performance. We don’t just aim to be “good enough“; we aim to lead the market.
- Champion craftsmanship: We aren’t just selling a service; we are building financial infrastructure. This principle aligns our commercial and product teams. It reminds everyone that every interaction – from a simple email to a complex technical integration – needs to be executed with a level of care and precision that reflects the quality of our brand.
- Optimise for long-term value: Distributed teams can sometimes get caught up in tactical or local, short-term wins. This principle forces us to ask: “Does this decision help us build a generational company?“ As our co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang often says, we are intentionally taking “the path of max resistance“ – choosing to build our own direct infrastructure and regulatory licenses rather than taking shortcuts through intermediaries. It is a more difficult and resource-intensive route, but it is the only way to build a foundation that is truly durable for the next decade of global success.
Q: How closely do you work with your CHRO, and what strategic people‑related initiatives are the two of you most focused on driving together?
My partnership with the CHRO and the broader People & Talent (P&T) team is fundamental to our growth. We view talent not as a support function, but as our core competitive advantage. Currently, our collaboration is focused on three strategic pillars:
- Fostering a “One Team“ spirit: In a distributed region like APAC, it is easy for teams to become siloed. We prioritise building strong bonds through regular (monthly and quarterly) team-building activities. These events are meant to foster a spirit of camaraderie where sharing success becomes the norm. We want a culture where a lead in Tokyo feels empowered to share a winning strategy with a colleague in Sydney, ensuring we all help each other out as one unit.
- Data-driven employee engagement: We don't guess how our people feel; we listen. I work closely with the P&T team to design and review our quarterly employee survey. We take a deep dive into the feedback to identify trends and, more importantly, to take concrete action. Addressing comments directly ensures that every team member knows their voice has an impact on how we evolve as a workplace.
- Targeted capability building: As our product suite becomes more sophisticated, so must our people. We collaborate intensely on identifying training needs across the commercial org. Whether it’s honing technical craftsmanship or developing leadership soft skills, we ensure our learning and development initiatives are tightly aligned with the real-world challenges our teams face on the ground.
Q: Looking to the next decade, how do you envision your own leadership journey evolving – and what message would you leave for your future self?
Over the next decade, I envision my leadership journey evolving from scaling internal teams to helping shape the broader regional ecosystem. As Airwallex becomes the financial backbone for global trade, I plan to take a more active role in the industry at large – whether that’s speaking more frequently at major industry events, participating in chambers of commerce, or contributing to government advisory committees. My goal is to advocate for a more seamless, digitised global economy and to share the practical insights we’ve gained while building in APAC to help other SME leaders navigate their own international growth.
My message to my future self would be: “Stay curious and stay grounded“. As you move into more advisory and industry-level roles, never lose that “Obsessive Curiosity“ that drove you to build the SME business in Hong Kong from the ground up. Always keep a direct pulse on the frontline teams and the customers we serve. Leadership isn't about the titles you hold or the committees you sit on; it’s about ensuring the smartest people in the room are empowered to do their best work. Never settle for what we've built today – there is always a way to make global commerce even more accessible and impactful.
If you are an SME and have a talent story to tell, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out and let us know at tracyc@humanresourcesonline.net.
All photos / Provided
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