Lessons from my grandfather

A cheongsam is a practical piece of clothing, says Straits Trading executive chairman Chew Gek Khim. It requires minimal matching and is efficient to tailor-make. One set of measurements and you can order 10 pieces in different fabrics. That is probably why she wears one all the time.

Her perspective in life carries the same pragmatism. The granddaughter of the late OCBC chairman Tan Chin Tuan has spent the last nine years since her 2008 takeover of Straits Trading from OCBC's Lee family painstakingly and systematically building the company back to profitability.

The company is her grandfather's legacy, one of about a dozen that he had helped to build up in his time at OCBC, and the only one that Ms Chew had managed to wrest back control of when the lender was required by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to divest its non-banking assets by 2006.