In our recurring “meet the clients” blog series, we sit down with one of our inspiring partners to talk about their business and their experience of partnering up with Lizard Global. This week, we do it a little differently and introduce you to a collaborative masterpiece we created together with Chantal, one of our inspiring partners from PeopleHive Consulting Group and now also GrowTribe Solutions. GrowTribe Solutions is a collaborative project, founded by HR experts Chantal and Ngiam and Lizard Global’s digital innovation specialists Terence and Guido.

GrowTribe Solutions’ first project is a cutting-edge web- and app platform that connects individual growth with general performance targets set by an organization. The solution consists of two modules: Growth Tracker and Performance Tracker. Both are integrated into one application to enable performance-based learning. Want to know more about this unique partnership and the story of GrowTribe? Sit down and keep on reading to meet Lizard Global’s Terence and PeopleHive’s Chantal.

First of all, who are you? What do you do?

Chantal: “My Name is Chantal Wee. I am the CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) of GrowTribe and Managing Director of Peoplehive Consulting Group. My role in Growtribe is to develop the business, bring in sales and customer service support to drive business growth and sustainability. I am a certified behavioural consultant, a practitioner in NLP & Neurosemantic coaching. I conduct leadership development courses and transformation coaching sessions as well. My passion has always been about people and helping others and what I do is something I love doing! ”
Terence: “I’m Terence Ridder, CEO Asia of Lizard Global and Chief Innovation Officer of GrowTribe. I am responsible for managing the process of HR innovation and change management for all GrowTribe's clients and strategic partners. I already started exploring the Digital HR field when I worked at a software development company almost 10 years ago. Knowledge sharing, personal development and change management have always been topics that fascinated me.”

Tell us something about GrowTribe

Terence: “The story for Lizard Global started when we established an internal framework to support our own employees, taking both their hard and soft skills to the next level according to our corporate strategy. Although the framework was set by the organization, employees had the freedom to set their own growth path based on their personal ambitions. We were able to simplify the growth process and created an amazing interface.”
“I got so excited that I started to share our concept with different experts in the field. One of these experts was one of our clients PeopleHive Consulting Group. Not only did they believe in this concept, but their rich HR experience also enabled us to upgrade the product even further. We decided to partner up to combine the best of both worlds: Tech & HR.”

”Not only were we perfectly complimentary when it came to skillsets but also our ways of working and vision was a match made in heaven. Together, we decided that by establishing a strategic partnership, we could change the HR field forever. ”- Terence

Chantal: “We were helping one of our clients whom we were doing a consultancy project with, and we were looking out for a digital tech partner. We talked to Lizard and found that they had the digital solution which they used for their own internal organisation. We were excited about this as we felt that this is one of the needs of organisations out there and we decided to discuss our ideas with Lizard Global. After the discussion, we had the same idea to partner up to combine HR & Tech! Also, having a great partner with the same principles and values is rare. But with Lizard Global, we just clicked!”
“Another interesting thing was that both our company names had some sort of reference to an animal (Lizard & Hive). So when we were brainstorming for GrowTribe, we figured it would be a good idea to not implement another reference to an animal, although some animal-related names did come up during the brainstorming sessions.”

What problems/challenges did you/your customers face that made you look for a digital solution?

Terence: “Most organizations face challenges with managing growth, Either they grow too fast or they do not know where to start. The word “organization” was derived from the root word, “organize”, a verb that means “to arrange into order or into a structured whole”. This implies that, in order for any organization or collective to be arranged into any semblance of order, a basis or a framework is required. A lot of companies are missing this framework and our solution provides it.”
Chantal: Being an HR And Organisational Development Consultant and trainer, I had clients who were facing challenges in transforming their HR processes to digital solutions. For example, they were still using excel for tracking their competencies, skills, knowledge and their appraisals. This became cumbersome for them and also resulted in a slow and infrequent information updating process. This cumbersome and slow process made them unable to see the whole picture for themselves as employees and also for the managers to track and develop their team for growth. This raised the need for a more efficient and automated solution: a challenge we liked to grab with both hands.”

How did you come up with GrowTribe as a digital solution for your customers?

Terence: “Within most organizations, HR is still considered as an admin department for hiring, contracting, onboarding and payrolling. However, an increasing number of companies are starting to realize that people are a key part of organizational success. This trend makes Training & Development a hot topic throughout the industry. Combining this with the growing importance of digital collaboration resulted in a scalable solution that fits for all.”
Chantal: “During the global pandemic of COVID-19, we noticed how important it is to be agile and flexible as an organization. Any significant disruption of your day-to-day life can have an immense impact on your business, especially regarding your employees. Suddenly they have to switch from working in an office every day to working from home every day. This raises a need for digital solutions that are focused on supporting organisations and employees to keep growing and succeeding, no matter the situation.”

How did the partnership between Lizard Global and PeopleHive begin?

Chantal: “We came in touch with Lizard Global many years ago, when I was searching for an app developer. A friend of mine recommended Lizard and since then we have worked well and I found that they are not just an app development organisation, but one that really looks at how to make it work for you by being practical and holistic as well. It’s a whole package.”
Terence: “I met PeopleHive Consulting Group at an HR event in Kuala Lumpur where I was a speaker for the topic Digital HR. They started to be our client and we developed a Strategic Cultural Alignment tool. The process of working together was effective, creative and fun. This resulted in an amazing product that we also used ourselves in Lizard Global. At that moment we already realized that there were more opportunities to take our collaboration to new heights.”

How did you experience working together as a team of HR specialists and digital innovation specialists?

Terence: “PeopleHive consists of Ngiam & Chantal. Ngiam is a true expert when it comes to strategic HR practices while Chantal is the best people expert that I know. As their backgrounds are both focused on human capital, working together has been nothing but inspiring and fun. I would recommend PeopleHive to everybody who has challenges relating to leadership, people, culture and personal development!”
Chantal: “The entire journey together with Lizard Global, from the first point of meeting each other to the launch of GrowTribe Solutions, has been a wonderful experience. The Lizard Global team is not just focusing on only developing a product, but they look into the practicality and the growth of the product as well. They understand that app development is so much more than just writing code and delivering a product. They think about the people or business behind the product too, and that’s why we work together so well.”
“Besides the team in general, Terence has been such an inspiration for us and a very skilled innovation expert, and Guido is one of the best technology experts around. The team at Lizard Global embodies the culture of what GrowTribe wants to achieve! So if you are looking for holistic digital solutions, Lizard Global is the one to get in touch with.”

In what ways did GrowTribe solve the problem you/your customers are facing?

Terence: “Our solution can be considered more of a process. We first discuss with our customers what their current challenges, bottlenecks and strategic goals are. Based on this mixed input, we create a tailored framework that will empower people and drive performance.”
Chantal: “We hear about many organisations having either complicated or no competency frameworks in which their people are not able to see what's next in their development plans, what to grow into, or in which areas their weaknesses or strengths lay. Our digital solutions empower self-directed growth through technology, process and people expertise. To solve the pain points of organizations regarding the growth of their employees, in order to eventually grow the business.”

Where do you see GrowTribe Solutions in 10 years?

Chantal: “In ten years, I hope that GrowTribe Solutions will be the first choice for clients who are in need of an HR expert for sustainably growing their employees and organization in Malaysia and globally! We also aim to be a company that supports and gives back to the community by growing those who need it, such as students or the unemployed. I hope that Growtribe Solutions will not only be a first choice solution for organisations for human capital and growth but will also be known to have a human touch and heart as an organizational culture.”
Terence: “We should be operating globally and become a market leader. The application should not just be available for companies, but also for students, unemployed people, and individuals who want to improve themselves or explore different specialities. I would like to see myself as an Innovator providing new ideas that will elevate our solution even further.”

Meet more clients!

Want to read more about our partners, their applications and their experience of working together with Lizard Global? Check out Nicole’s interview about her app “Retiink”. Have a look at “Globiz”, the digital business card application we developed together with Stefan and Carmen. Find out more about our partnership with Transvision and the development of VaxiTaxi, or get to know Ferdi, founder of Flexpackerz and long-term partner of Lizard Global.

Keen on partnering up with Lizard Global and having your very own interview and business success case obtain a place in the spotlights on our website? Get in touch, and let’s get to know each other!