Optimal 20th Anniversary

August 2, 2022

Dear Valued Partners, Clients and Friends,

Optimal is 20 today! We are celebrating 20 years of goodness.

Optimal Consulting Group was born 20 years ago with a mission to build a continuous pipeline of future leaders in Asia for social, economic and political roles. Being younger, naïve and with nothing to lose, I did not know what I did not know and did what I thought was the best use of my time and talent and the best door out of the wonderful corporate life. Together with Wee Ping who was only 26 years old then, we embarked on this exciting, exhilarating and extraordinary journey.

On August 2nd, 2002, Optimal Singapore was born. In the past 20 years, four other Optimal companies were registered: Optimal Malaysia (December 2002), Optimal Hong Kong (May 2005), Optimal China (February 2007) and Optimal Japan (January 2019).

Twenty years have since passed. Optimal survived the SARs pandemic and five major economic recessions. As a tiny organisation with no “giant” financial and business backing, we have lived in lack and in much but we have not lived in vain. Whilst we might not be wealthier financially, we are richer having impacted many lives and many organisations (at least that’s what we hope) and having forged many awesome friendships with our clients and leaders.

To date, Optimal has reached 30 countries, sold more than 100,000 assessments, certified more than 3,000 licensed users, assessed more than 70,000 professionals and predicted more than 7,000 leadership potential and succession readiness.

Firstly, we thank God for blessings and wisdom from above.

Secondly, we thank our current and past partners for putting their confidence and trust in us. Optimal has and is still working with best test publishers in the world.

Our first partnership / distributorship was with Lominger and we had the licence for seven years before the sale globally to KornFerry. Currently, our main and major partnership / distributorship is with Hogan Assessments (US). In addition, our other strategic partner is the Self Management Group (Canada). In the history of Optimal, our distributorships included EQ-i and EQ360 from the Multi-Health System (Canada), Leadership Versality Index (LVI360) from the Kaiser Leadership Solutions and a&dc (UK) which became part of PSI (now Talogy). Optimal has always been the partner of choice for top test publishers.

Thirdly, we thank our clients and friends of Optimal who granted us the opportunities and placed their faith in a tiny consulting firm when they were spoilt for choice. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for clients who have stayed with us for more than half our journey. They will never know how much their support is cheering us on to do a better job daily. In appreciation, we have conducted two runs of the Foundation of Psychometrics workshop (complimentary and by invitation only) for our top clients.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my team; both current and past, for choosing Optimal when they have many other career options. I thank them for their commitment and contribution and for embracing me as their leader despite my flaws and shortcomings. I would also like to thank their family for their support and allowing them to work at Optimal. Together we will work towards a future we want and which the world needs.

With deep appreciation,

Wan Leng,

Founder and CEO