Leading with Duty: How Terry is Shaping a Sustainable, Tech-Driven Future at Country Foods  

In an era where sustainability is often framed as strategy or branding, Terry Tan sees it differently. For him, it is neither optional nor ornamental. It is a duty. That conviction sits at the heart of how he leads Country Foods, a Singapore-based end-to-end food supply chain company spanning sourcing and procurement, manufacturing, sales and marketing, brand development, and distribution. Terry, who serves as Chief Executive Officer of Country Foods brings with him a background that spans public service, the Singapore Armed Forces, and leadership roles in supply chain and logistics, giving his perspective unusual depth and practical weight.

That sense of duty is not a recent leadership slogan. It was shaped over more than two decades of military and public service, long before ESG became a boardroom priority or a national agenda. Terry defines himself as a technology-driven leader who embraces sustainability as a mandated responsibility rather than a branding exercise or a line item in the profit and loss statement. As he puts it, “I view leadership as a duty, just as I view ESG as a duty — one that serves our people, our communities, our planet, and our future. Regardless of what we do, where we are, or who we are, leaders must take responsibility and be accountable for doing our part — big or small — to deliver a better world: one that is more secure, more united, more prosperous, happier, and more sustainable.” This principle, forged through years of service, now flows through his leadership of Country Foods and shapes how he thinks about performance, people, and impact.

Leadership Starts with Accountability

At the centre of Terry’s leadership style is a belief that responsibility must come before recognition. He does not separate performance from purpose, or innovation from accountability. Instead, he treats them as interconnected obligations that leaders must carry consistently, especially in industries as essential and exposed as food supply. Duty, for him, is what keeps leadership grounded when pressure mounts and decisions have far-reaching consequences.

This philosophy shapes not just how Terry speaks, but how he governs. He is clear that leadership goes beyond hierarchy or position. “Leadership is not about occupying a position,” he says. “It is about being answerable for outcomes, for people, and for the long-term consequences of what we choose to do today.” In practice, that means building a company that can perform commercially while contributing to broader goals such as resilience, responsible operations, and food security. It also means ensuring that sustainability is embedded into the business mindset rather than treated as a separate initiative. In Terry’s words, “Accountability is what keeps leadership honest. It reminds us that success is not only measured by what we gain, but by what we protect, what we enable, and what we leave behind for others.”

Digital Transformation in Motion

Over the past year, one of the biggest challenges Terry has faced has been the transformation of Country Foods’ data and digital operations. The work has gone far beyond adopting new software. It has involved consolidating fragmented systems, cleaning and structuring data, and creating a unified and reliable source of truth that can support better decisions across the business. This transformation sits at the core of how Country Foods intends to operate as an integrated, end-to-end supply chain partner, connecting procurement, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution through stronger information flow and execution discipline.

Yet the technology itself was only part of the challenge. The more difficult task was bringing people along, re-profiling teams, investing in upskilling, and helping employees build confidence in digital tools and new ways of working. Terry is candid about the scale of that effort. “System integration takes time. Data clean-up takes discipline. People transformation takes patience,” he says. “You cannot just install a platform and expect the organisation to transform itself.” He also notes that translating digital insights into clear business results has been equally demanding. “Data only becomes powerful when it changes decisions, improves execution, and leads to better performance on the ground.”

Terry’s way through that challenge has been rooted in simplicity and perseverance. “Start with leadership, keep plans simple, execute rigorously, bring people along, adapt continuously, and never give up when obstacles arise,” he says. “Celebrate small wins, fight on, and persevere.” These principles have guided how he and his team approached integration and change: focusing on clarity, reinforcing fundamentals, and sustaining momentum even when obstacles appeared.

Innovation with Accountability

Innovation at Country Foods does not begin with scale. It begins with experimentation. Terry describes the company’s working philosophy clearly: start small, fail fast, and scale at speed when ready. It is an approach designed to reduce waste, accelerate learning, and keep innovation grounded in practical value rather than hype. By treating experimentation as a disciplined process rather than an ad hoc exercise, Country Foods can move quickly without losing control.

The clearest example is Sentinel, the company’s first AI-powered, end-to-end Digital Control Tower. The platform integrates real-time risk intelligence, global shipment visibility, and AI-driven logistics optimisation into a single connected system. Built on Everstream Analytics, Tramés and A*STAR and supported by D365, it is designed to create a single source of truth across procurement, sales and marketing, shipment, inventory management, and distribution. Sentinel embodies how Terry sees technology: not as a showcase, but as an enabler of better decisions, stronger resilience, and more efficient operations.

Terry believes the best innovation rarely happens in isolation. Country Foods has therefore, continued to pursue ecosystem partnerships to enhance Sentinel in the phase 2 journey, to expand its capability and service to SATS Food Solutions and the broader SATS group. These collaborations reflect his belief that complex challenges are best addressed through shared expertise and co-created solutions. At the same time, he is careful to anchor innovation in accountability. “Every experiment must eventually answer to outcomes,” he notes. That is why Country Foods embeds clear targets into balanced scorecards and KPIs at the individual, functional, departmental, and organisational levels, helping ensure that innovation remains aligned with sustainable growth and measurable performance.

Culture Built on Ownership

For Terry, workplace culture is built through habits, visibility, and shared ownership. He speaks about culture in three interconnected layers: purpose before process, citizen ownership, and people-first leadership. The first is about clarity. Purpose before process means clarity begins with a simple, consistently communicated mission that guides decision-making from strategic planning to frontline execution. When people understand why the company exists and what it stands for, processes become tools in service of that purpose rather than ends in themselves.

The second is about personal responsibility. Through the idea of citizen ownership in ESG and technology, Terry encourages people and the next generation to see ESG not as a corporate mandate, but as their own duty, and employees to work smart through technology, data, and AI. By framing sustainability and impact in this way, he shifts the mindset from compliance to contribution. Teams are invited to see themselves as stewards of the company’s mission and values, not just executors of tasks. The third layer is people-first leadership. Terry spends deliberate time on the ground engaging with his team. “I enjoy spending time on the ground, engaging with my people,” he says. “This allows me to understand their daily challenges, appreciate their contributions, and make better-informed decisions for the business. This simple routine energises me, keeps me updated, and sustains my motivation in everything I do.”

Around these commitments, Country Foods actively leverages public–private–people partnerships, harnessing ecosystem-wide expertise to drive meaningful outcomes. The company also invests continuously in upskilling and re-profiling people to embrace digital tools, ensuring that its workforce can thrive in a more data-driven, technology-enabled environment. In Terry’s view, a resilient culture is not built through slogans or campaigns. It is built when people feel trusted, included, and equipped to adapt, and when they see their own duty reflected in the organisation’s direction.

A Five-Year Vision

Looking ahead, Terry’s vision for Country Foods is both commercial and national in significance. He sees the company becoming a purpose-driven and technology-enabled one-stop, integrated, end-to-end, efficient, and resilient supply chain partner that can support SATS Food Solutions across the region. Country Foods plays a critical role in sourcing, procurement, and distribution, and Terry wants to deepen and broaden that contribution as regional needs evolve.

In Terry’s words, “I look forward to Country Foods aggregating and procuring proteins at scale and distributing them seamlessly across the region to support SATS Food Solutions, while also contributing to Singapore’s food security.” Beyond internal growth and operational excellence, his broader industry vision is one where food is treated as a public good, accessible everywhere, during good times and crises alike, regardless of geography, economics, politics, or culture. It is a vision shaped by his belief that essential goods like food sit at the intersection of commercial responsibility and public duty.

As Terry puts it, “I am confident we will build agile leaders and collaborative teams to guide Country Foods in delivering not only stakeholders’ interests and enduring financial performance, but also our shared duty to care for society, protect the planet, and create a better future for all.” It is a fitting reflection of the leadership philosophy that runs through every part of his vision for Country Foods: purposeful, disciplined, people-centred, and anchored in responsibility.

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