Orchan Consulting | Asia Sdn Bhd

Strategic communications isn’t a “nice-to-have” anymore. In Malaysia, it has become a core business function i.e., shaping reputation, steering conversations, and helping organisations navigate a world where trust is currency. And here’s the reality: the brands that still treat PR as decoration will lose ground fast. The ones that view communications as capital will win. At Orchan, we’ve seen both sides of that equation -- startups that built credibility from day one and corporates that paid the price for silence when it mattered most. So, what’s next for strategic communications in Malaysia? Here’s what 2025 (and beyond) is bringing our way, and why it matters to your business. 1. Trust Will Be the Ultimate Differentiator Malaysians have always valued relationships but now trust sits at the heart of survival. Communities aren’t shy about holding brands accountable; one misstep can spiral across WhatsApp groups and TikTok in hours. The cost? Lost customers, shaken investor confi...

PR and communications get more bad takes than pineapple on pizza. People love to boil it down to lazy clichés, quick fixes, or dusty old rules; then they act shocked when their campaigns flop, their reputation tanks, or their competitors run circles around them. Time to kill the nonsense. Here are five of the worst myths that keep brands stuck on repeat - and why they need to be buried, fast. Myth 1: PR is just “getting media coverage.” Cute. But that’s like saying a Swiss Army knife is just a toothpick. The truth: Reputation beats reach - trust can’t be bought. Real PR is strategy, not just spin. Media is only one channel; the playground is much bigger. Results are measurable, if you know how to look. Sometimes silence is the sharpest move of all. If you still think PR is just clippings, congratulations - you’re running a 2025 business with a 1995 playbook. “PR isn’t just coverage — it’s chess, not checkers.” Myth 2: “Any publicity is good publicity.” Please. That g...

How Orchan Consulting Asia helps brands navigate change - from Peugeot’s reputation rebuild, to DFSK’s first electric van, to Kao’s trust-building with parents. Change isn’t a slogan – it’s messy, unpredictable, and often uncomfortable. But it’s also where growth lives. At Orchan, we’ve spent years helping brands navigate that tricky space between “what was” and “what’s next.” This series, Orchestrating Change: Stories from the Field , takes you behind the curtain. Real brands, real problems, and the strategies that turned the tide: from rebuilding Peugeot’s reputation before a major launch, to helping DFSK break ground with Malaysia’s first electric van, to showing Kao Malaysia how to win not just market share, but parent hearts. Each story shows one thing: change doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you orchestrate it with purpose. When Reputation Hit the Brakes - Peugeot Malaysia and the 308 How Orchan Consulting Asia helped Peugeot Malaysia rebuild trust in the 308 throu...

At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. Six parts. One truth. Consulting has become too glossy. Too shiny. Too surface-level. Slides instead of substance. Algorithms instead of empathy. Platforms instead of people. That’s why we created the Dirty Consultant series - to call it out. And to remind leaders that real change isn’t clean. It isn’t easy. And it certainly isn’t click-to-download. Here’s the journey we took together: Part 1: She Was! The consultant who rolled up her sleeves, got messy, and truly understood context. (Link:  Are You a Dirty Consultant? She Was! (Part 1) Part 2: Death by PowerPoint Why endless slides d...

At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. Change looks glamorous on stage. Keynote speakers talk about it with perfect slides, smooth metaphors, and big promises. But behind the curtain? Change is chaos. It’s messy conversations. It’s sleepless nights. It’s mistakes, do-overs, and awkward silences in meeting rooms. It’s resistance from people who don’t want their world turned upside down. Real change isn’t clean. It’s dirty. It’s uncomfortable. And it demands more than lip service and buzzwords. But here’s the thing: dirty doesn’t mean impossible. Dirty means real. And real is where transformation happens. At Orchan, we don’t shy ...

At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. “Don’t worry,” they say. “We’ve got the platform for that.” Engagement apps. Gamified dashboards. AI-driven culture trackers. Click here to connect. Click here to align. Click here to build culture. But here’s the problem: Culture doesn’t live in an app. You can’t download trust. You can’t gamify belonging. And you sure as hell can’t fix a toxic workplace with push notifications. Culture lives in conversations, not code. It shows up in how leaders behave when no one’s watching. It’s in the stories employees tell when they go home at night. It’s in the way people show up for each other when...

At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. “Best practice.” Consultants love to drop those two words like they’re magic dust. They’ll tell you, “This is how the market leaders do it.” “This is the proven model everyone follows.” “This is best practice.” Sounds smart, right? Except it’s lazy. Here’s the truth: What works brilliantly in one company can crash and burn in another. Because culture isn’t copy-paste. Context isn’t universal. And your people aren’t someone else’s case study. Best practice? More often than not, it’s just someone else’s story, stripped of context and dressed up as a shiny solution. At Orchan, we don’t deal in...

Back in 2020, I wrote about the tension between “change” and “evolve.” At the time, the big “C” dominated everything, and we were all asking ourselves: does real progress come from forcing change, or from allowing ourselves to evolve? I shared a simple anecdote then: a teenager insisting his parents had changed him, while they countered that he had simply evolved i.e., picking what to adopt, what to ignore, and how to apply it in his life. It stuck with me because it’s true beyond families: people rarely change because someone else tells them to. They evolve because the environment nudges them, and because they choose to. Fast forward to 2025. Different buzzwords, different fires to put out... but the same question is playing out on a much bigger stage. Do we change, or do we evolve? Change is noisier than ever In Southeast Asia, the forces of change are everywhere: AI disruptions  -- Malaysian SMEs are racing to plug in tools, while Singapore is already regulating usage. T...

At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. Data is sexy. Dashboards glow. Algorithms hum. Today’s consultants sell you the dream: “real-time insights” into how your people feel. Red dots for disengaged. Green dots for high performers. Charts that promise to decode human behaviour. But here’s the problem. People aren’t data points. They’re messy. Irrational. Emotional. And no algorithm in the world can tell you what it feels like to drag yourself into a night shift after a 90-minute commute. Numbers tell you what . But only people tell you why . When consultants replace empathy with algorithms, they miss the heartbeat of the organisation....

At Orchan, we’ve seen consulting at its best - and at its glossiest. Dirty Consultant is our no-nonsense series calling out the theatre, the buzzwords, and the shiny distractions that get in the way of real change. Because true consulting isn’t about polished decks or clever algorithms - it’s about rolling up sleeves, getting into the grit, and facing the messy human reality head-on. Some consultants think their job is to build slides. Endless slides. Perfectly formatted, pixel-perfect decks. Buzzwords stacked higher than the Petronas Towers. Slide 12: Vision. Slide 27: Mission. Slide 43: Engagement Strategy. Slide 89: "Key Takeaways.” By the time they’re done, your people are asleep - or worse, politely nodding while thinking about lunch. Because here’s the problem: No slide has ever fixed a culture issue. No chart has ever built trust. No bullet point has ever sparked a movement. Real change doesn’t live in PowerPoint. It lives in conversations. It lives in unc...

Revisiting | Change or Evolve? Commentary by Farrell Tan Change is everywhere. Whether in your career, relationships, health, or the wider economic climate, adjustment is inevitable. We’ve all seen it amplified recently with the big “C” turning lives, businesses, and entire industries upside down. I was reminded of this during a conversation Craig and I once had with Michelle Nunis while mapping out Orchan’s 2020 business plans (yes, pre-C). Our discussion circled around what change really means; and whether “evolve” is perhaps a more fitting word. Change feels abrupt, immediate; evolve suggests growth, progress, a natural flow forward. That thought sat on the backburner until a few days ago, when I overheard a debate between friends and their teenage son. He insisted his parents had changed him. They countered: they hadn’t changed him at all. What they had done was shine light on issues, offer perspectives, and suggest options. He chose what to adopt, what to ignore, and ...

Humans of Orchan | Farrell Tan  | The Story Continues   It’s been a while since I last wrote about myself - probably because I’ve already shared the “origin story” of how I stumbled into this industry (if you missed it, you can catch it here:  Humans of Orchan | Farrell Tan ("The Other Boss") . That was just before my 40th birthday. Fast forward a few years, and I find myself looking ahead - asking the inevitable “what’s next?” Orchan will always be my first “baby.” But like any restless parent, I started toying with the idea of having another. I bounced ideas off the team, leaned on mentors, swapped notes with friends who are disrupting the status quo, and watched clients push boundaries with ridiculous creativity. Yet nothing clicked. The truth is, ideas can’t be forced. They arrive when you least expect them - sometimes from the unlikeliest places. I guess this is where I introduce our new “baby”: The Third Degree. The idea had been floating around for years; Craig...

Farrell Tan Founding Director "The Other Boss", but you better call him Farrell So apparently it’s my turn to share a bit about myself. Around the office, I’m often referred to as “the other boss.” And compared to the rest of the team, I’m definitely the more marcom person;  having cut my teeth in international agencies, mentored by some of the best in the business. Truth be told, I never pictured myself in this line of work. Never in a million years did I imagine co-owning an agency with a Kiwi (not the fruit, though some would argue otherwise!) - working with brands I admire and, in many cases, grew up with. Life’s funny that way. I grew up in a fairly utilitarian household in Melaka. My dad was a teacher, my mum a nurse, and like all good government servants, they preached the importance of education: tuition, extra-curriculars, the works. Luckily for us, there wasn’t much to distract us in small-town Melaka back then, other than tree-climbing, neighbourhood b...

Farrell Tan Founding Director "The Other Boss", but you better call him Farrell So apparently it’s my turn to share a bit about myself. Around the office, I’m often referred to as “the other boss.” And compared to the rest of the team, I’m definitely the more marcom person;  having cut my teeth in international agencies, mentored by some of the best in the business. Truth be told, I never pictured myself in this line of work. Never in a million years did I imagine co-owning an agency with a Kiwi (not the fruit, though some would argue otherwise!) - working with brands I admire and, in many cases, grew up with. Life’s funny that way. I grew up in a fairly utilitarian household in Melaka. My dad was a teacher, my mum a nurse, and like all good government servants, they preached the importance of education: tuition, extra-curriculars, the works. Luckily for us, there wasn’t much to distract us in small-town Melaka back then, other than tree-climbing, neighbourhoo...