Mac Chung Lynn, CEO, and Director of Nandos

Mac Chung Lynn's Background

•       Mac Chung Lynn, 47, is the CEO and founder of Nando’s Singapore and Malaysia, a South African food chain. Mac was born in Petaling Jaya, and went to Methodist Primary School. At 10, she attended the Garden School, before being whisked to a boarding school in England at the age of 12. She spent five years there – a period she once described as “made her independent and at the same time also strengthens family ties” – and subsequently pursued Architecture at the University of Wales in Cardiff.

•       Background of her family – Mac Chung Lynn has two younger siblings and her mother is a housewife while her father is an engineer. She got married in 1998 and also has three children, a boy aged three and two-year-old twins who know way too much for their age.

•       During her student days and as an architect in London, Mac Chung Lynn was a frequent customer at the Nando’s outlets. One day, when her dad Mac Ngan Boon came by for a visit, she took him to dine there and he was immediately impressed with the hot peri-peri sauce and fell in love with the food, then he called the manager over, inquired about the South African-based company and a month later, her brother was negotiating for Nando’s franchising rights.

Entrepreneur Competencies

• Risk-taking

- While current economic circumstances may have forced consumers to reduce their dining out        expenditure, Chung Lynn remains upbeat that business for mid-range, mid-priced outlets like    Nando’s is sustainable.

-  Mac was graduated from the architecture courses, but she more chooses to do the business. Mac hesitated in saying that architecture was her first love, but she said it gave her a good grounding in managing a business, especially where people were concerned.

• Innovative 

-  As one of the requirements of being a franchise was that a family member must be in charge of   running the company, Mac, who was then an architect, found herself assuming the role of director. 

-  On 2011, they have reached 50 restaurants. Their aim over the next five years is to reach 75 or 80     restaurants. In order to get there, they have to look at the company structure and one of them is to get a chief operating officer who will drive the company at operational level while she needs to concentrate on the company at a strategic level

• Creative 

- Mac believes that as people grow increasingly health-conscious, Nando’s will be a preferred name for those seeking healthier dining options.

- In each store, customers will be welcomed by the Afro-Luso music that they have. By the way, Nando’s describes Afro-Luso as African beats featuring the fiery rhythms of Latin America. It is their own take on music, and is played at every Nando’s outlet around the world.

- Each one of Nando’s restaurants has its own special design but share the same earthy textures and colors that pay homage to its sunny Afro-Portuguese roots.

• Self Confidence 

- When Mac brought in the international Nando’s chain to Malaysia 16 years ago, many skeptics foretold her business would last no more than a few years in the local dining scene. A believer that hard work comes first and that there is no room for failure, Mac, who was trained as an architect, drove the business all the way to success. In the year 2008 alone, Nando’s Malaysia raked in RM 48 million in revenue.