Steve Leung
Head of Strategic Alliances
What are your responsibilities as head of strategic alliances for EG?
My role at EG is to identify, nurture and maintain business relationships with external partners that helps improve our business solutions, drive commercial growth and deliver more value for our customers. I would say currently I spend 50% of my time collaborating with internal stakeholders to help define & prioritise our business roadmap and the other 50% in the market learning from customers, competitors and business partners. This feedback is incredibly important as it helps us stay aligned with the market. We currently have 6-8 active strategic partners and we are constantly exploring new opportunities with like-minded businesses that share the same passion for collaboration.
What influence has the market’s current volatility had on partnership formations?
The proptech scene has been booming for a while and it’s still very much alive during a challenging period for real estate. We still see new start-ups pop up and it’s exciting to be part of an industry that is hungry to innovate and to challenge the status quo. However, when the market is down, businesses tend to reduce spend and this can be tough for many newer tech businesses. We’ve seen this first hand when exploring new partnership opportunities, where even established tech companies have struggled to maintain growth. In my opinion, I think more proptech businesses will go down the partnership route, but this can only be a positive for the industry. Ultimately, it’s the customers that win because they will get access to better consolidated solutions.
In terms of new business and access to new client opportunities, how do you view the industry’s outlook for the rest of 2023? And how will you and your team react to the shifting financial needs of EG clients?
We do understand it’s a challenging market and it’s likely to remain this way for the rest of 2023. Of course, like most businesses we are judged on our revenue performance but winning new business is only one aspect of our commercial strategy. Putting customers first is a core value at EG and we will continue to support our clients through product innovation and delivering them as much value as possible through using our services. We have already launched four new features on EG Radius this year and we will continue to do this at pace going into 2024. We are also working on a number of exciting partnerships which we are hoping to announce in Q4 that will add even more value to our mutual customers.
EG promotes employee development and social initiatives. How has the company’s social responsibility influenced your employment experience and the industry’s perception of EG?
I am very proud to work for a business like EG because I know it takes matters such as diversity and inclusion very seriously. It is something that our parent company RELX fully embraces, and I have always been amazed at the efforts made to make everyone feel like they have an equal voice. I have worked at RELX for over 15 years and would not hesitate to recommend to anyone to work here.