A Practice Built Around the Conversation Table
Quintry was founded to give Malaysian companies a structured way to prepare for and work through cross-cultural business conversations — not as a one-off exercise, but as an ongoing part of working practice.
← Back to HomeHow Quintry Came About
Quintry was established in Kuala Lumpur by a small group of practitioners who had each spent years working inside organisations where cultural differences in communication style and meeting behaviour were causing friction — not because people lacked goodwill, but because they were working without a shared vocabulary for naming what was happening.
The practice is built around a simple observation: that most cross-cultural working difficulties are not about knowledge of other cultures in the abstract, but about the specific moments where two or more working styles meet — in a meeting, in a written brief, in how decisions are made or avoided. These moments are manageable with the right preparation. Without it, they tend to repeat.
Quintry's name comes from the idea of five voices gathered around a single table — the forum format that runs through all our work. We believe the most productive cross-cultural conversations happen when each party has had time to prepare, and when there is a shared written record to return to.
Our Mission
To help Malaysian companies build their own capacity for cross-cultural working — through structured preparation, facilitated workshops, and advisory practice that leaves a written record.
Our Values
Preparation over improvisation
Every cross-cultural working moment benefits from structured preparation — not assumptions.
Written records, not just conversations
Every session produces something you can return to. Oral understanding fades; written notes endure.
Capacity building, not dependency
Our work is designed to make your team more capable, not to create an ongoing reliance on outside advisors.
ASEAN specificity
Our practice is grounded in the particular communication dynamics of Southeast Asian business environments.
The People Behind the Practice
A small group of practitioners with backgrounds spanning cross-cultural communication, management consulting, and organisational design.
Sharifah Lim
Founding Principal
Led cross-border advisory projects for ASEAN-facing Malaysian firms for over a decade before founding Quintry. Her practice focuses on meeting cadence and written communication design.
Rizal Nor
Advisory Lead
Brings a background in organisational design and internal communications. Rizal leads the Working-Together Workshop series and the monthly review component of retainer engagements.
Priya Tan
Research & Documentation
Responsible for the written materials that underpin all Quintry engagements. Priya's work ensures that every session leaves clients with a clear, usable reference document.
How We Maintain Practice Standards
The advisory practice is built around consistent standards that apply to every engagement, regardless of format.
Structured Engagement Design
Every engagement begins with a scoping document that sets out objectives, cadence, and expected deliverables — so both parties have a clear working frame from the start.
Written Output at Every Stage
No session ends without a written note or deliverable. This applies to the Conversation Note, to workshop outputs, and to monthly review memos in retainer engagements.
Client Confidentiality
All engagement materials — internal communications, working documents, and session notes — are treated as strictly confidential and are not shared or referenced outside the engagement.
Regular Practice Review
The Quintry team meets quarterly to review methodology, update reference materials, and discuss cases where our approach might be refined. The practice evolves with the working environment it serves.
Educational Framing
All engagements are structured as educational practice — designed to develop your team's capacity rather than provide a service that must be continually renewed.
Data Protection Compliance
Quintry operates in accordance with Malaysia's Personal Data Protection Act 2010. Client data is collected only as necessary for the engagement and is not retained beyond its stated purpose.
Cross-Cultural Business Practice in Malaysia
Malaysia's position at the intersection of several major ASEAN trade corridors means that cross-cultural working situations are not occasional — they are part of the daily operating environment for a significant number of businesses. The diversity of working styles within Malaysia itself, and the variety of cultural contexts encountered in regional partnerships, make cross-cultural communication a professional skill rather than a soft or optional one.
Quintry works with companies where this is already recognised — where teams or leadership have encountered situations where the working conversation broke down not because of technical differences but because of how things were said, written, or structured. The practice is particularly relevant for firms working with partners in China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, and the broader ASEAN region, as well as for Malaysian companies with internally diverse teams where communication norms vary across the organisation.
Our advisory work covers the specific territory of business communication: written tone, meeting structure, decision-making signals, and the management of disagreement across cultural lines. These are areas where small differences in approach can have a significant effect on working relationships — and where structured preparation makes a measurable difference.
Ready to begin a structured conversation?
Whether you need a short pre-conversation note or a sustained advisory engagement, Quintry can help your team work more clearly across cultural lines.
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