L’Oréal Innovation Runway 2019: co-creating unique and cutting-edge solutions for tomorrow’s consumers

One of the defining qualities of industrialised economies is the increasing concentration of populations into towns and cities in what is often dubbed as mass urbanisation. With technology deeply rooted in many Asian territories now taking the world by storm, Asia has been leading the race towards mass urbanisation. This has led to Asia becoming home to the most number of megacities in the world.

As a result, Asia also faces distinctive problems rendered by the melting pot it has become, experiencing varied needs and rituals that interconnect and form new influences and habits. Because of this, there is also a growing need for unique solutions.

This is the main thrust of the L’Oréal Innovation Runway 2019: to partner with startups and small enterprises in the Asia Pacific region and beyond, covering multiple industries and technology verticals that collectively seek to create a more livable world for our posterity.

For the third edition of this start-up challenge, the theme revolves around the urban future, coalescing different challenges that arise from urbanisation.

L’Oréal Innovation Runway 2019 Challenge Categories

The challenge categories for this year’s L’Oréal Innovation Runway (LIR) are divided into three main factions covering a full range of concerns surrounding urbanisation. The first category is aptly titled Diverse & Interconnected — intended to address unique needs of people in culturally diverse spaces.

On the other hand, the Urban Living category focuses on bringing both environmental and lifestyle stressors under one umbrella. The category is keen on looking for innovative solutions such as wearables, materials, devices that respond and adapt to different environments and situations.

Also read: Is data science still among the sexiest jobs of the 21st century?

Lastly, under the Sustainability category whose primary concern revolves around environmental and societal impact, a unique set of innovative solutions are being sought in line with L’Oréal Sustainability commitment: Sharing Beauty With All. This category is looking for ideas such as zero waste solutions, circular economy, urban farming, etc. The complete list can be found on their official page.

Applications are now open, and will close on 15 September. By October, applicants can expect an announcement regarding the shortlist of participants, during which time an exclusive mentoring session for semi-finalists will be conducted by Get in The Ring and L’Oréal Tech Experts.

The semi-finals will happen on 8 November together with NUS Enterprise while the finals and announcement of winners will happen on 11 November at SFF x SWITCH.

Why join the L’Oréal Innovation Runway 2019?

During the competition’s 2018 edition, 11 teams out of over a hundred applicants were selected to pitch at the semi-finals in Singapore.

“What a day and a half it was at the L’Oréal Innovation Runway! A well-organized and high energy event! Winning the L’Oréal Innovation Runway award is a great validation of the String technology platform and long term potential,” said 2018 winner Stringbio.

They added, “we look forward to working together with L’Oréal to take sustainable products to market that will have tremendous impact on everyday lives.”

The programme, however, wasn’t only beneficial to its lone winner. PT Evogaia Karya Indonesia, a finalist from last year, said “I am honoured and grateful as a finalist of L’Oréal Innovation Runway 2018, and I am excited for the opportunity to be working with L’Oréal as it is empowering to be a woman and innovator through R&D.”

They added, “The impact which manifests from such collaboration can only enable more creativity and development in the field of sustainability.”

The same sentiment is echoed by 2017 winner, Austrianova, who said “Following the excitement of Austrianova’s win at the Innovation Runway startup challenge in 2017, we have solidified our relationship with L’Oréal by embarking on a multi-pronged project to assess possibilities for using Austrianova’s Bac-in-a-Box® technology for innovative cosmetics products.”

This testimony underscores L’Oréal’s commitment to supporting and collaborating with startups who propose fresh and innovative ideas, even years after their participation in the contest.

Austrianova further explained, “Since Bac-in-a-Box® capsules have already provided strong evidence towards new functionalities for enabling next generation cosmetics and cosmeceuticals, research and development are continuing, and relationships are strengthening further.”

Not just a beauty contest

L’Oréal is a French personal care company headquartered in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine with a registered office in Paris. It is the world’s largest cosmetics company and has developed activities in the field concentrating on hair colour, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfume, and hair care.

Throughout its run, the L’Oréal Innovation Runway has always welcomed innovative solutions that transcend beyond its beauty brand. In keeping with this, the programme welcomes solutions from different verticals and inspirations from across multiple industries.

Whether these are solutions that address challenges in the food industry, in agriculture, in manufacturing, or even in film and photography, the L’Oréal Innovation Runway welcomes cutting-edge technologies and brilliant new ideas across all sectors.

Also read: How to help managers improve performance appraisals?

More importantly, the programme opens its doors to a variety of technologies including smart material, data, bio-technology, 3D modeling, imaging, advanced materials, smart home, green technology, and virtual reality among many others in its roster of participation.

With all these given variables, the programme offers exciting prizes and incentives for those who wish to participate. Participants stand to win the opportunity to work with L’Oréal, gain access to mentors and industry networks through L’Oréal and its partners, Enterprise SG, and Get in The Ring.

Other than the mentorship, the access to industry networks, and industry exposure, the programme also opens up opportunities for conducting pilot studies and developing long-term strategic partnerships through L’Oréal’s leading R&D expertise in beauty.

Two winners will be awarded $5,000 SGD cash prizes, while another two will win $50,000 SGD Startup SG grants. In addition, the two winners of the Startup SG grant will be fast-tracked to the qualifying round of Slingshot 2019 powered by Startup SG.

How to join

For more information on the L’Oréal Innovation Runway 2019, you may visit them here. All application details are supplied in their official page and may be accessed by anyone who is interested in being part of the programme.

The L’Oréal Innovation Runway 2019 will also be conducting a series of roadshows leading up to the dates of the event, with the first one happening in Singapore on 16 August, at Tencel Studio, The Cocoon Space, while the second one happening in Jakarta will be held on 21 August, at BLOCK71 Jakarta Ariobimo Sentral.

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Listening is very important for good leadership

The Millennials interview with Chan, founder of Exabytes, zeroes in on his experience of managing a regional tech company with over 300 employees.

In his own words, a leader should have to “be a listener at the very least.” Maybe you wouldn’t be able to talk to every employees you have, or you might not even know some of them, but you should always try to listen to everyone. For example, when you have a town hall meeting, avoid talking too much. Let your employees speak their mind.

Most of the time, when leaders take the stage, they gave a lot of info without making a connection with the employees. Chan believes that listening is very important for good leadership. A leader should listen to the voices among the colleagues, customers’ needs and what the market needs.

“Once you listen and absorb the information, you can then understand what they need and execute the right action,” says Chan.

Also read: In video, 5 tips to note when interviewing for a Grab engineering position

He strongly believes that trust is very important when it comes to leading a team. With trust among one another in the team, it becomes stronger and moves faster. With trust, a leader can delegate more tasks and roles to team members, thus, driving more efficiency in the company.

Chan also shared one of the fun ways he used to gather feedbacks from the employees. There’s a wishlist at the pantry for employees to submit their wishes. It could be ‘new PS4 Pro’ or even ‘free drinks’, quoted from Chan. It’s an example of how you can engage with your employees when your company is of a certain scale.

Find out more management tips in the full video.

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This article was first published on e27, on March 27, 2018.

Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Featured Image Copyright: 123RF

 

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There is no question tokenizing assets in blockchain can impact our daily lives in practical terms

 

Blockchain technology is more than a decade old. However, it only started taking off when people realized the value of cryptocurrencies in real-world applications — that you can spend it, send it to other people, and even buy or sell crypto as part of one’s investment portfolio.

In short, it’s the real-world applications that have enabled blockchain tech to have an impact and subsequently gain traction as a viable technology that can scale.

Fintechs and cryptocurrencies have entered mainstream appeal because of how they have revolutionized the way we spend, invest, and transact.

However, one potentially bigger offshoot of blockchain technology is how we can tokenize just about anything. This effectively brings together real-world assets and digital records, along with the numerous benefits that digitalization can offer.

This makes blockchain tech more accessible, more tangible, and more impactful in real-world scenarios. Imagine a world that is fully transparent and yet secure.

By tokenizing all sorts of assets and materials, we can trade and transact in a fair environment, and it will be faster, cheaper, and more accessible. 

Here are five reasons how blockchain tech makes this all the more effective.

1. Authenticity of goods

With the popularity of marketplaces, there are a lot of counterfeit goods going around, being bought by unsuspecting buyers, and sometimes being sold by unsuspecting sellers.

For instance, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba found and seized half a billion dollars’ worth of counterfeit goods in 2018 alone. That’s just a drop in the bucket — the global market for counterfeit goods is US$ 1.3 trillion annually, according to estimates.

Tokenizing assets can help ensure authenticity, especially if an item’s origin, value, and ownership, are recorded on the blockchain.

This enforces better trading of valuable items, which can be the case for luxury goods, collectables, or even big-ticket items such as automobiles or real property. 

In the case of collectables such as antiques, trading cards, and other collectable items with potentially high trade value in the secondary markets, digitalizing such assets provides more than just trading and exchange, but it can create a whole new economy based around such assets.

“The advantage is that while it’s easy to replicate one digital functionality, it’s harder to replicate all moving parts, providing additional security.

By using novel technologies, such as blockchain, it is possible to not only provide a higher level of security but also harmonise digital cards in order to simplify trading,” says Toli Makris, Co-founder of EX-Sports, a platform for digitalized sports memorabilia and collectables powered by blockchain.”

In Makris’ industry, authenticity is key to assuring owners and buyers of the value of their collectables. Such immutability of record gives better credence to the value of a transaction — something that can potentially address the pressing issue of fake goods that have proliferated e-commerce and marketplace platforms.

“By giving each digital card a unique and immutable signature, the network can verify the authenticity of the card. If it does not recognise the signature, it does not accept the trade, therefore preventing counterfeit digital cards from entering the platform,” he shares.

2. Transparency in the process flow

In its very basic form, blockchain is nothing more than a decentralized and immutable ledger of transactions, which are cryptographically hashed to ensure that transactions are valid and cannot be tampered with.

Also Read:  5 reasons why crypto exchanges need to be decentralized

Cryptocurrencies are just an added benefit, i.e., the exchange of value is basically recorded in the ledger. It is the same with tokens — it is the ownership and exchange of these tokens that are recorded on the blockchain.

Since each transaction is verified and recorded on each node in the blockchain network, the record of transactions is also accessible to anyone who wishes to see the transaction history.

When an asset is digitalized, and when all transactions or movement involving that asset is recorded on the blockchain, there is transparency in the process at each and every step of the way.

This can be particularly useful in e-commerce, for example, wherein a buyer can keep track of their item from the supplier, shipper, courier, to their doorstep.

This is also useful in manufacturing and production, or even in logistics – businesses can keep track of each and every step of their product within the manufacturing process. 

This can be combined with internet-of-things and machine learning, which enables businesses to collect and process huge amounts of data for analysis.

Such data and analysis can, later on, be used in optimizing the production, supply chain, logistics, or other aspects of the business.

“The timeline of a product right from its inception to where it is at present can be traced through blockchain,” Mayank Pratap, Co-Founder and COO of EngineerBabu, writes on Hackernoon.

“Besides this, the type of accurate provenance tracking can also be leveraged to detect anomalies in any segment of the supply chain.”

3. Transparency in pricing and other product information

An offshoot of digitalizing assets and process flow is transparency in pricing and product details. This can be particularly useful when capitalizing on the grassroots approach, such as farm-to-fork delivery or the marketplace approach.

In such conditions, the platform can eliminate the middleman or at least minimize the exorbitant costs associated with other parties coming in-between the seller and buyer.

Because all transactions are immutably recorded on the blockchain, it can also include value and pricing information, so that all users involved are aware of this information when transacting. 

Not only that — consumers can also glean all sorts of information, including expiry dates and each step that their products have gone through before reaching their households.

Perhaps not many people know that there are actually counterfeit food items being sold on the market (such as fake olive oil, for instance).

Here is where blockchain can address the challenge of both price and authenticity. “One of the great benefits of blockchain is that it can be integrated into existing technologies, such as smart labels or apps that help consumers track and learn about their food.

It’s as easy as having a smartphone, and getting more products that have smart labels on them, and customers will be able to find out when their products really expire, and where they come from,” shares Sharon Cittone, the chief content officer at Seeds&Chips.

Being able to track products’ origins and supply chains can prevent instances of arbitrage (e.g., a middleman buying very low and selling very high in a different market when there is imperfect information or imperfect movement of goods).
Also Read: A blockchain perspective: the irony of financial inclusion

In practical terms, it can mean that buyers can get the best price for goods and that sellers can be confident in assigning a value to the goods or services they sell without worrying that other parties might be artificially inflating selling prices or undervaluing buying prices.

4. Security of ownership

Tokenizing assets on the blockchain enhances the security of ownership.

Since the token transactions and ownership are on immutable and irreversible blockchain record, and since there are decentralized nodes that need to verify and record each transaction cryptographically, there is virtually no chance for the digitalized assets to be stolen.

This is a much better way to keep a record of ownership and transactions than, say, a centralized repository.

For example, records on a paper-based notary public or a paper-based registry of deeds might be prone to physical damage through fire, flooding or other such incidents.

The same can be said with digital records based on centralized or on-premises server, especially when the administrator does not have regular and reliable backups. 

Since a blockchain is built upon a decentralized network, there is no single point of failure, and the infrastructure will be robust, resilient, and secure against potential attacks.

“The platform is built on top of a blockchain protocol, that you can imagine as a decentralised server — instead of having one server do all the work, you spread out the tasks to millions of computers,” says EX-Sports’ Makris.

In addition, smart contracts provide an immensely secure and convenient means to execute transactions — payments and transfer of ownership can be done automatically once all conditions are met, which minimizes or even negates the need for escrow services altogether. 

5. Fractional ownership

Another offshoot of digitalizing real-world assets is that ownership of these assets can be divisible for as long as token ownership can also be divided across different individuals or entities. This can be applied to just about any asset, including capitalization tables or ownership in a company, or even real property.

For instance, if a property is digitalized with 1 million tokens assigned, then in theory ownership of this particular property can be divided accordingly.

Digitalizing ownership of assets also makes it easier to sell or trade this, which improves the liquidity aspect of any digitalized asset.

“That makes it easily tradable on the secondary market, due to the trackability, fractionalisation and the borderless nature,” shares Lord Daniel, a Managing Partner at investment firm Sterk Capital.

Blockchain for everyday use

Also Read:

It can be easy to dismiss blockchain as hype, especially when there are startups that build on blockchain just for the sake of it.

However, there is no question that by tokenizing assets and turning these into digital assets that can be transacted and traded online, blockchain can impact our daily lives in practical terms, even in ways that might seem invisible to us users.

The main benefit with such blockchain projects is that digitalized assets become more accessible while providing a platform for making it more secure, more transparent, and with more utility through token incentives.

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Emirsyah Satar was the leader of Garuda Indonesia, the nation’s flag carrier, and has been under intense investigation for the past two years

Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has detained ex-MatahariMall Chairman Emirsyah Satar for alleged money laundering and bribery relating to the procurement of aircraft parts, The Jakarta Post reported.

Back in June 2017, e27 reported that Satar was allegedly involved in a Rolls-Royce bribery case, prompting the Indonesian anti-corruption agency to probe Satar further.

At that time, Satar was said to receive bribery from Soetikno Soedarjo, the former president director of media magnate PT Mugi Rekso Abadi (MRA), consisting of EUR1.2 million (US$1.2 million) cash, another US$108,000 cash, and US$2 million worth of goods in Singapore and Indonesia.

Emirsyah Satar was seen leaving KPK building after being questioned by investigators in Jakarta on Wednesday, August 7.

Also Read: MatahariMall Chairman denies involvement in Rolls-Royce bribery case

KPK also detained Soetikno on the same day under the accusation that he has transferred US$407,000 to Satar for a home in South Jakarta.

Furthermore, KPK also looked into US$680,000 and EUR1.02 million that were allegedly sent to an account belonging to a company in Singapore, while US$868,000 was reportedly used to pay off an apartment in Singapore, both under Satar’s name.

Satar led Garuda Indonesia, the country’s flag carrier for almost 10 years before joining Lippo Group-owned MatahariMall.com after resigning from the airlines in 2014.

In 2018, MatahariMall rebranded into Matahari.com after merging with local fashion retail Matahari Department Store, quashing bankruptcy rumours.
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Image Credit: Bill Oxford on Unsplash

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Work culture that has made Appinventiv grow

“A lot can happen over coffee”, this line often brings the image of CCD (Cafe’s Coffee Day) in front of our eyes. But, for me, this 6-words represents the success story of Appinventiv – my startup.

It’s not a story from a long time back ago. Three of my friends and I decided to launch our own mobile app startup fours years ago while sitting in a corner in a CCD cafe. And one single factor that triggered us to take this step was quality.

During days, entrepreneurs and established brands were struggling to find the finest version of their mobility solution at an affordable price.

They were either provided with an ineffective mobile app model or were being asked for a hefty amount in return of quality. 

Because of this, the gap between those demanding for top-notch and business-centric mobile application development services and those delivering them the same was increasing.

Also Read: The millennial force: changing the workplace and its culture

This is where we jumped into the market. We decided to bridge this gap by serving businesses with a highly innovative and useful mobile application at the best possible market price.

Besides, we also concluded that we will focus upon customising mobility solutions as per business needs and integrate cutting-edge technologies into the process rather than delivering a template-mobile app.

And this is how our journey started. 

However, it was not as easy as we thought. Right from the day we stepped into the market, we faced various challenges in establishing our presence in the market – with two prime ones as follows:-

• We found it tough to bring projects at our door. Businesses were sceptical about hiring a newbie to build their presence in the mobile market. 

• We decided to integrate cutting-edge technologies into our development process, but there was hardly any firm working with the same perspective. Meaning, we had no one to consider as a role model or seek any guidance.

But, it seems like luck was on our side. 

We overcame the former challenge by providing services beyond developing an application.

That implies, researching the market, performing competitive analysis, and brainstorming on business needs to bring out an innovative idea that delivers valuable results both in the present and future.

And when talking about the second prime challenge, we motivated and prepared each other to become the first company to enter these domains.

We learnt all the technicalities and looked into finding various ways to introduce these technologies and methodologies in the traditional app development process. And it turned into a right decision.

For example, we stepped into the Blockchain, PWA, and eScooter economy at first. We not solely invested our efforts into learning about these technologies and business domain, but also shared our knowledge with our clientele and others.

And gradually, we became the first choice of startups and established brands who wish to up their business game with these technologies.

After that, this became every day’s story. We got more projects, and with every project, we step closer to our aim of changing the landscape of the app industry.

We welcomed every challenge as an opportunity for innovation, experimented with different ideologies, dug deeper into every niche market to get useful insights, and invested heavily into our skill development. We kept an eagle’s eye on every popular app feature and technology in the marketplace and worked our fingers to the bone to make technology digestible and profitable to all.

A ripple effect of which is that we received accolades from marker researchers, users, competitors, and others related to the mobile industry. We became the leading choice for every business who were looking for on-time delivery, and good service which made us deliver 900+ apps for brands like Sony, IKEA, Dominos, Gully Boy, and nexGTV.

However, this was not our only limit.

While, on one side, we received more accolades and projects, we worked upon expanding our team. We realised that having a team of proficient and experienced mobile app designers and developers is the key to success in the market.

With this into consideration, we went on hiring more experts. Because of this we, within four years, grew our Appinventiv family of 4 to 400.

However, we also feared the biggest challenge of startups and other companies, i.e., employee retention.

We realised that losing even a single one of us would be a significant loss for you. So, we come up with some unique, engaging, and employee-centric strategies and policies. A few of which are:-

Also Read: A look at workweek hours and differences in work cultures around the world

No hierarchy, Please

We, at Appinventiv, provided the younger generation with something they always craved for – equality.

We said no to the traditional method of hierarchy and introduced the practice of calling each other their names with no suffix, “Ma’am/Sir”. 

We also made it clear that we are approachable to all and invested the best of the efforts in weaving emotions in everything.

Thus, building a web of trust among Appinventiv family – a family that works together enjoys together and faces challenges together.

Transparent as glass doors

We not only removed barriers in terms of approachability but also added transparency to every process. 

We put this into practice to keep our employees in the loop while making any decision.

Even if it is something major like shifting to a new office space or something minor like a change in the working calendar. 

This attitude helped us in gaining the trust of our employees and encourage them to contribute their best in the success of the company.

Work innovatively

Being a mobile tech startup, we efficiently utilised the power of technologies to deliver seamless interaction experience.

From Skype to Google Drive, Gmail, Trello, and Wunderlist, we encouraged employees to use a varied range of mobile apps and digital platforms and perform their tasks and share documents with each other seamlessly and quickly.

Appoint the right managers

Handling a team of 400+ has never been a simple task.

We feared that despite our policies focusing on transparency and interactivity, we might fail to remain in touch with all of them and deliver the right work culture.

So, to overcome this situation, we picked the right people from our team and appointed them as managers.

We focused on selecting ones who encourage a line of interaction and who became a window for their team; thus, helping us to be updated on what’s happening.

Think for your team, and they will reciprocate

Another step that has made Appinventiv an army of 400 (and still growing) is that it gains unbelievable recognition from our employee-centric approach.

Rather than just focusing on finishing projects, we take interest in sharpening the skills of every individual.

From monthly workshops to seasonal pieces of training, we put forth everything that keeps our employees updated with what’s trending in the market.

Besides, we also offer numerous perks like free breakfast to show concern for our employee’s health. 

These strategies have brought considerable attention to the newcomers on our website as well as made existing employees stick to the firm – rather than be job hoppers.

Make an unbiased decision

Every other day when someone comes up with a concern or complaint against the other, we listen to both sides of the story patiently.

We put efforts into understanding the whole situation and then come up with an unbiased decision. In this way, we ensure that we do not end up losing a gem because of a conspiracy.

We have also made a point that work culture matters more than technical skills. Therefore, if there is a situation when we must big goodbye to a highly talented professional due to concerns, we take a fair decision.

Also Read: A day in the life of StashAways CEO and co-founder

We won’t compromise with peace and happiness within the workplace because of money and skills.

Work hard, party harder

Appinventiv has also established itself as a pool of talent by sensing the basic need of the present generation which is – Work hard, party harder.

On a broader scale, we have added various activities into our daily timetable that allows our employees to love being at work. Our management team introduced the practice of celebrating festivals, playing games, blowing candles on birthdays, going on team lunches, and more. 

With such efforts, we have provided employees with an opportunity to shake their leg and show the other side of their personality – rather than being behind the computer screens all day.

Appreciation as an energy booster

 

Lastly, Appinventiv has made its record of 400 employees by focusing on the fundamental psychological matter, i.e., appreciation. 

Our management team made it sure to show gratitude to our employees for their efforts, passion, and innovative ideas.

We have not confined this ‘affair of appreciation’ for one single day in a year, but have been congratulating our team members regularly via different means. This has made our workforce feel like an indispensable element of the company.

With such policies and strategies, we succeeded in bringing more favourable outcomes at our end and live a remarkable journey. We succeeded at creating our own success story and motivating others to focus upon being a partner, rather than a boss to enjoy success – regardless of their niche industry.

I hope you have found it useful. If you wish to share your feedback or have been following some cool policy that we can add to our list, do let us know by leaving a comment in the comment section below.

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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