The bank aims to transform itself into a “tech-based banking institution” but that is not the end of the story

There are many reasons why I am always excited about the conversation in the e27 Telegram Group. But most often, it is because of the mentally stimulating discussions and thrilling leads that we might uncover there.

This morning, a member posted a news article by Bisnis Indonesia about a recent plan of an Indonesian private bank to fundraise through rights issue mechanism. Called Bank Artos Indonesia, the bank is set to issue a maximum of 15 billion shares (priced IDR100 per shares).

With the new funding, the bank aims to transform itself into a “tech-based banking institution”.

Okay. But why is this so special?

It is special because official documents stated that 51 per cent of the bank’s shares will be acquired by Jerry Ng (through PT Metamorfosis Ekosistem Indonesia) and Patrick Walujo (through WTT), two investors who have been known as prominent tech investors in the country –and perhaps the region.

Senior banker Jerry Ng led Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional (BTPN) for a decade, in which he managed to grow its assets by ten folds.

Also Read: gojek introduces local content streaming GoPlay, adding more to its super-app ambition

BTPN itself can be considered as one of the most successful banks in Indonesia in terms of transforming itself into the digital era. According to a research by iPrice Group, its mobile banking platform Jenius is in the top five list of most used e-wallet services in the country, beaten only by the likes of Go-Pay, OVO, DANA, and LinkAja.

Ng is also listed as one of the investors in New Retail startup Warung Pintar’s Series B funding round.

Patrick Walujo himself was a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs & Co and an associate at Ernst & Young. He founded Northstar Group, who is widely known as an early investor in ride-hailing giant gojek.

Can you see why we are excited already? If not, I will give you a minute.

Done? Okay.

First of all, it is important to note that Bank Artos is only set to have its extraordinary general meeting on September 30.

No details have also been announced about how Bank Artos’s “tech-based banking institution” is going to look like.

Also Read: AIA Indonesia takes part in gojek’s Series F funding in a strategic partnership

But if we are looking at gojek’s past acquisitions, particularly with consideration of their super app ambition, there is an apparent pattern of its ambition to build a fintech ecosystem. Its e-wallet service Go-Pay already reached the top position of Indonesia’s most popular e-wallet platforms; it seems only natural for them to look towards digital banking next.

Especially since recently its competitor Grab has been reported to consider merging its e-wallet service OVO with DANA, the result of a joint venture between Ant Financial and Emtek Group. They will definitely need an extra punch in their attack plan.

Warung Pintar itself is a promising startup that merges the offline and online sphere by enabling digital transactions for warung owners. Apart from that, it also counted OVO as an investor.

This acquisition might lead to the rise of a more powerful digital banking ecosystem, led by these two startups.

Yes, several challenges remained. Indonesian regulators have not reached the level of openness like its counterpart in Singapore, who have announced the upcoming issuance of five digital bank license, aimed for banks who services are done completely on an online platform.

There might be some limitations in how a digital bank can operate in the country. But it has finally taken the first step to get there.

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Image Credit: Uray Zulfikar on Unsplash

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Your motivation to lead is what will determine what kind of leader you will be and how well you will lead

“Why do I want to be a leader?”

The answer to that question is significant: it determines how well a person will lead.

For many, the reason why they lead is often a mixture—many will proffer a mix of extrinsic motivations (e.g. career progression, social-economic status) and more intrinsic, internal rationales (e.g. obligation to serve, believing in the organisation’s mission). Sometimes, the leadership role is thrust upon them without them knowing: such is part of professional development. Often, the reasons why they lead are usually predominantly extrinsic.

Groups and leaders exist in almost every corner: from a small, unassuming elementary school to publicly-listed tech giants, it is clear that having great leadership is instrumental to success in any context.

While the demand for leaders is inherent in the nature of our world, the supply of good leaders is simply not meeting the demand fast enough.

As technology advances, demands for all-rounded, knowledgeable leaders are ever-increasing. Companies seek to develop their leaders from within, and companies that help companies to develop spring up from every corner—the leadership development industry is a US$366bn industry.

That’s about 8 times larger than the Big Data industry.

Ironically, as spending goes up, more criticism for the effectiveness of leadership development programmes appears. According to Michael Beer et. al, such programmes fail because people will simply revert to their old ways, as written in a Harvard Business Review article.

In a McKinsey article, Pierre Gurdjian and other authors criticised such leadership development programs, noting that lack of context, underestimation of mindsets and failing to measure results make up the reasons as to why such programs fail.

On top of falling short of expectations, most companies are also poor at recognising a person’s potential to be a great leader.

Great leadership is born from a mixture of nature and nurture — different blends of personality traits form different leadership styles, but the experience is what gives them the competency.

Also Read: 6 leadership techniques for business growth acceleration

For example, introverted individuals lead very differently from extroverted individuals, but they are not necessarily great leaders from the start. Failing and experimenting along the way is what will level up their leadership competency—hence the term “nurture”.

While nature and nurture are huge factors in determining how well one leads, knowing why a person leads is paramount.

Extant leadership research has begun paying increasing attention to finding out why people lead. Also termed motivation to lead (MTL), it is an individual construct that strongly affects leadership processes and behaviours. This construct is a culmination of many different factors, from personality traits to internal motives.

Even though there is research dating back to 2007, scant knowledge in how much the motivation to lead can affect a person’s leadership capability has prompted researchers to look into industry-specific effects.

For instance, it was found that when authority was distributed in individual hospital departments, physicians are less efficacious in their work, according to this study in the International Journal of Human Resource Management.

Having more motivators ≠ great leadership

Many people have different combinations of motives to lead. As mentioned above, extrinsic and intrinsic motivators both come into play. For most, it seems intuitive and reasonable to assume that having a combination of both factors results in having committed, high-performing leaders — after all, the more motivators you have, the less susceptible you are to performing poorly so as long as the motivators exist.

This Yale study disagrees.

Over 14 years, Amy Wrzesniewski and her team analysed and observed over 10,000 cadets at West Point, also known as the United States Military Academy. During this period, the team studied these army leaders from their initiation to graduation and well into their careers.

The team examined the motivations behind why these people attended the Academy and became Army leaders, as well as their performance and potential as leaders following their graduation.

For instance, a person identified with early promotion potential will score higher on the ‘leader performance scale’, as he was deemed capable of leading at a higher position by his immediate and higher superiors.

Also Read:  Identifying leadership gaps in your organisation

Though it is common to find that people with internal, intrinsic motives performed better than those with external, extrinsic motives for their service, the study gave an interesting insight: those with both internal and external rationales are not on par with leaders that are predominantly motivated from within.

More external motivators ≠ great leadership

Considering that many studies have examined using incentives to influence behaviour, it may seem reasonable to assume that adding more incentives would influence positive behaviour in humans—the flaw is that it works in theory, but only in practise if we were lab rats.

For instance, the Veteran’s Health Administration (VA) has leaders who are predominantly influenced by internal, intrinsic factors; they desire to serve America’s veteran. In 2014, the White House and the Obama Administration had to step in to reform the scandalous healthcare system: it was broken, and it rewarded unnecessary performance bonuses.

“VA loves to tout its bonus program as a way to attract and retain the best and brightest employees,” said then-Florida Republican Rep. Jeff Miller.

“Unfortunately, oftentimes the employees VA rewards with thousands in taxpayer-funded bonuses are not the type of people the department should be interested in attracting or retaining.”

The rewarding program got so overboard that a bill was passed in 2017 to ban VA from using any funds in the legislation to reward senior executives.

Clearly, with more extensive external incentives — and if left uncontrolled — the people lost sight of the purpose of the organisation.

Here’s the bigger question: “How do we develop our leaders?”

Leadership development has always been split between two schools of thought. Some programs emphasise teaching leadership as skills to create high performance, thereby being easier to measure. Others underscore a value-based model, where they teach leadership as a complex moral relationship between the leader and the follower — thus being difficult to measure.

From the studies, it shows that external motivators often fail to motivate, especially within leaders. Those who lead primarily from value-based motivations outperform those who lead with additional rewards.

Companies must be extra meticulous: external consequences should not become external motivators. Performance bonuses from completing a big project as a leader are great, but it does not mean that the leader is being rewarded for being a leader.

If leaders who adopt external justifications—such as an increase in shares, better pay— are developed by companies, they are less likely to be as successful as those who seek to lead for more internal, intrinsic reasons alone, even if they are not being developed.

For all leaders, asking yourself “Why do I want to be a leader” will be telling; what you answer, as it turns out, will be indicative of how well you will lead.

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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.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Kobu Agency

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With improvements, leveraging on education technology for heightened quality, and accountability for assignments and exam processes no longer remains a dream

The internet is indispensable. It has changed how the world works.

Let’s take a look at the education sector for example. Information for research has become instantaneous.

It may seem like an age ago, but less than two decades ago, doing research required many hours spent in a library, which was not really the most efficient way to do things.

Most resources would be in print-only; academics and librarians were heavily relied on to provide concise information.

Technology is changing the way that we learn, information is also more abundant to the masses. Breakthroughs of new technology innovations such as A.I. and Blockchain are giving more opportunities for the Edutech sector to grow.

Let’s dig deeper into how Edutech can boost learning in the digital world.

Personalised learning tools

To help make learning more efficient, there should be personalisation of subject content. Additional reading of current affairs allows students to be well-read beyond their textbooks. The expansion of their world view also builds critical thinking, an essential skill in daily life.

Streamlining topics can also help minimise the time wasted on irrelevant materials, more so if the subject matters are catered individually to each student. With such customised content, students can skip redundant content and concentrate on the most useful topics to help them understand concepts.

Existing companies such as YouTube or Google are already recommending content based on user profiles. However, the recommendations are mainly dependent on algorithms that are not necessarily customised for each learner.

Rather than just one media site or platform, having an online learning platform with interactive features such as narration, music, speech, and short videos would help students understand learning objectives in an engaging manner.

By this, it should not be just the machines churning out automated responses, but for assessors to be able to analyse how each student grasp concepts and this can be done through a customised educational profile for each student.

Deeper offline-to-online assessments analytics

The advancement of handwriting and object recognition is also another indication that predicates an enhanced offline-to-online (O2O) learning experience in the future for students. Students will soon be able to do their own workings and writings on paper, to have it analyzed and processed digitally by a camera.

For example, US Edutech company Osmo offers a system that uses a clip-on mirror to allow a device’s camera to recognise and track objects and movements. The system can identify real world items such a child’s handwriting, or the way the student arranges the various toys, analyzing these signals, and converting them into real time data and information.

Also Read: Edutech is the much needed big thing we need to work on, a panel discussion at Echelon Asia Summit 2017

While these games are entertaining and educational for beginners, there is a gap in O2O learning for older students, especially in the areas of assessments and feedback.

The existing hands-on learning games have their limitations on some scientific and mathematical concepts which are a lot harder to demonstrate (e.g. Integration or Order of operations). Unsurprisingly, abstract concepts tend to be the difficulties students face while studying for a major exam.

Firms such as Photomath and Socratic are already filling the needs partially by providing instant solutions, and have proven to be popular among its user base. They might be lacking in some areas, nonetheless, their software extends critical to turn offline assessments or homework into more meaningful data. The outcome will help students prepare for tests and exams with a better understanding of concepts.

Blockchain technology to reduce fraud and improve efficiency

Blockchain has been an important asset in our technological advancement, and especially in our fintech landscape. Blockchain technology’s foresight to detect various types of risks, including cheating, score manipulation and cybersecurity threats ranks superior to traditional examination procedures.

In May 2019, Singapore announced a blockchain certificate system with 18 education institutions.

The utilisation of blockchain would assist in delegating responsibilities in a more efficient way, such that unnecessary repetitive labour is curbed. With more e-certificates now being given prior to utilising blockchain such as the SkillsFuture courses, the blockchain exam system could be used to create a decentralised cryptographic tamper-free ledger.

This new structure will allow the exam committee to administer, track, record, transport and publish the results faster by removing many steps in the traditional approach. With the streamlined setup, candidates can receive their results and take the next step in their learning journey sooner.

Minority report: education version

In the movie Minority Report, a specialised police department apprehends criminals based on foreknowledge provided by three psychics called “precogs”. The “precogs” are able to peer into the future actions of criminals and provide the information to the police.

The police are then able to arrest the criminals before the crime is actually committed. In the world of education, the “crimes” are the mistakes hindering a student and our “precogs” will be the A.I. that predicts the learning challenges students will face, even before encountering them.

We have already developed an A.I. model that is able to predict the chances of students answering a particular question correctly, even without them actually doing the question.

Also Read: One roof, all possibilities at the heart of Bangkok

We believe that the next advancement in Edutech will be the ability to provide corrective measures to eliminate a student’s weaknesses, thus saving a lot of time that would otherwise be spent on doing questions they have doubts in.

These pre-emptive measures can be in the form of watching a video, listening to a podcast or playing a mini-game. A collection of these measures would be similar to a revision book personalised to a learner.

The Future of classrooms?

This is not to say that technology will completely take over the classroom.

Technology is an important and crucial tool, but its role has and always will be to support the human teacher in his or her lessons. While the machine will be able to analyze, teach, and zoom in technical aspects of learning, the teacher’s role to guide, nurture, and inspire students has always been relevant. Perhaps even more so in an age where human interaction is constantly on the decline.

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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.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit:  Element5 Digital

Contributed under Neo Zhizhong, Founder of Geniebook

 

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 Influencers know their audience better and by having them in the planning phase will undoubtedly increase brand awareness

For the longest time, we were used to seeing only celebrities fronting brands and businesses. With the emergence of influencers, the presence of these “regular people”, yet, with significant influential power became refreshing to the audience and business owners alike.

To say influencers were a calling to brands and businesses for marketing campaigns would be an understatement. They are about as holy grail as rain in a drought. Audiences can relate better to the ambassadors, and business owners were able to explore new opportunities, with the potential of reaching a more targeted audience.

Or at least when the influencer trend first got picked up.

Back in 2009, blogger Bryan Boy (third from left) pictured front row at a fashion show alongside the iconic editor-in-chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour (fifth from left). In the period where bloggers were trying to get themselves taken seriously, Bryan Boy’s appearance at the front row gave confidence to the blogging industry.

We saw influencers taking up front row seats at fashion week, jet setting off to tropical destinations on private planes and getting all glammed up walking the red carpet for movie premieres.

This is on top of possibly getting paid to feature a product on their social media and receiving freebies from brands. With the dream lifestyle portrayed to the entire world, do we dare wonder how the influencer industry eventually became a billion-dollar industry?

With everyone trying to get a piece of the dream lifestyle, recent exposés have begun painting influencers in a different light. While it is not a sweeping statement of all influencers, the few rotten ones are the reasons why some marketers and brands are becoming sceptical about engaging influencers for their marketing campaigns. How do you find the right influencer for your brand amidst the uncertainty?

Go micro?

Experts have claimed that micro-influencers or nano-influencers are the next best bet when it comes to considering one for your marketing campaign. What are micro-influencers, you wonder? They are influential individuals with a following of about 500 to 10,000, or if in Singapore, it’s 5,000 to 20,000 followers.

Compared to macro-influencers (10,000 to 1,000,000 followers), surely the latter would be able to reach to a broader audience. However, experts have it that marketing right now is more than just mere exposure.

To get actual returns, it is about time that brands and businesses look into how to create an impact on the audience and convert them into sales.

A study has also shown that micro-influencers, though with lesser followers, can achieve 7 times more engagement with its audience compared to influencers with a higher following.

This study simply means that the small community that the micro-influencer cultivated is genuinely interested in his/her content and basically, ‘quality over quantity’.

How high would you go?

When engaging celebrities, who are also social media influencers like Selena Gomez, it is expected for companies to have to fork out a hefty amount, knowing their status. Think it is cheap?

How about USD$800,000 per Instagram post! If you think that is a massive amount to be spending on an influencer alone, try Kylie Jenner where an Instagram post would set you back USD$1million. More established brands often opt for celebrities because of the budget they have and also to maintain a reputation for its wider (like international) audience.

Image: Singapore influencer, Deekosh with a paid partnership Instagram post with LEGO Singapore for their then latest LEGO movie. For an influencer with a following of about 200k like Deekosh’s, per Instagram post could go up to SGD$3,000

Not everyone has such deep pockets. This is probably the reason why brands do not mind considering bloggers/influencers, or influencers-turned-celebrities if they need one that has the same influence power to Gomez’s and Jenner’s tier.

Take comedian, Lele Pons, for example. She initially found fame on the now-defunct app, Vine, before moving on to YouTube. Just last year, the 23-year-old was signed to Universal Music. With a following of 36.7million on Instagram, Pons charges a whopping USD$144,000 per sponsored Instagram post.

While that might seem like a lot for someone who does not really have a “full” presence, (like out of 10 people in a room, probably only one knows of her existence), it is still a lot more affordable than engaging a celebrity. And just like micro-influencers, her followers are more niche compared to one of a celebrity’s. If you are considering deep engagement and your product has the same brand proposition as your candidate influencer, you can consider engaging them.

Spot a fraud

Of late, both local and international mainstream media have highlighted on influencers and the constructed growth of their pages.

Apparently, a survey that was conducted by HypeAuditor revealed that almost half of our local influencers have mangled with their social media accounts using artificial methods– such as buying followers, likes and comments to create engagements on their page as yet another content.

But fret not, there are a few easy ways to spot whether an influencer has an engaging community in their account. For starters, we can:

1. Check out the number of followers and compare it against the average likes on its posts

2. Look out for the verified tick beside their name

3. Look through the comments section to feel for vibes on engagement with followers

At the end of the day, with regular posting and creative content, anyone can be an influencer – literally. Like knowledge, content is power. Influencer marketing is also more than just slapping the influencer’s face on your products or poster.

Having the right influencer to match your brand will help you to amplify your message further. The only question is, do you know if you have chosen the “right” one?

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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.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit:  Caroline Attwood

This article is contributed by Adrian & Badriah from Be known. This article first appeared here.

 

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A rat race player has no time to wonder about creative solutions to different problems

I wanted to think over my entrepreneurial journey and share it with other fellow entrepreneurs.

Once a year, I reflect upon the year that has passed. Sometimes startup entrepreneurship has become part of the larger rat-race of society. What began as defiance against a society built on neatly parcelled careers and raises, became a successful, popular subculture, and in doing so, re-merged into the rat race.

Just ask yourself if you, like me, have felt anything like the following:

On career path fallbacks

1. You are comfortable with the idea that if your startup does not work out, you will get a job at a tech company thanks to the strength of your startup experience

There is confidence, and then there’s complacency. I won’t lie. It’s been creeping in.

2. You view the outsourced projects that you are working on as more pressing and important than the success of your startup

Airbnb had their Obama O’s and Cap’n McCain’s. The lessons is that sugar is sweet, but if you have that instead of a whole meal, it will kill you with time.

3. You worry that decisions you make as a startup founder may not look good on your CV

Many factors can motivate a worry that a badly viewed mistake can affect your public image. None of those worries will help you make the right decision, though.

4. You worry about offending potential partners or acquirers more than the customers that you are missing out on

Especially true if you have a personal relationship with someone in the offended organisation. It takes a mental shift to be ok with the idea that you will have professional rivals, and on purpose, so that you can succeed.

5. You find yourself thinking a lot about the occasional job offer that comes your way through LinkedIn

I’m pretty confident that a lot of startup founders and senior employees get offers through InMail because I received a few. Thinking about them makes me aware that I’m wondering which will get me ahead furthest in the rat race. I learned to view them as an opportunity to reverse-pitch what I’m working on instead. Try it.

Also Read: Growth is a dangerous vanity metric; Here’s what your ideal launch plan should be

On measuring success

6. You unconsciously benchmark your startup’s growth against your peers in the same or adjacent industries

This really can’t be helped when they appear in the news as much as you do. However, paying attention to it is another way of getting into a rat race. Besides, startup growth comes in spurts. Smooth growth charts are a lie.

7. You unconsciously seek out meetings with corporate leaders more than you seek out new customers

High-powered meetings are exciting! Powerful figures also have the means to lend you a hand. If you found that you met more executives than customers in 2016 though, you may need a rethink.

8. You find yourself talking exclusively about growth and revenue in interviews

Aside from being a poor presentation, it reflects a focus on score-keeping again. Besides, metrics ought to support an argument, not be the argument.

On finding opportunities

9. You see a conference speaking opportunity as a profile-building exercise

By this, I mean a personal profile. A good way to know if you are a victim is to ask yourself how many slides about your background did you have at your last presentation? It ought to be zero, with incredibly few exceptions.

10. You secretly wish that your larger competitor would just buy you already

Everyone wishes for an exit. However, if it occupies a lot of your thoughts, perhaps you are in it for the wrong reasons.

On lifestyle

11. You have to be the highest-paid person at the company since you are the founder

Though it’s common to be the highest-paid person at the company, sometimes an opportunity to hire someone amazing will present itself, and for a lot of money. I don’t know if I could do it, but a founder who is ok being paid less than some of his team is saintly, and outside of the rat race.

12. You opt not to explore a new overseas market because the temporary relocation would really cramp your lifestyle

Moving someplace where the quality of life is lower is a step backwards for those keeping score.

13. Your friends all work in startups but not one of them is also a founder

Nobody ought to be told how to live their lives or pick their friends. That said, the rest of us draw our lessons from how you live your life and pick your friends.

14. You don’t understand why other entrepreneurs won’t just chill out more

Being out of the rat race is hard work. A race has objective and rules. Entrepreneurs reject those rules in favour of creating our own. That’s twice as hard as just playing along.

15. You invest your savings the same way that your peers in corporate jobs do. Do you see your life turning out the same way as your peers in corporate jobs? I didn’t think so. But perhaps subconsciously you do. Why else would you take on the investment risk profile of a corporate employee when you aren’t one?

On competition

16. You think that the coming downturn in your space will affect you and the old-school incumbent equally

This is a problem because you see yourself in competition with established, old-school incumbents. You aren’t. Aside from the different scales that both operate at, seeing yourself in competition with them draws you into a destructive race against them.

17. You think that the massive growth in your space represents a great growth opportunity for you and the old-school incumbent equally

Explosive growth also explodes problems. It can entrench bad practices in the name of profit, and turn your company into another corporate treadmill. You can win the rat race, and still lose the spark of defiance that led you to choose entrepreneurship in the first place.

Also Read: 8  startup lessons I learnt from sailing in Yangon’s Inya Lake

On achievements

18. You want to get an MBA to further your career (even though you are the founder)

I find this baffling. People don’t use most of what they learned in school at work, regardless of the job or level of education. So an MBA won’t make you a better entrepreneur. I can only guess that subconsciously some entrepreneurs expect to be back in a job where an MBA matters.

19. You tell people about the terrific things that you have achieved, not what your team has achieved

Being self-centred is awful in many ways, and one of them is as a way to grow a personal profile instead of a company profile. It shows a focus on self-aggrandizement and corporate CEOs that we love to loathe.

20. You believe that if there’s no authoritative blog post written about how to do something, it probably isn’t worth doing

There is an unbelievable amount of material written about every aspect of a startup’s operations. Do you fall victim to this? By doing so, are you stifling your own creativity in service of efficiency and KPIs?

Also Read: How to be a great boss: Lessons for startup founders

I have a minor confession to make.

There are a fair few mistakes on this list that I have made. 2017 seems as good a time as any to try something different, like writing for its own sake, and not just content marketing. More sharing and less measuring. Being a startup entrepreneur is something special, and I’m going to remember that.

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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.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Benjamin Elliott

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No matter how you’re employed, embracing change is the best way to stay relevant; and independent doers are leading the way, let’s keep up

 

Do you know that 48 per cent of the world is already self-employed?

The world has changed. That is a fact.

We have already seen major shifts in the way we live and work because more people are embracing independent work. But what does the rise of independent working means within the context of larger, global shifts? Let’s take a look at what’s going on now, with concrete examples from Singapore.

Independent doers

The changing workforce

The self-employed population is an extremely diverse group. Not only because their occupations are different; their circumstances and motivations differ greatly, and thus their challenges differ too.

So, when looking at the global self-employment rate of 48 per cent, it is important to note that this includes self-employment by choice as well as due to necessity.

In this article, I will dive deeper into those who are self-employed by choice, and I will refer to them as “Independent Doers”. Rather than focusing on their employment status, let’s look at some of their key traits and attitudes towards work.

Independent doers could include freelancers (e.g. programmers, creatives, editors, social media marketers), start-uppers (founders of start-ups and start-up teams), entrepreneurs, trainers/coaches, and many more.

Some general traits of an Independent Doer could be:

1. A purpose-driven self-starter

2. Game-changing personality

3. Global citizens able to operate anywhere in the world

4. Well-informed on global trends and developments

Independent doers actively choose independent work over traditional employment as they want better opportunities to apply their skills, to make an impact, and to have the flexibility of structuring their work based on their goals. Those who are highly skilled could even earn more when working independently.

As their work is purpose-driven, having fixed work structures (e.g. regular locations and hours) is not as important as working towards their goals. Many independent doers put in longer hours despite flexible schedules.

With millennials soon becoming a significant part of the workforce, it is no surprise that this new way of working is becoming increasingly popular. Millennials are bringing with them new attitudes and values to the workforce. To them, work is not just about making ends meet – it is about personal identity, purpose, and growth.

Also Read: 3 types of hobbies every growth-minded individual needs to cultivate

Since stability is no longer a priority, more are breaking away to chart their paths. For instance, those with creative talent are pursuing their passions and taking on less conventional careers in industries such as the arts, media and entertainment. In these industries, it makes sense to be involved in multiple projects on a freelance basis, to build up good portfolios and networks.

Even for those with more traditional full-time jobs, they are likely to work for multiple employers throughout their careers instead of sticking to one job.

And for those who find purpose in helping to make a change in the world, having the freedom to innovate, push boundaries and take action would naturally appeal to them and put them on the path towards becoming entrepreneurs.

Ultimately, being an independent doer is a mindset rather than a type of employment. With shifting values and attitudes already happening in the workforce, we will be seeing more and more people adopting this mindset and making the transition to independent work.

 The changing world

The driving force of technology

Aside from changing values and attitudes, technological shifts in the global economy are also enabling the rise of independent work.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is upon us. The continued emergence and evolution of technology has caused a great impact on the way we live and work. We can find an abundance of information at our fingertips on the internet, connect with others instantly over social media, and buy almost anything through e-commerce.

More importantly, technology has helped grow the on-demand economy whereby consumers can connect to service providers and get their requests addressed in real-time.

Websites and applications like Upwork and Freelancer have fuelled the growth of freelance work, opening up opportunities for Independent Doers to meet clients, showcase their skills, collaborate with partners and more – without the traditional need for a corporate support structure.

In addition to the ease of finding projects, new software technology has also enabled Independent Doers to work and collaborate remotely. Useful tools such as Slack, Trello and Podio foster efficient and effective collaborations which can all take place online.

Technology has indeed been a major driving force behind many of the changes we experience today. Independent doers who can optimise the use of technology to aid them in their work will find themselves ahead of the curve.

The changing workplace

We all work differently

In response to the changing workforce and new ways of working, even corporate companies are re-inventing themselves to attract and retain talents. This is evident from key trends, namely – the transition from hierarchical to flat organisation structures, from fixed to flexible working hours, and from working in the office to working anywhere.

Co-working spaces are gaining popularity on a global level as they offer attractive alternative working arrangements. And moving from one co-working space to another is made easier today through solutions such as Doerscircle’s office pass (powered by Workbuddy), which allows members easy access to co-working spaces across different locations through monthly membership plans.

Even big, well-established companies are realising that in order to attract and retain talents in today’s world, they would have to re-invent themselves and move away from traditional structures.

Standard Chartered engaged WeWork to design and run one of their offices in Hong Kong, to foster innovative thinking, network and learning amongst its staff.

Transforming the workplace from a traditional, corporate environment typical of a financial institution into a more laid-back setting similar to a co-working space speaks volumes about Standard Chartered’s efforts to embrace the workplace of the future.

Also Read: What makes investments in fintech and alternative lending in SEA promising?

Interestingly, multiple studies show increased productivity and job satisfaction as a result of these trends. As such, countries around the world are beginning to take concrete steps in efforts to improve workers’ welfare and productivity.

For instance, new legislation in 2020 will allow employees in Finland to decide when and where they work for at least half of their working hours. Australia and the UK are also adopting more flexible work arrangements.

Changing the workplace culture and physical environment is no easy feat, and it begins with recognising that we all work differently. As more millennials enter the workforce, governments and corporates need to start adopting new modes of working and to move in the direction as set by Independent Doers.

Rise of the independent doer in SouthEast Asia

Southeast Asia is an entrepreneurial hotbed

Southeast Asia’s economy has one of the highest growth rates in the world. Start-ups based in Southeast Asia have higher levels of investor confidence – tech companies have raised a total of US$24 billion since 2015. This is indicative of strong innovative and entrepreneurial energy in the region.

Furthermore, the internet economy is booming with 350 million Internet users living in the region, as reported in a study by Google and Temasek. By 2025, the internet economy is estimated to exceed US$240 billion, and 1.7 million jobs will be created for highly skilled professionals.

Just like in the rest of the world, digital marketplaces play a considerable role in the rapid growth of the freelance ecosystem in Southeast Asia. Platforms such as Workana and Payoneer are expanding to the region.

In 2018, the Philippines ranked fourth out of 200 countries in terms of membership on Freelancer, with 93,000 freelancers and employers using the site.

Although there are still many who are self-employed out of necessity in the region, it is worth noting that there is increasing demand for independent doers with more specialised skills and experiences such as in IT, marketing and finance.

According to the Q3 2018 employment index published by Monster, the fastest-growing freelance roles in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines are as follows[7]:

 

 

 

Country	Industry	% Growth M-o-M
Singapore	Marketing & communications   Finance & Accounts   Sales & Business Development	13%   10%   10%
Malaysia	Sales & Business Development   Marketing & Communications   Software, Hardware, Telcom	16%   8%   5%
Philippines	Engineering/Production   Customer Service   Marketing & Communications	41%   7% 5%

Source: Monster Employment Index Q3 2018 Report

 

Monster reports that the freelance economy will continue to grow in the coming years, with even traditional industries such as Engineering and Production starting to engage Independent Doers.

 

The booming internet economy has indeed unlocked many new opportunities for independent doers. With higher levels of investor confidence, we will likely be seeing more emerging independent doers willing to leap to start or scale their businesses.

Independent doers in Singapore

Challenges and support

As of 2018, the self-employment rate in Singapore is 14.6 per cent.

There have been more efforts in recent times to understand the steadily growing community of Independent Doers in Singapore, as more Singaporeans are choosing to take up independent work.

For instance, the Tripartite Workgroup on Self-Employed Persons was formed by the government in 2017 to investigate challenges faced by the self-employed through a series of public consultations.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority also conducted a study on media freelancers in Singapore to identify areas that could be improved to help media freelancers advance their careers.

To better support freelancers in the arts industry, the National Arts Council has created a dedicated platform providing resources related to financial planning, legal services, professional development, and more.

These government initiatives are certainly timely, and they represent a good start towards exploring new systems to help Independent doers in various spheres of the economy.

While we are moving in the right direction in recognising that more support is needed for independent doers, a deeper understanding and more targeted solutions would help to address their needs truly.

Independent doers in Singapore like elsewhere in the world face many practical challenges in their journey. They are responsible for every aspect of their careers, and that means having to manage a business on top of doing what they love.

Some essential areas which they would have to look into include office spaces, business solutions (e.g. financial management, data, CRM), healthcare, legal issues (e.g. IP rights, contracts) and many more.

They most often face significantly higher costs when purchasing solutions such as insurance, healthcare, mobile, or software plans.

Many would also find these issues complex and difficult to understand, or simply do not have the time to seek out information or advice. All in all, being an Independent Doer could feel very much like a solitary journey.

Let’s look at some common issues faced by Independent Doers by using Singapore as an example:

1. Healthcare and retirement

It has been observed that Independent Doers in Singapore lack healthcare and retirement savings.

Independent work could be unstable at times, especially if the monthly income of Independent Doers could vary greatly depending on the number of projects he/she is involved in.

One in four Singaporeans who are self-employed have not been contributing to their Medisave accounts, and hence are saving less for healthcare. To address this, a “contribute-as-you-earn” model, whereby independent workers will have small contributions paid to their MediSave accounts when they provide services to the government, will be rolled out beginning from 2020.

2. Loss of income due to illness or injury

Prolonged illness or injuries sustained during work could seriously jeopardise the career and livelihood of Independent Doers.

Many Independent Doers in Singapore are not covered by insurance plans that provide protection against loss of income.

3. Payment-related disputes

Independent Doers commonly face payment-related disputes, which arise out of the lack of proper, written contracts. Their terms of services may not be properly documented, and this could pose a challenge when disputes arise.

To address this, the government has established a set of guidelines on best practices for engaging freelance services under the Tripartite Standard on Contracting with Self-Employed Persons.

While there have been positive steps taken to start identifying and addressing some of these issues, we still need to take a step back and examine some inherent issues based on how governments and solution providers have traditionally viewed independent doers.

A new mindset 

Changing our perspective towards independent doers

Addressing the challenges commonly faced by Independent Doers requires adopting a more substantial mindset change towards how we view them.

One of the greatest challenges Independent Doers face is the lack of access to relevant, affordable solutions and benefits that are specifically designed and catered to their needs.

As they are often viewed as a fragmented group, solution providers may often be unsure about what to offer them, let alone bring them affordable rates.

For instance, insurance policies for individuals and independent doers are significantly more expensive than corporates and corporate employees, simply because insurance providers cannot balance the risk in the same way.

Also, getting a credit card can be challenging for Independent Doers, especially the freelancers, as they do not have traditional payslips and steady monthly income. Due to these facts, they do not fit into conventional structures.

Additionally, social and economic policies (not just in Singapore, but around the world) are still largely based on the idea of traditional employment, and independent doers are often left out.

Instead of regarding them as outliers, why don’t we start looking at them as a consolidated group just like the corporates? To do so governments, as well as solution providers and platforms, need to obtain a deeper understanding of Independent Doers, in terms of their demographics, lifestyles, motivations, needs and concerns. Such data are currently only available on a minimal scale for this group of people.

As a unified community, their needs could be primarily aggregated, and a greater number of solutions could then be offered to them in a more targeted manner and at more competitive price points.

As mobile and global citizens, independent doers would also require more transferrable, cross-border and flexible solutions that could provide them with assurance and stability no matter who they work for or where they choose to work.

All in all, Independent Doers would benefit from more collective representation, and from uniting to negotiate for better conditions. That would help them better navigate the freelance economy.

Embracing change

Independent Doers are leading the way

Our lives have been transformed greatly with huge shifts in the world, brought about by technological developments. The meaning of work has also changed and will continue changing as more millennials join the workforce.

We need to recognise that Independent Doers is a major force driving change and transformation. They are constantly pushing the frontiers of innovation and social enterprise, changing the world for the better – and it is time for us to change for them, too. With a growing community of Independent Doers facing new challenges, access to new solutions should also be growing increasingly easy and affordable.

Structural and policy changes will not happen overnight. However, we can all start by changing our mindset to embrace the pioneering spirit of Independent Doers and advocate for the new way of working.

As Charles Darwin said, “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

No matter how you’re employed, embracing change is the best way to stay relevant; and Independent Doers are leading the way – let’s keep up!

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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.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: David Tostado 

– Contributed under Hell Priess; Founder and CEO of Doerscircle

 

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Google has not released any major instructions as of now regarding its new algorithm update in July 2019 but. here’s what SEO marketeers need to know

The year 2019 has been significant for many reasons for online portal owners or e-commerce web store owners. So far, it has also proved to be a happening year for the people in the digital marketing industry. We all know that online marketing largely depends upon the policy of Google. In the year 2019, Google has released its new algorithm update.

However, as usual, earlier, Google has not revealed the changes that it made in the last algorithmic update. So, at this moment, online marketing experts are probably thinking about the measures that they can take to deal with Google’s algorithm change. Are there any changes that they could bring in their approach for business marketing?

What does the Google algorithm update mean?

With the advent of time, Google updates its features and algorithm to promote user-friendliness and better user-experience.

Google also makes changes to the instructions. As a result, it leaves a crucial impact on the overall business marketing process. Business marketing tends to begin with the instructions and preferences of Google.

SEO experts give a lot of importance to this, so, it is important to understand the algorithm update, and to build future strategies for business marketing accordingly.

Things that SEO campaigners need to understand

SEO campaigners have to follow the Google updates carefully, as a lot of things depend on the algorithm update from Google. An overall SEO strategy can get changed entirely with the algorithm update.

Thankfully, in 2019, there is no primary or significant update from Google. These new updates can be seen as routine updates, and thus major changes to the SEO strategies are not suggested.

Also Read: An end of Google-Facebook advertising duopoly could be a boon for adtech

At this moment, you need to know certain things to run your SEO campaign smoothly. These are discussed in the following section of the article.

Google ranking fluctuations

After the algorithm update of Google in July 2019, you will undoubtedly note some fluctuations in the Google ranking. It means that you will notice the ranking of your website against certain keywords has changed. Now, the ranking could get better than earlier, and other times it can fall behind the earlier ranking.

This is quite a common thing, and there is nothing to worry about ranking shuffling in Google. If you have noticed that ranking of your website has fallen down a little after algorithm update of Google, you need to make certain changes to the website to get a better ranking. If ranking has escalated than earlier, it is already a good sign for you.

At this moment, you should not make any further changes to your SEO campaign strategy. Escalating ranking after algorithm update of Google suggests that your SEO strategy is absolutely seamless and highly effective.

The tools that you should use

For SEO, it is common for the webmasters to use different sorts of tools. They are used for making the SEO campaign powerful and seamless. If you are using tools for an SEO campaign, make sure that you follow some basic things. The most important thing is to understand the importance of the tool.

Secondly, the legitimacy of the tool is essential. Thirdly, it is crucial to understand how the tools function. If they are used for bulk link building, they could be time-consuming, but they would not be effective. Google strictly wants manual link building.

Hence, you need to be careful about the tools that you use after the recent algorithm update. Over the last few years, Google has strictly introduced the policy which depicts that it will not tolerate the off-page SEO activities which have been conducted with tools.

Thus, you need to adopt a better policy to deal with the SEO campaign. You need to find the right tools that will support you in the SEO process.

Give more stress on data

The upcoming era will depend on a lot of data. For business marketing through search engine optimisation, you cannot undermine the importance of data. You should give importance to the data as much as possible. For that reason, you need to keep a few things in mind.

First of all, data should be collected in an organised way. The good data collection method is vital for a good data analysis process. Data needs to be processed properly. For data processing, you need to use the correct algorithm. Finally, the analysis must be meticulous.

When data analysis is done with accuracy, decision-making process gets seamless. When you make decisions based on data, you make more accurate decisions. For business marketing through SEO, building good strategies depend on the data analysis process.

The power of social media

Despite algorithm update, you should not stop your social media activities. You should continue social media optimisation with full enthusiasm.

Also Read: How Google is slowing innovation

For an effective social media campaign, you need to learn a few things. You should follow the simple techniques for social media optimisation.

Nevertheless, you should not leave any stones unturned to connect your SEO campaign with a social media campaign. When both these campaigns are connected, a perfect online business marketing campaign has been established. It fetches brand reputation, higher revenue and more exposure for the online businesses.

Major changes that you need

Google has not released any major instructions for the users regarding its new algorithm update in July. So, at this moment, there should not be any significant changes to the SEO campaign of Google.

At this moment, you do not need to worry about your SEO campaign, as there would not be any changes in Google. Even if there are, those changes will not have an impact on your SEO campaign.

Depending upon all these things, you need to craft your SEO campaign in 2019. Since there is no major update, you can be a little relaxed as an SEO campaigner. There would not be a lot of changes to the campaign unless you have lost your ranking severely after Google’s algorithmic update.

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Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

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e27 rounds up six names that still hang around the tight competition of e-commerces in the mature infrastructure of Singapore

According to the report published by Google and state-owned venture company Temasek released by Amcorp, Singapore’s e-commerce market is expected to grow to US$5.4billion by 2025. The context of the prediction is that the Southeast Asian internet economy currently is the world’s fastest-growing region with a projected growth of US$195 billion by 2025, with e-commerce taking the share for US$85 billion.

A flourishing young population, a rise in Internet speed and penetration, an increase in GDP growth, a better payment ecosystem, and a lack of store access contribute to the projection of the future of e-commerce in the country.

The trend in Singapore’s e-commerce ecosystem has attracted overseas digital marketplaces such as Qoo10 to set up regional operations in Singapore to manage growth in Southeast Asia. In terms of connectivity and logistics for e-commerce, The World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index ranked Singapore as Asia’s top performer in global freight forwarding and express carriers, as revealed in Export.gov.

Singapore may be an attractive hub for global e-commerces as an entry point to Southeast Asia, but the country has some local players, born and bred in Singapore. e27 has gathered them to see what they are about and what they are up to.

Carousell

Carousell has made a name for itself since starting its operation in 2012. It allows users to buy and sell things on their mobile apps.

Carousell started to gain attention when it won the Startup Weekend Singapore 2012. Carousell’s app is designed to better facilitate people in selling their things online and purchasing from other sellers.

e27 reviewed Carousell when it’s first launched, stating that the app allows users to list products that they want to sell, beautify the products with preloaded photo filters, pretty much like Instagram.

Also Read: Why brands fail on e-commerce and what they can do about it

Carousell also allows users to curate and personalise their own browsing experience by following people of the same tastes and interests. Products can be categorised according to gender and its verticals.

Founded by Quek Siurui, Lucas Ngoo, and Marcus Tan, the team of three has been creating the app from joining Plug-In@Blk71, which at the time of the app launch in 2012 was one of Singapore’s latest coworking space managed by NUS Enterprise.

The app that has been in the eCommerce ecosystem for seven years this year raised US$42 million funding in April from OLX Group. The investment values the company at over US$550 million.

ezbuy

In 2016, ezbuy was officially introduced as a new brand name of 65daigou. ezbuy is Singapore-based e-commerce that provides customers with an international shopping experience from buying to delivery.

Along with the rebrand, the company also raised US$20 million in Series B round of funding led by Chinese VC fund Vision Knight Capital, with participation from existing investors IDG Ventures and US-based CGC Capital.

It was last year when struggling Chinese discount e-commerce service LightInTheBox acquires ezbuy. It was an all-stock deal and saw LightInTheBox taking 100 percent ownership of the company for US$85.55 million, bidding on the success of ezbuy.

Under LightInTheBox, ezbuy continues to operate carrying the brand name. Ezbuy CEO Jian He has become CEO of LightInTheBox while Meng Lian, a partner with IDG Ventures, has joined as a director.

Currently, ezbuy claimed to have presences in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.

SingSale

SingSale approaches e-commerce’s competitive market with a members-only offer, updating its users with deals on a variety of brands and products. The membership is free, and only requires customers to sign up, as shared in Vulcan Post.

The variety of brands available ranges from luxury brands like Versace, Gucci, and Guess, to the likes of Levi’s, Revlon and Nike. Other labels spotted include Lancome, Casio, Asics, Maybelline, Cotton On, Fossil, and Timberland.

SingSale claims to offer discounts of up to 80 per cent off recommended retail prices. SingSale claims that it’s able to offer luxury goods at a competitive price because of the work of the company’s buyers, who source for partnerships and suppliers in Australia, US, Europe, New Zealand, and other parts of Asia.

Also Read: How to prime your new e-commerce platform for success

It works in favor of its members by updating them with daily email notifications on new sales events that are starting to let customers in on the shopping window.

Once the sales event has ended, SingSale will get their overseas partners to send the orders to their international warehouses (anywhere in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, China, Malaysia, or Singapore) to be delivered directly to your doorstep.

However, the delivery time can take up to 28 days from the end of the sales event, “depending on where the goods are sourced from”. The estimated range of delivery dates will be shown on the product description page.

To date, there’s no known funding raised by the startup. It could be because it still struggles to maintain good customer service.

Clozette

Our e27’s fashionista contributor once made a quick writeup about Clozette, a virtual closet platform that allows fashion enthusiasts to shop directly on it.

Clozette offers a fashion and beauty social network with four key community activities: Discover, Share, Organize, and Shop.

Within its virtual closet, users can store photos of items they own, just bought, or simply wish they had. Users can also share styles, be it with virtual items from products online, or with pictures taken of their favorite items in their closets.

Fellow members can leave comments on posts, like them, and share them. There are forums for discussions, followed by a section for shopping where products are linked to real places.

“We have designed the site that it’s also a digital platform for brands, retailers, designers, and artisans to engage and interact with consumers and fashion tastemakers to build communities,” said one of the founders of Clozette, Roger Yuen.

Back in April, Clozette raised US$10 million Series C funding from a public-private fund that belongs to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Cool Japan Fund.

With this deal, Cool Japan Fund marks its foray into providing risk capital for businesses that want to integrate the “Cool Japan” concept into its business.

Love, Bonito

In February 2018, Love, Bonito quietly emerges as a women’s fashion brand that’s managed to snag 13 million in a round led by Kakaku.com.

With a presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Indonesia, e-commerce has a pop-up and permanent shops that ship all over the world.

Love, Bonito started in 2006, when 18-years-old Co-founders Rachel Lim and Viola Tan created a small passion project to earn a bit of extra money. Using traditional word-of-mouth marketing, the fashion brand grew and the two became full-time entrepreneurs.

The notable achievement of e-commerce would be the transition it had from the online store to offline retail experience.

The company began with the pop-up model and the response was positive enough for them to open a flagship store in Singapore.

HipVan

HipVan is an online store for design product that focusses on the Southeast Asia market. It aims to work with the brands and independent designers from Singapore and around the world to bring well-designed products to consumers in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

HipVan was started by serial entrepreneur Danny Tan. According to Tan, design products are products that do not just look great, but also work well to improve your everyday life. This is a generic description, which means that HipVan can feature anything from home furnishings and art to fashion and accessories and even food.

Also Read: 10 ways to get a customer to buy from your e-commerce site

“In Singapore, most of us live in similar apartments and furnish it with stuff from mass-market furniture shops. The same goes for what we wear and use. The truth is that products with unique designs are just not that accessible in Singapore. This doesn’t mean they are not available as we discovered many brands and independent designers that sell really interesting and unique products here. We decided to start HipVan.com to introduce them and help make these products more accessible to consumers in this region,” said Tan in an exclusive interview with e27 back in 2013.

In 2015, HipVan secured a US$3.3 million funding from Golden Gate Ventures and East Ventures.

Out of countless e-commerces, both major and minor in operation, these six stood out as the most original in the country. Singapore’s bright forecast in the e-commerce ecosystem only leaves room for more new e-commerce ideas and innovation to emerge in the future.
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Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

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Silicon Valley culture is borderless and inclusive to those who adopt risk-taking, open-minded, and big-picture attitudes

“What’s the secret sauce for Silicon Valley’s startup success?”

As an advisor to Asian entrepreneurs and startup founders, we are often asked this question when we meet entrepreneurs, corporate execs, or government officials visiting Silicon Valley.

Similar to Silicon Valley, Asian startup communities draw from a talent pool from nearby universities or corporations.

Funding is plenty from private investors, venture capitalists, corporate funds, or government programs. Infrastructure and operational support are provided through co-working spaces, accelerators, and a network of well-connected mentors.

Startup communities in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and elsewhere in Asia, have produced successful startups that are changing their region. However, most Asian startups do not penetrate global markets to truly ‘change the world’.

“Yes, yes. But you still haven’t told me about Silicon Valley’s secret sauce?”

That missing secret sauce ingredient is … culture! In other words, adopting the “Silicon Valley Culture” results in a competitive attitude that helps Asian entrepreneurs not only optimise their startup’s success in local markets but also prepare them on their path to global success. We believe that, unlike American or Asian culture, Silicon Valley culture can be ‘borderless’ and represents an attitude taken by successful entrepreneurs who have moved to the Valley from all over the world.

Also Read: What Southeast Asia can learn from excess capital in China and Silicon Valley

Below are 3 Silicon Valley culture tips that are important for any Asian entrepreneur to adopt:

1. Be open-minded

It is a cultural trait across all of Asia to respect one’s elders and teachers. However, many of the elders and teachers advising today’s Asian entrepreneurs do not have the experience and insights relevant to the startup world.

Silicon Valley’s culture boasts to “disrupt tradition, break moulds.” To disrupt, we need open-minded, entrepreneurial cultures that break traditional business models. In fact, these are traditional business models that many elders may be afraid to see change.

By being open in sharing your ideas, you will gain much more rather than if you disclose as you incorporate diverse perspectives into your company vision. For example, when you talk to other startup founders or investors in Silicon Valley, most of the time you will not be asked to sign legal non-disclosure agreements.

Instead, you will find entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley actively networking and connecting throughout all constituencies of the knowledge ecosystem – from technologists, business strategists, developers, venture capitalists, academics to government officials.

The open-minded approach found in Silicon Valley encourages collaboration with everyone while inspiring friendly competition that drives constant innovation.

2. Take risks

Most college graduates in Asia are under cultural pressure by their loved ones to choose a stable career path with a major corporation to bring pride to their family.

In other words, graduates are encouraged to become a working professional.

Thus, choosing to become an Asian entrepreneur can be perceived as dishonourable to parents due to the monetary and emotional investments that they have made in their kids. In Asia, failure can be branded permanently on a person — now, that’s a big cultural risk.

But, in the United States, taking risks is a cultural trait to be celebrated! And in Silicon Valley, taking risks is an attitude, not a learned behaviour. Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, summarises it best: “The biggest risk is not taking any risk.” You will find this credo in every successful Silicon Valley founders’ DNA.

3. Think big, think different

In the last 25 years (a single generation!) we have seen technology profoundly change human behaviour. In 1992, there was no Google, Apple iPhone, Amazon, Facebook, Skype, or Uber.

A common trait for these early founders is that they were all thinking big. They were looking to change the world and solve real-world pain points. No problem is too challenging when you adopt a mindset of fearless, bold thinking.

Also Read: What Silicon Valley can learn from China: Interview with Jason Costa

Fear constrains an entrepreneur to be cautious, to think small. Fearless entrepreneurs, on the other hand, think big. In Silicon Valley, this culture of thinking big is exemplified by the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple.

“When you grow up, you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your job is just to live your life inside the world,” Jobs said in an interview in 1994. “That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover […] you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.”

Adopting Silicon Valley culture

Unlike local Asian cultures, Silicon Valley culture is borderless and inclusive to those who adopt risk-taking, open-minded, and big-picture attitudes.

Whether in Silicon Valley or in Asia, creating a successful startup is hard enough. As an Asian entrepreneur, if you apply Silicon valley culture to your startup, you will differentiate yourself from your peers and increase your startup’s likelihood for global success.

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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.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Garth Pratt

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Giving remote working options is a way to attract more women to the tech industry, said an all-woman panel at Huddle Kerala 2019

Girls should be encouraged to embrace and pursue tech from a very young age to bring them into the industry, said an all-woman panel at ‘Huddle Kerala 2019 in Thiruvananthapuram.

They were participating in a panel session, titled ‘She is the Boss, She loves Tech’, on the second day of the startup event organised by Kerala Startup Mission.

The five panellists unanimously agreed that to attract more women to the tech industry, they should be given remote working options.

“Women’s representation in tech in India and worldwide is minuscule,” said Kiran Bhat, Founder and MD of Xebec Communications. “To address this gender gap, women should be encouraged to pursue tech from a very young age. This should start at the school and grassroots level.”

Also Read: “We need to break gender imbalance in the internet space,” says Facebook India MD Ajit Mohan

According to Pooja Ravishankar, Head, Category Marketing at BigBasket.com, daughters should be encouraged to do jobs that are traditionally perceived to be men’s.

“We should let daughters get their hands dirty at a very young age. They should get mentoring sessions at three or four years. Girl should also be allowed to fix a flat tyre or fix a plumbing problem at home. We should not limit their world to doing just household chores,” Ravishankar added.

Sruthi Kannan, Head- Launchpad Startup Accelerator at CISCO, said even though there is a limited number of women in the industry, their quality is remarkable.

“Everyone should be able to unlock his/her true potential. It is our responsibility to take our fellow women along in this journey,” said Anuja Chaudhary, Director ( Enterprise and Alliances) at Builder.AI.

Ravishankar believes that giving remote working options is a way to attract women to the tech industry. More girls should go out and become technocrats in future.

Bhat says that things have changed and become easy for women to take up entrepreneurship. “When I started years ago, things were difficult for women, but things have now become a little easy and organised. Funding is no longer difficult. That’s the best thing that happened.

Secondly, earlier women didn’t do anything with their degree or take up jobs. That is also changing. Now there is a lot of MNCs and tech firms, which allows women to work from home. What we need is to learn how to get along with people and how to work as a team. Working from home and learning skillsets is easy today,” added Bhat.

When you start a business, there is no difference between women and men, and there is no bias. They all need products, clients, finance, operations skills to manage the business. Women have to play to their strength. Neither funding nor tech is prohibited for women, feels Bhat.

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