Small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) in Southeast Asia have long been an integral part of economic growth and a segment that will receive strong support for post-pandemic recovery. This makes the entrepreneurial path an exciting avenue for people from all walks of life to follow their passion.

In particular, entrepreneurism is a growing trend among young people, who have demonstrated remarkable resiliency and agility to thrive amidst the challenges faced during the pandemic. The findings from our Herbalife Nutrition Asia Pacific (APAC) Young Entrepreneur Survey have also mirrored this uptake, with seven in 10 Gen Zs and Millennials saying they aspire to start a business of their own.

Opportunities in health and wellness

While there is a wide range of industries to explore and consider as an entrepreneur, there is no denying that the health and nutrition segments are popular choices, driven by consumer demand.

Our survey on Changing Health Priorities found that 86 per cent of consumers have taken steps to improve their health in the past year, with over half of respondents saying that they have been eating healthier and supplementing their diet with vitamins and minerals. The bigger picture looks promising too, with market studies projecting a CAGR of 13.2 per cent between 2021-2027 for personalised nutrition in APAC.

At the same time, the region’s ageing population is on the rise and with it, the increase in national-level health promotion programmes to boost healthy life expectancy. These efforts appear to be working. Herbalife Nutrition’s survey showed there is a strong awareness of healthy ageing among consumers, with 73 per cent saying they have taken actions like making better nutrition choices and taking supplements. The combination of these nutrition healthy active lifestyle trends amidst diverse demographics provides a rich environment for new ideas and businesses to flourish.

In general, entrepreneurship can be a rewarding pursuit that allows for flexible schedules, control over decision-making, and the expansion of business networks. Here are some building blocks to success that we share with our independent distributors in the region to help them thrive and grow their businesses.

Getting the basics right

Many entrepreneurs start their businesses to escape the roadblocks of large companies. Along with the freedom to be one’s own boss, there is often a desire to free themselves of endless planning sessions.

Also Read: How accelerator programmes can help entrepreneurs bring their vision to life

However, every business, large or small, benefits from a plan. Take time to write down goals for the business and tangible actions to achieve those goals. Review it on a quarterly basis to measure progress.

For example, was there a way to cut costs or streamline processes? Did client services improve with more technology solutions?

Remember that we are making progress on all fronts, and sometimes just progress, however small, can be enough. Entrepreneurs can continue to find new ways to conduct their business. Ask what customers need and how to best deliver that product, information, or service.

As providers of nutritional and wellness products, we know that consumers worldwide are seeking healthy solutions now more than ever. Our independent distributors host online webinars, and outdoor exercise sessions and provide valuable health information via emails and newsletters.

Professional growth and the willingness to learn are crucial to thriving in a business. In our latest 2022 Entrepreneur Survey, respondents reported that it took an average of two failed business ideas before they found one that worked.

While failing is difficult and discouraging, entrepreneurs shared that making mistakes helped them learn, grow, and succeed in their future endeavours. Almost 90 per cent of small business owners said they learnt valuable lessons from each unsuccessful venture.

The importance of learning to be more productive is also high on the list of lessons. Four out of 10 small business owners said that productivity was critical to their success. Many entrepreneurs previously worked for companies where deadlines were set for them by others.

Suddenly becoming a boss can be daunting for owners, and many find themselves overwhelmed with work and less productive at first. The adage “one step at a time” applies to productivity. Set attainable goals and see each task through to completion.

Nurturing ambitions

Southeast Asia has a promising talent pool of aspiring entrepreneurs that can be nurtured to think bigger and find their place in the global markets. Besides macro policies that support better financing options, wider market access, and the use of technology and innovation, there are some equally important support systems needed to create a conducive and inclusive environment.

Social support

All entrepreneurs require advice, guidance and mentoring at some point in their journey to help them succeed. This can come from an array of social connections, including business partners, financial advisers, government services, and even formal entrepreneur networks.

Another aspect includes promoting emotional support in families and homes. Young entrepreneurs are often discouraged from entering the start-up ecosystem by societal and familial pressure. Building a supportive and significant system where younger entrepreneurs can voice their passion, try new ideas, and be guided on their journey is vital.

Diversity matters

Overall, the Asia Pacific region stands to gain 70 per cent in per capita income within roughly two generations by eliminating gender disparities in employment, including in the area of entrepreneurship. Stronger encouragement and support for women entrepreneurs, especially to enter markets that are driven by emerging opportunities, is important as these businesses are more likely to grow and expand.

Also Read: Is raising money becoming a soul-destroying experience for entrepreneurs?

This creates a positive feedback loop, as the next generation of women builds on the gains made by the current generation, empowering them to break out of social and cultural norms and lay the foundation for more inclusive economic growth.

Diversity also boosts innovation: a growing body of research shows how gender-diverse teams have better productivity and are more innovative, as diverse teams can look at problems from different perspectives.

Being part of a circular economy

One of our latest surveys revealed that younger Asian consumers not only see sustainability as a core value that influences their purchase decisions, but they are also expecting companies and governments to play their part.

Entrepreneurs need to interpret what this means to their business in a holistic way, and this is where governments can provide incentives and upskilling to enable more widespread and innovative sustainable practices. While the implementation might vary across industries, it can contribute significantly to better livelihoods, communities, and economies.

Concluding thoughts

Today, entrepreneurship is more than a job-creating mechanism, it acts as a positive influence on economic growth by serving as the link between innovation and the market. Given the strong consumer trends, the health and wellness space can offer exciting opportunities for new ideas and offerings.

Successful entrepreneurs are the ones who identify and access the right mix of social, business and ecosystem support. More importantly, success comes from believing in continuing education as the secret sauce to staying on top of the game.

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In today’s competitive market space, delivering great experiences for customers — from awareness all the way to post-purchase engagement — is crucial to getting ahead of the competition. In building and scaling up startups, understanding ways to continuously improve products and services in order to deliver constant customer delight is not really straightforward. With broader market conditions of inflation and its implications on fundraising, startups have to strike a balance between managing business and operational priorities and product/service innovation.  

Based on a number of recent studies, the need for constant alignment of customer insights into product improvement and internal stakeholder efficiency is a key component to staying ahead of the pack and sustaining business growth.

Also read: Freshworks bolsters startups with cloud-based sales and support solutions

As such, SAP and e27 organised a webinar to unearth insights from startup founders and customer experience experts on their strategies when it comes to extending runways to drive growth in current economic environments.

The panellists included Harish Agarwal, Head of Customer Experience Strategy for Qualtrics in Southeast Asia; Siddharth Upadhyaya, Lead for Product Discovery & Supply Chain at Versafleet; and Ashley Uy, Product Manager at Plentina, moderated by Selma Ayuanshari from e27. These thought leaders shared their insights about managing the digital offerings of an enterprise to be more effective and customer-centric.

Experts shared their experiences

In this webinar, speakers shared their experiences as insiders and founders, as well as thoughts on the current technology landscape and its challenges. The panel explored insights on how to improve enterprise digital offerings, including best practices and techniques on how to accelerate growth, scale without funding through product efficiency and using SaaS in supporting fast scaling experimentation while leveraging open source technologies.

Other topics that were covered included finding ways to choose which product and product marketing to prioritise, learning how to leverage data that can help you personalise your digital offering to your key customers, finding a path to profitability, and transforming your company into a sustainable growth-stage startup.

Also read: How AlphaJWC Ventures built Indonesia’s largest early-stage fund

Harish Agarwal, Head of Customer Experience Strategy for Qualtrics in Southeast Asia, a co-panellist for the webinar, provided rich insight as a customer experience practitioner. Harish has scaled customer experience programmes and enabled businesses to derive more value at leading organisations across the region. He discussed how incorporating feedback from customers can help meet the objective of building great products and services. The value lies in bringing both structured and unstructured feedback and signals from millions of data points and making sense of it through big data analytics, enabling you to identify delight points and pain points across the customer journey, and then using technology to address those points by acting with empathy at speed and scale.

When asked about his insights on the challenges for startups, Harish mentioned finding product-market fit as the main objective, especially in determining key differentiation and establishing value proposition in a competitive market. Also, continuously improving your value proposition to stay ahead of customer expectations. This is where the importance of understanding consumers and their needs better comes in.

Delivering products with a much more holistic understanding of the customers’ experience enables your business to become more effective and drive faster growth with confidence and precision. This can be done on the product side, go-to-market side, and for any channel that you are using to fulfil the customer journey — through digital, physical, or hybrid channels — by understanding the experience delivered to consumers as a core asset. There are often visibility challenges on customer feedback when building startups, and this may result in broken delivery experiences.

Discovering gaps in customer experience

Every type of organisation stands to benefit from improved experiences, and Qualtrics works across all levels of business, academia, and government to help them find and keep customers, cultivate loyalty, and optimise go-to-market strategies through great experiences. This includes acquisition and onboarding journeys, customer service, loyalty programmes, and the broader value chains.

Delivering a good customer experience is crucial to driving brand equity. Consumers across industries have a lot of choices, and staying ahead of competitors entails a constant connection and understanding of consumer needs. Beyond being cost-competitive, maintaining great customer experiences is key.

The panellists also explained that startup investors can also leverage the customer experience visibility of potential investees as well as startups in their existing portfolios. Whereas traditional research is often used to identify the best investments as part of the due diligence process, research done by Qualtrics can offer agility in terms of providing deep insight into the product-market fit of a startup, as well as gaining a better understanding of the green space in the market.

Also read: Alibaba Cloud launches AsiaStar 10×10 campaign for SEA startups

It can be an opportunity to perform portfolio monitoring beyond financial outcomes and ensure continuous improvement in customer experiences for their portfolio companies. 

The continued growth of Qualtrics is proof of the value organisations are finding in driving business outcomes through better experiences. Qualtrics has increasingly scaled its operations across the Asia Pacific and Japan in response to increasing demand from customers looking to deliver incredible customer experiences.

Over the last year, Qualtrics has made its technologies available through local AWS Cloud Infrastructures in Singapore and Japan, ensuring all local organisations can benefit from its technology. In partnership with SAP and the Singapore Economic Development Board, Qualtrics also recently launched a centre of excellence focused on developing customer experience capabilities and communities in the region to help drive local and global innovation and growth.

To listen to the webinar, visit: https://e27co.e27.co/bnQYLH

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by SAP

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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Singapore Straits Time states that in the first three months of 2022, around 93 victims lost about US$56.2 million because of business e-mail compromise (BEC) scams. The victims didn’t know that these emails are sent by scammers, because it looks like ordinary emails from their business contacts. It turns out that the scammers already hacked into the emails of these business contacts from spoofed email addresses.

The victim had been tricked into making several large transactions totalling US$14 million to bank accounts held by email addresses spoofed to appear as if they were from the victim’s client. Read more about BEC here.

This time the hacker has become very smart and always seizes even a small opportunity to bribe their victims. We need to be smarter than them and be careful with emails that might look safe. Here, I want to share some characteristics of email phishing.

The email sounds like unrealistic threats or demands

Hackers usually intimidate their victims when they’re doing phishing scams. They like to use phrases that push the victims to do something like, “urgent action required” and “account closed” are common. These unrealistic threats and demands are associated with phishing messages. 

Also Read: How can lean startups build a resilient cybersecurity posture

There is a catch

In most cases of email phishing, scammers will do a catch like asking the victims to send some money for expenses or fees. If you caught this kind of message, then you should realise that it is an indication of email fraud.

Poor spelling and writing

Most of the social engineering emails will pretend to be a reputable company to fraud their victims. However, these types of emails are often delivered with grammatical and spelling mistakes. Multi-billion dollar companies don’t distribute emails coherently, and this is a sign of fraudulent email.

An inconsistent or faulty URL

The ABS study found that 30 per cent of people still click links in untrusted emails even though they know they are likely to be malicious. If you want to know if a link embedded in an email is trustworthy, you can hover your mouse over it. If the hyperlink address doesn’t match the embedded link, it’s most likely a malicious link leading to a phishing website.

You will be required to provide confidential data

Regardless of the sender, we should be more cautious when receiving emails requesting the disclosure of sensitive personal information such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, passwords, etc. 

Most recent reports indicate that spear phishing emails impersonating Bank of America employees were attempting to extract sensitive information from bank users. Any email that asks you to send data that could be compromised is most likely fraudulent and someone trying to steal sensitive data.

When we are working with the internet, let’s be smart users. Don’t let the scammers get into us and take everything. We could secure our data with a security management tool that is both reliable and capable of covering both detection and response. Stay safe!

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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In 2016, during one of his official trips to Uganda, Alan Lai came across a group of chia seed farmers who harvested their crops under the parching sun.

Lai, who was working in the investment industry, bought some at a fraction of the price sold at the retail stores but wasn’t sure of the quality. Despite the rapid digitalisation globally, there was no easy and quick way to check the seeds’ quality.

“Being an artificial intelligence enthusiast, I saw an opportunity to leverage AI to rapidly ascertain the quality of the seeds conveniently so that farmers can be paid better and consumers pay less,” says Lai, who went on to start a food ingredient search engine.

That was the beginning of ProfilePrint, an AI-driven predictive and prescriptive profiler.

Established in July 2017, Singapore-based ProfilePrint provides users with accessible, affordable, and portable solutions to ascertain and predict the quality and profile of a food ingredient at the point of use “within seconds”. Its combination of sensor technology and SaaS platform can be used across the whole supply chain.

“The AI technology takes a molecular snapshot of a food ingredient (seeds, coffee, cocoa beans or rice grains) and allows users across the supply chain to access the digital ingredient signature and ascertain the suitability,” says Lai.

ProfilePrint has deployed its solution globally to Europe, Africa, Latin America, China, Japan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Also Read: ProfilePrint’s AI tool predicts quality profile of a food sample “within seconds”, raises funding

The startup first unveiled its fingerprint prediction technology in June 2021 in the Singapore Coffee Association auction, where it predicted the Q-grading score, taste parameters and critical attributes such as moisture and density for all the auctioned coffee beans. It currently serves some of the world’s largest food conglomerates, such as Louis Dreyfus, Olam, Sucafina, as well as mid-sizes traders, local cooperatives and farmers.

Seeks to replace traditional methods

There are several traditional ways to physically grade food samples across multiple stages of the global supply chain. They vary from laboratory testing, which is expensive and time-consuming, to human tasters, which is onerous and can be subjective.

Crops are often visually graded at the farm level, and farmers are paid based on volume, regardless of the crop quality, which does not incentivise them to improve farming methods. Farmers don’t get the benefits despite the increasing demand for premium quality and the availability of crop quality improvement methods.

“This is where our solution becomes crucial. It uncovers molecular patterns in the ingredient signature and big data, such as origin, weather, altitude, to generate insights and predictions,” explains Lai. “We offer sellers and buyers an unbiased reference point, expediting existing quality assessment processes — from the farm to the buyers.”

The firm follows a subscription model where clients lease its analyser with access to the modules available on its online platform.

It also provides an AI grading service, where cooperatives and farmers send their crops to the firm for assessment. The reports will be uploaded online (ProfilePrint Hub) much faster and more affordable than existing sensory grading methods.

Driving sustainability

Beyond the immediate operating efficiencies and cost savings, the firm claims it also drives sustainability significantly. Its technology provides traceability features allowing end buyers to access the digital signatures and geographical and harvest records of the ingredient they consume.

Lai believes it alleviates farmer poverty by ensuring that they are paid more fairly based on quality and ultimately providing more transparency and objectivity in the industry.

What are the current challenges? “People, people, people,” Lai replies. “We need more people in the industry seeing the transformative value of digitalising the ingredient supply chain, more people at the farms to benefit from this transformation and more People aligned in skillsets and core values to join our pursuit in this company.”

In February this year, ProfilePrint announced an undisclosed sum in the Series A round. The capital came from food ingredient conglomerates, including Louis Dreyfus Company (Netherlands), Olam Food Ingredients, Sucafina (Switzerland), a Southeast Asian agrifood conglomerate (Indonesia), Greenwillow Capital Management (Singapore) and Real Tech Global Fund (Japan).

That round came a year after the startup secured pre-series A raised from Glocalink Singapore, Leave-a-Nest, and Seeds Capital.

The post Wake up and smell the coffee: Check your coffee beans’ quality using ProfilePrint’s AI tool appeared first on e27.

A recession can be harsh for many people. Job cuts, companies shutting down or downsizing, countries in turmoil and many projects coming to a halt are just some of the devasting effects of a recession.

During the Asian Financial crisis, US$9.7 billion of GDP was lost in the ASEAN region and thousands of jobs were lost as countries were battling the recession. Similarly, during the recession of 2008, the solvency of over-leveraged banks and financial institutions caused the collapse and bailout of many major financial institutions resulting in the IMF bailing out countries and thousands of jobs cut.

But not all is doom and gloom. A recession can be a time for reflection, rebuilding and reframing the conversation to better position yourself or your company when the market picks up.

Reflections for a better ecosystem

Often recession is a byproduct of a flaw or abuse within an ecosystem, and a trigger event will collapse the system. The 2008 recession started with the subprime mortgage crisis in 2006 and spiralled into a recession when the subprime borrowers started defaulting while the housing bubble burst as the Fed raised rates. This resulted in the recession in 2008, where banks and financial institutions required a government bailout.

With the experience of the recession in 2008, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision came up with Basel III to improve the banks’ ability to handle shocks from financial stress and to strengthen their transparency and disclosure. This reflection from the financial community to identify and close the gaps will help to build a better ecosystem to handle future situations.

Reshuffling of leaders

With each recession, there are bound to be industry leaders who will bite the dust, and new leaders will emerge among those who survived the recession. While it can devastate the affected players, it could also be good for the industry with an injection of new blood and vision for the upcoming stars.

Also Read: How small companies can prepare for recession

During the recession in 2008, it forced giant automobile makers such as General Motors and Chrysler to go under or get a bailout by the Government. A reshuffle within the automobile industry leader board gave the industry a new lease of blood and moved to better innovation, process and even the rise of EV cars.

Sometimes the impact doesn’t just affect companies but the whole industry as well. After the 2008 crisis, financial institutions have become more prudent in their loans and lending, especially with the implementation of Basel III.

More stringent background and credit checks are implemented to ensure that loans are given out with proper due diligence and this, in turn, helps to strengthen the whole ecosystem to handle similar stress in the future.

Reexamine priorities in life

On a personal and career level, a recession can be an opportune time to reexamine one’s priorities, career aspirations and life goals. Often during the bull markets, we are filled with endless meetings, projects, and sales pitches that we lose track of the why or things that matter to us.

When a recession hits, it forces us to slow down our pace (whether voluntarily or forced) and, in turn, gives us time to reflect and reexamine our life priorities and career paths.

In Singapore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, where several industries such as aviation and hospitality were severely affected, it forced many to switch careers in other sectors such as transportation or finance. During the same period, many reexamined their life priorities, and now conversations with companies have been reframing into how they can strike a balance between work-life culture.

Reframing the conversation

With the recent crypto winter, it’s prime time to reframe the conversion around crypto from speculative gains to intrinsic value. Singapore is leading the way with MAS Chief Fintech Officer Sopnendu Mohanty asking how crypto projects drive value.

Many companies have proven crypto can be used to solve real-life problems.

For example, Digital Treasures Centre (DTC), a licenced payment company based in Singapore, embraces crypto as an alternative form of payment to help reduce settlement time and foreign transaction fees.

Zilliqa aims to solve blockchain platforms’ scalability problems by using sharing technology. STEPN is a walk-to-earn project that promotes movement and healthier lifestyles.

Coming out stronger

A recession can devastate countries, companies and individuals, but it is not the end of the road. With each recession, lessons will be learnt, priorities will be rearranged, and paths will be reconsidered.

But no doubt, if one keeps a positive mindset to grind it through after each recession, you will often find yourself coming out of recession stronger and better.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

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