Creativity, personal branding, and learning from failure

Widely-available, high-quality public schooling is one of the many hallmarks of a successful country. Without public schools, literacy rates would plummet, countries’ gross domestic product would drop, and life would generally be harder for everyone. When each generation is adequately educated, it leads to success for everyone.

One of the subjects that isn’t often taught in public schools is entrepreneurship. Considering that the United States is home to the world’s most active economy and roughly 99.7 percent of all businesses are small businesses, not being taught about entrepreneurship cuts potential students short and makes it more difficult for them to find possible careers they can pursue in the future.

It’s safe to say that entrepreneurship should be taught in schools from a young age. If you need more convincing, here are a handful of lessons about entrepreneurship all school kids should learn that can be applicable later in life.

1. Being creative

Creativity doesn’t just apply to entrepreneurship; it applies to just about everything in life. Creativity is especially important to thriving in an entrepreneurial capacity. A survey of over 100 failed startups conducted by CB Insights found that the most common reason why they failed was that owners simply didn’t provide customers with products they actually wanted to use. If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to embrace creativity and create something the consumer actually wants.

Telling someone that businesses should create goods and services customers want to buy sounds overly simple, but it’s really not. To work in business, you need to cultivate your creativity.

Also read: Innovation will win, not a trade war

2. Making a brand

Young people struggle to find themselves and accept who they truly are. Schools should help students locate their own “brand”. Focusing on the type of professional persona you want to present to the rest of the world can be helpful to students of any age, especially those beginning to look for colleges and jobs. Understanding how to create a personal brand and market that brand is a skill that can be applied to any business venture.

3. Accepting failure and moving on

Allowing children the chance to fail at a task or project, but avoiding being too harsh on them, shows them that failure sometimes happens and it’s okay. However, it’s also important to help them work toward a new goal and focus on success. Just like in business, it’s important for kids to understand that failure is okay and shouldn’t discourage you from trying again.

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This article was first published on e27, on August 29, 2018.

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

Photo by Raj Eiamworakul on Unsplash

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Rebranding can be a challenging move, and Sorabel is one of those startups who managed to do it successfully. Find out how

Ever since their first claim to fame in 2018, Indonesian fashion e-commerce platform Sorabel –who was known as Sale Stock Indonesia back then– has made an impression with their rapid growth.

In addition to securing 10 million downloads, this year the company has also begun its international debut by introducing its platform in the Philippines under the brand Yabel.

According to Co-Founder and CEO Jeffrey Yuwono, the international expansion is meant to be an experiment.

“We quickly put it together to see what is going to happen, but the traction has been growing … it gives us the confidence that the kind of product that we put in Indonesia can also work in the Philippines. At some point, we would like to do a proper launch in the country,” he explains.

Sorabel also sets itself apart from other fashion e-commerce companies by introducing a Coba Dulu Baru Bayar (“Try first then pay”) scheme that enables customers to order clothes, have it delivered to their door, and give them a try before they decide on purchasing the clothes.

Also Read: 5 mind-blowing quotes by startup founders at Echelon Asia Summit 2019

Launched nationwide in 2018, the feature is now running in more than 4,300 districts in Indonesia and has been able to improve their basket size –though Yuwono also does not hesitate to admit that return rates are also increasing.

“But I was happy to see that because it means people are using the programme. If the return rate does not change, then I would think of it as a failure,” he says.

In early 2019, the company made headline when it announced a rebrand to Sorabel. Generally, rebranding has been known as a challenging move that even bigger companies such as Mastercard and Pizza Hut had failed miserably at it.

But following the rebrand, Sorabel was able to increase new customer purchase by four times.

So what is the company’s secret sauce to a successful rebrand? Yuwono sits down with e27 to spill them out.

Also Read: Why timing is everything

Quality first

Before we can talk about Sorabel’s rebrand, first of all, we need to understand how the company operated and the challenge it faced.

When it first began, what Sorabel did was to buy and sell clothing products from Tanah Abang, a leading textile market in Central Jakarta. But the startup soon learned that their customers did not come back. While the price of the products was affordable, the quality was far from expectation.

“One thing to understand about our local fashion industry is that 95 per cent of all the fashion made in Indonesia, is made in very small factories or convection … The problem with these home industries is that the margin is very thin and there is no quality control,” Yuwono elaborates.

“It’s not a big deal when you buy offline because you can touch and feel the product, but online … It’d be like gambling,” the CEO stresses.

Understanding the problem, Sorabel then decided to build their own private label, which enables them to play a more active role in quality control.

Also Read: [Exclusive] Raising a new funding round, The Shonet aims to push for greater growth

“One of the reasons why we rebranded from Sale Stock to Sorabel because we are not just about the low price; we are also about the most up-to-date fashion, good quality, trustworthy services,” Yuwono says.

A familiar new face

 

Now here comes the part about the rebrand.

Following the launch of its new identity, Sorabel hired a brand research agency to measure the public’s perception of the brand. They discovered that within just three months, the brand Sorabel has replaced Sale Stock in every brand perception metric that the company tracked.

“We created the brand in just two months, which is crazy because a lot of brand agencies said that we need at least six months,” Yuwono points out.

The CEO concludes that they were able to get to that point because they understand their customer well –and they did intend to create a brand that connects well to the customers.

Also Read: Grab joins China’s ZhongAn Insurance to build digital insurance marketplace

“During the Sale Stock days, we had a customer service mascot called Soraya … I have talked to random people about online shopping and I asked our customers, have you ever shopped at Sale Stock before? And they would be, ‘Sale Stock? You mean Soraya?’” Yuwono says.

“Then for the rest of the conversation, they would refer to us as Soraya. They have an emotional connection with Soraya and not Sale Stock. Sale Stock as a brand is cold and functional, but what they remember was the warmth, chit-chat, banter with our customer service,” he continues.

The next move

 

Their successful rebrand has opened up plenty of exciting opportunities, including a foray into the offline. The startup is looking forward to expanding their offline footprint by opening a retail store.

“Now that we actually have a brand that stands for fashion, we are ready to try offline. So I am hoping to open one as soon as possible,” Yuwono says.

Sorabel is also on the process of fundraising, and the funds will be used to support their international and offline expansion.

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Image Credit: Sorabel

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The painful truth is that, as founder, the toughest segment of your user base to spend time with is those you will learn the most from

In one of their most popular posts covering the Philippines, Humans of New York profiled a 75-year-old taxi driver who found himself raising six grandchildren as his own kids after his daughter suddenly passed away from cancer.

“If I get too worn down, the children will take a ‘vacation’ at their auntie’s house. But that never lasts long. Because I miss them too much and want them back,” he said in his pithy 190-word capsule profile.

The piece was subsequently shared over 11,000 times, received 2,700 comments, and liked over 200,000 times, as of this writing. The story struck such a nerve with Filipino readers because it was one of contrasts. The Filipino public doesn’t usually sympathize, much less admire, taxi drivers, yet here was one with the mask pulled back and he was like one of us: He was hard-working, honest, and family oriented, perhaps even to a fault. How could you not like him?

Unfortunately, his story was so striking because there are also many other taxi drivers who are not like him, and as a team member of taxi-hailing platform, Micab, I have to spend time with these less inspirational characters. I’ll admit: This is tough. When I first founded Micab back in 2012 and people advised me that I would have to spend a lot of time with users — in my case both drivers and passengers, since we’re a platform. I thought it would be a piece of cake. It was just interacting with them and learning their pain points, after all. How hard could that possibly be? I could not have been more wrong.

Many taxi drivers are stubborn, difficult, inefficient, and exhibit a host of other unsavory traits, and the painful truth is that, as founder, the toughest segment of your user base to spend time with is those you will learn the most from.

What’s the use, after all, of preaching to the choir? You want to reach out to the people who don’t buy into what you’re doing and find out why. I’ve rode taxis 1,175 times last year, and the most valuable instances were ones where the driver still had a long way to go as a customer service professional. In every interaction with these drivers, I think to myself:

What will it take for more Filipinos to use these cabs? What needs to be addressed in their training, pricing, or systems?

Through my interactions, I learned that they are never born this way. No cab driver enters into the profession wanting to ask every passenger to add additional fare on top of the meter or contract a higher rate — they are always forced by circumstance to. If they do not ask for an extra fifty pesos, they may only break even on the trip, or even incur a loss; if they do not contract a flat rate from one location to another, they may not be able to buy groceries that week. By no means am I excusing away their behavior, I’m just explaining the root causes of what manifests to users as unsavory practices.

Because the fare structure for cabs has gone unchanged in eight years, traffic being what it is in the Philippines, and inflation rapidly increasing, they often return home to their families with no income to speak of, having barely passed the “boundary” that their operators have set(Editor’s note: in the Philippines, public utility drivers pay a daily rent to the operator, called the “boundary” — they take whatever is left as their profit) . They thus have to make ends meet, even if it means illegally trying to top up their fare.

This problem is the root of all bad taxi driving experiences. To think anything otherwise assumes an inherent maliciousness in a group of professionals that is just not there — like any other collection of blue-collar or white-collar Filipinos, they just want to survive. The key to helping them is in understanding this fact and building a sustainable business solution that can help them in the long-term. The operative word there is sustainable. As we saw in Uber’s operational exit of Southeast Asia through a deal with Grab, subsidizing fares, and in turn, incurring massive losses, is not sustainable.

Also read: The Grab-Uber deal is just the beginning for homegrown SEA startups

Because I’ve taken pains to spend time with difficult drivers and learned the root cause of their untoward behavior, I developed Micab with our team in such a way that it forces everyone of them to be their best. From the beginning, we have a best-in-class training program that culminates in a test and professional oath, brown bag seminars that upskill them with various skills, such as business English, and a feedback system on the app itself that produces a virtuous cycle: Good drivers rise to the top, and bad drivers must improve, or find themselves removed from the platform. Moreover, these systems are supported by a business model — B2B advertising on the taxi toppers that ride atop each Micab cab – that is a successful revenue generator, and thus sustainable.

On a regulatory level, Micab is one of the biggest private supporters of taxi companies, associations, and drivers, and our pet cause of the moment is the long awaited fare hike. We are consistently lobbying to federal policymakers, legislators, and regulators to increase the base fare for taxi drivers, so that they can focus on providing the best possible customer experience to Manila’s passengers. The increase has yet to be implemented, but our advocacy has rallied a growing body of support for the change and what it will bring: the advent of “Taxi 2.0” for our country’s commuters, evidenced in cabs – many of them Micab’s own – that are clean, modern, and driven by friendly, courteous, and kind drivers.

If we make all these changes to both cabs in particular and the industry as a whole, will you now patronize our cabs? Like every other founder in Asia, I will stop at nothing till that answer becomes a resounding yes!

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Thie article was first published on e27 on April 26, 2018.

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

Featured Image Copyright: svglass / 123RF Stock Photo

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Ways to give B2B businesses a more customer-centric approach

The notion “the customer is always right” or “the customer is king” must have been heard by us all. Usually, we hear all these phrases in the context of the foodservice industry, retail shops, or B2C business, but shouldn’t this be the motto for every type of business?

True is the fact, an effective marketing or sales strategy must assimilate a deep-rooted knowledge and understanding of customers.

It would be near to impossible for any business to entertain the requirements of their customers unless they understand them. Keep in mind, formulating a customer-centric approach will be beneficial your business in more ways than one.

Despite the availability of all the evidence pointing in favour of customer-centric policies, B2B marketers still appear to fail in devising a lasting connection with their customers.

It was concluded with the Gallup survey that almost 70% of the B2B customers were totally disengaged with their vendors. With the competition navigating all up high in every direction, it has morphed into less of choice and more of a necessity to adapt customer-centric marketing strategy!

In the light of events happen in the last decade, we witnessed a shift of B2B marketing strategies from conventional tactics to the approaches applicable in the digital-savvy world.

Along with the acceptance of contemporary techniques, the old methodologies are also dying, and so is the concept of attracting a customer for B2B sales and neglecting it after the deal closure.

B2B businesses in correspondence with the B2C marketing is formulating a way for all the phenomenon that all the products and services should revolve around the customers to lure them into continuing business with your platform.

Also Read:

Lack of personal connection with vendors – hurting the business?

The reasons behind the lack of connection between B2B buyers and vendors can be a product of impersonality that arises from the nature of the business since the inception of B2B marketplaces, it was presumed unnecessary to connect with customers in the manner as B2C marketers.

But all these resulted in formulating an air of impersonality, curtailing the possibility to form a true connection.

As per studies conducted by Forbes, it is enhancing customer experience that was found to be the number one trend that needed to be developed within the realm of B2B marketers.

To collect all the useful data is crucial to transform the ongoing marketing approach and building a meaningful relationship with clients.

In particular, B2B business needs to learn and observe the patterns and structure based on what the purchase decisions are made. How to engage in B2B companies? What drives their purchase decisions? When do they purchase? Who control the strings for the final decision?

It does sound like a hell lot of an effort to put in, to understand the customer behaviour as well as continuously delight them, but it no reason not to opt for it.

Results are granted to those who put in great work.

Just as it is crucial to for B2B marketers to show their needs and requirements can be met the following services and products, it is vital to stimulate their connections with customers using relationship-building approaches that are widely employed in B2C structures, like communication and sales framework.

Using connective approaches will fortify that not only their vendors understand the business objective, but the vendor has invested time and effort in personalizing the services or products to tailor them to accommodate the purchasing actions of that precise business.

These traits, coming from any B2B marketplace, exhibit thoughtfulness and compatibility.

Furthermore, it implies that the vendor has put effort into materialising the mechanisms and decision making actions of their clients. This can serve to be the start of a meaningful vendor-customer relationship.

Still not convinced? Let’s come out form the indirect advantageousness and put it in terms of direct benefiting acts.

If a B2B is successful in charming and captivating their customers, there are thicker chances that not only they will stick with that vendor for a more extended period of time and make more purchases in future, but they will also become their campaigners.

These campaigners will advantage your business with word-of-mouth marketing, which is still in this digitally savvy generation considered to be the best and most effective marketing technique, driving a lot more traffic to the business with already convinced and willing customers. Now, this does sound a return to all the invested efforts!

What it takes to devise a good customer-centric marketing strategy

B2C customer-centric strategy differs immensely with what is enquired from B2B. B2B businesses have a vast audience that works and act on logic-based facts.

B2B marketing has the challenge to understand and implement a diverse strategy with diverse business to satisfy them, making the experience remarkable for each one of them.

The complicated part for any B2B Customer-Centric approach is knowing how to go about executing this type of strategy.

There are various things that could be altered in order to assimilate a meaningful plan, applicable for all business types, following are the few essential things that should be incorporated in every B2B Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy.

Expectation is everything

The primary ground for devising an excellent customer-centric strategy is definitely standing on aligned expectations. These expectations can be in between sales and services, salesperson and the prospect, sales, and marketing, or business and customer.

It is advised to communicate the timeline clearly, and the nature of services being promised to the customers to amplify the level of trust. It is the basic and most trusted way to develop confidence and align your services in accordance with customer’s expectations to fashion pleased customers.

Prospects are to be treated like customers

If you wish to transform your potential customers into your loyal customers, demonstration them what it would be like if they decide to become a part of your organisation.

Be sure to pay attention and concentrate on listening to their requirements for a tailored experience. Also, convincing customers to buy is one thing, never try to shove an offer down their throat, nothing drives a prospect customer away faster than this.

Provide support

Naturally, it is crucial to stay connected with the probable customers and customers for both B2B business and B2C business. Starting of B2B E-commerce marketplace witnessed the lack of connectivity.

But with advanced need surfaced to engage prospects, various B2B platforms like Alibaba.com, Amazon.com, etc. devised a 24/7 active support system to ensure customer satisfaction and provide them solutions whenever they need.

Almost every B2B business have fallen into these footsteps to ensure that the customers will experience no change in attention even after the deal is done. Even after the sales, be certain to be listening to their feedback and problems they are facing, the last thing that they need is to feel ignored after the purchase.

Customers should be catered like prospects

If you are efficient in solving and tailoring the service according to the requisites of prospects, then they can become your loyal customers, but for B2B job is not done just yet.

With a sound and modern-day applicable customer-centric strategy, B2B business will have to guarantee a continual connection with the customer to retain them and also work towards up-selling.

A great way to do this with the help of a dedicated key account manager who works devotedly with a particular client. This phenomenon is widely accepted, and all emerging B2B business like BeauteTrade.com, etc. are compelling with this requirement.

Put customers in the spotlight

Since we have already established the fact customer engagement is crucial, another way a B2B business can keep their clients engaged is by putting them on the highlight.

Numerous B2B businesses are involved in the act where a specific customer is selected, and then his problems or issues are then solved on priority. This directly gives to the impact the customers that they are valued and cherished.

Outcomes to expect from a customer-centric approach

The entire case of developing customer-centric approach will not only benefit in terms of obtaining more and more clients or in retaining them, but it will also help to make the employees more efficient than before.

With customer centricity, businesses are arming their people with the understanding of what they are working on. It helps in removing a lot of confusion back and forth. It also helps the company growth by ensuring that what you make or what services you provide are in accordance with the requirement of the industry.

Most importantly, a good customer engagement strategy will surely help you surpass your own revenue-generating goals.

As narrated through the Forrester report, customer-centric companies are more likely to leave behind their revenue goals when associated with less-obsessed peers. As an estimate, it could be said that almost 42 per cent of customer-centric business acclaimed to grew their revenue by 10 per cent or more.

In rake of building an expressive, long-lasting, and mutual rapport with clients, a salesperson must treat them with as much attention and carefulness as they would do for any individual customer.

Because under the lights of contemporary digitalization and high tide competition, the alternative model will surely demonstrate to be ultimately ineffective, and in that case, it would be the business who will end up taking the fall.

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What is reward based crowdfunding and successful campaign tips on it

Crowdfunding is a novel form of alternative funding for a variety of ventures, allowing individuals to raise capital quickly by opening up to investments from the public.

Drawing inspiration from micro-financing and crowdsourcing, crowdfunding occupies its niche in the alternative investing space.

While the concept of crowdfunding seems to be evolving, it can be broadly defined as the entrepreneurial efforts of individuals or corporations to fund their ventures by drawing on relatively small contributions from a large number of people through internet platforms, bypassing the need for traditional financial institutions.

The advent of the internet has created platforms offering different types of crowdfunding, the most common of which is rewards-based crowdfunding.

What is rewards-based crowdfunding?

Rewards-based crowdfunding offers a product or service in return for monetary contributions to the project.

They usually take place over an online platform which charges a small fee for successful projects. These include major players like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

How does it work?

Backers are those who buy from startups on crowdfunding platforms. They can usually be categorised into two categories: those who appreciate the value of the cause and those who see value in rewards promised by the campaign.

The reward is commonly offered in three ways:

Also Read: 5 tips for successfully marketing your crowdfunding campaign

1.Pre-orders

This has quickly become one of the most attractive rewards in funding. In exchange for a small contribution, backers are rewarded with exclusive early access to the product.

This can be observed in the music and gaming industry.

Artist often provides an exclusive preview of albums, and video game developers provide beta access to backers, which can also serve as a conduit for feedback and evaluation. Also, startups offer to buy their future product at idea stage with a substantial discount, which is always appealing to those who look for innovative products.

2. Services

Used when the nature of the project is unsuitable for providing pre-orders. Services include developers writing code, campaigners offering backers a free meal or entrepreneurs offering a free trip to their headquarters

3. Recognition

Recognition is often used as a tokenistic measure of gratitude for relatively small contributions. As a show of appreciation, campaigns can offer to list backers’ names on their website, issue collaterals related to the campaigns (t-shirts and mugs) or even craft a thank-you note!

Why choose to fund this way? 

Rewards-based crowdfunding is an attractive option for funding entrepreneurial ventures to gain much-needed capital, especially in the infant stages of a start-up.

Reasons such as the immaturity of product or asymmetry of information in the investors’ space may prevent entrepreneurs from obtaining sufficient funds from angel investors and venture capitalists.

Also, rewards-based crowdfunding represents a rather simple and low-cost option for fundraising. Entrepreneurs can reach their funding goals without committing their capital or requiring financial and legal advice.

Unlike other forms of crowdfunding, they retain equity in the business and are not under obligation to finance borrowed capital.

Lastly, it also serves as a helpful gauge in estimating public interest and validating one’s idea.

Disruptive innovations or a sound product will naturally gain a large following on crowdfunding platforms. Conversely, a project that does not gain enough traction is an indicator that it lacks market value.

Hence, this is a great way to “fail fast”. Rewards-based crowdfunding has the additional benefit of creating a truly passionate army of advocates behind your business.

Research has shown that rewards-based platforms are more likely to attract individuals that fundamentally “like” or “enjoy” the project. They are intrinsical to support the cause, even if there are little monetary returns.

Tips for a successful campaign

Also Read: 3 ways to avoid being a victim of a crowdfunding scam

Social networking

Research has shown the importance of social networking in boosting the probability of success. Entrepreneurs can leverage online presence and public relations to garner more attention.

Constant updates

Projects with frequent updates can almost double the probability of successful fundraising. They show a constant desire to update and reinvent the product regularly.

These can include multiple sample testing, answering community questions and providing updates on optimisation and innovation.

Display signals of quality

The importance of multimedia cannot be underestimated. Having multimedia tools to pitch ideas to the public is a clear sign of preparedness.

Not including a video on Kickstarter decreases the chances of a successful campaign by 26 per cent. Interestingly, spelling errors also decrease the chances of a successful campaign by 13 per cent and are also seen as signal of quality.

The fact that backers respond to signal of quality suggests that their decision largely hinges on a rational assessment of the likelihood of the project succeeding.

Also Read: Five trends in crowdfunding to watch in 2019

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Image Credit: sentavio

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Listening is very important for good leadership

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Find out more management tips in the full video.

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

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

Featured Image Copyright: 123RF

 

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

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

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

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

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

L’Oréal Innovation Runway 2019 Challenge Categories

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why join the L’Oréal Innovation Runway 2019?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not just a beauty contest

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

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

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

Also read: How to help managers improve performance appraisals?

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

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

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

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

How to join

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Authenticity of goods

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Transparency in the process flow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Transparency in pricing and other product information

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Security of ownership

Tokenizing assets on the blockchain enhances the security of ownership.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. Fractional ownership

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

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

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

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

Blockchain for everyday use

Also Read:

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

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

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

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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: Unsplash

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Work culture that has made Appinventiv grow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And this is how our journey started. 

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

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

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

But, it seems like luck was on our side. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

However, this was not our only limit.

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

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

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

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

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

No hierarchy, Please

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

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

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

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

Transparent as glass doors

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

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

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

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

Work innovatively

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

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

Appoint the right managers

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

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

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

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

Think for your team, and they will reciprocate

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

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

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

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

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

Make an unbiased decision

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

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

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

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

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

Work hard, party harder

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

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

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

Appreciation as an energy booster

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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