Choy's podcast - Life and business in Asia

This is the second Dutch Business Lawyers Abroad episode and in this one, I am going to New York! 

Carl van der Zandt has been in the States for 19 years so he is the perfect guide to tell us about the business climate in America with an European view. He tells me why he moved to New York, if he would consider to live in California, how litigation works and how American lawyers can behave during legal procedures, what kind of cultural and business differences his clients are facing, why companies should chose a certain location in the States and so much more!

We all have a certain impression of America so it is interesting to hear the story from an insider who can be trusted…

Enjoy and thank you for listening!

You can contact Carl through www.linkedin.com/in/carl-van-der-zandt-5ab5b9 and his email: [email protected]

Carl's firm is Wuersch & Gering and the firm's website is www.wg-law.com 

DBLA's website is www. dbla.nl

Today's guest is Ron Efron who is born as an entrepreneur with a vision. After starting businesses in Israel, he decided in the late nineties that China is the next place to be so he jumped on a plane and started his next entrepreneurial adventure. Ron mastered Chinese and after being active in various industries, he became an expert in providing corporate security solutions to companies across Asia. Ron shares his fascinating journey as an entrepreneur in China over the years and how he continues to develop himself and he tells more about his current company Bluocean Security and the future which may be in Singapore.

You can find Ron's company on https://www.bluoceansecurity.com, Ron on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-efron-129170a and the podcast is called "Security Asia Podcast". 

Enjoy!

3 Different entrepreneurs in Hong Kong who just started their business. The 3 of them work in different industries, are in different stages of their entrepreneurial careers and come from very different backgrounds but they do have one thing in common. They all started their businesses from scratch with a new view of servicing the needs of a society which is not the one they grew up in. They came up with a creative idea and started to work on the launch. So admirable! In the one-on-one interviews, I get the chance to ask Ruben de Bie, Madelon van de Ven and Camille Faylona about their business. 

One of Ruben's businesses, Grass - infused water can be found at https://www.grass-infusedwater.com (also on FB and IG). Ruben mentions the following books: Capital from Thomas Piketty and the Dutch book Fantoomgroei from Hendrik Noten and Sander Heijne;

Madelon is founder of PLNTY which you can find  on https://plnty.life (also on IG); 

Camille Faylona is founder of Campfire Crates and the products can be found on https://campfirecrates.com.  She also mentions the Founder Institute (https://fi.co).

You can also find them on Linkedin.

Today we are going to Poland for an interview with Dutch lawyer, Remco van der Kroft. Like me, Remco is part of the Dutch Business Lawyers Abroad Association and he is an expert when it comes to helping non-Polish companies navigate in Poland. Curious about doing business in this part of the world, then listen to this episode! 

You can find Remco van der Kroft on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/remcovanderkroft and his firm's website https://okwlaw.com. 

You can find more information about DBLA on https://dbla.nl 

Pascal Coppens is the author of the book "China's new normal - how China sets the standard for innovation". Pascal tells me in this interview why he wrote this book, gives examples of innovation and technology development in China, why he became a sinologist in controversial times and how he sees China's position and reputation in today's world. Interesting, familiar but also new views on complicated China! 

You can contact Pascal through https://www.pascalcoppens.com where you can also buy his book.

Gerd Lindemann is the owner of Holtrop & Jansma B.V. established in 1960 and currently the largest specialist for advanced industrial air purification in the Netherlands. Gerd, originally from Austria who moved to the Netherlands for love, took over in 1996 and was able to take the company to the next level by obtaining ISO and other certifications and starting a company in China in 2006. It is important for Gerd that his company is contributing to a cleaner environment. Gerd shares with us how he became an entrepreneur, how he gets his strategy ideas, what difficulties he faced in the 25 years that he has been an entrepreneur and specifically how his China business took off.

Gerd's company: https://www.holtrop-jansma.com/ and linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerd-lindemann-392233

With the ongoing pandemic, many are facing challenging times: dropped sales, unemployment and limited business development opportunities. But ... it is also an opportunity to step up and reorganize yourself and your business: find new ways and invest in your organization and your talents.

In this episode I discuss these challenges with someone who is completely focused on training people how to increase sales and improve customer services. What can we do right now during the Covid? What is the secret behind improving the numbers of your business and so on. My guest of today knows all about it!

Katharina Darisse holds a Business Management Degree and has been in sales for over 15 years. She worked in a variety of sales and business development roles for the luxury hospitality industry such as the Ritz-Carlton hotel company in Beijing, Toronto and Shanghai. In 2017 she started her own company with the name that says it all: The Skill Shop. With her company, Kat offers learning experience around sales and consults clients on sales related projects. In these challenging times, Katharina has spent the last months on creating virtual workshops and customized online learning programs to help her clients to up-skill their teams.

You can reach out to Kat through her website https://www.the-skill-shop.com and Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharinadarisse

Enjoy this show! 

The work of Stuart Gietel - Basten, Professor of Social Science and Public Policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,  is focused on population and policy issues in Asia with a special attention to low fertility and population ageing. He has received several research grants to study demographic change and public policy (like fertility preferences in Beijing and Taipei).  It is very interesting to hear his story of how he became a scholar, to learn more about the influence of culture on population composition and refreshing to talk with someone whose conclusions are based on data in this time of biased news reporting. 

Stuart is very active and passionate on Twitter -https://twitter.com/stuartbasten. Information about his books ("Why demography matters" and "The population problem in Pacific Asia") can be found on Amazon (for discounts, you can contact Stuart directly). 

In this podcast Hugo Muller, co-owner of Equasia and I address what some entrepreneurs are unfortunately facing right now during the pandemic: should they close down their business in China? What should they take into consideration and what hurdles would they face if they decide to do so? Find out what Hugo has to say about it in this recording. 

Should you have a more specific question related to your situation, please reach out and we can advise you further or even address it in the podcast. 

Find us on www.equasia-group.com and [email protected]  

Chinese limited liability companies need to appoint a legal representative. In this podcast I will tell you that why this is the most important position of the company and what you should do to optimize a healthy environment in this respect. 

Please let me know topics and questions you would like me to address in a podcast episode! I would really like to talk about something that you would like to know more about. You can reach me through [email protected] and Linkedin. 

Thank you so much for listening!

Choy Yiu Chan