Entrepreneurs in Action

Laurie Underwood is an American professor, author and consultant specializing in cross-cultural business communications

She has studied worked and lived in Shanghai since 2002

Together with Prof Juan Fernandez at CEIBS, she has co-authored China CEO (2006), China Entrepreneur  (2009) and most recently China CEO II (2020). The audio book was released in June 2021. Book links below.

After around 10 years of work in Corporate Communications (most recently as Communications Director Asia Pacific for Air Liquide) she got her doctorate finished in 2019 and switched to consulting and teaching. She is a senior consultant with Sino Associates, focusing on intercultural business communications and crisis communications, and she teaches at several business schools including NYU Shanghai, University of Aberdeen, SKEMA and EmLyon.

Today, she speaks with us about the realities of working in China post covid, working with China if you cannot travel there because of covid, and more generally sharing advice from China CEOs on the challenges and opportunities of doing business with China today.

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so now without further delay let’s begin

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Jochen Schultz is the Managing Director and Member of the Board at China Netzwerk Baden-Württemberg, He has been supporting institutions and companies with professional training for 16 years (Schultz Professional Trainings). Which specialises in the development and implementation of qualification measures in China as well as for Chinese companies in Germany. In this podcast a recording of the webinar “Future Leaders in Sino-European Enterprises”, his role is moderator.

The keynote:

Qiang Rong who has dedicated himself for the Chinese city Foshan and German cooperation for more than 10 years Qiang represents the sponsor, Foshan Sino German Industry Service Zone. He has helped many companies from Germany to invest in Foshan and promotes the benefits of setting up in Foshan. The industrial service zone is also open to companies to setup from all part of the world.

The expert panelist joining Jochen and Qiang are:

Stefan Sack General Manager Zobele China – Director APAC Zobele Group

Zobele is manufacturing company with 2,000 employees located in Shenzhen. After completing his PhD Stefan has lived and worked in manufacturing in China since 2005, His various roles have been with German and Italian companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen.  He has also served as Vice President and Chairman of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai 2013-15.

Wei Zhang is the founder of Beijing For You International Management Consulting Co., Ltd, China which provides training, coaching and blended learning solutions to local and international clients in China. She has worked with many German companies in China, helping them identify and develop talent. Wei Zhang uses her unique insights and valuable experience to combat the rapid changes still taking place in China.

Hsiao J. Chiu is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of JP contagi Asia, an Executive search firm with offices in Germany, Switzerland and China. As a professional recruitment consultant and cultural hybrid, he has been supporting European and Chinese companies for more than 15 years’. Hsiao J. Chiu’s family are originally from Zhejiang province, with Hsiao being born in Germany and has been based in Asia since 2004.

The combined teams wide and varied experience allows them to tackle the following questions:

So now without further delay lets begin

Time Stamp

00:00:31 Introduction

00:03:43 Opening of Webinar by Jochen Schultz Introduction to keynote

00:05:48 Delivery of Keynote by Qiang Rong

00:25:26 Questions to Qiang Rong

00:30:26 Introduction of Experts

00:33:26 Discussion with Experts led by Jochen Schultz

00:35:26 Stefan Sack, Wei Zhang and Hsiao J. Chiu and Qiang Rong

01:22:17 Dr Tumis’s comments on Cultural aspects of trust

01:24:00 Final Closing remarks from experts

01:33:00 End

This podcast it’s made in partnership between ChinaTeam (on LinkedIn) and AsiaBizStories

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Frank Epping in 1995 founded CUP&CINO in Germany. He is still the sole owner and CEO of the company that started with coffee shops.

This podcast is a recording of a moderated webinar titled “How to Participate in the Boom of the Food and Beverage Market in China?” We fast forward to today where this entrepreneur along with his team are about to enter the Chinese market. They bring with them CUP&CINO’s own Coffee machine and business concept.

Kerstin Kaehler, Fabian Berndt, Maik Juengst on the panel and moderated by Adrian de Riz. They are all experts at doing business in China and give guidance to a CUP&CINO as it to steps into the new and unknown.

Frank Epping is in the audience listening. However, the keynote is delivered by Sven Keysers the Chief Business Development Officer of CUP&CINO. From this point on the podcast speaks for itself however. But, Sven does present a series of slides before the moderated discussion takes place.

If you’d like a copy of the slides visit China team on LinkedIn and make a request.

So now without further delay let’s begin.

Time Stamp

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Erin Soutar of the Hive Co-working Space Lavender Podcast studio in Singapore reverses the roles on Neville J McKenzie as he is the one discussing his thoughts on podcasting. The Hive has allowed AsiaBizStories to share the podcast on it’s platform. As Neville talks about the topic of podcasting generally.

From using podcasts in education

Neville: So then you’re not asking students to sit down and read or watch videos in the class. You’re actually sending them to a website or a podcast and saying, read listen to this then when we come into the classroom we’ll discuss what you’ve learned from it.

Building a community around podcasting

Neville: I find them very interesting. I get to meet a good range of people because podcasting crosses all sorts of boundaries and this is where I hope that we can build a community, because it’s not, it’s not about the competition between podcasters, because there’s and I think there’s a niche for everyone that is interested in podcasting.

In this conversation Neville gives a brief insight into the potential, and changes Erin’s mind on a few beliefs about podcasts and podcasting.

So now without further delay lets begin.

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Elvis Simon is a barber with 33 years experience as a salon owner and teacher of barbering in London, England. He has also founded the Quality Barbers Association, QBA, which is involved in raising the professionalism of barbers. His colleagues include some famous names in the UK barbering and hairdressing world such as Rudi Page the former sales manager of Dyke and Dryden, Derek Clements, former Artistic Director of Splinters International and MK a mens stylist with Andis. He has also worked on TV and film sets, first the 90s TV show “Dance Energy, where he planned the hair styles of the DJ Normski and then a film starring  Jean-Claude Van Damme, Until Death. Where he was responsible for the hair styling of British actor Gary Beadle of East Enders fame.

Our conversation took place when he took a break during his short visit as he explored the potential of the Singapore market. Generally everyone needs a hair cut and his introduction to someone thinking of becoming a barber or hairdresser…

If you don’t like what you’re about to do, don’t do it. because this is something that even when you want to get out of you can’t

With the average haircut taking 45 minutes and the nature of being a barber bringing you into intimate contact with thousands, Elvis has learned a thing or two about people.

I’ve been doing this for thirty years. I’ve seen people evolve from really clever to really stupid and you know in thirty years. Man has not progressed he has regressed, unfortunately. Just got thicker and thicker.

This podcast covers a lot of ground in the black barbering industry.

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Thanks to Elvis for that great insight into his plans for the future in Singapore and the business world of Black Hairdressing. We wish him all the best

You can follow Elvis Simon on Instagram @ebs748

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Moses Kakanga was born by Lake Victoria in the old capital Entebbe, Uganda where he attended school before moving to the capital Kampala Makerere University, the oldest university in eastern and central Africa. Where he graduating with a degree in biomedical laboratory technology.

Moses then went on to work for an infectious disease Institute for three years before returning to study for a Masters degree in structural molecular biology, which culminated with study at Birkbeck College University London. He then returned home and continued with his previous employer for another four years. He then decided on another round of graduate study finding a scholarship on the Singapore international graduate award. And move to Singapore to pursue a PhD in biochemistry.

From young Moses wanted to work in the medical field as a scientist. He was surrounded by several role models. His father was a practice in physician for 40 years and is still practising although semi retired. His mum is a nurse and many of aunts are nurses and growing up in a hospital community he saw he was exposed to many other role models in the medical profession. Initially he wanted to go to medical school but didn’t get the points before settling on biomedical laboratory science.

When he looks back he looks back Moses attributes his success to working hard, which was based on his desire to attend medical school and in Uganda like most countries required the highest grades and to be top of your class.

Moses believes he’s achieved everything he’s wanted academically. Initially he wanted to remain in academia and become a professor then after doing his Phd and living in Singapore he came to the realisation he wasn’t suited for a career in academia saying “If you wanna be in academia in the Western World you have to publish well. The pre-requisites are very stiff.”

It wasn’t the challenge of academia as his previous employer wanted him back, offering him a position in the USA for two years. But he realised he wanted to have a career in Bio-med Innovation  and create devices for unmet clinical needs.

Moses grew up in the 90s in Entebbe before leaving in 2004 to go to the capital, Kampala to study at the  Makerere University, which was a former College of the University of London and after independence it was handed over to the government of Uganda. It has the oldest medical school in Uganda. The medical school is ranked highly internationally is one of the top five in Africa.

During the time he studied there a lot of international students from Kenya and Tanzania

Moses then received a commonwealth scholarship and was attached to a scientist in Uganda. However the final six months were finished at Birkbeck, University of London while still attached to a Scientist in Uganda. He wasn’t lonely in London as he had cousins there and had a pleasant time.

Missing out on the scholarship didn’t feel so bad because Moses was young at 17 and his dad was a bit scared about sending him alone to Hungary where he would also needed to learn a new language as well as the fact that he was already going to university in Uganda.

Looking back at the time going it may have seemed like a missed opportunity but the other opportunities that have presented themselves have more than made-up for it.

The desire to develop by a medical devices arose during his Phd studies as he worked on Biosensors for screening anti-cancer drugs and his interest shifted to a desire on innovation, drug or devices development.

Moses feel that by remaining in academia he would not be able to accomplish as much due to the rigid and competitive career development.

The challenge he sees for a scientist entering the world of entrepreneurship, are a lack of business skills, which for example may be business model development, customer development, market access.

This lake is something that can be overcome by hiring a person with these business skills. Scientists can still learn the business side but it will take a little bit longer for a person that come from academia.

Currently  Moses is working with a CEO who is also a technical and scientific person and who also has developed the skills to handle the business side. He does get involved to a small degree. But his focus is primarily on the science and technology.

This is reflected in his title of Chief Science and Technology Officer (CTO).

Moses sees himself continuing in the role of technology building as his focus is on the science and being in charge of running clinical trails in order to bring them to the market.

Moses has always looked up to his father as a role model. A man “who set a high bar”. Next came his father’s boss who was a woman that came from a family of five doctors. He always looked up to them. He found these role models stimulated his interest in having a career in the medical field. The professor that supervised him On his PhD has also acted as a role model in ensuring that he completed his PhD and graduated.

As Moses enters the world of entrepreneurship new role models are beginning to appear one of which is Sir Richard Branson. Who Moses admires in the way he built his business from scratch. Through reading his books he has discovered that Sir Richard Branson started out with a lot of challenges in school but then found his niche and has built a number of businesses and has become a very successful business man. His methods have been cautious, unaggressive and without putting other people out of business. He also has integrity and consciousness. Although  Moses is in medical field he plans to follow Sir  Richard Branson on the business side.

A few days after our meeting Moses will be taking part in an event as the moderator with the title, “From Scientist to Entrepreneurial Scientist: The Creation of BioTech Companies”. The purpose of the event is to help motivate early stage start-ups in the field of biotech and med tech. And get mentorship and advice from experienced biotech founders who will share their experience on the transition of being a scientist, scientist entrepreneurs, starting their own companies from research in the lab. The main premise for young start-ups to get more added information and guidance from established scientist.

Three scientists are from the National University of Singapore, Duke NUS will share how they built their companies that was spun off from the University. The audience will come from a broad spectrum of Singapore, which will include academia and start-up biotech companies. A 127 people registered have registered so far. But Moses is being cautious and expects a turnout of 50 to 60% for the event.

Registration and entry is free via the SGInnovate.com website in collaboration.

SGInnovate is a government organisation that helps to develop tech ecosystems in Singapore. SGInnovate supports DeepTech entrepreneurs and start-ups develop their ideas into a marketable products and also helps them to fund raise.

27 Deep Tech can be a confusing term which is used for ideas that take a lot of time to develop for example developing a robot that requires patents and many of iterations in order to get to the final product. Another example is developing a medical device that requires development of a prototype, do prototype testing and looking for trials. The gestation period takes a long time. This is how Deep Tech is commonly defined. The time to develop a DeepTech product can be two years or three years or longer.

There is further ambiguity as it can also include AI algorithms used for imaging of cancer cells as it can uses AI for diagnostics methods.

There is a constant need for development in the Bio-Tech and Medi-Tech field. A constant need for new drugs and medical devices particularly in areas connected to the ageing population in Asia. As well as devices for mobility, which is also a growing field. Due to Asia’s ageing population so there will be an increasing need for biotech and med tech products.

If you consider the US in the Bay Area where, biotech and med tech is really big and you will see a lot of investors. In that the ecosystem in the US is well developed. While in Asia it has recently started growing and is predicted to grow bigger .

Moses reasons for starting a business in Singapore are that it is small country where everything is close. He completed his PhD at the innovation hub called One North, where there are universities with research centres and start-ups in the same facility. Also gave access to many people on different tracks due to their close proximity. The final piece into doing this venture is being able to get into an incubator that gives support in building the company.

At present the company consists of a CEO and Moses who is the CTO as it has only existed for eight months. They are still raising money and expect to hire a specialist in the medical device regulatory area in the second quarter of next year in order to facilitate the launch of the product into the different markets.

The first market to enter will be Europe where they are working with a number of hospitals on clinical trials and expect to get the CE mark. After that will expand in to Asia and the USA.

This order is chosen as buyer certification procedures are a little bit easier in Europe than getting an FDA. So like most medical companies in the world they tend to start off with Europe to get a CE mark because it’s a little shorter than the FDA. From there a move into Asia is fairly straight forward if you have a CE or FDA.

For the African market the company has to examine the reimbursement systems to determine who will be able to pay and may be considered later on after some revenues have been gained.

So the important first step is to prove the product is viable then once proved to raise finance and show that it works and then you can look up expanding into other markets.

The product is a device that was patented by his CEO to treat a genetic disease that causes bulging of an eye. It is inserted to reshapes a patients eye

It is a genetic disease and while it is not a common it does affect 15 million people worldwide particularly in Asia and the Middle East.

In the near future the priorities of the company are to raise money, build the start-up through clinical trials then bringing the device to the market and growing the business in to being a leading company in the ophthalmology space.

Faced with the low success rate of startups Moses takes the same approach he applied to his PhD where you go give your all to a project if it doesn’t work out you move on.

Since being involved with the startup Moses has had to gain new areas of knowledge. Taking a certificate in medical device regulations and importantly for a startup writing and designing investor pitch decks. In order to communicate the business to potential investors and containing, the business model, market, team and representing a snapshot of your business ant its idea.

37 As part of an incubator Moses was exposed to people that had a great deal of business experience who offer guidance on various aspects of business. Since his focus is on the technology side of the startup he’s not required to do much direct pitching and he doesn’t desire or see his role changing from being the back room CTO. Currently Moses is not looking to expand his role because as a scientist his interest is in the science behind the products not in the business side.

There is alway risk associated with a startup and Moses is confident that the project will be successful. Moses’s states “the co-founder and CEO holds the patent for the product and has been working on this project for more than two years. As well as being a scientist himself the CEO also has developed the necessary business skills to take the project forward.”, over those two years.

For those that wish to follow in his footsteps Moses offers the following advice, “Work hard, work hard” Moses says he has always worked hard his whole life.  He’s a person that thinks luck has played a part in his life since in various examples in his academic life luck has been there but it’s always a result of hard work. At secondary school He was always in the labs. He advises reading because many opportunities have come his way through reading books and papers. The missed opportunity to go to medical school in Hungary came from a newspaper article. During his undergrad I was able to apply for a scholarship which also came from a newspaper. His Masters he also received a scholarship through recommendation by a friend. Finally the PhD research opportunity in Singapore came from reading a journal. So summarising, it’s hard work with a little bit of luck but more hard work.

We thank Moses very much for this brief conversation on what it takes to go from scientist to entrepreneur and will keep in touch and we expect to keep in touch.

EIA 052 From Scientist to Entrepreneur was introduced by Andy Kerr of St James Wealth Management the company sponsoring “Scientist to Entrepreneurial Scientist: The Creation of BioTech Companies”

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kakanga-moses-phd-8112b126/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/recornea-pte-ltd/

https://www.recornea.com

https://www.sginnovate.com/events/scientist-entrepreneurial-scientist-creation-biotech-companies

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Ann Morgan is new to the world podcast production and joins Graham Brown the founder of Asia Tech Podcast and myself in our latest conversation recorded in the Asia Tech Podcast studio for the Ask Me Anything Podcast, where we discuss podcasting with a focus on Ann’s questions as she navigates the world of podcasting from a complete beginner.

“Because funnily enough I know there’s a lot, we’ve talked about a lot about confidence and just getting on with things and for me actually doing the podcasts is a step, and I’m not saying it’s not scary, finding your voice and becoming natural at it and just making improvements

Anne’s passion is growing as she develops her project and works out who and where her audience is, and with the launch phase approaching the excitement is increasing for us both all.

““You’ve literally gone Live, or you’ve started to go live. Would you… Do you think you have to do a pre, some kind of pre-thing? Do you have to be on every single social media… What’s a simple way of doing it?”

Even though Anne has a non-technical background she has in our view comfortably reached the publish stage of her podcast production journey and constructed her website.

You can contact Anne on Linkedin and her website at celibratethestory.com

As well as

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamdbrown/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/njmckenzie/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemorgan1/

www.celebratingthestory.com

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Graham Brown is the founder of Asia Tech Podcast. This is our second one on one conversation and was recorded in the ATP studio for the Ask Me Anything Podcast, where we discuss podcasting with a focus on Asia along with the wider personal aspects of podcasting.

“Now a podcast is personal as you say. So really, I think this is a mistake people make this come to this they try and focus podcast on a very specific subject area, which is fine. However that may change over time, and it probably will like any human being you’re going to evolve and find new interests and so on.”

Graham is very passionate about podcasting and warning that this is revealed in the language he uses to express what he is doing with Asia Tech Podcast and podcasting in general.

As well as:

Links

Graham Brown on

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Graham Brown is the founder of Asia Tech Podcast. In this conversation Graham tells us about his journey from an AI graduate in the 90’s, when there was no demand, becoming an entrepreneur in several industries, going into semi-retirement to travel the world, before being lured back to the world of entrepreneurship in Singapore.

“If you were into music they were all made by Japanese companies and you had a stereo at home, which was Japanese and you watched it on a Japanese TV, and we learned about Japanese cars, samurai and ninja. Wow! This world just blew me away and I wanted to be part of that and I looked at where I grew up and just wanted to get out.”

The failures that often accompany entrepreneurs before the overnight success.

“We went from people playing like 10 to 15,000 dollars to speak, to be on a conference, to sponsor it, to be on that. To like the next week nothing. Crickets! just wants right to be on that they like the next week nothing crickets sorry. That completely went belly-up. So he has a wild ride. That was the second business”

This is the first time that Graham has appeared as a guest and the conversation was recorded in the studio of Asia Tech Podcast, where I also appear as a guest host.

So now without further delay lets begin.

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Links

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John Cheng, Aaron Wong and Wynne Peh are three participants of Feed Camp 2018 and we find out the background to their participation

The issue and what if a solution is not found stated by John from Cheng Yew Heng Candy Factory.

            “… even in FEED Camp 2018 which is really about feeding, you know a very big 9 billion population in 2050, where if we don’t come up solution right now, when we reach that stage, you know, food as a resource can be seen as a tool for war.”

Innovative ideas based on waste from Aaron Wong from SinFooTech

            “ Because I mean what we’re trying to do is that we’re taking a waste by-product and turning them into Innovative consumer products that never been seen before and they have a fair bit of commercial value as well…”

And top secrets under development from Wynne Peh also with Cheng Yew Heng Candy Factory

            “We have right now before the new office and the new labs comes up in Q1 next year. So I think we were doing good with kombucha but it’s all secret right now. We can’t reveal too much of it.”

This conversation was part 2 of a four part series published on the AsiaTech Podcast platform where I am also a guest host.

So now without further delay lets begin.

As well as:

Links

https://www.platforme.asia/

https://www.tp.edu.sg/

http://www.innovate360.sg

http://www.focustechventures.com

https://www.shiokmeats.com

https://www.kombynation.com

http://www.sinfootech.com/

https://www.eatobe.com

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