Open For Business

Experts say Covid-19 has made a lasting impact on the beauty industry, and players will need to reassess their digital strategies, and focus on cross-collaboration and sustainability.

One homegrown cosmetics brand that does all this really well - is Lip & Co Beauty. We speak to founder Kelvin Tan about how the company's ethos has helped them weather this storm.

IGL Coatings produces innovative, safe and sustainable coatings and chemicals that are shipped to more than 50 countries around the world. Their latest product, a surface sanitiser called Ecoclean Pure could not have come at a better time but fulfilling demand for this product is proving to be hyper-disruptive for the business. We discuss the challenges in finding unexpected success during this MCO, with CEO of IGL Coatings, Keong Chun Chieh.

One of the main benefits of being a part of the fitness community is the element of social cohesion, especially when it comes to group sports or group fitness events. Sadly, the MCO has put a pause on getting fit together… or has it? Sheyong Tan, co-founder and CEO of BiiB, discusses how they’re bringing group fitness events onto the digital space, and their Men vs Women Charity Challenge to sponsor PPE for frontliners.

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As businesses gear themselves up for reopening, there remain many uncertainties as to whether our daily footprint will ever be the same again. Consumer behaviours have changed tremendously over the course of the past 2 months. So how can your businesse adapt to these changes?

Ashran Ghazi, the CEO of Dattel speaks to us about this. Dattel is one of the very few experts in the local market that goes beyond the usual consumers behaviour insights into actionable strategies for untapped markets. 

Check out cpi.dattel.asia for more information about Citizen Personal Index and for insights on how Covid-19 is shaping the consumer business, register your interest at cic.dattel.asia

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After the announcements that the MCO will be less stringent, it seems like we are edging closer to some form of normality. Yet businesses will still have to adhere to strict guidelines to operate. Going digital will be the key to your business recovery.

Surina Shukri, the CEO of MDEC came on the show today to speak about the different initiatives MDEC has under their umbrella and what role does digital play moving forwards. 

For more information about e-Dagang Expo (eDX), check out go-ecommerce.my or visit MDEC's Facebook page.

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The VH Group is a company group that provides travel-life experiences, and has a few business verticals consisting of homestay, hotels, interior design, and property management. With the inevitable slowdown due to the MCO, they decided to explore the food industry, mainly focusing on helping the small F&B owners and hawkers to gain exposure. Within 14 days they had created VTapau - a food platform that is free for hawkers and small F&B outlets to advertise and sell their goods.

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Alibaba Business School is running a global competition to tap into the skillsets of younger entrepreneurs and business school students. They’ve announced the launch of Alibaba Global E-Commerce Talent (GET) Challenge 2020, aimed at helping businesses and organisations worldwide recover faster and rebound in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. They’ve also issued a challenge to students from across Malaysia who want to help businesses around the world and be rewarded for their ingenuity. 

We got in touch with Brian Wong, Vice President of Global Initiatives, Alibaba Group to weigh in on how they’re going to change the way students are taught business in schools moving forward.

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Curlec was founded in 2017 with the vision of providing the Direct Debit payment system to SMEs that have been traditionally underserved by banks. They facilitate transactions by intermediating between the buyers, sellers and their banks, making the process of administering bank-to-bank payments incredibly easy. They are working to help mitigate the current impact by offering businesses, especially SMEs the ability to scale up their operations and transform their payment ecosystem with online payment solutions. We managed to catch up with their Cofounder & CEO Zac Liew to find out just what impact the MCO has had on their business, and what they plan to do now that ‘cashless’ seems to be going mainstream. 

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UMAI, a startup offering CRM and marketing software to F&B establishments, created a brand new platform designed to get F&B businesses online for deliveries and takeaways at the drop of a hat and for a minimal cost to their clients. Alexander Small, co-founder and managing director, discusses that quick turnaround time, the additional gift card system intended to assist with maintaining cash flow, and what UMAI has planned for the foreseeable future.

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After everything that has happened in 2020, to say the tourism industry has taken a hit would be an understatement; airlines have massively slowed down their operations, borders have been closed or heavily restricted, and most of us can only travel vicariously through nature documentaries. 

However, once the MCO is lifted, hopefully the travel bug will bite instead - and most likely, domestic and interstate travel restrictions will be lifted first, which is what local tourism company LokaLocal is counting on. We have Rachael Lum, content & marketing lead at LokaLocal, on the line to tell us about how a tourism company is still finding ways to share local experiences with aspiring travellers at home.

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