I attended the Press Launch of the 5th Singapore Promising Brand Award this morning. I got this emailer from ASME some time back and decided to attend and find out more.
The reception was grand, with quite a large reception desk and lots of people were at the hallway networking with one another. The brochure given out is very very well done. Lots of artwork, design and good printing. Inside, all the VIPs were naturally flocking around one another and probably exchanging cordial words. This is totally unlike the unconference I had experienced just a few days ago. I felt that the establishment can and should learn some things from us too.
Today, I want to talk about brand or business positioning, something which reminded me of some thoughts I had during my entrepreneurial journey.
There are two schools of thought. One - Start small then grow big. Two - Be big first then capture the smaller ones.
Today's event seems to be talking about or promoting the grow up model. The brands mentioned are all locally well known brands - Ya Kun, Haach, Travel Pac, Old Chang Kee, 77th Street and Goodrich. They are all past award winners. A few of them has gone regional while some has not.
I was thinking why not? Is it because their financials do not allow them to do so? Or because they have difficulty getting good business partners or find good talent to run their business overseas? Or is it because their business model or the industry they are in restricts their ability to expand out of Singapore's shore?
I would think that it's the last one. Some of them work on the model of franchising and others direct control of their outlets. And I noticed that most of the companies are in the retail industry. But franchising as a business model definitely works, especially for the retail market.
In this case, instead of the products that these companies are selling that works against their expansion, I feel that it's the market or the consumer they are serving that controls their fate.
Why so? We all know that culture, education and economic background have a large impact on the consumption habits of people. What works in Singapore might not work even in Malaysia, although it is the country which we have most in common. Not to mention people in Korea or Japan. For example, most people like a good 'ol toasted bread and teh si, but why would someone in Malaysia pay a premium for the same thing which they can get from a coffeeshop down the road? Some would say the nicer surroundings with air-conditioning helps, but can't anyone else do the same with another shop?
But you might say that no, how do I know whether the Japanese or Koreans like toasted bread with Kaya and teh si or not? I don't. But the companies can pay someone to do market surveys there. Perhaps they do. If so, then franchises there would mushroom away. A good example is Sakae Sushi, our home grown conveyor belt sushi restaurant. The last I read about them is that they are now in Russia and their business is roaring!
The more risk-taking amongst you might also challenge with "How do you know whether the taste of Koreans and Japanese would not change even if a preliminary market survey says that they hate toasted bread with kaya and teh si?" They just might. I remember learning about a story (unverified) of a great missed opportunity for Ms Jennie Chua, President and Chief Executive Officer of Raffles Holdings Limited. It was in the 1970s that Ms Chua was presented with a business opportunity to start a franchise selling burgers in Singapore. Her analysis at that time was, Asians eat rice not bread. Today, McDonald's is the cash cow king of all franchises in the world. Was there a hint of regret? If I were she, yes I would be.
My take on this first issue is this. Instead of bringing your products and services that are made to suit the local market overseas, why not change your products and services to suit the tastes of the overseas consumers? And even changing your products and services entirely, eg. changing the menu or changing the entire fashion collection (for 77th Street), does not really matter. I learned one great wisdom long ago. "Provide people what they want and the riches will come." What you are still retaining is your brand. Your brand of providing great products (food or clothes) and services, eg. great burgers even though the bread is now made of rice (as in McDonald's Fantastic burger or curry which is not spicy at all for the Japanese), or great cosplay fashion (short for costume play where the youth dresses up as their anime characters, which is so hot now in Japan) instead of street fashion. Burgers and fashion nonetheless.
Next, the second school of thought. Be big then lap up the competition. This is the big bold strategy that big America likes and what some VCs in the US are looking for. They want startups that can change the world. They are looking for the massive returns they can get in a relative short period of time. Of course they are taking the risk as well. It's an attitude and it's fine.
But I've also seen some local companies doing just that. The best example would be our big 'ol Creative Technologies. But there's also one recent company that follow that belief - muvee Technologies. I had an opportunity to speak to Terence Swee, founder and Chief Opportunities Officer, last year at Bluesky. What he said to me was invaluable. He said, that instead of growing the market from Singapore, he knew that for his company to make it big is to conquer the big markets first. He started getting his first big customer in the US and then Japan and Europe. The key he said, is to have your first break, ie. your products being accepted by one of the big boys and then the rest is easy. If you can conquer the market that will generate most of your revenue, the road henceforth is downhill and easier.
Now this is something. This is against conventional advice. This is not entirely new because Creative did it 20 years ago. It's just now brought up again into the spotlight. And I like it.
For those of you who's got startup funding already (the next stage after your seed round), this is the strategy I'd suggest you take, especially the tech companies. Moreover as a tech company, what you're offering should be one that can scale. I'm not sure about you, but I'd like to come up with a tech solution that would change the world, wouldn't you?
In the end, it's a matter of what problem do you want to solve, in this world or in a certain country or a certain market size. Be very clear in what you want to do, because this is the most difficult part. And once you're decided and crystal clear in your thoughts, position your business and the rest will follow.
I've made some assumptions here, with and without research, from my past experiences and from people I've met these few years. I might have missed some facts in this article (please let me know), but what I'm doing here is to highlight some business practices that you can take away as useful and as yours. Let me hear what you say.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Focus on business, excel in technology
I attended the Entrepreneur27Singapore event a few days back. In fact, I'd like to thank them for pushing me into action and starting this weblog. Seeing so many smart and enthusiastic young people sometimes can really kickstart your otherwise dormant desire to do something.
Much has been said about the event. You can read more from Entrepreneur27Singapore site and from SGEntrepreneurs.
I'd like to offer my perspective on what I saw and felt that evening. Indeed, seeing so many young people testing their new ideas and putting them to work is really encouraging. And everyone is so warm to one another and walking up to chat to anyone is really comfortable. This I think is a good way to showcase your stuff and network to know more people. Plus, I get to meet some of my friends there - Nick Pan and Edmund Leng of Nanyang Polytechnic.
I'm indeed impressed with the presenters. They showed great knowledge of their technology or website. And it's obvious they had spent quite some time coming up with their presentation slides. I'm glad to know that there are quite a few sharp technical chaps from the audience too.
I'd like now to draw out an important point from this event - Concentrating on business. I felt that the ideas presented or floated around were really good, although of course they need some polishing. I'd just like to comment on the team from Yearbook and Xshare, as I was in a conversation with someone else when Choon Keat was presenting RSSFwd.
As a business person and a non-techie, I could not see how the two teams are going to drive revenue from their business. I could not see a reason that compels me to part with my money to use their service, both from the perspective of a consumer and an advertiser.
In the case of Yearbook, to me, it's pretty much a social networking site and the revenue stream is going to come from advertisement. There is success now because of the novelty of the site and the high amount of traffic that is driven from the mrbrownshow. However, I cannot see beyond a few months time how this traffic will be maintained. Likewise, I do not see beyond the first few advertisers why they are going to stick with Yearbook, especially when there isn't much conversion happening.
I've had the opportunity to email chat with Jeremy, founder of Yearbook, two days before the event and the day after. My suggestion to him is to focus. Focus on building a great community. Give his users a very strong reason to come back again and again to his site. Never mind about the advertisement for the time being. If there is traffic, advertisers will come.
For the XShare team, they've got a great technical product. What XShare does is to allow the user of a mobile phone equipped with camera function to be able to send his pictures or videos to anyone in the world or to send them to the user's blog or other designated sites he wants by using a simple to use software application on the phone. Great! Who doesn't want that?
I don't. I just don't. For example, I'm on holiday in Europe and I am now right in front of Buckingham Palace in London. I like the guard on duty so much, because he doesn't move whatever you do to him, that I snap a pic and want to share it with my friends. The question is, how soon do I want to share with my friends. Would it be now, because my urge is so strong that I must immediately share with my loved ones back home, or can I defer my urge for instant gratification of this desire? I think I can wait and there are, I'm sure, a quite a few people in this world who are like me. I can always go back to my hotel or hostel or an internet cafe one hour later and sync my phone with a USB port to an internet enabled computer and upload my pics from there, and email or post those pics to the people or websites I want. Maybe, I'm old-fashioned, but aren't you sometimes?
So I thought that the XShare team is really good technically. No doubt about that. But my suggestion to them is to think about who their consumers really are and how many of them are there in this world. Moreover, the price of today's MMS sending is quite exorbitant at the moment. Perhaps that will change when 3G finally arrives.
Someone in the audience, in fact my friend Edmund Leng, pointed out an interesting example of how a similar picture sending technology is being used in Japan. He shared with us how one cosmetic company tied up with a mobile operator and allows users to send pictures of their skin back to the company for analysis. Within minutes, the users will get back a report and recommendation of which cosmetics they should use for their particular skin type, at which point they might make a purchase decision on the spot.
There is a big difference here between the business model of this Japanese company and XShare. First, the business model of the Japanese company is C-B-C. Along this chain of interaction, there is value added in the information or content provided by both the business and the consumer. While the picture of a user skin to her is not valuable, it is so to the cosmetic company. The minute that the company receives this data, they immediate add value to it by giving suggestions on the type of skincare the user should use. They might even throw in advice on how to improve and maintain that user's type of skin. The user receives value back from the company by initially providing something which is seeming non-valuable to herself. In this simple scenario, both parties are happy because both receives valuable information. This example is a perfect example of customisation and efficiency and economies of scale.
Moreover, the company, having collected so much data from thousands or millions of users, they could use all this information to do further research on improving their skincare products. This seemingly useless information, in fact, provided double or even triple-fold value to the company.
For the consumer, the information that she receives is way more valuable that the friction of the transmission fee paid to the mobile operator. For a few yen, she knows exactly what she needs almost instantaneously. Moreover, she can trust this information because it comes from real experts analysing her skin. This is way more powerful than being introduced cosmetics by friends or MLM sales people because of how great the result is on them, not herself.
XShare's busines model on the other hand is more C-C. Like most of us know, and the presenter mentioned it, we send crap to one another. Sometimes, you just want to share a snippet of your life with your friends but this information might not be really valuable to your friend seeing it. Why? Have you had experience before when you spent a lot of time arranging and decorating a nice picture book of a beautiful holiday trip you recently took, and when you showed it to your friends and family, they flip the album so fast that you wonder why you bother showing it to them in the first place? I think we all know the answer. The reason is that those pictures you took are valuable only to yourself because you were there, and you saw the beauty of that scenery or that moment and it's still fresh in your head and emotionally strong in your heart. But to those persons who were not there, they can't feel the special moment that you felt.
My suggestion to XShare is this. Find out how you want to position your business. What's your angle? And what's the angle for your business partners, eg. the mobile operators? Once there is value created, in this case for the consumer as your business is still consumer based, I'm sure you'll be rolling in the cash in no time.
Well, it's been great sharing some of my thoughts on this event here. I hope you've already taken some good ideas away from here, just like I did at the event. If you have any comments, just post them up.
Much has been said about the event. You can read more from Entrepreneur27Singapore site and from SGEntrepreneurs.
I'd like to offer my perspective on what I saw and felt that evening. Indeed, seeing so many young people testing their new ideas and putting them to work is really encouraging. And everyone is so warm to one another and walking up to chat to anyone is really comfortable. This I think is a good way to showcase your stuff and network to know more people. Plus, I get to meet some of my friends there - Nick Pan and Edmund Leng of Nanyang Polytechnic.
I'm indeed impressed with the presenters. They showed great knowledge of their technology or website. And it's obvious they had spent quite some time coming up with their presentation slides. I'm glad to know that there are quite a few sharp technical chaps from the audience too.
I'd like now to draw out an important point from this event - Concentrating on business. I felt that the ideas presented or floated around were really good, although of course they need some polishing. I'd just like to comment on the team from Yearbook and Xshare, as I was in a conversation with someone else when Choon Keat was presenting RSSFwd.
As a business person and a non-techie, I could not see how the two teams are going to drive revenue from their business. I could not see a reason that compels me to part with my money to use their service, both from the perspective of a consumer and an advertiser.
In the case of Yearbook, to me, it's pretty much a social networking site and the revenue stream is going to come from advertisement. There is success now because of the novelty of the site and the high amount of traffic that is driven from the mrbrownshow. However, I cannot see beyond a few months time how this traffic will be maintained. Likewise, I do not see beyond the first few advertisers why they are going to stick with Yearbook, especially when there isn't much conversion happening.
I've had the opportunity to email chat with Jeremy, founder of Yearbook, two days before the event and the day after. My suggestion to him is to focus. Focus on building a great community. Give his users a very strong reason to come back again and again to his site. Never mind about the advertisement for the time being. If there is traffic, advertisers will come.
For the XShare team, they've got a great technical product. What XShare does is to allow the user of a mobile phone equipped with camera function to be able to send his pictures or videos to anyone in the world or to send them to the user's blog or other designated sites he wants by using a simple to use software application on the phone. Great! Who doesn't want that?
I don't. I just don't. For example, I'm on holiday in Europe and I am now right in front of Buckingham Palace in London. I like the guard on duty so much, because he doesn't move whatever you do to him, that I snap a pic and want to share it with my friends. The question is, how soon do I want to share with my friends. Would it be now, because my urge is so strong that I must immediately share with my loved ones back home, or can I defer my urge for instant gratification of this desire? I think I can wait and there are, I'm sure, a quite a few people in this world who are like me. I can always go back to my hotel or hostel or an internet cafe one hour later and sync my phone with a USB port to an internet enabled computer and upload my pics from there, and email or post those pics to the people or websites I want. Maybe, I'm old-fashioned, but aren't you sometimes?
So I thought that the XShare team is really good technically. No doubt about that. But my suggestion to them is to think about who their consumers really are and how many of them are there in this world. Moreover, the price of today's MMS sending is quite exorbitant at the moment. Perhaps that will change when 3G finally arrives.
Someone in the audience, in fact my friend Edmund Leng, pointed out an interesting example of how a similar picture sending technology is being used in Japan. He shared with us how one cosmetic company tied up with a mobile operator and allows users to send pictures of their skin back to the company for analysis. Within minutes, the users will get back a report and recommendation of which cosmetics they should use for their particular skin type, at which point they might make a purchase decision on the spot.
There is a big difference here between the business model of this Japanese company and XShare. First, the business model of the Japanese company is C-B-C. Along this chain of interaction, there is value added in the information or content provided by both the business and the consumer. While the picture of a user skin to her is not valuable, it is so to the cosmetic company. The minute that the company receives this data, they immediate add value to it by giving suggestions on the type of skincare the user should use. They might even throw in advice on how to improve and maintain that user's type of skin. The user receives value back from the company by initially providing something which is seeming non-valuable to herself. In this simple scenario, both parties are happy because both receives valuable information. This example is a perfect example of customisation and efficiency and economies of scale.
Moreover, the company, having collected so much data from thousands or millions of users, they could use all this information to do further research on improving their skincare products. This seemingly useless information, in fact, provided double or even triple-fold value to the company.
For the consumer, the information that she receives is way more valuable that the friction of the transmission fee paid to the mobile operator. For a few yen, she knows exactly what she needs almost instantaneously. Moreover, she can trust this information because it comes from real experts analysing her skin. This is way more powerful than being introduced cosmetics by friends or MLM sales people because of how great the result is on them, not herself.
XShare's busines model on the other hand is more C-C. Like most of us know, and the presenter mentioned it, we send crap to one another. Sometimes, you just want to share a snippet of your life with your friends but this information might not be really valuable to your friend seeing it. Why? Have you had experience before when you spent a lot of time arranging and decorating a nice picture book of a beautiful holiday trip you recently took, and when you showed it to your friends and family, they flip the album so fast that you wonder why you bother showing it to them in the first place? I think we all know the answer. The reason is that those pictures you took are valuable only to yourself because you were there, and you saw the beauty of that scenery or that moment and it's still fresh in your head and emotionally strong in your heart. But to those persons who were not there, they can't feel the special moment that you felt.
My suggestion to XShare is this. Find out how you want to position your business. What's your angle? And what's the angle for your business partners, eg. the mobile operators? Once there is value created, in this case for the consumer as your business is still consumer based, I'm sure you'll be rolling in the cash in no time.
Well, it's been great sharing some of my thoughts on this event here. I hope you've already taken some good ideas away from here, just like I did at the event. If you have any comments, just post them up.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Publishing my journey
Welcome to my site! This site is meant for anyone who wants to have a reference in starting a business. This site is meant for people who are passionate about what they believe in and who want to make the world a better place by offering products and services that will improve the lives of people around the world.
There are an incredible number of people whom I've met in my career and my journey starting businesses, who are smart, talented and absolutely creative. And they all have wonderful stories to share with me about their lives, their experiences and obstacles which they have overcome. These people, to me, are the real successful people in this world.
In my own entrepreneurial journey, I too, have had great experiences and down times. Positive experiences that I have learnt and now incorporated as part of my life and work. And dreadful moments which almost always left me wondering whether what I'm doing was worth it at all.
I'd like to take this opportunity to share with all of you, my experiences and perhaps offer some advice in the areas which I feel are important to be aware of while starting a business and those areas where my expertise lies: online education, online community building and internet marketing.
In addition, I'll bring up pieces of news or issues which would be pertinent for startups or existing businesses and give my opinion on them and draw out lessons for us to discuss, debate and learn.
If you like what you read, just link to me or simply just tell your friends about this site. Let me wish you success in your own entrepreneurial journey.
There are an incredible number of people whom I've met in my career and my journey starting businesses, who are smart, talented and absolutely creative. And they all have wonderful stories to share with me about their lives, their experiences and obstacles which they have overcome. These people, to me, are the real successful people in this world.
In my own entrepreneurial journey, I too, have had great experiences and down times. Positive experiences that I have learnt and now incorporated as part of my life and work. And dreadful moments which almost always left me wondering whether what I'm doing was worth it at all.
I'd like to take this opportunity to share with all of you, my experiences and perhaps offer some advice in the areas which I feel are important to be aware of while starting a business and those areas where my expertise lies: online education, online community building and internet marketing.
In addition, I'll bring up pieces of news or issues which would be pertinent for startups or existing businesses and give my opinion on them and draw out lessons for us to discuss, debate and learn.
If you like what you read, just link to me or simply just tell your friends about this site. Let me wish you success in your own entrepreneurial journey.
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