Goh Sok Koon is a company secretary a vital role in any business in Singapore. I am fortunate to have met her as she has been extremely helpful to me in getting my business up and running. Even before that, I was trying to get her to appear here on this podcast. By her own admission she has been reluctant, preferring like many people to work diligently in the background of the many businesses that she is a part of. But as a business founder of her own, specifically Lioness Corporate Services, and additionally as she plays a more active role in business groups she is a member of she now feels ready and the need to appear on her first podcast.
As well as:
Goh Sok Koon introduces herself as a company secretary for Lioness Corporate Services with over five years of experience.
Describes the importance and main role of a company secretary for a businesses in Singapore.
Qualifications required to become a company secretary depend on whether one is an accountant or a lawyer, with a usual completion time of two to three years.
The route taken to become a professionally qualified company secretary in Singapore
Reasons for moving to Singapore and the impact it had on her career.
Changes that need to be kept up with in order to be a successful company secretary in Singapore.
What are the additional important areas that need to be understood beyond the core duties of a company secretary.
Key advice entrepreneurs need before starting a business.
What makes a good company secretary.
Goh Sok Koon hopes for her business in the future.
The extended role of reminding directors and CEOs of their obligations and providing guidance and support.
The benefits of Business Development Society, a supportive networking group focused on learning and sharing experiences.
How her experience and knowledge gained as a business owner help her assist others, especially foreigners, in starting businesses in Singapore.
The enjoyment from her job demonstrates how in depth Sok Koon is willing to go to help people understand the process of starting a business and providing guidance along the way.
Neville J McKenzie the usual host of AsiaBizStories Entrepreneurs in Action is asked the questions by Chris Pardey the lead of the Brunel Alumni Association, Singapore .
Neville grew up in London. At school he wanted to be a scientist but became a Radar Test Engineer after gaining an HND in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He then moved into the world of Information Technology Systems as a Field Engineer, before leaving work to study a degree in Computer Studies with Business Studies. Up until this point he played volleyball first as a junior international and then as a senior international for the England. After graduating He worked for 10 months before the Dot-Com crises forced him out of work in October 2001. In February 2002 he was teaching in China where I remained for over fourteen and half years before moving to Singapore in 2016 where he now resides.
As well as:
Discussion of the cultural differences between China and Singapore and the personal difference of becoming an entrepreneur in China.
The hopes and dreams for the future in Singapore.
Neville talks about his involvement with the Brunel Alumni Association in Singapore and how it helps him network and connect with people who have a common connection.
Neville explains his podcasting journey, how he started in 2014 in China, and how it is evolving into a business.
Helping the Brunel Alumni Association, Singapore to win the Alumni Association Award of the Year by committing to podcasts, has now led to being nominated for the International Alumni of the Year award.
The events in the decision to pursue a degree after seeing an education shop while driving leading to acceptance to study Computer Studies with Business Studies from 1997 to 2000 at Brunel University.
Neville talks about his experience playing volleyball for England, coaching, and the impact it had on his career as an engineer.
Insights into his start and end in coaching in China but none in Singapore.
Title: Asia Biz Stories: Entrepreneurs in Action (Partnered with the Brunel Alumni Association Singapore)
Host: Chris Pardey
Guest: Neville J McKenzie
Introduction: [0:00:00 – 0:03:45]
– Neville J McKenzie introduces himself as the guest on the podcast.
– Mentions his background growing up in London, pursuing a career in engineering, and later transitioning to Information Technology systems.
– Talks about his experience playing volleyball for England and his move to China in 2002 to teach.
Living and Working in Singapore as an Entrepreneur: [0:03:45 – 0:09:20]
– Neville discusses the cultural change he experienced after moving to China and how he enjoyed the teaching and learning opportunities there.
– Compares his life in China to his life in Singapore, stating that Singapore feels like a combination of Shanghai and the UK for him.
– Shares his perspective on Singapore being a favourable place for starting a business and entrepreneurship but personally finding China more suitable for individualistic endeavours.
– Talks about his unconventional education path and how it shaped his entrepreneurial journey.
Hopes and Dreams for the Future: [0:09:20 – 0:14:40]
– Neville expresses his desire to stay in Singapore and mentions that going back to the UK doesn’t appeal to him.
– Discusses the challenges of networking and making friends in Singapore compared to China.
– Highlights the importance of the Brunel Alumni Association in providing a common connection and affinity among members.
– Mentions specific conversations with Stanley, CJ, Kelly, and Lawrence, sharing his curiosity and interest in their journeys.
Contribution to the Brunel Alumni Association: [0:14:40 – 0:17:10]
– Chris acknowledges Neville’s contribution to the association through his podcasting work.
– Mentions Neville’s involvement in the Asia Biz Stories podcast, which has covered 68 stories so far.
– Notes that Neville is the 69th podcast guest and discusses the impact of his involvement on the association’s recognition.
Podcasting Journey and Impact: [0:17:10 – 0:23:30]
– Neville shares his journey into podcasting, starting as a hobby in 2014 and gradually realizing its potential as a business venture.
– Talks about the work he has done for the Brunel Alumni Association and expresses his hope that winning the International Alumni of the Year award would validate his efforts and help his podcasting business.
Getting into Brunel University: [0:23:30 – 0:26:45]
– Neville narrates how he stumbled upon the idea of pursuing a degree at a later age and applied to various universities.
– Shares his surprise at being accepted by every university except one, but after explaining his situation, he received acceptance from Brunel.
– Explains his decision to choose Brunel due to its reputation as an excellent engineering university.
Volleyball and Sports: [0:26:45 – 0:30:15]
– Neville discusses his passion for volleyball and how he started playing at a young age.
– Talks about playing for the England national team from 1981 to 1990 and the lessons he learned about teamwork and dedication.
– Mentions his coaching experience in youth centres and Dulwich College in the UK.
Conclusion: [0:30:15 – 0:31:50]
– Chris expresses gratitude to Neville for his podcasting work with the Brunel Alumni Association.
– Acknowledges Neville’s nomination for the International Alumni of the Year award and discusses the potential impact on his podcasting business.
– Thanks Neville for his contributions and concludes the interview.
Wilson Chew is a User Experience designer with a varied background that revolves around the power of the story. He is also a Co-Founder and Content Strategist of REASSEMBLE, a start-up, which came into existence in March 2018. In previous roles Wilson has worked as a digital marketer and charity fundraising coordinator, Where he made use of stories to influence and change behaviours of the target audience.
Now he approaches stories from a different angle when helping entrepreneurs and SMEs to develop their user application interfaces. He believes every user has a story, built from their needs, frustrations, behaviours and ways of thinking. His job is to create digital designs that cater to users’ stories and resonate with them.
“I think that when people hear that we’re a user experience design agency They think we’re just there to, again we’re just there to make things look really nice. Which we can do, but then we tell them that we’re not hear to make things look nice…”
During our conversation Wilson reveals the fundamentals of User Experience Design, its purpose and the benefits it brings when carried out correctly.
So now without further delay
As well as:
Explaining the role a user experience designer plays is the development of a product
The architects of the computer interface
From nice to
The role Don Norman plays in the UX design world
The movie app as a case study, film and snacks
The role that “User Needs” play in the design
Don Norman and the door knob, link to the digital and physical world and the Hawaiian missile alert
Where UX Design is managed well and considered normal and where knowledge and enthusiasm fail due to the drive to make things pretty and nice.
The difficulties to be overcome to get UX Design to be accepted by entrepreneurs.
The percentage of work that can be saved by coders
The difference is rising costs to errors in the design, coding and post launch phases
How to reduce 75% disappointment for app purchasers
Should you release a minimum viable product and the pushback it is receiving?
Degree in international relations to Digital marketing in London to an Anti-slavery charity then back to singapore with a Children’s Charity.
From marketing to user research and finally UX Design
Teaching
Is coding ability necessary and is it an advantage or disadvantage in UX design
The biggest challenge in UX design and persuasion
The research that goes into the construction of the wire frame.
The role that Contextual Enquire, User Interviews, Usability Testing play
Off the peg apps and solutions leading to how do we know that it is good
The benefits of Quantitive data and UX Design which is looking at the Why.
How to UX design can help reduce the bounce rate for peg apps and Template Shops such as Shopify
Christie Fernandez is an Entrepreneur on a mission to create a positive impact in clean transportation & energy in the emerging markets of the ASEAN region, Indian subcontinent, Africa & South America. Christie is the Founder ofSooorya EV, which is headquartered in Singapore and is focused on providing affordable, comfortable & eco-friendly transportation. What’s unique is that Sooorya is redefining how automobiles are designed, manufactured and sold, with a strong focus on sustainability, profitability and societal impact.
At first Christie tried this with his idea.
“It’s kind of stuck with me. I tried giving it away but it didn’t happen”
During our conversation, Christie reveals his motivations behind the idea of creating his startup, his vision of how it can help farmers in rural communities by harvesting solar energy, and how he tried to give it away.
As well as:
The goal of last mile connectivity
Affordable, comfortable and eco friendly transportation
The regions of the world where this technology is needed.
How the countryside can produce a sustainable source of electrical energy using swappable batteries
Energy production as a handicraft opportunity for farmers to earn additional income.
The contrast with the big automobile manufactures that focus on speed, range and fast charging and the need in rural communities for low cost affordable transportation
The business model mix of large and small.
The
The uniqueness of his idea and what is required for the cost to come down.
Incorporating the IKEA business model
Frugal Engineering and how the
Incorporating the Apple manufacturing business model and transferring ideas from the mobile phone industry
Changing the car industry
Moving around the Asian Region and the reason for choosing Singapore a a base for operation and HQ
Legal protection and holding on to your IP.
personal impression of Singapore
The timetable to production of an affordable car launch and location
His background in IT, Marketing and the factors that encouraged the switch to the auto industry
The influence conversations with colleagues from the farming communities of India and he can help to expand the take-up of electric cars and his vision of the future.
His reluctance to be seen as the Elon Musk of the affordable electric car
Gary Guwe is one of the cofounders of the Business Development Society of Singapore. In the previous podcast, EIA 037, I had conversations his fellow cofounder Gunes Altungunes, and a couple of attendees. At the time Gary Guwe was out of the country and Gunes suggested that I return at a later event and speak with Gary.
However, in this cast Gary and I don’t actually converse but we have a brief Fly-on-wall experience of the event organised by Gary and Gunes and titled Connections Over Coffee – Monthly Casual Networking, which is held on the 3rd Wednesday of every month .
Gary plays a key role by running the event in a relaxed manner, encourages entrepreneurs to give a two minute introduction of themselves and the company they represent and gives his own advice.
After Gary opens we move on to Joshua Chua (an experienced Sales Excellence Coach), Hussain Sayeed (In the third week of his startup), Arthi Ramakrishnan, (a recent arrival to Singapore from India) and finally, he ropes me in unexpectedly to present myself and the fact that I’m volunteering my services by recording the event.
Also mentioned
Gary Guwe
The Chinese New Year celebration
The mission of BDS and its role in building business relationships.
The BDS origins in 2015 and its current number of members
The reasons behind the sharing sessions and the link to Free Publicity
How Gary Guwe turned himself from an introverted and shy business person to a headhunted target and the co-founder of the BDS.
What’s on offer from the BDS to SME’s
Joshua Chua
His promise for your jump in sales
The free 90 minute consultation with tweaks
Back to Gary and advice for speakers to share their origin stories
Hussain Sayeed
His origin story with BT and HP
Reasons for attending the BDS meetup
The promise of a safe pair of technology hands in his third week as an entrepreneur
Cisco, the Cloud are not always the answer for SMEs
Back to Gary and more advice
Arthi Ramakrishnan
An Indian Corporate Solution provider
Skills Development in Information Technology, Telecommunication and Soft-Skills
The company origin story
Arthi’s time in Singapore
Back to Gary and more advice
Neville J. McKenzie
The importance of getting your message across
How can AsiaBizStories help you
Self help advice with public speaking with everyone has one of these
Güneş AltunGüneş, Chris Dawson and Norrapat Shih are three attendees that attended a recent event in Singapore. Güneş AltunGüneş is a Director of Marketing, Chris Dawson is a Director of Business Development and Norrapat Shih is a Research Fellow at National University of Singapore. The event was organised by the Business Development Society of Singapore.
The first conversation is with Güneş AltunGüneş, who is a cofounder and organising member of the Business Development Society of Singapore reveals about herself and some of the background and motivations behind the Business Development Society organising an event called OTOT.
“So whatever comes in its goes back to the marketing, operations and so it’s like a circle we’re trying to build like a self-sustaining community.”
In the second conversation Chris Dawson reveals something typical of many entrepreneurs that they work with multiple organisation. In his case Bam, who he represented at the event and Nimbus Design Consultants, a company he works with run by wife.
“She’s the brains, she’s the designer, she knows where she wants the company to go.”
Third and final conversation Norrapat Shih reveals his background as a research scientist at the National University of Singapore and the route he is taking to become an entrepreneur in the field of medical science
“So basically a lot of people in my lab we catch snakes different venomous animals, ticks leeches”
This entrepreneur event like many is attended by individuals with varied backgrounds and experiences. So now without further delay let’s begin.
As well as:
Güneş
Why the business development society call the events OTOT.
Other entrepreneur events such as connections of coffee, COC.
Reasons for choosing Singapore.
Organisation structure of the business development society.
Profit or non-profit organisation.
The reason for creating the business development society.
Why the founder whose idea what’s to create the business development society, isn’t present.
Chris
The reason why Chris left his native USA for Singapore.
His role in the company and the service it provides.
Reasons for attending the event.
His office location in a co-working space.
Platforms and different types of events organisers
Norrapat
Commercial drug research from venomous animals in Singapore.
Moving from research to a start-up in the pharmaceutical Industry.
How his research could help heart-attack patients going through percutaneous coronary intervention.
The cost of creating a new pharmaceutical drug.
Venture capitalists fears.
Patent ownerships and licenses
The hope of grants from the Singapore government to create a start up.
Taking your specialist knowledge and finding app and software developers
The road from Thailand, Canada, a failed start-up and finally to Singapore.
The attitude of scientists to research and commercial Products.
