Brands: Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre

Area 57 in M’sia focuses solely on drone tech & innovation. Take a look behind the scenes.

[This is a sponsored post with MaGIC.]

Drones are multifaceted in the way they entice hobbyists and innovators alike. They can be used for filming, for business purposes such as logistics, or even just for fun (drone racing, anyone?).

The functions and industries that are related to drones have vastly increased over the years, but one thing remains constant—there are rules and regulations that control or limit how or where these drones can be used.

So where can drone enthusiasts in Malaysia go to experiment with, test, and fully optimise what their drones are capable of?

When it comes to being a one-stop drone shop, Area 57 wants to leave no stone unturned. To understand the role and impact that Area 57 hopes to play, we have to zoom out a little to take a look at the bigger picture.

A key player to take note of is the Technology Park Malaysia Corporation (TPM), the innovation facilitator and technology enabler of Malaysia. Established by the Ministry of Finance, Malaysia in 1996, it is now being consolidated with Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) into a technology commercialisation agency. 

Who’s Who: TPM operates under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). As the national driver of innovation and technology, TPM manages and operates a 686-acre technology park campus in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur. With its physical incubator and tech infrastructure, it is the only 4th generation incubator service provider locally offering a comprehensive range of services.

A conducive environment for drone tech growth

Back to Area 57, it’s a 5-acre integrated ecosystem with a Research-to-Commercialisation centre to accelerate drone tech innovations and talent development. It comes equipped with facilities like a 100-metre drone runway, a 300 square metre drone netting, drone-testing mockup sites, prototype development manufacturing equipment, a services and maintenance workshop, and sees itself as a one-stop centre for drone communities.

Area 57’s greater goals include the following:

• Increase the number of certified drone pilots, operators, and technicians
• Increase the number of homegrown drone products
• Job creation for pilots, operators, developers, trainers, and technicians
• Cost reduction in drone services and maintenance

Since its launch in September, drone players have already had a chance to experience what the initiative has to offer. One of them is VStream Revolution, a company that specialises in providing drone solutions for industrial and commercial use.

They listed the benefits they experienced as the following:

• Location: “The most convenient place for a drone operator to conduct flight tests, proof of concept, training, and other research and development.”
• Facilities: “[It] has an incubator, innovation, and business centre.”
• Collaboration opportunities: “Other agencies, like MIMOS, and universities, like APU, are within Area 57.”

Saravanan Chettiar, VStream Revolution’s CEO, mentioned that by leveraging Area 57’s resources, they were able to conduct assessments to confirm the drone’s airworthiness and pilot competency. After that early experience, they started using Area 57 for all their training.

GeoPrecision Tech had a similar positive encounter. Their business focuses on mapping, soil surveying, asset tagging, and resource mapping. One project of note they’re worked on is tree inventory and volume estimation for Sarawak Forest Corporation. They have found Area 57 very useful to get additional field testing done while networking.

Another company that has made a mark on the industry is Terra Drone Technology, one of the top ranking drone service providers globally. They’ve been part of Area 57 from the start.

The CEO of the company, Izwan shared, “In fact, we were the ones who prepared the initial proposal paper of Area 57 for the submission to the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia. We were part of the initial task force for Area 57 and among the pioneers of this initiative.”

At the moment Terra Drone focuses on solutions on infrastructure inspections, mapping and image analytics, as per the industrial requirement.

By joining Area 57, Izwan believes that “the participants can get access to support in drone and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) development and manufacturing”.

Area 57 has and will continue to give many startups and enthusiasts the opportunity to transform their businesses and drone technology.

We’ve already seen one homegrown drone provider, Aerodyne gain international recognition as the top-ranked remote sensing company worldwide. They are actually now serving as advisers in Area 57 to help promote further growth in the local ecosystem.

With further testing and certification facilities and equipment to be set up in the near future, Area 57 is poised to play a vital role in developing the drone community here. 

• Find out more about MaGIC here, TPM here, and Area 57 here.
• Read up on what we’ve written about MaGIC in the past here.

Also Read: 22 is not too young for life insurance—making sense of the confusing myths and facts

Featured Image Credit: MaGIC

The Grads Of MaGIC’s SEtia Program Have Vast Impact That’s Hard To Refute, Here’s The Proof

[This is a sponsored article with MaGIC.]

Social entrepreneurship is an ever-growing sector, and the role it plays economically and socially is not to be understated. 

With Malaysia’s Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 of building a sustainable nation, social entrepreneurs are one of the keys to unlocking a prosperous nation. 

While many of them have brilliant ideas that’ll shape Malaysia, they lack the knowledge in building a self-sustaining social enterprise. Enter Social Entrepreneurs – Transformation, Innovation & Acceleration (SEtia), a 6-month long programme with a tailored syllabus to help social entrepreneurs develop a better understanding of the operations of a social enterprise.

The programme was brought to life by the partnership between Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Center (MaGIC) and Standard Chartered Bank, who contributed RM200,000 to cover the costs of the 50 social entrepreneurs joining the programme.

Now that the programme has ended, we caught up with 4 of the social enterprises on the nature of their work and the impact they’ve had on their beneficiaries.

Building A Steady Stream Of Income For Small Farmers

Phytopia is one of the social enterprises (SE) from the programme. Its mission is to empower small farmers, planters and marginalised communities through urban farming. 

Modern agriculture can be complex as the farmers have to deal with climate change, soil erosion, food trends, and more. In a nutshell, Phytopia provides farmers with the knowledge and capabilities for a sustainable farm through their modular hydroponic system. This system allows the farmers to grow clean, sustainable and healthy produce without the need for pesticides.

Once the produce is ready for harvest, Phytopia buys them from the farmers at a fair price. The produce is then cooked and packaged into affordable meals and sold to the local community through Salad Bar, Phytopia’s own cafe, located in Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK).

The sales made from the cafe will then be used to purchase products from the farmers, creating a sustainable cycle.

Phytopia reaches 4 main beneficiaries: the farmers, the campus community, B40 students, and most recently OKU groups.

The farmers and OKU groups get a steady source of income, the campus community of students and teachers can get an affordable yet healthy meal—and they hire B40 students as their part-time crew.

Giving A Helping Hand To Struggling Fishers

Like Phytopia, #DemiLaut, one of the solutions under Brique Engineering, also tackles the issue of poverty and food security, but for small, artisan fishers.

Haaziq Ibrahim, the Managing Director of DemiLaut said that there are roughly 130,000 fishers in Malaysia who are at the brink of poverty, as they’re heavily affected by climate change and lack of demand due to overfishing by industrial fishers.

Haji Idin, one of their beneficiaries, struggles with the long hours and backbreaking workload. He goes out to sea as early as 4AM and he only gets back by midnight or later. A lot of his livelihood depends on luck; will his fishing equipment stay intact to last the day? Will the weather stay fine? It takes only 1 thing going wrong, and he’s left without an income for the day.

Fishers like Haji Idin toil away, but even the quality of their catches suffer compared to commercial vessels. Traditionally, fishers use plastic-filled ice packs to keep fish cold, which can take up to 38% of their monthly income.

DemiLaut addresses fishers’ pain points starting even with simple, low-tech solutions: reusable ice packs and a freezer which is less costly and more sustainable than just regular ice cubes.

These solutions also range to technology-based methods such as providing the fishers with a low-cost transponder that can ease their fishing process while ensuring their safety at sea. 

It’s about equipping these fishers with knowledge, microloans, and improvements on the fishing operation with sustainability and selective fishing practices in mind. By innovating the traditional fisheries’ value-chain, it’s their hope that fishers can eventually sail away from poverty.

Solving Real World Issues One Code At A Time

And speaking of tech, Telebort is a platform that provides kids and teens with coding and app building skills to solve real-world issues.

The Telebort team understands that the accessibility to high-quality computer science education (CSEdu) needs to be addressed. To solve the issue, Telebort provides B40 kids and the under-represented minorities in the tech field, with learning materials to nurture, educate and build awareness on computer science.

The fruits of their labour can be seen through creative solutions by the students. For example, Ezekiel Raja Purba, a 17-year-old from Jakarta developed an app called ‘Keep Fit From Home’. It guides the users on how to stay healthy while calculating calories burnt.

However, like most schools, the pandemic forced them to transition into online classes. But the team managed to pivot and even successfully built a new revenue stream through monthly subscriptions.

They now have over 250 subscribed students for their classes conducted online or offline in the Penang Digital Library. The team hopes to reach more than 100,000 kids and teens (with 40,000 beneficiaries) on the basics of computer science education by 2025.

Cultivating Future Sustainable Farmers

Urban Farm Tech (UFT) is another graduate from the SEtia program who is tackling agricultural issues locally. But, their target beneficiaries are the students with special needs from marginalised schools.

UFT provides the staff and the students with urban farming equipment along with the knowledge on how to maintain, grow and sell the produce of the farm as a form of self-sustainability and employment.

Like Phytopia, UFT utilises a pesticide-free system for clean produce. Once the crops are ready to harvest, UFT will link buyers to the schools, so the income can go straight to the school and their students.

And as of January 2020, the UFT team has assisted more than 2,500 students and 100 teachers from the marginalised communities. As part of the revenue stream, UFT works with corporates and the local communities, seeding the benefits of urban farming.

The pandemic has also forced UFT to seek an alternative form of revenue through e-commerce. They now provide hobbyists with their urban farming solution for those who want to be self-sustainable and more conscious of the greens they consume.

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These are just 4 of the 25 social enterprises from SEtia, and while most of these SEs were affected by the pandemic, they have plans to further extend their on-the-ground reach to more affected communities in Malaysia and neighbouring nations. 

So you’re looking for proof?

Speak to a B40 student who now knows how to build a sustainable farm, a fisher who has an improved fishing haul through the implementation of technology, or children who have learnt to code and a new career option is now possible for them, you’d find all the proof that you need.

• For more information on MaGIC, click here.
• Read more: Phytopia, DemiLaut, Telebort and Urban Farm Tech.
• Read up more on what we’ve written about social enterprises here.

Also Read: Lenovo Offers Eco-Aware Companies A Way To Reduce Global CO2 Footprint With This Add-On

Featured Image Credit: DemiLaut

MaGIC’s E-Nation 2021: Hear From An Ex-Tesla Director And A Nobel Peace Prize Winner

[This is a sponsored article with MaGIC.]

To realise Malaysia’s 2030 Shared Vision, the government highlighted that there needs to be a strong shift into strengthening and improving the nation’s capability in the fields of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).

With the advancements in STI, Malaysia can undergo rapid changes that’ll propel the socio-economic landscape of the nation, so that all Malaysians from different income groups can prosper in an inclusive economy.

But to do so, the innovative minds and the ones who are capable of making changes need to band together under a common goal to bring concepts into action.

To facilitate this coming together, the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) will be hosting their yearly E-Nation conference, revolving around the theme of ‘Future Fast: Thriving For A Better Tomorrow’.

A New Look For E-Nation

Unlike previous years, when E-Nation was held in-person and consecutively for a few days, E-Nation 2021 will be an ongoing event that’ll be held in several quarters throughout the year, and will end with a virtual and an in-person conference at MaGIC’s headquarters.

Dzuleira Abu Bakar, the CEO of MaGIC, said this format shift in E-Nation is made to equip and provide support to Malaysian innovators with an ‘always-on’ series of events throughout the year, rather than just a single event.

Acknowledging innovative entrepreneurs, social innovators, and the ecosystem that enables them as Malaysia’s wealth creation players, Dzuleira said E-Nation has to ignite them to drive the nation’s greatness.

As an advocate for Speak for Change, where everyone can have a voice—E-Nation provides like-minded individuals with a platform to have a shared conversation on how to build a better tomorrow.

The first part of the event titled: ‘Series 1: Innovative Leadership by Design’ will kick off on March 31. The other parts of E-Nation will be held in different quarters, with Series 2 currently tabled for June 24. While Series 3 and the conference will be held on August 26 and October 28 to 29, respectively.

This year’s E-Nation theme is also in-line with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI)’s new policies and initiatives introduced in the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (NSTIP) 2021-2030.

Helping To Shine A Guiding Light To Malaysian Movers And Shakers

Series 1 will feature thought leaders like Beth Davies, the former Director of Learning & Development at Tesla, and Muhammad Yunus, a social entrepreneur, banker and Nobel Peace Prize Winner for founding the Grameen Bank.

Before her stint as Tesla’s Director of L&D, Beth Davies held management roles for well-known companies such as Apple and Microsoft too. Reportedly, she played a hand in Apple’s meteoric rise back in 2003, as she headed the company’s Leadership Development team back then.

She will be imparting her knowledge gathered from these companies on the know-how of building a culture that can cultivate a loyal customer base.

Muhammad Yunus is also one of the other high-profile speakers present at Series 1. He is known as the ‘Father of Microfinance’, as his efforts with Grameen Bank provided over USD$ 6.5 billion to poor communities worldwide.

Yunus will be joined by Dzuleira Abu Bakar as they explore the potential of innovation in eradicating poverty and the role that society can play in sustainable development.

Throughout the Series 1 virtual event, other speakers from all walks of life such as Azizulhasni Awang, a Malaysian Professional Track Cyclist and Olympic Bronze Medalist, and Philip Loo, the co-founder of HAVVA, a tech startup that innovates on urban farming will take the stage as well, with different insights on leadership.

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If you’re interested in tuning into E-Nation 2021, you can register your interest here with your details, admission is free.

If you want to keep up with E-Nation 2021 as it runs this year, you can pre-register yourself for the other series on the same page.

Despite the change in format, one consistent benefit remains—there will be plenty of opportunities for you to network with other attendees and speakers throughout the event.

• Sign up for E-Nation 2021 or find out more here.
• Read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC in the past here.

Also Read: Pushing Away Traditional 9-5 Offices, Cisco Keeps Remote Workers Connected Securely

Featured Image Credit: Beth Loeb Davies Facebook

MaGIC’s GAP Has Helped Over 151 Startups And Generated More Than RM235 Mil Of Revenue

[This is a sponsored article with MaGIC.]

Last week, 39 startups emerged from their eye-opening 3-month journey through the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC)’s Global Accelerator Programme (GAP).

But unlike previous GAP cohorts, this year’s programme was completely virtual and its main focus was to build and equip startups to be more agile, responsive, adaptive and sustainable during uncertain times.

On the GAP Cohort 4 Demo Day, the CEO of MaGIC, Dzuleira Abu Bakar said the revision to GAP’s programme is vital.

“COVID-19 has accelerated the need for innovation. The pandemic has created game-changing opportunities for nations all around the world to bounce back and establish economic resilience via innovation and creativity.”

And at the same time, GAP still maintains its goal of assisting the startups in building a proper network for expansion.

Innovating Where It’s Needed The Most

With an ecosystem value of $15.3 billion (approx. RM62.2 bil), Malaysia is now regarded as a country in its early-globalisation phase by Startup Genome.

YB Khairy Jamaluddin, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation said that startups are key to finding solutions to the country’s challenges.

“This journey towards economic and social recovery is contingent upon collaborative efforts between the government, academic bodies, private sectors, startups, as well as society at large, in finding novel solutions to our challenges.”

Coincidentally, the bulk of this year’s startups that joined GAP are focused on delivering innovative tech in e-commerce, education, enterprise solutions and agriculture. 

Dzuleira then said that the emphasis in these industries are crucial because they need the most attention and acceleration due to the pandemic.

GAP Has Built Itself A Name Over The Years

Over the last 3 cohorts, GAP has been known as one of the most stringent accelerator programs locally when it comes to startup selection. Out of the total 3079 applications, only 112 startups were accepted. That means an acceptance rate of just 3.6%.

Many active startups that we know today such as Easy Parcel, Storehub, Petotum and Signature Market were successful alumni of the programme.

With the 39 startups for Cohort 4, the number rose to 151 startups—and to date, the startups who underwent GAP have generated a revenue of more than RM235 million.

Prior to joining GAP earlier this year, the cumulative revenue of the startups was just around RM6.5 million (from Jan 2020 to Aug 2020). During the short 3 months of GAP, the number skyrocketed to approximately RM13 million.

This meant that the startups saw a growth of 53% in revenue throughout their GAP journey, despite the pandemic. Specifically in Cohort 4, GAP has provided the startups with benefits worth over USD500,000 (approximately RM2 million) in industry-specific training, mentorship, marketing credit and so on.

The GAP Cohort 4 Demo Day

On December 1, 2020, 20 startups from the batch were brought to the limelight, to pitch their startup in 3 minutes to His Highness Tengku Amir Shah Ibni Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Al Haj, Crown Prince Of Selangor, Founder and Royal Patron Selangor Youth Community, YB Khairy Jamaluddin, virtual attendees and potential investors.

We managed to catch the Demo Day live where virtual attendees like us could talk to the startups to find out more about their company and chat amongst other attendees.

During the pitches, there were a few startups that caught our attention.

1. Pandai

Pandai is an app that helps school students to study, track progress, do quizzes, collect rewards and improve on their academic performance.

We’ve previously written about them back in March too. Pandai also looks to solve issues with expensive studying materials for students as well, a problem that B40 communities would be all too familiar with.

As Dzuleira said earlier, education is one of the key areas that need acceleration and innovation as schools are not allowed to operate—and classes are now done virtually.

During the pitch, Khairul Anwar Bin Mohamad Zaki, the co-founder of Pandai said that their number skyrocketed from just 2,322 in February to a whopping 46,179 users in March 2020. And now, they have over 100k students actively using Pandai for additional studying materials.

2. BoomGrow

BoomGrow utilises precision farming which is driven by data to provide customers with high-quality green produce that the team promises are clean and utilises no chemicals. Instead of open-air traditional farms, BoomGrow farms are located inside shipping container-sized indoor farms. 

There’s a growing demand for fresh organic produce, and BoomGrow’s model doesn’t require the acres of land that traditional farms need. With indoor farms, BoomGrow promises a year-round harvest, undisturbed by climate and uses 95% less water, land and fuel to operate.

If you wish, you could also grab a bundle of clean vegetables from BoomGrow on their website, and they have a subscription package along with it too.

3. DeafTawk

DeafTawk is a platform with an aim to bridge the communication gap between the deaf community and the public. Ali Shabbar, the co-founder of DeafkTawk gave an example that many in the deaf community face daily.

“Imagine you visit a doctor but are unable to explain the pain because the doctor doesn’t know your language. That’s half a million in the deaf community facing that particular challenge.”

What DeafTawk does is provide the community with online sign interpretation services through their mobile app and is available on-demand 24/7. DeafTawk originally started in Pakistan and has now scaled into the Singapore market.

In just 2 years of operation, they’ve provided over 94,000 hours of services to more than 18,000 users, and because of that, more than 550 in the deaf community gained employment.

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While the founders might have gotten a lot of support to enhance their skills, Dzuleira said that their journey in assisting the startups is not over.

GAP 2020 was designed to enable the founders’ growth through personal enrichment and personal reflection. I am proud to see the great results. For our GAP Cohort 4 Malaysian startups, set your eyes on the global stage. The true benchmark of success should be the ability to expand and establish in foreign markets.

Dzuleira Abu Bakar, CEO of MaGIC

It is exciting to see the potential of this year’s 39 startups in creating a company that is agile and sustainable while innovating in their industries.

• Find out more about MaGIC’s GAP here.
• Read up on what we’ve written about MaGIC in the past here.

Also Read: Prep Your Business To Be Future-Ready With The SME Digitalization Grant Via Boost

Featured Image Credit: MaGIC

Join MaGIC’s E-Nation 2020 For Practical Sessions On Building Resilient Businesses

[This is a paid article with MaGIC.]

With the new spike of COVID cases, local businesses will be going through yet another round of uncertainty. 

If you’re looking for ways to improve yourself as an entrepreneur or a business owner, or to see how other businesses are innovating themselves, MaGIC (The Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre) is running this year’s E-Nation starting from October 20 to 23. 

Update 23/10: If you’ve missed out on attending the sessions, you can still access them all after registering here. Do note that you’ll have to register for the event, and also for Whova to watch the sessions.

This year’s E-Nation will be held virtually and it is completely free to join.

E-Nation is a platform for startups, thought leaders, social enterprises, policymakers and leading corporates to share their learnings and skills on how businesses can operate sustainably during the COVID-19 period.

“This year’s theme, Propelling a Resilient Economy with three pillars—Embracing Change, Enabling Technology and Empowering Societies—apt given the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which not only impacted public health but induced a global recession.

COVID-19 has accelerated the need for innovation and created game-changing opportunities for the nation to bounce back and establish economic resilience via innovation and creativity.”

Dzuleira Abu Bakar, CEO of MaGIC on this year’s E-Nation theme

The speakers this year range from ex-ministers to founders and directors, and they’ll be sharing some of their discoveries or thoughts on building a sustainable business.

Here’s a quick lowdown on some of the talks that you can attend in this 4-day event.

1. Building Businesses Capable Of Innovation With The Capability To Pivot From The Get-Go

The pandemic has left many businesses struggling to find customers, especially for physical businesses.

One of the speakers, Wai Hong Fong, the chieftain and co-founder of StoreHub built an innovative solution to help F&B businesses continue servicing its customers.

After the announcement of the first MCO back in March, his team worked to create a solution for F&B businesses to go online, called Beep Delivery. This enables local offline businesses like hawker stalls and mum-and-pop businesses to reach out to new customers.

By doing so, StoreHub managed to reach new customers as well and added to the number of F&B businesses under their care.

Along with Wai Hong, Lennise Ng, the co-founder of Dropee and Ang Xing Xian, the co-founder of CapBay will also be sharing their thoughts on how to speed up innovation.

Dzuleira Abu Bakar, the CEO of MaGIC gave her input on agility. “Capitalise on problems—therein lies opportunities. A problem worth solving is literally worth a million dollars of investment.”

2. Be Well Prepared For Uncertain Days

There will also be a panel on how a few startups managed to toughen up and survive from the challenges imposed upon them.

They’re also looking to share how other startups can prepare themselves better for the next uncertain period.

One of the panellists, Wong Whei Meng, the founder and CEO of Speedhome had to overcome a challenge that threatened his entire business.

Speedhome’s original business model contravened Malaysia Act 242, which meant that only licensed property agents could collect fees from property transactions. The Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Malaysia (BOVAEA) ended up sending a cease and desist letter to Speedhome.

Because of that, they had to pivot and change their business model, all within a month.

“At that time, we were devastated and we didn’t know what to do. But in understanding the act, it allows us to know what are the technicalities in regulation and be better prepared for it,” said Whei Meng.

He said that a lot of the acts in Malaysia are outdated as they don’t reflect the current business environment where technology plays a big part in our lives. With their quick innovation, the business was able to stay operational.

He’ll also be joined by Yuet Kim Lim, the CEO and co-founder of PichaEats, Ashwin Jeyapalasingam, the co-founder and COO of CatchThatBus.com, and the panel will be moderated by Aaron Sama, a General Partner of Scaleup Malaysia.

3. A Peek At How Other Countries Are Strategising Around COVID-19

One of the more star-studded talks, MaGIC also gathered ministers from all over the world to share how other nations are utilising tech to thrive.

Khairy Jamaluddin, Malaysia’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation will be sharing his thoughts along with Fleur Pellerin, the founder of Korelya Capital and the former minister for SMEs, Innovation and Digital Economy of France.

They’re also joined by two other ministers, Nadiem Anwar Makarim, the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia and Ed Vaizey, the former Minister of Culture, Communications and Creative Industries of the United Kingdom.

So if you’re interested to see a more big picture approach to how other countries are strategising to build thriving nations, this is a talk you’ll have to tune in to.

4. Turning Businesses Into One That Benefits Society And Future Generations

There will also be talks on how tech innovation can be used to better society, along with panels on how impact-driven businesses are more in the limelight now that the investment spectrum has evolved.

The speakers will also be sharing how a business can utilise the capital to create value beyond just a shareholder’s return, but one that can benefit the society and future generations.

Hazwan Najib, the co-founder and Director of DoctorOnCall will be speaking on the importance of a business to be innovative and creative in problem-solving.

“It is not just crucial, but a MUST for a business to be creative in problem-solving. Small businesses and startups are working with limited funding and resources. They can’t afford to find the easy way out to solve problems,” said Hazwan.

He’ll be joined by Lily Denqishen, the founder and CEO of TrashWarrior, along with Ganesh Muren, the co-founder and CEO of Saora Industries.

Their panel will also be moderated by Dr Melissa Foo, the Vice President of Malaysian Business Angel Network.

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Because MaGIC understands that a business needs to be innovative now, they wish that E-Nation will help and inspire everyone to embrace change to ensure that a business will grow sustainably.

Dzuleira said: “There are lessons to be learnt from the global health crisis. It is important that we look at it in positive ways, to learn, adapt and pivot.”

So if you’re interested in learning more on how you can utilise innovation to keep your business alive during this critical period or you just want to learn from the entrepreneurs in the same industry, sign up for E-Nation now.

Note: You will have to sign up for E-Nation here and also on Whova here before you can view the recordings.

• Sign up for the free E-Nation 2020 here.
• You can check out the full agenda for E-Nation here.
• If you’re interested in reading more on what we’ve written about MaGIC in the past, click here.

Also Read: HP Just Launched An Affordable Plan For SMEs To Help With Digital Transformation

Featured Image Credit: Dropee, StoreHub, Razer, Grab, Speedhome and GenerationT

If Your Organisation Is Tackling One Of These Areas, Here’s How To Get Grants Worth Up To RM500k

[This is a paid article with MaGIC.]

Social enterprises are slowly growing in Malaysia. In 2018, a study reported that there were 132 active social enterprises and 39% of them were located in KL. 

According to MaGIC (Malaysia Global Innovation & Creativity Centre), there are roughly 328 active social enterprises in Malaysia now, thanks to the new mandates and support from the Malaysian government.

While the impact of social enterprises can be profound economically and socially, they have to act like businesses first. 

In our previous interview with Dzuleira Abu Bakar, the CEO of MaGIC, she highlighted a few areas that social enterprises need to focus first before they can make an impact.

In 2019, MaGIC launched the Social Enterprise Accreditation (SE.A) as part of their calling to assist social enterprises. This enabled 29 local social enterprises to get accredited, which gave them benefits in the form of tax incentives and growth opportunities.

And MaGIC’s support for social enterprises continues to grow.

Assisting Impact Warriors In Malaysia

As part of the PENJANA initiative, MaGIC recently launched the ‘Social Impact Matching (SIM) Grant’. The grant gave MaGIC access to RM10 mil worth of funds provided by the government to assist blooming social enterprises.

This time, social enterprises aren’t going to pitch or have a competition.

Instead, they’re tasked to launch and successfully crowdfund for projects or initiatives with innovative solutions focused on these five areas:

1. Environmental Protection
2. Food Security
3. Health & Social Wellbeing
4. Community Livelihood
5. Heritage Preservation

If the projects managed to go through successful crowdfunding, MaGIC will then match the crowdfunded funds by a 1:1 ratio.

What this means is that if the project raises RM100,000 during crowdfunding, they could be eligible to receive up to RM100,000 through the SIM Grant managed by MaGIC if they passed through the criteria checking.

This brings their total of crowdfunded funds to RM200k.

The funds received through the SIM Grant differs. An accredited social enterprise can get up to RM500,000 matched by the grant. For non-accredited social enterprises or aspiring individuals/organisations looking to cultivate social innovation, they can get between RM20,000 up to RM250,000 through the SIM Grant.

Do take note that the crowdfunding campaign will need to have a minimum goal of RM5,000. The matched funds will then allow those equipped with a social/environmental mission to do more for their cause too.

How To Get Access To Crowdfunding Opportunities

To save the hassle of searching for an appropriate crowdfunding site, MaGIC has partnered with 6 crowdfunding partners: GIVE.asia, LaunchGood, NGOhub, Sedunia, SimplyGiving and SocioBiz by Alliance Islamic Bank.

If you’re thinking of curating a crowdfunding campaign for your project, all you have to do is sign up on one or more of the platforms.

Note: MaGIC said in their FAQ that you can still opt for other legitimate ways of crowdfunding, but it’ll be subject to the same SIM eligibility criteria checks.

There are still terms and conditions from each platform, but what they can offer is a 20% rebate on platform fees if your project is approved for SIM Grant, but this is only for the first RM1 million raised on each platform.

However, note that once you’ve passed 80% of the crowdfunding target, you can kickstart your application process to get approved for the SIM Grant.

“We want to cultivate ‘Doing Good’ as the new norm and help rebuild the livelihood of communities which have been impacted as a result of the pandemic. We believe the Grant will promote inclusive and responsible businesses that create a positive impact on Malaysian society.”

Dzuleira Abu Bakar, CEO, MaGIC

Donors Can Get Something Out Of This Too

For those who donated via cash or cash grants, they are eligible for tax rebates too. But they can only be eligible if they managed to raise at least RM100,000 through crowdfunding and have their SIM Grant application approved.

Upon approval for the SIM Grant, MaGIC will request for tax receipts which will then be sent to MOF (Ministry of Finance) for processing.

The applicant responsible for the campaign can then issue tax receipts to organisations and individuals who supported the campaign. This gives the donors an extra incentive to donate and to make sure that their money is channelled to sustainable causes that creates impact.

Do Your Part In Creating Positive Impact

Even if you don’t have a social enterprise project in mind, you can help them out too by supporting the crowdfunding campaigns or via MaGIC’s new ‘Buy For Impact (BFI)’ movement. 

BFI aims to cultivate a socially-conscious buying behaviour within Malaysian shoppers by working closely with social enterprises and Lazada.

Social enterprises such as Komuniti Tukang Jahit, SevenTeaOne, Masala Wheels and APE Shop are now present on Lazada and you can purchase their products there.

To assist the social enterprises through the process, Lazada will be subsiding the start-up costs and they’ll promote the products and services of the social enterprises via marketing and advertising for free too.

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“The purpose of the grant is not only to double the impact social enterprises create, but to also encourage public participation by being involved in delivering solutions to society through their donations,” said Dzuleira.

So if you have a social enterprise project that you’ve been meaning to do and it tackles one of the five areas, this is the prime time to do so. If your crowdfunding campaign is successful, you’ll then get additional funds to further help out those in need.

• To learn more about MaGIC’s SIM Grant or apply for them, sign up here.
• Shop for BuyForImpact products here.
• Read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.

Also Read: Rentokil Initial Malaysia Takes Digitalisation A Step Further With This Payment Solution

Featured Image Credit: MaGIC 

Social Enterprises Will Shake M’sia’s Economy, But Here’s What Needs To Be Fixed First

Social enterprises when done right can have a significant impact, not just socially or environmentally, but also economically.

In a report by Social Enterprise UK 2018, social enterprises make up 3% of UK GDP and 5% of all UK employment, as much as the entire creative industry sector. Social enterprises also contributed around 60 billion GBP into the UK economy.

It’s clear that their potential is huge, but social enterprises in Malaysia have a lot of hurdles they need to overcome before they can reach that critical point. 

Wanting to know more, we spoke to Dzuleira Abu Bakar, the CEO of MaGIC, to get her thoughts.

MaGIC has long been championing the growth and development of social enterprises; they also take care of the accreditation of social enterprises in Malaysia. 

1. Failure To Know Or Match The Criteria

Dzuleira observed that social entrepreneurship is still in its infancy here, and people often confuse a social enterprise with a charity. But that is fundamentally wrong. 

Generally, to be recognised as a social enterprise, companies have to hit three main criteria:

1. The ends: the social goal of the company must be measurable,
2. The means: the company must be selling a product or a service,
3. Have a sound financial approach.

But rather than quibble, MaGIC’s stand is: as long as the company is a legal entity with a social or environmental mission and has a profit-making business model, MaGIC will be there to support them.

2. Lacking In The How, After Knowing The Why

Social entrepreneurs usually are very clear on what they want to fight for, but don’t know how to proceed.

“Even if their objective is to do good, they must operate a for-profit business and have clear and specific social or environmental goals,” said Dzuleira.

This means thinking like entrepreneurs from the get-go, and knowing how to generate income first and foremost.

Without a viable business model, it won’t be sustainable in the long run. 

FailureInstitute reported that a whopping 38.3% of social enterprises in Mexico fail within a year, so these problems aren’t unique to Malaysia alone.

MaGIC, as part of the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED), worked to develop the Social Enterprise Accreditation (SE.A).

Getting accredited offers a wide variety of benefits such as tax incentives and a listing on a public directory. The SE.A also allows social enterprises to access more support and growth opportunities, and prove their credibility.

3. Shortage Of Talents

In the same Mexican study, failure to either retain or hire talents is also one of the main reasons a social enterprise will fail.

Dzuleira said that with SE.A, local social enterprises have the opportunity to gain recognition and communicate their commitments on social and environmental impact.

It will help them attract talent and even gain business by standing out as an ethical choice in a crowded market.

4. Not Enough Learning From Each Other

An entrepreneur must learn from their failures. Knowing what they did right or wrong in the failed business will make it easier for them to know what to do in their next step of the journey.

In the entrepreneurship realm, failure is expected. At MaGIC, we always tell our entrepreneurs to ‘fail fast, and come up with the next ideas fast’. Failure can be a real motivator, but every business, no matter what their location or sector, needs a defined ‘next step strategy’.

Dzuleira Abu Bakar, CEO of MaGIC

Without learning about what other social enterprises have failed to do or had successfully done, innovating or creating a new product or service will not be an easy task.

In a study conducted in Canada, they noted that some social enterprises fail because too many are trying to do the same thing, saturating the market.

MaGIC’s answer to this is by running Social Entrepreneurship Knowledge Days and Social Entrepreneurship Bootcamps.

On top of going through classes on the fundamentals of being a social enterprise to help develop or validate their social impact ideas, current social enterprises are also present to share their trials and tribulations, and what inspires them to do what they do.

This acts as a hub for all social entrepreneurs to gather, share ideas and learn from each other too.

5. Changing The Public Mindset

I previously assumed that social enterprise products or services are more expensive, but my colleague told me to check my preconceptions, citing TLC as an example. 

A quick Tesco search showed me that a 2L TLC Floor Cleaner was priced at RM11.60, which was a ringgit cheaper than another common brand listed there.

Dzuleira also pointed out that many Malaysians still thinks that social entrepreneurship is not a viable career and she wants to change that.

“There are misconceptions, such as being a social enterprise will mean not having personal sustainable income or it’s just a one-off social responsibility activity.”

The best way to challenge this is education and exposure, which is why Buy For Impact bazaar events and strategic partnerships with corporates helps to bring more eyeballs their way.

For example, MaGIC recently signed an MoU with Standard Chartered Bank to amplify the social business landscape through the SEtia programme (Social Entrepreneurs – Transformation, Innovation and Acceleration). 

Through this partnership, Standard Chartered Bank will contribute RM200,000 to cover the costs of approximately 50 social entrepreneurs in the capacity building programme.

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Not all businesses can shift their models to become social enterprises. In the same way, not all social entrepreneurs can or even want to scale their businesses like the more mainstream startups would.

Dzuleira shared her insight into what she thinks makes a successful social entrepreneur she said first, it goes back to the underlying motivation to start a social enterprise.

“For some people, it is simply the freedom of being their own boss while for others, it is a deep-rooted emotional connection to a particular problem that will result in a lasting positive impact.”

MaGIC’s mandate to facilitate the growth of social enterprises continues on.

Because the ecosystem is still young, “this is the perfect opportunity for us to invest strategically to ensure the development of a sector that will transform the nation’s economy to one that is more equitable and sustainable”, shared Dzuleira.

“Moving forward, not only do we want to continue identifying and accrediting them, but also channel business and funds their way to make them more financially sustainable and resilient as they go out into the world and create a long-term positive impact on society and the environment.”

• Find out more about what we’ve written on MaGIC here.
• Read our latest articles on social enterprises here.

Also Read: Vote For What You Want In Your Future Home And Sime Darby Property Might Just Build It

Featured Image Credit: MaGIC

10 Investment-Ready M’sian Startups From MaGIC’s Recent GAP Demo Day

GAP Demo Day 2019 marked the graduation of the third cohort of startups that participated in The Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC)’s Global Accelerator Programme (GAP).

There was also a royal touch, with His Highness Tengku Amir Shah Ibni Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Al Haj, Crown Prince Of Selangor, Founder and Royal Patron Selangor Youth Community, present to visit the booths of every startup as well as listen to their startup pitches from the beginning to the end.

You could also say that this day marked MaGIC CEO Dzuleira Abu Bakar’s first year at the helm of their flagship accelerator programme.

“2019 is the year that we improved the curricular essence of GAP 2019 to be more industry-led. This year’s GAP became more outcome-driven from the get-go,” said Dzuleira.

“GAP equips startups, keen on expanding in Southeast Asia, with the necessary skills, tools and network to be sustainable, investment-ready and primed for ASEAN expansion in 4 months.”

Out of 1,170 applications from 68 countries, only 25 made it to the GAP Demo Day stage. Out of those pitches, here are 10 homegrown names that you can keep an eye on as they continue their startup journey, in alphabetical order.

1. Arteca / REQA Toys

REQA Toys by Arteca Sdn Bhd is developing block-based toys and robotic kits for both entertainment and education. These toys are designed to have flexible designs with varying complexity so people of all ages can enjoy them.

“Three months ago, our Ministry of Education mentioned a study on the use of toys to encourage mental simulation,” said Amrina Shakira, Founder of Arteca Sdn Bhd.

“The problem for most of our public schools for the technology syllabus, is that they either learn with only one product shared with the whole class or just theory learning because the hands-on product is usually costly, especially robotics.”

Identifying this lack of toy-based learning equipment in schools, REQA Toys’ have already distributed kits to a number of private schools across Malaysia.

2. ClicknCare

ClicknCare is an online platform created to help make healthcare more accessible to migrants. A migrant himself, founder Abu Hasnat Sultanur Reza created this platform to address the difficulty of finding doctors that speak in the migrants’ own languages, as well as to find healthcare at a reasonable cost.

Using telemedicine services, ClicknCare enables patients to book online and offline appointments, video call healthcare professionals, get diagnosed, and obtain prescriptions, all from a single app.

“Look at the magnificent Twin Towers built by 7,000 workers, look at the MRT we enjoy riding, look at the splendid massive buildings, all this was built by the migrant workers’ salty sweat. Don’t we have something to give them back? Let’s join hands and make this world better for migrant workers,” said Sultanur Reza.

3. CurrenSeek

CurrenSeek is an app that allows money changers to advertise their rates and locations in real-time, digitally transforming the underserved currency exchange industry.

“They are very traditional brick-and-mortar businesses mostly and are extremely dependent on walk-in customers. They have limited visibility into the demand for various currencies and actually find it very challenging to source foreign currency for you,” said Amir Haghbinshomali, Founder of CurrenSeek.

Users of the app can also help update the currency exchange rates of any outlet, share it with their friends or even write reviews. This is all synched up with Google Maps and Waze to make locating these money changers easier.

4. iFull

iFull delivers on-demand phone repair right to your doorstep. Starting out as a traditional walk-in service in 2015, they have since opted to bring their services to the customer instead, with coverage that includes the Klang Valley, Penang and Kedah.

Going a step further, they even have a Phone Repair Training Academy to teach people on the basics of phone maintenance, including the dismantling and assembling of various mobile devices.

5. KOPPA

“David Beckham, Christano Ronaldo, I bet everyone knows these famous football players. But can you name me our Malaysian football players? Most of the people I ask say Mokthar Dahari, a player from the 1980s,” said Azlan Shah bin A Shafiuddin, Founder of KOPPA.

“People knew them because media covers them as the hero of the sport, the role of media in making these players famous is undeniable.”

KOPPA is a sports media content and fan engagement platform. They aim to build a community in support of the local sports scene by going beyond just reporting on scoreboards. Instead they produce content to inform and to entertain, celebrating sports and its fans .

They have just launched their first original series, KOPPA FC, and has secured a partnership with the Malaysian Football League to produce even more content. KOPPA will also be available on iFlix.

6. NakRide

Nakride is a peer-to-peer motorbike sharing/rental service which connects owners of underutilised motorbikes with potential renters.  

From a humble motorcycle rental service that only had two bikes in operation, NakRide’s P2P web-based platform is now a place where bike owners can earn extra income by renting out their bikes. Meanwhile renters have access to a variety of bikes that can be rented out for short to long periods of time.

7. Pickiddo

Pickiddo is a cloud based platform that helps tuition centres control and manage their administration. With the help of a smart search feature, records can be easily found and retrieved through a handy mobile app.

Their other features include attendance recording, teacher assignment/scheduling, payment management, and student information data basing.

Currently, Pickiddo has over 3,000 students, 400 teachers and 50 learning centres registered on their platform.

8. SlingApp

You may have already heard of the “Tinder For Jobseekers”. SlingApp is a mobile app that automates the hiring process for recruiters.

With SlingApp, jobseekers merely need to swipe right to apply for nearby jobs, and if they match the job requirements, they are interviewed automatically by SlingApp’s AI.

Having operated as a freemium service for two years, they now going commercial with the launch of a new ‘Pay For Post” pricing plan which includes additional services like featured job hosting, unlimited job hosting as well as talent searching.

9. Telebort

Telebort believes that “kids can code” and aims to empower the younger generation to pursue digital careers. Founded by alumni of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Telebort conducts after-school, weekend, and holiday programmes to teach computer science to school children within the age of 7 to 15 years.

“At Telebort, we believe that kids can code and we should teach our young children computer science, when they are as young as possible,” said Kee Chong Wei, Founder of Telebort.

“Most of the children, their eyes light up, they are very happy, they are very curious about technology. What we need to do here is to just give them the skills and the confidence to share the world today.”

They also work with schools and universities to set up their own Digital Maker Labs and Computer Guru communities (as they call it) to enable and promote computer science learning.

10. Vechnology

Combining the words “Vending Technology”, Vechnology builds IoT enabled smart vending machines with the goal of lowering operating expenditure and optimising human resources.

Using Cloud integration, their machines allow for real-time inventory tracking and management. So far, the range of goods that can be vended from their machines range from food and beverages to medical products, personal protection equipment and other essentials.

• You can read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.

Also Read: 4 Wins From MaGIC’s E-Nation That Deserve More Recognition

Malaysia Is Tackling Entrepreneurship With RM1 Bil in 2020, Here’s What The Gov Is Doing

This article series is in conjunction with Entrepreneurial Nation (E-Nation) Symposium, a 4-day event at MaGIC with the theme “Shaping An Entrepreneurial Nation”. The event will cut across 6 main pillars (Creative, Corporate Innovation, Education, Entrepreneurship, Policy and Social Entrepreneurship), with the objectives to:

1) Bridge ecosystem players together to exchange ideas, promote collaboration and foster networking opportunities;
2) Highlight recent entrepreneurial initiatives;
3) Gather influential entrepreneurs and speakers to share rich knowledge and information to attendees;
4) Promote the concept of social innovation and social responsibility to encourage the adoption and understanding of the conscious entrepreneurship concept.

This article is in line with the Policy pillar.

It was announced during Budget 2020 that over RM1 billion will be allocated to boosting entrepreneurship in Malaysia, across multiple segments of the society.

But money isn’t the only thing needed to make Malaysia an entrepreneurial nation—we need policies too, and inclusive ones at that.

During a panel discussion titled “Policies towards Building an Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystem” on Day 2 of the E-Nation Symposium, we had the opportunity to witness a productive conversation about entrepreneurship policies between:

• YBhg. Datin Dr. Syahira binti Hamidon, Senior Director, Policy and International Relations Division, Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED)
• Muhammad Nazim bin Abdul Rahman, Deputy Under Secretary, Strategic Planning, Ministry of Rural Development (KPLB)
• Dr. Zainah binti Shariff, Deputy Director General, Youth Development Division, Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS)
• Ali Salman, CEO, Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS)
• Zikri Kholil, Co-founder and CCO of Incitement

Moderating the discussion was Amiruddin Abdul Shukor, Executive Director of Finance & Corporate Services at MaGIC.

Based on what was said during the panel, here are 7 things we know the government is doing to encourage entrepreneurship across the diverse segments of Malaysian society.

1.  An Education System That Teaches Entrepreneurship Values

When we think about inclusivity, children probably aren’t the first people who come to mind. However, Datin Dr. Syahira stated that the best way to inculcate entrepreneurship culture in the Malaysian population is to start with the young.

“Every child in Malaysia has access to free education from primary to secondary school, so the best way for us to ensure that all children in Malaysia have access to, and be inculcated with, entrepreneurship values is through our education system,” she explained.

“So, that is why the first teras of the (DKN 2030) policy is to actually ingrain the aspect of entrepreneurship culture inside our education system.”

2. Intensifying Outreach Programmes To All Segments Of Malaysian Society

Datin Dr. Syahira shared that MED intends to intensify its outreach programmes to reach not only Malaysians living in rural areas, but also Malaysians in disadvantaged groups like the B40 and the differently abled.

3. Specific Intervention Programmes By The Different Ministries

Each ministry has its target group of people to cater to with its policies, and this is why Datin Dr. Syahira brought up the topic of specific intervention.

“There are more than 60 agencies and ministries looking into entrepreneurship. So, the challenge is for us to ensure that the 3 of us (MED, KPLB, KBS) are not targeting the same target,” she said.

For example, a programme for youths would have to be specifically targeted towards youths, and be led by the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

4. Promoting Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship is something that’s still in its early days in Malaysia, but Datin Dr. Syahira believes that we are moving fast towards strengthening social enterprises (SE) in the country.

A policy that’s inclusive will have to be one that also encourages social entrepreneurship, as the main aim of SEs is not so much about profitability, but to look into social development.

5. Using Cooperatives For Community Outreach To B40

“The concept of cooperatives is shared profit, and it’s togetherness in doing something within a specific community,” Datin Dr. Syahira said. “So, we believe that through this cooperative movement, we can have better access in reaching out to those in Malaysia’s B40 group.”

In usual discussions about B40, our minds often go straight to the communities in rural areas. However, according to statistics, Datin Dr. Syahira said that the most urgent issues like homelessness, for example, exist not in rural areas, but in urban ones.

6. Entrepreneurship Beyond The Agricultural Sector In Rural Areas

From the KPLB, Nazim said that they have a policy called Dasar Pembangunan Luar Bandar (DPLB) that will guide development in rural areas from now until 2030.

In the policy, there are 3 pillars that concern entrepreneurship. “We are setting the platform for entrepreneurship being our main engine in economical growth in rural areas,” Nazim shared.

“We are trying to make a decent living for the rural folks. They should also be able to get a piece of the prosperity cake; rural areas also need to feel this inclusivity of having shared prosperity, not only for the urban states or areas that are more advanced.”

7. Providing Entrepreneurship Training, Mentor Programmes & Bootcamps For Youths

Currently, KBS conducts various training, mentor programmes, and bootcamps for entrepreneurial youths, according to Dr. Zainah. “Youths nowadays have so many ideas, so we have to provide a platform where they can transform their ideas into real business strategies and execute the ideas as real business plans,” she said.

She shared that next year, KBS will embark on programmes dedicated to social entrepreneurship and digital businesses with the aim of enhancing economic well-being amongst youths by 2035. This is important because according to the Malaysian Youth Index, the score for economic well-being amongst youth has been low for the past 3 years.

Other Areas To Address

Ali of IDEAS, a think tank for the government, said that one glaring challenge that has yet to be addressed in Malaysia is the lack of access to VC funds for startups.

“The access to capital from VC funds in Malaysia for startups is less than 1%, according to MaGIC’s own report, whereas about 60% of VC funds capital in Singapore goes to startups,” he highlighted.

However, this doesn’t mean there is a total lack of access to funds in Malaysia. Ali said that statistics from Bank Negara suggested that access to finances for SMEs is very high, but this also means that only established SMEs are getting financed.

“But the startups which lead to innovation, which lead to new ideas, are not getting sufficient VC funds,” he lamented, bringing up the famous example of how Grab left Malaysia to thrive in Singapore.

Besides funding, another issue that was brought up was about how the foreign talent pool in Malaysia is being ignored.

Zikri of Incitement, a Malaysian social enterprise with a community spread out over 40 countries, had his own thoughts about the state of the Malaysian entrepreneurship ecosystem.

In order for Malaysia to become an inclusive entrepreneurial nation, he believes that the foreign talents in the country should be acknowledged too.

“They play a key role as well from a talent perspective to shape the localisation of the entrepreneurship scene here too. These are the men and women who are also shaping the growth of any kind of gig economy or any SMEs who are always looking to hire,” he said.

• You can read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.

Also Read: Celcom Just Scored An A+ In This Industry Report, Here’s How

6 Tough Lessons Shared By CEOs Who’ve Reached The Top Of The Local Creative Industry

This article series is in conjunction with Entrepreneurial Nation (E-Nation) Symposium, a 4-day event at MaGIC with the theme “Shaping An Entrepreneurial Nation”. The event will cut across 6 main pillars (Creative, Corporate Innovation, Education, Entrepreneurship, Policy and Social Entrepreneurship), with the objectives to:

1) bridge ecosystem players together to exchange ideas, promote collaboration and foster networking opportunities;
2) highlight recent entrepreneurial initiatives;
3) gather influential entrepreneurs and speakers to share rich knowledge and information to attendees;
4) promote the concept of social innovation and social responsibility to encourage the adoption and understanding of the conscious entrepreneurship concept. 

This article is in line with the Creative pillar.

At a panel in E-Nation moderated by Izan Satrina Dato Sallehuddin, founding CEO of Cultural Economy Development Agency (CENDANA), we heard from 3 experts from the creative industry:

• Dato’ Hans Isaac – Chairman of the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS)
• Mohd Nizam Abd Razak – CEO of Animonsta Studios
• Dato’ Norman Abdul Halim – Executive President and Group CEO of KRU Studios

They shared some personal stories on how they got to where they are today and some advice for people thinking to jump into the creative industry, or those who are already in it.

1. Never underestimate small beginnings

You may know Animonsta because of their hit characters from BoBoiBoy.

But it all started from just a small dream.

Back in university, Nizam and his team came up with a project called Misi Mustahak. 

With just 7 minutes of animation, they were able to make a crowd of 300 people laugh and enjoy themselves.

“If we can make these people laugh with our storytelling and animation, why not the entire nation? Why not from 300 to 30 million? Why not to 300 million in Southeast Asia? Obviously we have to take these small steps to bigger steps later on,” he shared.

So he and his friends created Animonsta, with a focus on superheroes instead of traditional characters. Back in 2009, they rented an apartment in Bukit Jelutong which was small and hot because they had 7 computers running.

“Memang panas, pasang air-con pun tak cukup!” he remarked to the crowd.

(Translation: “It was definitely hot, having the air-conditioning on wasn’t enough!”)

BoBoiBoy was birthed around then, and in 2010, MDEC gave them a helping hand with a grant and ample space to focus on creating.

Just recently, BoBoiBoy Movie 2 raked in RM30 million in box office revenue throughout Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

2. Times will change, and so should your business

Many Malaysians above the age of 25 would have fond memories of growing up with KRU‘s music. Or you might have heard of a movie series they produced, Cicak Man. What we might not know is that KRU was started in 1992 with just RM2,000.

Norman also said they had to reinvent the company four times and they’re in the midst of reinventing themselves for the 5th time.

“Business models and environment change all the time, we just have to adapt and face all those challenges. Instead of complaining about it, roll up your sleeves and solve the problem and move forward. If you have your fundamentals in the right place and work towards your goal, you’ll be able to achieve whatever objectives you have.”

Norman gave the example of animation, and how easy it is to adapt and localise. “When you release an animated film in Poland, dub it in Polish,” he said.

He also called for people to create characters that are relatable to the audience and for the creators to “act local, think global.” You can create content that can appeal to the local market and international market. What really matters is the storytelling or the core of the content.

Having a good character backstory is also important when it comes to creating characters.

“If you have a great character design but the story sucks, it won’t travel,” Hans chimed in.

3. Don’t go alone 

Hans was on hand to re-emphasise that FINAS is here to help creatives to synergise with companies and to bring people together.

“We’re not here to tell you what to do or tell you what story you want to tell. In today’s world, if any company works with FINAS, there are always bigger opportunities out there. We can’t stand alone.” said Hans.

He then continued to explain that FINAS is not there to make a profit but to give others investment opportunities to facilitate the creative industry. 

He also called for the seniors in the industry to give chance to the newcomers and the newcomers to listen to the seniors because they have the experience.

4. Copyright and trademark will hurt you if you don’t handle them right

All three panellists agreed that building your own brand is important.

Nizam said that creating and holding on to one IP now is okay. With the right followers, you might be able to earn more, in 10 or 20 years down the road.

“Disney purchasing Fox or a franchise like Star Wars, you’re not just buying the IP, you’re buying the fans,” he said.

Owning your IP and copyright is massively important too. Hans said if you face copyright infringement, it might kill your business. He hinted that the government is working on a new way to detect copyright infringement to help the IP holders.

They also said that content doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. 

“You can sell your content by setting up two webcams and just recording yourself singing in the car,” said Norman. 

5. Work together, but learn to be independent

Nizam opined that while the government is doing a lot to help out, creatives should learn to be independent.

“We always have these grants from the government. But sometimes, it diminishes the potential of the creative industry. We’re too dependent on these grants. We’re not thinking of a business plan,” he said.

He took a grant for the first season of BoBoiBoy but declined to take a grant for season 2, because he noted the company would not be able to stand alone if they’re too dependent on grants. 

“To maximise the potential of the creative industry, the government can help them, but they also need to develop a system to not give them [the creatives] whatever they want,” he said.

6. Don’t just focus on being “jaguh kampung”

Hans once posed a question to Hollywood directors on why Malaysian content can’t move out of Malaysia, and they replied saying it’s the problem with language barriers.

“The [local] language works for a certain point in the market, but it won’t work internationally,” said Hans.

An animation can cross countries because it can be dubbed at a very affordable cost. When you do, you have the option to sell to other markets.

All three agreed that quite a few creators in Malaysia have reached the top of their game locally. Now it’s time to look beyond Malaysia’s borders.

Closing Thoughts

Norman ended the panel by saying that creators should look towards utilising the technology of I R 4.0. He said the move to digital is massive and that the platform now allows for better technology for creation.

Hans then said that creators also should learn how to pitch their business plan better. “Your story is your business plan. When you pitch the story, you have to get the investors interested in your story. If they’re not interested, they’re not gonna invest. Learn how to pitch.”

• You can read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.

Also Read: Celcom Just Scored An A+ In This Industry Report, Here’s How

6 Strategies Malaysian Corporations Must Adopt, Or Risk Fading Into Irrelevance

This article series is in conjunction with Entrepreneurial Nation (E-Nation) Symposium, a 4-day event at MaGIC with the theme “Shaping An Entrepreneurial Nation”. The event will cut across 6 main pillars (Creative, Corporate Innovation, Education, Entrepreneurship, Policy and Social Entrepreneurship), with the objectives to:

1) bridge ecosystem players together to exchange ideas, promote collaboration and foster networking opportunities;
2) highlight recent entrepreneurial initiatives;
3) gather influential entrepreneurs and speakers to share rich knowledge and information to attendees;
4) promote the concept of social innovation and social responsibility to encourage the adoption and understanding of the conscious entrepreneurship concept. 

This article is in line with the Corporate Innovation pillar.

On Day 2 of the E-Nation Symposium, we had the chance to catch a forum moderated by Pradeeban “Ben” Letsumanasingam, the Manager of Corporate Innovation and Innovation Capital for MaGIC.

The panel consisted of experienced corporate leaders: Ernie Zainie, Senior Manager of Strategy and Corporate Lead for Innovation at Sabah Electricity; Suresh Sidhu, CEO of edotco Group; and Rob Sewell, Chief Digital and Transformation Officer of Maxis.

Their topic for the day revolved around the importance of corporate innovation and entrepreneurship. We picked up nuggets of insightful advice that corporates would do well to adopt and adapt.

1. Innovating Internally

Innovation is not a topic that can be easily tackled. In Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB), Ernie mentioned that they had to cultivate this idea to innovate within the company.

“In Sabah, we have two major problems, one involving electricity thefts, and the other with customers paying their bills late,” she said.

There are solutions such as using smart meters, but they’re expensive and even West Malaysia has yet to fully implement them. 

So, SESB had to look internally to solve the problems they had.

Through internal innovation, they were able to create a device that can detect and turn off the electricity if users are found stealing (rolled out in 3 locations throughout Sabah). Through “Remote Disconnection”, an innovation that can remotely turn off a customer’s electricity, they were able to get customers to pay their bills.

“We managed to get 10,000 customers to pay their outstanding bills thanks to these innovations.”

But, not all innovations have to be grand in nature and that brings us to the next point.

2. Do Everyday Things Better

“The problem with breakthrough thinking and innovation is that they are very hard if [they’re] not already their culture. If you have people that usually don’t think out of the box and make them think out of a bigger box, it’s not going to happen.” said Suresh. 

He gave the example of a typical telco tower, which takes about 25% to 30% more steel than it actually needs due to old design philosophies. 

Without thinking of a grandiose plan, the engineers at edotco just slightly tweaked the original design to reduce the use of steel on their towers.

“Having the mindset to question the small stuff can improve a corporation. Companies should be disciplined and focus on problems that they know they can solve.”

3. Expanding Into Sectors That Affect Your Industry

Rob then expanded Suresh’s point by saying that corporations should also try and expand into other sectors they’re not experts in, but have some knowledge of.

His example for Maxis was looking at Visual Analytics and IOT technologies to allow for better proactive management of towers. 

“Yes, we’re getting outside of our core business, but it’s still an area we have expertise in,” he said.  After all, telcos do need cell towers to work.

4. Celebrate Innovation & Never Settle

“There is a cultural challenge for corporations. It’s easy to get ahead in a corporation by being someone who accepts this is the way things are done. An innovator has to say this isn’t the only way you can do things.” said Rob.

A classic example that many people tend to use is with Kodak—its inability to innovate and transition to digital photography brought the company to its knees.

5. Small Ideas Can Create Big Impacts

“Adopting an innovative culture will benefit the customer. Some customers are comfortable with the way things are, but they want to see improvements,” said Ernie.

One of the examples she then listed was a customer not getting their bill in the mail after it flew away. To keep these customers happy, they created a mini-billbox that allowed the customers to see their bill without even going online.

“We should not be embarrassed at embracing small ideas, and not always think of big ideas.”

6. Do Not Ask To Be Spoonfed

Suresh mentioned that the government has already done a lot for the entrepreneurs. While there’s still room for improvement on the side of the government, Suresh calls for local entrepreneurs to help themselves first.

“What can the government do to help me? That’s not a very entrepreneurial question. I feel we are still a culture that looks for someone to help us. We need to change our mindset. If no one helps you, you’ll have to help yourself.”

He mentioned that it’s something he only sees in Malaysia. 

“In Pakistan, they will pitch you anything, even without the support of the government, it doesn’t stop the guy. The zeal of local entrepreneurs must be stronger.”

Final Thoughts

As the panel drew to a close, Ernie suggested for corporations to open their doors to being part of the ecosystem of innovation and development.

Suresh then said, “Focus on getting a culture of everyday innovation. Corporations need to find a way to encourage and work with the ecosystem and bring ideas through that deserves nurturing and mentoring.”

• You can read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.

Also Read: Celcom Just Scored An A+ In This Industry Report, Here’s How

Becoming A Tech-Based Entrepreneur Is Less About The Technology Than You Think

This article series is in conjunction with Entrepreneurial Nation (E-Nation) Symposium, a 4-day event at MaGIC with the theme “Shaping An Entrepreneurial Nation”. The event will cut across 6 main pillars (Creative, Corporate Innovation, Education, Entrepreneurship, Policy and Social Entrepreneurship), with the objectives to:
1) Bridge ecosystem players together to exchange ideas, promote collaboration and foster networking opportunities;
2) Highlight recent entrepreneurial initiatives;
3) Gather influential entrepreneurs and speakers to share rich knowledge and information to attendees;
4) Promote the concept of social innovation and social responsibility to encourage the adoption and understanding of the conscious entrepreneurship concept.

This article is in line with the Entrepreneurship pillar.

“Everything you touch, whether it’s plantations, whether it’s plastics, whether it’s factories, anything you touch is tech-based. So that would put everybody in the tech base. We’ll see various entrepreneurs coming up, but one thing will be certain, they will be tech-based. They will be ones that go much further, much faster.”

This was said by Gopi Ganesalingam, VP of Enterprise Development at MDEC, during a forum entitled “The Future Of Tech-based Entrepreneurship”.

With a statement like that, it would seem there is no longer a need to discuss the future of tech-based entrepreneurship any further. Tech-based entrepreneurship is the future.

Instead, the panel shared how being a tech-based entrepreneur is less about the tech and more about what you do off the grid.

The panel, moderated by StartupMamak founder, Heislyc Loh, included:

• Vicks Kanagasingam, Chief Operating Officer, Xperanti IoT
• Gopi Ganesalingam, VP Enterprise Development, MDEC
• Tan Yee Siang, Acting Vice President, Tech & Innovation, MaGIC
• Reez Nordin, Partner, Monk’s Hill Ventures
• Dato’ Henry Goh, Chief Operating Officer, Macrokiosk

With each of them having at least 15 years of entrepreneurship experience, here’s just some of the advice they gave to aspiring tech entrepreneurs that have very little to do with “tech”.

Be A Problem Solver

Generally, one of the main problems with entrepreneurs is short-term thinking.

“A lot of entrepreneurs want to make money, and the moment they think an idea can’t make money, even if the idea can change the world, they give up on the whole thing,” said Yee Siang.

“I always believe that if you look at the big picture, and you build yourself towards that big picture, the money will come,” he added.

“You don’t need to be into technology to start a technology business, you just need a problem and an idea to solve that problem, it does not even need to be a crazy, unique idea,” added Heislyc.

For example, Dato’ Henry jokingly pointed out that Tony Fernandes probably does not know how to fly a plane himself, yet founded Air Asia.

“Generally, entrepreneurs have a one-track mind. We find a problem and we focus on solving it, that is where non-entrepreneur companies find it difficult to compete with entrepreneur based companies,” said Dato’ Henry.

This problem-solving philosophy can also be applied to your hiring and leadership processes as well.

Calling it the “Inside-Out” approach, Vicks stated that you should solve outside problems by first addressing the problems inside the company, by hiring people that can solve those problems.

“We always look at people as the problem, but sometimes you have to look at yourself, your thought processes, the way you sell, the way you hustle, people are looking at you as the leader, and the team you build starts from inside,” Vick said.

On the topic of talent, Reez brings up how soft skills may be more important than technical knowledge.

For an example, Reez shares that there are programs that code by itself with self-coding algorithms, leaving coders out of a job.

 “I would imagine that education in basic technical skills are still needed, but on top of that is a liberal art education about hustling, discipline, time management and resourcefulness,” Reez explained.

Adopt 3D

No, not 3 dimensions. The 3Ds here stand for “Discipline, Document and Dangerously Positive”, as shared by Vicks.

Vicks warned that even if you have talent and funding, with no discipline and no structure, you will fail.

Discipline can be applied to most points raised during the seminar, as it is a necessary part of handling the difficulties inherent in being an entrepreneur, from how you run your business to how you live your life.

Another reason why entrepreneurs fail is the lack of documentation.

“Entrepreneurs often don’t document everything they do, they have it in their head or in a laptop somewhere, they just expect people to understand them when they are all talk,” Vicks shared.

He implores entrepreneurs to document everything, from projects to customer data and even finance.

“Whatever ideas, what works, what does not work, if you don’t document it, it’s as if it didn’t happen.”

Heislyc

Vicks even encourages entrepreneurs to take up handwriting, stating that even Bill Gates continues to write down his plans on whiteboards and books to this day.

“It is scientifically proven that what you write, links back to your brain, and produces action. What you type, only 20% becomes action. It’s so powerful, the old fashion way of writing,” Vicks said.

Putting this into practice, Vicks shared how he would have making writing on a whiteboard a part of the interview process for new hires, and how he has his own team fill in weekly journals for their own benefit.

And finally, be dangerously positive, which, while the panel did not elaborate on, should speak for itself.

Experiment With Yourself

“It’s not whether if you run the company then you are considered an entrepreneur. You are the company, you are the brand,” said Dato’ Henry.

“It’s not about leading 100 people, or 1,000 people, or 2,000 people. It’s you yourself that you have to lead. It’s not about running a better company, it’s about running a better self.”

He pointed out that you could be working for someone else and still be innovating at your job, if you have a good entrepreneurial attitude.

And one entrepreneurial attitude to hold onto? Reez brought up Silicon Valley, the cradle of tech entrepreneurship in America, and summed up its success in just two words: “Embrace failure.”

Reez suggested that entrepreneurs should instil those two words into themselves.

“You as your own person, should embrace little failures by running small experiments throughout your life. Do something different everyday, take different routes,” Reez said.

“This will help you before you decide to take a big leap and do something that will really bring risk into your life, like starting a company or jumping to a different industry to work in.”

Companies and even countries should not be afraid of experimenting with new products, new markets and new customer segments, failure can be a learning experience.

And as proof that not all entrepreneurs will be in perfect agreement, Dato’ Henry attributed part of an entrepreneur’s success to “daring not to fail” and trying hard not to fail, in contrast to the common “embracing failure” or “failing fast” schools of thought.

We’ll leave it to you, which philosophy you want to instil in yourself. Stay dangerously positive.

•  You can read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.

Also Read: Celcom Just Scored An A+ In This Industry Report, Here’s How

It’s Not An Instant Jackpot, But Here’s Why You Should Care About Impact Investments

This article series is in conjunction with Entrepreneurial Nation (E-Nation) Symposium, a 4-day event at MaGIC with the theme “Shaping An Entrepreneurial Nation”. The event will cut across 6 main pillars (Creative, Corporate Innovation, Education, Entrepreneurship, Policy and Social Entrepreneurship), with the objectives to:
1) bridge ecosystem players together to exchange ideas, promote collaboration and foster networking opportunities;
2) highlight recent entrepreneurial initiatives;
3) gather influential entrepreneurs and speakers to share rich knowledge and information to attendees;
4) promote the concept of social innovation and social responsibility to encourage the adoption and understanding of the conscious entrepreneurship concept. 

This article is in line with the Social Entrepreneurship pillar.

On Day 1 of the E-Nation Symposium, we had the pleasure of learning about impact investing from 4 women who are in the industry themselves:

• Melissa Foo, Vice President, Malaysia Business Angels Network (MBAN)
• Lehui Liang, Head of Purpose Capital, Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVhk)
• Jian Li Yew, Managing Partner, Patamar Capital

So, first of all, what is impact investing? It’s a fairly new term, and it’s an investment strategy that aims to generate social and financial benefits.

Melissa said in her presentation that impact investments exist along a spectrum, which means that there is no perfect impact investment.

“The spectrum runs from commercial or just typical investments, all the way up to non-profits, and somewhere in the middle, we have impact investment where we have financial and social benefits,” she shared.

Impact investing usually goes towards socially responsible businesses, businesses with a social purpose, co-operatives, non-profit enterprises, and the social enterprises of charities.

For an impact investor to be effective, they should focus on the impact first, and then decide on the financial instrument.

After working with a lot of social enterprises that are impactful, Melissa found that some amongst them just aren’t designed for scalability.

For example, social enterprises that help communities like the visually or hearing impaired are impactful in the amount of technology in the programs and benefits that they offer to these communities.

However, the businesses are community-based and offline. This means that the scale of these types of business models isn’t really in line with typical venture capital or angel investors’ expectations.

If social enterprises are looking for investments, Melissa said that both they and the investors need to be very clear on their expectations of each other from the get-go, so that there won’t be conflict further down the road.

You might now be thinking, isn’t impact too vague of a concept to measure? But Melissa said otherwise.

“There are a variety of ways to measure the impact of your investments. It’s not like your typical investment with your financial report, but we can say qualitative measures such as sustainable development goals and quantitative measures as well such as the SROI* (social return on investment),” she said.

Dictionary Time: SROI is a method for measuring values that are not traditionally reflected in financial statements, including social, economic and environmental factors.

*Editor’s Update: The acronym has been changed to reflect further accuracy of Melissa’s statement.

Creating Impact Through Investment

Lehui said that her company believes that there’s not a single approach to creating impact. 

“What really matters to us is the impact that we create.”

Her company used to do pure venture philanthropy, but eventually moved into what they call “incubation”. 

“If there are no projects out there, we will build our own projects,” Lehui said.

When they had their first 3 projects, Lehui told the crowd that they weren’t seeing financial returns yet, but there were a lot of impact returns, and that was how they gave recognition to what an impact or social business could do.

But realistically, finance was still a challenge because after building a business, there is a need to operate it.

“One of the ideas we had was that we can’t keep working on small-scale social enterprises every day. But if the corporate sector keeps creating problems, as they do, then whatever we do is just not going to be enough,” she said.

Instead of demonising them, her company simply took advantage of the resources in society.

“Capital could be your time, your network, your experience, the land you own maybe, the house you own…all of these are resources that already exist in society. Our job is really to put a social purpose into them so that they can run as they are, but still create impact,” Lehui shared.

So, Why Impact Investing?

Jian Li shared that millennials care more about impact, compared to our parents’ generation who maximised profits.

“The next generation is also very keen about changing the world with a greater impact, so there’s a movement, a trend that generally says that impact is the next wave,” she said.

There are many problems in ASEAN, and where there are problems, there are always solutions. “These problems are usually solved by foundations giving money to NGOs, or social enterprises coming up with ideas to solve these problems,” Jian Li said.

On the supply side, Malaysia has NGOs that are turning into social enterprises. This has caused donors to change the way they’re giving money, as rather than pure philanthropy, they’re also looking into making the business sustainable.

According to Jian Li, everyone is now going towards the middle of the spectrum where impact is becoming more sustainable, while businesses are becoming more impactful.

A Snowball Effect Of Impact Investing

In trying to solve something, market research is important. With that data, businesses can then decide their target population to come up with a model where they can:

• Provide products and services to their target group,
• Utilise the target group as their distribution channel, or
• Utilise the target group’s supplies

One example Jian Li gave to illustrate the last point is how business can help small rice farmers by branding and marketing it for them, thus making use of their supplies and indirectly giving them income opportunities.

Here’s a real-life example of impact investing that brought not only impact returns, but also financial returns.

Shuyin shared how Mapan, an Indonesian social enterprise that works as a community based savings and lending network, was eventually acquired by Gojek. This led to a 9x return on Patamar’s investments in Mapan.

Globally, this has been a consistent trend. In a 2017 study of 209 investors who had committed USD22 billion to impact investing the previous year, 91% of them reported that the investments were meeting or exceeding financial expectations.

This trend has not been replicated in Malaysia yet, but these are hints of the future. MaGIC will receive a RM10 million boost in Budget 2020 to develop social enterprises, and coupling that with an increased interest in impact investing, this can only mean an acceleration of the industry in the years to come.

• You can read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.

Featured Image Credit: MaGIC Cyberjaya

The Education Industry Needs To Jump Onto The Entrepreneurial Bandwagon. Here’s How.

This article series is in conjunction with Entrepreneurial Nation (E-Nation) Symposium, a 4-day event at MaGIC with the theme “Shaping An Entrepreneurial Nation”. The event will cut across 6 main pillars (Creative, Corporate Innovation, Education, Entrepreneurship, Policy and Social Entrepreneurship), with the objectives to:
1) Bridge ecosystem players together to exchange ideas, promote collaboration and foster networking opportunities;
2) Highlight recent entrepreneurial initiatives;
3) Gather influential entrepreneurs and speakers to share rich knowledge and information to attendees;
4) Promote the concept of social innovation and social responsibility to encourage the adoption and understanding of the conscious entrepreneurship concept.

This article is in line with the Education pillar.

How do educational institutions play a role in entrepreneurship education and the cultivation of entrepreneurs?

That was the question education industry leaders sought to answer during a panel discussion on day 2 of the E-Nation Symposium.

The panel moderated by Danial Rahman, the Head of Growth of Open Learning, included:

• Professor Dr Rofina Yasmin Othman, University Malaya Office of Industry and Community Engagement (UM ICE)
• May Wong, Head of Group Communication And CSR, Taylors University
• Dr Jieun Ryu, University of Northampton, UK
• Professor Dr Nik Maheran Nik Muhammad, University Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) Entrepreneurship Institute

Together, they shared how the educational sector is cultivating the next generation of entrepreneurs and how more can be done to spearhead its growth.

It Starts With The Teachers

“Do we have the right teachers to teach the next Mark Zuckerberg?” asked Danial, the moderator.

“You need entrepreneurs to teach entrepreneurs,” replied Prof Dr Yasmin.

In order to properly teach entrepreneurship, teachers need to understand entrepreneurship themselves, and the trials and tribulations that come with it.

While a PhD (which is the minimum requirement for most lecturer positions) is important, most teachers are ill-equipped to impart anything more than just technical know-how.

“It is not about technical knowledge but attitude, how to deal with failure. And for that, teachers need to be part of the [entrepreneurship] story,” said Prof Dr Yasmin.

This sentiment was echoed by most of the panel as they identified that there is a distinct lack of understanding on entrepreneurship in both educators and students.

MaGIC is working together with the campus community via the MaGIC Ecosystem Builder program. The program is a series of Train-the-Trainer programs aimed at training ecosystem builders, who shall be known as MaGIC Ecosystem Builders to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship skills via running their own trainings, with the aim of scaling the number of entrepreneurs trained. To date, MaGIC has 19 universities that has collaborated with the program.

A Safe Place For New Ideas

But even with the right resources, educators often face resistance from both students and parents.

Parents often encourage their children to focus on studying hard and getting a good job. Anything outside that path is often considered a failure.

As Dr Jien Ryu explains, if you compare the mindset of a Western classroom and an Asian one, the difference is night and day.

Western students often speak their mind, discussing, and debating with one another, whereas Asian students put their head down and merely listen, afraid of stepping out of line.

The Asian mindset discourages being different or having new ideas, hallmarks of being an entrepreneur.

This is why schools should be actively turning themselves into safe space to encourage the free flow and test of ideas.

“These safe spaces create opportunities for students to face challenges, and learn to overcome failure, which instils resilience,” said Dr Jien Ryu.

For instance, UMK created BEEHIVE, an incubation and acceleration space for young entrepreneurs to do just that.

Communication And Collaboration

“To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together.”

African proverb

During the course of the panel discussion, the speakers surprised themselves on how similar their views and initiatives were.

This was especially true for the 3 university representatives that found that their programmes, research and even syllabus had similar goals in mind.

It led to a collective realisation that communication between like-minded educational institutions is severely lacking, as they could have been collaborating with one another instead of doing all this on their own.

May Wong said that more forums such as the E-Nation Symposium needed to happen more often to encourage collaboration between like-minded institutions.

This sentiment was echoed by Professor Dr Yasmin, which prompted them to jokingly announce that Taylors University and University Malaya may collaborate in the near future, having found so much in common with one another.

On that note, as Dr Jien Ryu pointed out, “Research should be emphasised.”

She also shared that much of the research has already been done, and it was just a matter of sharing the results with one another so all parties can use the data to improve the quality of teaching.

• You can read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.

MaGIC’s CEO On Evolving Malaysia Into An Asian Tiger

This article series is in conjunction with Entrepreneurial Nation (E-Nation) Symposium, a 4-day event at MaGIC with the theme “Shaping An Entrepreneurial Nation”. The event will cut across 6 main pillars (Creative, Corporate Innovation, Education, Entrepreneurship, Policy and Social Entrepreneurship), with the objectives to:
1) bridge ecosystem players together to exchange ideas, promote collaboration and foster networking opportunities; 
2) highlight recent entrepreneurial initiatives; 
3) gather influential entrepreneurs and speakers to share rich knowledge and information to attendees;
4) promote the concept of social innovation and social responsibility to encourage the adoption and understanding of the conscious entrepreneurship concept.

This article is in line with the Entrepreneurship pillar.

On the launch day of the E-Nation Symposium, Dzuleira Abu Bakar, the CEO of MaGIC and YB Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusof the Minister of Entrepreneur Development took the stage in two separate speeches to the crowd. 

What united them? They talked about what the government is doing and what entrepreneurs should do to bring Malaysia forward into the limelight as an entrepreneurial nation.

1. Focus On Innovation

As shared by Dzuleira, innovation is crucial because it is a primary source of competitive advantage for countries and companies no matter what industry or environment they are in. 

Innovation will then drive forward efficiency and that will bring in higher productivity. With higher productivity, the industry will be able to fill in a wide variety of needs.

“Technology, in particular, is a powerful driving force in innovative capacity, particularly as it pertains to both the evolution of innovations and the way they proliferate. Technology is innately scalable, demonstrating a consistent trend towards new innovations as a result of improving upon current ones,” said Dzuleira.

2. Aggressively Adopt IR 4.0

Continuing on, she mentioned that IR 4.0 (Industrial Revolution 4.0) is a concept that many know about, but it isn’t something that is understood by many.

According to Dzuleira, IR 4.0 brings in 4 key principles for us to focus on: interoperability, information transparency, actionable insights and automation. Focusing on these principles will bring in benefits throughout the manufacturing sector.

However, the manufacturing sector in itself needs to be looked at in a broader perspective as the process of manufacturing is needed in most industries ranging from agriculture to healthcare.

YB Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan said, “To fulfil our aspirations in making Malaysia an entrepreneurial nation by 2030, it is crucial that we create a dynamic ecosystem that ensures all segments of society can benefit from it.”

A few weeks ago, our Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that we have to aggressively adopt IR 4.0 in view of how fast technology is moving forward.

Both he and Dzuleira spoke about growing Malaysia’s status to an Asian Tiger and to be a hub for IR 4.0 in Southeast Asia.

Dictionary Time: Asian Tiger, also known as Asian Dragon, is the moniker given to the economies of four countries, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The term was coined as the countries underwent rapid industrialisation while maintaining high growth rates during the 20th century. Malaysia is referred to as a developing country of the Tiger Cub Economy and not part of the Four Asian Tigers.

3. Charging Into IR 5.0

Dzuleira also mentioned that while companies are still trying to adopt the principles of IR 4.0, the 5th Industrial Revolution is already underway.

She described IR 5.0 as a time where man and machine reconcile and find ways to work together in an effort to improve the means and efficiency of production. At the same time, the interactions between human and machine will be more meaningful and enlightening.

To match this, we need to develop new skills to cope with the speed of development. 

“We also have to increase our high-skilled workforce from 18% to 35% by 2020, but are we ready to meet that?” was a question YB Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan threw out to the crowd.

The government is looking into cybersecurity in detail, as data is needed for everything and it’ll even help entrepreneurs reap the benefit of the economy.

4. The Role The Government Plays

The minister then continued on saying that startups that are thinking of developing within Malaysia to service 32 million people can look towards international markets. The government is ready and willing to facilitate the growth of companies even beyond Malaysia.

The Prime Minister has called to Malaysian businesses to not just look at improving business processes, but also to invest more into R&D. 

“Malaysia is not lacking when it comes to inventions and innovations. There are over 1,000 inventions that are kept in the museum because we don’t commercialise them. There are people out there that want to own 100% of nothing, rather than a small percentage of something. We will need to change our mindset when it comes to the commercialisation of R&D,” said YB Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan.

5. Changing Mindsets

“There’s no such thing as a perfect product, the world revolves around dynamism and new inventions,” he continued.

Malaysia is well placed to play a leading role when it comes to the development of technology. 

“To be the champions, we have to learn and relearn. We must transform and retransform. We must also incorporate the Kaizen principle in our daily lives.”

Dictionary Time: Kaizen means change for the better; and it means improving one’s’ personal life, home life, social life and working life. When applied to the workplace, Kaizen means a continuous improvement that involves everyone.

– Masaaki Imai, Founder of Kaizen Institute

6. We’re All In This Together

The minister then called out for entrepreneurs to assist and impart knowledge to each other, regardless of social status or financial capability.

“We must not forget to assist and to impart knowledge for our fellow Malaysians. It’s the only way we can prosper. We can then reduce the disparity between the high-income and low-income community,” he said.

This will ensure inclusive economic growth, achieving Malaysia’s Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 through entrepreneurship.

Dzuleira then mentioned that she does see a number of growing social entrepreneurs that are focused on solving the problems we have in the world and creating long-lasting impact beyond just financial returns. And that’s the sort of spirit that MaGIC would like to see in our local community.

“It takes a village to raise a child, and it would take a concerted effort of a nation to build successful businesses. MaGIC knows that the task won’t be easy nor linear,” she said. 

• You can read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.

7 Personal Facts About Vivy Yusof That’ll Motivate The Heck Out Of You

This article series is in conjunction with Entrepreneurial Nation (E-Nation) Symposium, a 4-day event at MaGIC with the theme “Shaping An Entrepreneurial Nation”. The event will cut across 6 main pillars (Creative, Corporate Innovation, Education, Entrepreneurship, Policy and Social Entrepreneurship), with the objectives to:
1) bridge ecosystem players together to exchange ideas, promote collaboration and foster networking opportunities; 
2) highlight recent entrepreneurial initiatives; 
3) gather influential entrepreneurs and speakers to share rich knowledge and information to attendees;
4) promote the concept of social innovation and social responsibility to encourage the adoption and understanding of the conscious entrepreneurship concept.

This article is in line with the Entrepreneurship pillar.

We had the opportunity to listen to Vivy Sofinas Yusof, the co-founder of FashionValet and dUCk Group during her keynote speech at E-Nation Symposium.

She shared the story of her entrepreneurial journey, and here’s what stood out to us and gave us a metaphorical kick off our laurels.

1. She was already an entrepreneur at 7.

When Vivy was 7 years old, she would make bracelets behind her desk while everyone else was paying attention to the teacher in class.

These bracelets would be samples that she would then show her friends before making them take custom orders.

“This became way more interesting than school itself, and I paid less attention to class,” Vivy recalled, “But no one could scold me, because I was a good student.”

In fact…

2. She was more than just a Straight-A student.

Despite her interest in entrepreneurship, Vivy still managed to get straight A’s in class, even for her UPSR, PMR, and SPM. 

She knew that she wanted to take A-Levels, but there was a problem. She took issue with the huge 9-month gap in between SPM and A-Levels. 

Because she dreaded the thought of doing nothing during the gap, she negotiated with, and convinced, her high school in KL and her college in the UK to let her do both simultaneously.

“I promised them that if I got bad results, they could kick me out,” Vivy shared. With that promise in mind, she studied hard and got straight A’s for both exams.

3. Seeing an opportunity, she ran towards it head-on.

Based on a concept they learned from websites like ASOS and Net-a-Porter, Vivy started FashionValet with her then-friend, now-husband, Fadzarudin Shah Anuar, in 2010.

“We saw a gap in the online shopping industry in Malaysia, we knew that local designers were scattered all around and they didn’t have enough reach. We saw the opportunity of a ready pool of customers via my

So, they started out with a shared capital of RM100,000.

4. Give her a timeline, and she’ll accelerate it.

To begin their business, they simply Googled “how to start an online shopping website” and called the first company they found.

“They told us they will have the site ready in 6 months. Naturally, I told them, ‘You will do it in 1 month,’” Vivy shared, describing herself as “stubborn, determined, and very impatient”.

And the company actually completed it on time, thanks to Vivy calling them every single day.

She also recalled how she was persistent in marrying Fadzarudin.

“He told me, ‘Let’s get married in 2 years’. So, naturally, again, I told him, ‘You will marry me this year’. And he did. Today we have 3 beautiful children together: Daniel, Mariam, and Sarah,” she proudly shared.

And yes, they are very happily married, she revealed.

5. Criticism and challenges? That’s part of the job.

Vivy admitted that her entrepreneurial journey was filled to the brim with challenges. In 2012, ZALORA’s entrance into the Malaysian market was a threat to FashionValet.

In 2013, there was a time when she didn’t have enough money in the bank to pay salaries. FashionValet’s website went down for a week in 2014 due to a failed migration.

There was also a moment in 2015 when they couldn’t get any funding. 

“Worse, I am in the public eye. So, every mistake we did, every order sent late was amplified on social media, punishing me as a bad entrepreneur,” Vivy said.

“As much as I am celebrated as a young woman entrepreneur in Malaysia, I am also the first to take a social media hit and public scrutiny when something goes wrong.”

Despite all that, she’s still kept going, and FashionValet now has an international presence, shipping to 40 to 50 countries daily.

6. She believes in one constant: change.

“Something I feel every entrepreneur should do is review your business model every once in a while, especially when things just aren’t working the way you want them to,” Vivy stated.

Taking FashionValet as an example, she admitted that, despite its success as a local fashion hub carrying other brands, it was difficult to scale since they weren’t in control of their own stock.

“We tweaked our business model several times until we found one that really works for us. Today, FashionValet finally found its niche in modest fashion,” she said.

7. She’s still unsatisfied with her progress.

Even with FashionValet’s impressive growth over the years, Vivy said, “Deep down, I know the 7-year-old me isn’t impressed yet, because an entrepreneur’s journey never ends. Being who we are, we will always be working for more, pushing boundaries, shattering glass ceilings.”

Before she ended her talk, she imparted some inspirational words to the crowd:

“Whatever business you’re in, whatever challenges you’re facing right now, whatever it is that keeps you up at night, just remember that you got this.” 

“Ask questions, self-reflect, remember that everything has a solution. The most important thing is that you never lose spirit, and you never forget to enjoy the rollercoaster ride to success.”

• You can read more on what we’ve written about MaGIC here.

Also Read: Celcom Just Scored An A+ In This Industry Report, Here’s How

MaGIC’s CEO On What She Thinks About The State Of Entrepreneurship In M’sia

Budget 2020 is on everyone’s mind, and in a widely supported move, over RM1 billion has been allocated to the boosting of entrepreneurship in Malaysia. 

For anyone keeping their eye on the local ecosystem, you’d know one of the players to watch is the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC).

MaGIC works to support the growth of entrepreneurship in Malaysia and create sustainable ecosystem development through creativity and innovation. 

We had a chance to interview Dzuleira Abu Bakar, the CEO of MaGIC, to get her latest thoughts on entrepreneurship in Malaysia and what MaGIC is working towards.

Getting The Building Bricks In Place

Dzuleira feels that we already have the right foundation to build a bigger future on.

“Our local ecosystem represents the diversity of our nation. From language to culture, with a population that is not too big nor too small, we have a good mix of all elements needed to support growth and scale of any type of business be it tech startups or traditional businesses such as F&B. Those elements are both an advantage as well as what inspires me to achieve more with the local ecosystem,” she said.

But she also sees things that do have to change, to allow for accelerated growth.

“I am a firm believer that a mindset shift is one of the most important things entrepreneurs must  possess, which I also find lacking in some of our local entrepreneurs,” she said. “I mean this in various aspects—digital-first mindset, a go-global mindset, an opportunity-viewing mindset, a forward-thinking mindset, amongst others.” 

Another major gap she sees is in mentorship.

“Malaysian entrepreneurs find it difficult to connect with mentors who best understand their scope of business or industry especially in an industry that is relatively new to a nation,” she said.

Entrepreneurs lose out, because mentors act not only as sounding boards, but also at times knowledge banks, advisors, connectors and more. These mentors often end up being investors or business angels to these entrepreneurs. 

To address this, MaGIC provides a mentorship service to fast track an entrepreneurs’ journey by allowing them to gain fresh perspective, advice and tips from mentors, advisors and skilled entrepreneurs.

The Pillars Of The Nation

MaGIC’s upcoming Entrepreneurial Nation (E-Nation) Symposium 2019 is organised in line with their overarching objectives, but you might notice that the sessions are built around 6 key topic pillars—Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, Education, Policy, Corporate Innovation and Creative.

First, let’s get down to the meat each pillar. What does each one even mean?

Entrepreneurship will dive into some of the most pressing issues and challenges that entrepreneurs today face.

Seasoned entrepreneurs will be on hand to share their journeys and how they were able to create solutions that solve actual problems and pain-points.

You also shouldn’t overlook the potential lucrativeness of Social Entrepreneurship, even though its primary focus is on the elevation of society and the environment through radical change. 

It can solve some of the nation’s most pressing issues yet remain profitable for the business owners.

And MaGIC’s just received a RM10 million allocation from Budget 2020 to continue in its quest to support the growth of social enterprises.

Education is not just about educating entrepreneurs; instead, it’s about developing entrepreneurial competencies to equip the students of today to face challenges of tomorrow effectively.

You can’t talk about entrepreneurship and innovation without thinking about Policy. Without a conducive environment that is intentionally created by the governing bodies, businesses and startups will find it difficult to innovate and adopt new technologies. 

Speaking of adopting new technologies, a focus on Corporate Innovation allows the behemoths of the private and public sector to capitalise disruptive technologies and build continuous innovation pipelines.

Finally, there’s the Creative aspect. Creative arts and current technologies are disrupting the industry, and this needs to continue.

As shared by Dzuleira, “All 6 pillars are integral in forming a strong foundation in becoming an entrepreneurial nation and are equally important.”

The 6 pillars detailed above were chosen based on demand and data. Thanks to their dialogue with the entrepreneurs who go through their various programmes and initiatives, Dzuleira believes that her team have gotten a fairly good idea of what now what business owners want as well as need.  

The Vision For 2020 And Beyond

In the bigger picture, MaGIC envisions E-Nation as an annual and signature symposium.

“This way, there is always a follow-through from the active discussion we have ignited in the previous year. This will also help us in providing an indication of some of the developments we are creating for the ecosystem and how much more we need to do to attain an entrepreneurial nation status each year,” said Dzuleira.

And there is a heavy mandate that MaGIC carries, thanks to the launch of the National Entrepreneurship Policy (NEP) in July. The NEP aims to transform Malaysia into an entrepreneurial nation by 2030. As a key government body, MaGIC cannot rest on its laurels.

Dzuleira also has her own personal ambition for our country’s future in entrepreneurship development.

“My vision is for Malaysia to be on the global map of innovation, where this country will continue to produce and develop innovative startups and entrepreneurs,” she said.

“That said, I realise that it is no easy and linear task, it is one that requires commitment and cohesive effort which is certainly attainable. Entrepreneurship activities drive the economic growth of a nation, which means a vibrant startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem results in a thriving economy.”  

• To learn more about the 6 pillars and more, the E-Nation Symposium will be starting from the 30th of October to the 2nd of November. You can also check the schedule here or purchase tickets for E-Nation here.
• You can find out more about MaGIC here.

What RM136 Can Get You At This Major 4-Day Entrepreneur Event

MaGIC (Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre) was founded with a mission to support the growth of entrepreneurship in Malaysia and to create a sustainable ecosystem development through creativity and innovation. 

In line with that, they will be organising the MaGIC Entrepreneurial Nation (E-Nation) Symposium on the 30th of October to the 2nd of November 2019.

Through the symposium, MaGIC wants to stimulate and facilitate the spirit of entrepreneurship through creativity, innovation and social impact in Malaysia. This is also in support of efforts by the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED) in building a truly entrepreneurial Malaysia.

However, this event is not limited to only entrepreneurs. If you are a student, a person seeking a job, or a player in the private or public sector, you are more than welcome to join in too. 

But What’s In It For You?

Aside from the keynote sessions and panel discussions, there are workshops, exhibitions and a career fair happening at the same time.

The event will also feature over 40 local and international speakers and 8 keynote sessions. These sessions will explore 6 key topic pillars—Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, Education, Policy, Corporate Innovation and Creative.

The event is separated into four different days, Launch Day, Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3. Launch Day and Day 3 are open to the public and that means the talks, discussions and events are free for anyone that wants to drop by. 

Day 1 and 2 will require you to pay for the entry fee, and that’s what we want to look at today.

Expose Yourself To Some Learning

Entrepreneur events are often marketed as places to learn and grow, but they can be expensive. Some of the events could cost over RM1,000, and that is a steep price to pay for new startups and any people who are just exploring the idea of entrepreneurship. But, the price for the E-Nation ticket is a more affordable RM65 a day.

Here are some of the things you can look out for.

1. What’s In Store For Entrepreneurs

Olivier Legrand, the Managing Director of LinkedIn Asia Pacific will be present on the First Day of the symposium and he will be joined by 4 other panellists in talking about “Driving the future of Entrepreneurship”.

2. How A Simple Concept Could Change Your Business

Stevens Chan, the founder of Dialogue in the Dark (DiD) will be present at the symposium as well. DiD’s concept is rather simple, but the reviews are pretty stellar and most of them mentioned it was an “eye-experience”. 

DiD guides people through familiar situations they would go through on a daily basis, like a walk in a park, but with a catch—you will be blindfolded and guided by blind guides.

3. Get An Extra Edge Over Other Businesses

Thomas Ng is the founder of Genashtim, a for-profit social enterprise that concentrates on leveraging technology and the internet to connect marginalised communities to the global economy. His talk will be focused on how being a responsible business will give you the edge over others.

4. Innovation In The Industry Could Drive Your Company Forward

The 2nd day will also play host to a few interesting forums, with one of them being a talk on corporate innovation. Suresh Sidhu, the CEO of Edotco Group will be present on the forum. Edotco holds over 29,500 telecommunications tower around the world.

5. What’s Next For Tech-Based Entrepreneurs

No one knows what the future holds, but thanks to technology, we can predict what might happen. Vicks Kanagasingam, the COO of Xperanti IOT along with Gopi Ganesalingam the VP of Enterprise Development for MDEC will be peering into the crystal ball to reveal a glimpse of the possible future.

6. It Isn’t Always About The Money

On the 2nd day of the symposium, there will be a workshop that’ll teach you how to strike the balance between a company’s purpose and profit. It’s not an easy task to balance, so they could offer some tips. 

Exciting Happenings That Require No Payment

As a cherry on top of the cake, the E-Nation Symposium also has some offerings for free that any budding entrepreneur could get excited about.

1. How To Build A Successful Business

The symposium will start off with a keynote from Datin Vivy Sofinas Yusof. She is the co-founder of Fashion Valet and dUCk Group. She will be talking about her experience as a fashionpreneur and on how she became a successful businesswoman. The hall will likely fill up fast, so you might have to drop by early and grab your seat.

2. Don’t Discount Creative Entrepreneurship

In a study back in 2012 done by students of HELP University, they mentioned the lack of marketing may be one of the reasons why local movies are not doing well compared to Hollywood blockbusters.

Mohd Nizam Abd Razak, the CEO of Animosta Studios is one of the members of the panels for the talk, for those that do not know, Animosta Studios is the production company for the animated movie BoBoiBoy. Mohd Nizam told us that The BoBoiBoy Movie 2 raked in RM30 million in the box office throughout Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

If you’re a fan of Cicakman, the CEO of Kru Studios, Dato’ Norman Abdul Halim will be present at the panel as well.

3. Esports Is The Future Of Gaming

With Malaysia pushing to be the hub of esports in Asia, everyone should be paying attention to the esports scene. The global esports scene will reportedly hit RM4.4 billion in 2019 and there will be a panel sharing insights into this. 

4. Check Out Mobile Gaming Competitions

For the ones that are looking to spill a little digital blood, there are two gaming events on the fourth and last day of the symposium. There will be a PUBG Mobile event and a Mobile Legend League Tournament. You might even discover that some popular entrepreneurs are secretly hardcore gamers.

5. Stroll Around The Career Fair

On the last day of the symposium, there’s a career fair that starts at 10 AM and ends at 5 PM. It’s not just for people looking for opportunities–you can take a walk around and see what’s on offer on the market and what sorts of businesses are actively hiring. 

• The E-Nation Symposium will be starting on the 30th of October and end on the 2nd of November. You can also check the schedule here.
• You can find out more about MaGIC here.
• You can also purchase the tickets for E-Nation here.

Also Read: Bids Start At 1 Sen On This Auction Site, So You Might Just Win Gadgets For Half The Price

Featured Image Credit: MaGIC Cyberjaya

MaGIC’s New CEO Helms Their Flagship Accelerator To A Record-Breaking 3rd Round

Last Friday, the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) kicked off the 3rd iteration of their award-winning accelerator programme, the Global Accelerator Programme (GAP).

This time round, they had 30 startups from 9 countries including Malaysia, Russia, India, Kenya, Estonia and Vietnam.

GAP 2019 drew a record number of over 1,170 applications from 68 countries across the globe. 

The final 30 were shortlisted based on three key criteria: 

1. Prospect to expand regionally and globally 
2. Potential of highly scalable products with large growth potential 
3. A demonstrable market-ready product with traction

Having taken up the mantle of MaGIC’s CEO in April this year, Dzuleira Abu Bakar shared, “At MaGIC, we aim to aid the transformation of Malaysia into an entrepreneurial nation, through nurturing a generation of resilient entrepreneurs that leverage on technological trends in alignment with the UN sustainable development goals.”

Trivia Time: The UN Sustainable Development Goals are part of a blueprint that is meant to help build a better and more sustainable future. The aim is to achieve each goal and target by 2030, and the 17 goals include targets like ending all forms of poverty, decent work and economic growth, and to build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation.

The startups are also eligible for benefits worth over USD500,000 from various programme partners including Amazon Web Services, HubSpot, and Usability Hub; industry-specific training, an opportunity to learn from world-class technical and business mentors; a stronger route-to-market focus with corporate support as well as a co-working space, accommodation, monthly stipend, a six-month professional visitor pass and marketing allowance. 

As this is MaGIC’s third outing when it comes to GAP, Dzuleira explained that, “From one programme to the other, we try to get it more targeted. We actually [take time] to understand the needs of the cohort, and target them to the right mentors as well as network.” 

“Long story short, we do continuous improvement. The whole idea is to ensure that each cohort gets the help that they actually need, and it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.” 

Yang Berhormat Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusof, Minister of Entrepreneur Development (MED) said at the launch, “Innovation moves so fast, if we don’t take the opportunity and apply it at the time when it is needed, and we might lose the golden opportunity to commercialise.”

“We believe that the most vital element to build a thriving regional entrepreneurship system is through the support of cross-border collaboration in entrepreneurship and innovation. GAP will help us to further establish and strengthen Malaysia’s position as a gateway to the region, for entrepreneurs who are keen to build and expand their business in ASEAN,” he added.

Who Are The Participants?

Some of the startups chosen are not unfamiliar to the scene. A few that faces we’ve seen before include NakRide, a peer-to-peer motorbike sharing service, and SlingApp, a simplified job-hunting app. 

Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur Wenshin Chia (of Green Yards, an oil recycling startup), is also a participant, this time with a new startup and idea, iFull, a door-to-door gadget repair service.

Unsurprisingly, lifestyle startups dominated in terms of numbers, with 12 out of 30 startups in that category. Dzuleira also pointed out that the shift observed this year was that there were more IR4.0-type businesses that provide enterprise solutions.

Dictionary Time: The Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) represents the change across industries that will be led by automation and artificial intelligence .

We asked Dzuleira about the distribution of verticals, and she reiterated that the startups were chosen on the 3 criteria listed above, not their industry.

“The startups chosen are more reflective of the trends. Typically, if you see a lot of consumer-facing companies, that year you’ll see a lot more [in GAP].”

Based on the startup trends, it’s also not surprising that the keynote speaker of the launch was Bryan Loo of Loob Holding and Tealive, a homegrown bubble tea brand.

Present in 6 countries and operating 322 stores, Bryan shared some insights in Tealive’s expansion.

He pointed out their first-in-industry innovations, including their custom-designed tea dispensing system, which allowed their Tearistas to literally become customer-facing, instead of turning their backs away from the counter to make the drinks. 

“Not only did this allow our servers to face the customers, but it also allowed the drinks to be stored in a cold chiller, which allowed the tea to remain fresh 24 hours long, instead of the usual 4–6 hours when stored at room temperature.”

Small innovations that made big differences, paying attention to such details, and leveraging on technology, are what Bryan believes has helped Tealive to rapidly expand to where it is today. 

To Asean And Beyond

Southeast Asia is often said to be the next consumer powerhouse, and MaGIC believes that their efforts in GAP are part of equipping Malaysian startups and beyond to be ready for this shift in global economics.

“Based on the data that MaGIC has collected, Malaysia has 1,880 startups. It’s a 25% increase from 2018. The reality though is that the number is 3 times more in the neighbouring countries. So, the message is that we need to do a lot more to increase our numbers,” said Dzuleira.

“GAP is important because it equips startups key to expanding into SEA with the necessary tools, skills and network to be sustainable, investment-ready and prime for ASEAN expansion, in 4 months.” 

With the goal to condense a few years of progress into 4 intense months, we look forward to witnessing the growth and acceleration of the businesses, which will culminate in a demo day later this year.

• You can read more about MaGIC here, and find out more about GAP on their official website here.

Feature Image Credit: MaGIC

M’sian Startup Fashion Valet Spills All On Their Mistakes, So You Can Learn From Them

On the third day of of MA2016, Fadzarudin Anuar, co-founder of Fashion Valet took to the stage to present, “Growing Through Mistakes”. He shared several stories about the growth of Fashion Valet from its founding in 2010 to becoming the online store it is now, carrying over 400 brands from SEA, open in 3 countries and delivering to 10 different countries.

Vulcan Post also sat down with Fadzarudin after the session to get a few more stories, and here’re some of the lessons he and his team learnt along the way.

1. Don’t try to be different just for the sake of being different.

In the early days of their startup, Fadzarudin shared that the team wanted to try and be special. So, when it came to choosing the domain name of their website, they went with the .net option, in a hope that it would make them stand out in the sea of dot coms out there.

This instead backfired in more ways than one. First, whenever there were writeups about them, their linkback would wrongly be published as FashionValet.com instead of .net, leading to some confusion. After this happened too many times, and the team got tired of explaining the reasoning behind choice, they decided to acquire the .com address.

The owners asked for 50,000USD for a domain name they had paid a pittance for. It was only through intense negotiation that the Fashion Valet managed to lower that down to 9,000USD. They decided to fork out the cash, but it was a lesson that they would remember.

2. Trying too many things out at a time drains your resources.

At the beginning, Fashion Valet tried to appeal to too many markets. Despite their limited resources, they had many categories on their first website. They realised that this was stretching them too thin, and they decided to focus on women.

Even today, now that Fashion Valet is bigger, they still have to be deliberate in choosing their collaborations with others. Although they meet many people with exciting ideas and things to do, they have to reject them because of realising what it is that the team should be focusing on.

3. Don’t follow the competition, avoid knee-jerk reactions.

After Fashion Valet had been around a year or so, competitors began to emerge, offering cheaper deals on their websites. Traffic started to drop, and Fashion Valet figured that their competitor, Zalora had a good thing going.

The thought they took away was, “Customers appreciate variety, so we shouldn’t limit variety.”

They ended up taking in many different brands, even low quality brands, in order to achieve this, but sales did not improve.

This went on until they received a call from a long-time customer, telling them she no longer enjoyed browsing their website and didn’t look forward to what they had to offer. The Fashion Valet team also realised that they personally didn’t take pride in their own website and the products they carried.

It was a good wake-up call, and the Fashion Valet team made the necessary changes. They dropped all the lower quality brands they had signed and reached out to the designers instead, telling them “We’ll work with you guy exclusively, if you’ll do the same.”

The sales picked up after that, and the team found that they found joy in working once again.

Also Read: The CEO Of MaGIC Shares 5 Steps To Prevent Entrepreneurship From Flatlining In M’sia

4. Micromanaging doesn’t work long term.

With the growth of the business, the team also continued to expand. They went from 30 to 75 people in 6 months and were still actively hiring.

Fadzarudin shared that at one point, he and his co-founder, Vivy Yusof were in multiple WhatsApp groups and met with all their departments daily. He joked, “WhatsApp groups are the worst things to happen to any company. Everyone wants to be in the same group as the co-founder.”

He would get hundreds of emails daily, seeking his approval for projects and releases. Basically, the founders were doing too much and were not delegating to employees.

The lesson seems to have hit home for Fadzarudin, who said, “The best thing about growing your own company is that you realise the potential of people is unlimited.”

Nowadays, when hiring and when working with people, the founders tell them about the company values and vision, so that they become an extension of the original team. As Fadzarudin said, “They don’t come to us for everything for approval and we expect them to manage their departments.”

5. Learning to manage and deal with people is important.

According to Fadzarudin, “No one teaches you how to hire people and fire people in a startup. How do you manage people?”

As the company continued to expand, roles would change. When trying to add structure, there would be people who would be offended if someone they were working closely with before was suddenly elevated over them.

Fadzarudin also struggled with implementing structure into Fashion Valet’s operations. Referring to this, his thoughts were: “We’re a startup, we shouldn’t have a structure. People should have free rein to go and innovate the company when they want. But I learnt that when you’re a big company, it’s hard to touch base with people. It’s more beneficial to the employees when you have a structure.”

6. Never neglect financial management.

Fadzarudin said that from the start, financial management was important to the Fashion Valet team. They were very careful with managing the cashflow, but found that when their revenue was growing, they became a bit more ambitious.

He shared that at one point, they had hired too many people and ended up having to be open and honest with their employees. They had to gather them and tell them that they simply didn’t have enough to pay them, and that if revenue didn’t pick up, they might have to let some go.

In the end, there was a silver lining, because through the open dialogue that was established, their team was more willing to give suggestions about how things were done to help out.

7. Be strategic with your marketing choices.

There was a point when Fashion Valet spent a six figure sum on online marketing, only to see no change in their sales.

They realised that they needed to change the organisation their campaigns and use different channels and mediums. For Fashion Valet, what they found effective was a combination of TV ads, billboards, reaching out to online influencers on top of online marketing. Fadzarudin also suggested that marketing should be done in waves over time throughout the year, rather than be happening all the time.

Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) aims to build a Sustainable Entrepreneurship Ecosystem by catalysing creativity & innovation for long term nation impact. For its third installment, MaGIC Academy (#MA2016) has gathered serial entrepreneurs, founders, philanthropists, investors, corporate leaders and startup enthusiasts from across the globe. You can follow MaGIC on Instagram and Twitter for live feeds of the symposium: @magic_cyberjaya

Also Read: Old Is Gold, But These 12 Modern Reinventions Might Just Change Your Mind