Engaging your teams or your leads in a remote world comes with additional challenges. People are tired of Zoom meetings, and today’s Zoom fatigue is mainly due to one issue: virtual team events are not taken seriously. Everyone acts as if no preparation was needed, and would usually be multitasking and not 100% engaged.   But you don’t have to put your team inspiration, alignment and reconnection efforts, or your business development activities with strategic accounts on hold because you are remote. There are ways to succeed in organizing winning online events. There is no big secret, no magic tool, no advanced technology… We’ve organized more than 50 learning expeditions over the past few years, with an average satisfaction score of 9,3 on 10. What has made our offline events successful is exactly what makes our online events successful. These are the 5 ingredients to our success:  Preparation, preparation and… preparation Failure to prepare is the best way to prepare to fail.  We usually need at least 6-8 weeks to co-design the event, and to communicate about the event.  We co-design our programs with the client with weekly followups, and make sure our facilitators keep the participants engaged during the event all […]

Singapore is one of the most innovative cities in the world. As elsewhere, retailers had to take measures and initiate an accelerated digital transformation to maintain their activity during the various phases of social distancing and confinement imposed by the government. This transition was made using technology, strongly encouraged by the government. The city of Singapore, which had resisted full containment until early April, was finally forced to put in place progressive restrictions to protect its citizens from covid-19. Non-essential businesses had to close their doors and begin their digital transition to compensate for their drop in income. With government support, many retailers have had to accelerate the development of their own delivery platforms and services. The crisis has highlighted the importance of a direct sales strategy, faced with the increase in commissions taken by delivery platforms, and of an adapted communication strategy. The use of social networks and the rise of the Chinese trend of live-streaming have even allowed seniors and traditional markets for fresh products to continue to buy and sell during confinement. Through the following webinar, a quick overview of initiatives, starting with Facebook To download the webinar presentation, click here. Sell ​​by video on Facebook The crisis has accelerated a trend that […]

Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, the northest country among the Baltics. Ex-member of the Soviet Union (USSR), Estonia has been very active in the digitisation of its government and has now become a global model in e-governance. After the dislocation of the USSR, the country needed to construct from scratches. Due to the lack of resources, it needed a economical and efficient system. The government has since decided to invest in digital technologies. As a result, Estonia is one of the world’s most connected country in the world – ranked 13th –  and benefits from a huge technical talent. Surrounded by Finland, Russia, Lettonia and the Baltic sea, Estonia benefits from a strategic location. With its small population of 1,3 million inhabitants, Estonia has achieved a 4.9% GDP growth in 2017. Estonia presents itself as the home of e-governance. No wonder, 99% of administrative services are available online 24/7. Indeed, Estonians can access to more than 2000 services online with a unique identification number. They can even sign documents and open a bank account online. X-Road, the backbone of e-Estonia, is developed by local companies, which have now expertise in this industry. Tallinn benefits from an international tech scene […]

We’ve put the most inspiring and transformative companies to visit this year in Asia on a map to help you plan your next learning expedition / year-end team rewards trip. Click here to see the full map. CHINA Tik Tok, also known as Douyin in China, is a music video platform where people can share their musical performances. Based in Beijing, Tik Tok has a an excellent UI and design. Launched in 2016, it has become the most short video platform in Asia. In July 2018, it has reached 500 millions active users monthly. Hema, launched by Alibaba in 2015, is the most successful example of New Retail with a growing rate of one new store every six days. Pinduoduo is a group buying website and app in China, founded in 2015. It offers users discounts on a wide variety of products, especially when they buy more than one item. WeBank, founded in 2014, is China’s first private commercial bank established. It uses WeChat data and blockchain to provide microloans for SMEs and entrepreneurs in China. SenseTime, founded in 2014, is a Chinese company developing computer vision and deep learning technologie and is the world’s highest-valued AI company. Klook is one the most […]

Businesses are facing new challenges. They have to deal with new technologies such as blockchain or artificial intelligence, navigate competitive environments led by new powerful players such as Google or Amazon and thousand of startups trying to disrupt them.  These new challenges have created new headaches for companies as they struggle with upskilling employees in order to help them adapt to the transforming environment. Talent development professionals thus have a valuable opportunity to play an instrumental role in helping organisations adapt to disruption. Through the creation of learning opportunities for employee growth and achievement, talent development professionals become enablers in helping their organisations to create lasting change. Anticipating the new knowledge needed, engaging leaders in the learning process and developing a learning culture at scale within the organization are some of the main challenges that our clients, Fortune 500 companies in various industries, are facing today. This article provides examples of what we has worked for our clients as well as for other companies to overcome them.   Anticipating The Required Knowledge The results of a recent study from LinkedIn highlights the gap between the focus of talent developers on training for today’s skills demands whilst executives emphasise on tomorrow’s […]

With GMIC, CES, SLUSH, etc. This year’s best tech conferences in Asia are coming! Tech conferences are a great opportunity to learn about innovation and experiment the latest prototypes, but these need to be well prepared to get the most of it, and we are here to help you: screen, analyze and select “MUST SEE” startups and exhibitors for your specific needs, guide your teams to navigate the event and maximize their learnings, scale the event’s learnings to more people in the company through reports and sharing sessions, organize the logistics of your stay, as well as prevent and post-event additional visits in the visited country. In addition, you can use the opportunity to network with your peers, engage experts, customers and leads to potential  business growth. Read on to learn more about the Top 8 events you should go to and how they can assist your goal! Or download our digital calendar to help you keep track of the Top 50 events to attend across Asia Pacific.   1.GMIC Beijing, end April 2018 in Beijing, China GMIC is a broad event, covering areas such as marketing, fintech, mobile gaming and entertainment. It explores the impacts of these various aspects on […]

Silicon Valley no longer has the monopoly on tech innovation: new startups in Asia are emerging with new ideas and technologies, diversifying innovative power to various ecosystems worldwide. Asia in particular is boiling hot and setting new trends. Just think of those two figures from 2016: China’s giant messaging app WeChat processed twice as much transactions (money transfers) in one month than Paypal did in a year India’s biometric-identity database Aadhaar now counts more than a billion registered users, and is turning into a bankless, cashless payment system for all. Experiential learning through physical exploration of these different ecosystems – from Kuala Lumpur to Seoul and Shenzhen to Bangalore – is still the best way to keep up with the ever evolving trends. Key benefits of such tours involve understanding new behaviors, testing out the latest prototypes and engaging key stakeholders in high-level partnerships. In a nutshell, learning expeditions are steps into the near future, and wake-up calls for Excoms, GMs and leadership teams who experience real change and a cultural shock by meeting with relevant entrepreneurs, investors, experts and peers. After completing more than a dozen of these tours, here are 8 important tips for you to plan an effective learning expedition in any part of the world. […]

Startups are here to stay.  With access to endless data and more funding, start-ups will survive and therefore disrupt. Hence, the emergence of an innovation race amongst corporates. Everyone – from banks, industrials and even consumer goods companies – are obsessed with innovating. Innovation Labs, accelerators, transformation teams are mushrooming, but are often disconnected with the real business. – How to engage the whole company in the transformation effort? – How to create a digital culture and vision among your top managers? – How can your teams identify new opportunities, new business models?   Changing a company’s culture can turn to be extremely challenging.  But relax, we’re here to help! Here are 5 ways to  foster a culture of innovation and identify opportunities in your company: #1 Encourage an active learning culture by opening mindsets to new realities     Some companies do so by bringing inspiration to their offices and creating an ecosystem around them.  For example, the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) has created a special place for innovation: DBS Asia X (DAX). The building is entirely dedicated to innovation, hosting staff, startups, students and strategists together for better synergy. The facility is hosting the bank’s latest workshops and hackathons […]