What I learned in Asia

I’m on the way home after a whirlwind trip that included stops to Tokyo, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore, Manila, and Hong Kong. 美国南加州大学 - 马歇尔商学院 Executive MBA program organized several meetings with prominent Asian business leaders in Vietnam and Singapore (and beyond!). We had the pleasure of visiting Avery Dennison, VNG Corporation, VinaCapital, POPS Worldwide, Marina Bay Sands, Crypto.com, CapitaLand (and many others!) As someone who has a very Americanized view of business and the world there’s a few learnings I’d love to share:

People over everything else

Whether it be manufacturing (Avery Dennison) or a gaming company (VNG Games) it was very clear that taking care of your employees and treating them well is important. I asked how the GM of Avery Dennison approached recruiting. She said it was easy – when you treat your employees well (offer them lunch and transportation to and from work) everyone wants to be work there so you get the best of the best talent. Avery Dennison also heavily invested to upskill their current workforce, offering English classes for their employees to further grow and expand their careers with the company. If you take care of your people, they’ll take care of your company.

Culture is paramount

We met with the largest and first FAAS (finance as a service) company based in Jakarta, Digiasia Bios . He's an Indian man I was very curious how he was able to approach growth and expansion in a country where he wasn’t fluent in the language. He commented saying if he didn’t have a co-founder who was Indonesian and spoke the language, he wouldn’t have been successful.?When thinking about international expansion keeping in mind cultural distance (when examining the CAGE framework) will be crucial for success. Uber lost out of Grab mostly because I don’t believe they were able to hone in on the culture, having Grab be based in Singapore brings a lot of local pride and understanding of the market.

Asia is the present AND the future of business

When looking at market cap and the growth of Asia, it’s clearly the best path of expansion for most companies. Frontier markets such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and many other countries are primed and ready for expansion and business. Tapping into these markets has a tremendous amount of potential of revenue.

Always be focused on the customer

This saying is everywhere, however at Marina Bay Sands it's taken to the next level. This integrated Hotel is meant for the very elite and top earning people of the world. For them, expansion for them looks a bit different. This hotel remains at very high occupancy, sharing that they never dip below 93% occupancy, they are taking rooms offline to create more suites and less lower price rooms. It’s interesting to see them transition and reduce their room count in order to drive more revenue and accommodate demand for suites.

(a lot of) Asia IS queer love

And finally, going to Asia as a queer person, I was anticipating being a bit nervous. (Singapore recently de-criminalized homosexuality last year) However, the queer community is vibrant, strong, and well embedded in Asian culture. I was humbled and greatly admired the way Asian communities welcomed LGBTQ+ people, especially Trans people. It felt very safe and accepted being queer within Asia and it warmed my heart seeing so much queer joy and love. The CEO of of PopsWW shared that Boy Love (TV series that specifically highlight male + male romance) was one of their most popular genres. Trans people are living and thriving - I do wish that was more widely accepted in US culture but it makes me very hopeful for the future.

A huge thanks to Professors Baizhu Chen and Arvind Bhambri who thoughtfully crafted an agenda packed full of some of the most impressive Asian businesses. Also a shout out to the amazing team who shuttled around 70+ people throughout two countries - Debra Ono , Margarita Tubalinal , Anastasia Figueroa , and Anakkarat Barth . This was no easy feat!

And last but certainly not least, thank you to the amazing Marshall Alumni who are leading the way in Asia and beyond. Marshall has such a robust network in APAC and It’s impressive to see so many Marshall leaders who are paving the way for future Trojans to create impact within Asia. This will be an experience I'll treasure for the rest of my life.