Selamat hari raya to all those celebrating! As a new wave of COVID-19 emerges in Singapore and the rest of SEA, its a time to stay indoors and stay strong. This too shall pass.
Don’t let all the pandemic and lockdown agony get the better of you. Instead use this energy and vent it via words with the e27 Contributor Programme.
To feel inspired, catch up on all the community voices from the past week.
Entrepreneur trends
When paying it forward doesn’t pay: It’s time for startup mentorship events to step up by Jackie Tan Yen, serial founder and startup mentor
“Mentors who contribute their time and energy, despite having highly limited amounts of them, will agree with me on this: it is fulfilling to assist, guide, and discover the next generation of awesome folks who will change society.
However, the tipping point for me came when I was involved in an entrepreneurship start-a-thon in the first weekend of May this year.
Long story short, I felt that my time was completely wasted with huge opportunity costs incurred due to a lack of professionalism of the organising team. Apart from my anger with the team, I am angrier with myself for not listening to my instincts, even though the red flags were present.”
Why disruption is the best time to be an entrepreneur and how to embrace it by Sridhar Pinnapureddy, founder and CEO of Cloud4C
“The road to success is never completely smooth; obstacles and setbacks are common and expected. Instead of seeing these disruptions as the end of our journey, we can choose to learn the lessons they are trying to teach us.
I’m no stranger to disruption. In fact, I’ve faced it a few times. I’ve gone from being a pioneer and market leader to tethering on the brink of bankruptcy because market conditions didn’t align. I’ve even disrupted myself and killed top-performing products because I felt they didn’t have good long-term prospects. Once you see disruption as an opportunity, everything changes. Developing that mindset takes practice but it can be done.”
Workplace trends
The hybrid work model will outlast the pandemic. But will one model fit all? by Michelle Lam Wei Wei, founder and CEO of The Little Black Book Pte Ltd
“There is no definite standard of what hybrid work should look like, and of course there is none. It depends on the industry in which the company operates and its corporate structure. Similarly, there should not be one be-all-end-all hybrid model across the departments within your organisation.
Say you impose a split-team work arrangement; your Sales Division will continue to bring in steady business, but with less hands on the loading docks, your Warehouse Crew can no longer keep pace with operational demands. Some workloads may decrease, while for others their workload may increase.”
How Globe Telecom used Google’s cloud-based services to empower its employees by Lesley Anne Haro, IT Strategy, Emerging Technologies – Globe Telecom
“Google Workspace was introduced to our workforce of 17,000 people in only four months, and we began with utilising messaging and communication platforms including Gmail, Hangouts, Meet, and Calendar, before moving to productivity and collaboration apps such as Drive, Slides, Sheets, Forms, and Sites.
We use a lot of manual processes to serve our customers, and are embracing digitalisation as a business to embed software within those processes, or use software to create end-to-end processes.
Globe’s adoption of AppSheet, an intelligent, no-code platform that enables teams and individuals to create workplace apps, helped accelerate the organisation’s digital transformation program.”
Trends to watch out for
Look beyond Singapore: Why Kuala Lumpur is an emerging tech hub alternative by Georg Chmiel, cofounder and Executive Chairman of Juwai IQI
“At Juwai IQI, we believe in Kuala Lumpur so much that we chose to build our 1,000-person technology and data team there instead of in the nearby Merlion City. We have already begun hiring and are fitting out the new space we will grow into. We plan to move in during the first quarter of 2022.
Nor have we regretted our decision for a moment. While Singapore is well known for a range of startups, I believe Malaysia has more long-term potential and does more to encourage tech companies that can help it fulfil its ambitious plans to make its workforce one of the most highly skilled and gainfully employed in Asia.”
You don’t care about crypto but here are some things you need to know about DeFi by Deon Tan, former Block71 Singapore executive
“Whether we like it or not, DeFi has been and will continue to disrupt the fintech industry for years to come. Even as blockchain becomes increasingly useful for both individuals and businesses, few of us actually understand it enough to take enough advantage of it.
However, even as someone who has no interest in dabbling with digital assets, taking the effort to understand this new technology may improve the quality of your life and career in unexpected ways.
Lucky for you, I’m here to help you out. Read on to learn more about the untapped potential of DeFi systems outside of the crypto world.”
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