Phoenix Rising | an EO APAC Podcast

Ep 12 How Compliance Can Form From Purpose - with Sarah Bartholomeuz (Australia)

Ray Chou — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 09:00:00 +0800

Unfortunate timing caused Sarah Bartholomeuz to be laid off from her law firm while she was pregnant. However, this less than ideal situation created an opportunity for her to start her own practice.

This 'Goddess of Governance' then went on to carve out a niche for herself focusing on the healthcare industry within the legal world.

Interestingly, she shares about how PURPOSE is still a driving factor in creating compliance and how she is revolutionizing the industry through 'sharing'

Listen to her story...

Ep 11 Embracing the Change and Understanding Who's in Control - with Melissa Ongsue-lee

Ray Chou — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 09:00:00 +0800

A creative mind by nature, having been through architecture and marketing but life took a known but still tough turn, when Melissa Ongsue-lee, second generation owner of Hi-Precision Diagnostics, the largest healthcare dagnostics provider in the Philiipines, was called back to help the family business.

She grew the business from 4 to 60 branches throughout the country and in the process found out that her life was not hers to control. There is a reason for everything but what was it?

Listen to her story...

Ep 10 Turning Wine to 'Water' Kept Us Alive - with Chris Quimbo

Ray Chou — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 09:00:00 +0800

You would think that during the pandemic, with people staying at home and feeling bored, the alcohol consumption of the population would go up. But what if the government placed a ban on alcohol?

Chris Quimbo, owner of Novelino wines, conquering more than 30% of market share in the Philippines shares his bold move to move away from selling wine and producing non-alcoholic sparkling juice.

He went back to the market and understood what the data showed and made the bold move. It wasn't easy, especially being a second generation owner.

Listen to how he managed the transformation...

Ep 9 [Christmas Episode] EO Podcast Hosts Gets Grilled About Their Own Journeys!

Ray Chou — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 09:00:00 +0800

The tables have turned!

In this special Christmas episode, the 2 EO APAC Podcast hosts, Ray Chou (Malaysia) and Brendan Torazzi (Australia), gets interviewed by Kym Hyunh (EO Melbourne)

There were some really tough questions being asked by Kym and really now to get to know both our hosts, who has been always in tirelessly interviewing others so that wen listen to stories.

Let's now listen to theirs of what juicy bits have they gone through

Ep 8 Key Pivots in my Business Led to Changes in my Parenting - with Annie Yap (Singapore)

Ray Chou — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 09:00:00 +0800

When the man above tells you to do something that you completely do not have knowledge about, how would you react? Is it a joke? Or is it something that was destined?

Annie Yap, founder & chairman of AYP Group shares how she saw a dying trend within her HR business and took a leap of faith to pivot it to a SaaS business. Learning technology was not easy but this struggle helped to shape the success she has today.

But throughout these times, she was facing another battle... the thought of losing her son to a life of poor education and gaming.

Just like many other parents out there today, who struggle to come to terms with why our kids are so engulfed with games and iPads at the expense of their studies... frustration after frustration engulfed her family.

What do we do? How do we change them?

Listen to what happened...

Ep 7 "Mr Pink" Maxim Mulyadi Defines PINK as He Battled the Mafia and Stepping Down as CEO

Ray Chou — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 09:00:00 +0800

Suffering through a 50% drop in sales an ironic trend that people were not buying water caused his Water manufacturing business to suffer. Not only did he have to battle the business, but to also deal with obstacles caused by the Mafia and protecting his family from the fear

Maxim Mulyadi, from Indonesia, made a bold decision to invest whatever he had, close to USD100,000 in training, team development, self improvement and methodologies in hope that it would provide him new perspectives.

And it did. He not only managed to steer the business back to safety, but started 2 new businesses and powered a new circular economy to solve a key industry problem through the 'abundance mindset'

Finally this year, Maxim made the bold move of working 'on the business' and stepped down as CEO to live his passion of coaching and teaching

An Amazing story of business and life pivots and a new definition of the word PINK

Listen to his story...

Ep 6 Imelda Harsono (Indonesia) shares how 2 significant moments made her realize that its either Growth or Death

Ray Chou — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 09:00:00 +0800

Some say that being lucky is a factor needed for all businesses. But how can you have luck, if you don't analyze and do something about what you have?

COVID-19 was a mixed bag of emotions for Imelda Harsono, second-generation entrepreneur of the Samator Group in Indonesia. The virus caused her businesses in industrial gas, chemical, and healthcare to shoot off the roof! Spotting the need, their H2O2 disinfectants made them USD1 million in a week!

But... the same virus also took the CEO, her dad... away.

Engulfed in sadness, the family had no time to mourn as the country was dependent on them to save Indonesian's lives.

How did she get through this? What were the lessons?

Listen to what happened...

Ep 5 Lars Jankowfsky (Vietnam) Shares Why All Entrepreneurs Need to Figure Out the RIGHT Mindset for Tech in their Business Now

Ray Chou — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 09:00:00 +0800

The Pandemic had caused chaos in almost every business out there but it did also introduce a forced movement for every business to embrace technology.

But how do we bring tech into our business? Is introducing technology in the business enough?

Lars Jankowksy, co-founder and CTO of NFQ talks about how the pandemic affected their business but the turnaround made them go from 200 employees to 350 employees through it!

We are going to be facing a talent shortage within the next 3 years. How do we start now? Listen to what happened...

Ep 4 Take your Second Chances and Never Sacrifice Your Principles - with Charmain Tan (Singapore)

Ray Chou — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 09:00:00 +0800

Entrepreneurs go through many changes but ironically we all go through different ones. The crazy thing is that we go through change ALL THE TIME! But when we fall, and we are given a second chance... what do we do about it?

"When we grow a tree, we tend to focus on the leaves... but what truly brings us sustainability is the roots and the trunk", Charmain Tan of Quickdesk Singapore shared in this episode about taking advantage of second chances given to us.

Going from an inventory-based business and manufacturing to a software business was a large pivot from many angles! Especially when things didn't pan out the way it should and they only had $30 in the bank at one point...

But what if we were all destined to follow a path? and all we had to do was to deliver complete focus on it? Listen to what happened...

Find out more about Quickdesk: www.quickdesk.io

Ep 3 An Ugly Wrapper with a Precious Gift inside - with Haraya del Rosario (Philippines)

Ray Chou — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 09:00:00 +0800

What if the crisis in life was just like looking at something with an ugly wrapper? We don't get past it and don't even want to see what's inside, that we could potentially miss that there was a precious gift waiting for us.

In this episode, we talk to Haraya Del Rosario, owner of StraightArrow on how she pivoted from medical school to entrepreneurship because of the realization that the ability to save lives was tougher than we think. She also goes deep as to how the pandemic was nowhere near getting through a failed marriage and how that experience helped her to work through the pandemic with ease.

Lots of take-homes from this... Listen to what happened.

Check out StraightArrow: https://www.straightarrow.com.ph/

Ep 2 Pivot Success is about setting up 3 crucial teams - with Lim Boon Siong (Malaysia)

Ray Chou — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 09:00:00 +0800

In a business that needed physical presence, Lim Boon Siong shares how he set up 3 separate teams within his LASIK eye surgery business, VISTA EYE SPECIALISTS to look at Survive, Today, and Tomorrow.

Navigating the whole change was not easy and it forced him to even look at 2 business models. 1 for lockdown and 1 for normal.

In this episode, we listen to his sharing on how important having a Host mindset is, having practical optimism, and a strong focus on what we decide as the desired outcome.

Boon Siong also shares his real view of Work From Home and how it, unfortunately, may not work for everyone.

How did he navigate this? Listen to what happened.

Vista Eye Specialist: https://www.vista.com.my/

Ep 1 Rabin Nijhar (Malaysia) opens up about mistakes made in quick Pivots during Pandemic

Ray Chou — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:00:00 +0800

Many of us approach the pandemic thinking about some pivot that we have to do for our business. Some pivots work, and in Rabin's case, his business was one of those that thrived through the pandemic. He still seized the 'opportunity in crisis' and took advantage to start new businesses. But was it worth it? what happened?

In this episode, we explore a very vulnerable story that every decision if not thought through, may potentially cause after-effects that are not desirable. We need to sit and thoroughly reflect and strategize while maintaining our truth to our core values and culture.

Every business is about people. Listen to what happened.

The Vaccine is In My Body | Dr. Ee Leng

Entrepreneurs Organization Asia Pacific — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 00:32:00 +0800

The vaccine has arrived in most countries and while some earlier than others, many in the APAC region are still in its early stages.

Is it safe? What is the process? What do we believe? What do we do on the day?

These are some of the questions that we get to address in this podcast with EO Singapore member and vaccine recipient, Dr. Ee Leng

Podcast is brought to you by Raymond Chou | EO Malaysia