ScandAsia Singapore September 2015

SEP 2015

SEB’s “Asia Growth Case” ScandAsia.dk

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Coming Events

DABS and MetaMind: Soft skills development Where: Royal Danish Embassy Singapore, 101 Thomson Road, # 13-01/02 United Square, S-307591 When: 22 September 2015, 9:00am - 12:30pm ‘Communicating with Impact’ is a half-day crash course that improves overall communication skills.

Participants will learn to....

• Talk positively and create a virtuous cycle of spotting opportunities • Convey a message with clarity • Speak with confidence so more people will listen • Capture an audience when presenting The price of the half-day course is 130 SGD per person, discounted from the original 400 SGD per person. It is a unique opportunity for small and medium sized Danish companies in Singapore to

make world-class training accessible to their staff.

Exclusively for DABS members. Seats are limited and will be sold on a first come, first served basis.

To register kindly send an email to dabs@dabssingapore.com About MetaMind Training MetaMind training takes workshop learning to new levels. With elements of pre-programme preparation, continuous reflection, numerous hands-on exercises, in-classroom exploration and close post-training follow up, learning is fully optimised.

Nordic Golf Tournament 2015 Where: Jurong Country Club, 9 Science Road, Singapore When: 30 September 2015, 11:00 – 22:00 The annual Nordic Golf Tournament with a shotgun start at the beautiful Jurong Country Club may be the last time you will be able to play at the beautiful JCC before it is turned into the terminal station of the high speed rail linking Singapore and Kuala Lumpur! Kick off starts with lunch followed by golf and dinner. The tournament encourages greater understanding and closer relationship

between the Nordic business organizations and leading Singaporeans, both from the public and private sector. Maxium 120 players are accepted.

Beginners are invited to a 2-hour clinic followed by dinner, starting at 16.30. Pre-registration and payment, cheques or bank transfer should be received by Wednesday 23 September. Organiser: The Golf Committed of SBAS and DABS.

Your FREE ScandAsia Magazine in Singapore ScandAsia is the only magazine that covers all the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish residents in Singapore.

We also publish a ScandAsia magazine in China, Thailand, and the rest of South East Asia.

Get your own FREE copy: scandasia.com Publisher : ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. 211 Soi Prasert Manukitch 29 Prasert Manukitch Road Chorakae Bua, Lad Prao Bangkok 10230, Thailand Tel. +66 2 943 7166-8, Fax: +66 2 943 7169 Editor-in-Chief : Gregers A.W. Møller gregers@scandmedia.com

Peer Gynt Golf Tournament Open 2015 - 20th Anniversary Edition Where: Sentosa Golf Club, 27 Bukit Manis Road, Singapore When: 21 October, 2015, 12:30 It is the tournament’s 20th anniversary and NBAS has secured the prestigious Serapong course.

So mark your calendars, forward this email to your golf playing colleagues and help us celebrate with a great round of golf followed by dinner and drinks. Only for Norwegian Business Association (Singapore) members.

Assistant Editor: Joakim Persson Joakim@scandmedia.com Advertising : Frank Leong frank@scandmedia.com Finn Balslev finn@scandmedia.com Graphic Designer : Peerapol Meesuwan Peerapol@scandmedia.com Distribution : Wanvisa Rattanaburi wanvisa@scandmedia.com Printing : Inthanon Interprint Co., Ltd.

News Brief

Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise awards Norway’s Singapore ambassador

Singapore appoints Indian Businessman as Ambassador to Denmark

S

ingapore has appointed an Indian-origin businessman as the country’s Non-Resident Ambassador to Denmark.

Karan Singh Thakral has served as Singapore’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. He is an Executive Director in the Thakral Group of Companies.

Mr Thakral is chairman of the South Asia Business Group and Business India in Singapore as well as chairman of Givo Limited in India.

He also ser ves as a board member of the ASEAN India Business Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Mr Thakral facts: • Born in Singapore on 7 April 1955.

• Chairman of Givo Limited in India, a company listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India and is Director in many Thakral Group of companies.

• Board Member of the ASEAN India Business Council, Member Advisor y Board of Singapore Global Schools Foundation (Worldwide). He is Chairman Emeritus of The Indus Entrepreneus (TiE) Singapore and Member Emeritus of The Indus Entrepreneus (TiE) Global Board of Trustees.

• Takes keen interest in promoting budding entrepreneur s in Singapore mentoring them and helping in Angel investment activities in Singapore and many other countries. He has joined as an active member of may Angle Networks around the world.

• Married to Mrs Devinder Kaur Thakral. They have a son and four daughters.

First SWEA coffee morning after the summer break

4 ScandAsia.Singapore • September 2015

N

orway’s ambassador to Singapore, Ambassador Tormod C. Endresen, has been selected as the winner of the Confederation of Norwegian E n t e r p r i s e ’s ( N æ r i n g s l i v e t s Hovedor ganisasjon) NHO Ambassador Award. NHO is the main representative organisation for Norwegian employers.

The award was presented by the NHO’s vice president, Therese Log Bergjord on 17 August in Oslo at a dinner gathering for Norway’s ambassador s together with NHO’s internationalized member enterprises.

It is awarded to an ambassador showing initiative and determination that goes beyond what is expected.

“NHO knows the tact shift in economic diplomacy at home and at embassies. As we see it all ambassadors have taken a concerted effor t to promote Norwegian business interests at their stations,” said Bergjord to Norway’s mission commanders.

“To find a suitable candidate

T

he global non-profit organization/networ k for Swedish and Swedish speaking women abroad, SWEA, in Singapore had their monthly coffee morning at the TCC Vivo City on 28 August. It was the first morning coffee after the summer break.

SWEA has approximately 7500 women members in 70 local areas in 33 countries on five continents and is thereby the largest nonprofit Swedish or ganization outside Sweden, with the purpose of promoting the Swedish language, culture and tradition.

The monthly event has an open invitation and anyone can attend with no pre-registration required.

Old and new Swedes in Singapore

to NHO’s ambassador price, we conducted a survey among a sample of our internationally-oriented members. Firms have nominated ambassadors who have a good knowledge of local and Norwegian industr y, and opens door s to both the embassy, residence and to government agencies and who shares views on politics and security challenges with the corporate world,” said Bergjord.

NHO members describes this year’s winner, Tormod C. Endresen, as an ambassador who is passionate about Norwegian business, shows vigour and implement measures to promote Norwegian industry in the region. He is also a bridge builder between Norwegian industr y and the authorities by being very knowledgeable and articulate.

At the helm of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Singapore, Tormod C. Endresen, along with Team Norway par tner s, help Norwegian businesses to succeed in South East Asia.

“I am ver y happy that the work we do along with the strong Norwegian business cluster in Singapore is recognized in this way!

To contribute to the success and resilience of Norwegian businesses abroad is important and rewarding work - and a key priority for the Norwegian Foreign Service and our Team Norway partners”, comments Ambassador Endresen on the Norwegian Embassy’s website.

get together over a cup of coffee, socializing, chatting and exchanging ideas and information, at the same time as new connections and friendships are made.

“We were approximately 27 ladies at this morning’s event.

There were many great reunions between old friends and many new connections were made,” said Maggan Kullberg Stampe from SWEA. Swedish speaking women who recently moved to Singapore, but are not yet members of SWEA, are also welcome to join in the coffee morning to get more information about the association and hopefully become members.

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News Brief

Danish ships targeted by pirates near Singapore

O

n 21 – 22 August a Danish container ship, Maer sk Lebu, as well as the tanker Elbtank Denmark were among the targets by armed pirates in waters near Singapore. Attacks on six vessels, while underway in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, happened within 30 hours of one another, reportedly five unauthorized boarding and one attempted boarding.

The Singapore Por t Operation Control Center (POCC) immediately notified the authorities of the littoral States and initiated navigational broadcast to warn mariners to maintain anti-piracy watch.

Considering the close interval of time and proximity of these incidents, the perpetrators could possibly be from the same group. From the description of the incidents, the perpetrators operated in about 4-5 persons, armed with knives and were opportunistic in nature without targeting specific vessels. They aborted boarding when crew was aler ted, and escaped emptyhanded when the alarm was raised without harming the crew. Of concern was their persistence in ‘hovering’ in the vicinity seeking out their next target, reported the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP ISC)

On 21 August, at about 0430 hrs, Maersk Lebu was underway when four perpetrators were sighted in the engine room. The master raised the alarm and the perpetrators escaped in a waiting small boat. There was no loss of property and the crew was safe.

The ship was en route from Port Elizabeth in South Africa to Singapore in Malaysian waters.

According to Michael Storgaard of Maersk, it is the first time that one of Maersk’s ships have been robbed in this area.

On 22 August Elbtank Denmar k was underway when the crew sighted four perpetrators armed with knives on board the vessel. The perpetrators stole the crew’s personal effects and escaped in a small boat.

None of the ships experienced loss of cargo and all crewmembers were safe afterwards.

According to the report, only one ship had some of the crew’s personal effects stolen.

From the incidents, enhanced vigilance, early detection of suspicious perpetrators and activation of the alarm immediately are key actions towards preventing boarding.

The ReCAAP ISC strongly recommends all vessels operating in this area to exercise enhanced vigilance and take extra precautionary measures while underway, and the relevant enforcement agencies to step up surveillance and patrols.

A new repor t from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) highlights a continuing trend in South East Asia in the hijacking of small coastal tankers by maritime pirates, averaging one attack every two weeks.

According to the repor t, five small tankers were hijacked in South East Asian waters in the second quarter of 2015 alone, bringing the total number of vessels hijacked globally in 2015 to 13.

Sources: ReCAAP ISC, shipandbunker.com

Low turnout for Martha evening

O

n 28 August, the Danish Seaman’s Church held its annual event ‘Martha Evening’, where the church shows the old seaman’s movie ”Martha” on a big screen and serves what they call a classic Martha menu.

The movie is a Danish comedy from 1967 and is basically about the good ship “Martha”, an old rust heap that is much loved by the crew.

12 people had signed up for the event, most of who were men and some of them old sailors. This was also the first Martha Evening for the new assistants couple Laila, 49, and Søren Sørensen, 54, and the turn-up was not what

6 ScandAsia.Singapore • September 2015

they expected.

“We had heard that around 50 people signed up for it,” Søren said.

The Danish couple has been assistants in the Danish Seaman’s Church in Singapore since April and handles a broader spectrum of administrative work at the church. According to Laila the job came at a time when there was a need for change.

“Søren got tired of his job as a gravedigger and church warden at home and quit, and then this job opening appeared,” says Laila.

Laila then quit her job as a flower decorator,

and the couple took a big move from Sønder Rind near Viborg to Singapore. Here the couple works closely with the minister of the church, and where Laila’s main job is in the church kitchen, organising the menu and catering for the church events. Søren’s job consists mainly in visiting the workers at the shipyards or at the ships that dock at Singapore.

“We have this big schedule of when and which ships that come here, and then it’s my job to reach out, and ask if anyone has a need to talk to me. And most of the time there is,” Søren says.

He spends a lot of time in the weekends visiting the ships, while weekdays is spent at the shipyards. Other than that the couple is also responsible for the different events that the church arrange. When asked if the job was different from their past ones the couple first laughs and then nods their heads.

“Yes. Very different. But that’s what we came here for. It’s an adventure,” says Laila.

They both agree that now was the right time to do a thing such as moving to Asia. It had to be when their children were grown up, but before they became too old themselves, they explain.

The couple has a contract with the church for two years, with the possibility of extending, and when asked if they had settled in so far, they both nodded in approval. None of them seem to think it’s been a problem so far.

“I actually thought the heat would take much longer to get used to,” comments Laila.

News Brief

Global Risk Management expands trading team

G

lobal Risk Management, the customised hedging solutions management provider with headquarters in Middelfart, Denmark has announced a new employee as well as a staff transfer.

Michael Korsager Nielsen has been appointed as Senior Trader to the office in Middelfart, while Oil Risk Manager Nicholas Foo has transferred to the Unitrading team in Denmark from Global Risk Management in Singapore. Unitrading is a separate business unit within Global Risk Management focusing on optimising paper hedge prices.

Michael and Nicholas will be part of the trading team in Middelfart which is headed by Mads Hemmingsen. The two will assist the Oil Risk Managers in Copenhagen, Singapore and Middelfart in their daily work with advising and selling customised fuel trading and risk management solutions. In addition, the team assists our parent company, Bunker Holding, in obtaining optimal paper hedge prices through increased trading flow with clients worldwide.

Michael, age 43, comes from a position as Head of Oil & Derivatives Trading in a large world-wide bunker trading company. He has more than 15 years’ extensive experience in trading currencies and financial derivatives.

Nicholas, age 28, joined Global Risk Management in April 2014 and has worked with the sales team in Singapore until this summer, where he relocated to join the trading team in Middelfart. Nicholas’ new title is Trader.

Managing Director Hans Erik Christensen said: “I am glad to welcome both Michael and Nicholas to the trading team; they bring experience and exceptionally good technical and analytical skills and I am confident that they will contribute to continued solid growth and expansion in our company”.

Global Risk Management is a leading provider of customised hedging solutions for the management of price risk on fuel expenses. Combining indepth knowledge of the oil market, finance and transport, we help clients protect their margins from the risk posed by notoriously volatile fuel prices.

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Nordea Bank S.A, Singapore Branch is part of Nordea Group, the leading financial services group in the Nordic and Baltic Sea regions. Some products and services may, due to local regulations, not be available to individuals resident in certain countries and their availability may depend, among other things, on the investment risk profile of persons in receipt of this publication or on any legislation to which they are subject. Nothing in this publication should be construed as an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to purchase, subscribe to or sell any investment or product, or to engage in any other transaction or provide any kind of financial or banking service in any jurisdiction where Nordea Bank S.A., Singapore Branch or any of its affiliates do not have the necessary licence. Published by Nordea Bank S.A., R.C.S. Luxembourg No. B 14.157 on behalf of Nordea Bank S.A., Singapore Branch, 3 Anson Rd #20-01, Springleaf Tower, Singapore 079909. www.nordeaprivatebanking.com subject to the supervision of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (www.mas.gov.sg).

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27/02/2014 14:247 September 2015 • ScandAsia.Singapore

8 ScandAsia.Singapore • September 2015

SEB’s

SEB reveals a bombshell “Asia Growth Case” concerning inheritance SEB Private Banking in Asia is on a fast track of growth. Last year was the best year ever but even so, the first six months of 2015 have already outperformed the same period last year.

By Joakim Persson

F

redrik Lager, General Manager of SEB Private Banking, Singapore, says that while Corporate banking makes up the largest part of the SEB group’s business revenue in Asia, the Private Banking side keeps getting bigger and bigger.

“Our part of the business is doing well. The result of the first six months of 2015 shows that we are already 25 per cent ahead of where we were 2014, which was our best year since the start of our Asian private banking operations in 2005,” says the GM enthusiastically.

This has not gone unnoticed within the SEB Group.

“Whilst keeping costs under control in the bank is a priority, Private Banking in Asia is recognised as a ‘Growth Case’. This is important for us as we are keen on developing our business further,” Fredrik Lager reveals.

But SEB Private Banking’s impressive growth in Asia leaves Fredrik Lager little time to rest on his laurels. Other banks are after the same clients and, perhaps more importantly, IT innovation is moving on fast in terms of developing new and alternative investment services.

Investment advice from computer-based software, based on the individual’s risk profile is an area coming along strongly and this will have a major impact on the future of Private Banking, he believes.

“It is going to be a revolution, at least in the more affluent client categories.

Private banks will need to update their own web-based or mobile-based offerings, or they risk being surpassed by others.”

In the higher segments of private banking things will stay more traditional though, Fredrik Lager believes.

“High Net Wor th clients often have complex structures and as such have a need for someone to properly and actively look after their assets and hopefully grow them at a respectable pace,” he says.

So what kind of advice is he offering them right now?

“Markets have been volatile lately given the recent developments in Greece and China. The most impor tant thing for our private bankers in times like these is to stay close to our clients. Generally speaking most clients are still riding the equity markets wave. It has been a strong run for the last five years but corrections could be in the cards,” Fredrik Lager says.

In order to meet the growing demand for SEB’s private banking business in Asia and to ensure that existing clients continue to receive the best possible service, Fredrik Lager has secured two additional private bankers who are set to join his team in September and November respectively.

“One of the new private bankers joins us in September from our Wealth Division in Oslo. We are keen on expanding our Norwegian offering in Asia and by bringing Alexandra Haudemann-Andersen on board we will be better placed to serve the Norwegian community locally,” Fredrik Lager concludes.

Fredrik Lager, General Manager of SEB Private Banking in Asia, wants Scandinavian residents in Asia to be aware of a new EU regulation, which took effect already on 17 August 2015.

The regulation is intended to make it easier for EU citizens to handle the legal side of an international will or succession.

By Joakim Persson

O

nce this new regulation is in place, the rules regarding inheritance and succession will be governed by the laws of the country of residence.

“From a Swedish point of view this is very significant, because under Swedish law, for example, you are not allowed to disinherit your children,” explains Fredrik Lager, himself a lawyer by profession.

“In the Nordic countries, children have a statutory right to inherit, but under Thai and Singapore law for instance, and generally in countries which build on an Anglo-Saxon system of law, you can do pretty much what you want with your assets when you die.”

However, you can explicitly state in your will if the law applicable to your succession should be that of your nationality instead of the default option, which will be the country of residence.

“You can write: ‘My estate should be governed by Swedish law’. If you don’t write anything it will be Singapore law that applies, if you are deemed to live there at the time of death.”

“I advise all clients to write a will and in most cases I suggest that they explicitly state that the law of their country of citizenship should apply to the estate, because then we’re back to where we were before! If, however, you want to apply local law to your inheritance, then this will be a possibility going forward.”

“Some lawyers, primarily in Sweden, have said: “this is a bombshell, this is huge!” Yet not many people know or talk about it.”

SEB Private Banking calls for the Swedish Embassies to spread the news on this highly relevant new regulation which will apply not only to Swedish EU residents but also to Swedes wherever in the world they may live. It should be noted that Denmark, the UK and Ireland have all decided not adopt this new regulation.

September 2015 • ScandAsia.Singapore 9

Scandinavians succeed with

international makeup school in Thailand

By Joakim Persson Photos: Scandinavian Makeup Studio

A

‘Scandinavian Makeup Studio’, based in Bangkok,Thailand, initially prompts some questions. Is it catering to the need for Scandinavian makeup products in Asia? Is it a studio by and for Scandinavians? Even when someone knows that it’s in fact a school that trains makeup artists, she/he may wonder if it’s only training Scandinavian style or for Scandinavian people.

It turns out that the “only” Scandinavian thing about it is that the founders are from two of the Nordic countries, and that this is reflected in the school’s quality and management.

A more direct Scandinavian connection has just started for the school (set up in 2013) though; namely to take in students from Denmark.

With one of the par tners based mainly in Denmark Scandinavian Makeup Studio is spreading its wings, aiming at tapping into that market.

“We are getting our first Danish students before Christmas,” says Norwegian Hilde Johansen who started the school together with the owners and investors Eva Bartels Thomsen and her Danish husband.

Students flying in So far most students at the school fly in to do their course and then fly back home, and the school management believes they can attract some fellow countrymen to do likewise.

“We’ll be starting the course in Denmark and then they’ll be transferred to Bangkok to continue 10 ScandAsia.Singapore • September 2015

their training. People these days love to travel, to be in a new place, and study more abroad, so I believe in the concept.”

“Our students are flying in from all over Asia, and also Africa and Europe! At first we thought we needed to focus on the market here in Thailand to get students. But we are getting queries from Burma, Nepal, Buthan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, France, England and Vietnam; from more than 25 different countries in total,” explains Hilde who came to Thailand eight years ago to study fashion.

“I believe in Bangkok, it’s a metropolis - it’s so international here, you have people from all over the world.And you have so much production going on here when it comes to movies or magazines or commercials. People fly in from Pakistan and India and do the productions here. That’s why we believed in the school,” she continues.

Being professional makeup artists Eva and Hilde’s plan is to raise the level of makeup artistry in Asia. They founded this school based on this ambition and went ahead achieving it by combining internationally recognized training methods with the creativity, inspiration and international perspective of professional makeup artists and guest teachers.

Sharing a dream The reason for setting up in Thailand is a coincidence; Hilde and Eva met in Bangkok, when Eva had arrived with her husband who had accepted a job offer here. It turned out they shared the same dream about a makeup school.

“Eva is a very well-educated makeup artist back home and ver y knowledgeable about cosmetics. She’s been working with makeup in different companies since she was fifteen.”

Eva had kept on saying: “We should open up a school.” But Hilde had been reasonably sceptic, given how much people say but do not follow through on.

But one day Eva and her husband had suddenly signed a rental contract for the location, and that was the starting point for the adventure.

Since then Eva has had to return to Denmark so Hilde is running the daily operations in Bangkok, while Eva remotely takes care of all the administration, and travels here every third month. The bonus effect from this solution is that they can now target also Danes in a strategic way.

What students get from attending courses will however remain having its very international dimension - with a variety of skin types as a very valuable add-on.

“It’s a huge benefit for the students because it’s an international school where each class include dark skin types or ver y fair, and you get to practice on all these different skin tones.

When I went to makeup school back in Norway everyone had fair skin like myself. The first time I did make up for an Asian or African person I was terrified because I had never done it, and never trained.”

Scandinavian Makeup Studio also opens up its students to focus on creativity and experimenting.

“We try to be different at this makeup school.

From left: Eva Bartels Thomsen, Hilde Johansen.

Fundamental beauty is taught in the beginning of the course but we think it’s really important for the students to be outgoing, so we focus a lot on fantasy and creativity makeup.”

This also Hilde`s specialty and that she is known for here in Asia. The last six days of the course is only about fantasy techniques finding inspiration, creating your own concept.

“To be creative as a makeup artist, you need to think a bit outside the box, outside your comfort zone. And that’s where my job comes in - to guide and push you,” Hilde says. “You won’t believe all the creative outcomes we get from students who have never believed in themselves or thought that they never would be capable to create these things. That’s what’s makes my job the best job in the world” Scandinavians, in comparison, is more restricted.

“There’s no big market for that back in Scandinavia; we’re traditional. Here, on the other hand, they love the colours and are creative. Here you can break rules and experiment.”

“They use more makeup here than back home, that’s for sure! Like, Thai girls; they like to apply makeup, such as eye-lashes, and are a bit more daring than we are back home. We are conservative, and will always be that.”

Colours fly…

Less restricted and more daring is also the very reason why Hilde came over to Asia, and to the Kalawin International Fashion Institute in Bangkok.

When Hilde studied at college in Norway a guest teacher holding a short training had told her: ‘You are in the wrong part of the world; you have to go to Asia! This is where you will find the source of your inspiration and grow!’

“When he saw my mood board full of just colours, glitter and crystals–a sheer explosion of everything–he told me that I was in the wrong part of the world. He was definitely right: I’m so glad I followed what he said and came here.”

She studied for three years at Kalawin and graduated in high fashion. Before that she graduated as a makeup artist in Oslo.

“When I came to Thailand I never thought I would do any makeup–I was so focused on fashion and sewing–until some of my classmates asked to rent my dresses for photo shoots. One day they had no makeup artists and then told that I could do it and started helping with their photo shoots for the collection for my classmates. That’s how the ball started rolling.”

“I got more portfolio work and people here were open-minded when it came to creativity.

The photographers are really creative and they let you as makeup artist to do what you want do. I could go for what is really me, which is really extreme style of makeup based on a concept that you create. So that’s what I love about it. Also after teaming up four years ago with the famous photographer Manuel Librodo, who shares the same passions as me, it`s been a fun ride” Aside this creative side the school teaches the fundamentals; including product knowledge (Asia

being a mecca for fake products this is essential) and what to avoid when working professionally.

“What we require is that you take a fundamental course first; two weeks of training for new beginners. After that you can sign up for any kind of course. We have different courses like makeup for fashion and photography, stage & show, hair, bridal, special effects, airbrush, fantasy and many more.”

Most students choose the full course, which is twelve weeks where they get to learn all the subjects. These are pretty intense twelve weeks!”

Students finish each subject with a practical exam – where their work is evaluated and professional photographs are taken for the students’ portfolios.

“The school balances 30% theory with 70% practical studies as we believe that extensive practice produces the best artists.”

The teachers consist in an international group of very experienced professional makeup artists who are still working in the industry on photo shoots, commercials and workshops to stay in touch with the newest trends and inspiration.

“Business has grown over expectation and all these emails from overseas are really lifting us!”

And the Thais are also increasingly joining the school. In the latest course 5 out of 12 students were Thai.

And soon students from Denmark will get to have the same wow experience that Hilde has had over here in Asia.

September 2015 • ScandAsia.Singapore 11

Norway kick-starts

entrepreneurs in Singapore

By Joakim Persson

S

ix Norwegian start-ups got a kick-start into Asia by participating in a special Tech Incubator programme in Singapore, TINC Asia, organised by the Norwegian government agency Innovation Norway together with Joyful Frog Digital Incubator (jfdi.asia) TINC Asia helps the start-ups align and connect their businesses with Asian markets, for distribution and development of future products and services. This three-week mentoring experience is a part of Innovation Norway’s hands-on support to companies in developing their competitive advantage and to enhance innovation.

Combining local industry knowledge and international networks with the business ideas and the motivation of entrepreneurs will build the foundation for new successful businesses.

“Norway is similar to Singapore in the sense that our home markets are small – this means that high-potential star t-ups need to focus on international expansion early,” said Innovation Norway regional director Torunn Aass Taralrud.

“TINC Asia offers access to some of the best local start-up resources in Asia and provides a unique learning experience for these companies,” she claimed.

Joyful Frog Digital Incubator, Innovation Norway’s partner in delivering the training, is a community of people who practice, finance and teach innovation. JFDI delivers innovation for corporations, governments and investment funds. They run ‘JFDI Accelerate’ – the longest-running and most successful seed accelerator program in South East Asia.

They also offers the online pre-accelerator programme ‘JFDI Discover’ 12 ScandAsia.Singapore • September 2015

that aims to give confidence to first-time entrepreneurs or nascent teams who are exploring an idea, launching a prototype, or preparing to raise funds.

Their programmes for business start-ups and professionals lead people to think and act entrepreneurially by helping them to engineer innovative businesses around their ideas.

Kicking doors open Biogrid, offering vertical farming in urban areas; and Kaizit, which has a specialised IT solution promoting efficiency and quality of shipping drydocking, were two of the selected start-up teams.

“Par ticipating in a programme like this really helps us understand the business culture in the region; it practically kicks doors open.

And the mentors at JFDI are really helpful, they help us crack the social codes, help us navigate bureaucracy, and even locate the most exotic foods in Singapore,” said August Flatby of Biogrid AS, while attending in Singapore.

“If we had to learn all this the slow way, then I believe it would have taken us months to build up sufficient confidence to build a business here.“ Par ticipating companies in TINC Asia can gain greater insight and familiarity with Asian business, culture, preferences and expectations, to enable faster growth into the region, with lesser risk.

Founded in 2015 and including a grant from Innovation Norway, Biogrid’s intelligent growth modules are primarily targeted at commercial urban farmers who want to produce healthy, nutricious and tasty food in vertical farms in urban areas.

“Biogrid was chosen to par ticipate because we develop enabling technologies for indoor agriculture. This kind of technology is a good fit for nations like Singapore that wants to achieve more food self-reliance by building urban farms, vertical farms and plant factories,” explained August who finds Singapore to be an incredibly interesting place.

“It is fine-tuned in every detail, run as a very efficient, large, company. As a part of Singapore’s drive toward becoming an even smarter nation, there is a real push toward using sensor technologies and data intelligence in novel ways.We believe that Biogrid’s technology fits very well into this vision, as our system harnesses these technologies in order to increase crop yields and to ensure predictable harvests in urban farms.”

“Singapore is also interesting because of its close proximity to China, which is where we are planning to do our hardware manufacturing,” he continued.

The TINC Asia programme is quite well known within Norway and especially the Silicon Valley programmes that have been running for several years.

“I participated in a similar programme with Innovation Norway back in 2013, where my company was chosen to participate in a GET (Global Entrepreneurship Training) program at the highly rated Babson College in Boston, US. Since then I’ve been in the loop and got the opportunity to apply for this programme, Stig Linna, CEO at Kaizit as.

Solutions for Singapore The TINC Asia 2015 participants began with a three-day briefing session in Oslo in June after which participants researched target markets in Asia remotely and prepared to meet with potential business partners while in Singapore.

Kaizit met a very strong interest in their IT solution for efficient drydocking for ships.The two first ship managers that they met were interested in conducting a pilot phase of testing out their new product planning and execution of the repair/dry-docking process for vessels.

Researching the Asian market and preparing to meet potential business partners in Singapore, Kaizit found that they could offer two solutions aimed to help improve shipping companies’ operations; one being an existing solution that makes shipping companies improve their sales.

“We actually found that the willingness to invest in initiatives that can increase sales is very interesting,” said Stig Linna.

Coming from Norway Kaizit naturally has a strong position within the shipping industry related to its home market, he pointed out. But Singapore and the surrounding region is of great interest for the expansion.

“We have seen that Singapore is the main hub for shipping companies, so we are testing out if it might be an opportunity here. We have already established a local representative here and will scale based on the market demand that we experience.”

Biogrid also had fruitful meetings upon arriving to Singapore.

“As soon as we arrived in Singapore and starting networking here, we got acquainted with several key people within our area of business, as well as potential business partners and investors. People in Singapore are genuinely interested in networking, and quite often we’re told: ‘Oh you should see so-and-so who is an expert in that field’, and the like. In general I’d say that people here are really good at making referrals, and seem interested in helping in any way they can,” said August Flatby.

A lot of information made available on the Singaporean Government’s website meant that Biogrid could research a lot there, prior to departing from Oslo.

“We arranged a meeting with the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore upon arrival, and they helped us learn more about Singapore’s efforts towards building indoor and vertical farms, and they even arranged with us to meet researchers at a local university within our field of technology.”

“Biogrid is committed to solving real pain points for the urban farmer.

So to get a better understanding of which those pain points are, we seek out real life urban farms in the local community and interview the operators of those farms. “ The 3-week programme in Singapore offers a unique opportunity to test one’s business concepts towards the Asian market, gain invaluable feedback and get exposure to a broad business network.

Participants in the programme receive strategic guidance for global expansion, delivered by mentors on an individualised basis for each company, according to JFDI.

BASH tech cluster The participants had the opportunity to connect with the local community every day, working from BASH, which is part of Singapore’s tech cluster for six months after the programme, the teams can also use the JFDI.Asia facilities to follow through on all connections they have made.

August described the facilities: “BASH is a co-working space for startups, located in a renovated old factory building in the one-north business area. I like the atmosphere here, people from all sorts of start-ups are doing their things, and of course there are the mandatory table tennis and foosball tables. A local bank pays a barista to feed us with muffins and wicked, strong coffee drinks all day; definitely a plus for cash-starved start-ups.”

“The language, the business culture, the friendliness and courtesy of Singaporeans; all those factors contribute to making Singapore the perfect Asia office for Biogrid,” he thought about Singapore as a hub.

“I find BASH as a modern and practical setup for making new businesses both test out their potential and also help them get funding. They also provide most of practical arrangements in order to establish the business, including the office facilities needed. The most important thing, though, is access to knowledge and networks that seems to flow easily here,” thought Stig Linna of Kaizit. “It’s an amazing place to be here at the BASH community.

We have the opportunity to talk to a lot of different people with many interesting specialities and the JFDI team is very good!”

“So far we have met a lot of energetic entrepreneurs that are aiming for success. It seems like they come from a lot of different countries and nationalities,” he commented on the business network and entrepreneurship in Singapore.

August Flatby gave a positive assessment as well: “There seems to be a constant stream of events where entrepreneurs can hobnob with investors and potential customers. We’ve attended a couple of events already and our impression is that the attendees are a mix of Singaporean nationals, expats, and foreigners.”

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Joyful Frog Digital Incubator on working with Innovation Norway

H

ugh Mason, the Chief Frog at Joyful Frog Digital Incubator, explains how they worked out their star tup programmes with Innovation Norway.

“Innovation Norway had been running a Technology Incubator (TINC) programme in Silicon Valley and wanted to do the same in Asia. The team reached out to a number of potential partners and selected JFDI to develop and operate their TINC Asia programme.”

What inspired JFDI was the passion that Norway’s Ambassador to Singapore, Tormod C. Endresen showed for the program and the support it got from State Secretary Dilek Ayhan.

“We got the strong sense that they understood both how long it might take, and how important it could be to change culture in Norway to think about entrepreneurship for a future when the oil runs out and Asia’s rising importance in the world makes it a huge opportunity,” Hugh Mason explains.

Hugh Mason ads that he is often asked about the JFDI name. The story is that he and JFDI co-founder Meng Wong were tr ying to think of something short that was available as a domain name and which embodied the spirit of entrepreneurship. The Harvard Business School professor Howard Stevenson inspired them to conclude on the definition of entrepreneurship to be: JFDI, meaning ‘Just F**ing Do It’ in the west.

“When selecting participants for the TINC Asia programme, Innovation Norway and JFDI look at the applications that come in and run a series of interviews together with the companies.

We take a view primarily on which companies will benefit and gain the most value from the programme in Asia and we are learning from 14 ScandAsia.Singapore • September 2015

experience how to judge that now.

“A big factor in success seems to be mindset. People will go a long way once they realise that Asia is a) not one place and in fact far more diverse than Europe, and b) very much somewhere that business must be done face to face. Entrepreneurs who reach out not to sell something but rather to build partnerships often do best, especially if they are willing to think openly about what their product or service might become.”

“Innovation is what happens when inventions get translated into useful products and services.

It can happen when a completely new idea comes about (like the telephone or the bikini) or when an idea gets introduced to a new place from where it was invented. Through the second half of the twentieth century, academics put together theories about why we have the technology we have and they came up with some good retrospective explanations.

But it wasn’t easy to run their explanations backwards - to use them to generate new ideas from stuff lying around today. But over

the last decade a whole load of understanding has come about - practical methods, coupled with the practical under standing of what entrepreneurs actually do, make it possible to teach innovation and the skills needed to make it happen, including entrepreneurship, for the first time. Until ten years ago many people thought that entrepreneurs were born and could not be made and that innovation was really a mystery and now we know that’s not true.”

“JFDI got started because we realized that the new science of innovation and the ability to teach entrepreneurship is transformational. Being able to teach innovation and entrepreneurship changes the game because there are innovative people everywhere - they just might not know how to do it yet or have role models around them to be inspired, or there may be cultural inhibitions around risk that hold them back.

We started with digital software products and services because they were very fast to develop and deploy and because the internet was spreading so rapidly across Asia. But almost all the companies we have worked with are not pure technology businesses; rather, they are just using digital technology to do something else, like delivering healthcare or making it easier to buy a car.

The companies that have come to us from Norway have been fascinating because they have stretched us in new directions, from the construction industry to e-book publishing to shipping. The good news is that the ‘science of innovation’ we rely on seems to hold for all these cases and so we have definitely learned as much from our visitors from norway as they have learned from us.”

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ISS is registered by the CPE | Registration no: 20136975E | RegiRealising stration perioPotential d: 16 June 2011 to 15 June 2015 | www.iss.edu.sg ISS is registered by the CPE | Registration no: 20136975E | Registration period: 16 June 2011 to 15 June 2015 | www.iss.edu.sg

September 2015 • ScandAsia.Singapore 15