- Our Co-Founder, Paddy Tan had been cordially invited as a speaker by IoT Integrated Service Center (IicC)to discuss about the IoT landscape in Southeast Asia (SEA) during the morning forum.
- BlackStorm Consulting team members (Paddy Tan, Jeslin Bay and Lionel Chia) had conducted a workshop in the afternoon to address the benefits and challenges of doing business in SEA.
- Through these sessions, BlackStorm Consulting understood better on IoT ecosystems in Taiwan and managed to foster relationships with the speakers and attendees from various backgrounds and nationalities.
October 16, 2019: For the past few months, we were warmly invited by many Taiwanese groups to join various events. It was a rewarding and engaging trip for BlackStorm Consulting. Rounds of meetings were also organised to establish further collaborations. We were privileged to share the insights with many personnel from different corporate bodies who attended the morning forum and afternoon workshop during this trip.
IisC Forum
This forum was well-organised by IisC. An interesting kick-off ceremony by IisC manufacturing cluster groups had been done right before the speakers took their role on the set. The first speaker was Andrew Tan, managing partner of TBV Capital Malaysia. He mentioned that businesses should have products to address the existing problems in the market. Many companies can be innovative in their products but often serve little purpose in solving the issues. As such, these products will probably face low demands and eventually lead to the failure of the businesses. Another point raised by him will be investment in team capabilities. Ideations will not be workable if the talent is insufficient or too niche in particular area (e.g. technology). The talents in a team should be diverse, covering a spectrum in the scope of work.
The next speaker was Aike Müller, Founder and CEO of Keezel. He had successfully raised funds through crowdfunding for his product. He mentioned about the various pros and cons of crowdfunding, pointing out that this innovative alternative of obtaining funds may not be suitable for every startups as success rate for huge fund size can be depressed across the platforms.
Cheng Pohsiu, Marketing Manager of Tong Hsing, shared on what services the company can provide for startups and what will be next for IoT. Tong Hsing is specialised in the development and manufacturing of micro-modules and semiconductor packages.
The last speaker in the morning session was Charles Lin, VP of eServices / TechDesign Taiwan. He talked about the long tail demand bringing challenges and benefits for supply chain in Taiwan. Startups should leverage on the long tail to make consumers interested in the contents that cannot be found easily, and niche products usually can fetch higher profit margins.
The morning session ended off with a panel discussion consisting with all the speakers. Questions such as pitfalls of a funded startups, financial constraints of a startup were discussed. Speakers agreed that founders should stop thinking themselves as startups and start making money from the businesses.
IoT – Tech Wave in Southeast Asia: What Drives and Challenges this Region?
Paddy was one of the guest speakers in the morning forum and he explained about the various trends, opportunities and challenges when operating an IoT business in SEA. Countries in SEA such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand had been launching several initiatives to support the development of IoT. With such growths coupled by favourable drivers, IoT businesses can utilise the market opportunities and enable more connectivity in this fragmented region.
The presentation was fantastic, leaving attendees with more insights. The attendees were mainly from engineering backgrounds and wanting to know more about doing business.
Workshop on Doing Business in SEA
The workshop was initiated by Jeslin Bay, Co-founder of BlackStorm Consulting whereby she introduced what is SEA and why choose SEA. She also covered on US-China trade war and its impacts on SEA. Due to these factors, the region becomes favourable for doing business.
Being the next speaker, Paddy Tan continued to explain the benefits and challenges of the respective countries in SEA. Before entering to do business, one should assess each country individually to determine the viability. Business models should not be homogeneously replicated from one country to the other. Localisation is required since each country will have different literacy rates, cultures, languages and entry barriers. Paddy also encouraged the attendees to read, plan and prepare more when coming into SEA.
Lionel Chia, Business Analyst of BlackStorm Consulting talked about entering SEA with new set of strategies. Pricing and positioning, partnerships and taxation are some of the topics covered. Partnership can be vital when comes to doing business in SEA as it can help in facilitating some processes. However, due to the high fraud rates in this region, it is always good to conduct due diligence on the partners before any commitment. He also went on explaining the different types of taxation across the region and emphasised that taxation should not be overlooked as it can greatly impact on the profit.
All in all, both sessions came to a closure nicely with insightful takeaways and deepened relationships from all parties. Special thanks to IisC for their time, hospitality and venue.
It is a privilege for BlackStorm Consulting to be presented with opportunities and exposures in Taiwan. More and more collaborations will be established in the upcoming months.
Stay connected with us for further updates on our next Taiwan trips!
About IoT Integrated Service Center (IisC)
IoT Integrated Service Center (IisC) is aimed to integrate the trend of IoT product development with Taiwan’s most advantageous semiconductor manufacturing and provide the linkage of the resources needed for technical development and commercialization on an IoT intelligence service platform. IisC, as a one – stop hardware design manufacturing service centre, could help innovative IoT startups for technical support, modules, process and business consulting and also provide pilot run service for product optimisation in order to speed up the process of commercialisation.
About BlackStorm Consulting
BlackStorm Consulting (http://blackstormco.asia/) is a boutique growth consultancy firm that specialises in corporate strategy, profit management and investment management. We mainly serve clients in four sectors: FinTech, Gaming, Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT), and manufacturing.
Our clients and connections are internationally present and range from small and medium sized businesses, MNCs, to government agencies.
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