This Global Insights-Taking the Local Global session held on November 18^th at  was unique in that we had 2 interesting perspectives on doing business in both the East and West. 2 seasoned entrepreneurs came forward to share their insights in doing business outside their own country. They were Mr Nigel Cumberland, founder and CEO of St. George’s Consulting, an award winning recruitment firm and Mr Jimmy Yeoh, CEO of Magic Gamewerks Sdn Bhd,

Mr Cumberland whose company is based in Hong Kong, gave a really inspirational speech less on what he had achieved as a successful entrepreneur but more on the mistakes and misjudgments that he had done while establishing himself and his company. Mr Cumberland is a firm believer that mistake is a seed to plant success. We also learned about the 7 wisdoms that he applied while running his business;

Wisdom #1 – Do not stop finding opportunities

Wisdom #2 – Money; you need a big amount of money and you will eventually waste a lot of money because of your mistakes and choice of business partners.

Wisdom #3 – Do not be afraid to make mistakes

Wisdom #4 – Have faith and be persistence

Wisdom #5 – Prioritize your family and travel

Wisdom #6 – Carefully choose your business partners

Wisdom #7 – Establish your network

Mr Jimmy Yeoh shared his experience in how he has successfully taken his board game idea from concept to completion and expanded his business to Europe. He also shared the resistance he faced when he initially approached people with his idea to promote educational learning through board games. Unlike Mr Cumberland, Mr Jimmy Yeoh prefers doing his business alone because of his previous bad experience with his former business partners. He admitted that “one man shows do not make big money” but he gained satisfaction from doing his business and he also has more freedom in making decision.

He shared about the story of his persistence on bringing two cartons of his board games all around Europe for toy fairs and book fairs that he participated in. Mr Yeoh also touched on the Malaysian entrepreneurs’ mindset on the concept of competition where they often see each other as competitors instead of collaborators. He mentioned that business opportunities could be seized more if entrepreneurs in Malaysia connect with each other while competing globally in a healthy manner.  

The session was kept interactive with many questions from the audience for our 2 very engaging speakers.  The session continued onto a networking session while the participants enjoyed refreshments from our sponsor, Kelantan Delights.

17^th November, Plug & Play Technology Garden Midvalley, Kuala Lumpur – More than 60 representatives from universities, colleges, government agencies, corporations, international delegates and youth leaders were treated to a rare opportunity to meet the Entrepreneur-In-Residence from the global host of the 2009 Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) from the Kauffman Foundation – Mr. Michael Levin, flew to Malaysia from the United States, specifically to support the GEW movement in Malaysia.

The ‘Connecting with Kauffman – Empowering Youths In Entrepreneurship’ session was presented by GEW Youth Catalyst – Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia (YEM), GEW Country Host – Warisan Global Sdn. Bhd. and Leaderonomics, which has been a very supportive GEW partner since last year.

The two hours session brought plenty of insights to representatives of different interest groups in Malaysia, concerned with entrepreneurship, from students to education service providers, to larger companies and to government agencies.

Event organiser and Co-Founder of YEM, Michael Teoh said that Mr. Levin’s presence in Malaysia, representing the global Kauffman Foundation and with his impressive track-record as an entrepreneur would definitely provide new perspectives and ideas for local Malaysian institutions and government agencies to groom entrepreneurial behaviour and learning among the young.

“We need to benchmark and learn from the experiences and insights of other entrepreneurs and organisations in the world, to better plan and implement strategies that can truly steer our local growth of entrepreneurs, especially the young,” says the 22 years old entrepreneur, Michael.

During the event, YEM also unveiled the 550 Youth Entrepreneurs Research in Malaysia, where 550 youths aged from 20 to 29 years of age were surveyed on matters concerned with their interests in entrepreneurship and what factors would have stimulated their involvements with the local business scene. One of the few more notable results, showed that a majority of entrepreneurial students in Malaysia had never read any business or entrepreneurial-related course during their studies, but has since embarked on a journey to become entrepreneurs. One more research result also revealed that Malaysian youths are more inclined towards launching their businesses in the ‘Services’ sector with ‘Retailing’ tailing the former.

The session of the was headlined with a panel discussion around the topic of ‘Empowering Youths In Entrepreneurship’ where fellow panellists commented on strategies and insights of grooming the interest of young Malaysians to be more enterprising at a young age. The session featured Michael Teoh, Co-Founder of YEM, Sabrie Salleh, a young aspiring Malaysian entrepreneur,  Mr. Dash, GEW Malaysia Country Host, Mr. Michael Levin, Representative from the Kauffman Foundation and Mr. Roshan Thiran, CEO of Leaderonomics and moderated by Daniel Cerventus, Founder of online entrepreneur media outlet – Entrepreneurs.my.

Best practise and experiences of grooming young entrepreneurs became the main discussion topic among the speakers and the invited guests, with Mr. Levin sharing his thoughts about the Kauffman Foundation’s contributions to assist young entrepreneurs grow their businesses around the world. Mr. Dash as GEW Malaysia Host also commented on how entrepreneurship can be groomed among youths at a young age to make them more independent and street-smart towards money.

The ‘Connecting with Kauffman – Empowering Youths In Entrepreneurship’ event also provided a valuable networking platform for youth leaders from public and private higher learning institutions to network with the panellists and invites guests at the event.

“Our main objective was to engage higher learning institutions and youth leaders towards the best practices set by the Kauffman Foundation and our own Malaysian GEW representatives, in order to not only inspire them to take entrepreneurship seriously, but also to build their relationships with key international organisations in the field,” adds Michael Teoh.

Following the event, Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia (YEM) in support for GEW in 2010, will launch an even bigger and more in-depth research on ‘Malaysian Youths’ Involvement in Entrepreneurship’ among 10,000 youths, in partnership with Pulse Group and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) next year.

The event is also a signature GEW event for GEW Malaysia, where Malaysia has been ranked as the 3^rd Most Active GEW Participating Country among more than 100 countries in the world, and topping the Asian charts as No.1. Malaysia’s remarkable climb at the top of the global ranking was led by GEW Malaysia Country Host – Warisan Global Sdn. Bhd.