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EDITORIALFrom the desk of the Executive EditorTan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr LimkokwingINNOVATION IS KEY TO CREATINGJOBS OVER THE NEXT DECADEwww.facebook.com/TanSriLimkokwingfounder limkokwing.net/blog/@limkokwingThe future of the world’s socio-economic balancelies in creating more jobs. The world needs 600million jobs by 2020 - the majority of them mustbe created in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.That’s the verdict of the 2013 World DevelopmentReport (WDR) which says these jobs need to becreated if countries want to keep their currentgrowth rates. Interestingly, almost the samenumber of youths - 621 million - are neitherworking nor studying right now.This data gives us a snapshot of the world’smost pressing problem today: a high youthpopulation+high unemployment - a worryingsituation mirrored in every part of the world.The WDR says 200 million are unemployedcurrently, 75 million of them under the age of 25.The challenge can seem overwhelming for anygovernment, perhaps because there may bea pervasive belief that new technology andinnovation shrink job creation; that companieswill downsize to become more lean and moreproductive, to make a bigger profit in a fiercelycompetitive global market.But this is a myth.The facts show that technology and innovation arethe creators of new jobs. According to the 2013Global Job Creation survey of 600 of the world’smost successful entrepreneurs, 74% say it isdue to innovation that they have increased theirworkforce this past year.For the world’s top entrepreneurs, technology workshand in hand with innovative business models.It helps them stay resilient yet flexible to marketchanges; the most potent of which is the shiftaway of the axis of global competition from the USto the fast growing economies of Asia and Africa.The young people in schools and tertiaryinstitutions all over the world are where theinnovative raw materials reside. How we shapetheir minds and hearts to break new ground,create innovative new products and solutions fortheir countries will be instrumental to the story ofhow the innovation and job creation story will playout in the coming years.At home, we must must make innovative educationavailable to as many Malaysians as possible, if weare to build a nation where innovative businessand entrepreneurship are not just concentratedin urban centres. This is fundamental to buildingsocio-economic wealth throughout the country.We must aim to grow the innovative mindsetexponentially if we want to even have a fightingchance to grow Malaysia’s offering of innovativeproducts and services in the global economy.Many of our own home-grown entrepreneurinnovatorsare wooed by Asian and Africancountries because our development modeland our challenges mirror what they aregoing through. But too many continue to lookat Western models of innovation to providedirection. What can we do to better utilize ourown world-class innovation business models?That is the emphasis in this issue - our first for2013. We spotlight home grown heroes as wellas pay special attention to the innovative idealsand transformative products that are coming outof the East.They are the game changers in a world that isbeing rebalanced.2 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 3

Vol 2 May - August 2013INNOVATION LEADERSHIPTABLE OF CONTENTS16 22 35 31 6694CREDITSAbout Innovation LeadershipInnovation Leadership is a quarterly magazine published by the Limkokwing Universityof Creative Technology for corporate leaders, managers, aspiring executives anddecision makers in the private and public sectors discussing a myriad of corporateand leadership interests.In driving the national innovation agenda forward, Limkokwing University created InnovationLeadership to bridge the gap between Corporate Malaysia and Government and alsoserve as a platform to disseminate timely information to readers from all strata of societyon the importance of innovation in the formulation of government policies, effective leadership,brand development and in facing challenges in the global marketplace.Executive Editor's Message :Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr LimkokwingInnovation is key to creating jobs overthe next decade 03Innovasi NegaraEnergising the Nation for InclusiveInnovation 09Address by Tan Sri Dato’ Sri PadukaDr Limkokwing at the launch of thecampaign 13Transforming Public EducationIdeas: The most valued global currency 17Explore, Experiment and Experience:PERMATA's innovative generation 2309Cover Story:Re-Inventing Education in Africa 29US Innovation leadership award forLimkokwings transformationaleducation 27The Mandela factor 33W3D's Slew of U.S. wins showcaseAsian-led Web Creativity 35Home Grown HeroesGame On with MOL 43Carpe Diem with Masatu 47Cloud Growing in Asia 51We're ready for the App Economy,but are the operators? 553D Paradigm Shift game wins MSChonours 59Global TrendsThe Silicon Valleys of the World 63Boom Tube: How Viki is Creating theGloba Hulu 69Innovators talk strategy 73Jugaad: Lessons in Frugal Innovation 77Government Designed for New Times 81Transforming Learning throughmEducation 87Pushing Boundaries 95World's first university fashion label 99Since its inception in 2009, W3D haswon over 100 awards internationally,most from the top web awards organizationin the US. W3D is dominatedby dedicated team players who areall alumni below 30 years of age. Forthem winning is all in a day’s work tocome up with some amazing stuff.Along the way, these young men andwomen have placed the country on thesame pedestal as world-class namessuch as DreamWorks, Paramount,Levi’s, Walt Disney, Nissan, Pizza Hut,FIAT, Hewlett-Packard, Alcatel Lucent,Mattel, Pepsi, MTV, Samsung, Yahoo!among other distinguished brands..Executive EditorTan Sri Dato’ Sri PadukaDr LimkokwingEditorial TeamFaridah HameedDato Raja Aznil Raja HishamDato' Dania Abdul WahabMichael Pan SinAmbi MatheDato’ Tiffanee Marie LimContributorsAnn TanEmily LohElaine LimNurris IshakArt Director / DesignerLum Weng WahMonkorr Raymond MgbaMarketingSehrish AleemWebsite ManagementCentre for Content Creationwww.contentcreation.com.myEnquirieswww.innovation-leadership.com.myAdvertising enquiriesenquiries@innovation-leadership.com.myPublisherLimkokwing University of Creative TechnologyInovasi 1-1, Jalan Teknokrat 1/1,63000 Cyberjaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan,MalaysiaTel: (+603) 8317 8888Fax: (+603) 8317 8988Comments & CorrespondenceThe publisher welcomes the views of itsreaders. Letters may be sent by post, fax ore-mail. All correspondence should includethe writer's full name, email address andtelephone number.CopyrightAll rights reserved. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced, stored in a retrieval systemor transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise,without the prior written permission of thepublisher.4 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 5

"The rise of innovation to the top of the agenda of alladvanced and advancing countries has resulted in aprofound shift in the nature of global competition."Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr Limkokwing6 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 7

INNOVATE THE NATIONEnergising the Nationfor Inclusive InnovationINNOVATE THE NATION"Innovate the Nation is to provide anoptimal environment and ecosystemthat is supportive, vibrant and inclusive.I am confident it will help to maitreaminnovation and inspire people of allwalks of life to embrace innovation."YB Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Maximus JohnityOngkiliMinister of Science, Technology and Innovation speakingat the launch of Inovasi Negara, 12 March 2013Tan Sri Limkokwing welcomes Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation YB Datuk Seri PanglimaDr Maximus Ongkili to the launch of the Inovasi Negara campaign.The global meltdown has turnedmany economies upside down,forcing governments and industryto rethink their future and reevaluatetheir priorities, forcing peopleout of their comfort zones.We have to innovate. There is noquestion about it. When we lookat how the world has changed andhow innovation in the various sectorshas been traumatic to the bottomlineof many companies, it becomesa do or die situation.Breakthrough innovation is renderingestablished business modelsobsolete. Look at what iTuneshas done to the music industryor Amazon has done to bookstoresthen you can appreciate thechange innovation brings to industriesand even to communities.It is into this feverish arena thatMalaysia is pitching itself into. Thecountry is now racing to catch upwith the developed countries andthe roadmap to achieve transformationis already seriously underway.Engaging the layman to jointhe innovation revolution. Noweverybody is touting innovation.Experts are flying in to assist industriesmake the transition. Industryis revisiting its priorities so it canupscale to benefit from the pushgovernment is giving to the innovationagenda. But where is thecommon man in all these? What isbeing done to help the Malaysianon the ground grasp how innovationis going to impact his or her life?Innovation as a concept is difficultto comprehend for most people. Itcan be interpreted in so many waysaccording to the lifestyle, the passionand the capability of an individualbecause innovative is pervasive.From nuclear science to childcareand from the factory floorto kitchen tables, innovation issomething that comes naturally topeople engaged creatively in theirwork or their pastimes.Innovation is not a new phenomenonbecause it is through the innovativeabilities of people longdead that the world has arrived atthis stage of its development.What has brought so much focusto innovation today is the easewith which people are able to putideas to work. Technology advancementand the increased connectivityof the global communityhave given wings to new ideas.This is one reason why the Malaysianlayman has to be on board thePrime Minister’s aspiration to upscalethe economy. Participation ofpeople on the ground is needed forwidespread conversion to get peopleout of comfort zones and intomainstream activities. The desire toinnovate seldom occurs to peoplewho are in their comfort zones. Innovatorsare almost always foundat the cutting edge, where theydeploy resources and create mechanismsto push the boundaries.Inovasi Negara is designed to get theinnovation agenda right down tothe layman living in urban centres,the suburbs and the rural heartland.The Ministry of Science, Technologyand Innovation workingthrough the Malaysian Foundationfor Innovation (YayasanInovasi Malaysia) and the LimkokwingUniversity of CreativeTechnology are piecing togethera roadmap to harness the energyof the people on the ground.In launching the programme theMinister of Science, Technologyand Innovation, Datuk Seri PanglimaDr Maximus Johnity Ongkilisaid there was a need for constantcommunications to enable continuousunderstanding of innovation.The Innovate the Nation programme is to get the innovation agendaright down to the layman living in urban centres, the suburbs andthe rural heartland.8 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 9

INNOVATE THE NATIONINNOVATE THE NATION“Clearly we need to charge up on creativity and loosen up on complianceand conformity. We need to revamp or remove the rules and regulationsthat have become stumbling blocks. We need to bring everyone fromeverywhere in the country on board.”YBhg. Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr LimkokwingPresident, Limkokwing University of Creative Technology12 March 2013"We are dealing with ordinarypeople and it is important that weunderstand the concept, believe init and of course, participate in it.”Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr Limkokwingexplained that InovasiNegara will be implemented in fiveparts to connect, enable, empower,reward and upscale.• The first part – connect –will be through a nationwideadvocacy capaign to promoteinclusive innovation.• The second – enable – will bethrough the conduct of workshopsheld throughout the country toget as many people as possible toinitiate efforts to create innovativesolutions. Acceleration centres willbe set up to facilitate this endeavor.• The third – empower – will be totrain 10,000 young people to enlargethe base of young innovators.• The fourth – encourage – is torecognize 300 innovators annuallyfrom both rural and urban sectorswho have created innovative solutionsworthy of recognition.• The fifth – upscale – is tofacilitate upward mobility by providing100 scholarships for studentsto take up creativity-drivenprogrammes in Design Innovation,Production Innovation, SoftwareEngineering, Digital Media andBusiness Innovation.The training for 10,000 peoplemay include micro-enterpriseowners to upscale their knowledgethat will enable them to move theirbusinesses forward. The use of theInternet is especially significant forLimkokwing University president Tan Sri Limkokwing presents the Innovation Leadership award to theMinister Dr Ongkili. On the Minister's right is Chairman of the University Council Tan Sri Dato' SeriDr Aseh Che Mat.Dr Ongkili meets with students from various schools in the Klang Valley who participated in theInovasi Negara campaign launch.rapid progress. It is significant topoint out that a study of developingeconomies indicated that a 10per cent rise in Internet penetrationcorrelates with a 1 to 2 percent increase in GDP growth.With easy access to open-sourcesoftware, cheap microchips andwide-open collaboration on the Internetsmall scale entrepreneurs canthink big and take a great global leapforward. They just need the knowhow. And that is what the trainingwill ignite in these entrepreneurs.The results, we know will beastounding. Just imagine that ifevery one of the 10,000 entrepreneursis able to upgrade his/her business by an added value ofRM50,000 then the combinedvalue to the national economy willbe in the region of RM500 million.That’s the goal. Another area offocus within the Innovate TheNation roadmap is grassroots innovation.The Malaysian Foundationfor Innovation or Yayasan InovasiMalaysia has done some sterlingwork in sourcing out grassrootinnovation, travelling deep intoMalaysia’s heartland to discoverthat innovation is alive and doingwell as people become resourcefulin making their lives a little easierand a little better.YIM was established by the governmentin January 2010 to promoteand inculcate creativity and innovationamong all Malaysians, specificallytargeting children, youths,women, rural folk as well as peoplewith disabilities and non-governmentorganisations. YIM began itswork in earnest and spent much of2011 and 2012 harvesting, nurturingand promoting the cultureof creativity and innovation andproviding institutional support inscouting grassroots innovations forcommercialization purposes.The Innovate The Nation programmewill engage grassrootinnovators to be the catalyst toengage, empower and encourageothers on the ground to developa creative mindset and a problemsolvingattitude.There will be an annual celebrationof grassroot innovators whosework will be showcased and 300 ofthe most outstanding innovatorspresented with awards.10 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 11

"We are not short of talent, and the leadership to make it happen. We must firstensure that innovation is made prevalent in every sector of industry and every cornerof the country. The administration itself must embrace innovation pervasively tostay compatible and be able to inspire and facilitate innovation across all Ministriesand agencies. In so many ways we have come a long way".Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr LimkokwingInnovate the NationAddress by Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Paduka Dr Limkokwing at the launch of the campaign, 12 March 2013To begin, may I extend a warm welcometo each and everyone. I knowhow hard it is to find time these daysand I thank you for the time youhave set aside for us. Now, allow meto thank Yang Berhormat Datuk SeriDr Maximus Ongkili, whose Ministryis a major driving-force of changeand innovation in the country, for hiskind presence and the presentationhe will be making in a while. As weknow, the Minister is a passionateadvocate of inclusive or grassroot innovations.Largely because of himand his Ministry, much progresshas been made in the building ofawareness and the generation ofinnovations in recent years.We are much encouraged that theMinister is here. His personal supportfor this public-private-partnershipproject means a lot to us, and willgo a long way to ensure its success.The rise of innovation to the topof the agenda of all advanced andadvancing countries has resultedin a profound shift in the natureAdvanced countries, already the richest in the world, are pulling awayto higher levels of innovation while countries in the developing worldcontinue to struggle just to keep the pace.of global competition. Economicadvantage no longer depends onnatural resources, cheap rawmaterials, trade of goods and servicesor giant factories. Instead,creativity and innovation are nowdriving the new economy andre-invigorating the old economy.Creativity and innovation nowdrive the fastest growing economiesin the world, and reshapingthe global economy. Our PrimeMinster is determined that Malaysiawill not be left behind in thecoming new world economy. In arecent speech, he said and I quote:"To ensure inclusive development,the Government will continuouslyplan and implement programmesand initiatives centered on knowledge,creativity and innovation.Towards becoming a high-incomeand developed nation by 2020,innovation will be further strengthenedand made pervasive in allsectors and segments of society.”As we know it, it is the innovationgap that sharply divides the worldinto rich and poor countries. It is adivide between countries with thecapacity to innovate and those simplywith no or little capacity to doso. Advanced countries, already therichest in the world, are pulling awayto higher levels of innovation whilecountries in the developing worldcontinue to struggle just to keep pace.It is just common sense that to continuecompeting effectively in today’sglobal marketplace, we must work totransform this country to becomeone of the most creative and innovativenations on earth. To ensurelong-term success, we must buildsocial and institutional ecosystemsthat will engineer innovative leadershipat all levels in the country,and in all sectors of the economy.In classrooms and boardrooms;in factories and fisheries, in urbancenters and the rural heartland.Whether it is grassroot or high-end innovation,enabling ecosystems mustbe in place, to pervasively encourageground-breaking concepts and newdirections. We must be prepared tore-set our criteria to benchmark excellence,so as to ensure compatibilitywith future demands for innovation.We must reduce the rigidity of com-12 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 13

INNOVATE THE NATIONINNOVATE THE NATIONUnless the public and private sectors work as one team, and sharethe same vision, transformation to a high-income economy by 2020may not happen as quickly as we would like to envisage.pliance and conformity to encouragepervasive application of creativityin human capital development.We must design and engineer aneducation system to fully develop thepotential of our people, no matterwhere they are in the country. Thanksto new technology, in the nearfuture, the blind will be able to see,the deaf will be able to hear, and thedisabled will be able to drive and dive.Advanced nations are aggressivelyincreasing their innovation lead soas to widen their competitive lead.With no exception, the world's mostadvanced economies have builtempowering policies and enablingsystems designed to fast-track developmentof future-focused educationand cutting-edged innovation. Toeffectively compete with these countries,Malaysia must transform to bean innovation-driven economy.We are not short of talent, and theleadership to make it happen. Wemust first ensure that innovation ismade prevalent in every sector of industryand every corner of the country.The administration itself mustembrace innovation pervasively tostay compatible and be able to inspireand facilitate innovation across allMinistries and agencies. In so manyways we have come a long way.It is projected that by 2050, Malaysiawill be the 21st largest economy inthe world. Malaysia is ranked 12th inthe world for business friendliness aswell as in biodiversity. We are ranked14th in global business competitiveness:the highest placing among developingeconomies in Asia. And weare poised to overtake Hong Kongas the most preferred IPO destinationin Asia.We are ranked 14th innatural gas reserve and 28th in oilproduction. Malaysia is placed 24thin trade enabling, 20th in globalpeace and standing as the 10th mostfriendly country in the world.However, in creativity and innovationranking, we have some work todo, and some distance to cover.We are now ranked 32nd in theworld according to Global InnovationIndex in 2012. While we arerelatively strong in financial supportand economic infrastructure,we need to make stronger and fasterprogress in other innovation imperatives.In regulatory environment, westand at 70th, in education we standat 74th, in knowledge creation westand at 65th and in creative outputwe are at 62nd. Clearly, we need tocharge up on creativity and loosenup on compliance and conformity.Clearly, we need to strengthen ourenabling ecosystems. We need to revampor remove the rules and regulationsthat have become stumblingblocks. We need to bring everyonefrom everywhere in the country onboard.We want everyone to be included,and everyone to feel included.The private sector and the Governmentmust team up to identify theoutcomes we must achieve, anddesign the platforms that will buildWe must reduce the rigidity of compliance and conformity to encouragepervasive application of creativity in human capital development.the human capital, cultural capital,social capital and institutional supportessential to create this ecosystem.Unless the public and privatesectors work as one team, and sharethe same vision, transformation to ahigh-income economy by 2020 maynot happen as quickly as we wouldlike to envisage. Today, we are verypleased the Innovation Minister ishere to officiate the launch of theINOVASI NEGARA programme,which in itself is an innovative public-private-partnershipinitiative.INOVASI NEGARA is an effort designedby the University, and drivenjointly with Yayasan Inovasi Malaysiato reach the grassroots, right here inthe most high-tech part of the countryto everywhere else, including therural heartland of the country.The programme is estimated to costsome RM30 million annually toimplement. Its implementation willbe carried out in five parts. (see box)Going online and on mobile, wewill be able to connect with some 25million Malaysians, practically everyonewe want to reach in the country.With the guidance and unwaveringsupport of MOSTI, the encouragementof MOSTI Minister, and thesupportive leadership of the PrimeMinister himself, I can see no reasonnot to fully attain the goals we haveset out to achieve.On that note, I thank you once againfor your show of support by beinghere. We shall work on this together.INNOVASI NEGARA ROADMAPTo connect, we will be running a nationwideadvocacy campaign to promote inclusive innovation.To enable, we will be conducting workshopsthroughout the country to get as many peopleas possible to initiate on efforts aimed at creatinginnovative solutions. Acceleration centres will beset up to facilitate this endeavour.To empower, we will be delivering training programmesto empower 10,000 young peopleannually. This will generate an enlarged base ofyoung innovators throughout the country.To encourage, we will be recognising 300innovators annually across the country, from bothurban and rural sectors, who have created innovativesolutions worthy of recognition.To facilitate upward mobility, we have setaside 100 scholarships for students to take upcreativity driven programmes in Design Innovation,Product Innovation Creativity in SoftwareEngineering, Digital Media and BusinessInnovation.14 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 15

TRANSFORMING PUBLIC EDUCATIONTRANSFORMING PUBLIC EDUCATIONIDEAS :THE MOST VALUEDGLOBAL CURRENCYMalaysia’s Minister of Higher Education YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin tellsInnovation Leadership that the country’s ability to place the nation on the map willdepend on how well we can produce and export innovation.Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin with Limkokwing University president Tan Sri Dr Limkokwing at thelaunch of Malaysia's first ever Digital Innovation Centre in 2012.The Higher Education Minister Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin (center in red tie) says "EnterpriseCreation" is a priority area for the government.Unemployment is the world’sfastest rising concern. Somecountries are already seeing therepercussions of young people’sfrustrations with protests anddemonstrations for jobs. How doyou see this playing out for Malaysiain 2013?Today’s challenging economic situationmeans that it is no longer sufficientfor a new graduate to haveknowledge of an academic subject;increasingly it is necessary for studentsto gain other important skillswhich will enhance their prospectsof employment.As far as employment is concerned,the issue of graduate employabilityhas always been associated withgraduate marketability and competency.Part of the on-going debateon graduate employability is thelack of certain decisive factors thatfail to meet employers' demands.Other contributing factors towardsthe unemployment include economicfactors, the influx of graduates inthe job market, and their own lackof adaptability to the changingmarket needs.This scenario has limited the graduates’opportunity to infiltrate thejob market, taking into accountthat the country is in constant needof human capital that is competent,industrious, of high quality and ableto fulfil the industry’s requirements.Hence, Higher Education Institutions(HEI) must be responsive tothese changes. Historically, academicinstitutions have tended to serveas institutions for moral and intellectualdevelopment as well as centresof civilisation. With rapid economicdevelopment, they are nowmore utilitarian with emphasis onprofessional training. Their primetask is to ensure that education andtraining is market driven and responsiveto the changing needs ofthe various sectors of an economy.For HEI graduates, being employablemeans having the qualitiesneeded to maintain employmentand progress in the workplace. Employabilityfrom the perspective ofHEI is therefore about producinggraduates who are capable and able,and these impacts upon all areasof university life, in terms of thedelivery of academic programmesand extra curricula activities. Thus,the roles of HEI to enhance graduateemployability are embeddedinto two main components: curriculumand co-curriculum. Themain and fundamental questionsto be answered by us are whetherthose two components are able tohelp develop graduates with strongcharacters. Various measures havebeen initiated by the Ministryof Higher Education to enhancegraduate employability over thelast few years. The programmesand initiatives aim to mitigate theproblems of unemployed graduates.These initiatives among othersare the introduction of soft skillsmodules to embed communicationskills, leadership and teambuilding as well as reporting skillsinto the student’s curriculum ofstudies, establishment of GraduateEmployability Taskforce, launchingof Graduate Employability Blueprint,Modul Asas PembudayaanKeusahawanan (Basic EntrepreneurshipModules), Internship orIndustrial Training Programmes,and collaborative programmeswith the relevant industries.There are also a number of cocurriculumprogrammes that havebeen introduced by HEI includingInformal Training; EntrepreneurshipProgramme; Industry Partnership;International InternshipProgrammes; and finally throughInculcating Positive Values. We arealso currently looking at developingmore education products to furtherenhance student mobility suchas exchange programmes, studyabroad and credit transfers.What is a clear trend is that governmentcannot provide enoughjobs for the growing number ofgraduates, which is why entrepreneurshipis being emphasized.16 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 17

TRANSFORMING PUBLIC EDUCATIONTRANSFORMING PUBLIC EDUCATIONBut industry leaders - not just inMalaysia, but around the world -have long been talking about thedisconnect between educationsystems and market needs. It is agap that continues to be a challenge- what are some innovativeideas that the Ministry is lookingat to address this?The progress ofthis country, over the last four decadeswas possible because our entrepreneursare very, very vibrant.One of our main challenges now ishow to increase the level of this “enterprisecreation” and whether wecan continue to cultivate a strongculture of entrepreneurship in everysphere of Malaysian society.Such challenges require the Ministryto intervene by repositioning someof its strategic policy directions.Our HEIs must be seen as relevantto Malaysia’s economic needs. Ourrole goes beyond entrepreneurshipeducation per se. Our universitiesand its communities must be part ofwhat I call ‘the making of Malaysia’senterprise’. Thus we need to promoteholistic policy developmentin entrepreneurship education.The introduction of EntrepreneurshipDevelopment initiative for ourIHLs in 2010, I believe is a progressivemove. The policy aims to producegraduates with entrepreneurialmind-set and capabilities andto increase the number of graduateentrepreneurs besides nurturingentrepreneurial academics and researchers.The Ministry recognisesthat the success of this policy isvery much dependent on the supportand engagement of differentstakeholders, including the topmanagement of IHLs, academics,researchers, students, the alumniand industry. Another pre-requisiteis a conducive ecosystem supportingentrepreneurial development ofboth the students and staff of IHLs.Such a policy initiative is necessarydue to increasing interest in manycountries to foster an entrepreneurshipculture through universityeducation. Consequently, entrepreneurshipcourses have become oneof the fastest-growing disciplinesthroughout the world. The exponentialgrowth of entrepreneurshipas a field of research is evident interms of the number of researchers,articles, conferences and journals.Many associations and collaborationshave emerged worldwide.Entrepreneurship education caninfluence a young individual’s motivationto strive for somethingthat might otherwise seem impossible.Inspired, self-confident, talentedentrepreneurial graduatesare critical to national growth.They are more likely to start andlead dynamic new enterprises andsocial ventures as well as have thecapacity to transform the organizationsthey lead and manage.Through entrepreneurship educationprogrammes, IHLs can exposestudents to an environmentthat fosters entrepreneurial mindsets,behaviours and capabilities todeal with an increasingly complexand uncertain world. It is no longerenough to train students for acareer. Instead, IHLs must preparestudents to work in a dynamic, rapidlychanging entrepreneurial andglobal environment.Entrepreneurship education hasalso been identified as an effectivestrategy to enhance students’ propensityand desire to be entrepreneurs.Research reveals that enterprisesfounded by individuals withuniversity degrees built on and relatedto innovation, tend to growfaster than enterprises founded bynon-academically qualified. Andthese enterprises generate new jobsand often new innovative products,services and markets. As such, entrepreneurshipeducation has becomean important part of bothindustrial and educational policiesin many developed countries.It is indeed another milestone,another innovation achieved bythe Ministry of Higher Educationthrough close cooperation with theNational Centre for Entrepreneurshipin Education (NCEE), UK torecognise the most entrepreneurialuniversity of the year. I am gladto note that the EntrepreneurshipUnit of the Ministry has administeredand managed the wholeprocess successfully, together withNCEE and the secretariat of ourNational Entrepreneurship Councilof Higher Education (NECHE).The Ministry is proud to introducethe Entrepreneurial Awardsto act as a catalyst for the creationof a conducive environment anda holistic entrepreneurship developmentin local institutions ofhigher learning (IHLs). The mainaward, Entrepreneurial Universityof the Year Award, which is adaptedfrom Times Higher Education isalso meant to give recognition toIHLs with excellent achievement interms of promoting entrepreneurshipeducation and entrepreneurialdevelopment in their institutions.Limkokwing University students award the Minister a plaque to acknowledge him as an Innovator & Transformer.How do we make educators moreinnovative? Most universities arestaffed by career academicianswho have the most prolongedand sustained contact over a periodof years with students. Howdo we change their mind-set andapproach to teaching, projectsand examinations?We live in an era where the economyis based on knowledge, and whereideas are the most valued currency. Itis no surprise then that in this newenvironment, education has evolvedinto a commodity. Our ability tocompete on the global scale willdepend on the places we cultivateknowledge and ideas - our universitiesand higher education institutions.Our ability to place the nation onthe map will depend on how well wecan produce and export innovation.Aside from teaching and learning,the hallmark of a university is tocarry out Research and Development(R & D) and Innovation activitieswhich leads to improvingthe discovery of new knowledge,the commercialisation of productsproduced and wealth creation.Thus, if we are to expect a strengthenedR&D. IHLs should continueto become the hub of innovation,capable of producing excellent researchprojects, state-of-the-arttechnology as well as product innovationpatents for commercialisation.Research carried out for itsown sake may be well and good,but universities can no longer riskbeing just ivory towers insulatedfrom the rest of society. We need toplace more focus on R & D workthat will have a real and foreseeableimpact on communities.As such, the Ministry will continueto inspire and promote excellentpost graduate studies in order tomeet the growing demands and developmentof the modern era. Ona positive note, the number of postgraduates courses in public IHLs,which include Advanced Diploma,Masters and PhD, now stand at1,620 for all academic programmes.At the same time, the private IHLsare offering up to 850 courses, bothat Masters and PhD level, 671programmes for Masters and theremaining 179 courses for PhD.However, the graduate students atthese private IHLs are still small.Based on the current statistics in2012, there are only 203 and 2,84118 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 19

TRANSFORMING PUBLIC EDUCATIONTRANSFORMING PUBLIC EDUCATIONgraduate students for both PhDand Masters programmes. In comparison,public IHLs have a biggernumber of graduate students;2,169 and 14,813 respectively forboth Masters and PhD.We should also encourage IHLs todevelop a talent pool of high-levelintellectuals in post graduate studieswhich includes their lecturersto spur the growth of research andinnovation in the country. In thisregard, the Ministry has introducedthe MyBrain15 programme. Underthis initiative, the Governmentaims to produce a total of 60,000Malaysian PhD holders by 2023.The country requires a large pool ofPhDs to give impetus for sustainablegrowth of our economy.There are three schemes under thisprogramme namely MyMaster,MyPhD and Industrial MyPhD.Under the MyBrain15 Programme,the Ministry aims to sponsor40,000 students for MyMaster,5,000 students for MyPhD and500 students for Industrial MyPhd.It will be implemented in the nextfive years with a total budget ofRM780 million.As at November 12, 2012, a totalof 8,767 students have been offereda place for MyMaster, 1,381 forMyPhD and 93 for Industrial PhD,involving an allocation of RM130million for the three programmes(RM80 million for MyMaster andRM50 million for both MyPhDand Industrial MyPhD). For 2013,the Ministry has set a target of 8,000students for MyMaster, 1,000 studentsfor MyPhd and 100 studentsfor Industrial MyPhD. The Ministryhas been granted a bigger allocationfor next year, which translatesto about RM199 million; RM115million for My Master and anotherRM84 million for both MyPhDand Industrial MyPhD.There are now about ½ a milliontertiary students in the country.There have been a few programmeslaunched to fast-trackthe innovative mind-set of collegestudents such as Genovasi, whichis looking at a small elite group.Wouldn’t it be more widespreadand effective if the existing tertiarystructure is utilized to embedsuch programmes so it can reachmore people?No doubt that the success of a nationin the future is highly dependenton the efforts of all parties innurturing human capital whichis highly innovative, outstanding,competitive and having valueadded skills which can contributeto the further development of thenation and guarantee the stabilityof the economy.The Ministry of Higher Educationalways places greater attention tothe quality of graduates producedby institutions of higher learning(IHLs) in the country. We haveto aggressively partake in knowledgecreation and accumulation athigher level which has become oneof the major factors in economicdevelopment and is increasingly atthe core of a country’s competitiveadvantage, which is itself determinedby the ability to innovatein a continuous manner.It is our aim amongst the IHLs toproduce, wholesome graduates whonot only excel academically but alsoinnovative, resilient, and competitive,have an entrepreneurial spirit,are able to contribute positively toour society and become successfulindividuals. Knowledge creationand accumulation has become oneof the major factors in economicdevelopment and is increasinglyputting us at the core of the country’scompetitive advantage, whichis determined by the ability to innovatein a continuous manner.Student competitions like NST-Peugeot Design Competition;Imagine Cup Competition; RO-BOCON - are all about exploration,application, creativity,expansion and dissemination ofknowledge. These are clear effortsthat provide avenue for studentsto innovate and apply their passionand imagination into helping solvereal-world problems while gaininginvaluable experience outside theclassrooms.Competitions keep them competitive,and there is no doubt thatcompetition keeps the minds stimulatedand constantly in an activelearning mode. Aimed at encouragingsecondary and tertiary educationstudents to try their hand atautomotive design, the competitionentices them to sustain their interestfor better, bigger endeavours inthe future.The Ministry is also proud to introducethe Entrepreneurial Awards toact as a catalyst for the creation of aconducive and innovative environ-ment and a holistic entrepreneurshshipdevelopment in local institutionsof higher learning (IHLs).At present, only 23% of Malaysia’scurrent workforce is highlyskilled. Prime Minister DatukSeri Najib Razak said this numbermust rise to 37% by 2015 if itis to become a developed nationby 2020. We are no longer in amarathon; we are in the sprint tothe finish line. How do we closethat gap in real tangible terms?Today’s global economy has witnessedincreased competition betweennations to survive on theglobal stage. To survive in such acompetitive environment, nationshave to develop themselves especiallywith regard to human capital development,in order to ensure thatthey have the necessary resources tocompete at the international level.The higher education sector is centralto the Government’s economicand social transformation programmes.This is because the NewEconomic Model (NEM) is fundamentallybased on the revitalisation,through education, of societyat large. By this we mean that in ahigh value economy, the role of ahighly educated and sophisticatedworkforce becomes ever more critical.As outlined by the NEM, ourHigher Education sector needs tocreate an eco-system for innovation;increase local talent; retain and accessglobal talent; as well as establishstronger enabling institutions.These aims are reiterated in the 10thMalaysia Plan with its emphasis onthe role of the higher education sectoras the major generator of highlyskilled employable graduates.As the Minister of Higher Education,it is my responsibility to ensurethat we are able to producegraduates who have 21st centuryskills which are creative and innovative,and higher education institutionas the hub of innovation ofthe country.In this regard, Limkokwing University’sinitiatives towards providingquality education to produceinnovative and entrepreneurial humanresource, creating successfulpathways from R&D to innovationand commercialisation, and engagingwith communities are highlycommendable and indeed in linewith the goals of NEM.These efforts complement the variousinitiatives that the Ministry isembarking upon under the 10thMalaysia Plan in innovative humancapital development."Research carried out for its own sake may be well and good, but universities can no longer risk being justivory towers insulated from the rest of society," says Dato Seri Khaled (far right).20 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 21

Explore, Experimentand ExperiencePERMATA ’s innovative generationPERMATA Negara is a government-backedprogramme for innovative early childhood educationfor the rural and urban poor. The PrimeMinister’s wife YBhg. Datin Seri PadukaRosmah Mansor - as the patron and driving forceof PERMATA - talks to Innovation Leadershipmagazine about the successes, challenges andexpanding the model to the Middle-East.Datin Seri Paduka Rosmah Mansor (centre) flanked by Limkokwing students after being conferred theHonorary Doctor of Innovation in Human Capital Development in 2011.The PERMATA Negara programmehas been rolled out nationallyto 656 centres involving morethan 27,000 children. This is a bigachievement over a four-year period.How many more centres will beadded in 2013 and in which areas?The 656 centres not only cover thePrime Minister’s Department, buthave also been rolled out to respectivecounterparts involving the Ministryof Rural and Regional Development,the Department of National Unityand National Integration (JPNIN),the Family Development Foundationof Terengganu (YPKT), othervarious government agencies andrecently, the Ministry of Defence.With the continuous support fromthe local agencies and residents,and the growing demand for EarlyChildhood Education and Care, ourPrime Minister has reached out tothe people within Borneo to providemore PERMATA Centres, hencethe promised development of 8 newprojects in the Sabah region. Thedistricts targeted are Penampang,Kudat, Ranau, Kimanis, Sandakan,Kota Kinabalu, Batu Sapi and Putatan,on top of the existing five centresin Kota Belud, Tuaran, Papar,Matunggong and Beaufort.PERMATA is about innovatingearly childhood education.What specific steps have beentaken to ensure that the curriculumis innovative and that theteachers are up to speed aboutinnovative teaching techniques?Innovation as we all know in this newera covers not only on the developmentof physical and solid productsbut also extends to the innovation ofservices provided.The PERMATA Negara programmehas been constructed to be in linewith this new trend by combining latestadvancements in technology, facts,research and findings involving notonly the subject matter experts, butalso the real-time practitioners withinthe Early Childhood Education andCare industry to provide the best andup-to-date education service. The innovationefforts take into account the3E-component (explore, experimentand experiential-learning) highlightedas one of the uniqueness of thePERMATA Negara programme.To ensure such innovation is beingcontinuously implemented acrossthe board, it is of utmost importancethat constant revamping of modulesare being conducted throughseminars and workshops with thehelp from PERMATA Negara’slecturers, mentors and trainers,and also inputs from other parts ofthe world.What have been the top 3 challengesyou have faced in implementing thisprogramme?PERMATA Negara:i. Injecting the importance of ECECin children’s brain and mental developmentupon achieving the long-termgoal of producing first class humancapital by year 2020.ii. Getting parents’/guardians’ cooperationin the 4-hours mandatoryinvolvement with the children due tohectic schedules, job shifts and inflexibleworking environment.iii. Providing optimum service dueto the very limited sources of teachersspecifically with Early ChildhoodEducation background.PERMATA Pintar:i. To shift the mainstream/traditionallearning styles of the students to thecenter’s differentiated learning approach.Mostly, the students of thecenter have developed a particularlearning style through their previousgovernment schools, which focus onteacher-centered approach in the classroom.Coming into the center withsuch learning culture, the students feelapprehensive about the new learningenvironment provided in the centre.ii. To shift the mindset of the studentsfrom exam-oriented/rote-memorizationto inquiry-based learning orresearch-based learning. The centrepromotes inquiry-based learning becausethe aim is to mould and producethinkers in the future. Thus, to changetheir mindset, which has been shapedto be exam-oriented for at least nine22 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 23

TRANSFORMING PUBLIC EDUCATIONTRANSFORMING PUBLIC EDUCATIONYABhg Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor receiving an Honorary Doctorate for "Extraordinary Leadership inSultanah Hajjah Kalsom DK, witnessed by the Prime Minister YAB Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak andTransformational Human Capital Development" from the University’s Royal Chancellor, DYMM Sultanah PahangTan Sri Dato' Sri Paduka Dr Limkokwing.years, is a great challenge specifically forthe instructors.entire nation.ii. The low-demand ofmale participant.ing the programme to other targetedhousing areas.mentors to conduct the programmeeffectively.as compared to those who have notenrolled in the programme.used in the classroom in deliveringthe curriculum.iii. To receive more financial supportfrom the public and privatesectors especially in running thecenter as well as for students’ scholarships.Apart from running thecentre as a school, another role is togarner financial support from varioussources.PERMATA Seni:i. Learning sessions are conducted periodically(weekly) and centrally, makingit impossible to reach out to theiii. Scouting for and getting talentedand highly capable candidates whofulfill the PERMATA Seni criterion.PERKASA Remaja:i. To create mass awareness to ensurethat the programme reaches out to atriskyouths. Currently, the programmeis limited among at-risk youths at theLembah Pantai housing area only.ii. To get a better location/premise forthe Activity Centre, as well as extend-iii. To conduct trainings for qualifiedstaff as to encourage the conduct andrunning of programme by themselvesin the future.PERMATA Insan:i. Promoting and encouraging participationinto the programme.ii. The conduct and implementationof the Ujian Kecenderungan AgamaUSIM-1.iii. Employing the right teachers andWhat kind of feedback have parentsgiven re the Permata programmeabout how their children have improvedafter undergoing the Permataprogramme?PERMATA Negara:To-date, there are very minimal, almostzero negative feedback aboutthe programme as most parents havetestified to the effectiveness of the programmein developing independent,self-motivating and brighter childrenPERMATA Pintar:Overall, parents are satisfied withthe PERMATA Pintar EducationalProgramme. Among others, theyfavour the curriculum structure implementedby the centre. The centerapplies compacting and acceleratingapproach which allows students tolearn new topics beyond the SPMlevel curriculum In addition, bothparents and students seem to preferthe differentiated learning approachPERMATA Seni:The programme has enabled talentedyouths to express their capabilitiesand unearth talents in the field ofarts. But most importantly, throughthe programme, these youths are offeredfirst class seats to trainings andclasses by some of the renowned localmentors and industry practitioners.PERKASA Remaja:In terms of entrepreneurship, mostof the youths are able to do their own24 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 25

TRANSFORMING PUBLIC EDUCATIONLEADERSHIP AWARD FOR LIMKOKWING EDUCATIONYbusiness from the skills they learnedand acquired through the KomunitiPERKASA program. After joiningPERKASA Remaja, parents found thattheir children have various talents, especiallyin culinary and fine arts, as wellas photography. These teenagers havealso grown better in managing theirdaily lives, time and relationships withnot only their family but those aroundthem. The youths now spend moreleisure time at home rather than hangingout with their friends, and someof the female youths have turned forthe better religiously by wearing hijabon top of praying 5 times a day. Theseteenagers have such high respect forthemselves and others around, and areseen to be more confident and modest.PERMATA Insan:Parents have expressed their utmostgratitude since the commencement ofthe programme as they have seen dramaticimprovements in their children’soverall performance academically, sociallyand spiritually. It has been saidthat these youths have not only beenable to conduct themselves with goodmanners, but have also proven to beable to relate to the Al-Quran and Hadithswith the current global situationand peer pressure. Other than that,parents request for the mentors to be ofthe same gender when it comes to oneon-onecoaching/mentoring session.At the recent World InnovationSummit for Education YBhg DatinSeri said that Permata is collaboratingwith international partners suchas Centre for Talented Youth, JohnHopkins University, Pen GreenCentre, Early Childhood Educationand Care (ECEC) in the UK andMawhibah Foundation of Kingdomof Saudi Arabia. Could youtell us specifically which areas of collaborationPermata will be workingon with them and what innovationsyou will be looking at to furtherstrengthen the Permata programme?i. Pen Green Centre – collaboration incurriculum/module building.ii. John Hopkins University – PER-MATA pintar summer camp.iii. Mawhibah Foundation of Kingdomof Saudi Arabia – PERMATAInsan exchange programme, in termsof education implementation and deliveryand information-sharing.In October 2012, it was reportedthat Permata Negara is to cooperatewith the Qatar Education Foundationto develop an Asian early childhoodeducation programme to ensurethat everyone has access to goodeducation. Could YBhg Datin Serielaborate what this cooperation willinvolve and what are its aims?The Qatar Education Foundationcame to PERMATA in efforts to seekexpertise within the Early ChildhoodEducation and Care industry whichhas boomed in Malaysia and beingeffectively implemented throughoutthe nation upon achieving educationexcellence starting from the early ages.PERMATA Negara and Qatar EducationFoundation have mutually agreedto develop an Early Childhood Educationcurriculum and programme suitablefor Asian countries, which willlater on be rolled out to Saudi Arabiaas a start.What is the medium-term vision forPermata going forward?For PERMATA Negara: To implementa full-fledged ECEC curriculumto the entire nation, especially targetingthose in the rural and suburbanareas.For PERMATA Pintar: To producegifted and talented students who areable to link knowledge to practice, tobe leaders in their own field, creativeand innovative in developing newideas, socially competent, responsiblecitizens and entrepreneurs whowill contribute to the new economicmodel of the country.For PERMATA Seni: Nurturing,softening and polishing talents andskills, apart from providing a solidplatform for the talented and gifted togrow in a professional manner.For PERMATA Insan: To providethe best in Islamic education byenrolling the enhanced and enrichedPERMATA Insan Module,National Education Curriculumand University Curriculum, ontop of the mandatory attendanceof camps being conducted twice ayear, as a preparation to sit for theSPM exam.For PERKASA Remaja: To prioritizeon programme enrollment to participantsfrom the Lembah Pantai neighbourhood,involved in committing offencesparticularly in illegal motorcycleracing.What is for YBhg Datin Seri, themost important milestone or successfor Permata to-date?It has to be in achieving first class humancapital, in line with our PrimeMinister’s National Mission towards aninnovative nation, and realizing one ofthe targeted 10th Malaysian Plan goals.US Innovation LeadershipAward for Limkokwing’stransformational education"Research carried out for its own sake may be well and good, butuniversities can no longer risk being just ivory towers insulated fromthe rest of society," says Dato Seri Khaled (far right).The new year got off to a dynamicstart for Limkokwing Universityfounder president Tan Sri Dato SriPaduka Dr Limkokwing when hewas honoured with the TransformationalInnovation award from a USbasedorganization in February.The award was conferred by theAmerican Leadership DevelopmentAssociation (ALDA), an internationalleadership development networkbased in the United States.“We have met a lot of great leaders,people who have made a great impactaround the world, but once ina while, there are some exceptionallygreat leaders who don’t just inspireothers, but create organisations, createsystems, platforms for people toadd value to themselves,” said ALDAExecutive Director Arthur Carmazziwho presented the award.“This award is not just about beingan innovative leader, it’s aboutmaking a difference in the world,and this organisation has made agreat difference in people acrossthe world,” added Carmazzi duringthe Lecture Series on InnovationalLeadership held at the LimkokwingCyberjaya campus.The award presentation took placeas part of ALDA’s ‘Lecture Series onInnovational Leadership’ event featuringCarmazzi, who is also a bestsellingauthor and ranked one of theTop 10 most influential leadershipgurus in the world. When conferringthe award, Carmazzi called TanSri Limkokwing an extraordinaryleader who creates environmentsthat benefit a lot of people.During his acceptance speech, TanSri Limkokwing spoke of howmuch the award means to him as“it comes from a country whereinnovation has driven its globalsuccess and its enterprises lead inmany ways, changing, leading andinspiring the world with stunningnew ideas.”The lecture series was organized bybusiness publication The LeadersInternational, featuring Carmazziwho spoke on ‘Innovational Leadership’,and the Founder, Presidentand Professor of Leadership Studiesat the Institute for Leadershipand Global Education (ILGE) Dr.John Keenan who talked about‘Emerging Trends in Leadershipand Management Education andDevelopment’The event also saw a collaborationsealed between ALDA, The LeadersInternational and LimkokwingUniversity in building innovationalleadership in the next generationthrough activities, seminars, talksand workshops to be held throughoutthe world.26 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 27

EDUCATION FOR AFRICAEDUCATION FOR AFRICAlooking to build their skills,” saysTan Sri Limkokwing. Today, theBotswana campus is already a regionalhub for creative education, attractingstudents from 16 countries- from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ghana,India, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania,Nigeria, Zambia, Namibia, Djibouti,Lesotho, Guyana, Swaziland,Pakistan and Tonga Island.Creating a relevant model ofeducation for Africa.A long-time advocate of theneed for East-West integrationin education, Tan Sri Limkokwingmakes a riveting case that apurely Western model of educationis obsolete in today’s world.“Parachuting in a Western modelof education doesn’t work for poorand emerging economies,” he explains.“They are at a different stagein their development. Besides everycountry is different and we neededto look at what each country’s visionwas for its future and align our programsand content to their needs.That is what makes us different.”He is not just focused - he is tireless- in his quest to make the worldmore equitable by redefining whatit means to be educated for youngpeople in some of the poorer partsof Asia and Africa. “Technology isthe game changer,” Tan Sri Limkokwingsays. “It has opened up theworld to Africa and Africa to theworld. These young people at ourcampuses are learning on the latestcomputers using the latest softwarethat are used in our campus in Malaysiaand London for example. Weare innovating program contentand delivery all the time - we wantour graduates to be entrepreneursbecause that’s where the promise ofthe future is for most countries."The university has awarded scholarshipsworth RM200 million(US$64.1 million) to Asian and Africanstudents in the form of full tuitionscholarships and partial subsidies offees. In African campuses, the scholarshipsare 50% less than it is in Malaysiaand London for degree, associatedegree and certificate programs.Limkokwing graduates from the African campuses are so confident that many of them choose to be comeentrepreneurs rather than employees.During a visit to the Botswana campus in late 2012, Tan Sri Limkokwing was 'mobbed' by students who wantedto hear his words of wisdom.Malaysia’s University ofInnovationIn 2012, in recognition of LimkokwingUniversity’s leadershipin the teaching and inculcating ofinnovative content and delivery,Malaysia’s Ministry of HigherEducation conferred the universitythe title Malaysia’s University ofInnovation, the only such universityto be so honoured. In 2009,Malaysia’s Minister of Science,Technology and Innovation DatukDr Maximus Johnity Ongkili namedTan Sri Limkokwing the Fatherof Innovation in Creative Education.“The title is truly deserved…theFather of Innovation in CreativeEducation in Malaysia, in the regionand in fact globally. I thinkthe record speaks for itself,” said theMinister.He earned the title for translatinghis vision of creative educationinto a global university that spansthree continents, with campusesin Botswana, Cambodia, China,Indonesia, Lesotho, Malaysia,Swaziland and United Kingdom.Over 30,000 students from morethan 150 countries are studyingin Limkokwing University.Tan Sri Lim is on a mission toexpand his university footprintthroughout Africa; and on his radarare university campuses in Kenya,Uganda, Nigeria, Sierra Leoneand Rwanda - all scheduled to beopen within the next 18 months.“I want to do as much as I can tobring education to those who needit within the shortest possible time.The world is constantly changing.With new inventions and innovationthe change is happening veryrapidly. To be able to think creativelyis to be equipped with the most importantsurvival tool for the future.”30 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 31

THE MANDELA FACTORTHE MANDELA FACTORThe Mandela FactorBy Faridah HameedWhen the world erupted with thecelebration of Nelson Mandela’swin in South Africa’s first democraticelection in 1994, few peopleknew that Tan Sri Limkokwingplayed a key role in the votereducation campaign.He was the mind behind theiconic campaign image of smilingMandela surrounded by childrenof all races. Though Limkokwingis too humble to acknowledgeit, the posters on shanty townwalls, speaks volumes about hiscreative genius in being on themoney about a message thatwould emotionally resonate withSouth Africans and the world.“Politically, he was like a god tothe black South Africans, andthe white South Africans hada healthy respect for him,” saysTan Sri Limkokwing. “Whenhe showed up to speak, half amillion people would show up.“He’s a very clever communicatorand a rousing orator. Hecould move quickly from onelevel to the next. “He reads hisgame very well in any situation,in front of any audience. Hiseyes and mind are very sharp.”To be a part of that historic eventwas life changing for him onso many levels; the months hewould spend traversing the countrywas a turning point in his life.It contained many life lessons incommunication and peace fromthe charismatic Mandela, andlessons in gratitude and humilityfrom the South African people.The South African experiencehad lit a fire in Limkokwing thateveryone had a role to play inthe universal story of hope and abetter future. He was filled withgratitude for the opportunitieshe had. And he wanted that forevery young person on the planet.While Tan Sri Limkokwing’s rolein the 1994 South African electionsmay be a footnote in the historybooks, his role over the last 19 yearsin transforming education for youngAfricans in Malaysia and in Africais surely the stuff of legend itself.Note: This article is partially excerptedfrom the upcoming book TRANS-FORM AFRICA which chroniclesthe story of the education movementstarted by Tan Sri Limkokwing inAfrica and how it is transforming theworld’s most populous youth continent.On June 19 2008, Limkokwing University of Creative Technology bestowedan Honourary Doctorate of Humanity upon Dr. Nelson Mandela. Tan SriLimkokwing personally presented the honour at the Mandela Foundationin Johannesburg. Mandela, who was already 90 years old, could not attendthe ceremony. He was represented by his close friend, Achmat Dangor,who had fought for independence together with him.The iconic "A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL" was conceptualized and designed byTan Sri Limkokwing for ANC.When news of the African National Congress’ (ANC) win reached Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dr Mahathir- who was leading a Malaysian delegation in Zimbabwe at that time, it was Tan Sri Limkokwing whoarranged a private meeting between the two long-time friends so that Dr Mahathir could offer NelsonMandela his congratulations in person. Introducing the Malaysian delegation to Mandela, Dr Mahathirwas suddenly stopped by Mandela just as he was about to introduce Limkokwing. Mandela turned to DrMahathir and said: “Let me introduce you to a South African,” as he smiled at Limkokwing.A PERSONAL NOTE FROM MANDELA“It is with great pleasure and gratitude that I write to thank you and your team for the tremendous contributionyou have given our election campaign. Your untiring efforts on our behalf have touched thehearts of us all and you have shown true friendship and solidarity with the people of South Africa in ourendeavour to transform South Africa into a free, just and democratic country. The size and magnitude ofyour contribution will have a very meaningful impact on the outcome of the election and, on behalf ofthe people of South Africa, I thank you”.32 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 33

ASIAN-LED WEB CREATIVITYW3D’S SLEW OF U.S. WINSSHOWCASE ASIAN-LED WEBCREATIVITYBy Faridah Hameed.In the world of web excellence, a home grown companymakes its mark on the global stage as a prolificaward winner up against world-class names.ASIAN-LED WEB CREATIVITYWhen one talks of internet and socialmedia wizardry, often it is Americancompanies like Google and Facebookthat dominate the conversation.But right here in Malaysia, we havea company that has been breakingall kinds of records in cyberspaceglobally and certainly on track toliving up to its name - World WideWeb Domination (W3D).W3D is the web team under theCentre for Content Creation (CCC)which is part of the LimkokwingUniversity of Creative Technologygroup. This website and all otherwebsites under the LimkokwingNetwork are designed, developedand maintained by W3D.Since its inception in 2009, theW3D has won over 100 awardsinternationally, most from the topweb awards organization in the US.W3D is dominated by dedicatedteam players who are all alumni below30 years of age and for themwinning is all in a day’s work to comeup with some amazing stuff.Along the way, these young menand women have placed the countryon the same pedestal as worldclassnames such as DreamWorks,Paramount, Levi’s, Walt Disney,Nissan, Pizza Hut, FIAT, Hewlett-Packard, Alcatel Lucent, Mattel,Pepsi, MTV, Samsung, Yahoo!among other distinguished brands.For the man leading this multi-awardwinning team of young tech-savvyunder 30s web and video maestros,the achievements reflect his passionto showcase Asian web and mediaexcellence as on par - and in manycases - or even better than the West.Instrumental to the team’s achievement- says Vice President, IT System& Integration, Dato' Timothy LimKok Wing Jr. - is that the talent employedmust have the right mindset.That he says has been the reason theteam has attracted the cream of thecrop of young talent who want tomake their mark professionally inthe global web space. W3D strivesto create visually stunning websitesthat are embedded with information,functionality, usability, accessibilityand user-friendliness.When Dato Timothy took over theday-to-day management of the unit,he solidified and streamlined thecompany's structure and deliverables.As the only son and heir apparentof Limkokwing University founderTan Sri Dato Sri Dr Limkokwingmany may think that he had the unithanded to him on a silver platter andhad all the financial resources to getit going.He is amused by this, pointing outthat when he took over CCC, it wasnot turning a profit and was located ina cramped space, with very few talent.34 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 35

ASIAN-LED WEB CREATIVITYASIAN-LED WEB CREATIVITYDato Timothy Lim (left) is the fearless leader of the young tech-savvy W3D team that has stamped its globaldominance with over 100 wins for web creativity and innovation.Limkokwing University is a globalized university, with 80per cent of students from all over the world. “For every 10 jobapplications I receive, six are from our foreign graduates.”“When I took over, CCC was languishingfrom a lack of stability andfocus. But that was a plus for me becauseit gave me a lot of freedom todo what I wanted to do with it. Theunit had diminished to an extent thatwhat was left was hard-core creativepeople,” he admits with a grin, wordsthat are reminiscent of every youngtech start up founder.CCC today is structured into threedepartments: Website, Film & TVand Animation. It is the software armof company - employing 60 staff ofwhich almost 80 per cent are alumni.Of this, 70 per cent are foreign- all alumni of the university. It alsocomprises the IT arm of the Universitywhich oversees all the hardwareneeds of the university’s 12 campusesaround the world.With technology moving so fast, theteam at CCC is on their toes to maintainthe University’s cutting edge innovativepresence on the Web. Theyare currently working on V8 (version8) of the website aimed to act moreas a platform featuring more alumnisuccess stories.“We look at page views, time spenton the site to understand the flowday-to-day management of the unit,he solidified and streamlined thecompany's structure and deliverables.As the only son and heir apparentof Limkokwing University founderTan Sri Dato Sri Dr Limkokwingmany may think that he had theunit handed to him on a silverplatter and had all the financialresources to get it going.He is amused by this, pointing outthat when he took over CCC, it wasnot turning a profit and was located ina cramped space, with very few talent.“When I took over, CCC was languishingfrom a lack of stability andfocus. But that was a plus for me becauseit gave me a lot of freedom todo what I wanted to do with it. Theunit had diminished to an extentthat what was left was hard-core creativepeople,” he admits with a grin,words that are reminiscent of everyyoung tech start up founder.CCC today is structured into threedepartments: Website, Film & TVand Animation. It is the softwarearm of company - employing 60staff of which almost 80 per centare alumni. Of this, 70 per cent areforeign - all alumni of the university.It also comprises the IT arm ofthe University which oversees all thehardware needs of the university’s 12campuses around the world.With technology moving so fast, theteam at CCC is on their toes to maintainthe University’s cutting edge innovativepresence on the Web. Theyare currently working on V8 (version8) of the website aimed to act moreas a platform featuring more alumnisuccess stories.“We look at page views, time spenton the site to understand the flowand adjust to that,” he says. “Whenwe had the older version of the website,the About page was the first thingpeople saw but we looked throughthe flow data, we discovered that it’snot the first thing people looked at.They went to the Courses page. So inVersion 7 which is the current version,we have made the courses moreprominent.”Finding the right talent“From the beginning, we have beennon-negotiable about having peoplewith a similar mindset,” explainsDato Timothy in his first ever extensiveinterview on CCC. “I tell peopledon’t come to CCC if you want anLimkokwing's Mobile Academy's goal is to reach 100 million peoplefrom around the world.easy life - a 9 to 5 life. Join us if youwant a challenge.“Our job applications are open toall, but we find that alumni have theLimkokwing creative culture and aretechnically very sound. I would like toincrease the percentage of Malaysiansin CCC but the current mix bodeswell for the global working environmentand global mindset of the staff.“A mixed environment is critical ifwe want to produce work of internationalquality,” he says bluntly.“You want to be able to understandthe different mindsets and values ofpeople from all over the world if youwant to be able to produce work thatresonates with universal values as wellas specific socio-cultural values as wedo for some clients.”Also, he adds, Limkokwing Universityis a globalized university, with80 per cent of students from all overthe world. “For every 10 job applicationsI receive, six are from our foreigngraduates.”The bottom line, he adds, is that“there’s just a plain shortage oflocals” who have the abilities, butprefer to work in Singapore orHong Kong because of higher salariesand better benefits.“It’s a situation every tech companyin Malaysia faces. There is no way wecan compete with the salaries being offeredin Singapore and Hong Kong.”“Personally, I would like to see amore 50-50 ratio of Malaysians andforeigners so we have a nice balance."Also, I’d like to see more women inthe team and I think that will happensoon as we’re seeing more womenstudying multimedia and IT.”36 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 37

ASIAN-LED WEB CREATIVITYASIAN-LED WEB CREATIVITYFrom mid-2011 till now, the Lesotho High Commission websitehas been visited by close to 4,000 visitors from 106 countries.Entrepreneurship platformA key mission for CCC - evidencedby its prolific award wins - is to be amodel and platform for multimediaand web entrepreneurship for studentsand the public.This they do by holding true to thefour guiding principles - Innovation,Culture, Education and Businessand Philanthropy - a reflectionof the mission of the University’sfounder Tan Sri Limkokwing.“Currently the University is our biggestclient,” explains Dato Timothy.“It often acts as the agency as well,because many clients approach theUniversity directly to develop multimediaprojects.”The overarching philosophy inbusiness development is to tryand follow the customer’s requirement.But internally, the philosophyis to take the long view.“We take into account what the customerwants, but at the same time,we take the long view. That meansignoring current trends.”“Our start point isn’t looking at thetechnology,” he explains. “We tryto look at needs and how best thoseThe new Lesotho High Commision home page won the U.S. Davey Awards.needs can be met not just for now,but in the long-term.”But dealing with clients who don’tunderstand the internet and webspace has its challenging moments,admits Dato Timothy wryly.“They have a lack of interest in understandingthe space, that’s whatconcerns me. Also some of theolder clients sometimes look at theInternet and Web grudgingly. Theyhave never depended on the Webto build their business. I can understandtheir logic, but they haveus younger people to advise themand they could be more open.”He sees a similar trend with governmentagencies.“These agencies need to make changes.Facebook and Twitter are a goodstart and show good intention, butthey could do better in communicatingand interacting with the public,”he says. “Within government agencies,they have young people whounderstand FB and Twitter and theyshould be trusted to handle it.”Making education accessible tothe worldWith innovation as its core guidingprinciple, the CCC team lives andbreathe to develop platforms andapplications designed to reflect innovativelearning for young people, aswell as for the world.CCC has developed a student portalwhich is a game changer in howstudents learn. It is an extensionIn 2012, the University's website registered260 million hits from 222 countriesand territories worldwide, a feat believedto be unmatched by others.of the classroom, amplifying thestudent learning experience suchas students being able to see eachother’s work not just in Malaysia,but in other campuses as well. Thisalso includes access to a huge archiveof previous students’ work.Another major achievement is theMobile Academy which was thebrainchild of Tan Sri Limkokwing.“It came out of discussions we hadwith Tan Sri, of his mission to makeeducation accessible anytime anywherefor anyone who wanted tolearn,” Dato Timothy explains. “TheAcademy content is free and it’savailable on the mobile phone. Essentially,if you have a Smartphone,you can have access. The content hasbeen distilled from our courses intobite-sized knowledge.”The CCC team, he adds, is workingon the second version of the Academy,which is going to be SMS compatibleand will be integrated withthe main platform.Making a web and mobile footprintin AfricaLimkokwing University has a strongpresence on the African continent -with campuses in Botswana, Lesothoand Swaziland with several morescheduled to open this year.As his team is instrumental in settingup the hardware (read: gettingthe latest PCs, Macs and laptops forthe students as well as organizing theinternet access), it is no surprise thatdoing so on foreign soil has given themmany sleepless nights, particularly inthe run up to a campus opening.“In Africa, things move slowly becausethe local suppliers are smalland they work at a slower pace,” hesays. “ Logistically, things are very expensivebecause the flow of productsis through Europe, Middle East andSouth Africa.Initially, things were very difficult,but luckily now, we have finallyfound a few core partners who canmatch us internationally.”In fact, it was Dato Timothy and histeam that brought Acer to Lesotho,opening up the market for the computercompany to provide laptopsfor Limkokwing students there.The team has also notched anothermilestone for Lesotho by setting upa spanking new website for the LesothoHigh Commission in KualaLumpur.The website was designed by a groupmade up of three Malaysians, oneMauritian and a Mosotho studentstudying at the University.CCC's Associate Director, MichaelPan Sin says his team took two monthsto complete the website once it was approved.The first challenge to designing thewebsite was the lack of information, aswell as the fact that most of them had38 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 39

ASIAN-LED WEB CREATIVITYno knowledge of the country knownas Lesotho. “The result of our researchshowed that most embassy or highcommission websites were presentedin a very boring way,” he says.Since the www.lesothokualalumpur.org website was launched in April2011, it has won four internationalawards—three Davey Awards andone from the Web Marketing Associationin the United States.Some of the categories that thewebsite competed in include tourism,best practices and homepage.The website won the silver awardfor all three categories. Since it waslaunched in the middle 2011 tillnow, the website has been visitedby close to 4,000 visitors from 106countries.The High Commissioner of TheKingdom of Lesotho Ntsebe Kokomesaid the website for the LesothoHigh Commission in Malaysiaprovides vital information to its onlinevisitor for investment and travelpurpose.“This is a high point for my countrybecause these awards bring attentionto the opportunities that are availablein Lesotho.“I am very happy to have mooted theidea to build this website and I feelthat no one could have done such asterling job in designing the websiteas my country’s most valued partnerin human capital development—Limkokwing University,” she says.Record breaking numbers onthe WebCCC’s ability to sync creativitywith a carefully implementedonline presence across various socialmediums on the internet hasbeen instrumental to its recordbreakingnumbers on the Web.In 2012, Limkokwing University’sofficial website registered 260 millionhits from 222 countries andterritories worldwide, a feat believedto be unmatched by others.Yet another achievement has beenthe online success of the 1Malaysiasong produced by the Universityin 2011 to promote nationalharmony and patriotism. Justone year after the song was officiallyuploaded on YouTube, thevideo exceeded 500,000 viewswith people from all over theworld commenting on it.As of January 2013, the song hasgone past 4.2 million hits from179 countries as the song appearsto cross international bordersseamlessly. But wait, that’s not all.What makes this even moreamazing is that this is a patrioticsong which normally wouldn’tattract this kind of attentionfrom the online community.Not social media!When asked about the University’sfuture plans to be moreintegrated in social media, DatoTimothy doesn’t mince his words.“I hate the term social media!"he says. I’m just waiting for theday the term is dropped. I see noseparation between the web andsocial. It’s common sense!“When it comes to the Web,forget about 5-year plans. Thinkonly of the overall objective andthink of particular products asadd-ons."Finally, what is his most importantpiece of advice to buddingtech entrepreneurs?Trying to be the Facebook becauseof the fame or money is avery bad idea, he says.“Tech companies are in the limelightbecause of how they areaccelerating change in their industries.Technology is all aboutpeople.The fundamental goal is to enrichpeople’s lives. It is about enablingpeople. For a lot of people, it isan extension of a person’s minda collective hive of knowledge.Technology is just an enabler. Inthe end, it’s a numbers game.”“I hate the term social media!" he says. I’m just waiting forthe day the term is dropped. I see no separation between theweb and social. It’s common sense!”40 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 41

STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVEGanesh Kumar Bangahhas built a multi-milliondollar company by spottingtrends and meetingneeds, and constantlyinnovating to stay aheadof the game.By Emily LohGAME ONWith MOLFew people can claim to have founded and listed a company, and made ChiefExecutive Officer by 23. Ganesh Kumar Bangah is one of them.were willing to use their credit cardsto make online payments. We decidedto leverage our partnershipswith the cyber cafés and convertthem into payment centres. Bear inmind there were no wifi outlets backthen and Internet penetration wasnot as wide yet; these were the firstconnected centres.”The cyber cafés were required to prebuya certain amount of points fromBangah, which they could resell totheir customers and earn a 10 percent profit. The points became thecurrency by which customers couldtransact online without worryingabout fraud and security.charging. “There was this game thateveryone was playing. It was free-toplaybut I had a hunch that wouldchange soon. So I went to the gamepublisher in Korea and got the exclusiverights for the game in SouthEast Asia. When it went pay-to-play,gamers had to buy our points to payfor access to the game.”He had hit a sweet spot. The newbusiness model made the points,now known as MOLPoints, the onlinecurrency of choice for gamers –a position Bangah has continued tostrengthen by partnering with over200 online games and content publishersfrom around the world.The Group CEO of MOL GlobalPte Ltd’s tale is one of perseveranceand persistence. The savvy Internetentrepreneur was often ahead of histime but found commercial successin online gaming payment services.Still an undergraduate when hestarted out, he managed to convinceTan Sri Vincent Tan of BerjayaGroup to back his vision and turnedthat investment into a multi-millionringgit company.A computing enthusiast, Bangahbegan by selling a cyber café managementsoftware he had developedtogether with a partner. In the dotcombubble of the 2000s, he decidedto give it away in exchange forthe rights to control the first screenviewed by patrons thus enablinghim to control eyeballs. But he soonfound out making money from onlineadvertising in pre-Google Ad-Words days was not at all easy, evenwhen one owned prime real estateamong a captive audience.He then switched his focus to thepayment business instead. “The Internetwas just growing in popularityat the time but not many peopleBut e-commerce was a new conceptduring the early 2000s, whichmeant there was a limited market forthe points.So Bangah did what any astute entrepreneurwould do – he createdone for them, first by selling reloadcoupons online and then later, onlinegaming. His big break camewhen he rightly predicted that a thenhugely popular cyber café-basedgame from Korea would soon startThe World of MOL GlobalToday, the MOL Global empiregenerates over US$150 million inrevenue per annum, processing approximatelyRM1.58bil worth oftransactions. It was recognised asone of Asia Pacific’s fastest growingtechnology companies in the DeloitteTechnology Fast 500 Asia PacificAwards in 2005 and 2006, andwon a Merit Award for the Best E-Commerce Application in the MSC42 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 43

STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVESTAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVEMalaysia Asia Pacific ICT Awards.Bangah estimates that the companyranks among the top five leaders ingames payment globally.MOL Global offers seven key productsand services under subsidiariesMOL AccessPortal Sdn Bhd andFriendster: MOLPoints (online micropaymentsystem), MOLReloads(electronic prepaid distribution infrastructure),MOLCards (multiapplicationprepaid cards), MOLPay(online payment system for micromerchants),Friendster (social gamingnetwork), Friendster Hotspots(free wireless Internet service) andFriendster iCafe (cyber café managementsystem).MOLPoints is the leading business,accounting for about one-third ofsales and 80 per cent of profits.The reload business is significantalthough Bangah says margins arevery thin. Its fastest growing businessis MOLPay, which makes up only20 per cent but has a potential theGroup CEO is keeping a keen eyeon.The company’s dominance comesfrom having both content andchannel, an imperative as contentproviders and channel partners areonly willing to enter into partnershipwhen both are present. This isfurther strengthened by its completepayment universe encompassingonline and offline channels, whichinclude 600,000 physical retail paymentchannels across 80 countries,88 online banks in nine countries,and major international paymentsystems like PayPal and Moneygram.While the company has competitorsin every vertical in which it operates,no single one mounts a considerablechallenge because none has the extensivedistribution that Bangah hasbuilt up over the last 11 years.This was further enhanced when in2009, MOL Global acquired pioneersocial networking site Friendsterfor a reported US$100million.Bangah said in a media statement,"The merger with Friendster willcontinue to transform the socialnetworking industry, combining ahighly intuitive and successful socialmedia site and online marketingchannel with an integrated paymentplatform and content networkwhich includes games, goods, gifts,music and video."Elaborating on the purchase Bangahadds, “We did not buy Friendsterto compete with Facebook. MOLwas at the time mainly a Malaysianbrand while Friendster is a globalone; owning it would help raisethe profile of our brand. Plus it hadintellectual properties which havesince given us reasonable financialreturns.” The portfolio of social networkingpatents were sold to Facebookfor USD40million. The dealalso includes advertising, a partnershipfor payments for virtual goods,and cash.Friendster’s 115 million communitywas another reason for the acquisition.“MOL has good monetization.At the time of the (Friendster)purchase, we had 200,000 membersout of which six per cent spentRM150 a month. Friendster had100 million members. We thoughtif we could get one to two per centof their members to become MOLmembers it would be quite substantial.”He has made good on that byincreasing the MOL membershipto two million within the four yearssince acquiring Friendster.Leadership through constantinnovationAs a payment platform business,Bangah says innovation comes fromconstantly understanding trends andmeeting those trends, and creatingnew products.MOL Global has a strong engineeringand R&D team spread out betweenKuala Lumpur and the Philippinesthat constantly updates andupgrades their platforms.“Our success comes from havingcome into the market early enoughand constantly innovating so thatcompetitors can’t come into the market,”he says. “I always believe that ifwe don’t invest in new things thenpotentially other people could investin them and then they will becomeour biggest competitor.”One of the key innovations thatthe company will be rolling out in2013 is MOL Cube, a device thatallows credit card transactions to beprocessed over the mobile phone.MOL Global subsidiary, MOL AccessPortalSdn Bhd, has entered intoa joint-venture with Soft Space InternationalSdn Bhd to form MOL-Cube Sdn Bhd. Small and mediumenterprises – even pasar malam vendorsand hawkers – will be able toaccept payments via credit and debitcards using mobile phones, tabletsand other smart devices through theMOLCube chip card reader.Payment is made by entering theamount on the phone. The paymentcard is then inserted into thereader and the customer signs on thescreen. A receipt can even be printedor sent via SMS or email.At the press conference announcingthis partnership, Bangah had said,“With MOLCube, the merchantsthat we can reach and secure will bemany. If we reach 50,000 merchants,we estimate we can process RM1bilworth of transactions easily.”Growing more talentWhile Bangah’s assessment on thelevel of innovation in Malaysia is apositive one, he feels not enough isbeing done to create that incubationenvironment. “The issue is not thelack of innovation but rather howwe can spur that spirit and support itwithout being a barrier to it.”He has a thing or two to say aboutthe talent situation in the technologyindustry in Malaysia too. “There isnever enough and it is never right,”he laughs. “You go to any countryand you will be told the same thing.”His main concern is that informationtechnology (IT) is seen as asupport industry in this countryrather than a leading one. “Whenpeople talk about careers in IT, theythink about being a programmer orworking for companies in secondaryindustries. But if you look at thebiggest companies in the world theyare all from the IT space, and theyare consumer-facing companies, notbusiness-to-business ones.”While Malaysia does have severalsuccessful business-to-consumer ITcompanies, Bangah says they mustbe made into icons like Apple so thatthe general public will see IT as agrowth industry. “Then parents willsend their kids to study computerscience again. Otherwise what youwill see is the conundrum we are innow, where nobody wants to studycomputer science because they thinkthey can’t get jobs.”“We need to move faster if we wantto stay relevant. The problem is thatby the time we turn plans and initiativesinto reality, they are already outof date.”Next Stop: World dominationBangah will be keeping busy fromnow until 2014 with various crossborderacquisitions, having just completedone in the United States.“We are targeting the Middle Eastvia Turkey, North America via USAand Brazil, and Vietnam, in additionto bolstering our Southeast Asianmarkets.”More acquisitions will be on thecard, he says, as MOL Global gearsup for an initial public offering in2014 (MOL AccessPortal Berhadwhich was listed in 2000 was subsequentlytaken private by Tan SriVincent Tan).His next goal? To make MOL Globalinto a US$1 billion company.44 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 45

STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVESTAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVECARPE DIEM WITH MASATU!By Nurris IshakMasatu's Steven Low says not many Malaysiancompanies are into Mobile Apps because theydon't see the potential yet.These days, the world is indeed atthe palm of your hands.Well, perhaps not quite literally, butwith the smartphone, you could bestuck in a traffic jam and virtuallytravel the world through the gadgetin the palm of your hands.Needless to say, smartphones haverevolutionized the communicationstechnology, combining advancedcomputing capability andconnectivity in a palm-sized gadget.As the phones gained popularity,the amount of mobile applicationsavailable for downloads havealso increased, numbering in thehundreds of thousands, if not millions.It seems as if the possibilitiesfor mobile applications available isonly limited to one’s imagination.The average smartphone can connectthe user to social networkingsites such as Facebook, Twitter,Google+ and Skype among others,allowing the user to keep in touchwith their friends at all times, nomatter where they may be, openingnew communication avenueswhich might have otherwise beenonly limited to phone calls, emailsand text messages.But of course, one can only do somuch networking in the virtualworld before craving actual, reallife, face-to-face human interaction.Driving social activitiesEnter Masatu, a social networkingmobile application developed byAgmo Studio. Literally translatedas “That Moment”, the award-winningmobile application enables theuser to organize private and public80 per cent of the world’s population are connected via mobilephones, and out of five billion mobile phones in the world, 1.08billion of them are smartphones.46 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 47

STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVESTAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVELiterally translated as “That Moment”, the award-winning mobile application enablesusers to organize private and public events, invite their friends to join their activities anddiscover social activities happening in their area.events, invite their friends to jointheir activities and discover socialactivities happening in their area.“Masatu enables you to captureyour life moment in a fun and coolway. It encourages users to socializewith their friends in real life as well asallowing them to discover the activitiesthat are happening near themat that particular moment of time,”said Steven Low, Agmo Studio’sbusiness development manager.“It’s a social-activity mobile application.For example, let’s say youwould like to invite your friendsto a gathering. You can create theevent on Masatu, pinpoint the locationof your gathering, specifythe time frame and insert an imageof your gathering.“You can invite your friends andset the privacy settings for yourevent to either private, limited tofriends and contacts on Facebook/ Masatu or public. If you set yourevent to private, only those whomyou have invited will be able to seeyour event, and if you set it to public,then all those within the vicinitywill be able to see your event,”said Low.Those who attend your event cangive their feedback, exchange commentsand share photos of theevent with their friends and otherMasatu users.Upload photos in bulk onMasatuWhen you have a number ofpeople taking pictures using theirown camera phones or cameras,getting them to share their photosafter the event has ended is alwaysa challenge. However, Masatu enablesyou to upload photos in bulkand allows you to customize youralbum i.e name, date and timeas well as your album’s privacy settings.You can also tag your Facebookfriends and upload the albumdirectly from Masatu to your Facebookaccount, followed by postingon your Facebook Timeline withjust one touch.“The beautiful part is that you willalways have the complete set ofphotos for all your precious moments,”said Low.Masatu supports location-baseddiscovery where you can discoverpast, present and future activitiesaround you using the Masatu mapor augmented reality. Augmentedreality is where you can use yourphone’s camera and scan your surroundings,and if there is (or was)an activity in your vicinity, a notificationof the event will pop out onyour screen.You can then click on it and get thedetails of the event such as the time, location,description and its participants.Digital time capsuleMasatu also has a digital timecapsule,which allows the user tosurprise their friends by hiding amessage or an image which canonly be accessed by their friendsor contacts within a specific timeframe and at a specific location.“The digital method allows theuser to geo-point the location ofthe time capsule. To unlock thetime capsule, one would have to bewithin 500 metres of the locationat a particular moment of time tobe able to see the secret message orimage hidden there,” said Low.Masatu is the winner of MYEGMake the Pitch 2011 – a realityshow hosted by NTV7 that featuresinnovative ideas from Malaysianentrepreneurs.Masatu has also won the MSCMalaysia Asia Pacific ICT Awards(APICTA) 2012 (Best Media andEntertainment category) and theSilver Award from the Asean ICTAwards. It was also appointed as theofficial social media app for AsianBusiness NGO Forum 2012.“It took us three months to developthe app. We started in Februarylast year and we launched theapp in May. So far, we have over3,500 users, and most of them areMalaysians. But it’s available oniTunes for iOS devices and AndroidMarket for Android devicesand it’s free,” said Low.Agmo Studio has also developedother mobile applications such asthe My Home Loan Calculator,Malaysia LRT, Malaysia Food andBeverage, Penang Offline MuralMap, MyPLUS Highway, My-Gold Price and Malaysia 4D.“Unofficially, we’ve been aroundfor the past two to three years, butwe registered as a company afterwe collaborated with MYEG andreceived funding from them in early2012. We’re a small team, there’sonly the four of us in the developmentteam and we have three administrativestaff which we sharewith MYEG,” said Low.Challenge of growing thebusinessLow added that as a start-up company,they have had to face a numberof challenges, namely in termsof getting investors and fundingand developing the business.“As a company which focuses onmobile application, we cannot applythe traditional way of marketingto sell our products. We faceglobal competition and we have tokeep ourselves up-to-date with thetechnology. It’s both challenging,and interesting.“The Mobile application businessis very new, and even though youcan see that there are an increasingnumber of companies focusingon mobile applications in theUS, locally not too many peopleare so into it as yet because someof them can’t see the potential formobile applications,” he said.Both Agmo Studio director, TanAik Keong and Low are ‘graduates’from Malaysia’s MultimediaDevelopment Corporation(MDeC) Integrated ContentDevelopment – Developer AssistanceProgramme (ICONdap), aprogramme which provides fundingassistance to technical gurusand creative geniuses with innovativeideas and concepts to createcontent for online and mobileapplications. The programme alsohelps them to turn the ideas intoproof of concept and prototypes.“We’re still working together withMDeC to create an ‘eco-system’ toencourage more mobile developersto come forward and investorsto come in to develop the mobileindustry community,” said Low.“The MDeC and MSC programmeis very helpful in the developmentof the mobile industrycommunity. It is an ongoing process.I hope this programme willgo on. The government has alsobeen very helpful to us in terms ofnetworking basis, as they wouldrecommend us to companies whoneed mobile developers.”The future looks bright for AgmoStudios.“We are in the midst of developingapps which would encouragelocal communities to share informationon community activities,as well as a few other mobile applications,so look out for our newproducts on Apple App Store andAndroid Market!” said Low.48 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 49

CLOUD GROWING IN ASIA36 percent of companies surveyed are “currently using”cloud computing and 40 percent are “currentlyplanning” to use cloud in the coming year.• More companies, including those in Malaysia, areembracing the cloud in Asia Pacific, according to anew study by Forrester• With adoption comes new challenges: Skills to dealwith cloud implementation; and broadbandinfrastructure cost and reliabilityCLOUD computing has attainedwider adoption and more companiesare open to its use in enterprisesacross Asia, although thereare still some challenges arisingfrom companies adopting thecloud, according to a new studyby Forrester Research.Michael Barnes (pic), vice presidentand research director of ForresterResearch, said that 75% ofAsia Pacific organizations have astrong understanding of cloudcomputing.Along with this, 67% believethat their IT organizations areready to run the company’smost strategic apps in either aprivate or hybrid cloud environment,but the higher adoptionrates also brings with it newchallenges, the analyst noted.Dubbed the VMware Cloud Index,the online-based survey queried4,799 senior IT practitionersacross Asia Pacific (including Japan)in September 2012. Comissionedby the cloud and virtualizationplayer, the countries coveredin the survey included Australia,Singapore, India, Taiwan, Indonesia,Hong Kong, Malaysia, Korea,Thailand, and China, and thesurvey is in its third year running.In Malaysia, the survey polled 49senior influencers of IT in multinationals,44 in local/regionalcompanies, and 16 in public sectororganizations, or a total 109IT professionals. Barnes said thatacross Asia Pacific generally, thematurity of cloud computing hasprogressed, noting that 74% ofrespondents view the cloud as toppriority or highly relevant to theirrespective organizations.“This percentage rises to 88% forvery large organizations of over10,000 employees and stands atabout 68% for small organizationsof fewer than 500 employees,”he said.Also interesting was the fact thatnearly 80% of respondents believethat the cloud can help themcompete more effectively in themarketplace, and that nearly 70%believe that by failing to pursuecloud initiatives their companiesrisk falling behind their competitors,Barnes noted.Malaysian trends,challenges facedThe Malaysia-specific survey resultswere encouraging as 36% ofcompanies surveyed are “currentlyusing” cloud computing and40% are “currently planning” touse cloud in the coming year.Barnes pointed out that theabove cumulative figure of 76%(36%+40%) was above the regionalaverage of 74%. “Seven in10 respondents also believe thatcloud computing makes theirjobs less complex,” he added.Notwithstanding this, the VMwareCloud Index study also revealedsome significant challengesfor those who have adopted or areabout to adopt the cloud.The first had to do with lack ofcontrol over employee access tonon-sanctioned, third-party applications,while the second hadto with the reliable and affordablebroadband infrastructure neededfor the cloud computing to thrive.Barnes said that while 56% ofMalaysia respondents believe thattheir organizations currently have50 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 51

CLOUD GROWING IN ASIA“As customers leverage cloud computing to fuel theirgrowth, IT needs to be equipped to plan, develop anddeploy cloud solutions that are aligned to the organization’sneeds,” said Si.the skills and infrastructure necessaryto create and manage a privatecloud, only 19% believe thatthey are successfully managingthe use of cloud-based serviceswithin the organization.Asked why this was so, Barnesacknowledged that the survey didnot explore this question in anin-depth manner. But he addedthat this could be attributed tothe fact that senior executives inthe survey felt that they did nothave control over what applicationstheir employees use, includingthose popular ones offeredby third-party, app-based publiccloud providers such as Dropbox.Laurence Si, country managerof VMware Malaysia, said thatorganizations need to be agilenot only with technology, butwith their people. That is whyVMware organizes enablementplatforms throughout the year tohelp customers stay at the forefrontof the latest industry developments,he added.But perhaps more worrying wasthe fact that along with Thailandand Indonesia, Malaysian surveyrespondents cited access to reliableand affordable broadbandas a key concern and barrier tocloud adoption over the traditionalchallenges of data privacy,security and sovereignty usuallycited as barriers to adoption. AhmadAzhar Yahya (pic, courtesyof Oracle Flickr stream), CEO ofVADS, noted that there are stillchallenges of broadband connectivityespecially in the area oflocal access.Also a panelist at the press briefing,Ahmad Azhar said there weretwo connectivity types: "Thefirst is between data centers andprivate clouds. These are prettymuch driven by customers requirementsand this is not an issue.However, if you’re talkingabout public connectivity, publicInternet access, then it’s subjectiveand will depend on how the publicviews this.”Asked if he believed this costof connection would go downin future, the CEO of TelekomMalaysia’s wholly-owned managedservice provider said, “Thisis subject to many things such asinfrastructure costs, where theservices are located, and whetherthey are offshore or on onshore.If they are offshore, the cost willbe much higher.” Barnes notedthat while respondents in thesethree countries cited broadbandinfrastructure issues as theirmain concerns, this does notmean that the traditional issuesof data sovereignty, privacy andsecurity weren’t present.“Companies are still concernedwith such issues; it’s just that forthese countries, the survey revealedthese challenges as themost pertinent.”Article and photos reproduced with permissionfrom Digital News Asia www.digitalnewsasia.com52 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 53

MSC MALAYSIA APICTA 2012 AWARDSMSC MALAYSIA APICTA 2012 AWARDS3D ‘PARADIGM SHIFT’VIDEO GAME WINHONOURS AT APICTA 2012Limkokwing University students win the Best ofTertiary Student Project in Creative Multimedia Award.A 3D action shooter multiplayergame - developed by a team of LimkokwingUniversity students - wonthe Best of Tertiary Student Project(Creative Multimedia) category atthe MSC Malaysia Asia Pacific ICTAwards (MSC Malaysia APICTA)2012 last November - Malaysia’s topICT event recognizing creativity andinnovation excellence.Called Paradigm Shift, the videogamewas developed by a team of26 students led by Teh Yong Quan,Tamara Astari, Yuen Wai Leong,Muhammad Shafiq Romli, NabilahRaihan and Mohd Azlan Abu Hassan- all majoring in Games Art andGames Technology. They developedthis videogame over a one-year periodas part of their final project.A thrilled Yuen admitted that developingthe game “was a challenge forall of us, but it was not impossible aswe have the best tools and the supportof the lecturers all the time. Wehave been cultivated to think creativelyand I am very happy. I alsohad endless support from my familyand friends”.The game features multiple worldsin different timelines and dimensionsin a beautifully composedenvironment. Based on the idea ofchanging space-time continuum byutilizing next generation video gametechnologies, the students developedthis game with the aim of extendingthe boundaries of design and visualart video game development in Malaysia.The game requires players to rushand collect portal keys as fast as possibleto be able to open the next timewarp portal that will enable them totravel to the 3rd and 4th dimensionsto experience the amazing world.Those players who do not cross theportal within the stipulated timeperish once the door of the nextportal closes. This very interestingand challenging game is developedwith the highest standards of qualityhence matching industrial standards.The Paradigm Shift is powered byUnreal Engine 3.0 via Unreal developmentkit. Assets are developedmainly with 3DS Max, Zbrush,coding languages have also beenused on Unreal Script with nFringeIDE and many other advancedtechnical programmes.Meanwhile, students from the Facultyof Information Technology wonthe Merit Award under the “Best ofResearch and Development” awardfor their Augmented Reality (AR)location-based Service Platformwhich helps to locate Qibla direction,halal restaurants and mosquesfor Muslims travelers.The aim of MSC Malaysia APICTAis to provide recognition to outstandingachievements of individuals,students, entrepreneurs, SMEsand organizations with operations inMalaysia who have contributed tothe development of the MSC Malaysiainitiatives or in building applicationsand services for the benefitof Malaysia. It recognises creativity,innovation, and excellence in MalaysianICT.Held at the Sime Darby ConventionCentre, the ceremony saw thefinalists of MSC Malaysia APICTA2012 receive awards from Science,Technology and Innovation MinisterDatuk Seri Panglima Dr MaximusJohnity Ongkili.Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, YB Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Maximus Johnity Ongkili (secondfrom right) with winners of the Paradigm Shift video game at the MSC APICTA 2012 awards."The game features multiple worlds in different timelinesand dimensions in a beautifully composed environment."58 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 59

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SILICON VALLEYS OF THE WORLDSilicon Valley doesn't own the monopoly on being a techdevelopment and startup hot spot: Meet the equivalent,exciting places on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.We all hear endlessly about the goings on in Silicon Valley, whether it be news about novel startups with a missionto change the world, the investors that back the projects, or the political machinations that go on in thiswell-known hotbed of technological innovation. But far across the globe there are plenty of places that are alsobubbling with excitement, innovation, entrepreneurial fervor and cash. Often they're the very places wherethe actual Silicon Valley's products actually get mass-produced. Meet some of Asia's tech innovation hotspots.SingaporeSingapore is often feted as "Asia'sSilicon Valley" because of its historyas a popular place to set up aninternational business, its location,its low friction to doing businessand its cosmopolitan nature.As an example of its growing importance,recently a new incubatorfund, Golden Gate Ventures, istrying to spend its US$10 millionto bring successful Singaporean entrepreneursto Silicon Valley itself towork with existing names that arefamous from currently successfulenterprises like YouTube.As another example, Business Insiderrecently covered the interestingby Kit Eaton62 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 63

SILICON VALLEYS OF THE WORLDSILICON VALLEYS OF THE WORLDstory of social messaging serviceBubble Motion. CEO Tom Claytonexplained that his companywas already split 50-50 betweenthe Valley and Singapore, withmanagement in the U.S. and allthe technical parts of the businessthe other side of the Pacific. Afterthe financial slowdown in 2008the company decided that consolidatingoperations in one place wasbetter, and rather than scrabblingamong other startups for moneyin Silicon Valley it decided Singaporewas a better option--not leastbecause it was cheaper to operatefrom there.As the BBC noted, there are interestingefforts by private andgovernment bodies in Singaporeto push its tech start-up status.This includes programs like thatrun by the Joyful Frog DigitalIncubator, which partnered withthe large SingTel telco to fund a100-day program where entrepreneursare mentored and thenpitch to investors. The governmentitself kicked things off in2003 with an economic reviewthat decided Singapore shouldbecome an "entrepreneurial nation"that is keen to take thekind of risks you need to start innovativenew businesses.The status of the nation as a greatplace to be an entrepreneur isn'tuniversally accepted, however, andsome voices suggest it's due to a lotof hype. Some suggest that the culturereally doesn't support entrepreneurialrisk-taking, and that angelinvestors are too wary of risk.That doesn't seem to worry billionaireFacebook cofounder EduardoSaverin who, slightly controversially,chose to make his official home inSingapore just before the FacebookIPO. He's reportedly keen to investin startups in the nation, and is saidto be promoting a more Silicon Valley-styleof investment.Korea's Daejeonand DigitalMedia CityDaejeon, according to its Wikipediaentry, was just a small village at thestart of the 20th Century, but the arrivalof the railways quickly formed itinto a transportation hub. Now thecity of 1.5 million people, roughlycentrally located in South Korea,is sometimes called Korea's SiliconValley. It's still a transport hub forroad and rail (Seoul is 50 minutes byhigh-speed train) but it's also wheremuch of South Korea's science andtechnology development happens.Everything from biotech firms togreen science happens here, andit's home to the Korea AdvancedInstitute of Science and Technology,which develops robots we coverfrom time to time. These firms andeducational research establishmentsspin off young companies from timeto time, and events like the DaejeonStartup Weekend help.It's a 54-hour "intense" affair whereparticipants try to build a mobileor web product in one sitting, andwhich promotes networking and actuallynew companies.Recently Bosch invested US$100million in the city to build hightechdiesel cars, and earlier this yeara group of 28 prominent companiesformed a new 30 billion won(US$26 million) fund called DaekdockInvestment to spur growth ofstartups here. Korea also has DigitalMedia City, which is billed as thefirst "high tech complex" for digitaltech in the world.Built on a landfill site near Seoulfrom 2002, and covering over sixmillion square feet, it's home tofirms like LG Telecom and facilitieslike the Korean Film Archive.It's also the site for the DigitalMedia City Landmark building,currently under construction anddue to be the third tallest in theworld at completion in 2015.China And ShenzhenChina may not be the first place youthink of in terms of startup activity--tight government control and giantmega-corps probably come to mind.But the nation is quite definitelysponsoring entrepreneurial spirit.The annual two-day ChinaBangconference, held in early 2012 inBeijing, resulted in 16 firms thatTechCrunch notes are ones to keepan eye on.The statistics show that Beijing ishome to most of the nation's startups(some 5,100-plus companies) butthat the startup culture is beginningto spread to other parts of China.Perhaps the best-known high-techconcentration in China is the ShenzhenHi-Tech Industrial Park. Before1979 it was just a small villagein Guandong Province nearish toHong Kong. Then it became thefirst of China's Special EconomicZones--regions which are affordedan extra degree of freedom and investmentcompared to other parts ofthe nation--and it has flourished. Itsnow one of the fastest-growing citiesin the world, attracting billions in investment,often from foreign firms.Big name firms like Huawei havefacilities in the area, alongside hugemanufacturing facilities owned bycompanies like Foxconn.But there's also a quiet but growingstartup culture and anotherStartup Weekend was scheduledfor November 9th last year in thecity. And there are ongoing effortslike the HAXLR8R startup incubator,trying to stir up interest inentrepreneurial activity.64 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 65

SILICON VALLEYS OF THE WORLDSAVINGS ON BUSINESS SOLUTIONBUNDLED PRODUCTS & SERVICESBIZJUMBO.COMDeals just get better when competition existAn online marketplace for entrepreneurs, businessowners & professionals. A product by www.entreprenures.myINCREASE BRAND AWARENESSJapanWhile you may think of Japan mainlyin terms of mega-corporations likeSony--undoubtedly high-tech, buthardly a startup--the nation quitedefinitely has a startup scene. Backin April the New Tech Japan NightIV saw a list of innovative new Japanesefirms presenting their ideas andattracting media interest.Japan has made some big efforts atpromoting innovation in science andtechnology, and the Kansai ScienceCity (near Kyoto) and Tsukuba ScienceCity--which was modeled on,among other places, Palo Alto--seemsuccessful efforts at concentratingbusiness and education into smallregions. Tokyo itself is a startup hub,with efforts like the Open NetworkLab (a very Y Combinator-like incubator/investor)serving to booststartups in the city.Some doubts havebeen cast on Japan's risk-averse entrepreneurialspirit, especially in theaftermath of the earthquake disasterin 2011--with the Huffington Postcommenting that some young Japaneseentrepreneurs are taking theirJapanese education and expertise toSilicon Valley itself to try to get theirideas off the ground.Other sources point out that someTaiwanese investment firms are targetingJapan as a hotbed of innovation,with the Taiwan IndustrialTechnology Research Institute pullingtogether two funds. The $100million Golden Asia Fund, in particular,is reportedly aimed at investingin smart Japanese firms.This article is reproduced with the kind permission of Fast Company magazine.BIZJUMBO.COMDeals just get better when competition existAn online marketplace for entrepreneurs, businessowners & professionals. A product by www.entreprenures.mySAVINGS ON BUSINESS SOLUTIONBUNDLED PRODUCTS & SERVICESINCREASE BRAND AWARENESS66 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 67

BOOM TUBETHE SINGAPORE-BASEDSTARTUP IS CREATING NEWMARKETS FOR TV PRODUERSAND BEATING THE PIRATES BYGETTING SHOWS TRANSLAEDUSING WIKIPEDIA-STYLEand music videos. Launched almosttwo years ago, the site now has 12million users, up from 7 millionnine months ago.(the company was originally foundedin South Korea and is now basedin Singapore), but also shows fromGreece, India, and Argentina.HOW VIKI IS CREATING THE GLOBAL HULUE.B. BoydBOOM TUBEStudios around the world churn outreams of TV shows. But until now,it’s has been inefficient for them toget their shows aired in a large numberof markets abroad, which meansproducers have left piles of money,in the form of international advertisingrevenue, on the table.Now that’s changing, thanks to Viki,a Hulu-style video site that was createdin 2007 to break down barriersin the international TV trade.A key ingredient in the success ofthe startup, which raised US$20million in October from heavyhitters like Greylock Partners andAndreessen Horowitz, has been aWikipedia-style approach to gettingshows translated into local languages.Namely, it lets the fans do thesubtitling.The site currently offersthousands of shows from producersin over 50 countries to viewersaround the world, as well as moviesThe startup’s latest coup last yearis a deal to power a video site forRenren, the massive Chinese socialnetwork, which will includeshows from TNT and the CartoonNetwork.Not all shows on Viki areavailable in all geographies. Contentowners can specify where they wanttheir programs shown, to avoid, forexample, series being available in areaswhere they already have licensingagreements.Still viewers around the world (VikiCEO and co-founder RazmigHovaghimian tells Fast Companythe site has users in every countryon the planet except certain parts ofcentral Africa) now have access totons more programming than everbefore. People in Asia, for example,can finally watch Law & Order,the new Bionic Woman series, andBBC’s David Copperfield, whileviewers in the States get not only awide variety of Asian programmingHistorically, crossing borders hasbeen challenging for the TV industry.Popular U.S. shows tendto get licensed in “tier 1” countries,like Europe, but not in therest of the world. And shows from“tier 2” countries, like those southeastAsia, rarely make it to “tier 1”markets, like the U.S. and Europe.That’s because it’s time-consumingand expensive to hammer out licensingagreements for each individualmarket. And it’s basically costprohibitiveto get shows translatedinto languages anywhere but in themost lucrative markets. As a result,libraries of programming around theworld have languished on the shelf.Viki, which is also backed by BBCWorldwide and Korea’s SK Planet(a subsidiary of SK Telecom), ishelping with both of those problems.Content owners only have todo business with a single partner,68 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 69

BOOM TUBEBOOM TUBEViki. And the startup is providingthe translations for free--by relyingon an army of volunteers who havehappily pounded out subtitles in156 languages.Viki’s community, which includestens of thousands of people aroundthe world, operates much the wayWikipedia’s does. Volunteers dedicatethemselves to the shows orgenres they care most about.The community self-polices toensure that translations are accurate.(“They fight over participles,”Hovaghimian says.)And the strongest and most dedicatedvolunteers rise to become leadersof individual channels to keep everythinghumming smoothly.Part of their motivation is simplytheir enthusiasm for the contentitself, the same way Wikipedia volunteersdevote countless hours tomaintaining pages on subjects importantto them.“They’re passionate about theseshows,” Hovaghimian says. “Theywant to be the first to discover them.They love the fact that tons of peopleare watching [their translations].”Another driver is the desire to masternew languages. In fact, Viki emergedin part from another project thatHovaghimian, a native of Egypt,started while an MBA school studentat Stanford, which involvedgetting people to create subtitles forYouTube videos in order to fosterlanguage learning.After graduating in 2007, Hovaghimianwent to NBC Universal, wherehe worked on researching new marketsand arranging international coproductionsfor the company’s cablechannels. It was there that he learnedabout the challenges of spreadingcontent overseas and started thinkingabout ways to knock down barriers.While the fact that content ownersdon’t have to pay anything to gettheir shows translated is a sellingpoint, more important, Hovaghimiansays, is the level of quality beinggenerated.The community’s dedicationis also helping battle piracy.When pirates get a hold of shows, itusually takes them about 72 hoursfor them to get shows translated intolocal languages. Hovaghimian saysthe Viki community can usually dothem in a day.Fans start organizing themselvesonce they learn about upcominglineups, deciding “who’s going totranslate what,” Hovaghimian says.Then, when the new content goeslive on Viki, translations in 10 to 20Part of their motivation issimply their enthusiasm forthe content itself, the sameway Wikipedia volunteersdevote countless hours tomaintaining pages on subjectsimportant to them.languages are usually complete within24 hours. That takes the wind out ofpirates’ sails. “The pirate doesn’t havean incentive to create subtitles for thecontent,” Hovaghimian says. All ofwhich means Viki is generating newrevenue streams for content owners.CPMs vary per show and market,Hovaghimian says, but can get ashigh as US$50-US$100 in the mostlucrative instances.More importantly, however, is the factthat, no matter how much producersearn, it’s all gravy. “For content owners,it’s expanding the size of the pie,”Hovaghimian says. “They’re buildingnew markets for their content in placesit wasn’t traveling before.”Photos from top to bottom:i. Viki Home Page screenshotii. Viki Music screenshotiii. Super Junior screenshotViki co-founder and CEO Razmig Hovaghimian reviews product changes with engineers (left to right) Huy Nguyenof Vietnam, Cristobal Viedma of Spain and Jason Grendus of Canada. A truly international start-up like itscontent and community, Viki's 45 employees represent 20 different countriesArticle reproduced with kind permissionfrom Fast Company magazine. Photoscourtesy of Viki.70 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 71

INNOVATORS TALK STRATEGYAs innovation leaders in industry gather to discuss the front and backend of innovation in a global context, a common theme emerges.Whether expanding to a neighboring country or across oceans,entering a foreign market is always a “beyond-the-core” activityrequiring the development of new competencies. One solution:Identify skills first, not people.Four hundred R&D and innovationleaders recently gathered atthe Industrial Research Institute’s(IRI) Annual Meeting in IndianWells, California, for a conversationon global innovation strategyand execution. With a crosssectionof every industry present,the meeting’s themes - front endinnovation and innovation executionin a global ecosystem -captivated attendees’ attention.Energizing the first day of themeeting, David Edwards, CTOof Avery Dennison, talked about“beyond-the-core” business activities.His ideas instantly strucka chord.As he explained, most businessesunderstand where their corecompetencies lie, but experimentsrun beyond the core are whatmake the difference between realsuccess and failure in the globalmarketplace. After all, foreignventures are always “beyond-thecore”activities. What becamecrucial to Avery Dennison’s successin several of their internationalventures, he argued, was the instillationof a learning cultureaimed at identifying the skillsets needed to run new projectsabroad.“One mistake that we kept making,”Edwards said, “is that whenyou start an initiative, there’s areal temptation... to start saying‘well, who’s available?’ And that’sabsolutely the wrong way tothink about this. As you start tolook at these complex initiatives,the first place to start is, ‘What capabilitiesdo we need to succeed?’and to really thoughtfully map thatout. Then you can start to ask, ‘Whohas those capabilities?’ And of course,invariably what we would find as wedid this is that many of the capabilitieswe were seeking in the people thatwe would need to deliver this initiativejust weren’t available, theydidn’t exist, and we would have togo out and find them.”Grabbing hold of this notion of“beyond-the-core” activities andthe development of an on-thegroundlearning culture, AshishChaterjee of Procter & Gamblespoke about his company’sConnect+Develop initiative.A 10-year program underChaterjee’s directorship,Connect+Develop wasstarted as a way to identifyconsumer needs in emergingmarkets.His team would visit areaswhere new facilities were beingestablished. They would speakwith the people on the ground,learn their culture, their ideas,their capabilities, and then lookfor gaps in their available goodsand services which P&G couldpotentially fill. For instance, indiscussing Naturella, a brand ofsanitary napkins originating inBrazil, Chaterjee remarked thatthere was “a complete changein the way we manufacture theproduct simply because of localinsight. And, the different valuecurve forced us into a new manufacturingplatform that has enabledus to successfully enter 30+markets [with this product].”Strategy is innovationDr. Vijay Govindarajan of DartmouthCollege advanced the concept ofbeyond-the-core activities in hiskeynote by dividing business activitiesinto three boxes. Box 1activities are about managing thepresent; Box 2 activities are aimedat selectively forgetting the past;and, Box 3 activities involve creatingthe future. His formulaic explanationargues that strategy andinnovation are inextricably linked.“Strategy is not about celebratingthe past,” says Govindarajan,“it’s not about celebrating the present.It’s really about leadership inthe future... Earning that leadershipis what strategy is all about.One thing we know: ‘future’ is fullof unknown; ‘future’ constantlychanges. Therefore, if you want tobe a leader in the future, you haveto adapt to change. Adapting tochange is also known as innvation.72 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 73

INNOVATORS TALK STRATEGYINNOVATORS TALK STRATEGYTherefore, strategy equals innovation.If there is no innovationin a company, there is no strategyin that company either.”Govindarajan explained thatsome of the organizations heworked with would place thebulk of their activities in Box 1(i.e. managing the present) andthen declare it as strategy. Whatthey failed to grasp, he said, isthat strategy has nothing to dowith Box 1 activities; it residesentirely in Box 3 (i.e. creatingthe future). Moreover, in orderto create the future, organizationsmust selectively forget pastsuccess so as not to get stuck in aroutine way of solving problems.Therefore, he notes, Box 2 andBox 3 activities are central to innovation.Without such planningand foresight, an organizaioncannot survive in the long-run.Govindarajan also briefly referredto his new book, “ReverseInnovation,” a New YorkTimes and Amazon best-seller,and a concept which wasnamed one of the ten big ideasof the decade by the HarvardBusiness Review. He touchedon how companies are beginningto understand the value ofproducing low-cost/low-valueproducts for emerging markets.This comes in opposition to thetraditional avenue of innovatinghigh-cost/high-value productsfor developed markets and thenscaling those products down overtime to meet the needs of thelower end. His concept of reverseinnovation lined up well withthe overall meeting theme byhighlighting how local insight indeveloping markets have begunto generate sizeable returns forindustry. The fear many industrieshave of cannibalizing highendbrands, he says, is being putto rest as success stories in reverseinnovation gradually emerge.Stereotypes lowerpreparednessTo place these ideas in context,though, several discussionsat the meeting centeredon the rising status of Chinain technology patent filingsand high-end manufacturing.Langdon Morris, Directorof Innovation at PwC, arguedthat knowledge of Chinese philosophyand history has helpedhis firm create better relationshipswith Chinese companies.One of the highest complaintsto stem from doing businessin China is the lack of protectionsurrounding patents. Morrisargues that Chinese culturehandles every business interactionon a case-by-case basis; i.e.getting a feel for the organization’sluster before deciding howto proceed with a venture. Heargues that firms who approachChina with a more solid grasp ofChinese customs and philosophyreceive a more accommodatingwelcome.Jeff Lindsay, Head of IntellectualProperty at Asia Pulp & Paper,in explaining the stereotypes ofChina as a copier, or thief, andnot an innovator, offered a fewOne of the highest complaints to stem fromdoing business in China is the lack of protectionsurrounding patents.The fear many industries have of cannibalizing highendbrands, he says, is being put to rest as successstories in reverse innovation gradually emerge.observations that show thatChina’s business laws are in factchanging.A 2011 study by Thompson Reuterslisted the top 100 globalinnovators and not one of themcame from China. Lindsay thereforebegan to research the subjectand found that Foxconn/HonhaiPrecision, a silent innovationpartner of Apple, actually holdsthree times as many U.S. patentsas Apple.It also has 50 times more U.S.patents as some of the othercompanies on Reuter’s top 100list. He found similar patentholdings by Lenovo and Huawei;both Chinese organizations.He contacted Reuters to makethe necessary corrections andfound them accommodating.Some he spoke with made commentsthat China could not beconsidered a fair subject of innovationexpertise because of thepredominant stereotypes surroundingits business culture.In fairness, he states, China didnot have any patent laws on thebooks until 1984. Since then,however, China has become theworld’s number one patent filerglobally. But many organizationsstick to this stereotype that IP isunsafe in China and refuse todeal with its products or services.What Lindsay argues is that theworld of industry, as a result,is largely unprepared for the opportunitiesChina’s patent filingswill herald. He fears thatmany opportunities may pass usby if we do not adjust to thisreality.“Beyond-the-coreinnovation”The focus on global strategyand execution brought a newcatch-phrase heard throughoutthe duration of the meeting.“Beyond-the-core innovation,”coined by David Edwards earlyon, was integrated into almostevery presentation and conversationwhich took place thereafter.As many attendees agreed, thedays of building an organizationvertically and then outsourcingexternal competencies is fading.Companies are integrating andbuilding horizontal linkagesaround the world. The 2012IRI Annual Meeting, “DrivingGrowth: Here, There, and Everywhere,”was part of an ongoingdialogue about how industryadvances given these globalshifts. It is clear that a new understandingof strategy is required,on-the-ground expertiseis invaluable, and brand cannibalizationfor reverse innovationventures are becoming part of anew normal.It is also becoming apparent thatChina’s rise is not a fluke event,but rather a gradual accelerationof the inherent momentum thatits society is capable of buildinggiven the right conditions.This article is reproduced with kind permission from www.innovationmanagement.se74 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 75

NATIONAL INNOVATIONJUGAAD FRUGAL INNOVATIONResourcefulness amid serious constraints is known in Indiaas ‘Jugaad.’ In this article, Accenture’s Mitali Sharma suggests thissimple concept - which gave birth to a US$2,500 car, a US$12 solarlamp, and a life-saving incubator made from car parts - might bethe antidote to the complexity plaguing your innovation process.By Mitali SharmaWhat can companies in the developedworld learn from innovatorswho make irrigationpumps from bicycles or solar ovensfrom old suitcases?Quite a bit, as it turns out.Jugaad is a Hindi colloquialismthat refers to constraint-basedinnovation. While it may alsobe a way of life in India, where“inventing what you need by usingonly what you have” is animperative, it also has been thesource of breakthroughs thathave improved the lives of millionsbeyond India in the developingworld.In business, Jugaad (pronounced“joo-gaardh”) suggests an opennessto improvisation and outsideideas in a search for the simplestroute to solving a complexproblem. Jugaad is often mentionedin tandem with “frugalinnovation,” which involves thedelivery of exceptional customervalue to low-income customers.Increasingly, however, businessesoriented toward mature economiesare using principles of Jugaad/frugalinnovation to foster acreative tension they feel will leadto game-changing innovations.More than cutting costsJugaad has been the source ofbreakthroughs that have improvedthe lives of millions inthe developing world.Perhaps the most illustrative ofthese offerings is the “Car PartsInfant Incubator,” which takesadvantage of locally availablereplacement car parts, familiarautomobile design, and globespanningautomotive supplychains to create a life-alteringmedical device. The baby warmersells for 5% of the cost of atraditional incubator, and mightsave as many as 2.4 million infantsper year in the developingworld.The creators of these productsshared an ambition beyondmerely slashing costs and features.They sought to make highvalueproducts that solved fundamentalcustomer needs, whileworking with local economicrealities and constraints.Creating a clean slateFrugal innovation and Jugaad principlesare especially important intoday’s economy, for two reasons.First, corporations adversely affectedby the slow economy lackresources for R&D. They needan alternate approach and Jugaadinspires offerings that areeconomical for the consumerand the supplier, without havingto sacrifice margin.Second, the practice has longbeen considered an “antidote”to the complexity of India, acountry of perpetually shiftingcultures and profound scarcity.Now the same principles canhelp address issues faced by multinationalswhose capacity forbreakthroughs has been stifledby rigid internal processes, longR&D cycles, and above all else,multiple layers of complexity.This alternate approach to innovationis an excellent disruptor ofrigid legacy processes because itdemocratizes innovation, strippingaway extraneous featuresand processes, while openingthe door to ideas from unconventionalsources. The result isa clean slate, and a chance tore-orient innovation around thecustomer.With increased frequency, majorcorporations are embracing theseapproaches and self-imposingconstraints around innovation.They might restrict R&D funds76 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 77

JUGAAD FRUGAL INNOVATIONor artificially compress a windowof opportunity - regardless,the goal is to foster creativesolutions, quick experimentationand flexible processes thatrevolve around the end user.Putting Jugaad intopracticeArriving at this “clean slate” involvesthe following:•Making customers the NorthStar.Staying close to and understandingcustomers is the first step indesigning viable projects. Just asit is not about being cheapest, thefastest or most glamorous technologicallyadvanced products,Jugaad is about creating valuein the eyes of the customerwhich may be based on factorsbeyond price.•Introducing Constraints:Whether it’s a resource or timeconstraint, the truism that “necessityis the mother of invention”is constant.•Coming to grips with opensourcing.There are many smart peopleout there. Most of them don’twork for you. Winning in thefuture requires acknowledginggreat ideas will come from outsidethe company.•Valuing flexibility and agilityover structure.If a process is focused internallyand not on the customer, Jugaadpractitioners innovate aroundit. Companies that folllow thisapproach are highly adaptable,and willing to rethink theirbusiness model to pursue optionsthat add value for customers.The value is derived from experimentation,and the feedbackgathered as a result of stayingclose to customers. Also, frugalthinking permeates these companies’processes.Consequently, they tend to innovatearound internally focusedprocesses to maintain the customerfocus.For example: Review boardsin large corporations often resultin the death of an idea by“a hundred reviews,” with eachmanagement layer adding itsown interpretation and changesto an idea until the outcome is adiluted incremental change.•Emphasizing commercialization:Entrepreneurs can’t wait for fullblownmarket strategies to revealthemselves, so they rely on partnersto achieve faster commercialization.Instead of focus groups,they experiment and pilot in asmall shop or market. Large corporationsshould be similarly agile.Abundant resources might changehow a company goes about itsbusiness, but not necessarily itschances of success.The bottom line is that in a hypercompetitiveworld, social mediaand other tech have raised expectationsfor agility.If companies are to experiment withthe principles of Jugaad, businessleaders will have to step forward,clearly authorize a break with tradition,rethink processes and explicitlyallow for more creative independencefrom corporate control to achievecommercial success.How can your organization increaseits R&D ROI from adoptingsuch clean slate approachesthat challenge the status quo?This article is reproduced with kind permission from www.innovationmanagement.se78 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 79

GOVERNMENT DESIGNEDGOVERNMENT DESIGNEDFOR NEW TIMESIn a fraught world, policy mamkers cannot allow partisan divides to get in the way ofcrucial reforms. By drawing on successful strategies employed elsewhere And adaptationto current needs, government can-and must-do better. By Diana FarrelRarely has the need for effectivegovernment been greater thannow—and rarely has the ability toproduce it been more constrained.After the recent wave of storms anddisasters—both natural and financial—theneed for leadership and aconcerted response from nationalcapitals is acute. Adding to the pressure,many governments are managingthe implications of an unprecedenteddegree of fiscal and monetaryintervention. They are preoccupiedwith the urgent tasks of getting banksto lend again and demonstrating fiscalcredentials to the bond markets.The crisis mode of the past few yearsendures in several countries, while inothers there is no more than cautiousoptimism.Leaders must confront long-term,fundamental questions too: fromthe size and role of the state to howbest to stimulate growth; from profoundand surging demographicimbalances to tackling growing unemploymentand welfare bills; fromdeciding on the extent and nature ofregulation necessary to protect thepublic to forging a new relationshipbetween citizens and governmentservices. Thus, many governmentsconfront a daunting paradox: an expandedset of major policy imperativesin a constrained and almost precariousfiscal position.On these subjects, however, there islittle agreement. The policy debate isbecoming more polarized at arguablythe worst possible time. There is a realrisk that in the face of big choices andmuch disagreement, paralysis reigns.Leaders thus spend their energy onpolicy fights and battles for the heartsand minds of the public—at the expenseof making progress.It is in times like these that governmentmatters most.Our research shows it is possible tomake huge strides in addressing criticalchallenges, even without resolutionof the many ideological andpolicy dilemmas. From governmentspending to tax collection, educationimprovement to health outcomes,and welfare reform to job creation,we see the potential for meaningfulimprovement, to do more and betterwith less. What is needed is governmentmanagement by design, builtto fit these difficult times: governmentthat identifies the most critical,solvable problems, reorganizes wherenecessary to deliver the right solutions,and abandons the tools andapproaches that no longer work.In this effort, governments can drawheavily on the mission-driven mindsetof employees—a real comparativeadvantage for the public sector overthe private sector. Too often leadersinsufficiently tap into this valuableasset. And leaders can do far more tomine information on what is workingelsewhere. International peers,often trying to solve exactly the sameproblems, provide invaluable roadmaps and lessons. Unlike the privatesector, where companies spend millionsof dollars trying to understandsecret competitor strategies andreplicate them, the public sector isan open environment, and therebyeasier to mine for successful practicesand lessons learned.Government by designPolitical leaders rarely campaign foroffice on a platform of governmenteffectiveness. For some it fails to capturetheir imagination or, they suspect,the imagination of voters. Forothers, tackling the bureaucracy isperceived as high risk and low rewardcompared with passing new laws inthe legislature. Yet few succeed withoutachieving some reform. Manydeparting presidents, prime ministers,and cabinet secretaries reflect onhow the engine of government itselfwas at the very heart of their successesor failures.What it takesTo truly transform government requiresfresh thinking and a substantialinvestment of both resources andpolitical capital: business-as-usualor modest or occasional improvementis inadequate. Those that haveachieved sustainable and significantlyhigher levels of government performancedid so by explicitly designingand executing multiyear reformsthat push beyond everyday initiativesdesigned to improve managementcapability. In our research, we identify40 such programs that have beenenacted around the world in the pasttwo decades. There were a numberof objectives these programs weredesigned to achieve: significant fiscalconsolidation, better outcomesacross multiple public services, andeconomic growth (exhibit).Analyzing these programs and interviewingthe leaders involved revealsa valuable set of lessons for othergovernment leaders facing majorchallenges. The first is being clearand ambitious about what the governmentis trying to achieve. Manytransformations achieved what appearedto be impossible targets. Sweden,for example, moved from an11 percent deficit to a fiscal surplusin the 1990s, having been close todefault and an International MonetaryFund (IMF) bailout. A secondlesson is the need to make big—notincremental—shifts in the amountof time, energy, and resources required.On average, the programs inour sample lasted for six years, with astaff of 1,300 involved in each.Fit for purposeBeyond this clear focus and investmentof time and resources, governmentby design also means investingin those capabilities needed for success.Some of these are common andGOVERNMENT DESIGNEDThe intense pressure for reform, combined with anew operating environment, makes innovation acritical capability.enduring across the public, private,and nonprofit sectors, such as employingbest practices in technologyand operations, organization and humanresources, and budgeting andfinance, as well as operating acrossgeographic and stakeholder boundariesand making use of large datasets for better performance and policy.Other capabilities will be specificto the government sector, includingrisk management in regulation andclient differentiation for welfare-toworkinterventions.Increasingly, the intense pressure forreform, combined with a new operatingenvironment, makes innovationa critical capability. In many areas,government agencies around theworld are reimagining how servicesare delivered (for example, throughone-stop shops and e-portals) byproviding greater data availabilityand through mobile services that allowcitizens to get instant help andsupport. They are also migrating toa new paradigm where nonstate actors—privatecompanies, nonprofits,and citizens themselves—playan increasingly important role indesigning and executing policies andservices.Finding answers to the solvablemanagement questionsGovernments that are willing to reformand build these crucial capabilitiesare better able to achieve majorbreakthroughs in the most fundamentalpolicy areas, even in the absenceof new policy or legislation.80 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 81

GOVERNMENT DESIGNEDGOVERNMENT DESIGNEDMany governments are now adapting vocationaleducation to better fit employment prospects, forexample, by involving employers more closely inboth its design and delivery.Fiscal managementTake fiscal management, arguablythe most daunting of all issues today.According to the IMF, most governmentsin countries that are membersof the Organisation for EconomicCo-operation and Development(OECD) need to improve their deficitsby 4 percent or more of GDP toachieve long-term debt targets. Ofcourse much of this involves policydebate. Entitlement reform, publicspendingreductions, and increasedtaxation are highly charged politicalissues.However, operational reforms designedto improve efficiency canmake a meaningful difference nowand set the stage for more successfulpolicy implementation over time.In particular, spending reviews undertakenagency by agency—evenif initially focused only on noncorefunctions such as technology,procurement, or travel—can yieldmeaningful savings that will increasecredibility and flexibility as fiscal constraintsincrease. Similarly, improvedtax collection, drawing on internationalbest practices, can produce realrevenue growth within the existingtax structure.Spending reviewsA number of governments are takinga more strategic and evidencebasedapproach to achieving fiscalsustainability by launching multiyearspending reviews. These reviews helpto establish priorities and clear pathsto deficit reduction. Almost withoutexception, the spending reviews uncoverhuge opportunities for improvingeffectiveness, decreasing costs,and increasing revenue by improvingthe efficiency of administrative, noncoreactivities.To size the prize, consider that ourglobal bench-marking research indicatesthat operational expendituresrepresent 35 to 40 percent of totalgovernment expenditure; on average,19 percent of GDP for OECDcountries. Within that operationalexpenditure, roughly a third is spenton overhead functions, representing6 to 7 percent of GDP in OECDcountries.To date, we have reviewed tencountries that have conductedsuch spending reviews duringthe past five years and discoveredthat there is currently little standardizationin approach. Severalgovernments have imposed topdownspending cuts, from thecenter to agencies, while othershave developed a bottom-up understandingof the potential savingsopportunities. Of those usinga bottom-up approach, NewZealand and Denmark have usedclear baselines and intragovernmentor external benchmarks toestimate the savings potential—even though this is clearly an opportunityto drive success.Drawing on benchmarks from differentgovernments, we estimate apotential to save 5 to 10 percent ofoperational costs through overheadcategories without compromisingcore programs. This representsa savings in the range of 0.3 to 0.7percent of GDP—some 10 percentof the adjustment that countries arerequired to make in order to achievetheir long-term debt targets. This isa significant contribution, given thatit requires no compromise on coreprograms, no reduction in socialprograms, and no additional costs totaxpayers. And it ultimately sets thestage for better policy implementationin the future.Tax collectionMeanwhile, as governments grapplewith increasing social obligationsand projected declines in the relativesize of labor workforces, tax administrationsare under even morepressure to collect every dollar of taxpayable.They need to ensure that every dollarthey spend collecting taxes yields themaximum benefit for citizens. Taxadministrations also have broadersignificance: the interface and effectivenessof a tax administration oftenbecomes a watermark of public confidencein a government.In this quest, tax administrationscan learn a great deal from one another.But our in-depth research atfederal tax administrations in 15OECD countries uncovered widevariability not only in the performanceof tax authorities acrosscountries but also within countriesacross different functions - submissionsprocessing, examinations,collections, and taxpayer service.We estimate that, in aggregate, thetax administrations in our study cancollect an additional US$86 billionin direct tax revenues if they adoptthe practices of the top third. Fourmajor design elements stand outas avenues for achieving improvements:proactive demand managementthat smooths tax collectionacross the year and avoids the endof-yearbottleneck, sophisticatedtaxpayer segmentation to prioritizewhich taxpayers to target with whichapproaches, streamlined operations,and rigorous performance tracking.And these savings apply only to directtaxes.Balance-sheet managementBeyond undertaking spending reviewsand improving tax collectionto manage the operating budget,governments have a major opportunityto take an end-to-end capital-managementapproach to theirbalance sheets at both the agencyand government-wide level to improvefiscal health.This includes identifying andmeasuring material risks, incorporatingthe knowledge of risk intooperations, and ensuring the integrityof the internal assessmentsover time.Even simple approaches to changingthe inflow of accounts receivable or outflow of accounts payablecan yield meaningful improvements.JobsAlong with fiscal management, unemploymentdominates the landscapeacross most of the OECD.Here, too, exist fundamental differencesin ideology and vision on howto solve rising unemployment riskstasis. Stimulus programs and otherlegislative actions to increase growthand create jobs may or may not getthrough legislatures, but other governmentinterventions to improvedemand, supply, and the matchingof skills to jobs can significantly improvethe jobs picture.Many governments are now adaptingvocational education to better fit82 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 83

GOVERNMENT DESIGNEDemployment prospects, for example,by involving employers more closelyin both its design and delivery. Employmentagencies are doing a betterjob of matching supply and demandby improving their market informationand by producing more comprehensive,specific, and up-to-datedata on vacancies, job seekers, andrequired qualifications. They are alsosegmenting the job-seeker populationto better understand which segmentscan be processed in quick andautomated ways and which meritdeeper intervention and support.Regulation and enforcementAfter a series of catastrophic events,government bodies that protect thepublic—such as industry regulators,law enforcement, and disasterpreparednessagencies—are beingmore closely scrutinized with regardto their actions, their impact, andtheir overall effectiveness. But theyare not necessarily receiving largerbudgets. In stark terms, society is askingwhether regulators are most effectivelyanticipating the next threatand protecting the public.As with unemployment, the policydebate on this issue can becomequickly polarized around the tradeoffbetween more protection forthe public and consumers and thepotentially negative impact of moreaggressive regulation for economicgrowth.Agencies can make great progress byfocusing on optimal resource allocationand redesigning how they organizeand plan. They can place moreemphasis on outcome-based regulationand on predicting, preparing for,and mitigating “tail risk.”The most significant assaults on thepublic’s sense of safety and securityhave come from events that previouslyseemed unlikely. Tail events aredifficult to predict because they oftenrequire multiple things to go wrong.Examples include the attacks of September11, Hurricane Katrina’s damageto the New Orleans levees, thefinancial crisis of 2008–09, and therecent earthquake and tsunami inJapan and the nuclear-power-plantmeltdown that followed. But betterrisk-based systems can improvegovernments’ ability to prevent andrespond to such events.Core public servicesIn fact, across core public services—in areas such as infrastructure, education,health care, and policing—governmentby design can also enhanceoutcomes and manage costs. In theseareas, the political discourse is oftendominated by significant and legitimateideological differences.Despite that, governments that focuson what really works operationallyin driving outcomes can reap gains.Governments that systematicallyembrace the latest proven projectmanagementapproaches and toolscan dramatically improve the valueof infrastructure investments, at thesame time reducing errors and timeto completion.In education, for example, schoolsystems can learn from peers at asimilar stage of evolution or performanceabout the right levers to usefor improvement—be it better use ofpupil data, revision of standards andcurricula, or a deeper professionalizationof teaching careers. Likewise, theescalation of health care costs acrossall systems is provoking significantpolitical debate.Yet the best systems are already beginningto make progress in healthcare productivity through a numberof steps, such as the prediction ofpatients most at risk and the adoptionof subsequent prevention strategies,delivery of care at home and incapital-light settings rather than inhospitals, and technology innovationsto boost clinician effectivenessand efficiency. Government servicescan and should build on examples ofsuccess around the world.There is a real prize for governmentsthat can make progress evenas the policy and fiscal environmentsthreaten to thwart action. But towin, governments must adapt to fitthe challenges of today, in part by applyingbest practices from around theworld.In challenging times, the governmentwe need is rarely the governmentwe inherit. Instead, governmentmust be deliberately designedand managed to make progress onsolvable problems.This article is reproduced withkind permission from the McKinseyCenter for Government. It is partof an Anthology of articles whichcan be found online at their website.84 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 85

TRANSFORMING LEARNINGTRANSFORMING LEARNINGTransformingLearningthroughmEducationTechnology is changingour world in ways unimaginableeven a decade ago. Mobiletechnology in particular hasbegun to permeate our daily lives,providing unparalleled access to information.It is also raising the quality of educationand improving access to it. Earlyinitiatives in mobile education, or“mEducation,” are already enhancinglearning outcomes worldwide. Withgrowing availability and demand,mEducation is poised to become aUS$70 billion market by 2020.Mobile operators can seize this excitingopportunity and shape the marketif they understand how new technologiesand initiatives will impacteducation around the world—and ifthey can develop smart strategies andimplement them quickly.THE POWER OF MOBILE INCHANGING EDUCATIONWe rely on mobile technology formany simple tasks, but we have yetmEducation solutions couldrevolutionize learning for morethan a billion students globally.to tap its potential to enable and eventransform education. The emergingpromise of mEducationWe define mEducation as technologyenabledlearning solutions available tolearners anytime, anywhere. Any portabledevice, such as a tablet, laptop or mobilephone, that provides access toeducational content through mobileconnectivity (2G, 3G, or 4G complementedby mobile-based Wi-Fi) canbe a tool for mEducation. Mobiletechnology’s power to transform educationis difficult to overstate, given the importanceand impact of learning thattakes place outside a traditional classroomenvironment.To view mEducation as “distancelearning using mobile technology”misses the deeper point. mEducationrepresents a profound shift in the wayeducation is delivered and received.The change is underway now; mEducationhas already achieved some success.In the United States, for instance, theoral fluency of kindergartners in NewMexico tripled just 3 years after educatorsbegan using mobilebased computingdevices to assess the progress of individual86 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 87

TRANSFORMING LEARNINGTRANSFORMING LEARNINGstudents and tailor lessons to theirneeds. This is just one example ofmEducation’s tremendous potential.ENHANCING EDUCATIOALOUTCOMES USING MOBILETECHNOLOGYOur research shows that mEducationoffers three advantages withthe potential to improve educationdelivery and thereby enhancelearning outcomes:• It simplifies access to contentand experts, overcoming traditionalconstraints of time, locationand collaboration• It personalizes education solutionsfor individual learners,helping educators customize theteaching process, using softwareand interactive media that adaptlevels of difficulty to individualstudents’ understanding and pace• It addresses specific challengesthat lower the efficiency of educationalsystems worldwide. Casein point: MIT’s Education CollaborationServices gives teachersaccess to best practices.THE REVOLUTION IS COM-INGThe market for mEducation productsand services today is worthapproximately US$3.4 billion—asliver of the US$4 trillion spent oneducation globally. But students,educators and e-learning playersare warming up to the potentialof mEducation. Five trends createa fertile environment to supportmEducation growth:Portable device form factors arerapidly evolving. Increased availabilityand penetration of smartportable devices with advancedfunctionalities, such as accelerometersthat sense motion, willlower costs and open a world ofnew possibilities for mEducationsolutionsA digital native and technologyliterategeneration is fast emerging.We are adopting mobile solutionsand devices in our lives ata faster pace. Children will adaptespecially well to learning throughmobile devicesGovernments are turning to thepotential of mEducation. Manycountries are promoting the use ofinformation and communicationstechnology in schools and investingin portable devices that enablenew ways of learning – all in a bidto improve learning outcomesMobile applications are increasinglypopular for educationalcontent. More recently, mobiledevice users are downloading educationalapps at higher prices thanentertainment or gaming appsPilots are leading to viable productswith commercial potential,such as mobile-based learningmanagement systems, game-basedapplications, and voice and textbasedsolutions. This is in turnattracting more investment intomEducation providers.THE M-EDUCATION PROD-UCT LANDSCAPEAlthough mEducation is a nascentmarket, publishing houses, mobilenetwork operators and devicemanufacturers have been focusingon it for years. We have classifiedmore than hundred commercialmEducation offerings into sevenproduct and solution archetypes:(i) educational e-books and coursesaccessed through portable devices;(ii) learning management systems(LMS) and authoring tools;(iii) game or simulation-basedlearning tools;(iv) collaboration tools(v) adaptive assessment services;(vi) test preparation support(vii) distance tutoring and homework support.SIZING THE M-EDUCATIONOPPORTUNITYThe world is spending more oneducation than ever before. By2020, we expect global spend todouble to US$8 trillion. mEducationmay address up to US$70billion of this market throughspecialized product offerings anda growing market for devices.mEducation products can representa USD 38 billion marketopportunity by 2020 The sevenproduct and solution archetypesof mEducation could be a US$38billion revenueopportunity by2020. Looking at the mEducationmarket along three conventionaldimensions—geographic, endusersegments and value chaincomponents—we foresee the followingtrends:• Education spend will grow thefastest in developing Asia-Pacificat a CAGR of 54% between2011-20, while North Americawill remain the biggest market inabsolute terms with a total annualspend of US$15 billion for mEducationproducts and solutionsby 2020• 75-80% of spending willbe in higher education and K-12,while corporate learning will accountfor 10-20%, varying bymarket• In parallel with online educationspend, almost 90% of mEducationservices will rely oncontent-enabling platforms andsoftware.The device opportunity alone willbe worth US$32 billion by 2020.With the anticipated growth inmEducation, manufacturers arelikely to see rapid growth in demandfor dedicated devices for usein education. While most of thegrowth, around US$30 billion,will be for B2B (educational institutions)solutions, we estimatethe B2C (individual learners) categorywill grow to around US$2billion over the same period.HOW MOBILE OPERATORSCAN TAP THE MARKETDepending on their aspirationsand capabilities, mobile operatorscan tap the potential of mEducationin three ways:• Ride the connectivity wave:This is the immediate opportunityfor mobile operators and wherethey have the most natural rightto play. It will be worth approximatelyUS$4 billion in annualrevenue by 2020• Enable the mEducation ecosystem:mEducation providers willrequire a broad range of technicalsupport and enablers such asIT, network, content, hosting anddata management services. Mobileoperators can develop theircapabilities to offer this support,tapping into a revenue pool of approximatelyUS$20 billionLead as an end-to-end mEducationprovider: MNOs can investupfront and enter the market ontheir own, providing the entirerange of services that include inhousecontent and/or devices.This throws open the entire mEducationopportunity, worth approximatelyUS$70 billion.mEducation, now at a tippingpoint, offers significant opportunitiesfor mobile operators, whileenhancing educational access andoutcomes for learners and educatorsaround the world.The mEducation opportunity canbe US$70 billion by 2020Growing consistently at about 7%per annum over the last decade,education spend has doubledfrom about US$2 trillion in 2000to US$4 trillion in 2011 and is expectedto grow at 8% per annumto reach US$8 trillion by 2020.The opportunity for mEducationwill also grow rapidly over this decade.We expect the total annual marketopportunity for mEducationto reach US$70 billion by 2020.mEducation products representUS$38 billion of this figure, whilethe remaining US$32 billion willcome from the sale of devices.mEducation products will representa US$38 billion marketopportunity by 2020Together, the seven archetypes ofmEducation products will representa US$38 billion annual revenueopportunity in 2020 (Exhibit 4).E-books and e-courses deliveredover mobile networks and accessedon portable devices will continueto represent the biggest productsegment on the back of stronggrowth in developing regions.This will be followed by game- andsimulation-based tools, which willemerge as the second significantcategory, on the back of strong88 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 89

TRANSFORMING LEARNINGTRANSFORMING LEARNINGgrowth in developed regions. Together,these two will account foralmost 80% of the market.Distance tutoring will emerge asa substantial category, particularlyin Asian countries such as SouthKorea, Japan and India, whichhave a strong culture of supplementaryeducation. Three trendswill drive market growth for mEducationproducts.Developing Asia Pacific will growthe fastest, while North Americawill remain the biggest market formEducation products:Developing regions will drivemost of the growth in mEducationbecause of rapid economicdevelopment and a push to spendan increasing share of GDP oneducation. Challenges in educationvary significantly across developedand developing regions,both in terms of access to educationand its quality.This seems likely to change, however, asper capita incomes grow in developingregions, narrowing the gap in educationspend per student. Whilecountries like US and Japan spendan average of US$10,000 to 15,000per student per year from kindergartenthrough college, countrieslike Mexico, Chile and Hungaryspend only US$2,000 to 5,000.Developing regions will also catchup in feature and smart portabledevice penetration, propellingthose markets to grow even fasteras the population gains access toand benefit from a broader varietyof mEducation solutions beyondthose available on basic phones.We therefore estimate the mEducationmarket in developingregions to grow at 50 to 55%CAGR between 2011 and 2020,compared to 25 to 30% for developedregions (Exhibit 5). Atan aggregate level, developedregions will still account for thebulk of the opportunity, withNorth America accounting foraround 40%, followed by Europeat 23% and developed Asia-Pacificat 17%.Higher education and K–12 willrepresent the biggest mEducationproduct opportunities across regions:Global expenditure on educationcan be grouped into fivecategories: preprimary, K-12,higher education, vocational,and corporate learning. Acrossall regions, 55% of total expendituregoes into the K-12 segment,30% into higher education, and15% into pre-school, vocationaland corporate learning.Almost 90% of the product opportunitywill be in content, platformand software:The mEducation product opportunitylies in three main componentsof the value chain: content,platform and software, and connectivity.We define content as allforms of lessons, concepts, testsand assessments. Platform andsoftware include software andadaptive algorithms. We defineconnectivity as all data costs incurredin receiving or sending informationover mobile networkswhile using the mEducationproducts.We estimate that connectivity willrepresent about 10% of the US$38billion value in 2020. The bulk ofthe value lies in either the contentor the platform/software. Servicessuch as e-books and e-courses,test preparation, distance tutoring,games and simulation-basedapplications are predominantlycontent-heavy services, whereasservices like adaptive assessment,learning management systems andauthoring and collaboration toolsare predominantly platform-andsoftware-heavy.The device opportunity alone willbe worth US$32 billion by 2020Education already represents avibrant market opportunity fordevice manufacturers. For example,educational institutesrepresent 10 to 15% of the totalB2B sales for laptops, accordingto IDC. Many governments,such as Turkey, have committedto buying tablets for the classrooms.Dedicated devices, such90 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 91

TRANSFORMING LEARNINGas LeapFrog’s LeapPad, are alreadygenerating millions of dollarsthrough mEducation.We estimatethe B2B device market ineducation to be worth US$8 billiontoday, with laptops representingapproximately 90%. Tabletsare the remaining market–andthe fastest-growing category.With growth in mEducation, devicemanufacturers will also seerapid growth in the demand fortheir devices. We expect the annualB2B sales of laptops, tablets,smartphones and e-book readersto educational institutes to go upto a total of 80 to 100 millionunits by 2020. Despite the decreasingunit prices across all thesedevices, this represents a revenueopportunity of approximatelyUS$30 billion by 2020. TheB2C space is seeing significantactivity in dedicated learningdevices with players like Leap-Frog and Kibot, both built foryoung children.This space could enjoy robustgrowth akin to the emergence ofdedicated consoles for gaming.The previously quoted StrategyAnalytics survey found that theshare of education apps is increasingand accounted for 1.2% oftotal app downloads from majorapp stores like Apple, Amazon,Android and Blackberry AppWorld in 2011.We expect that share to rise significantly,driving the education-specificB2C device opportunity toapproximately US$2 billion by 2020.With potential to deliver US$70billion by 2020, this market offersmultiple opportunities for mobileoperators who can identify customers,develop education valueadded services and implementthem quickly.This article is reproduced with kind permission from McKinsey on Society. This version combinesthe Executive Summary of the White Paper, with excerpts from Part 4 of the document. To read anddownload the full document, please visit http://mckinseyonsociety.com/transforming-learning-throughmeducation/92 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 93

DARE TO INNOVATEDARE TO INNOVATEPushing bounderiesSome of the world's most brilliant and creative minds came together in Kuala Lumpurrecently to push forward the innovation agenda.Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (left) at the launch of the WIFKL. With him is Datuk SeriDr. Maximus Johnity Ongkili, Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation.APPLE’S phenomenal success is thebest evidence that visionary innovationis the way to go, but no one reallyknows what that means exactly.That was why the World InnovationForum (WIF-KL) held in KualaLumpur recently was so important.“The coolest thing that happenedlast year was how Apple went frombeing literally on the brink of bankruptcyto being the world’s richestcompany in a very short time of 15years, with the fewest products.“That’s 1000% evidence it’s theway to go if you want to developa country or a company. Visionaryinnovation is the best strategy,”says business consulting firm Frost& Sullivan (USA) chairman DavidFrigstad.Frigstad adds that CEOs all overthe world are saying “Innovation,Innovation, Innovation”, but thegreat challenge is no one has beenable to figure out what is innovationbecause it’s complex and difficultto execute.About 1800 representatives from50 countries were intrigued enoughby this quest to converge at theWorld Innovation Forum held herein November to discuss and deliberateon what drives innovation.The forum was jointly organised byYayasan Inovasi Malaysia (YIM) andthe Ministry of Science, Technologyand Innovation (MOSTI). WIF-KLis one of the main events of the Yearof Science and National InnovationMovement 2012, spearheaded byMOSTI in partnership with otherministries and government agencies,NGOs and strategic partners.WIF-KL centred on the theme‘Inclusive Innovation for Transformation’,and focuses on addressingstrategies to utilise innovation toincrease the country’s productivityand competitiveness, and reducingpoverty and inequality.“In order to remain competitive, nationsneed to embark on transformingtheir economy to a knowledgeeconomy with innovation as itsdriver.“A cross-cutting, multi-prong andcontextually relevant policies andstrategies are also needed in order tomeet the needs of the people.WIF-KL 2012 provides a perfectplatform for participants to discussthis agenda,” said Minister of Science,Technology and InnovationDatuk Seri Panglima Dr OngkiliThe most interesting and excitingsharing of ideas was at the corecomponent of the event, the KualaLumpur Innovation Forum (KLIF),where high-level stakeholders fromthe public, private and civil societysector to share experience as well asdiscuss and deliberate on issues andstrategies on inclusive innovation.Thought leaders and innovativethinkers participated actively inthree dialogues and roundtablethink-tank sessions.The first dialogue session was on “Invent,Innovate, Commercialise”, withspeakers who have created, nurturedand encouraged a sustainable cultureof innovation such as senior consultantto the World Bank and Head ofGlobal Knowledge and InnovationPractice Dr Vinod K. Goel, Directorof Energy Practice at the GlobalInnovation Solution (UK) Dr KevinO’ Brien and David Fristad.Another dialogue session centred on“Connecting the World ThroughInnovation”, where panellists discussedhow innovation in digitalcommunication and design can create,connect and drive innovators.Other sessions identified the challengesin science, technology andinnovations, and also emphasizedthe need and urgency to innovateand grow.The key message from this forumis that the global landscape haschanged tremendously, and innovationis the key driver in moving nationsup the value chain. The futurebelongs to those bold enough topush the boundaries, and who dareto improvise and innovate.The other two core events at WIF-KL are the BioMalaysia Conference2012 and Nano MalaysiaSummit 2012 were staged, alongsidethe World Innovation Expositionwhich includes the NationalInnovation Conference & Exhibition(NICE) 2012, Nano MalaysiaExhibition 2012, BioMalaysia Exhibition2012 and the GrassrootsInnovation Exhibition 2012.WIF-KL 2012 was also supportedby 10 satellite programmes whichwere executed through strategic approachesin order to reach the targetaudiences, including at the grassrootslevel.Among the satellite programmesare the Innovation Walk, YIM KidsInvent! Finale, Asia Grassroots InnovationDesign Competition andForum, 21st Century Learning (Innovationin Education), AnugerahPIALA CIPTA Dengan Inovasi Yo!,Generation and Transform and RollOut Session, Cyber Security MalaysiaAwards Conference & Exhibition(CSM-ACE) 2012, InternationalSymposium on Accelerating Innovationin Developing Countries, TEDxMerdeka Square and WIF-KL InnovationAwards Nite.Twenty-five innovators were recognisedat the WIF-KL InnovationAwards Nite with various innovationawards to recognise innovative and creativeefforts by enterprises, grassroots,94 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 95

DARE TO INNOVATEschools, universities, youths, technologistand scientists, among others.Some of the awards presented werethe National Innovation Awards, theNational Young Scientist Award, theNational Technologist Award, theMost Innovative Information SecurityCompany of The Year Award,Most Innovative Information SecurityProfessional of The Year Award,Bio-Innovation Awards, MIMOSPrestigious Awards, CIPTA Awardsand Grassroots Innovators Awards.“The Government’s recognition, alongwith the various incentives for the inventors,are aimed to encourage andboost the confidence of our inventorsto continue with even greater zeal tocreate innovative products and hence,contribute to our country’s wealth,”said Ongkili who presented the awards.Limkokwing University was awardedthe “Outstanding Leadership inNew Media Globalisation of BrandMalaysia” by MOSTI at WIF-KL.Insights on Innovation“Innovation is how we create value as a country. We must ensure our citizensare able to create value all the time. It is the fundamental contributor to ourdream of 2020.” – Wing K. Lee, CEO of YTL Communications, Malaysia.“Cultural innovation takes time… but it has started (in Malaysia). Thejourney has begun. There are lots of success stories, but it needs to happenfaster, it needs to happen quickly. Malaysia is racing quickly to get there.” -Manoj Menon, Partner and Managing Director of Frost & Sullivan, Singapore.“The bottomline is if you do not innovate, you do not have new concepts.I define innovation not just as inventing concepts but movingthem forward in the growing market place. Without innovation,there is no way for your market to grow.”- Dr Kevin O’ Brien,Director of Energy Practice at the Global Innovation Solution, UK.“Youths are embracing technology. Innovation comes naturally to them, butthey have to be empowered, be given the platform and resources. They alsoneed support from parents, educators and everyone else.” – Nurfarini Daing,CEO of Youth Trust Foundation (myHarapan), Malaysia.“Innovation means change, and change is the only constant in the world.So, with change comes improvement.” – Jolene Sim, Director of MainstreamOnline Buzz, Malaysia.96 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 97

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FASHION INNOVATIONBy Tiffanee Marie LimWhat is your dream?As a kid growing up, you can’thelp but dream honestly aboutwhat it is that really want of ourfutures. Most of us have always(either secretly or not so secretly)known what we want to do in life.When you dream of being a fashiondesigner, like I do, now I know,you have no idea what you’re gettingyourself into! The truth isthat it’s even better than you couldhave imagined, because the feelingof having created somethingis overwhelming and powerful.Fashion is something that literallychanges our worlds everyday,sometimes twice a day or more. Itis the most extroverted art form,and helps us become the person wewant to be.It provides us with confidenceand poise, and style, and makes usthink about ourselves, how we relateto others, and where we’re goingwith our time.There really is nothing like it. Perhapsmusic might be the mostsimilar, in the way that it bringspeople together and inspires.Fashion allows us to be the same,and at the same time, completelydifferent because of who we areon the inside. There is nothingbetter than a shirt or jacket thatfits right, that you can depend onwherever you go, and that’s whatwe wanted to create for people.We began to seriously design LimkokwingFashion Club about theend of last year, and went to findfactories to figure out how to do it.On campus, we created a FashionClub, of students who love fashion.Everyone can join. We holdweekly fashion shows, and dophoto shoots all the time, and wesit and have conversations aboutideas. We talk about what wewant, and who we want to speakto, and how to make things fun.Our students win awards andhave created some amazing collections,so there is so much talentto draw from. Everythingaround us on campus is designedto support creativity, and thethinking behind naming the labelLimkokwing Fashion Club wastruly in tribute of our students.The whole time, we had no ideawhat we were doing was to be aworld innovation.We were given an opportunity tocreate by the president, Tan SriLimkokwing, who has the foresightto understand that whenpeople feel supported and encouraged,innovation happens almostas a guarantee.It is through his example thatthousands of people such as myselfare empowered.Now we have shot some beautifulphotographs of our students inFashion Club, and have begun topromote it as best we can. Our studentslook fantastic in it and havestarted to respond. We cannot waitto take our project to the countrieswhere Limkokwing already exists,and, to the best retailers and mallsin the world. I am certain if we runfast we will be able to achieve that.Our students have given us thisopportunity and we are grateful tothem for their boldness and courage,and we hope the brand reflectsthat. In character (to me) it is aspirationaland vibrant and stylish,with practical clothes and accessoriesyoung people everywherewould like- such as basics that fitwell in quality materials, flatteringfit jackets, and accessories withsome spunk. As a fashion fan, Icouldn’t be more thrilled.On to the next innovation!Limkokwing University Associate Vice President and Fashion Club Creative Director, Dato’ Tiffanee Marie Limwelcomes University Chancellor DYMM Sultanah of Pahang Sultanah Hajjah Kalsom to the launch of the label.100 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP INNOVATION LEADERSHIP 101

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