Guest Speaker
Business Seminar
For Osaka Innovation Hub: Expanding startup businesses in Singapore
Sep 2018
20 startup entrepreneurs and students from Osaka Innovation Hub visited WASABI Creation as part of their one week study tour in Singapore. Tong (Founder, CEO), together with Yuta Morita (Intern, SMU MBA student) conducted a seminar for the group on how they can expand their businesses from Japan to Singapore. They covered topics such as incorporation in Singapore, Singapore's demographic, consumer behaviour, influencer marketing, popup store marketing, etc. The participants were very interested in these topics and asked many questions such as "What are the common difficulties and errors Japanese companies have when doing business in Singapore." Tong was glad to have shared his experiences and expertise in these areas.
Japanese Lessons
For foreign domestic workers & caretakers
Sep 2018
WASABI Creation was requested by a nursing training school to conduct Japanese lessons to its students comprising of foreign domestic workers and caretakers. The students are attending the school to step up their skills in nursing care for the elderly. As Japan is seriously facing the hit of aging population, and lack of manpower in providing care to the elderly, they have opened up working opportunities in Japan to foreign caretakers.
In view of this, these foreign domestic workers are trying out learning Japanese to equip themselves with the language skill that will enable them to work in Japan in the future.
Guest Speaker
Seminar to Ryokoku University: How Singapore's policies have shaped a multiracial and international society.
2 Sep 2018
A group of 40 students from Ryokoku University, Japan visited WASABI Creation as part of their educational tour in Vietnam and Singapore. WASABI Creation founder, Tong conducted a seminar on Singapore policies that have shaped the country's multiracialism, and built an international society.
More and more Japanese companies realise the need to venture overseas market as its domestic market continue to string due to aging population and depopulation, however there is a lack of talent within Japan who has the experience, skills, and know-how to bring business across boarders. We hope the seminar will be able to share with the students some ideas and tips on how to be a global talent.
Guest Speaker
Seminars to Business Schools in Delhi, India
Aug 2018
WASABI Creation was invited by our partner, Intraversity in Delhi, to conduct talks to students of various business and management colleges in India. Over the week, we visited and met students from Jaipuria School of Business, JK Business School, Institute of Technology And Sciences, and Accurate Institute of Management & Technology. We shared with the students about our business, market trends in Japan and Singapore, and answered the students' questions on entrepreneurship.
WASABI Creation is also in talks with the schools to work with our partner in bringing students to Singapore for educational tour and internship.
Guest Speaker
"How SMU MBA Students can prepare themselves in working with the Japanese?"
6th Jul 2018
The Founder of WASABI Creation, Tong was invited by SMU MBA Class to speak at "Japanese Business Night". Tong shared about his experiences when he was working as a fresh graduate in Japan, and talked about Japanese business culture that is unique and special to non-Japanese people.
Tong also talked about basic Japanese business etiquette, such as exchanging business cards, and seating positions for Japanese business meetings. The MBA students shown great interest with many questions.
The event ended with a party serving Sushi for everyone.
Entrepreneurship Training Camp 2nd edition
"Partnership with SAI International College Bubhneshwar, India"
June 2018
WASABI Creation hosted 8 Indian students from SAI International College Bubhneshwar over 4 days for an intensive Entrepreneurship Training Camp at WASABI Creation's office. The students worked in groups of 2 on various topics such as coworking space business, India market entry, Japanese F&B market research, as well as overseas travel trends for India.
An extensive research in in these were done by the students, who also came up with creative proposals to implement new business into the fast growing market. Many presentations and discussions were held with the students to finalise the proposal.
At the end of the program, each student received a certificate of participation for their enthusiasm during the program.
WASABI Consulting
"What can Japanese students do to become international professionals?"
16th Mar 2018
The Founder of WASABI Creation, Tong was contacted by a group of students from Tokyo University, who are interested to learn about doing business internationally, as they planned their self-funded trip to Malaysia and Singapore. A sharing session was conducted over web conference, where Tong answered questions from the students, shared his own experiences, and gave advises to the students what they can do to groom themselves into international professionals.
Here are the reviews and comments from the students.
WASABI Insight vol.10
Business in Japan~
"Japanese Business Culture & Manners"
1st Mar 2018
The Founder of WASABI Creation, Tong held a seminar sharing his experiences and insights on doing business in Japan, in particular on the topic of "Japanese Business Culture & Manners".
Tong shared from his own personal experience overs the years while he has been working in Japan, and doing business with Japanese companies. As he grew up and went through the education system in Singapore, knowing the language didn't seem to have prepared him enough to work in Japan as a fresh graduate. Tong talked about the episodes he had encountered all these years, and cover some of the basics about "Japanese Business Culture & Manner".
Topics:
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Japanese business culture 101, how are the Japanese thinking?
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Exchanging business cards
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Visiting & hosting a Japanese company
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Useful Japanese expressions for business
More information: Business in Japan~ "Japanese Business Culture & Manners"
Guest Speaker
The Japan Council of Local Authorities for International Relations, Singapore (CLAIR, Singapore)
Feb 2018
The Founder of WASABI Creation, Tong was invited by The Japan Council of Local Authorities for International Relations, Singapore (CLAIR, Singapore) to share about WASABI Creation's business and its expertise in helping Japanese companies go global
Tong shared about his past, present, and future projects on how WASABI Creation is bridging Japan, Singapore, and the rest of Asia in terms on Business, Culture, and Tourism. In particular, Tong talked about his observation of how many Japanese companies are facing difficulty in presenting their products to the local markets overseas, and what could be so the solutions to better communicating with local consumers and making online connections for building relationships.
About CLAIR, Singapore
WASABI Enterprise~
a peep into Japanese Entrepreneurs & Business ventures in Singapore
Produced by WASABI Creation
Looking to hire the next talents for your business?
Social recruiting could be the solution
for this competitive labor market.
By Lim Shi Hui, Undergraduate, NUS School of Business
The average person spends approximately 1.72 hours a day on social media, and more than half that time on Facebook. Keeping this in mind, Yoshiaki Ieda, CEO of Job Forward, then decided to create an online social recruiting platform to help employers effectively find the right talents through social media.
Job Forward strives to differentiate itself from its competitors by targeting a wider range of job seekers. Instead of focusing solely on people who are actively seeking out jobs, Job forward enables employers to reach out to passive job seekers who show potential and may be open to new employment opportunities. This significantly widens the labor pool for recruiters, helping startups and SMEs who may not possess a large access to the labor pool.
Job Forward was incorporated in Singapore at the end of year 2013, and officially launched its product in April 2015. During this period of growth, Job Forward has created Startup Essence (a platform to help companies create well-designed recruitment pages), won the Singapore satellite and was selected to be among the top 50 in Echelon 2014, the largest startup event in Asia. Currently, Job Forward is in the midst of testing its fit and tweaking its model for other ASEAN countries such as Indonesia.
When asked about his reasons for choosing Singapore as a starting point for Job Forward, Ieda cites the language factor, his network, and the fact that he can use Singapore as a springboard into neighboring countries. He too appreciates the globalized corporate environment in Singapore and that many MNCs locate their Asian headquarters here.
Ieda himself is very familiar with recruitment, having more than 10 years of experience in marketing, human resources and technology. Before designing Job Forward, he was the regional marketing manager at Procter & Gamble Singapore, and before that, he was in charge of new business incubations at Recruit, the top human resource and information company in Japan. Today, in Job Forward, Ieda’s main roles concern business development, product development, KPI management, fundraising, and of course, recruiting.
Ieda advised our readers, especially foreigners seeking job opportunities in Singapore, that ‘Getting the Employment Pass is becoming harder and harder. Promising, strong career opportunities for Japanese are very few. So, they must have robust planning before they move to Singapore.’
With his own planning, Ieda hopes to lead Job Forward in becoming the number one social recruiting platform in ASEAN by 2018, as well as help developing nations leverage on social media platforms for recruitment.
If you would like WASABI Enterprise to cover the story of your company, send us a mail at hi@wasabicreation.com