Amid the Great Resignation and unprecedented disruption, how can a tech leader continue to build a successful global business, team and career in the APAC region?
Just ask leading tech executive, speaker and author Aliza Knox, who currently serves as a Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group and holds various Non Executive Director positions.
Aliza is no stranger to developing teams for the world’s best companies in APAC, having previously built and led APAC businesses for Google, Twitter and Cloudflare. She has been dubbed a “kick-ass woman slaying the world of tech”, and now works on empowering the next generation of leaders to build successful global businesses.
In a virtual fireside chat with the Singapore Economic Development Board in July 2022, Aliza shared key lessons from her journey and latest book, ‘Don’t Quit Your Day Job’, on how tech leaders can effectively expand their teams and careers to Asia.
1) Appreciate local needs and concerns
Tech leaders need to appreciate local needs and concerns in each APAC market, even though standardisation is a key part of scaling business. Companies need to achieve a balance because “in Asia, there is a higher expectation that there will be more time spent with clients, for sales, customer support and engineering support,” shared Aliza. “You have to take into account the level of managed service you need to provide.” Understanding local concerns will help tech leaders to effectively build their businesses in new APAC markets.
2) Plug into a diverse, globally connected launchpad
To have a good sense of regional demands and concerns, it is vital to tap into a diverse, connected launchpad that offers the talent, networks and markets to enable your company’s successful expansion. “Singapore as a gateway is fabulous,” said Aliza, “because we are in the middle of Southeast Asia, a robust and thriving digital economy of 650 million people.” Two more key markets for APAC, China and India, lie within a 6-hour flight radius of Singapore, while Australia and Japan lie in similar time zones. “Launching from Singapore is a great way to open new markets, and learn how to deal with a variety of cultures and business issues,” added Aliza.
3) Regionalise your teams, and help them stay connected
Regionalising your teams helps to further deepen your company’s understanding of differing market nuances across the diverse region that is Asia. Hence, when Aliza built teams for Google, Twitter and Cloudflare, she hired talent from a variety of countries. “We wanted people who understood Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, etc… and because Singapore is an attractive place to live for people from all over Asia, it's not hard to find good people either already here or who want to come.” To this end, Singapore’s talent development programmes, employment pass schemes and HR ecosystem helped tech leaders like her build effective teams for the APAC market. Later, these multi-national team members can seed the opening of additional offices.
After building a diverse team, the next step is to help the team stay connected. In ‘Don’t Quit Your Day Job’, Aliza writes that connection trumps tech-savvy, even in tech. “Even if you’re great at tech and use all sorts of ways to connect with your team, you still need to connect emotionally with your employees,” she shared. For Aliza, tech leaders need to overcome the challenge of creating a shared culture, even as they continue to expand their teams globally to optimise for cost and productivity. The ability to build emotional connection and a shared culture, even among distributed teams, is key to succeeding in a new region. “People collaborate across functions better when they feel close to each other… [they] generate more new ideas, form stronger client relationships and stay longer with a firm if they feel emotionally tied,” advised Aliza.
4) Make sure your APAC teams are seen and recognised
For Aliza, tech leaders in Asia also need to make more time for recognition than seems necessary. “Acknowledging employees and their achievements matters a lot, and APAC leaders need to make sure that team members are actually seen.” For example, tech leaders can use periodic trips to their corporate headquarters to highlight the work of their APAC teams to senior management, to provide them with the recognition and visibility they deserve. Alternatively, leaders can ensure that local case studies and successes are called out in company reviews.
5) Be open to new experiences
In expanding one’s career to a new region, Aliza recommends staying open-minded, by meeting a wide variety of people and trying out new experiences. “When you move, whether it’s a bike group, a book club, a church, a university alumni group, you want to start meeting people outside work.” From art galleries to local theatres, new restaurants to catch ups with university alumni groups, cultural festivals to sporting competitions, there is no shortage of new experiences or people to engage in cosmopolitan Singapore. “Our family loves the local food at hawker stalls. My kids used to compete to see who could eat the most satay … [and] tally up who won by counting the number of leftover skewers!” mused Aliza.
This open-mindedness extends to a curiosity for the delectable business opportunities in the region. Aliza is particularly fascinated by the rise of plant-based and cell-based meat in Singapore as part of the country’s ’30 by 30’ vision for food security, and the alternative protein products offered by Singapore-based startups Next Gen Foods and Shiok Meats. “My husband and I are really active angel investors, and it’s fascinating that [Shiok Meats] is producing cell-based seafood!” she said.
So after a career spanning four decades, what has been most fulfilling to Aliza? The people she worked with. “I love the intellectual and emotional challenge of growing a business, but the most fulfilling part has been growing people – being able to get to know deeply, work with, and help accelerate the careers of amazing individuals.”
