It’s a common misconception that diversity and inclusion is an issue exclusive to large organisations that employ huge teams across varied corporate sectors. Big business garners a lot of attention because, from a historical perspective, vast groups of society have been excluded from the workforce. In reality, diversity and inclusion is a societal issue for all – a behavioural consideration of how we move through a globalised world. 

Increasingly, large organisations are waking up to the inherent diversity and inclusion biases that exist not only in the workplace, but in the world – resulting in an influx of funding for initiatives such as training, development of diverse talent pools and structural reform. 

For small businesses, it can be easy to fall into the trap of believing that diversity and inclusion is a job for big businesses; citing capital, size, location or industry as an excuse. However, SMBs account for 97 per cent of businesses across Australia, meaning diversity and inclusion is just as important, if not more so, within these organisations. 

Small businesses are uniquely positioned to embrace a diverse and inclusive culture as they are able to facilitate less rigid routines and structures, leaving greater room for experimentation. Small businesses learn as they go, with the freedom to find out what works and what doesn’t. In big businesses, a barrier to growth can be attributed to a legacy problem where established organisations measure their success based on what or who has been before – which naturally suppresses the desire and capability for change.

With continually shifting political, social and economic structures – change is the only constant. Small businesses have an advantage over large organisations because they can adapt to change, having less, or even no expectations of how things should be done. 

So how can small business owners not only keep up with but compete against large corporates? The answers are simpler than you might think.

Attract

When looking to grow your team, consider how the world sees your business. Everything from your website down to what your employees say contributes to your employer value proposition (EVP). For example, when writing a job advertisement, factors like requisite education, emphasis on travel and the tone used have a considerable impact. Nuances such as gender neutral wording and not overstating required experience or expectations can extend your pool of talent beyond a homogenised group.

For SMBs that aren’t hiring, inclusivity can be applied to everyday behaviours. Any member of a team can provide a diversity of thought, personality and life experience – inclusive practices can be encouraged by highlighting these differences and altering behaviour to nurture them. Whether that’s asking the quietest person in the room for their opinion or inviting dissent in team meetings, these small adjustments can make a tangible difference to team culture. 

Retain

Keeping talented and skilled workers around is vital to a business’ success. Retaining talent from a diversity and inclusion perspective comes down to considering what it is that various people need from their working environment – essentially, what they need to feel secure and welcome. We’re on the cusp of embracing a largely millennial workforce who value company culture, flexibility, recognition and opportunities for growth above all else – so we need to welcome unique working conditions, or risk losing high potential staff. 

Speak to your people – create a safe environment for workers to share their ambitions, concerns and preferred routines. Make this a space where diversity and inclusion can be freely spoken about too, grounding every discussion in respect. Accommodating the needs of your employees, and creating a culture where vulnerability is encouraged promotes a greater sense of belonging, and will keep talent around for longer. 

Advance

For established businesses with legacy problems, there’s a risk of recognising high potential talent in a singular personality type or set of traits. Leaders look for replicas of predecessors who have been successful, falling into a cycle of promoting the same archetype over and over, leaving no room for diversity of thought or experience.   

For small businesses, it’s crucial not to echo this behaviour by searching for learnt dominant traits represented in society. Consider how high potential talent can present in different personalities across different roles – and what tools you can give employees to advance and show their potential. 

As Australia aims to establish itself as an innovation hub on the global landscape we need to support the 97 per cent of our workforce that is made up of SMBs and establish strong foundations across leadership, diversity and inclusion. Small businesses’ advantage is their agility – they have the power to set new standards to not only survive but prosper in an increasingly globalised economy. 

Originally posted on Kochie’s Business Builders by Taylor Hawkins, Head of Growth and Innovation at The Dream Collective.

Novartis, Société Générale, Suntory latest to join The Dream Collective’s 2020 Japan Book Project, “Together, She Shines”.

They join an already all-star partner lineup, including:

• adidas
• Grand Hyatt Tokyo
• Johnson Control Hitachi
• LVMH
• Manabicia
• Robert Walters Japan
• Konica Minolta
• Burton
• Bristol-Myers Squibb

with more to be announced soon.

About the project:

The Dream Collective are uniting 20 CEO’s, leaders and advocates of change from some of Japan’s most established brands to:

1. Contribute to our book to be released in 2020 “Together, She Shines Brighter” containing personal stories from business leaders on how they empowered, mentored, sponsored or supported women in their lives to reach their full potential and;
2. Collectively sponsor 100 high-potential young professional women into leadership development training

CAMPAIGN PARTNERS:

We are collecting final expressions of interest. For more information + to receive campaign updates, visit the official campaign website here or get in touch with us directly here.

Collective progress towards the workplace utopia of true inclusion has been staggered at best. However, our progression through varying buzzwords appears to have moved faster than our advancement towards a more inclusive landscape. Why? Because, like many other complex challenges, the closer you look, the more complicated it becomes. 

One such intricacy is: how do we strike the balance between equity and equality? And in doing this, is the common practice of isolated committees and siloed sub-groups (for those in of varying abilities, racial backgrounds, gender, and our LGTBQI+ communities) best practice? 

The obvious struggle faced in this area is that there is a large need to create community, a shared experience, empowerment and a support network specifically for previously marginalised groups. However, this alone won’t lay the path to true inclusion.  

To establish true inclusion, we need to both right past wrongs of inequality and empower all members of the wider community to embrace one another and practice curiosity, empathy and, most importantly, inclusion.

So, let’s unpack the key reasons that our inclusive initiatives need to be more inclusive.

1. Empathy is the root of all progress

Through so much of the work we do at The Dream Collective we see that the success of diversity & inclusion initiatives is rooted in the pillars of emotional intelligence, most specifically the ability to empathise. For that reason, we need to ensure that our strategies not only educate on empathy and inclusion but provides spaces for dialogues that allow people to practice these skills and put them into action. Without this, they can easily remain a theoretical concept that rarely sees the practical light of day.

2. Diversity of Thought is the Key to Innovation

The inextricable link between inclusion and innovation is unquestionable. So, why do we reserve that realisation for the ‘destination’ of this process, rather than integrate it into the ‘journey’? We need to bring a design thinking mentality to our approaches and be willing to be agile, iterate and recognise when efforts are proving ineffective. Diversity of thought is paramount to this process.

3. Rapid Progress Sometimes Requires a Bumpy Ride

In taking an approach where we invite others to the table, we are inevitably bringing more variables and risk for error. However, there are few circumstances where the speed of progress doesn’t bear the cost of a bit of ‘failing fast’ along the way. To take from a good start-up mentality, if you want to grow quickly, you need to ‘move fast and break things’ and maybe this is more of the mindset that we need to bring to these initiatives to push, integrate, iterate and progress, rather than allowing the series of the buzzwords to overtake our progression to a better landscape of equality.

The takeaway from all this?

Let’s fight our hearts out for progress and create space for shared experience and community as part of the process. But, let’s ensure that this is part of a wider strategy that also brings accountability to all members of the community to challenge existing behaviours while being given room to be curious, learn and even make (well-intentioned) mistakes as part of this process. 

Written by Taylor Hawkins, Head Of Growth & Innovation, The Dream Collective

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You can hear Taylor speak at General Assembly Melbourne event “What Diversity & Inclusion Means In The Workplace” this September 11th, where she will provide tools to advocate for real, sustainable change & also expand on the intersection between innovation and D&I from The Dream Collective’s global perspective. 

Register your free seat via the link here. Limited places remaining.

Burton & Bristol-Myers Squibb latest to join The Dream Collective’s 2020 Book Project, “Together, She Shines”.

They join an already all-star partner lineup, including:

• adidas
• Grand Hyatt Tokyo
• Johnson Control Hitachi
• LVMH
• Manabicia
• Robert Walters Japan

with more to be announced soon

About the project:

The Dream Collective are uniting 20 CEO’s, leaders and advocates of change from some of Japan’s most established brands to:

1. Contribute to our book to be released in 2020 “Together, She Shines Brighter” containing personal stories from business leaders on how they empowered, mentored, sponsored or supported women in their lives to reach their full potential and;
2. Collectively sponsor 100 high-potential young professional women into leadership development training

Campaign partners:

We are collecting final expressions of interest. For more information + to receive campaign updates, visit the official campaign website here or get in touch with us directly here.

For too long the discussion of diversity and inclusion has been restricted to the confines of human resources and deemed as a ‘nice to have’ culture piece. However, with stockpiles of evidence accumulating that demonstrate the commercial benefits of inclusive workplace practices, this time has long passed.

And, while one would hope that the motivators of equality and fairness would have been enough to deliver substantial change, this has not entirely been the case. So now, in the hope of promoting additional progress, let’s discuss the business case for inclusion. 

Inclusion, by its very nature, leads to innovation with inclusive companies being 1.7 times more likely to be industry leaders. For clarity, this linkage comes as a direct product of innovation being an inherently vulnerable exercise and inclusive environments being ones that allow this practice to thrive. Once you understand this linkage, the fact that diverse and inclusive companies have 19% higher revenue make a lot more sense and demonstrate the commercial benefit of inclusion.

 With this realisation, there are three key mentality shifts that every business needs to embrace as they are the fundamentals of achieving inclusion, innovation, and commercial dominance.

1.Look for ‘Culture Add’ not ‘Culture Fit’

When building your team, if you continue to seek a ‘culture fit’ you will end up with an entirely homogenised team. Of course, this should not be a reason to throw company values and cultural foundations to the wind, but we must swap the search for a ‘culture fit’ for finding candidates who are a ‘culture add’. By doing this, you also lay the foundations for diversity of thought in your team, and the decision making of teams such as this outperforms others 87% of the time.

2.All Efforts Must Be Top Down

In the countless projects and partnerships that The Dream Collective has undertaken, we have learnt that true change is incredibly difficult to achieve without buy-in from senior leadership. For this reason, whatever change you are trying to make in your organisation you need to establish and demonstrate that this is supported from the top.

3.It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

When pushing for social change, it is tempting to run at issues with full force. The risk that we must be cautious of is becoming dejected when the world isn’t changed overnight, and this is a lesson that can be applied both in and outside of company structures. If you are seeking to create systemic change, throw your full weight behind the issue, but be committed to sustaining this – fleeting or passing efforts only do damage to your progress towards positive change and trust is far easier to break than to build. So, take your time to make carefully considered steps. 

Even with the mounting evidence for the benefits of diverse and inclusive work environments, there are still countless distractions, triggers, and pitfalls that come part and parcel with this topic and the efforts that surround it. So, I encourage you to engage and to allow your business to become another example and further evidence to the need for inclusion, as both socially and commercially, the benefits are undeniable. 

Written by The Dream Collective’s Head Of Growth & Innovation, Taylor Hawkins. 

Another incredible Emerging Leaders Program complete & wow, was a group they were!

We saw some fantastic light bulb moments when vision planning & defining values, particularly around how we often (and unintentionally) project these onto our teams who may not share the same values.

We also loved hearing the individual actions they committed to making post-program, including:

• Engage a mentor and/or sponsor
• Take steps to build a strong support network
• Getting to work on the ‘Exposure’ part of the Personal Banding P.I.E 
• Dedicate more time to checking in on their team
• Responding instead of reacting 
• Start an internal Women’s Mentor program 

How great are they!

We’ll leave you with this pretty special glowing review of the program:

I just want to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this course; I started the first day unsure what my commitment would be moving forward because I was intimidated of what could be asked of me. I left day 2 so motivated to take the necessary steps to better myself because I was given clear, measurable and actionable steps to take which are not intimidating at all!

Download program highlights here.

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IS YOUR BUSINESS LOOKING TO ATTRACT, RETAIN OR ADVANCE EMERGING FEMALE TALENT?

Enrolments are now open to our Emerging Leaders Programs in November.

Our 5-star rated 2-day program covers the core leadership pillars:

• Emotional Intelligence
• Leading with Influence 
• Communicating with confidence
• Personal Branding

And equips future leaders with everything they need to turn the learnings into tangible actions.  But hey, don’t just take our word for it,  you can read the most recent Google reviews here. 

So, what are you waiting for?  Get in touch here today for more information.  We can’t wait to meet you!

Change, as they say, is constant. Like death and taxes, you can count on the fact that change is unavoidable.

But change isn’t like death nor taxes.

We often think that change is happening to us, when in fact, change is happening for us. It aids our personal growth, allows us to evolve as a society and encourages us to continually add value to our organisations.

In fact, how we respond to change is a crucial determinant on our happiness, success and relationships.

But the fact remains: If you do not experience it often, it will feel uncomfortable, unsettling and quite often, out of our control.

The challenge

Such was the case for HarperCollins Publishers Australia – one of the world’s largest and Australia’s oldest publishing house.

Few industries have experienced change like the publishing industry has over the last 5 years.

Facing unprecedented disruption and margin pressure due to significant technological change, foreign competition and changes to consumer reading habits, the need to adapt and innovate has never been more critical.

Teams everywhere – regardless of industry – are now required to work smarter, with less people and at a rate never before experienced, and leaders everywhere have the very important task of keeping morale high while continuing to deliver through the constant disruption.

The Dream Collective were honoured to have been engaged to create a bespoke Resilience Leadership Capability program that would run over 2 separate sessions and address the 3 biggest challenges that they faced as a company. They were:

• Stress Mastery
• Change Management
• Resilience

While the 3 consistent roadblocks to resilience that they shared were:

• Time Management
• Decision Making
• Providing Feedback

To ensure long-term impact and ease of application, we needed to arm the cohort with practical tools for time management and decision making while shifting the collective mindset from “I can’t change anything” to one of ownership.

The solution

The program saw a diverse mix of seniority and job functions. We were joined by team members from all corners of the business from Sales and Marketing through to Editorial and Customer Service – many of whom had not worked together before.

We worked closely with the team – including participants, direct managers and senior management – to create a Learning and Development program that would not only address immediate growth areas, but to also do so in a way that would be easily transferable to the wider team and scalable to allow for greater impact.

Using this insight, we then developed a tailored program that addressed the business objectives in a way that would tie back to the needs of the individual participants and identify the deeper roots that were responsible for any resistance.

Through this discovery process, we were able to identify the following areas of organisational development:

• Emotional Intelligence
• Design Thinking and Growth Mindset
• Adapting Your Communication Style and Courageous Conversations

Module 1: Emotional Intelligence

As is the case with any true transformational leadership experience, true growth starts from within. And in the case of our programs, that means through individual emotional intelligence assessments.

EQ as a leadership skill is fundamental to understand and develop as it highlights other factors outside of intellect that are going to determine how successful you are i.e. Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy and Social Skills.

Each participant answered over 120 questions to get to their personal assessment. The results were then shared back as a detailed analysis which then formed the basis of their leadership development plans to be shared with their direct manager.

While results can sometimes be confronting, a true understanding of where you sit on each scale, allows you to better understand and manage your own emotions and of those around you.

The session was framed so that it spoke directly to the EQ trends that had surfaced in their individual profiles. This group in particular had shown trends of low confidence, stress-tolerance and assertiveness which can be very common for industries where disruption is rife as teams tends to turn inwards and communication starts to break down.

“The EQ test results were fascinating and provided a real insight into what areas I need to improve.”

“…I’ve been able to maintain a consistent focus on bettering my personal work habits.”

Module 2: Design Thinking and Growth Mindset

In today’s world, speed to change is everything. We are in the age of instant gratification. A new standard has been set and audiences will no longer wait for brands to catch up.

To be able to not only accept, but to also adapt and innovate in a changing industry, one must begin with a growth mindset.

HarperCollins Australia understood that they no longer had the luxury of time therefore, it was imperative that their culture reflected one of audience-centricity, innovation and efficiency so they could embrace hurdles, persist despite setbacks and see challenges as an opportunity to learn.

We turned this talk into action through a range of mindful exercises designed to create space between stimuli and response. This created the perfect launch pad for the Design Thinking session that followed which worked through the question, “How might we… Keep our teams motivated?”

From empathy mapping and ideation to prototyping, this session is always a favourite as it unlocks the innovator in all of us and excites all with the many possibilities.

“Through Design Thinking, I was able to identify different ways for the company to realise savings.”

Module 3: Adapting Your Communication Style and Courageous Conversations

Here, it’s important to begin with the understanding that we all have unique communication preferences. Where someone may be more task-oriented, their co-worker may be more people-oriented. What this lack of understanding often results in is frustration, impatience and a lack of clear communication. As leaders, it is not enough to simply share our message and hope that it has been heard correctly.

How to adapt our communication style to one that is best suited to the receiver (whether that be stakeholder, senior management or direct report) was one of the main areas of focus that came out through the pre-program participant survey.

Through identifying the key principles to courageous conversations, persuasion and intentional questioning exercises, the cohort were able to then share their reflection and insights and link these to their own individual experiences.

“Through educating my team on the change management wheel they have accepted the change in my new role and are much more supportive of the decision.”

“I’ve become more aware of recognising and acknowledging when I’m feeling stressed or under pressure and been working on respond over reacting.”

The results

Through the post-session survey sent to participants, we were thrilled to see that these groups average Resilience Capability rating had increased from 2.7 to 4.3 out of 5 – a 60% increase!

Further to this, participants shared the following progress highlights:

• Being more considered before responding to a problem
• Shift in attitude and not taking situations personally
• Letting their team speak more and express their concerns (and successes)
• Understanding the Change Management Cycle and coaching team members through the stages
• Less context switching – better focus on one task at a time
• Deeper understanding of EQ to know when making Emotional decisions vs logical
• Using Design Thinking techniques to identify areas to save money

***

“The course was fantastic. It provides you with the tools to encourage, empower, and the ability to negotiate when needed. My sales team will benefit from what I learnt and experienced during the day. The EQ test results were fascinating and provided a real insight into what areas I need to improve. A great day worth experiencing.”

***

“Thank you to Alicia, Sarah and Lyndal for a brilliant team training day yesterday. Every person in the room felt empowered with a greater sense of purpose and knowledge and I know this will impact our business positively. I left with a greater sense of myself in how I work and what I can work on – a challenge that feels exciting and refreshing.”

Of course, we needed to ensure we’d hit the client brief:

“The feedback I have had from all the participants, their managers and what I’ve observed myself is the program was highly effective – and the positive energy and change it has created in employee behaviours has been nothing short of amazing.” Director of People and Technology, HarperCollins Publishers

***

We are honoured to have played such a part in the positive change and invite you to get in touch here if you’d like to learn more about our bespoke services or here to download the HarperCollins Publishers Case Study.

In Singapore, women hold only 21% of senior management roles and 8% of corporate board membership, as reported by the Diversity Task Force in Singapore. And the consequences are dire:

1. Companies are losing out. We’re all individuals and can each bring different talents, skills, and experiences to the table. Having diverse senior management means more innovation and stronger capabilities in designing solutions for the company.
2. There are not enough role models and mentors for future leaders. If there are more women in leadership roles, other women can also see themselves in those positions and would also be able to build bigger networks.
3. The gender pay gap will not be addressed. At the rate we are going, it will take 217 years to end gender-based disparities in pay and employment opportunities. This is highlighted each year by Equal Pay Day, a symbolic day that symbolises how far into the year women must work in order to earn what men earned the previous year. This year in the US Equal Pay Day fell on April 2^nd.

Last quarter, we attended The Dream Collective’s Emerging Leaders Program. The event provided awareness, tools, and techniques for improving leadership skills.

Here are some of our key learnings from the workshop:

1. Career success is 60% exposure and only 10% performance. Performance and a great work ethic only count for 10% of whether or not we will succeed in our careers, while a whopping 60% is attributed to the exposure that we get (and 30% to image). While a solid performance foundation is necessary, focusing on ensuring that we are getting internal and external exposure is also necessary to drive success.

   Numerous studies such as this 2015 research from the University of Kent in the UK have shown that women are compensated on their track record (performance), while men are compensated on their potential. According to this McKinsey report, this difference in how men and women are evaluated can be blamed on embedded institutional mindsets. These structural barriers—or, put plainly, discrimination—when it comes to hiring and promoting makes it clear that men and women are judged by different criteria and rewarded differently for the same accomplishments.

2. EQ trumps IQ. A common trait across successful leaders is understanding what motivates others and relating to them in a positive manner. Qualities such as empathy, self-awareness, and self-regulation are all factors that affect how successful people are likely to be in their careers.
3. The good news is that we can improve our EQ. One example of a method to engage self-regulation that we learned at the Emerging Leaders Program is the “Respond, Don’t React” method. While a reaction is instant, a response is based on information from both the conscious and unconscious minds, and will typically yield a better outcome than a snap reaction. Responding with a certain tone, words, body language, and sentence structuring can really make a positive difference.
4. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. According to the “Women in the Workplace 2018” study by McKinsey and Leanin.org, women are negotiating salaries and asking for promotions at the same rate as men. The problem is they are less likely to be successful. We learned some solid steps for negotiation, the most notable being that one should always have a Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) in mind. Essentially, have a second-best outcome at hand before you enter any negotiation.
5. Personal branding is key! Everyone has a personal brand, whether we make an effort to work on it or not. Maximizing aspects of our personality and presenting ourselves in the best possible way is very important to succeed, both within our external and internal network. Ensuring we have a good social media presence and networking are two efforts that can be very effective. Using social media tools enables us to increase our professional visibility on those platforms. Networking by building relationships and staying connected to other leaders is extremely important as there is so much to learn and share.

It will take a lot of work to bring these ideas into practice, but it must be done if we want significant progress—not just for our own careers, but to create more and better opportunities for women in the global workforce.

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Marta Barrera is a Senior Sales Manager at MediaMath. She currently manages a portfolio of blue-chip clients and key agency partnerships across South East Asia. During her free time, you will find her scuba diving around Asia or simply enjoying a glass of wine with friends.

Shifali Ranawaka is an Engagement Director with eight years of experience in programmatic. She works in the Singapore office at MediaMath across a range of agency and direct clients. Shifali enjoys cooking, painting and indulging in terrible reality TV.

Originally posted July 17th 2019 – MediaMath Blog

We often hear of Australian startups with grand plans to expand into the US, or dreaming of taking on the European market, while overlooking a huge and vastly populated continent right under their nose.

Asia is a patchwork of different cultures, languages and economies, and the very notion of trying to set up business there can understandably feel overwhelming. But it’s possible. And, according to these founders who have done it, it doesn’t even have to be all that hard.

From mindset to relationships, to nitty-gritty practical stuff, here are our six tips for a successful expansion into Asia.

Understand the market, and the culture

Anthony Johnston is the founder of CoVentured, a platform connecting corporates with startups for events, partnerships and other collaborations. Last month, CoVentured announced it has launched in Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as in the UK.

Speaking to StartupSmart, Johnston said it’s important to make sure the product-market fit you have in your own market is also applicable in another.

Your product’s success on home turf “doesn’t mean it’s necessarily relevant in other markets”, he says.

This could be because of other competitors, but it also comes down to cultural differences — and this is perhaps an even bigger consideration.

In certain Asian cultures, there’s a strong focus on local networks, Johnston explains.

“The more people you know, and the better you know them, the more likely you are to be able to sell,” he says.

Your brand also needs to be ready to go, and aligned to the target market, and you may have to rework your logo, and the language used in your materials, he advises.

“You can bang away at that market for some time and not succeed,” he adds.

“And it’s not necessarily a product fit, it’s how you sell, and it might not fit culturally.”

Speaking to StartupSmart, Sarah Liu, founder of The Dream Collective, also notes it’s important to be mindful of cultural differences that may not be obvious.

Liu has expanded Sydney-based The Dream Collective, a corporate leadership training platform for women, to Singapore, Tokyo and Shanghai, and notes in some Asian cultures, people have a slightly different concept of time.

“In Australia, if you’re efficient, meet someone and don’t take up too much time, get straight to the point, they will respect you for that,” Liu observes.

“In Asia, if you’re too to the point, they will think you’re not investing time in the relationship,” she adds.

“It’s not that you shouldn’t be efficient, but it’s not about getting things done the quickest way.”

But, don’t be intimidated by it

Expanding into Asia is challenging, “but don’t think it’s harder than it is”, Liu advises.

When The Dream Collective launched in Japan, it didn’t have anyone on the team who spoke fluent Japanese.

“We didn’t want to invest too much into a full local team before we really understood the market,” she explains.

But the platform still managed to take off in the city.

It’s okay to take a minimum-viable-product approach and to pivot and change the model along the way so it fits into the new country and culture.

“Don’t feel like you need to have a local team and a local everything to begin with, and invest so much upfront,” Liu says.

“It’s okay to take a step-by-step approach.”

Startup founders can sometimes put expansion in the ‘too-hard’ basket, assuming the cultural differences will be an insurmountable barrier. And they should be mindful of those differences, Liu says.

“But, beyond all cultural differences, we are all human, and humans connect in a similar way.”

If you’re authentic, genuine, willing to learn and customer-centric, “that surpasses the so-called cultural differences”

Be flexible

Both Johnston and Liu recommend founders remain flexible, and willing to divert from their original plan, as they embark on their international expansion.

If it doesn’t work, pivot, Johnston says.

“If you’re going to do it, you’re not going to test it just to pull out, you’re going to test it to make it work. There’s a big difference.”

The key is in “learning as you go”, he adds.

Asia is a very big market, and a very big opportunity for Australian startups, Liu notes.

“You don’t really have to have the right solution right there and then,” she explains.

“Be ready to learn, and don’t assume what will work in Australia will work in Asia.”

For Australian founders, “it’s all about being a little bit vulnerable”, Liu adds, and not going in with the exact same tactics as they have used so far.

It’s about entering the market in order to learn about it, while knowing you may or may not succeed.

For The Dream Collective, this approach “actually took the pressure off a lot”, Liu says.

“You let your market tell you whether it’s going to fly or not.”

Get the practicalities down

Johnston warns startup founders not to overlook some of the practicalities of entering the Asian market, and some of the structure of running a business.

For example, “make sure you get good local legal and accounting advice”, he advises.

There may be differences in things such as IP, privacy and HR laws, he warns, which could trip you up if you don’t fully understand them.

Equally, he says it’s important to make sure your investors are on board with your expansion plans, and that their vision is still aligned.

Wherever your funding is coming from, make sure the people involved know what’s going on and are prepared to be patient, he says.

“Because things can get quite rocky.”

Invest your time

Liu stresses the importance of the founder themselves investing time into understanding the market they’re entering personally, and into building trust in the ecosystem there.

“Ultimately, the buck stops with the business owner, and if you don’t understand the market and you rely on your team to understand the market, you’re not necessarily making the right decisions,” she says.

While she admits “I know it’s not always feasible”, Liu stresses the importance of spending time to build trust and familiarity within the market, suggesting founders spend between six months and a year on the ground in the Asian city they’re launching in.

Of course, Australian customers have to trust the business too, “but how they go about that trusting process is slightly different”.

Focus on you

Similarly, Johnston says it’s important to be patient. At CoVentured, the team started talking about entering the Asian markets about one year in. It was six months later that they felt confident enough to make the leap.

However, the timeline will be different for every business, and “it’s really hard to define”, Johnston says.

“You need evidence before you expand,” he explains.

“That takes many shapes depending on your business.”

First, you must understand where your product fits in your own market. That will help you extrapolate that to other regions.

“If you don’t have that data, then you’re making a lot of assumptions, and assumptions come with risk,” he says.

Startups should make sure they’re ready before they do anything — marching to the beat of their own drum rather than reacting to what competitors are doing, Johnston says.

“It’s easy to say, but it’s hard to do,” he adds.

If you already have the capability to respond to competitors’ moves, then you should.

But if that’s your only motivation, “because you’ll veer away from what your own plan is, and that kind of gap can expose you”.

Originally published May 7th 2019 by SmartCompany’s STEPHANIE PALMER-DERRIEN,

Last Friday, The Dream Collective were proud sponsors of World Disrupt Forum’s ‘Women Of The Web’ event in Sydney.

It saw an incredible line-up of speakers & all who attended were treated to personal anecdotes & real-life tactics for surviving in the industry from executive leaders of some of the biggest brands in Australia, including: Twitter, Woolworths Group, Foxtel, Ten Studio, Amazon & ABC.

The day was FILLED with actionable insights, the below are our key takeaways that we think businesses of any size should consider when creating their own content marketing strategy.

On the areas that big brands are investing in:

• New content must consider the fact that audience behaviours are shifting away from single-platform to multi-platform & on demand experience
• There is incredible power in content that evokes empathy
• Through storytelling, you have the ability to humanise the marginalised
• Consider extending one story through other channels – events, talks, social, etc. to build engagement with the concept
• Millennials are marketing-proof which has seen a huge demand increase for native content & experiential work
• Audiences want to participate. This creates a deeper level of engagement as collaboration means they’re already invested in the process & outcome.
• Reach is no longer the key success metric for publishers & brands, engagement is now king
• Less focus on ‘demographics’ per se, more on ‘mood states’ e.g. comic book movies no longer for children only, they now need to be created & marketed with the parents in mind

On their biggest challenges & obstacles to creating engaging content

• The ever-shifting media landscape means that defining success is extremely difficult as attribution gets more complex & education on USP
• Fragmented audience pathways mean it’s difficult to get a single-view of audiences & create seamless experiences
• Engaging new audiences continues to be a challenge for established but niche brands
• Embed your ‘why’ into your culture & make all decisions through this framework. This sees not only increased engagement with audiences but internally amongst teams too
• Never use the sentence “this is how we’ve always done it”

On partnerships:

• Align yourself with brands that share similar values. This will help you reach new audience in an authentic way
• Stories are key. Humans seeking out connections is hard wired into our DNA.
• Multiple voices = a healthy democracy

Nifty (and cheeky) resources:

• Broadly: Stock Photos Beyond The Binary
• Book: Good Is The New Cool: Market Like You Give A Damn
• Tumblr: Congrats, you have an all male panel!

We hope you found as much value in these insights as we did.

if you’d like to understand how we can support your own content strategy or explore employer branding with us, get in touch with us today via the Contact Us page. We can’t wait to hear from you!

We often hear emerging leaders express that they’re uncomfortable communicating their value.  They say things like, “I’d rather let the work speak for itself.” or “I’m not comfortable singing my own praises.”

But the fact is, if you are not communicating your unique value, no one will do that for you. 

Being properly valued and accurately perceived is single-handedly the most critical element to your success in an organisation. What 3 words would your team members, boss or other stakeholders use to describe you? If the answers do not align with the best version of you, it’s time to reevaluate your personal brand.

So what are some of the things outside of your job description that you can be doing to increase your exposure & demonstrate your full value? Here are 4 of our favourite ways:

1. Build that network! Both internally & externally. Networking can be especially valuable in niche or specialised markets. The stronger & more relevant your network, the more valuable you are
2. Identify cost savings. This could involve evaluating suppliers, streamlining processes or negotiating new contracts. Look beyond your role. Every one of us has a unique perspective that might hold some invaluable insights
3. Encourage learning in your organisation. Consider informal training sessions such as “lunch & learns.” Are you a specialist in a particular area or have a particular interest in industry news? Sharing this knowledge not only demonstrates your unique value, it also gives valuable insight into your company – thus creating cohesion & stronger team engagement
4. Look beyond the bottom line. Use your initiative & experience while tapping into your innovation skills. We often forget that we are customers to our own company. See something that could be done better? Or something that you’re doing really well that no one else is? Voice it!

How important is it to you to feel that you own your unique value? Are you being seen for your full potential? If not, take time to reflect on what exactly this is & how you will go about demonstrating this. And if you need guidance, feel free to reach out. We have a stack of resources & a super friendly team that would love to hear from you 🙂

Till then, have a super-productive week
The Dream Collective Team x

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