Your Southeast Asia Expansion – People before Product | British Chamber of Commerce Singapore on Glue Up

About the Webinar

WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND

Southeast Asia is a highly contested market and newcomers can struggle to persuade the top talent to confide in them. A company's first hire is the most important of all and needs to both have the support from HQ and tools to build out a winning local team

Companies that enter a new market may have their product top-of-mind, but the people promoting their product in a new market are far more important.

When not well executed, hiring abroad can reduce not increase transparency and companies' views into new market, so it is critical to secure the best people for the job and ensure their buy-in.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN

How global business growth will continue despite challenging circumstances and why remote work is the new normal.
How to put employees in new regions ahead of your product or service, including trustworthy hiring, onboarding and HR management in a different country.
Best practices for expansion to another country and getting the ball rolling in a new market.
Marketing Internationalization Best Practices – Best practices on how to raise brand awareness before going out to the market.
Partnering Best Practices – why companies that come to Asia need partners in Asia and how to manage them.

Thank you to Globalization Partners for partnering us with this event.

Speakers

Fiona Carney

Chief Operating Officer Microsoft, Asia Pacific at Microsoft

Steve Dawson

CEO and Founder of Asia Market Entry Pte Ltd

Charles Hamilton Ferguson

General Manager, Asia at Globalization Partners

Fiona leads the marketing and operations for Microsoft in Asia Pacific which includes the various business groups, marketing, communications, sales operations, customer and partner experiences. Based in Singapore, she is passionate about creating an inclusive workplace and is the executive sponsor of the company’s Asia Pacific Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Council. Fiona is also part of the One Microsoft Singapore Executive Board, which is responsible for government and local community engagement, people and talent strategy, and employee welfare.

Fiona joined Microsoft in 2007 and has held leadership roles spanning Customer Experience, Sales, Operations and Account Management, across Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Prior Microsoft, she held a series of management consultation positions in multinational organizations such as Accenture and KPMG, focusing on business strategy, process optimization and change management.

A qualified Executive Coach specializing in performance improvement and personal development, Fiona is committed to helping teams and people thrive. She has also mentored small businesses and nonprofits in US, Mexico and Ireland.

Fiona holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Management and a Master of Business Studies (MBS) from the University College Dublin, Ireland. She also holds a Master of Science in Leadership coaching from the University College Cork in Ireland and has postgraduate diplomas in Marketing and Executive Coaching.

Fiona is the Vice President of the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore, which aims to build networks, connect businesses and create opportunities for its members and British businesses in Singapore and beyond.

Charles Hamilton Ferguson is the general manager of Globalization Partners (GP) business in Asia. In this capacity, he is responsible for establishing scale and efficiency for GP’s and their clients business expansion in one of the most dynamic markets in the world. Globalization Partners flattens barriers to global business by making it easy for companies to hire employees anywhere in the world within a few business days. The company delivers these capabilities through its Global Expansion Platform™, which allows companies to hire employees throughout the world without having to navigate complex international legal, tax, and HR issues. Beginning in 2020, as an acknowledgement of his impact in the HR technology space, Charles was appointed as a start-up advisor and mentor for the Workplace Accelerator.

Charles was most recently group chief commercial officer for Tricor Group, a leading business expansion specialist in Asia, with global knowledge and local expertise in business, corporate, investor, human resources & payroll, and corporate trust & debt services. With a vast network of senior executives across Asia, status in the market as a cloud computing expert, and reputation as a trusted advisor amongst his peers, Charles was responsible for designing and executing the global sales, marketing, and product innovation strategy for the Group. Prior this role, Charles was president and general manager for the Asia Pacific region at ADP, LLC, where he brought his experience and technology passion to the fore as the driver for delivering ADP’s employee engagement and human capital management (HCM) solutions to firms of every size in Asia. Charles moved to this role from his previous positions as division vice president of Asia Pacific, and vice president of multi-national corporation sales and marketing, leading these efforts across Asia.