Episodes
Tuesday May 22, 2018
Hans Vriens: ASEAN Political, Economic and Governmental Insights
Tuesday May 22, 2018
Tuesday May 22, 2018
My guest this episode is none other than Hans Vriens, Managing Partner of Vriens & Partners, the leading firm around Southeast Asia specializing in government affairs, public policy and political risk analysis.
Hans has lived and worked in Asia since the ‘90s. He’s former President of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong, former Vice Chairman of APCO Worldwide in Southeast Asia as well as a political economist at the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in Hong Kong. He’s done it all. Literally.
The work he does now involves pulling together corporations and nations. He’s like a kind of corporate marriage counselor. There are two parties who are attracted to each other, both of whom knows they have something to gain—and maybe much to gain—from the other.
So far so good.
But they don’t know each other all that well. And to make things more complicated, they have both been living together for so long that they’ve built up their own habits, their own ways of doing things.
Hans puts them across the table with one each other and helps translate. Maybe gets them to hold hands for a while. The rest of what happens us up to them.
It’s a fascinating, essential discussion. Thanks for listening.
Tuesday May 22, 2018
Tim Gocher: Nepal, Impact Investing, Frontier Markets
Tuesday May 22, 2018
Tuesday May 22, 2018
Investors love stability and predictability, and for that reason Nepal has not appealed to many.
With a per capita income of only $970, Nepal ranks among the poorest in Asia. The country is mountainous and largely dependent on agriculture and foreign remittance from Nepalese who’ve left the country to work overseas. There’s also a shifting political landscape and a general lack of stability. It’s not surprising that outsiders see more risk than reward when contemplating investment in Nepal.
My guest this episode is trying to change that.
Tim Gocher is Founder and Chairman of both the Dolma Foundation and the Dolma Impact Fund, the first international Private Equity and Impact Investment fund for the country of Nepal.
No matter how you cut it, investing in Nepal is a high-risk proposition. For Tim and his investors, the objective is two-fold. Making money comes first but a close second is the fund’s ability to deliver to the Nepalese a high degree of socio-economic benefit.
Investing in an under-developed market like Nepal comes with risk. But risk means different things to different people. For some, it conjures up images of opaque regulatory regimes, political in-fighting, and all forms of corruption.
Others see opportunity. For visionaries like Tim Gocher, there’s both money and impact there for the making. High risk has a tendency to suppress project and investment valuations. That’s a good thing for Private Equity players charged with building value and growing multiples.
As always, thanks for listening.
Saturday Apr 28, 2018
Julian de Salaberry: HealthTech in Asia
Saturday Apr 28, 2018
Saturday Apr 28, 2018
Healthcare is deliciously complex and investors the world over are salivating over ways to both simplify the process of insuring, managing and monitoring patients. At the same time, we’re witnessing the development of almost inconceivably sophisticated new devices and medications that are already preserving and enhancing human life.
There’s huge investment in R&D ranging from robotic surgery to genome decoding to AI-enabled predictive health screening. So much so, that it feels like we’re living in a world where the inverse of Moore’s Law is the rule—processing power is improving exponentially, and healthcare solutions are top beneficiaries.
To better understand the opportunities of the moment—and, as I learned in our conversation the barriers for investment and innovation are coming down—I turned to Julian da Salaberry, Founder and CEO of Galen Growth Asia. He’s a self-described healthcare change catalyst. He and his partners at Galen Growth are working to build the HealthTech ecosystem in Asia.
In Asia – and particularly among the less developed markets – health-tech solutions will need to remain far more focused on the practical, vs. the dramatic. It’s all well and good for the wealthy to grow replacement organs in a petri dish in order to live to 150 years and beyond, but what about the tens of millions of poor and underserved people who still can’t afford to see a doctor, let alone insure themselves against the costs of unexpected illness. Is there a healthcare solution for them? Governments across the region are asking and for investors who see tech as a way of lowering the cost of healthcare vs. raising it, the payoff is huge.
As always, thanks for listening.
Friday Apr 20, 2018
Olivier Legrand: The Other Social Network
Friday Apr 20, 2018
Friday Apr 20, 2018
Here’s the opposite of a newsflash: we’re in the midst of a global reevaluation of social media and its power. Facebook has been having a hard time recently, and before that it was Twitter. Amidst all the backlash, it’s notable that LinkedIn—the de facto social media platform for professionals —seems to have somehow risen above the fray.
To better understand Linked-in’s business model, I sat down with Olivier Legrand, LinkedIn’s Managing Director and Vice President for Asia Pacific and China. The company got its start in the U.S. but soon grew worldwide to become the largest single network of professionals, job-seekers and key influencers.
Full disclosure—for the last decade or so, I’ve worked as a headhunter in the executive search industry. It’s a job that connects people and companies in the same way as LinkedIn. It’s a social media platform that, at various times in the past, I have had a complicated relationship. This podcast often tells stories of digital disruption, and here—at least potentially—is another one. What can LinkedIn tell us about the skills gap? What’s the role LinkedIn in a gig economy?
What is powerful about this episode is the takeaway that LinkedIn allows for connections between people, and that the company prioritizes the relationships and trust it has with their users. I hope this remains the case. Not too long ago, another social media executive said something quite similar. Now he’s testifying before the US Congress, explaining and even re-defining trust as it exists or should exist between companies and customers. How will this bode for the world of social media? Time will tell.
And, again, thanks for listening.
Wednesday Apr 11, 2018
David Hoffman: Xi Jinping, China, Trade War?
Wednesday Apr 11, 2018
Wednesday Apr 11, 2018
Last month many were caught off guard by the decision by President Xi Jinping to abolish term limits and assume permanent leadership status. It’s a move that seems to fly in the face of the preceding two decades largely dedicated to carefully, slowly—sometimes reluctantly—building institutions.
Add to the mix that China and the States seem on the brink of a trade war. Get ready for months of debate over Sino-US trade, technology and geopolitical influence.
What’s it all mean? Is the Chinese consolidation of power a sign that trouble is ahead or is it a sign of unprecedented stability? A momentary lapse of reason or a calculated, carefully argued and debated move on the international chessboard?
To get perspective we reached out to David Hoffman, senior vice president and managing director of The Conference Board in Asia. He’s a friend of the show and we’ve come to rely on his insight.
As many of our listeners will know, the Conference Board is a hundred-year-old business association with more than 1,200 public and private sector members spanning 60 countries. David has spent the past decade building out the China Center for Economics and Business and reading the tea leaves of China’s political and economic trends. With China on the rise and its workings more opaque than ever, insight is everything.
Thanks for listening.
Wednesday Apr 04, 2018
Peter Wall: The Crypto-Mining Gold Rush
Wednesday Apr 04, 2018
Wednesday Apr 04, 2018
This week: Crypto-mining.
If you’re looking at that lead sentence and thinking “WHAT?” you’re not alone.
As you’re about to find out crypto-mining is the latest techno-fad and what some are calling a breakaway play for financing our digital future. It’s a story that came to us via our friend Peter Wall, who we last spoke to about digital nomads on a Bali beach. We checked in with him and found him in the wilds of Northern Canada tending a flock of high powered computers and fomenting the future of Block Chain.
Peter’s now Vice President of Operations at Argo Blockchain, a burgeoning high-tech player in the world of crypto-mining. He explains exactly how crypto-mining works, why he’s involved, and goes onto put the whole crypto mining endeavor into context by comparing it to other currencies. If global currencies are intertwined and pegged to one another in order to establish a kind of global monetary equilibrium, what’s the arrangement with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all other forms of cryptocurrency? How are we to know if anything is worth anything? And what exactly does a crypto miner mine?
The very idea of crypto-currencies as little as 15 years ago would have elicited mockery and laughter. It still sounds far-fetched, but so must have Colorado when the gold miners of the 1850s set out to stake their claims. Instead of dynamite and pick axes, these crypto miners are armed with complex algorithms high-speed computers, and light-speed transaction capabilities. It all takes money and energy – and lots of it.
It’s not an episode you can afford to miss.
Monday Mar 26, 2018
Steve Okun: Trump, Tariffs, and Trade in Asia
Monday Mar 26, 2018
Monday Mar 26, 2018
Here’s something that most everyone who listens to our show knows: China is on the brink of a trade war with the United States.
It’s not surprising, but it also doesn’t make a lot of sense. It was enough to drive Trump’s top economic advisor, Gary Cohn, to resign his post. In the meantime, China marches onward.
For some perspective, we got Steve Okun on the line. He’s President of the Asia Business Trade Association, the first pan-Asia business association dedicated to the promotion of trade issues in
cooperation with governments. Steve’s been busy in recent weeks via a number of media outlets but what you’ll hear here is more detailed, more in-depth.
As Okun points out, there’s nothing surprising about Trump throwing multilateral trade deals under the bus. Trump feels he can bully his way to better trade deals, but that flies in the face of every economic and political convention tested over hundreds of years of global trade.
The US isn’t the first – or the last – empire to threaten a trade war to get its way but Okun reminds us that it’s a two-way street.
We’ve seen this before! When George W. Bush imposed tariffs to protect Florida orange growers and Michigan auto-makers, trade partners reacted swiftly, imposing tariffs of their own. Rather than risk a rapid escalation of trade barriers, Bush backed down, and narrowly averted an all-out trade war.
If the same thing happens this time and everyone from the Canadians to the Europeans begin retaliating, what will Trump do?
Thanks, as always, for listening.
Monday Mar 19, 2018
Monday Mar 19, 2018
Nowhere else on the planet are threats to the environment are more real and the impacts more severe today than in Asia. This might come as a surprise to some. It shouldn’t.
It’s a kind of perfect storm. There’s both a close proximity to the major drivers of environmental degradation—China, India, and Indonesia, to name a few—as well as a high demand for food, land, and water. Nowhere else is the challenge of balancing development and conservation more acutely felt.
Other regions face similar challenges, but within a situation where the population density is much less.
This is the magnitude of the challenge. Now is the time to talk about the issue.
Our guest this week is David Emmett, Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific at Conservation International. His is an essential voice in the conversation, and also controversial one because of the
willingness his organization has shown to work with corporations that have a less than stellar, often downright abysmal environmental record.
Conservation International gives us a model, and more than that, it gives us an avenue of approach to the clear and present danger to the environment in Asia. Say what you want, but corporations have
learned a few things about taking an idea to market. If the market, in this case, is the environment, why not engage companies to lend their managerial, financial and operational expertise in the name of
environmental sustainability? Maybe public-private partnerships can make a real difference.
As always, thanks for listening.
Tuesday Mar 13, 2018
Jim McGregor on Xi Jinping: Imperial Flashback or Authoritarian Checkmate?
Tuesday Mar 13, 2018
Tuesday Mar 13, 2018
It’s been a busy week in China. On a number of fronts. There’s a trade war brewing, sure—check back with us in a couple of days for our take on that—but in the meantime Xi Jinping has just done what no one thought would ever happen again—he consolidated power and received a mandate from the 3,000-strong National People’s Congress to rule China indefinitely.
This marks the end of nearly three decades of collective power, where institutions were designed to replace personalities as a framework for governing.
This raises more than a few questions Does Xi’s grab for power come as a surprise? Is it a reflection of what’s going on in the world, or just something Xi thinks he can get away at a time when China seems to be nearing the height of its economic and political power?
To get some perspective on this we called our friend Jim McGregor—China expert, senior corporate advisor, author of No Ancient Wisdom, No Followers.
As usual Jim pulls no punches. But listen for yourself.
Thanks for joining the conversation.
Wednesday Mar 07, 2018
Peter Kennedy: The Commodification of Water
Wednesday Mar 07, 2018
Wednesday Mar 07, 2018
When you hear the term “private equity,” it conjures images of corporate raiders and Wall Street moguls. You think of Gordon Gekko from the film Wall Street, hair slicked back, reminding you that greed is good and that money never sleeps.
Maybe there’s some truth to that image. But not the whole truth. It’s one side of the story.
My guest this episode gives us the other.
Peter Kennedy is an impact investor—he’s head of CLSA’s Clean Resources Private Equity Fund. Peter’s Clean Resources Fund targets growth stage investments in renewable energy, purification technologies, and sustainable agriculture. Though his fund is focused on doing good work, this is not a charity. Peter is in the business of making money, as long as it makes the world a better place.
Peter invites us to see how the private sector, armed with advanced technology, can ensure a better future. Water management is a strategic imperative. From purification, to treatment, to distribution and monitoring, it is time for us to raise water to its rightful place and apply ingenuity and engineering solutions in support of this resource.
It’s about survival in every sense. This isn’t about what’s right. Investors and technologists are now prepared to combine forces and address water shortages. The degree to which governments see this as an equally compelling challenge is the real question. Politics reward the short-sighted and water conservation (like energy) is a long-term proposition. Do nothing and cities and farm lands will suffer. The world will be a changed place.
Don’t believe me? Have you read about Cape Town in South Africa? This spectacularly beautiful city with a population of nearly 4 million people is on the verge of running dry. Authorities point ominously to “Day Zero” – a time in early May - when the city will have no choice but to shut off water supplies and establish water collection points to preserve what water they have left. Dozens of other metropolitan cities around the world face a similar fate.
Peter Kennedy invites us to see how the private sector, armed with advanced technology, can address the problem and ensure a better future.