CEO Blog

Company highlights since September 2010

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

Since I last blogged in September, a lot has happened in InnovationXchange Malaysia, the most significant being the Ask InnovationXchange Luncheon Forum on 28 October 2010. This was our first big event since the official launch of the company a year earlier by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. “Big” is a relative word, but it was indeed successful in terms of response. We were planning for an event for 50 pax and were pleased we had 71 confirmed registrations, so we expected 50+ people to turn up. I was pleasantly surprised that 68 guests came; we hurriedly added a luncheon table and some of the additional orders had to be a la carte!

The forum is part of our overall Ask InnovationXchange initiative. This is a multiple channel platform for the public and us to discuss the subject of innovation, in particular open and collaborative innovation. The online channel of Ask InnovationXchange is the Ask InnovationXchange section of this website. Additional to this cyber discussion is the face-to-face medium such as this forum — as you see from the event “invitation card” (photo above – to enlarge, keep clicking on the image), it says “Discover what collaborative innovation can do for your organisation.” Another channel is the print medium such as my column in the Malaysia SME newspaper (see my first article there in the 6-19 November edition) which invites further discussion at the online medium.

At the 28 October event, I moderated 4 panelists and Q&A and comments from the floor. Conclusions at the forum included that Malaysian organisations (in particular, SMEs) are indeed innovative, but do not collaborate enough with external parties. Reasons for not collaborating include lack of trust, and key performance indicators that encourage competition over collaboration. I will blog more on the forum proceedings soon.

This being the first forum on open and collaborative innovation, it was generic and had audience from multiple sectors including social organisations (10%), government (20%), universities (30%),  and industry (40%). We plan our next physical forums to be sector-specific. Will announce the next one soon, to be held in early 2011.

In the last couple of months, we also exhibited twice, at the SMI 1-Stop Solution 2010 and at the exhibition in conjunction with the 5th Islamic Conference of ministers of Higher Education & Scientific Research.

I also spoke at 3 other events, organised by others: 1. ASEAN Conference on Energy 2010, 2. Kuala Lumpur Innovation Forum 2010, and 3. Mastering IT Project Management Conference 2010. Yeah… championing the message on open and collaborative innovation!

The news media covered us, too! Business Times and Malaysia SME focused on our benefits to SMEs. After our Press Launch of “Ask InnovationXchange” in the morning ahead of the Luncheon Forum, MYLAUNCHPAD News picked it up, Bernama reported on it and Yahoo! News featured the Bernama report.

Pretty eventful 2 months, you would agree…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in CEO Blog | 3 Comments »

Happy Eid

Friday, September 10th, 2010

Just to wish, on behalf of the team of 8 in InnovationXchange Malaysia (I call the team “Innov8″) a happy Eid ul-Ftr (Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri)!

Pic: Family Photo of InnovationXchange Malaysia (taken at our Penang office)

Standing left to right: Tengku Zahaimi, Aida Rahim, Nurika Abdullah, Ng Sing Kwei, Sharon Cheang, Hasan Saidin, Farez Fizri

Sitting: Ariff Ismail

Tags: ,
Posted in CEO Blog | No Comments »

I blog again

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Pics (top to bottom, or left to right depending on where you’re reading this):
- Blogger 2003
- Blogger 2008
- Blogger 2010

I blogged at my personal blog from 2003 to 2008. I later initiated a group blog for a professional cause and several of us in the group (or gang?) blogged there from 2006 to 2009. I really enjoyed blogging then. Should I resume at those blogs? Yeah, in good time! Meanwhile, while planning the revamp of the InnovationXchange Malaysia website, I agreed with my team that we ought to have a CEO Blog within the new website, and so I blog again!

Talking about our website, those of you who had seen the pre-revamp website may have noticed its blog format – it was my amateurish attempt to create a website using the TypePad blogging platform that I had been using for my earlier blogs. For what it’s worth, that “temporary” website lasted a year before the company could move to this completely redesigned one. Enough tinkering on my part – we hired another company to create this new website. We are using WordPress, and fortunately for my blogging, it becomes an easy transition.

I find all the right reasons for this CEO Blog. InnovationXchange is about connections, collaboration and openness, which I, too, have personally believed in for a long time. Blogging supports those. Readers can interact with the company through me on how the InnovationXchange company can further innovate our services. Of course there are other channels of communication and interaction with us, too, like our Twitter account, our Facebook Page, and not the least, Ask InnovationXchange which we think is an innovative platform for you to interact with us. We are maximizing our channels of communications with the outside, and this CEO Blog is an important one for my focused discussion with you.

The subjects I will blog on will be mostly related to the InnovationXchange Malaysia company. This includes discussions on national and global innovation issues. Particular emphasis will be on open innovation.

I will occasionally blog on personal stuff beyond my job, although I don’t know if you’ll want to discuss 60′s and 70′s music!

Of course, I will consider your suggestions, too, on what I should blog on.

This will be fun! And of some value to you, I wish…

Tags: ,
Posted in CEO Blog | 1 Comment »