IN this week’s Success: The Insight Story column, Luno Malaysia Sdn Bhd general manager (Asia Pacific) David Low (pic) tells SunBiz that his views stem from bad leaders who taught him what not to be.
How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
My leadership beliefs stem from learning what not to be as a leader. Throughout my career, it has been the bad leaders who have taught and defined what kind of leader I would like to be.
Some of the experiences I’ve had that defined my leadership beliefs:
First, be respectful of employees and their personal time.
An employer or a manager who often demands employees to sacrifice personal time including weekends consistently throughout the year – this is a result of poor time and work management. This creates a stressful and toxic work environment, resulting in high turnover and brain drain.
Second is empowerment.
An effective leader empowers others and amplifies their own impact as a result. Empowerment can come from formal employee training, ongoing coaching, and workforce development, complemented through mentorship and delegation of tasks and responsibilities.
What traits do you look for in your talent or how do you decide who is right for a job?
One of the most important traits I look for in any talent is their passion for the industry. I’ve learned that the best performing talent in any organisation are people who have belief and interest in what the company does. They become self-motivated as a result, and are driven to succeed in their role.
How do you think the industry you are in will evolve?
The trading volume of digital assets will continue to grow in leaps and bounds while the technology continues to find new use cases to drive economic value to its users, whether its greater adoption of layer 1 blockchain technology such as Ethereum blockchain, or more artists leveraging on non-fungible tokens to expand their customer base to promote their digital portfolio.
Moving forward, I personally think more established companies will look seriously into digital assets to drive better products and services to their consumers. And I’m excited with the potential growth of the industry that comes with it.
What advice can you offer those looking to start their career/own business?
Look to high-growth industries to find opportunities, whether it’s to start a career or business. For example, the technology industry that has continued to evolve and grow over the last decade. With newer industries, there is a lot less talent competing for opportunities while demand for better talent grows. What this also means is that a person’s talents and capabilities are far more valued than the talent’s age or years of experience.
We all know about the industrial revolution, are we in for a technological revolution? Your thoughts.
Definitely. Blockchain technology is revolutionising different industries including the financial and digital sectors, which have traditionally relied on a centralised model to store and reconcile information. With blockchain technology, information can now be securely stored and validated in a decentralised and transparent manner, which is, we do not need to rely on one or a group of entities to store and validate critical information.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional life?
I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with many successful leaders and entrepreneurs whom I can draw lessons from. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is to work hard. While hard work does not guarantee success, without hard work, failure is inevitable.
Even with the best ideas, failure is guaranteed if we’re not willing to put in the hours of effort and time to execute it, especially in any competitive environment where customers are looking for the best product and services.
What do you want to accomplish in the next five years?
I’d like to continue making an impact in the industry that I work in – digital assets in Malaysia. I’m passionate about the benefits of technology, and it gives me a lot of satisfaction that my work can make an impact in Malaysia. In five years, I hope to see the digital asset space mature with more than a million Malaysians having used or invested in digital assets.
Best piece of advice you ever received on your career.
Never got this advice, but I’ve always believed in taking some risks to further my career goals. I’ll advise anyone to be willing to step out of your comfort zone and pursue a career in high-growth industries. You’ll often find more opportunities to advance your career in a high-growth space, when most people will not consider due to either a lack of understanding or awareness of the space.
However, because of that there are significantly fewer talented people to compete with, which means more opportunities for those willing to dip their feet into it.
Most-admired business leader? Why?
Mark Cuban – he’s an entrepreneur who has ventured into the tech space early and reaped tremendous success as a result of his willingness to take risks and his relentless approach to success.
How do you stay abreast of issues affecting your industry?
Nothing replaces consistent time to read. On a daily basis, I keep in touch with industry developments through checking news feeds from reputable websites such as Coindesk, and social media channels such as Twitter through following reputable leaders in the space. I also keep abreast of industry trends through good reports compiled by the likes of Coingecko and Messari – both leaders within the industry that publish quarterly reports on digital assets.
If you could have an hour with any thought leader in the world, whom would it be and why?
I’d love to connect with Chang Peng Zhao, the founder of Binance. To discuss his views on digital assets and blockchain technology.
What has been the biggest challenge you have faced? What did you learn from it?
My biggest challenge thus far has been relaunching Luno’s business back in 2019 when Luno’s business came to a halt in 2018, due to its bank account being frozen. Back then, there weren’t many supporters of digital assets, and banks in particular were not receptive to providing banking services to digital asset businesses.
However, through this experience, I’ve learned to persevere through consistent commitment and belief in the industry, and as a result we manage to partner with AmBank after obtaining an approval to operate from the Securities Commission Malaysia – the rest is history, with Luno now being the largest digital assets exchange in Malaysia.
If we believe in something legitimate, we should be steadfast in our belief that things will work out. And the commitment to be consistent in pursuit of success will eventually open the right doors to propel your business or career forward.
What was the most outlandish business proposal you have ever heard of?
I once received a proposal for a conglomerate to raise funds through digital assets to build five-star resorts in Maldives. That project did not succeed, simply because there was a lack of understanding by the project owner on what digital asset users look for to invest in this space.
Malaysia’s greatest brand.
Tealive. I’ve always been captivated by how Tealive succeeded. It was a great product introduced in Malaysia at the right time and led by a humble entrepreneur who worked hard and fast to capture market share in Malaysia.
In fact in the early days, Bryan Loo, its founder, found success through the launch of another brand that he does not own. However, he took a bet on himself, and launched his own bubble tea brand – Tealive and did better than before to dominate the bubble tea category in Malaysia.
A must-read for every business owner/manager is ...
Blitzscaling, the Lightning Fast Path to Building a Massively Valuable Company by Reid Hoffman. It’s a great book that teaches technopreneurs on how to scale up a company.
How do you expect policies on climate change to impact businesses?
Climate change is inevitable, and policy makers will put more emphasis on climate sustainability. I expect businesses will be incentivised to adopt a climate positive approach, while companies that have business models that are working against climate change will be disrupted or displaced in the long run.
What are the top three factors you would attribute ,your success,to?
1. Working hard – I’d never have found opportunities if I had not worked hard to drive value to any organisation – consistent hard work also shows effort and sincerity to succeed to others
2. Being fair to others – I believe in treating people fairly, whether in personal life, career or in business arrangements. I don’t think we should take advantage of others, or otherwise others will do the same. People have a tendency to remember, especially when they were not treated fairly. And often this comes back to bite you sooner rather than later.
3. Building long term, win-win, relationships or deals – success is built over the long term, and by maintaining healthy respectful long term relationships, one has to create and engage in long term win-win relationships and this creates bigger and more sustainable wins for you and your partner.
Tell us a joke.
When life gives lemons, don’t settle for it. Trade it with an apple that tastes better.
Source: The Sun Daily
A word from our sponsor:
Need Help With Your Personal Finance / Money Issue or need a coach to help you structure or just want to learn the financial skill to self manage your financial matters and retirement. iLearnFromCloud.com
Need to solve a problem quickly, now you can solve it by learning the art of problem solving Art Of Problem Solving
Feeling hungry. Latest food news from Best Restaurant To Eat Malaysian Food and Travel Blog
Memory loss. Need to organize better. Solve problem fast with Free Mind Mapping Software Mind Mapping 101
Need A Customized System Development for your business or Going Paperless XPERT TECHNOLOGIES - Empowering The Paperless Economy
No comments:
Post a Comment