CALLUM CONNECTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERVIEWS Charlie Temple, Founder and CEO of Platinum Fitness Charlie’s passion for increasing awareness of the importance of living a healthy and balanced lifestyle lead him to found Platinum Fitness. What’s your story? Hailing from the international hub of Asia: Hong Kong, having studied abroad in New Zealand, I initially fell into the fitness game through my love of Tennis. Having held rank within […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ENTREPRENEURSHIP Entrepreneurship & Dictatorship: North Korean Startup ‘Trade opens the world that the left closed’. This is the concluding sentence in a 2009 op-ed article in the Swedish conservative broadsheet Svenska Dagbladet, applauding a new entrepreneurial venture called Noko Jeans. This brand, the article explains, is the brainchild of three young advertising professionals, who one day decided to e-mail North Korea and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ENTREPRENEURSHIP How Startups Tackle Emerging Markets Developing new business in emerging economies, especially rural ones, is hard. An entrepreneur has to create products and services that are able to withstand the vagaries of the emerging market context: no electricity, no spare parts, hardly any logistics infrastructure, customers with very tight budgets, and with an over responsive sensor for glitchy value propositions, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
INTERVIEWS Lisa Warner, General Manager of 1300GETTINT by Trublutint Lisa, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. You’re doing great work at 1300GETTINT, tell us a bit about yourself. I am often asked, Why I am in business and the answer is quite simple, I knew from quite young I was meant to follow the beat to my own drum, I am […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CALLUM CONNECTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERVIEWS Raymond Shuai, Owner of Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe After moving to Hong Kong to work for a multinational in finance, Raymond Shuai eventually set up his own venture two years ago – a British sweet shop, Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe. What’s your story? I moved to Hong Kong six and a half years ago to work for a multinational conglomerate. Before that […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ENTREPRENEURSHIP Donna Lee, Chairman of FLA Singapore Ms. Donna Lee is the current Chairman, Franchising and Licensing Association ( FLA) Singapore. Ms. Donna Lee is also the Founder and CEO of KinderGolf (www.kindergolf.com), an award winning world-class golf school she started in 2000 to offer golf lessons, products and services from ages 2 onwards. Donna had completed all the NEP (National Education […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ENTREPRENEURSHIP STARTUPS Launch of the first ever Franchise Quality Mark (FQM) by the Singapore Franchise Training School (SFTS) LAUNCH OF THE FRANCHISE QUALITY MARK (FQM) BY SINGAPORE FRANCHISE TRAINING SCHOOL (SFTS) AND SUPPORTED BY ASTREEM CONSULTING Singapore Franchise Training School (SFTS) has launched the Franchise Quality Mark (FQM), a seal of quality awarded to franchisors after being assessed and evaluated based on a set of Franchise Management Excellence Criteria. It is the first […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ENTREPRENEURSHIP Franchising in India A survey by global consultancy firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) sees India as the world’s most attractive investment destination. With the opening up of foreign direct investment (FDI) in several sectors, India is today an eye-catching destination for overseas investors. 2014–15 GDP growth is expected to be 5.4%. Franchise Glance “Franchising in India has […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CALLUM CONNECTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERVIEWS Graham Brain, Owner of Obex When I first moved to Bangkok 13 years ago, Graham was one of the expats I was introduced to as someone who had ‘made it’. Been great to see how his business interests have grown over the years and his constant support of expat business owners. What’s your story? Entrepreneur with over 25 years experience […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERVIEWS Wisdom From The Man Behind India’s Leading School Chain After completing his B.E. (Bachelors of Engineering) from Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi, India, Amol Arora pursued his MBA from the University of California, Irvine Campus, USA, where he was offered a faculty scholarship with an assistantship. Stemming from this, Amol became a Post Graduate/Doctoral Researcher in Educational Leadership & Management from the University of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Immortality Dilemma Key Takeaway: The quest for eternal life has been a booming industry, attracting billionaires, scientists, and wellness gurus who believe it could cheat death. However, the pursuit of life extension raises ethical and philosophical questions. The idea that aging can be slowed or reversed has been marketed to the masses, but neither Pearson nor Shaw […] Written by Empirics Asia March 4, 2025March 4, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Hidden Dimensions Of Reality Key Takeaway: The universe may be far more complex than we initially think, with the possibility of a higher-dimensional structure that twists and folds in ways unseen. Mathematicians study all possible shapes and dimensions in geometric topology, revealing a universe that may be far from the simple, empty expanse we assume. Modern physics, particularly string […] Written by Empirics Asia March 3, 2025March 3, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is Democracy Really The Best System? Key Takeaway: Plato’s critique of democracy, particularly in his work “The Republic,” suggests that it is fundamentally flawed. Socrates, Plato’s mentor and teacher, argues that ruling a state is a skill, similar to piloting a ship or performing surgery. However, critics argue that this is not the case. Politics involves moral judgments, compromises, and social […] Written by Empirics Asia February 21, 2025February 21, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Secret Memory Of Plants Key Takeaway: Plants have a unique memory that helps them survive in a constantly changing world. They have evolved defense mechanisms, such as immune priming, which allows them to remember past infections. However, plants lack this adaptive immune memory, relying on epigenetic changes to maintain a heightened state of defense. This memory can last generations, […] Written by Empirics Asia February 20, 2025February 20, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Are We Alone In The Universe? Key Takeaway: New research challenges the hard-steps model of evolution, which suggests that human intelligence is an extremely rare event. The model suggests that intelligence takes billions of years to emerge on Earth, and that it is a result of rare and improbable evolutionary breakthroughs. Some scientists argue that the emergence of eukaryotic cells, oxygen-producing […] Written by Empirics Asia February 19, 2025February 19, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking “True Love” Key Takeaway: Plato’s concept of love is more profound than the idea of finding a missing half. The origins of this idea can be traced back to Plato’s philosophical text, Symposium, which argues that love should be more than just physical attraction or emotional closeness. It should lead to the pursuit of wisdom, truth, and […] Written by Empirics Asia February 18, 2025February 18, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Psychology Of Pain Key Takeaway: Pain is an evolutionary mechanism designed to protect the human body from harm. However, recent discoveries reveal that pain can be controlled by harnessing the brain’s natural painkillers. Pain is not a physical sensation but is actively created by the nervous system, which sends distress signals to the brain when tissue damage is […] Written by Empirics Asia February 17, 2025February 17, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked