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What is the secret sauce behind the explosion of successful young businesses in Asia Pacific? Often leapfrogging over their western counterparts entirely, there is a special brand of work ethic, grit and dynamism that Asian businesses are demonstrating, with a class of undeniable new talent at their helms. From telcos, healthcare, e-commerce to fintech businesses, the business people lauded in the region aren''t like our Western business legends. Homegrown talent are doing things their way. With Crazy Smart Asians , Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni and founder of the first META-backed venture in Asia, Justin Kim, showcases the Asian talent reinventing the rules of business in the region and making a lot of money in the process. Because the region has evolved, business leaders are embracing a strong desire to positively impact the societies around them. If the old guard was focused on servicing huge market demand and honing a brutal work ethic, modern entrepreneurs are flipping the script. They don''t work harder, they work smarter. Modern entrepreneurship in Asia is based around strategic analysis of competition (and copying them but in a better way!), using momentum and innovation for the wider good - both for internal and external stakeholders, servant leadership - often with leaders that exemplify what they want in others, and a real embracing of regional idiosyncrasies but brought to the global stage. All things that would realistically turbocharge any business, regardless of where they''re based! We''ve all heard the big success stories of the region, with the likes of TATA, Alibaba and Samsung, often praised, but rarely really understood. Crazy Smart Asians will showcase the modern entrepreneurial boom taking place in Asia Pacific, but with names like Grab, GoTo and Coupang ushering in a new era of innovation and with exclusive access to these businesses'' founders and leaders.
About the author
Justin Kim is the CEO and co-founder of Hupo, the first venture backed by Meta in Asia, and the youngest company on the Forbes 100 Asia List. An alumni of Forbes 30 Under 30 list, he leads the region’s first online leadership coaching company designed for top managers in APAC and counts the likes of Bank of Singapore, Morgan Stanley, Oracle, Sephora and Tokio Marine as his many clients. Prior to founding Hupo, Justin worked at Viva Republica (Korea’s most valuable startup), Bloomberg and Bain & Company. Based in Singapore, he holds a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.
