Thriving in the Age of Disruption
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra reveals all of her business and personal growth strategies, explores the entrepreneurial and crisis-ready mindset and shares innovation tips and tricks so you can survive and thrive in today’s age of disruption. You too can have the essential skills, freedom and time to do what you love, whether it's starting your own business, driving the family business, building a social enterprise or working for others in a small local business to leading large multinational corporations. Dr. Ramesh is a well-sought after coach. She generously shares business and life lessons and her extensive network of fellow entrepreneurs, social and corporate leaders, academics and inspiring women in Asia. Together you’ll explore topics ranging from an entrepreneurial mindset, communication, collaborative management, crisis resilience, family businesses, women in leadership to spirituality and living a simple life in today’s age.Fundamentally, it’s about shifting from performing at an individual level to engaging at a collective level, to discover how you can create value for yourself as an individual, in your family, business and community groups and expand that toward making a larger, lasting impact universally. Dr. Ramesh has founded and run multiple businesses in the Asia Pacific region and has successfully raised millions in venture funds. She is recognised by “Asiaweek” as one of Asia’s most influential women, featured as one of the emerging breed of entrepreneurs in Singapore (Singapore Saavy – 50 Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow) and is also named a notable woman barrier breaker in the book Barrier Breakers – Women in Singapore, by Ms. Shelley Siu. She is also an author, ICF Professional Certified Coach for business executives and currently runs Talent Leadership Crucible, an Asia-centric consulting firm specialising in corporate culture change with programmes on entrepreneurial acumen, leadership mindset, and holistic thinking. Dr. Ramesh is a Singaporean, born in Colombo and educated in Singapore, Australia and the US. She currently lives in Singapore with her daughter. Dec 24, 2021Useful Links: Entrepreneurial Qualifications Quiz https://www.flexiquiz.com/SC/N/Entrepreneurial-Qualifications-Quiz
Thriving in the Age of Disruption
Season 2 - Episode 12 | Decoding Entrepreneurship - Insights from a Startup Mentor: Tran Xuan Moi (Vietnam)
Join Dr. Ramesh and Mr. Tran Xuan Moi, Founder and CEO of ATM in Vietnam to decode the entrepreneurial and crisis-resilient mindset. Mr. Moi, a seasoned entrepreneur and startup mentor based in Vietnam, plays a prominent role in Danang's thriving entrepreneurial scene.
Discover the keys to success, such as identifying market pain points, finding suitable mentors and staying connected within the ecosystem. As a tourism expert, Mr. Moi's pandemic experience also unveils his crisis-resilient mindset. His story of transforming setbacks into opportunities serves as a valuable lesson for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Top 5 Takeaways from this Podcast:
- 5 Keys to Entrepreneurial Success: Mr. Moi emphasises the importance of understanding market pain points, providing solutions, finding mentors, staying connected within the startup ecosystem and being open to new learning.
- Adaptability in Crisis: To give up is easy, but to fight to win is difficult. It really requires one to look inwards and generate something more. It's ok to be open and vulnerable as crisis are opportunities to really to learn.
- Spirituality is a deeply personal and introspective journey of self-discovery and connection with something greater than oneself. It includes beliefs, values and practices that bring meaning and purpose in life.
- Living a Simple Life: Consciously choose to prioritise what truly matters, love every moment and live with gratitude.
- Sustainability: Whatever we do today, it should make our life better today but also create good impact for the future.
Host: Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra, Author, Podcast Host, Founder of Talent Leadership Crucible & Founder of Impact Velocity
Guest Speaker: Mr. Tran Xuan Moi, Founder & CEO of ATM COM & ATM TECHCOM, Co-Founder of Songhan Incubator and Author.
Tune in, and together we'll be Thriving in the Age of Disruption.
Thriving in the Age of Disruption with Dr. Ramesh
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If you're interested in building crisis resilience, Dr. Ramesh will be launching her new book on the crisis ready mindset - Make sure you follow Dr. Ramesh on LinkedIn so that you’ll get her new book alert!
Host: Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra, Author, Podcast Host, Founder of Talent Leadership Crucible & Founder of Impact Velocity
Guest Speaker: Mr. Tran Xuan Moi, Founder & CEO of ATM COM & ATM TECHCOM, Co-Founder of Songhan Incubator and Author.
Tune in, and together we'll be Thriving in the Age of Disruption.
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Ho Lai Yun
Welcome to Thriving in the Age of Disruption with Dr. Ramesh. I'm glad you're joining us today to hear from Mr. Tran Xuan Moi, Founder and CEO of ATM Consultancy and Management Company in Vietnam. Mr. Moi is a seasoned entrepreneur and startup mentor, and he plays a prominent role in Danang's thriving entrepreneurial scene.
Together with Dr. Ramesh, he decodes the entrepreneurial and crisis-resilient mindset. In this conversation, you'll discover the keys to success, such as identifying market pain points, finding suitable mentors, and staying connected within the ecosystem. As a Tourism expert, Mr. Moi's pandemic experience also unveils his crisis-resilient mindset.
His story of transforming setbacks into opportunities serves as a valuable lesson for those of us striving for sustainable success.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Welcome to Thriving in the Age of Disruption podcast. I'm really excited that we have you today because you are representing Danang in Vietnam and Danang is a hotbed of entrepreneurial activities.
Please introduce yourself, share with us about what you do, about your personal life.
Tran Xuan Moi
Thank you very much. I am Founder and CEO of ATM Consultancy and Management company. This company is set up in 2006. We provide consultancies for hospitality and for the management, administration, and strategy development for enterprise and also for the startup.
Also, I have a company with ATM Technology Development company as new stuff. And I am co-founder and investor of some startup companies in Vietnam. I am author of “The Excellent Rules of Hotel Business”, and the co-author with Ms. Jolie Tran Pham of the book “Becoming a Sales Leader”. I love traveling, discovering new things.
And when I have time, I prefer to talk with friends. And I plan when I travel to some new place to help the local people there.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Wonderful. I remember when I was in Danang, I met your son.
Tran Xuan Moi
Yes, I have one son now. He's 12, and my daughter is 18. She's studying in the UK and my son is living with my wife and I.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Oh, wonderful. So you're a consultant running an incubator called the Songhan Incubator, and you're also co-founder of some startups and investor in startups.
What I want to talk about first is your own entrepreneurial journey. I describe entrepreneurial mindset as a mindset where someone is being resourceful. That means knowing what is the problem so that you can then go about finding the right solution for it. Two is that you're able to manage risk and uncertainty.
And lastly, that you're able to create value, not just financial, as well as value for everybody else. When you look at the entrepreneurial mindset as a characteristic and compare that against the people who start and run a business, you can What do you observe about yourself in your own journey and about entrepreneurship generally?
Tran Xuan Moi
My own journey, yes, I would like to share with you. This is very interesting. More than 20 years ago, at that time in my mind, it's empty about the startup, about entrepreneurship. I just want to do something. I want to open a business to do what I want at that time, because I recognize that many people, they have money, but they don't know how to do the right way.
Even when we have knowledge, experience to share, to help them. But they don't want to follow. At that time, it made me disappointed. So I opened my business at the beginning to apply what I want to do and what I think that is very good. I want to show to other people that it's better. to do in the right way and to contribute to the community.
It's very pure in my mind.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
What was the pain point for you when you saw that people don't do it the right way?
Tran Xuan Moi
Very interesting question because I also ask myself about that. When they do not do it in the right way, they think that they can save money if they do in their way. And finally, Everything goes to mess and then they have to spend more money to correct the mistake.
It means that if you do the right way you save money and do the wrong way you spend more money. So very big pain to the owner or the boss of the company when they do the wrong way.
Actually, that's a very important aspect to highlight, especially in the hospitality area. Because often people think taking shortcuts or saving short term expenses or costs is beneficial, but it is not.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
So I understand now that's what you meant by doing business the right way. And if you look back at your entrepreneurial journey, you've been a consultant, you still are a consultant. Apart from running your own consulting business, have you been involved in running some other business?
Tran Xuan Moi
In some stuff, I play the role at the beginning is a trainer and then move to consultant and then to mentor and coach.
And at some stage, I recognize that they are very good and suitable to my point of view in investment. Some of them also ask me to be the shareholder, and then I make decision to be shareholder at the company. My journey and my role in different startups is not the same. If I am a shareholder, I will be involved, but I'm not the decision maker.
I just provide them my experience and give them the guidelines or help them grow up. In their own as the founder or the operation director.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
So you would play more of a supporting role with the founders in their own startup and leverage on your own experience and expertise to support them by guiding them in growing the business.
What do you do in this Songhan Incubator? Does it have a focus area and how long has it been around?
Tran Xuan Moi
In Songhan Incubator, we focus in the Tourism sectors. Recently, we focused on the food and beverage. We start in 2017. At this Somhain Incubator, I play the role as a co founder and expert. I take part in developing some workshops.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
How was it during the COVID times? Because hospitality and F& B might have been impacted and what did the startups do during that period? And how are they faring right now?
Tran Xuan Moi
Oh, it's a terrible time. We have 68 startups before COVID and then most, yes, closed. Okay. Because they meet many difficulties. At that time, we tried to connect with them by Zoom or, yes, some other. Now the recovery is better.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
So as a mentor and an expert, what are the five key things that any startup founder has to do to become successful to move from early startup to at least growth stage startup?
Tran Xuan Moi
It depends on the business view. Okay. But in my own point of view, to make our idea to the successful business, first, need to find out the market pain. The second thing about the solutions, the third thing, need to have a suitable mentor. At least one mentor. Yes, it's very important. Number four, stay connected with the ecosystem where I can connect with many other founders or mentors, experts, or maybe organizations to support me.
And number five. Always keep the mind open to learn the new thing for personal development.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Wonderful. I really love what you have created here for us to take an idea and make it into a successful business. Number one is to discover what is the market's pain point. Number two, to find a solution for that.
Number three is also have a suitable mentor to accompany us. Number four is to connect and create our own tribe in the ecosystem so that they can support us and encourage us. And lastly, to keep an open mind, right? We have to keep learning and doing new things. Thank you very much for sharing your own wisdom about entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial mindset.
Crisis resilience, something that entrepreneurs have probably a good mastery of crisis is a kind of setback, or sometimes it can even be a failure. And so the point is, when that happens, what does someone do? Do they give up? Do they keep trying or do they just freeze? What is it that you have done in your life to deal with setbacks and failure?
Tran Xuan Moi
Yes. Thank you. I would like to say that to give up, it's very easy. But to deal with it, to fight with it, and to be the winner with the challenge, with the crisis, I have to fight with myself. So I always believe in myself, try to find out the solutions to overcome the crisis. Each situation is different. It needs different solutions.
But I also want to say that if we meet difficulties or some crisis situations, we can share with the men or with experts, or maybe with the husband and wife, or with someone you think that maybe they cannot help, but they can listen. At least to help you to release those stress. And then, you feel more at rest with the idea.
You need to balance the emotions. Because sometimes you feel very stressed, but you also need support from someone else. It means that we step out of the box. Some people, they are very shy. They think that asking someone, it shows our weakness. But if you can ask someone, it also is a good point, not weakness.
To give up is very easy, but to fight to be a winner, it really requires you to look inwards and generate something more. Also, when we have a crisis, we have to be willing and open to share with others our vulnerability and not be scared that we will appear to be weak, because here's the opportunity really to learn.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Thank you for sharing that. Now, is there any particular crisis that you dealt with that you want to share with our listeners?
Tran Xuan Moi
My business in the tourism sector, before COVID, we have eight projects running and then until now, it's still stuck. So at that time, I thought that, okay, the problem, it happened over the world.
It doesn't accept anyone. So I have to find out what are the opportunity, because I don't know when. Tourism industry will be recovered. I can't wait. If I stop here and I wait to the opportunity when the tourism recovery, maybe I will be stressed. Yes, I need to do something. And then I go to Google and I search what is chance and what are opportunity and discuss with my wife what we should do now.
What is more easy to do in this time? So we find out selling something online. So we try to take opportunity. We dare to take the challenge. So when we meet the difficulty, we'll stop there and try to look out and try something new, at least to keep our, my thinking and the opportunity or the answer may be appear.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
That's right. Mr. Moi, when you look at that period in your life, what do you think helped you to be positive, to seek out the new opportunity and not to give up? Is there some daily practice that you do? Is there some discipline that you have? What is it that you can share with our listeners that will help them also to develop this ability to look for opportunities?
Tran Xuan Moi
To myself, I share that tip. I don't learn, if I don't change, if I don't accept the new thing, I will be old man and no use, and I don't want, because in fact, I am a consultant and I am also a lecturer. I want to teach others and I want to give advice. I need to open my mind. If I don't open my mind to learn new thing, how my student and my partner.
Can learn from me. I have nothing new to show them, to help them. So I always try new thing. For example, I learn how to create the chat box or I learn how to do live stream. And then I stay at home, but I deliver the lectures via Zoom or Google Meet. That's very interesting. I happy with myself. It is nothing.
Yeah. So don't limit.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
You are someone who has an open mindset, like the growth mindset, right? Yeah. You also see and pride yourself as someone who has to walk the talk. So if you're going to tell everyone else to be open and to learn, then you have to demonstrate that. So you're role modeling the same thing for yourself.
That's really great as a leader, as a mentor and a coach, because you are authentic about what you say, do what you say. I want to ask you a question about spirituality. What is spirituality for you? And where are you in this spiritual journey?
Tran Xuan Moi
Spirituality for me is deeply personal and introspective journeys of self discovery and connection with something greater than myself. It encompasses beliefs, values, and values. And practice that bring meaning, purpose, and a sense of interconnectedness to my life.
It's difficult to articulate something intangible. For example, if we talk about trust, or kindness, or understanding, or relationship. So, only when I believe, I will invest in it. If I don't believe, why do I need to invest time or money? But when I believe, I will invest to learn, to grow up, the more I invest, the more I grow and understand very clearly who I want to be and what I want to live in my life for the next generation.
When I teach my students, I always ask them, when you pass away, what you live for the next generation? Can they go to Google to find you? Yeah. So, that makes me think about it's bigger than how much I earn today. It's very important to earn money for today, but also for the future, for the next generation.
So I am at the state where I am giving the good values of the knowledge, of the science. I keep myself in half a glass of water so I can get new things.
So you are keeping a beginner's mind. And do you think that it is possible for us to live a simple life?
Tran Xuan Moi
Yes. Everything is easy. Possible. Nothing is impossible. It depends on you, on myself. If you accept it, everything will be okay.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
What is living a simple life for you?
Tran Xuan Moi
Conscious choice. Priority what truly matters and enjoy every moment. I would like to say thank you when I go to bed and when I get up, I thank you the last night wonderful. At this moment, I talk with you with my patience and with what I want to tell you.
I open to show you. It's very simple. Love every moment. Because every moment is only moment. Never repeat again. Why we don't love it? Because it's only one. That's right. So very simple. We love this moment, and then we can love the future. If we don't love this moment, we have no future.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Very profound.
Tran Xuan Moi
We live with attitude. It's about loving every moment and having gratitude.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Yes. So if I ask you to describe thriving, how would you describe it?
Tran Xuan Moi
The first thing I prefer the word persistent.
I am persistent and focus on it. I do not give up easily and keep trying until I achieve my goal. Challenge myself.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
So for you, thriving means being persistent to keep at that goal, that vision that you have created.
Very good. What is Sustainability for you?
Tran Xuan Moi
There are many definitions about sustainability. My background, partnering for sustainable development. Sustainability is very important to the world. In my point of view, whatever we do today, it make our life better today, but also create good life for the future.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
So that is sustainable development. In fact, we also do some work with Sustainability, and we call it the ongoing thriving of a living system. And that is, like you said, That it's doing well today as well as tomorrow.
I'm going to now ask you a few questions. What's your favorite book?
Tran Xuan Moi
I prefer the book “80-20 Principle”. Because in our life we have many things to do. Yes. For example, if I work with some startup founder, they see everywhere have opportunity to earn the money. And then they do a lot of things and they don't focus on what is the core thing they should do.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
And what's your favorite travel destination?
Tran Xuan Moi
The favourite travel destination in Vietnam at this age, I prefer go to destination have cultures. For example, Isis. Visit Yen Tu in the north of Vietnam, on the high mountain. I enjoy the fresh air there and with the couches. Help me enjoy my life with my family.
Ven Tu, V E N T U.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Oh, Ven Tu. It's in the north. I will look it up so that I can go for a holiday there. What is the most unusual food you have ever tried?
Tran Xuan Moi
Recently, I travelled to Can Tho to provide consultancy for some company there. I refused to take the mouse.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Oh, really?
Tran Xuan Moi
They said that it's very delicious. This is a baby mouse. And get them on the field. Um, I said no.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Yeah, I wouldn't have tried it too. And if you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Tran Xuan Moi
Superpower? Okay, I would like to make a very big party for the world and we enjoy the party with love, with happiness.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
That's great. And what is the best advice that you have ever received in your life?
Tran Xuan Moi
To be honest, trust with myself and trust with the other. If I don't trust, be honest with myself, I will lose everything.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
That's right. Very good, it's been really great to have this chat with you, Mr. Moi. Thank you very much for joining this podcast series.
Tran Xuan Moi
You are welcome. My pleasure.
Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra
Yes. I'm also looking forward to seeing you the next time we are in Danang.
Tran Xuan Moi
Yes. Okay. Thank you very much.
Ho Lai Yun
Thank you, Dr. Ramesh and Mr. Moi for sharing your personal stories and valuable insights. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or investor, looking for inspiration to overcome the challenges in your life, or simply curious about the stories that shape the change makers of our world.
This podcast series is your gateway to a world of insight and inspiration. Be sure to subscribe to the Thriving in the Age of Disruption podcast or follow Dr. Ramesh on LinkedIn and other social media. So you too become a part of Dr. Ramesh's thriving network.
