Culture

I’ll never forget my first day at my first job after university in September 1993.

It sucked.

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“In AirAsia we consider ourselves basically a dream factory…We deliberately decided that we wanted a company where people can pursue their passion and we wanted to make use of all the talent that we have in-house.  The culture that we have stems from the fact that we want openness and we want people to be creative and passionate about what they do. In order to do that, we’ve got to inspire them.”

Tony Fernandes
CEO and Founder
AirAsia

Tony Fernandes is above all things a dreamer.

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“I cannot live without books.”
– Thomas Jefferson

More outstanding leadership books that have influenced me.

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“If you have a culture that creates an environment where employees can be themselves, where they’re encouraged and inspired to grow, to be creative, to always be learning, you’re going to attract top talent. You’re going to have a lower turnover. You’re going to have inspired and happy employees.”

Christa Foley
Senior Human Resources Manager at Zappos.com

Zappos.com is famous for having a unique culture that inspires uncommon loyalty and spirit among team members.  I spoke to Christa about what culture means and how Zappos Culture has helped to make Zappos one of the most successful online retailers in the world.

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Building a business takes time.  And effort.  And pain.  Lots of pain.

“Oh sh*t, one of my top stars just quit.”
“Oh frack, the employee we fired for stealing is threatening legal action.”
“Oh cripes, the sales team made the same mistake again?!”

There are days when just going to work feels like a grueling crawl through the mud.  We’ve all been there.

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My old team made a video for me as a going-away present. I think their objective was to bring a tear to my eye at my going-away party.

They succeeded spectacularly.

It was the best present ever.

“We empower people a lot. We have our developers work directly with our clients. We have people who it’s their first job, and right away they’re working directly with the CEO of a startup in Silicon Valley.”

Lawrence Sinclair
Founder & CEO, East Agile

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Go ahead – ask me ANYTHING!

No one wants to work at a place where they don’t trust the leaders.

A lack of trust will cost you dearly.  It will eat away at your organization like a invisible cancer.  Your people will  communicate ideas less freely, especially with you.  They feel less secure and less committed to the company.  People in such an environment are far less likely to achieve great things.

And you want to achieve great things, don’t you?

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Hồ Quang Khánh

“Starting a new company is a roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs.  But I really love building something meaningful and creating value through that process.”

Hồ Quang Khánh
Founder and CEO, CungMua.com

Hồ Quang Khánh started his career at Mekong Capital, steering private equity investments to promising Vietnamese companies.  After a few years of working with entrepreneurs he decided to become one.

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Trần Trọng Kiên

“The tourism industry’s forecast of continuous high growth in the next decade will create fantastic opportunities for Vietnam.  Not only will it be a great means to introduce Vietnam to the world, but it will be Vietnam’s most important industry for job creation and prosperous communities.”

Trần Trọng Kiên
Chairman and CEO of Thien Minh Group

Originally Kiên studied to become a doctor and ran local tours to fund his medical studies.  He enjoyed the tour business so much that he decided to found Buffalo Tours in 1999.  Since then Kiên has pioneered many adventure tours in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

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