Will Fan, the co-founder and CEO of education platform NewCampus, describes why business leaders today should reflect, reset and embrace the unknown in order to excel
Three years of pandemic disruption and uncertainty has made company leaders wonder how they can move forward with their strategies and what changes to anticipate. The business landscape has changed, as digital technologies such as blockchain and AI impact industries at a faster pace. People’s expectations of their careers have also generally shifted towards wanting more purpose and flexibility, which calls on leaders to respond and adapt, or risk losing their best talents.
Providing a perspective on how Asia’s startup landscape has evolved and the considerations that founders need to make, we speak to Will Fan of NewCampus. The entrepreneur’s business education platform helps leaders to grow and improve themselves and their companies through cohort-based learning programmes and events.
In his own words, Fan shares more about what it means to run a startup today.
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Leadership at a breakneck pace
“When we talk about the manager of managers, the role is so scattered in terms of age and experience across industries, especially in Asia. And when you zoom in on Southeast Asia, these individuals just get younger and younger. They may be in their late 20s or early 30s, and already running teams of 25 people. So for them, it’s really about developing their maturity as a leader and learning how to effectively execute [their responsibilities and strategies].”
The greatest opportunity lies in the unknown
“In the last three years, the world's essentially been flipped on its belly. You can no longer expect a clear trajectory on how to move forward quantitatively and qualitatively.
“One of the biggest challenges—but also opportunities—is that entrepreneurs and leaders are going into 2022 blind. Sure, you have a metric or target to measure your success at the end of the year, and you see the opportunities in new technologies, new markets, new product lines. But it's [important to also be] very conscious about the fact that a lot of the stuff that we’re doing hasn't been done before, and so, it's very difficult to look at comparables because these comparables don't exist yet.
“The question is, how do you empower your team to be creative in identifying new opportunities and being able to thrive with just 40 to 50 percent of the information?”
See also: How To Prevent Your Team From Experiencing A Mass Burnout