Provides Silicon Valley perspective on creative leadership for developing enterepreneurship and innovation in Malaysia.

1. Creative Leadership:
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Gigi Wang
Board Member & Chair Emeritus
Kreative.Asia Workshop
Sponsored by MSC & MDEC
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
8April 2012

2. It Starts with Culture
In addition to the excellent academic
institutions and R&D, governmental
support, and access to investment capital,
it’s the culture that really makes a region
like Silicon Valley so unique and wildly
successful

3. Need to Trust
 Trust begins with open-ness &
transparency
– EX: People don’t trust governments which
aren’t transparent
 Practice being open and sharing
information, build trust
 Trust must be mutual or it’s not win-win
 Where there is trust, the culture is good

4. Open-ness Exercise
EXERCISE is to practice being open and
build trust
1. Get an open-ness worksheet
2. Pick a partner – It has to be someone
you don’t know
3. Practice being open and sharing
information, build trust by interviewing
each other and filling out the work sheet

6. Risk-Taking
 RISK-TAKING: Innovation and
entrepreneurship requires risk-taking in
addition to passion.
 Go beyond your comfort zone. Either in
doing a prototype or visiting a new
places – Cultural Tourism
 Failure is good. Making mistakes leads to
valuable experience and knowledge.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison

7. Collaboration
 COLLABORATION: People need to share
ideas and work on problems together, even
competitors
 Lots of Networking in environment of open-
ness
• Kreative.Asia is a great example
 In the high-tech world, it’s not about
fighting over the existing pie, but
GROWING the pie together

8. Integrity
 INTEGRITY: High level of integrity required
when being open and collaborating
 Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is
standard procedure and captures intent
 Relationship Integrity – very key concept.
 Always making sure that it’s about
“Give & Take” and that “Win-Win-Win” is
the objective, not “Win-Lose”

9. Accessibility
 ACCESSIBILITY: Access to experience and
resources to new entrepreneurs
 Budding entrepreneurs  Go to events,
talk to strangers. No need for introductions
(Asian trait) – take a risk and introduce
yourself
 Successful entrepreneurs and leaders  Be
open. Talk to the young entrepreneurs,
share your valuable advice and learning

10. Constructive Feedback
 FEEDBACK: Absolutely critical to get
feedback to understand what you’ve
done right and what you’ve done wrong
 Needs to be “constructive feedback”
NOT “negative criticism”
 Delivering “negative criticism” to make
yourself feel more powerful or important
is disgusting

11. Jealousy (and lack therof)
 JEALOUSY: The Silicon Valley exhibits a
much less jealous culture than many
places in Europe and Asia
 Instead of being jealous when someone
else does better, see it as an opportunity
to have a relationship with someone
successful
 More constructive, and less destructive
for a company, for a region, for a country

12. Develop the Right Culture
 Key characteristics include open-ness
and collaboration, high level of risk-
taking, and the “people networking”
environment.
 How do we teach ethics and instill high
society integrity into the next generation
of global citizens?

13. What is Innovation?
Innovation is the creation of better or more
effective products, processes, services,
technologies, or ideas that are accepted by
markets, governments, and society.
Innovation differs from invention in that
innovation refers to the use of a new idea
or method, whereas invention refers more
directly to the creation of the idea or
method itself. - WIKIPEDIA

14. Create what the market wants

15. How do you innovate?
 Understand the customer and the
market. Listen to them. You might try
“gut” feel (like Jobs)
 Conceptualize, Design and Prototype
 Collect feedback, lots of it
 Iterate, iterate, iterate

16. Innovation Exercise
EXERCISE - to practice understanding target
customer/market
1. Pick a partner – someone you don’t know
2. Interview them about what types of food they
like (spicy, noodle vs rice, ethnic), etc, etc.
3. Design a MENU that you think would appeal to
them  write out the menu on paper on
tables, drawings get bonus points

17. Anyone Can Be Innovative

18. Silicon Valley Access to Funding
 Institutional venture capitalists have been the most well-
known source of funding for innovative start-ups.
– After several down cycles, VC’s now require more than a concept
for funding, more due diligence
– Look at Traction (customers), Team, Top investors (3 T’s)
 Entrepreneurs need to look to other sources of funding:
– Friends and family funding – many companies including Apple
started with friends and family support
– Angel investors: Individual or groups (like the Angel’s Forum or
the Keiretsu Forum)
– Government programs: Grants from National Institute of Health
(NIH), Department of Energy, and others

19. What Investors are Looking For
What is the BIG Need or Opportunity?
What is your solution and why is it special
(technology is secondary message)?
Who is the team that is going to make your
company a success?
Who are the competitors?
What is the financial models? How much
do you need?

20. The Three “T”’s Investors Prefer
TEAM – a leadership that has a record of
successful companies
TRACTION – customers that have paid
TIER 1 INVESTORS – have other investors
which are have good reputation in investing
in winning companies
Investment guidelines according to Tim Chang,
Managing Director of Mayfield Partners

21. Accessing Silicon Valley
Very rare that Silicon Valley investors invest in
companies outside of US unless they have
investment office there (ie China, India)
They want to invest in things they are familiar
with and people they know and trust –
remember the 3 T’s
Need to understand SV ecosystem an develop
network – start with Cultural Tourism (a la
Carlo Donzella’s talk)

22. THANK YOU!
Gigi Wang
MIT/Stanford Venture Lab
gigi.wang@vlab.org
+1 925 998 8785