Open For Business

After the announcements that the MCO will be less stringent, it seems like we are edging closer to some form of normality. Yet businesses will still have to adhere to strict guidelines to operate. Going digital will be the key to your business recovery. Surina Shukri, the CEO of MDEC came on the show today to speak about the different initiatives MDEC has under their umbrella and what role does digital play moving forwards.  For more information about e-Dagang Expo (eDX), check out go-ecommerce.my or visit MDEC's Facebook page.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The VH Group is a company group that provides travel-life experiences, and has a few business verticals consisting of homestay, hotels, interior design, and property management. With the inevitable slowdown due to the MCO, they decided to explore the food industry, mainly focusing on helping the small F&B owners and hawkers to gain exposure. Within 14 days they had created VTapau - a food platform that is free for hawkers and small F&B outlets to advertise and sell their goods.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alibaba Business School is running a global competition to tap into the skillsets of younger entrepreneurs and business school students. They’ve announced the launch of Alibaba Global E-Commerce Talent (GET) Challenge 2020, aimed at helping businesses and organisations worldwide recover faster and rebound in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. They’ve also issued a challenge to students from across Malaysia who want to help businesses around the world and be rewarded for their ingenuity.  We got in touch with Brian Wong, Vice President of Global Initiatives, Alibaba Group to weigh in on how they’re going to change the way students are taught business in schools moving forward. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Curlec was founded in 2017 with the vision of providing the Direct Debit payment system to SMEs that have been traditionally underserved by banks. They facilitate transactions by intermediating between the buyers, sellers and their banks, making the process of administering bank-to-bank payments incredibly easy. They are working to help mitigate the current impact by offering businesses, especially SMEs the ability to scale up their operations and transform their payment ecosystem with online payment solutions. We managed to catch up with their Cofounder & CEO Zac Liew to find out just what impact the MCO has had on their business, and what they plan to do now that ‘cashless’ seems to be going mainstream.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

UMAI, a startup offering CRM and marketing software to F&B establishments, created a brand new platform designed to get F&B businesses online for deliveries and takeaways at the drop of a hat and for a minimal cost to their clients. Alexander Small, co-founder and managing director, discusses that quick turnaround time, the additional gift card system intended to assist with maintaining cash flow, and what UMAI has planned for the foreseeable future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After everything that has happened in 2020, to say the tourism industry has taken a hit would be an understatement; airlines have massively slowed down their operations, borders have been closed or heavily restricted, and most of us can only travel vicariously through nature documentaries.  However, once the MCO is lifted, hopefully the travel bug will bite instead - and most likely, domestic and interstate travel restrictions will be lifted first, which is what local tourism company LokaLocal is counting on. We have Rachael Lum, content & marketing lead at LokaLocal, on the line to tell us about how a tourism company is still finding ways to share local experiences with aspiring travellers at home.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Salad Atelier, an eatery offering healthier options than your typical shopping mall cuisine, is not only upping their online presence but has even found a way to offer a new line of products in their fruit and vegetable bundles. We managed to speak to Dylan Lee, founder of Salad Atelier, about how they’re navigating the MCO and their involvement with the #SupportLokal campaign by Alliance Bank. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A steady supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is crucial to lessen the strain on hospitals and medical personnel in the fight against COVID-19. To ensure that masks for high-risk wards are only used by those who need it the most, the local 3D printing community has taken it upon themselves to print face shields to be used in other areas of the hospital. We speak to Adrian Wong, founder of TeaMa Face Shield, about crowdsourcing PPE, challenges of keeping donations going, as well as the future of these “overnight measures” once the MCO is lifted. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Corvan, a home appliance company, is running a Charity Awareness Drive to encourage more donations to Mercy Malaysia, World Vision Malaysia and Malaysian Red Crescent Society from now till the 10th of May 2020, and all donors stand a chance to win products worth more than RM10,000 from Corvan. We managed to speak to Vanessa Tho, co-founder and director of Corvan, about this unique business decision.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Malaysia alone, roughly 15 tons of food is wasted per day - and much of that is edible. Grub Cycle saw the opportunity to sell overproduced meals and vegetables from restaurants, farmers and wet markets, at a bargain price to their consumers via their app. All of their products are aligned with their vision to reduce food waste and to save the environment for the future generations. We managed to catch up with one of the co-founders, Redza Shahid, and asked him how things were going during the MCO and whether or not things have changed for them. Grub Cycle is part of Alliance Bank's #SupportLokal campaign.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.