Singapore’s Benny Lee: How To Do Business in China from John Exley on Vimeo.

This interview will intrigue you. Why? The world is changing fast, and Asia is at the forefront of exponential growth and increased importance in the world economy. Famed Venture Capitalist and early stage investor Dave McClure recently took his “Geeks On A Plane” team around Asia (they went to Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Singapore, & Tokyo) to meet with some of the entrepreneurs leading this global change (learn more here).

If you’re a student, aspiring entrepreneur/business person/leader, or just someone who is curious to learn about China’s unique business culture and way of doing things, you will get something out of watching this interview.

China’s market is notoriously difficult for western companies to succeed in (Read “Western Business Struggles to Break Chinese Barriers” for more). Nevertheless, because of globalization and the need to rise above their fierce competition, many companies believe it is a necessity to expand into China’s rich market. Especially since China just overtook Japan as the world’s 2nd largest economy 2 weeks ago. China has the world’s largest population (more than 1.3 billion people according to the World Bank) and the BBC has reported that China is attracting record amounts of foreign investment.

Which brings us full circle, to the 3rd segment of my comprehensive interview with the experienced Singapore entrepreneur Benny Lee. As the Founder and Managing Director of Benroth International, Benny has worked closely with western companies on expanding into the Asian market for many years; giving him an insider’s perspective on what the ‘X Factor of success’ is for China. In the interview, Benny also discussed which regions in Asia are hot and shares some funny stories of what Not to do when doing business in China.

If you want to know Benny’s detailed strategy for exporting to Asia, I bet you’d enjoy watching the 2nd segment of my interview with him.

Benny is also the Vice President of the National University of Singapore’s Business School Alumni Association, has authored the book on international marketing titled “Hold the Char Siew!”, and is considered a thought leader on the impact of geopolitics on business in Asia. If you want to know how Benny got started, check out the 1st segment of my interview with him.

What do you think is the best way to do business in China? Oh and by the way, if you watch until near the end of this interview above, I think you’ll be really surprised by what Benny says is the best way to know when a Chinese businessman trusts you.

Want more practical tips? Check out “Golden Hints for Doing Business in China” from the British Embassy in Beijing. Hope you enjoy the interview, and many thanks to Benny for his generous friendship and also to my friend Emily Donohue for kindly agreeing to record the interview with my camera!

Singapore’s Benny Lee on Exporting to Asia from John Exley on Vimeo.

April 2010. Singapore. The offices of Benroth International. I’m sitting across from seasoned entrepreneur Benny Lee, listening to him break down the anatomy of a successful exporting strategy for Asia. Benny is the Founder and Managing Director of Benroth, and his company has partnered with western companies trying to enter Asia’s vast market for many years. He is also the Vice President of the National University of Singapore’s Business School Alumni Association.

Having authored the book on international marketing “Hold the Char Siew!” and considered a thought leader on the impact of geopolitics on business in Asia, Benny’s storytelling and unique approach to exporting was particularly engaging for me. He consults many western businesses to set up an ORO – an Outsourced Regional Office – in Singapore, establish relationships with the right distributors, and enter the Asian market slowly but surely.

Recently, China overtook Japan as the world’s 2nd largest economy. If you want to build a big business, if you want to become the next Facebook or Google, you can’t focus solely on one market. You have to think globally. Even if you are still in school, I think it’s as important a time as ever to understand international business and the cultural differences at play. If our country is to sustain its position as an economic superpower, our generation needs to understand how to work with business folk abroad. Start learning now.

Update: Want to know the best ways to succeed when doing business in China? Watch the 3rd segment of my interview with Benny: “How To Do Business in China“.

If you watch this interview I hope you enjoy Benny’s insider tips as much as I did. If you missed it, Part 1 of my interview with Benny is here. What’s your favorite article or book on exporting to Asia? Let’s continue this discussion in the comments!

Benny Lee (Founder of Benroth Int’l) interview – Intro from John Exley on Vimeo.

While I studied abroad in Singapore at National University this past spring semester, I was inspired by the interviews Andrew Warner (founder of Mixergy) was doing. So, I set out to interview entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and business leaders in the area so that I might share what I was learning about the business and startup landscape in Asia.

This is the 1st segment of my interview with Benny Lee. Benny is the Founder and Managing Director of Benroth International, an exporting consultancy based in Singapore and servicing manufacturers from the West in entering the Asia Pacific Region. Benny is also the Vice President of the National University of Singapore’s Business School Alumni Association and he authored the international marketing book “Hold The Char Siew!”

As a thought leader on the impact of geopolitics on business in Asia, Benny’s approach to forming business relationships was particularly fascinating to learn about. Before we set a date to film the first segment, Benny took me out to breakfast, lunch, and brought me over to his office for a meeting. He told me in depth about his life, career, and the projects he was involved in. He even gave me a copy of his book to read and several articles he had published in Singapore’s business newspapers. So, by the time I started the interview, I had a deeper context for who Benny was and we had already established rapport. Because of that, interviewing him was quite simple…it was a natural conversation.

Update: All of this is just the normal way of doing business in China. Relationships come first. In the 3rd segment of my interview with Benny, he explains what you need to know to succeed in China.

I consider myself blessed to say that by the end of my experience in Singapore, he was like family to me and I was calling him “Uncle Benny”. When my mom, brother, sister, and Uncle Tom came to visit me at the end of the semester, Benny brought us all to Chinatown and hosted us for dinner. He is the real deal, a genuinely great guy and sharp businessman. I hope you enjoy all 4 segments of the interview!

Full disclosure: this being my very first recorded interview, it did not come without mistakes. It was actually my first time doing a video longer than 10 minutes in HD, so I didn’t know that it would cut off before we finished the segment. It was difficult to discover this afterward, however I acknowledged my misstep and from there onward I always asked a friend to come with me to manage my camera. My apologies!

Many thanks to Benny for making the time to do such a complete interview. In segments 2, 3, and 4 Benny explains how to do business in China (hint: don’t copy Google), breaks down the step-by-step process of exporting to Asia (update: now watch segment 2 here), and talks about the future of Singapore.

What do you think about Benny’s story? Please feel free to leave me feedback on how to get better!

So, what kinds of lessons can be learned from someone who has been so deeply involved in organizing thousands of people around technology trends and seeing those trends first hand? Whether you are thinking of organizing your own event or conference, speaking at an upcoming conference – or if you just want to maximize your time and effort at the next event you attend – Eric has some insider tips for you.

Want to meet Eric at the new conference, Blur? You can find where to register at the end of the interview! I hope you enjoy it.

5. What are some of the best lessons you’ve learned from your own conferences over the years?

Hmmm…that’s a hard question (maybe the hardest you’re asking)….

1. You can’t replace face to face networking. I never worry about “virtual conferences” — there’s something to the physical meeting that matters. If you have a choice between pitching (sales, fundraising, whatever) face to face or over the phone, do it face to face.

2. If you’re a speaker at a conference, NEVER make your presentation about your company or product. Your presentation should be about a larger problem, or solution, or something. The idea that your product/company can solve it will be naturally inferred. Just leave it at that. Otherwise, you just end up with a pissed off audience.

3. Don’t always think that the “big shows” are where you’ll find the best connections. Often, the more targeted, intimate settings are what matter. Remember, it’s not about quantity, but quality.

4. Give more than you take. As you network, always look to make an intro, or help someone out. It’ll pay off so much in the long run that you’ll always wish you ended up giving more.

5. Relax and have fun. Yea, going to conferences to land deals or land funding is stressful. RELAX. Fear is the enemy.

6. Trust your gut. The tech industry is actually a pretty small world — one where, by and large, the “good guys” usually win in the long run. If you interact with someone and it just doesn’t feel “right” — trust that. Reputation is everything.

7. Keep failing until you succeed. (I don’t think I need to expand on that one).

8. Learn to sell. And learn to enjoy it. If you’re going to be in a startup, you need to learn to sell (even the engineers). Corollary: the closer you are to revenue, the more “secure” your job is.

9. Going to conferences is probably the *quickest* way to build a powerful network that can help you accomplish your business goals. Get out there.

6. What advice can you give to someone attempting to organize a conference?

Ha! That’s a 50 page response

Okay, let me try….

First, know what you are trying to organize. A meet-up, or an unconference, is a much different animal from a “conference” — and a “conference” is a much different animal from an expo or trade show.

I always picture “events” on a spectrum. At left end of the spectrum is the expo, and at the right end of the spectrum is the word conference. The slider on the spectrum moves according to how much of your revenue comes from attendees versus vendors (exhibitors/sponsors).

Expos (trade shows) like MacWorld or the Web 2.0 Expo derive the great majority of their revenue from vendors. And they give away (or sell for extremely cheap) floor passes.

On the other hand, PC Forum (Esther Dyson’s 25 year running, famous, now-defunct conference) *refused* to accept any sponsors AT ALL — and ran (essentially) an invite only, extremely expensive (for attendees) gathering. (For the record: it was also my favorite conference of all time.)

Defrag is a “conference” not an expo because Defrag’s “customer” is the attendee NOT the vendor. This is a bit strange for the vendors (who assume that because they write substantial checks, they’re the primary customer) — but think of it this way: is it more important for me to focus on making the attendee happy or making the sponsor happy? If i have no attendees, or unhappy attendees, then I have no reason for sponsors anyway.

Okay – so you know what you’re running….

If you’re going to run a tech conference that takes place in a hotel (i.e., is a *national* level event that intends to have people travel to it, and not simply be a regional happening), then you need to plan for costs that run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now here’s the thing: you’ll sign contracts committing you to these costs before you have the revenue. If you’re comfortable you can cover them (i.e., sell), dig in

After you’ve pulled the trigger, organizing a conference is really an exercise in detail management combined with “big thinking” around the agenda (and, of course, selling). Three pretty diverse skill-sets.

…and that’s all there is to it

7. What’s your best tip for getting the most out of a conference as an attendee?

That’s actually pretty easy — get involved in the hallway conversations. Walk up to people you don’t know and introduce yourself. Start conversations around interesting things you heard in sessions. Put yourself out there. You’ll find that 90% of the people out there are really welcoming.

And if you know someone at the conference, ask for warm intros! The tiniest, weakest connection you make might end up being one of the most valuable business connections you have (2, 3, 5 years down the road).

8. Finally, can you tell me a little bit about the Blur conference you’re planning for next February and how to sign up?

Sure. We’ve actually got Defrag coming up in November (17th-18th at the Omni Interlocken in Colorado), and Blur in February (22-23 at the Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate).

Defrag is our most “summit-y”/high end, exec-level show. Lots of “strategic talks”; lots of “big think.” If you’re working in or around how to deal with data (individually, in groups, companies, etc. — so enterprise2.0, social media, social CRM, BI, analytics, semantic web), I think you’ll find Defrag to be unlike any other conference you can attend. Click here for what people have said about past Defrags.

Blur is the new conference we’re launching, and I’m REALLY excited about it. Blur is focused on the changing models of HCI (human computer interaction), so everything from motion capture to multi-touch to augmented reality to spatial operating environments (i.e., “Minority Report”). What’s going to make Blur so unique is that we’re very tightly limiting A) the number of vendors we let in and B) the number of attendees we let in. We’re doing that because the purpose of Blur isn’t to sit in sessions and listen, it’s to gather and actually USE (in depth) the technologies we gather there.

Blur won’t be like an expo floor where you hope to maybe get to touch something for 90 seconds. Blur will be real time to really interact with some of the most cutting edge HCI tech out there (some of which won’t even be commercially available yet). If you literally want to play with and touch what the computing models of tomorrow will be like, today — then you have to be at Blur.

The people that are at Blur are gonna have a brain-melting experience. The people that aren’t at Blur may never get the chance to get in (Blur will just get more invite-only and more tightly limited) – so get in on the ground floor!

Registration is open – and SUPER limited: so register here now if you want in!

***********The End************

Once again I’d like to thank Eric for taking the time to provide such detailed information in the interview, and also my friend Michael Benidt for the initial introduction to Eric! If you missed Part 1, you can read it here.

What do you think about Eric’s advice? What conferences are you excited about?

If you are thinking of starting your own conference, or just want to learn how to get the most out of the next conference/event you go to, then I am confident you will find something valuable from this interview.

1. What is the story of your career, how did you get your start in technology?

Okay – the long version:

My dad bought a Commodore when I was a kid – though I’m not sure if that was my start or not. I got my bachelor’s in South Asian studies from the UW-Madison (Sanskrit, Buddhist Literature, etc.), and was approached by a few government agencies about working for them. I turned them down and went to Grad School instead — but ended up leaving that and working for the government anyway (I was a crypto-type for the US Navy; working for the National Security Agency).

Post-that, I became a stock-broker. I got into that because I LOVED the stock market, but what I discovered was that I was actually a really good salesman. But trading tech stocks was my thing. In late 1999, I told my clients the markets were too crazy (JDSU was gaping up 20 points every morning; it was stupid), advised them to go to all cash or government bonds, and walked away to get into consulting around technology stuff (whatever the hell that meant).

Eventually, I wormed my way into knowing Chris Locke (co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto) — mostly just by being incredibly annoying. After getting to know Chris, he helped me land a position working on a website called Personalization.com (think Amazon’s recommendation algorithm) for a guy named Steve Larsen (then VP at Net Perceptions). Steve was throwing “Personalization.com summits” – and that was really my first exposure to tech conferences.

One of the great things about that time was that Steve and Chris introduced me to *everyone* they knew (and they knew everybody). The bulk of my “rolodex” got built because Steve and Chris were so gracious with their social networks. One guy that Chris introduced me to was Doc Searls (his co-author on Cluetrain).

Later on (after that gig ended), Doc emailed me one day and told me about this guy that I had to meet in Denver (where I lived) who had started Jabber and was now getting into “digital identity.” That guy was Andre Durand. Andre and I met, talked, liked each other — and I ended up getting involved in 2 startups he was doing…..1) Ping Identity (where I was employee #1 and VP of Marketing) and 2) Digital ID World (aka, “DIDW” — a tech conference on digital identity).

Ping and DIDW were my life for years. And they taught me startups and the energy, madness and passion that’s required. I could spend hours going over what I learned at Ping, etc.

In the course of all of that, I met Phil Becker (who was also a co-founder of DIDW) — who would later become a true mentor to me around business, conferences, etc.

Eventually, Ping landed angel funding, series A, series B, etc. and DIDW *blew* up (from nothing to 70 vendors, 700+ attendees, etc.) — so much so that it just made sense for us to sell it. So we did.

In the summer of 2005, IDG acquired DIDW, and I walked away from my role of VP of Marketing at Ping Identity (moving to a beach in FLA). I spent most of my time either working on DIDW post-acquisition, or working as a contractor for IDG — where I worked on events like LinuxWorld, and started events like SaaScon (which runs under the ComputerWorld brand).

Once I began to recover from some serious startup burnout, I began getting the itch to start something on my own again. About that time, I read a blog post by Brad Feld around a topic he was calling “intelligence amplification.” I’d met Brad just briefly years earlier when Andre and I pitched him on Series A funding for Ping (he turned us down). I sent him an email and told him I thought his post would make a good conference and it should be called Defrag. Brad responded by saying that he hated conferences, but thought it was a great idea.

And Defrag was born.

Defrag’s now entering year 4 – and we’ve had such fun with it that we’ve started Gluecon and now Blur.

When I look back on it, I realize that I’ve now been running/involved with tech conferences for over 10 years. I never set out to be a tech conference guy — it really just all happened.

2. How did you go from reading a blog post by a renowned venture capitalist to launching several successful conferences? What happened in between?

You can actually search on Brad’s blog and find the whole sordid history. Brad and the gang over at Foundry Group are “thematic investors” — which is to say that they have themes that they’ve identified as transformative over the next 10/15 years, and that determines their investment focus.

One of the themes Brad was blogging about way back when was something he was calling “intelligence amplification.” The basic idea was that we’re just dealing with SO much data, and everything we’re doing (including installing things to deal with data) is generating data at a greater volume and velocity. “Intelligence Amplification” was the idea that you could build software that would assist in our ability to deal with that data.

I really liked the idea.

A good conference shouldn’t be just focused on one niche (IMHO) — rather, it should take a really large idea that sits at the intersection of a bunch of niches and explore it. Brad’s blog post had a kernel of that. By focusing on “data” and the tools we’re building to deal with it, we could talk about niches as diverse as enterprise 2.0, collaboration, semantic web, big data, business intelligence, analytics, etc. Further, it allowed us to constantly be evolving the idea/conference — one year we might focus on enterprise 2.0, the next on social media, the next on the intersection of social and BI, etc.

How’d it all get started? I emailed Brad. I guess he knew me somewhat (from the failed pitch I mentioned before), and I’d been around blogging, raising hell, etc. for a while. Plus, I had the DIDW win/experience under my belt — so my “we should start a conference” idea was pretty low risk (relatively speaking). We kicked it back and forth via email and phone for a while until we were both comfortable with what we were trying to do, I pulled in my former DIDW partner Phil Becker, and we were off……

Defrag was born.

The tagline just came naturally — so much data, increasing volume and velocity, we need tools to deal with it……what we’re really looking to do is to gain *insight* on data *faster* — to “accelerate the ‘aha’ moment”……stupid, but catchy.

Now, running a conference is no small feat, especially when it’s done by two people (me and my wife, Kim)…..but I can get into that later.

We ran defrag a few times, decided it was working well, and the launch of Glue just came naturally. Now Glue’s off and growing, and the launch of Blur comes naturally (though Blur is radically different from Defrag and Glue)……

3. Brad Feld is a well-respected Venture Capitalist (Foundry Group) and widely read blogger. As the story goes, you pitched your startup to him and he rejected the opportunity to invest in you. How did you stay on his radar and evolve your relationship with him to the point where he is now a highly involved partner in your conferences?

Honestly, I didn’t.

Brad and I met once, maybe twice (over a 10 year period) prior to starting Defrag. As I mentioned, he turned down Ping Identity for funding — and really, Brad was running in pretty different circles from me back then. He was doing the Mobius Venture Capital stuff, and I was hanging out (for the most part) with Chris Locke, Doc Searls, etc. (i.e., “Internet Marketers,” not Venture Capitalists).

So, I’m not sure if I stayed “on Brad’s radar” (you’d have to ask him). What I did do was go to work….i.e., I put my head down and worked my ass off on Ping Identity and DIDW — for years.

Back then it was all really just Andre (Durand – Ping’s CEO), Bryan Field-Elliot (CTO and co-founder of Ping), and me on the Ping side of things; and Andre, me and Phil Becker on the DIDW side. And we *worked*. Like dogs. 90 hour work weeks were the short, easy ones. It was pretty crazy, and heady, and fun. Andre would be in CA trying to do some fund-raising, and he’d call me and say, “this whole identity theft thing is gonna really help drive Ping; we need a whitepaper; write one” — and I’d sit down that day and crank out a 25 page whitepaper on identity management and identity theft.

I’m getting a bit off track here — what I mean to say is this: I never concerned myself with staying on people’s radar, or “making a name” for myself — I just went to work. Tirelessly. Endlessly. With Passion. For YEARS.

In 2005, I lifted my head up, sold DIDW, moved to Florida and discovered just how tired I was. I actually thought I was depressed when I first moved to Florida, until I realized I wasn’t depressed. I was burnt out – and really, really tired.

By the time I got around to talking with Brad about Defrag, I’d really grown-up as a person and entrepreneur. I remember a conversation with Phil Becker (in 2005), where he said, “that’s it. you’re ruined.” To which I replied, “ruined for what?” And he said, “you’ll never be able to work for anyone else again.” It was true. I turned around one day and realized that I’d rather have the extreme highs and lows of startups, than the (false) security of a “job.” I mean, shit, what’s life for if not for risk-taking?

Asking Brad to start Defrag with me just seemed natural when it happened, and I guess I kinda figured, “well, if he says ‘no’ – I’ll just go do something on my own anyway.”

Beyond that I’d say that working with Brad (and all of the guys at Foundry Group) has been great. They’re approachable, fun, human, humble, hard-working, entrepreneurs. And, I think like most really good VCs these days, they take an explicit attitude that anyone who wants to pitch them on anything should contact them. They WANT to hear from people. They’re not sitting behind some wall, collecting management fees, picking out their next luxury auto — they really do wanna get down in the mud and build companies.

4. From mega-corporations like Microsoft to startups like Gist, how did you go about securing so many great sponsors?

Short answer: hard work.

Longer answer: I sell.

Running a tech conference really isn’t rocket science (or brain surgery, or, for that matter, rocket surgery — it really is just nuts and bolts hard work.

Now, granted, I’ve built up a network of contacts over the past 10-12 years, but more than that landing sponsors is about good sales discipline.

Every week, I have set goals of:

A) outbound sales emails
B) sales calls
C) follow-up emails
D) X dollars in revenue (I track my revenue on a weekly basis, as that gives me a good hard “push” for the week, and makes failure easy to define — successful week, you sold something; failed week, you didn’t.)

…all of which I track in a fairly standard “weighted pipeline.”

Roughly six months prior to a conference, I finalize the amount of “inventory” (i.e., number of sponsorships at each level), and begin selling. I’ll normally send out 30-50 “sales emails” every week. Those emails lead to sales calls. Those sales calls lead to follow-ups. Those follow-ups turn into contracts. Once we get within three months of a show, I’m normally doing anywhere from 3-5 sales calls per day.

The “sales pitch” itself is something I’ve worked on over time, but, in truth, I really just enjoy it. When I first became a stock broker, I had this vision in my head of “sales guys” as something akin to a stereotypical used car salesman. I didn’t want to be that. What I came to realize was that A) if you’re delivering value, you’re not a used car salesman and B) I really enjoy closing sales. Now it’s to the point, where closing sales is one of my most favorite parts of the work week.

And really, the process isn’t any different from selling software, or fundraising (for example).

One last bit that helps: we’re a “mom and pop shop” — ie, my wife and I run the shows. It’s not a team of 12 with management to answer to. I’m the final authority. All responsibility lands on me. As a result, I have tremendous latitude to structure sponsorship sales however I need to — and I think that helps a lot of startups come on board for our conferences.

Bottom-line: I’m a startup guy. I love working with startups. I love building sponsorships for them that can help them to achieve their goals. The only real frustration around selling is when I *know* I can help a startup and they just can’t wrap their head around it.

Lastly, if you set out to sell something remember this: your job begins at “no.” I was told this by the COO (Bob Smith) that was brought into Ping and it had a lasting impact. Selling is not order-taking. When someone says “no,” your job as a sales guy is to find out *why* they’re saying no, and then address that underlying issue in such a way as to get to “yes.” If all you wanna do is hear “yes,” then you’re not selling, you’re taking orders, and you should probably go get a job at McDonald’s (that’s where they hire order takers).

*****To Be Continued Tomorrow*****

Many thanks to Eric for working hard in producing all of his detailed answers, and also a big hug to my friend Michael Benidt for the initial introduction to Eric! If you want to catch the 2nd half of my interview with Eric, where he will share some secret tips for organizing a killer conference, then read part 2 here.

What is your favorite conference? Is there anything you wish I had asked Eric?

If you’re interested in hearing the interview, I hope you will listen to the first segment as well as the second segment!

There are two 12 minute segments, and in them I talk about:
- my background (being homeschooled by mom)
- my energetic DNA and drive to one day soon start a company
- and my experience studying abroad in Singapore at National University this past spring.
I also shared some of the lessons I learned from the interviews I did in Singapore (that I will be sharing on my blog soon). I actually launched this site “The X Factor” live during the interview!

It was quite a learning experience being on the show, and what an adrenaline rush! If you are an aspiring leader like I am, I think it is important for us to practice articulating our story and vision to an audience whenever we can. One way to start? Take an idea or bit of advice and make video blogs about it (I plan to explore this topic more in depth in a future post)!

By the way, one quick note: Bruce generously refers to me as an “entrepreneur” a couple times during the interview. Well, I am cautious to describe myself in this way as (for those of you who don’t know me) I have yet to create my own company. So, to be humble I am an only an “aspiring entrepreneur” for the time being…

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the interview in the comments section, and please don’t hesitate to include your critiques of how I might do better in the future!

Last year while I was in New York City for the Web 2.0 Expo, my friend Harrison Painter , the Host of “Coffee With Harrison”, asked me to make a video for New York Entrepreneurship Week answering the question of why it might be important for a business to use social media. So, my best friend T-Bill Hart filmed me in Times Square answering the question.

Why do you think it’s important for businesses to use social media, and what are some of the most creative ways you’ve seen businesses take advantage of social media? Examples are welcomed…I want to know what companies you think are crushing it the most using social media!

Google. China. Perspective from Singapore startup Techsailor from John Exley on Vimeo.

During the “BizAsia 2010 Entrepreneurship Conference” this past spring, I interviewed Cheng Shun Ling (http://twitter.com/csling) while we were touring the offices of the Singapore-based startup Techsailor (http://techsailor.com/). Ling is the Creative Director for the Web 2.0 startup, and they provide social media marketing to businesses across Asia – including China.

I asked her about her perspective on Google’s fiasco in China and how it has impacted Techsailor. Ling explained that China doesn’t want information to get out of the country, and that Google makes it easy to get information out of China through tools like Gtalk and Gmail. So China made it progressively more and more difficult to use Google. As I understand it, this was one of the issues at the center of Google and the Chinese government’s conflict.

Further, Ling talked about how Techsailor uses Google docs and Gmail to collaborate with their office in China.

Cheng Shun Ling is also a very talented photographer, and you can check out all the beautiful pictures on her site here: http://cslingphotography.com/

Many thanks to her and the team at Techsailor! What do you wish I had asked Ling? What could I do to get more value for you out of each of these interviews?

Lou Dela Pena (GM of the global ad agency, TBWA) on Apple’s branding success from John Exley on Vimeo.

In Singapore earlier this spring I sat down with Lou Dela Pena, the GM of the global powerhouse ad agency TBWA http://www.tbwa.com/ (Note: still a rookie here, I haven’t entirely figured out how to hyperlink yet).

I asked her about how Apple has been able to achieve such astounding levels of branding success and if their apparent lack of adopting social media discredits new media as a whole – or, if it simply speaks all the more to their legendary branding.

The list of brands TBWA works with is quite impressive (Apple, Adidas, Visa, McDonald’s, etc.), and I found Lou’s advice to startups on how to establish a recognizable brand to be equally solid.

According to their site, “TBWA is one of the top ten US-based agency networks made up of 258 full service agencies around the world with expertise in all of the disciplines required for the positioning, launching and long-term management of brands.”

Last note: I include a shout-out to my friend Leigh Caraccioli http://twitter.com/fleurdeleigh whom I worked with on a photoshoot last fall.

What do you wish I had asked her? Leave a question in the comments and I’ll email it to her!