FOUNDER CEO LESSON: EXPATS
To accelerate culture, build foundation and hire expats
My parents used to always say…
Establish your roots, then grow your wings.
I took their advice literally. After university, I left the lovely, idyllic west coast of Canada to stretch my wings. First to Toronto, then New York, and now in London. Arguably the most multi-cultural cities in the world.
Diversity sits at the core of my identity. However, I never realised the clear economic benefit of diversity until setting up CrowdEmotion.
CrowdEmotion is a people company. We built an emotion-inspired artificial intelligence so you can recognise, interpret, and respond to emotions through any connected device.
As a founder, you are constantly hunting for “the best people” to work with. It starts with skills and innate qualities of the individual, but the group brings culture. A diverse culture brings out the “best”!
An expat culture brings a world view directly into the roots of your company. It also brings the people perspective. As a company, we need to harness and promote that.
So while we figure out how the muscle movements for puzzlement work on the face in Singapore, we also celebrate and promote our cultures.
Lunar New Year was in January. What an awesome time to celebrate fortune and prosperity.
Our Korean product manager made Mung Bean pancakes. Our Singaporean business developer made chicken curry. We blasted K-Pop and learned that Gangman Style and Bruce Lee fight scenes match up far too well.
Before that, Canadian Thanksgiving which I host every year.
Our Italians often bring in many delicacies that we all know an love.
Expats bring community. Community promotes culture.
Expats have roots, but they too are spreading their wings.
People who are growing their wings are looking for flocks to join. As an expat founder, the company becomes a flock. It’s my job to harness and protect the power of the flock. To give the flock strong roots from which to spread their wings.
Once a flock starts moving, they are unstoppable.
With Brexit impending, I hope England recognises and honours its DNA as a multi-cultural society when deciding the next path for its economy.
I wrote about what Brexit means for CrowdEmotion in June for my shareholders.
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M
