Graduate School of Business welcomed Douglas Abrams, Founder and CEO of EXPARA on 12th July 2019 at the Hall of Fame, Assumption University, Hua Mak Campus. He moved the participants by answering three questions: Disruption, What’s happening now? What should companies be doing? through his insights into ASEAN start-up scene during the past twenty years. Here is the key take away from the keynote speech.
Disruption is happening at an unpredictable and faster pace, taking successful corporations by surprises. Several real-life cases of how well-established companies were losing competitive edge, leading to significant decline in shareholders’ values or in the worse-case bankruptcy, were discussed.
Did large companies know about the disruption? In fact, they knew about the technological trend well-ahead of their doom. However, being number one framed large organization with risk-aversion and under-estimation of long-term impact of technological change, restraining rapid responses to changing trend.
The ecosystem in Thailand had just passed the infliction point and would be expected to grow exponentially. We had seen significant international VCs, entering the market, along with the establishment of Corporate Venture Capital program by many large corporates.
Changes and transformation alone may not be sufficient to remain competitive. Becoming parts of the ecosystem through establishing CVC program have been driving VC investment and innovation in Thailand.
Successful CVC program, which requires coherence among teams, mission, metrics, strategic versus financial returns, structure and investment decision making processes.
As Douglas concluded his talk on "Disruption", he discussed with the audience on the issue of liquidity and VC investment, as well as the common mistakes CVC program should avoid when investing in Start-up. Thank you Douglas Abrams, Founder and CEO of Expara for taking the audience through the dynamic VC-Start-up space.
