Activities
ASIA CEO COMMUNITY
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL KWONG-CEO AT MAGNETAR ASIA LTD
Executive Interview
by www.ASIACEO.CLUB
An Interview with
Michael Kwong
CEO
Magnetar Asia Limited
Background
Magnetar Asia was founded in February 2020 by a group of corporate trainers who want to transform and modernize the training industry through the application of technologies during the emergence of COVID.
Mission
Through the use of technologies, Magnetar Asia aims to become a global platform in uniting trainers with different specialities to cross over and provide customized and integrated solutions for organizations that have needs to upgrade their strategies and operations as well as people who look for performance breakthroughs.
Vision
To become a globalized platform in providing solutions for corporate enhancement through online training, coaching and consulting services
Development
Currently, Magnetar Asia has over 70 international training management consultants who collaborate with one another through online interactions globally and supply customized solutions to corporate and organizational clients.
Values
Partnership, Innovation, Customization and Knowledge
Publish Date: 27 April 2022
Tell us about your background, and what are you most passionate about?
I have been a corporate trainer for over 25 years and now, I am passionate about the Metaverse and love to network with like-mind people. Involving in projects related to NFTs, Web 3.0 and the exploration of the Metaverse make me feel young and energetic and I get lots of satisfaction in sharing ideas with young people (I am young at heart).
Describe a time you had to make a tough decision (e.g. budget cuts, organizational restructuring, market withdrawal, etc.). What did you do and what was the result?
In running businesses, I need to make tough decisions but I enjoy doing it. There was a time when I saw the CEO in one of my invested projects is not performing. This CEO is a major shareholer and I have to ask him to step down. It was not an easy task as this person is a major shareholder at the same time. Luckily, he agreed to step down and we had to make a lot of arrangements to sustain the company’s operation which was quite a tough situation at the time. But we got over this eventually and continue to prosper.
How would others define your communication style? Do you prefer to be close to your employees or maintain a healthy distance, and why?
I am quite good at facilitating meetings. To be honest, I work with a lot of people who are much smarter than me. My strength is to listen and facilitate a discussion amongst experts so that issues are well discussed and informed decisions can be made. I believe to build lifelong relationship with my business partners. Sometimes, we might be apart, but because of the trust we have, we tend to bump into one another in different stages of my life. Our organization does not have a lot of staff as we tend to do projects with different business partners together globally. I perceive this kind of relationship as healthy!
How has the industry been changing in recent years? What do you think are the biggest challenges your industry will face in the next 5 years?
The industry has undergone dramatic changes in the past two years. A lot of corporate trainings have adopted the online rather than the traditional face-to-face mode due to lockdown and work-from-home eco-system. Trainers need to adapt to new tools in conducting training as well as new business models resulting from this change. I think the biggest challenge in the training industry is that the very nature of training need to be re-imagined: gamification, community building, decentralization, Metaverse, VR and AR etc are all driving forces of change in the training industry and I believe that things will never be the same again. The problem is nobody knows for sure how things will evolve and one needs to get used to this type of environment as well as be able to conduct experiments continuously to find out what works and what doesn’t
What personality traits make a good leader?
People are very different by nature and I think those who can leverage on these different talents of others can be made good leaders. The era of personal glory and hero are gone: it is the era of team work and the role of music conducters is critical to elevating the performance of a team. Thus, we need facilitators who can turn group wisdom into great decisions, actions and ultimately performance. And a good facilitator needs to be open, courageous, patient, imaginative and analytical. These might be some personality traits that make a good leader
What does the future hold for your company?
Our company is moving fast into the Metaverse and I believe we need to have a lot of collaborations with other parties in order to achieve great success. The old management model is far too slow and rigid to cope with today’s rate of change in the market. We adopt an agile approach in doing things – we are more like a platform than a traditonal hierarchy where we can accommodate for lots of experiments and failures. Going through failures together is an essential part of building up our competitve edge because we can learn faster this way. Very few traditional management models can actual do that. We are adopting a Quantum rather than Newtonian management model and I am sure we can move ahead and be a good member of a more sustainable business eco-system for a better future
Note: ** This Executive Interview is by www.ASIACEO.CLUB on April 27th ,2022 : https://www.csuite-xchange.com/cxointerview2/ae49aac1-ba58-497c-9148-97bcbccdc980