Where would your next venture be? A trio encounter

A Canadian of Indian roots found a way to express himself through business ventures as much as art. A man of Iranian origin founded and helped other start-ups in Australia. A British entrepreneur settled in Vietnam as the national director of a MNC. Representing three major regions for entrepreneurship – North America, Oceania and Asia, they take a moment to reflect on their journeys.

The first man steered Voodoo PC, a company co-founded with his brother, from a niche player to a global high-end brand which was eventually acquired by HP in 2006. During his tenure as CEO of Voodoo PC, Ravi Sood also earned the “Entrepreneur of the Year” and “Exporter of the Year” awards by two banks in Canada.

Seeing the Internet’s potential back in 1995, R (who wishes to remain anonymous) set up his own online research firm www.consult in Australia, which was integrated into ACNielsen following an acquisition deal in 2000. He now sits on several boards of funding and investment companies helping entrepreneurs. 

Rick Yvanovich, a British national, was the 32^nd foreigner granted living and working rights in Vietnam back in 1990 as the country opened up after the war. He is a serial entrepreneur and now managing two of his most successful IT consulting ventures, with a client base of around 70 countries.   

Formal assessments of business environment

The World Economic Forum (WEF) released a report on entrepreneurial ecosystem in January this year. Entrepreneurs around the globe rated the “eight pillars” making up such ecosystems in their regions and not surprisingly, places such as North America were considered more conducive to setting up new ventures, followed by Australia/New Zealand and Asia.

A separate study from the same source lets us see how countries stack up against each other in terms of competitiveness. Following the same logic, the rankings of the countries in question are: Canada at 14^th, Australia at 21^st and Vietnam at 70^th.

Whilst these rankings tell one story, our three entrepreneurs may have something different to say.

The man who combines art and business in Canada

“If that new venture is going to be in the energy or resource sector, Canada is a great place to be”, Ravi Sood says, highlighting the fact that like Russia, Canada is a resource economy which makes it hard for entrepreneurs in other industries. Meanwhile, in many countries where wealth does not simply come from “digging”, people are “forced to innovate”. That said, Ravi has managed three successful ventures in Canada with his business philosophy of being disruptive.

Raised as the second generation of immigrants from India, the Canadian entrepreneur is an artist at heart. The typical Asian family’s push for business, coupled with Ravi’s uncle who urged him to learn accounting, got the artist into strange territories of numbers, or the maths behind businesses. He struggled at first in accounting but was mentored by an instructor/hockey coach who was able to clear the “clouds always hanging over” his head.

Citing Steve Jobs as his idol, Ravi emphasises the importance of controlling creativity as a process from beginning to end: “Group thinking will kill creativity and innovation.” Ravi who often does strategy brainstorming on a wooden easel, highly values creative skillsets. “If I was to weigh a strong academic sense vs. strong creative sense, I would want my kids to be stronger on the creative side. Because everything is so competitive, especially with emerging economies."

And he wants to head exactly towards the heat. When asked where his next venture or adventure would be, Ravi mentions Hong Kong and China: “Emerging economies and big vibrant cities where there is capital and there is risk taking and there are people working around the clock.”

Asia as the new home of British entrepreneur

After coming to Vietnam as part of the job with BP, Rick Yvanovich decided to stay and became one of the earliest foreign entrepreneurs in the country. While it may not be so high on the global ranking system, Vietnam was the headquarters of Rick’s five notable ventures, not to mention a whole bunch of smaller ones.

“Entrepreneur culture is strong in Vietnam and the infrastructure to support it is growing quickly. It’s not the best but it’s not the worst and there is no reason why Vietnam can’t end up being one of the best places,” he says. Like many other nations in Asia, one of the downsides of Vietnam’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is the regulations and red tape, which can be “enough to put a lot of people off”.

Now leading his main venture - TRG International, a business IT consulting firm - Rick encourages innovation through incremental changes: “I follow Kaizen for constant never-ending improvement of the business and also of self.” He would have Innovative awards for staff, encourage a book club within the company and collect employee input for new ideas or projects.

The father of two also regards helping others as his business as well as life philosophy: “Pay it forward, always be giving as what goes around comes around, so do not wait to reciprocate, just go ahead and do it.”

Australian businessman thinks it’s time to give back

Sharing the “helping others” tenet is R, who refuses to be called an entrepreneur. After moving from Iran to Italy, France and finally the Down Under, he founded and sold two businesses. Since then, R has been investing in more than a dozen start-ups.

“The external environment in Australia is extremely conducive to setting up businesses,” R says, adding the debate about what can be done to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem here is “misdirected” because the Silicon Valley cannot be replicated anywhere else.

As the man who sits on a range of investment boards, R points out the main difference between Australia and places such as the US being there are more angel investors and less venture capital in the former.

At the age of 50, he thinks it is the time to help start-ups financially and give guidance. The number one advice he would give to entrepreneurs is: “You need to know it is for you. If someone doesn’t feel extremely passionate, enough to drop everything else they’re doing, they shouldn’t do it. Secondly, you should know what your use-by date is.”

The formula of success to him is one-third “innovation”, one-third “management”, and the last piece shared between luck and other factors. As much as he is regarded as the web/Internet guru, R thinks “being a father” is the achievement he is most proud of. “It’s a completely different world to what I thought it would be.”

Location is good, passion is indispensable

These entrepreneurs are either first or second generation immigrants who built and steered their businesses in three different economic regions. At the end of the day, it is the burning fire inside that gets you started and going. Entrepreneurship is not just about setting up a small company like others, it is about being innovative and disruptive, as the great economic Joseph Schumpeter would say. So have you got “the dream and will to found a private kingdom”?