Media Interviews

Most leaders who fail internationally were not incompetent — they were excellent at home. Local optimization and global readiness require fundamentally different decision-making logic, and very few people name exactly where those logics diverge. These are the five moments where the split happens. Decision 1: Who Do You Hire First in a New Market? The locally optimized leader hires for familiarity: someone recommended by a trusted contact, someone who "knows the culture," ofte

The reason most SME AI projects stall is not a technology problem — it is an AI process documentation problem. When a business cannot clearly describe how a task is done today, no AI tool can reliably do it better tomorrow. The gap is not between you and the right software; it is between how your business actually runs and how you think it runs. The Invisible Bottleneck Hiding in Plain Sight Most founders and operators in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) believe their core

Hiring an AI consultant has become the new "we need a website" — a reflex, not a decision. Across my work with SMEs in Vietnam, Singapore, and the UAE, the most expensive mistake I see founders make is not choosing the wrong consultant. It is walking into the engagement without knowing what they actually need. This AI consultant SME checklist exists because that gap costs real money and real months. The Real Problem Is Not the AI Before we get to the five questions, one frame

Hiring an AI consultant without a clear brief is not an investment. It is an expensive way to discover what you should have figured out before the first meeting. Across engagements in Vietnam, Singapore, and the UAE, I keep seeing the same pattern: smart founders, real budgets, and no clarity on what problem they are actually trying to solve. Here is the diagnostic I walk every SME through before they sign anything. --- Question 1: What Is the Specific Business Problem — Not

Global-ready leadership is a structural condition built on three measurable dimensions: operational portability, cultural pattern-recognition, and capital narrative fluency. Founders who have built all three in 2026 are separating visibly from those who merely aspire to them — and the gap is becoming expensive. A passport full of stamps is not the same thing. Here is the sharper definition — not as theory, but as three dimensions I have watched separate founders who scaled ac

Vietnam posted 7.8% GDP growth in Q1 2025, and capital is moving into Southeast Asia at a pace not seen in a decade. But most investors evaluating SEA franchise opportunities are structuring deals as though the macro tailwind is the whole story. It is not. Three structural threats sit underneath these numbers, and the investors who name them clearly — and contract around them — are the ones who will still be collecting royalties when others are renegotiating exits. The Case I

Vietnam posted 7.8% GDP growth in Q1 2025 — but HSBC's accompanying analysis flagged elevated energy costs as the primary downside risk to that trajectory. Strong macro growth does not immunize your franchise unit economics from input-cost pressure. If your investment model was built on 2022 or 2023 cost assumptions, it was built on a world that no longer exists. Why Have SEA Franchise Input Costs Repriced? Three live signals are reshaping the input-cost reality for Southeast

Global-ready leadership is a structural condition built on three measurable dimensions: operational portability, cultural pattern-recognition, and capital narrative fluency. Founders who have built all three in 2026 are separating visibly from those who merely aspire to them — and the gap is becoming expensive.

BEAUTY IS THE NEW F&B Why Spa, Skincare & Fitness Franchising Is Vietnam's Next Big Wave Blog #4 — Vietnam Franchise Series | Go Global Blog A question I often hear from young investors exploring franchising: "Beyond F&B — what other sectors are worth investing in?" My answer always surprises them: beauty and wellness. Not because I have a bias. But because the data is speaking clearly — and the market is showing a structural shift that most franchise investors are not yet

A hands-on creative class at Arkki Vietnam Why education is the franchise sector that most investors are sleeping on Ask any franchise investor in Vietnam which sector they want to play in. Almost every time, you'll hear the same answers: coffee, bubble tea, or F&B in general. Education almost never comes up. And that is exactly why education is one of the most compelling franchise opportunities that most investors are completely missing. While everyone races to grab a bubbl

Hotpot and BBQ franchise has made waves in the F&B industry in Vietnam