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How to Transform Complex Information into Simple, Engaging, Valuable Stories

Communicating complex information is a necessity in any workplace, but often as the amount of information increases, the time to present it effectively decreases. In addition, as more and more companies expand internationally, new audiences and ideas can easily result in information overload and confusing messages – making it more important than ever to connect the bridge between having valuable ideas and conveying them into meaningful stories.

William Zyzo, Managing Director of Z&A Knowledge Solutions and Advisor to AmCham Taipei’s Advanced Learning Lab, discussed this challenge in a July 18 seminar entitled “How to Transform Complex Information into Simple, Engaging, Valuable Stories”.  This full-day seminar in AmCham Taipei’s Lincoln Room included workshops involving pitch analysis and team projects. Zyzo encouraged audience participation through storytelling exercises.

William Zyzo guides audience members through a demonstration.

The agenda included:

  1. Clarifying the differences among information, meaning, and value
  2. How to transform any amount of information into a three-sentence story
  3. A four-step process to validate the story
  4. Hands-on practice with on-the-spot feedback
  5. Recommended learning resources for self-study

The Lincoln Room is made possible by the generosity of a number of sponsoring companies:

Interested in attending our events? Join us at other upcoming events, click here.

Note: AmCham events are intended primarily for AmCham members and their guests. Many events are open to members’ guests and other non-members, but the attendance of any non-member must be approved in advance. AmCham reserves the right not to admit a non-member to any event without explanation. 

Power Emails: How to get twice done in half the time

E-mails are supposed to be fast and easy, but in the modern workplace they can easily become a hassle. With limited time but ever accumulating messages, time is wasted and misunderstandings arise when online communication is not conducted properly. Managers and employees need to fully know how to utilize the power of e-mail, whether it is through adequate software training, email writing skills, or identifying the right type of communication.

On June 15th, AmCham Taipei invited William Zyzo, Managing Director of Z&A Knowledge Solutions and Advisor to AmCham Taipei’s Advanced Learning Lab, to the Lincoln Room to lead the seminar entitled “POWER Emails: How to get twice done in half the time”. To boost teamwork and involvement amongst attendees, Zyzo integrated e-mail style workshops and encouraged dynamic discussion regarding what types of communication guests use in their workplace.

Agenda included:

  1. How to manage the time-eating beast called email
  2. How to systematically improve your writing quality
  3. How to use the POWER Framework using actual business cases
  4. Where to get more help after the seminar

The Lincoln Room is made possible by the generosity of a number of sponsoring companies:

Interested in attending our events? Join us at other upcoming events, click here.

Note: AmCham events are intended primarily for AmCham members and their guests. Many events are open to members’ guests and other non-members, but the attendance of any non-member must be approved in advance. AmCham reserves the right not to admit a non-member to any event without explanation.

Central Bank Digital Currencies, Blockchains, and Digital Cash

Several central banks around the world, including the Bank of England and the central banks of Sweden and Uruguay, have been studying the idea of introducing central bank digital currencies (CBDC) as a means of moving toward a cashless future. According to Wikipedia, “central bank digital currency is different from ‘digital currency’ (or virtual currency and cryptocurrency), which are not issued by the state and lack the legal tender status declared by the government.” As legal tender, CBDC could compete with commercial bank deposits and challenge the existing system in which only a fraction of bank deposits are backed by actual cash on hand.

To help explain the potential percussions for the financial sector, the AmCham Technology Committee sponsored a presentation on June 9 in AmCham Taipei’s Lincoln Room. Antony Lewis, Singapore Director of Research at blockchain software firm R3, spoke on “Central Bank Digital Currencies, Blockchains, and Digital Cash,” addressing the prospective challenges for financial regulators and the potential advantages that the advent of digital cash could bring, including more secure settlement methods.

From left to right: Carl Wegner, Managing Director, R3 / Head of AsiaAntony Lewis, Director of Research, R3 / Central Bank Digital Currency lead; AmCham Technology Committee Co-chair Revital Shpangental Golan, CEO, Anemone Ventures;

Meeting with U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission

Members of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission visited AmCham Taipei on May 21 to learn more about how Taiwan was faring amidst the recent flurry of news surrounding U.S.-China relations. The delegation exchanged views with AmCham representatives in an hour-long meeting in AmCham’s Lincoln Room as part of the Commission’s annual visit to Taiwan, during which it also met with many high-profile government offices, NGOs, and think tanks.

Created by the U.S. Congress in 2000, the bipartisan Commission’s mandate is to monitor and investigate national security and trade issues between the United States and the PRC.

This year’s group was led by Vice Chairperson Carolyn Bartholomew and also included  Commission delegation also included  commissioners Roy Kamphausen, Jonathan Stivers, Larry Wortzel, and  Katherine Tobin, as well as Michelle Ker, policy analyst in economics and trade, and Jacob Stokes, policy analyst in security and foreign affairs.

Former AmCham Chairman Thomas McGowan, of the law firm Russin & Vecchi, led the conversation, and was joined by AmCham President William Foreman, Senior Director of Government Affairs Amy Chang, and Taiwan Business TOPICS Associate Editor Tim Ferry.

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) representatives Jeff Horwitz, Phill Loosli, and Toy Reid joined the wide-ranging discussion, which touched on a number of topics including the consequences of China’s pressure on the Tsai administration and trade relations between Taiwan and the United States.

Navigating Trade in the Time of Trump

The United States under the Trump administration has dramatically stepped up its use of economic sanctions against nations, firms, and even individuals that it accuses of a wide range of violations of international law. Given Taiwan’s dependency on trade and its close ties with U.S. suppliers and customers, Taiwanese firms are on the frontlines of sanctions risks, and at least nine Taiwanese entities have found themselves on the U.S. “blacklist” of sanctions violators.

Adam Smith, a former U.S. senior sanctions official during the Obama administration, recently visited Taiwan to offer his views on how Taiwan’s businesses can navigate these treacherous waters. At a presentation on “Understanding and Navigating the Risk of Economic Sanctions in the Trump Era,” held at AmCham Taipei’s Lincoln Room on May 17, Smith offered his perspective on why trade sanctions are being deployed so frequently. He noted that sanctions can be wielded under the sole authority of the president, are highly flexible and effective, and “they cost the government nothing,” in contrast to other measures such as military interventions that put people and materiel at risk.

The impact of sanctions by the U.S. can be huge, forcing rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea to the negotiating table and impacting some of the world’s largest companies, such as China tech-behemoth ZTE Co., which found itself on the U.S. “blacklist” by dint of its continued trading with sanctioned nations. Sanctions cut off ZTE from its supply chain of U.S. components and within days of being singled out by Trump, ZTE declared that it could no longer operate.

Only U.S. persons or entities are directly required to act in accordance with U.S. issued sanctions. However, any transaction involving U.S. financial institutions must also comply with such sanctions, and as 87% of global trade occurs in US dollars, this means that the vast majority of global businesses are required to comply. Refusing to comply, or inadvertently violating sanctions, could result in being placed on the blacklist and banned from participating in most global trade. Further, products that contain a minimum of 10% components produced in the United States are also considered to be U.S. goods and their makers are likewise expected to comply.

To avoid falling afoul of U.S. sanctions regime, Smith advises companies to develop “a compliance system, policies, and processes internally, but also figuring out what your exposure looks like.” Smith says that companies need to ask take thorough inventory of their own and their trade partners’ activities. “The more you know… the more you can explain it, if need be,” says Smith.

 Listen to audio clips to learn more: 

From left to right: Adam Smith, former senior sanctions official in the U.S. Government and Partner of Gibson Dunn; AmCham Taipei President William Foreman

 

Interested in attending our events? Join us at other upcoming events, click here.

Note: AmCham events are intended primarily for AmCham members and their guests. Many events are open to members’ guests and other non-members, but the attendance of any non-member must be approved in advance. AmCham reserves the right not to admit a non-member to any event without explanation.

Embracing Disruption: Mapping Out the Future

A wave of change has hit the financial services sector. Banks, insurers and wealth management firms will face greater regulatory uncertainty, tightened profit margins, increasingly empowered consumers, and the entrance of disruptive competitors.

To help financial service firms understand the process of digital transformation, AmCham Taipei’s Banking Committee invited Fred Giron, VP and Research Director at Forrester Research, to share his insights at a seminar held at the Chamber’s Lincoln Room on April 11.

In his presentation entitled “The Future of Financial Services,” Giron gave an overview of how digital technologies have changed the way consumers and businesses interact with each other. In a recent survey conducted by Forrester, 50% of North American and European companies said they believe technological changes (digital transformation) will dominate business decision-making in the near future. Giron noted that financial services firms need to digitize their business strategies and choose how they will adapt to the market in order to stay competitive.

From left to right: Speaker Fred Giron, VP and Research Director at Forrester Research and AmCham Taipei President William Foreman

Giron outlined the four rules of digital transformation:

  • Digital experience: deliver experiences that are easy, effective, and emotional
  • Digital operations: reconceive products and capabilities to deliver better outcomes
  • Digital innovation: continuously improve and break through at the digital frontier
  • Digital ecosystems: build platforms and partnerships to accelerate and scale up

The speaker gave several case studies to demonstrate how financial service and insurance companies have digitized their service models. In these examples, successful companies leveraged their assets to generate insights and value for their businesses. He also emphasized the importance of “being the integrator” and creating value-added services that solve customers’ immediate needs rather than merely providing service add-ons.

The Lincoln Room is made possible by the generosity of a number of sponsoring companies:

Interested in attending our events? Join us at other upcoming events, click here.

Note: AmCham events are intended primarily for AmCham members and their guests. Many events are open to members’ guests and other non-members, but the attendance of any non-member must be approved in advance. AmCham reserves the right not to admit a non-member to any event without explanation.

A Collaborative Approach to Food Safety

Two experts note how improved indusry-regulator communications helped in the U.S.

Food safety issues have continued to plague Taiwan, despite comprehensive efforts by the regulatory agencies following the waste-oil scandals of 2014 to upgrade and enhance food safety surveillance. At the same time, the food industry complains that many of the regulations and practices put into place to ensure that Taiwan’s food is safe and free of both contamination and fraudulent ingredients are unreasonable and ineffectual, entail great costs for food producers and sellers, and offer minimal benefits to consumers.

Relations between industry and regulators, including the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration, the Council of Agriculture, and the Customs Administration, continue to be testy, with little collaboration or cooperation.

There’s got to be a better way.

On March 12, AmCham Taipei’s Retail Committee, in association with Costco Wholesale Corp. Taiwan, invited visiting U.S. experts to describe a more cooperative approach to food safety at a forum entitled “Effective Advocacy on Food Safety.”  Michael Taylor, a former deputy commissioner of Foods and Veterinary Medicine at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Craig Wilson, vice president of Quality Assurance and Food Safety for Costco Wholesale Corp., discussed how industry, government, and consumer groups in the United States collaborated on creating the comprehensive legal and regulatory framework, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

From left to right: AmCham Taipei President William Foreman; Speaker Michael Taylor, Former Deputy Commissioner at Foods and Veterinary Medicine at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Craig Wilson, Vice President, General Merchandising Manager of Quality Assurance / Food Safety, Non-Foods Quality Assurance, Environmental Services /Haz Mat and Merchandise Services, Costco Wholesale Corporation

“We saw tremendous alignment of government, industry, and consumers along the goal of making the food supply as safe as we could, and put in place modern standards,” said Taylor, who oversaw the entire process. The FSMA was signed into law by President Obama in 2011 and its implementation continues today.

But getting to that point wasn’t easy, Taylor recounted. He said that an outbreak of E.coli contamination in a popular fast food restaurant chain in the early 1990s, which killed four children and permanently injured more than 500 others, forced the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the beef industry to acknowledge “that you cannot fight the goal of food safety,” said Taylor.

“It triggered a mindset shift,” he explained. While previously industry and government had operated on the assumption that contamination was an inevitable reality and that consumers were responsible for ensuring the adequate preparation of their own food, “it is now widely accepted that its industry’s responsibility to do everything it can to make the food safe for consumers.”

Further outbreaks in the mid-2000s involving leafy green vegetables and other foods also triggered efforts by regulators and industry to collaborate on improving food safety monitoring. An outbreak of salmonella in a wide range of peanut products that killed nine people and severely sickened thousands, however, was the final straw. The food industry actually approached Congress to say: “We need our industry better regulated.”

The result was the FSMA. Signing the law, however, was just the beginning of the process, as the legal concepts needed to be converted into concrete regulations. Once again, “enormous collaboration between industry and government was required to get these regulations right,” said Taylor. “Now we are working to achieve comprehensive compliance.”

Could such an approach work in Taiwan? Neither presenter was willing to state that the model would definitely be applicable to Taiwan’s specific culture or food market. Yet perhaps more open communication between the authorities and the private sector could enable Taiwan to make faster progress in enhancing food safety.

Interested in attending our events? Join us at other upcoming events, click here.

Note: AmCham events are intended primarily for AmCham members and their guests. Many events are open to members’ guests and other non-members, but the attendance of any non-member must be approved in advance. AmCham reserves the right not to admit a non-member to any event without explanation.

The Subtle Arts of Persuasion and Negotiation

Whatever your position, the ability to communicate, connect, and influence others to achieve your desired outcomes is essential to being successful.

Nick Coburn-Palo, a member of the Taipei American School faculty and Consulting Trainer at UNITAR, held a workshop at the Chamber’s Lincoln Room, entitled “The Subtle Arts of Persuasion and Negotiation” on March 8. The program was aimed at helping individuals develop core skills necessary to persuade and negotiate across a wide variety of potentially contentious situations.

During the session, Coburn-Palo shared with AmCham members and guests the techniques leaders use, in speaking and writing, to influence and persuade others for win-win outcomes. Through different case studies from the worlds of politics, business, and family life, he gave participants a chance to understand human behaviors, how people process information, and when and why negotiations may breakdown.

The session concluded with three key takeaways:

  • Embrace soft variables:  pay attention to personality traits, characteristics, physical space, and time
  • Maintain flexibility: the desired outcome may not be the most advantageous; win-win outcomes sometimes mean getting 50%
  • Remember your audience: negotiations and debates have different audiences – make sure the approach taken is based the audience and context.

Interested in attending our events? Join us at other upcoming events, click here.

Note: AmCham events are intended primarily for AmCham members and their guests. Many events are open to members’ guests and other non-members, but the attendance of any non-member must be approved in advance. AmCham reserves the right not to admit a non-member to any event without explanation.

Cultivating Authentic Confidence

How can you help your people discover what is showing up in their interactions with others? How can you be certain that what they have identified is helpful? Most importantly, how do you guide them once they have identified an area that needs improvement?

William Zyzo, Managing Director of Z&A Knowledge Solutions, addressed these questions at a workshop entitled “Cultivating Authentic Confidence: What shows up when your people show up?” held at the AmCham Taipei’s Lincoln Room on November 29. Following small group discussions, Zyzo used video-taped interactions by such famous leaders as Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Phil Schiller to demonstrate different levels of confidence, and how the way we think about ourselves directly affects the quality of our confidence and how others perceive us. Participants learned the importance of building authentic confidence and acknowledging areas that need improvement to ensure the reputation and success of an organization as a whole.

Agenda included:

  • What is authentic confidence? Where, when, and how does it show up in interactions?
  • What impact does it have on how others perceive your team members?
  • How do you help your team members discover their authentic confidence?
  • How do you guide them to cultivate authentic confidence?

Interested in attending our events? Join us at other upcoming events, click here.

Note: AmCham events are intended primarily for AmCham members and their guests. Many events are open to members’ guests and other non-members, but the attendance of any non-member must be approved in advance. AmCham reserves the right not to admit a non-member to any event without explanation.

How to Be a Creative Leader and Empower Your Staff to Innovate

Truly great leaders create truly innovative organizations. A prerequisite to becoming a great leader is self-knowledge and a practical understanding of the science of innovation.

AmCham Taipei’s Human Resources Committee invited Stewart Desson, Founder and CEO of Lumina Learning, to hold a half-day seminar on “How to Be a Creative Leader and Empower Your Staff to Innovate.” The interactive workshop was held at the Chamber’s Lincoln Room on September 26.

Through group and brainstorming exercises, attendees learned about their own personalities and how to use that knowledge to their advantage in the innovation process. Desson also presented a four-stage creativity model and gave attendees a chance to explore ways on quickly understanding personalities. Learning about personalities will enable leaders to be able to maximize the innovative potential of others to generate ideas and improve productivity and personal effectiveness.

Stewart Desson, Founder and CEO of Lumina Learning with Lumina Learning staff and AmCham Taipei staff

Interested in attending our events? Join us at other upcoming events, click here.

Note: AmCham events are intended primarily for AmCham members and their guests. Many events are open to members’ guests and other non-members, but the attendance of any non-member must be approved in advance. AmCham reserves the right not to admit a non-member to any event without explanation.