2021T2 VirtualTSM/Participant Information/Brandon

About Brandon

SMU email: brandon.ho.2017@business.smu.edu.sg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ho-jun-en-brandon/
Academic Year: 4
Degree: Business
Major: Finance

Hi! This is me from a very distant past when travelling was still the main thing I could look forward to after every school semester... :")
This was a happy moment when I discovered that the hotel I was staying at, Jakarta's Borobudur Hotel, had a mini-replica of the ACTUAL Borobudur in the hotel garden!

Why Virtual TSM?

• What motivates you to join TSM?
  

I strongly crave for more unique experiences to learn in school that deviate from the more traditional classroom lecture/seminar setting. I'm very passionate about Technology across the board while entrepreneurship is something I'm very eager to dive deeper into, so I think TSM would be a perfect opportunity to meet and make like-minded friends and have a meaningful learning experience.

I am also a big fan of travelling, embracing cultural differences and building relationships with friends and colleagues all over the world. After having my International Exchange Program cancelled on me (twice... ☹), I really hope to use this opportunity to experience travel by researching on exciting global start-ups and having a chance to interact and learn from business leaders, while enjoying virtual visits to areas of interests across the world! Many of which, I'm pretty sure, I would not have the chance to visit in person even when travel resumes after Covid-19.

• Where would you like to visit virtually? (Asia)
  

Beijing — The up & coming Chinese Silicon Valley! A deep dive into the Asian epicentre of modern innovation would be really inspiring
Tokyo — A city rich with culture, innovation, technology and some of the world's best media and animation franchises
Hong Kong — A bustling city home to some of the most promising FinTech start-ups with over $1.2 billion USD invested into the scene!
Jakarta — As Indonesia strives to move towards a knowledge-based economy, there is a new focus in bolstering the start-up scene in Jakarta and grow technology as the country prepares to redevelop East Kalimantan into a regional innovation hub

Starting a Business?

• What types of business interest you?

Ecommerce, Cloud, Digital Aggregators, FinTech, Media & FMCG.

Ecommerce, Cloud, Digital Aggregators, FinTech: I love how modern businesses are challenging the status quo and embracing disruptive business models to improve connectivity, security, accessibility and also redefine consumer experiences while creating even more value than ever before.

Media: The modern media conglomerate business model fascinates me (Disney/Comcast/WarnerAT&T). I love how the different business units work closely together to build up brands and franchises that empower each other to create an experience for consumers to be mesmerised in.
FMCG: My favourite part about FMCG is learning from the innovation in both product differentiation and marketing strategies, with a new-focus on sustainability in the recent decade.

• What plan do you have in starting a business?
  

While it is a dream of mine to start my own business, I have not taken the leap of faith to do so yet. My own personal criteria in being ready to start my own business is:
1. A unique idea that can significantly add value (compared to prevailing market offerings) to consumers
2. Experience in managing business operations and strategy (e.g. what is the GTM, financial modelling, management of online platforms, etc)

I am confident that my modules in SMU, compounded with the breadth of internship experience that I had, have significantly improved my abilities to get a grasp on 2. However, 1 is still something I am actively hoping to achieve, while balancing considerations such as sustainability and market longevity.

But an idea that I am keen to experiment on in the future is to build up my own animated franchise. I love great stories and characters and I am a big fan of animation/cartoon brands that have mass appeal - like Pokemon, the world's most highly valued media franchise brand! In terms of character designs or personalities - the sky's the limit. But I am hoping to create characters that are cute and relatable with distinct and interesting personalities. Due to YouTube's strong network effects, I could possibly leverage it as a free-to-start platform to publish video stories or episodes of these characters. But as long as consumers build-up affinity with the brand, I can work towards developing it into a franchise. Via a licensing model, I can work with retailers (product collaborations with brands in apparel, consumables, hardlines, etc) and even live entertainment venues like shopping malls, museums and theme parks to breathe more life into the franchise and earn from royalty revenues. I strongly believe that "content is king" and I think the number 1 priority is to create an engaging world that features the lovable characters to build-up a fanbase and affinity for these characters. Aside from Pokemon as a success story, other modern brands that have developed into successful franchises like such are We Bare Bears, the Sanrio Characters, Tamagotchi, Kakao Friends and Line Friends.

Experiences

Internships/Work Experience

• Amazon Web Services — Partner Development Intern
  
• UOB-SMU Asian Enterprise Institute — Student Consultant
  
• NBCUniversal — Licensing & Brand Management Intern
  
• Maybank Singapore — Managed Investments Intern
  
• Teaching Assistant for OPIM101 Decision Analytics
  

School Involvement

• SMU Freshmen Buddy Program 2020
• SMU Rotaract Club — Organising Committee, Project Bloom (Beneficiary: Down Syndrome Association)
  
• The Mentoring Circle — Mentee & Organising Committee for Odyssey 2019
  
• EYE Investment — Events' Subcommittee
  

What keeps me ticking?

Professionally (Why I work hard): I aspire to be passionate about my work, grow & learn new things/skills everyday, deliver real impact to my stakeholders, build up a happy & collaborative work culture and become a qualified mentor to inspire budding young juniors just like how my seniors have inspired me.
Personally (What I work hard for): Quality time with loved ones, travel, food and Nintendo Switch games!