Year In Review, Part 2 | The Greatest Hits Of 2022!!

This episode is our Year In Review: 2022 Greatest Hits Part 2! We've put together some of our favourite clips and moments for you to enjoy over the holidays, and look forward to seeing you again in 2023 for some of our best guests to date!

The 2022 guests featured in this episode are:

#1 - Louis Houdart, E150 & E151, October 5th & 12th 2022

Episodes 150 and 151, released on October 5th and 12th, brought us Louis Houdart, Founder of Creative Capital. Louis is an entrepreneur, a business and investment coach, a board member and an advisor to many start-up companies. The Creative Capital China team has worked with European companies in China and helped launch little-known brands into major Western markets. By establishing pre-eminent international brand awareness and strong brand relationships, Creative Capital is one of the only firms in China focusing on widening awareness of Chinese companies beyond their home market. In this clip from episode 2, I ask Louis if he would agree or disagree, and why, with the statement that Chinese brands have met some headwinds in their attempts to be successful in Western markets, and here’s what he had to say.

#2 - Jacob Cooke, E155, November 9th 2022

On November 9th we brought back Jacob Cooke for our 155th episode. Jake is the Co-Founder & CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, a leading e-commerce and technology consultancy that drives growth for global brands in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Having lived in Beijing since 2003, Jacob is a regular contributor to international media on e-commerce, retail, and technology trends in China. He’s a member of the MIT Sloan School of Management and holds an Advanced Certificate in Engineering from MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Although we brought him in to discuss the impending Singles Day shopping bonanza at the time, I was really intrigued to discuss what Douyin is doing in the market lately so that’s the clip I’ve chosen and here’s what he had to say.

#3 - Karen Raghavan, E129, February 8th 2022

On February 8th of 2022, we released episode 129 with Karen Raghavan, a Brand and Business Development Consultant and Growth Advisor to both heritage beauty brands and startups. She is also the Vice President of Brand Development at the natural ingredient company Purissima. Karen is a member of Chief, a private network built to drive more women into positions of power and keep them there. I asked Karen for some tactics she’s seeing used that are driving growth in China in the beauty space that Western brands should take notice of.

#4 - Jeff Daggett, E142 & E143, July 27th / August 3rd 2022

Released on July 27th and August 3rd, were episodes 142 and 143 with Jeff Daggett, Founder and CEO of Aisonne, a brand and retail development & management company offering brand, retail, hospitality, and licensing management services and representation in Japan and the United States. Since 2002, Aisonne has assisted a number of big-name retail brands such as Apple, Columbia Sportswear, Nordstrom, Shinjuku Takano, and NBC Universal. Jeff’s background includes over three decades of experience at leading global companies in the Asia-Pacific, specifically in investment banking, real estate, retail operations, merchandising, marketing, and general management. He also spent 6 years at Disney as VP of Consumer Products, which is why I just had to ask him, given the massive catalogue of IP and products, how difficult it was to manage the trademark and brand IP, or was that a naive question and it didn’t require managing at all?

#5 - Akio Tanaka, E148 & E149, September 21st and 28th 2022

On September 21st and 28th, we released episodes 148 and 149 with Akio Tanaka, Co-Founder and Partner at Headline VC. Headline VC is a technology-focused venture capital firm that sees the world’s future through the lens of exponential technologies. The aim of Headline is to identify, fund, and partner with companies who are building these new products and services—and to make them more accessible to mainstream consumers. Akio Tanaka is one of the most influential investors in Japan and has been known to be passionately committed to the local ecosystem. With that in mind, we asked him for his opinion of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Japan, and to compare it to those of its neighbouring countries. 

#6 - Bill Tung, E137 & E138, June 22/29 2022

Our last clip celebrating an amazing 2022 for the podcast, comes from episode 137 released on June 22nd, featuring Bill Tung, Managing Partner at Peaks Consulting, a global brand, retail, and management consultancy. Since its founding in 2015, Peaks Consulting has built an internationally recognized consultancy based on trust and relationships before business. Peaks currently serve consumers in 20 countries and counting. Bill has also served as the VP of Europe and Asia-Pacific at Rockport, VP of International Sales a Columbia Sportswear, Executive VP of International Sales at New Balance, Managing Director of Fanatics Inc, and Asia-Pacific General Manager at Clarks. This final clip is when I asked Bill, given his 13 years at Columbia Sportswear, how the outdoor equipment and apparel market has changed and evolved in APAC.

We hope you enjoyed Part 2 of our 2022 Year In Review, and we look forward to seeing you all again next year. Again, from all of us here at The Negotiation and WPIC Marketing + Technologies, we wish all of you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.