Slide 1
Welcome everyone to our inaugural AICI Asia Conference.


Slide 2

The theme of our conference is "Learn & Shine Together"


Slide 3

I am really happy to see the program that is lined up
and, no doubt, will be great learning experience
in the next two days!

What I will be talking about here is going to focus
on the "shine Together" part.

I will show you why the word 'together' will be central
to the future of the image industry.

That is, why 'together' is very important.


Slide 4

Our company started working with Toshiba in the 1990s
and they showed us a problem that they faced.


Slide 5

The problem my company faced when working for Toshiba
was that they had 20 offices around the world that have
the issue of expats sent from headquarters to branch offices
not getting along with local employees.

The company recognized that it is because of the diverse
cultural background and expectations.


Slide 6

The biggest headache was that there was no "standard"
in term of image and etiquette.


Slide 7

Without a standard, there is no way a comapny can measure
something.  

And this was the major problem then with our image industry:

And you know what?  Whatever cannot be measure is not done
in the corporate world!  That why you don't see any major
projects where a multinational will roll out any wide-scale
training across different branch office.

How can different branches measure the outcome of the
training without a standard that everyone can agree on?!


Slide 8

So Toshiba wanted a standard in image and etiquette training.


Slide 9

They wanted a soft skill standard similar to the concept of 
IELTS, TOEFL or GMAT.

In other words, a standard that meant something so that employees
feel it was relevant beyond the company, something that is not
just proprietary within a single company.



Slide 10

But wait a minute.  Stop!  

If you look at other multinationals, Would we see any similarity?


Slide 11

Have you heard of the company called Haier?

They are a famous Chinese company headquartered in Qingdao, China.

And they have problems just like Toshiba.


Slide 12

They are a top brand for refrigerators, especially for small
refrigerators for hotels.


Slide 13

They also have many offices in different cities and with teams
made up of expats and locals.

How can Haier ensure that the company culture is the same in all
these different cities?  Without this kind of common values, it 
is hard to maximize the effectiveness of the brand of the company.


Slide 14

As a third example, this is also a case for Samsung.


Slide 15

Where they have over 40 branch offices all over the world.


Slide 16

What do all the three brands have in common?

One is a computer company (Toshiba).  Another is a refrigerator
company, and a third is a cell phone company.


Slide 17

What do all these companies have in common.


Slide 18

They all want image training, and they all need a common
standard just like TOEFL, IELTs or GMAT standardized exam.


Slide 19

So, in 2011, a group of experienced image consultants decided to
get together to develop an independent testing system so that
all employees can be trained towards a "world" standard.


Slide 20

And they called this IITTI or "ET".


Slide 21

It is a non-profit organization.


Slide 22

It is an independent, third-party exam certification system.


Slide 23

It is just like other standization exams such as TOEFL or GMAT.


Slide 24

The founding members are from arond the worlds, such as
Singapore, the Netherlands and Canada.


Slide 25

One of them is in the audience, and that is Christina Ong
of Singapore.


Slide 26

And some examples of IITTI success stories...


Slide 27

Josephine Lui
Apailuck Tantrabandit
doing employee training in Bangkok, Thailand.


Slide 28

Carloina Tan building a franchise based on the IITTI platform
in Manila, the Philippines.


Slide 29

And, of course, Christina Ong training students at the Nanyang
Technological University in Singapore.


Slide 30

What is in store for the future?


Slide 31

It ties in to our theme of this conference in a big way!

"Learn & Shine Together"

You will learn the technical aspect of image consulting in
the next few days at this conference...


Slide 32

But I want to emphasize the "Shine Together" part.

The main idea is that image consultants need to start
thinking about big projects with big companies
by working together...


Slide 33

Remember what I described about companies, especially big
companies all face the problem of have branch offices spread
out over a large geographic area?

Where there could be expats from headquarters working side-by-side
with branch offices' local hires.


Slide 34

For instance, what if you are in Seoul and you got a contract from
Samsung to train their staff on etiquette?

It is quite easy to do for most of the situation in your business;
that is, one city, one contractors (you).


Slide 35

But what if Samsung has an office in Shanghai?  How can you do
the training other than traveling there to do it?  Is it very
time-consuming?


Slide 36

What if Samsung has a third office in Singapore?  Can you handle
the work load as well as the different languages?

It is quite hard for a single company to fulfill this project in
a short time.


Slide 37

So, in order to shine together, we need to band together and
work together.


Slide 38

So you need to start thinking about forming some sort of partnership,
(or consortium of companies) in order to help big multinationals.

And what better way to build relationships with your colleagues
in other cities that at this conference?

So instead of me yapping on, I will let you have more time
to build these relationhips!