Arvind Rajan, LinkedIn’s Managing Director for the Asia Pacific region is an experienced entrepreneur, corporate leader, and also an advisor. And we’re of course glad to have him at Startup Asia Singapore held on 3 February 2012 for a coffee chat, not at Starbucks but live on stage.
I met Arvind a couple of times just to chat and to get to know him better as a friend. He is a nice chatty guy and also a person I go to when I need advice.
When in our chats, one of the many questions I asked him was why he had actually decided to move to Singapore to head LinkedIn’s operation in Asia. It isn’t at all an easy step to take, leaving U.S. Nonetheless he did it, made the move, and is now loving Singapore.
On his decision, Arvind’s reply to me was that he wanted the challenge. While LinkedIn is now a listed corporation, its Singapore office, which was formed just this year, functions pretty much like an agile startup.
Arvind has to built everything from scratch just like an entrepreneur but with more resources — Choosing an office space, hiring, managing, and driving performance. The Singapore office is just one of many challenges. This year, we also saw LinkedIn setting up a new office in Japan and it is safe to expect Arvind and his team to make moves to other parts of Asia in 2012.
One thing that I haven’t really asked was how he has actually managed LinkedIn Singapore/Asia so far. As Arvind has the DNA of an entrepreneur (He co-founded Grassroots Enterprise which was then acquired by Edelman after building it for nine years) and with a small team I would expect LinkedIn Singapore to function very much like a Startup.
And beside LinkedIn, I will also pick Arvind’s thoughts on the culture, entrepreneurs, and opportunities that he is seeing in Asia so far. Who knows? Perhaps Arvind may decide to run another startup in Asia after seeing a good opportunity in this continent? I know he wouldn’t rule out that possibility. But it will surely be exciting to hear him live on stage at Startup Asia Singapore on 3 Feb 2012.
More Startup Asia Coffee Chat Preview
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