Hey there, thanks for tuning in. This newsletter is holding space for NewCampus updates thick and thin. Read on for developments about our programs, products and team.

Q4 is starting up, and the NewCampus team is doing a stocktake of 2023. It’s been a bumpy year for SEA tech and we’ve seen plenty of musical chairs in leadership roles across amazing companies. If you’ve been impacted, I hope you’ve found something better. If you’ve stayed put, I hope the storm has passed! See below for some of the learnings driving our new product direction. Reply to this email to let me know what you think. Let’s get growing!

Wowee,

— Eddy Chan (Head of Product)

PS: We bid farewell to our long time coach Solonia Teodros (for now). We are recruiting new coaches based in Indonesia and the Philippines, reply to this email to let me if you have any referrals. Facilitation experience required.

2023: From manager training to HR partner 👀

Since 2021, we’ve had the privilege of speaking with over 1000 SEA startup business leaders from just over 250 amazing companies between series B to pre-IPO. Here’s what we learned:

• There is a pressing need for accessible, high-quality management education, especially for first-time managers and new-world tech leaders
• Our region lacked Asia-first context and content to empower the emerging workforce
• We recognised the importance of helping companies develop a robust employee engagement strategy

NewCampus product and client success teams sat together. We noticed a gap between what NC offered and the immediate needs of SEA tech companies. Priorities were continuously evolving, and companies were focused on achieving tangible business impact through innovative people processes and policies. Modern management training was one option, but an after thought for companies slowing down on hypergrowth.

So, how can NewCampus be more helpful in 2023? 🤔

We’re betting on the “business” in business education, by expanding from management training into being a partner to HR and other culture leaders. Up next for us is helping you tackle performance management, starting with effective OKRs. Why? How?

• We had meaningful conversations with startup business leaders in our community to better understand their hurdles. OKRs was the number 1 mentioned gap.
• We spent 3 months in research and exploration, partnering and learning from specialised OKR tools and consultants.
• Armed with these resources, we’ve crafted the NewCampus solution, returned to the leaders who had shared their challenges, seeking their feedback and insights

And now, we’re thrilled to introduce NewCampus OKR solutions to our entire community.

We’re here to be your partners in solving people development problems, fine-tuning company design, and empowering the SEA HR community to drive real business impact. We’re here to listen, learn, build, and implement solutions alongside you. Let me know if you’d like more info!

The future is already at work 💖

Spotlighting clients (and friends) at the intersection of scaling companies and people around SEA

• ShopBack is the leading SEA ecommerce platform with over 38 million shoppers across ten markets. Founded in 2014, it employs over 1000 people and is one of SEA’s most successful startups.
• In recent years, Shopback grew its headcount exponentially, and many teams promoted high-performing individual contributors into first-time managers. These new managers now had a new set of leadership responsibilities, and needed training and support to perform in their new roles.
• Shopback’s Head of Operations worked with HR to enrol new Operations managers into Management Essentials public cohorts. This solution gave managers flexible timing on when to join a cohort through the year, and also gave managers in different countries a consistent training experience.
• ​Read more about how it was rated an average of 9.2 by Shopback’s managers (and had an 100% attendance record!) Go team Shopback!

Have a great week ahead, and we’ll see you in the next issue!