Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast where we dive into relevant topics and issues
related to the world of business, technology, education and design.
I'm your host, Mr. Jason.
Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders, and inspirational stories
with an international flavor.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International
Community School of Bangkok.
In today's episode, we'll be discussing social impact through technology and the idea
of leaving a legacy.
My co-host for this episode, Ronnie and Darren, will be conducting our guest interviews.
In our first segment, we spend time talking with Dr. Narisa, founder and CEO of CocoPay.com.
And then in our second segment, we'll talk with our very own Mr. Mike about social impact
initiatives that students are involved with here at ICS.
But first, let's get our quote of the day and hear some headline news.
Our quote of the day comes from Warren Buffett.
He says, someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time
ago.
Buffett is a famous businessman and philanthropist.
He is considered the most influential investor of the 20th and 21st century as he has accumulated
a personal fortune of more than $100 billion.
In 2020, he aimed to donate 99% of his wealth to charitable organizations.
He donated most of the money to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
This is a great example of a legacy.
Although he has amassed large amounts of wealth, he hopes to leave behind a legacy of generosity
and care for others.
Now, on to news from Down Under.
In a small town in Australia, millions of dead fish have been found on the riverside.
This is happening due to a lack of oxygen in the water because of large heat waves across
the country.
The region has already gone through tremendous environmental pressures due to the continuous
flooding.
It is predicted that there will be increased rainfall, heat, and fires.
This is not the first time this has occurred, as dead fish were currently found in this
region in February.
In financial news, SBB Bank in California, known as Silicon Valley Bank, collapsed a
few weeks ago.
The bank was forced to shut down due to several factors, including poor management, liquidity
issues, and rising inflation and interest rates.
In short, the bank's long-term investments lost significant value and depositors withdrew
large amounts of money running up to the shutdown.
This is the largest bank to fail in the US since Washington Mutual in 2008.
On to the weather.
Recently, a cyclone hit Madagascar, Malawi, and Mozambique.
It has developed in the Indian Ocean more than a month ago and had only just hit Africa.
This has been the longest cyclone ever recorded in history.
It was named Cyclone Freddie.
The death toll crossed 300 and more than 700 were injured.
The cyclone displaced 80,000 people.
It caused much devastation across these countries due to the landslides and floods.
Thank you for the quote in the headline news.
It's my pleasure to introduce our first guest of this episode, Dr. Narisa.
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to sit down with the Students Incorporated
podcast team.
Ronnie, we'll start off this segment with our first question.
Thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast.
Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your company and what
you do?
Oh, hi.
Nice to be here.
My name is Narisa Chaweduor.
I'm Thai.
I was born in Bangkok, but I lived in the UK for 27 years.
My background was in academics and the business.
I was a lecturer here before at Jalan Korn University for two years.
After I finished my PhD at LSE, I worked full-time as the CFO, Chief Financial Officer, and worked
part-time teaching at my university, LSE, where I got my PhD and also teach at King
College.
And I have 10 years' career break when I have my children, when they are 0 to 10 years old.
And I work part-time, flexible hours, as the advisors for Japanese companies.
And then I set up my own business, Kogo Pay, two, six years ago.
So I have 12 years' plan, so halfway through.
So since this episode is about social impact, can you explain the vision of Kogo Pay and
how it strives to be socially conscious?
Okay, I have to tell you the story about how I started Kogo Pay.
I was interested in blockchain technology in 2016 first.
That's why I'm interested in FinTech first.
So what I did, I joined the blockchain, the first group of a blockchain in London to get
to know, after I read the book, and I was interested, get to know people in the same
area and did some research, because I came from a research background as well.
So we did some research about blockchain, and my interest is how to use technology like
blockchain to help people.
So it's just from the beginning, how to help people using the blockchain technology.
My compassion, okay, besides working full-time in finance and set up my own business, I also
am a part-time missionary.
So my compassion for missionary work into two groups, orphanage children and the homeless.
So what I did before is, every year I do my missionary work part-time.
And I did in Japan with the OMF to help homeless people, and I always come back to Thailand
to method and help orphanage home.
So I always think about how to use technology blockchain in the beginning to move the funds,
to donate to the charities, fast and secure and cheaper than going to the normal banking
process.
So that's how I always start my business.
That's the beginning.
We start from thinking about how to use technology to help people.
And when we decide the product, the function, we always think about, okay, the function
would have something that we can use to help them as well.
I have the project.
I have done a bit, but I haven't launched everywhere in UK and Europe yet.
The project called Pay It Forward.
My dream is one day everyone can use Coco Pay to pay for their own food or drink in
the cafe or shop and pay another portion for someone else as well.
And when the homeless people or people who don't have money, maybe a single mom, single
dad, see the sign of our logo Coco Pay, they can come to the shop or cafe and have for
the food or drink that someone else already pay for them.
So something like that is always in my mind.
I want to make it work.
Besides a normal business like B2C, cross-border payment using Coco Pay, or we're going to
have digital bank, we provide I-Bank accounts in GDP and Euro, hopefully within Q3 this
year.
So this is a normal product.
So we always add something on.
And also we would like to keep a percentage, some percentage of our profits for the social
impact projects that we want to help in the future as well.
So that's all about Coco Pay, who we are and what we plan.
That's very interesting.
Thank you so much for sharing.
So since you're in the financial technology sector, what are some ways that you feel that
the industry as a whole could improve in the area of becoming more socially conscious?
I think you see a lot of people now's problems of the crash in the crypto exchange, cryptocurrencies,
and also in the banking system at the moment.
The problem is lots of people still abuse the system.
If you see what happened in the crypto exchange, it will collapse because they used other people's
money or assets, digital currencies, for their own benefits.
For us, we are controlled by the central bank and regulators.
We're not allowed to use other people's money to do the businesses.
So if you make losses, a lot of companies make losses, and that's why they cannot have
the money or either the cryptocurrency to return to the owners with the customers.
So we have to have a proper compliance system in place.
And also we have to abide with the rules and make sure that people who run the businesses
have the integrity and honesty and do properly to their businesses.
And then we want to be the role model for other fintech companies to see what we're
doing, how we can use technology to help people.
What I've been doing since last year in Dubai, we organized three conferences already.
It's free for like-minded people who believe that we are interested in technology and how
to use technology to help people.
So I arranged the first forum in Dubai about blockchain and financial inclusion.
And the first one who's doing that, I mean, the woman founder who organized blockchain,
normally you have to pay for it, but for us, it's free.
I've been not focusing only on our businesses.
We focus about like-minded people, invite like-minded people to talk about technology
and financial inclusion, blockchain and financial inclusion.
And the second one is a blockchain and how to use the blockchain in their businesses.
And also we also focus on financial inclusion.
And the last one, last month, the third conference that we had is about metaverse and how we
use metaverse for the businesses.
And also during the conferences that I organized, we talked about NFT.
What I did is I got my team in Thailand, go to the orphanage home that I helped in Masson.
I got all the students draw the picture about their dreams.
And then I showed it to the audience in my conference.
We want to work with another friend of mine, Finnish artist, to convert all these photo
pictures to the NFT and how to raise funds.
That's what we planned.
So we want to do something that convince them, a video model for them to do something together
in a community to help people.
I haven't told you why I went to Dubai.
We used Dubai, organized everything in Dubai because last year in February, I was selected
as one of 12 fintech founders from London to do first trade mission trip with the UK
government to the Male of London program to UAE.
The first time they did and they selected 12 companies.
I'm one of them, only one female founders and only one Asian.
So we noticed you were a panelist for the Bloomberg Summit at APEC in Bangkok recently.
Could you describe what this experience was like and what were some of the topics you
had to discuss?
It was fantastic.
I told everyone I'm like I'm nobody among somebody because in Thailand, I don't think
people know me much compared to UK and Europe.
So I was honored to be among the Minister of Finance, the Chairwoman of KBank, Chairman
of Bangkok Bank, the President of I think Boeing.
I feel like I'm nobody, I was nobody among somebody.
But it was an honor to be there, share my experience, challenges.
The topic that I was on the panel is about women in tech.
As one of the founders of the women in tech and challenges that I have.
They asked me questions about challenges I have in fundraising and how did I survive
and share the experience to the audience.
So in your opinion, what are some issues that women founders and entrepreneurs face within
the tech industry?
If you read the many articles, they're always saying that 3% of the money from VC went to
the women.
Imagine like, okay, it's very tough for women, especially in my space, in tech, to raise
fund.
And also, you know, I'm not only like a woman, I'm Asian and my business is in Western countries
as well.
So it's even tougher for me as a UK, they call BAM, Black Asian Ethnic Minorities, to
raise the money.
I think the most challenging for me is fundraising.
The rest, you know, like I'm sure that I can do, it doesn't matter, I'm a woman.
You know, I could be in the meeting, I could sit at a company, I can talk to people.
So fundraising is one of the challenges I face as a woman.
You mentioned that fundraising was a personal challenge that you've had to face.
Was there anything else?
And also, what would be your advice to women and how would you advise them to overcome
various challenges?
I believe that as a woman, if we can show that you can do what you plan and you have
passion, like for me, I have passion to do what I want to, to set up my fintech and also
to encourage people to not just thinking about money or technology, but thinking about how
to use technology and money to help people.
And I always tell everyone, including my angel investors and my team, that I have a 12-year
plan.
And then after I exit my business, I have a little ideas and I have to make it happen.
I want to be a full-time missionary.
So I have my goal set again clear that this is going to be my last business ventures.
After I exit, I want to become full-time missionary.
You know, even though I face many challenges, I have to make it happen.
So our next question is about your personal journey.
What path did you take to get to where you are right now?
And have you always been interested in business and technology?
Businesses, yes.
I share with the students here earlier.
When I was 15, I and my few friends in high school, we arranged what you call, I don't
know, a club.
We sold the ticket 250 baht many, many years ago, it made it when I was 15.
And we hired a venue in a hotel.
Central Department Store.
What was the name of the hotel?
Marriott, right?
It was a long time ago, they just opened the hotel.
So we hired a room during the daytime on Saturday.
We sold the ticket 250.
And in the beginning, we couldn't sell the ticket.
So from seven students who wanted to do it together, they dropped off and then only three
left, one girl and two boys.
And then we didn't give up.
And at the end, we sold out.
And people in the queue.
And then we got profit, can you imagine, 100,000 baht, which is about 2,500 pounds.
When I was 15, so I was always interested in business.
When I went to study in UK, when I was a student in 1999, I was the first person who did the
website, you know, doing dotcom.
I learned how to code and do a PhD with my engineering friends.
So I did the first website for Thailand.
So the Tourism Authority of Thailand in UK ran my website and they paid me like 500 pounds
every month and launched it.
Launched the proper launch, official launch.
We used the official website for almost two years.
I sold the website to them.
And you know, I studied finance, finance and all the things.
I always have an eye on technology and I learned it.
You know, even though you study anything else, if you're interested in something, you can
do it.
I can do website myself.
Even now, when we do the FinTech, I still involved with all the IT team.
So I learned about coding something as well.
So I learned the basics.
So I know when I talk to my tech team, so I know what we should think about.
And I set up my IT, AI team, two engineering from university.
So I told them how to use AI to set up a small team to use AI to track the unusual transactions,
to do monitoring transactions.
So you have basically I can learn with them as well.
We'd like to end our interviews by asking our guests for some advice.
So our final question is, what advice would you give to young people who are thinking
about careers in the tech industry or about starting technology focused companies of their
own?
Well, first, in something like me, I'm interested in blockchain.
You have to be interested in and have passion about how to learn it.
First like I did, what I did is I studied and involved in the group of people who are
interested in the same thing.
In 2016, after I read a book about blockchain, I didn't jump into doing business straight
away.
So I joined the blockchain, the first group in London, you know, to join them and have
the research with them.
And then I invested in other companies who started the blockchain cross-border payment
first.
So I invested with them and involved with them and worked for free to learn with them
for a year.
And then after that, I set up my own business.
And then I know that my passion is about how to use technology to help people.
And then after I exit, this is what I want to do.
So you have to have clear plan.
FinTech technology is very, very tough business.
And I because I think my background is ready to help my business.
I have my PhD in compliance in the bank and my first job after university, I worked for
Cooper's and library, which is a price for the house Cooper.
So I qualify as a CPA.
So my background helped me in compliance and I lecture as well.
So I did some research and I have startup.
I did my dot-com business before.
So I have experienced before because of in, if you don't have lots of money in the beginning,
you have to raise lots of fun.
So you have to have experience that the investor would trust in you and you have to have good
team as well.
Okay.
Compassion, believe in what you're doing and make sure that you have basic knowledge about
what you're doing.
If you do FinTech, either technology or compliance would help and fundraising.
You have to have a proper team.
And because when you raise fund, the investor will look at who's your team and what is the
pin point you try to solve and your team and your compassion and your background experience.
Thank you so much for coming on today.
It has been an honor.
Thank you so much for sharing your inspiring story.
Thank you for having me.
This past week, we witnessed our students present their amazing capstone projects.
It was great to see the students hard work and the uniqueness of all of their projects.
For our listeners who don't know what capstone projects are, these are community service
projects that serve as a final goal for the students to accomplish before graduating.
The students aim to create sustainable projects that will help serve their communities.
And these projects help students improve their project management skills and help them to
get to know the communities around them.
We are back with part two with Mr. Mike, the learning service coordinator at ICS.
Welcome to the podcast.
Can you please introduce yourself?
Tell us what you do and how long you've been at ICS.
Thanks for having me here, guys.
My name is Mike Holden.
I am married.
I've got two kids and I've been at ICS since the 2014-15 school year.
So this is year number nine for me.
So part of my job is to like kind of help ICS and our community to be involved in helping
and reaching out to other communities around us.
So how did you get involved in the area of social work?
Social work I think is an interesting term, an appropriate term, I guess, that I've never
really thought of myself as a social worker in that sense.
But I think the phrase makes sense.
But I think a lot of this really just kind of came from like growing up and experiences
that I had as I grew up.
So I definitely saw my parents serving in church and in school and in other places.
So just kind of tagging along with them and different things.
And then while I was in high school, definitely be involved in student council.
And that was really like the primary avenue, I think, for like our school to be involved
in service and things like that.
So there were always like little projects that we were doing, fundraisers or like little
drives or things like that.
I think another experiences that were I think helpful for me was I was able to go on two
kind of service trips to Mexico in kind of middle school, high school age, eighth grade,
ninth grade.
So I think a lot of those experiences just kind of helped to like provide that like broad
foundation of like, well, this is just what you do.
And then I think like when I moved to Dulat in Malaysia, I was teaching there again, it
was just kind of something that you did.
So again, while I was involved with student council there, like well, student council
and we do service projects.
And so like, what are we going to do as a middle school coordinator there, then it also
just kind of helped students, middle school students to be involved in different service
projects and or awareness campaigns or things like that.
So we were kind of worked on things like that every quarter.
So again, just kind of something that we always kind of did and just kind of built out of
that.
So I was able to move to Indonesia and I think kind of the idea with that in part was to
be more kind of on the front lines, like rather than helping students to do service or the
school to do service is really being in communities and helping more directly.
And so basically, I helped to run kind of salt trips for other schools and to take those
students into a lot of different villages around the resort that I got to work at.
So what are some of your thoughts on the central role that community service plays in the ICS
community?
I think that this has been kind of a central idea for ICS from the beginning.
So really, that's a pretty cool legacy really of kind of 30 years of I think that being
a really an important character traits or value of ICS.
And I really think that's like kind of a reflection of the parents and their dedication to serving
others, especially even in their own work outside, you know, and what they do as an
adult and serving especially like marginalized communities here in Thailand.
What were some challenges you overcame during your service projects?
Yeah, I think this is a good question.
I think no matter what you do, there's always going to be challenges.
So yeah, I think the key is like us learning through those.
So I think some of the challenges I've had difference in expectations between like the
people that we're serving or working with and then maybe what our expectations are.
So sometimes that's things like time and like how long things should take or the organization
of things.
I think another challenge is related to like facilitating like larger groups.
And so oftentimes, if we're working with a partner, they're not used to like organizing
a service thing for 100 students or something like that.
And so the way service happens with a smaller group versus a bigger group, the way I might
do something by myself is different.
And so I think that sometimes has been a little bit of a challenge and sort of working those
things out.
I think another example is when we do things and we think we're helping and maybe it's
even sometimes what they've asked for.
But then in reality, it's not actually helping the way we think it's going to it almost can
even hurt.
So quick example that is one of the first projects we worked on in Indonesia, we went
to the school working with the school and we're like noticing, hey, like there's no
fans in these classrooms is super hot.
This is a super rural school.
Do you think that fans would be a good idea to help cool down your classroom a little
bit?
That's got to be much better for students.
Like, yeah, like fans would be great.
We love that fans.
So we bring in a group, they bring some fans, they get them installed.
It's awesome.
Next time we go to the village, like, hey, wow, we got the fans.
I mean, that's awesome.
Can we turn them on?
Because it's kind of hot in here.
And they're like, oh, yeah, we actually don't have electricity until seven at night.
So we've got fans for the students, but there's never fans on when the students are here.
So they were like, yeah, but it's great.
Like, we actually use the rooms for then community meetings and like evening stuff with their
parents and stuff like that.
So it's great.
They were very appreciative of fans, but our intent of like helping our students totally
miss the mark.
And so I think that's another challenge, right?
Is like actually understanding what's happening to then be able to address that directly and
what's something that actually fits and is actually in need and feasible with the community.
Thank you for sharing.
So since this episode is about legacy, how would you define legacy and how would an individual
create a positive and lasting legacy through service oriented work or activities?
Yeah, legacy.
This is a good question.
The first thing that people think about when they think about legacy is how people are
going to remember me, right?
Like, so how will people remember the class of 2023, right?
And sometimes that's definitely part of it.
I think also it can be changes that are made or like even like things that are a part of
the place or the school.
And so it's kind of like the stuff that lasts.
I think sometimes it can be really good.
It can be a really positive element.
And then sometimes it's a little less beneficial.
So again, we could be bringing like this great gift to ICS.
I can think of some really great things that were donated even to like ICS and some of
those things are used really well and are really appreciated and maybe even have been
used so much they've been replaced by the school then which is awesome.
But there's other things that have been donated or given that are like, hey, this is great.
Where do we store this now?
Right?
Like how long do we have to keep this before we can get rid of it?
Right?
So that would be maybe like an example of like a negative legacy, right?
I think the idea is, yeah, how do we understand what are going to be the most beneficial impacts
or things that we can leave behind when we leave?
So how do you say we're working on this at ICS and what impact do you think our students
can have on society?
So legacy as a school, I think one of the ways that we are working on that is just to
continually improve our partnerships with like other communities.
And one of those ways is more and more asking ourselves like how can we impact or benefit
like our neighbors?
Are we a good neighbor to the people right around us?
We go on salt trips that are hours away, right?
But are we doing anything for the people that are within walking distance of us?
Like how are we helping them?
And so I think that's like an area that we're going to continue to explore and grow.
Yeah.
And hopefully as a school, we're able to be good neighbors.
I think another area is like with our students, hopefully you are that legacy as well that
as you move out from ICS, there are certain traits, certain values that you have and that
that will continue with no matter where you live around the world.
So some of those things I think that are really important is like seeking first to understand
others before we like make assumptions.
And then as we understand like our posture and how you respond to other people.
So not just like a solution that works well for me, but through my understanding, am I
able to help you in a way that then is beneficial for you?
We like to ask our guests to share advice before ending each episode.
So what advice would you give not only to students, but adults as well regarding how
they can get involved with service or service oriented activities?
Yes.
Sometimes I feel like there are just like barriers that are like, oh, I'm not sure how this is
going to work or I'm going to feel super comfortable jumping.
Just number one advice, jump in, just do it.
I think you'll find that most of the time, wow, this experience is like way cooler than
I anticipated.
And with that, like be relational.
So get to know people that you are serving or that you are working with.
And I think those connections are huge.
So be relational, get to know people.
And then lastly, like be flexible.
You walk in, we all walk in with a lot of expectations, a lot of assumptions about how
things we think are going to be, but we got to like release those as much as possible
and be flexible and willing to adapt and just serve.
Thank you so much, Mr. Mike.
It was great to have you on the podcast with us.
And with that advice about service, something we're all capable of getting involved with,
we are running out of time.
Thank you again for joining us.
As we end this episode, we'd like to thank our guests and listeners for helping us make
this podcast possible.
Our next episode will be about forensic science, criminology, and followed up by some dumb
bad guy stories.
As always, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international
student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives
sharing copyright free images, videos, and music.
And we are signing off until next time.
We are Students Incorporated, because your voice matters.