Callum Laing

Callum has built, bought and sold half a dozen businesses in a range of industries across two continents. He is a partner in a private equity firm Unity-Group. He is a regular speaker, and is author of, amongst other things, "Progressive Partnerships - The Future of Business" - For a free synopsis go to www.CallumLaing.com

  With remote workers and outsourcing on the rise, location-independent professionals are increasingly choosing to work in these shared spaces. Spaces with their fast-growing community of entrepreneurs and digital nomads illustrate why coworking spaces are more than just funky decor, ambient tunes, and good coffee.

Partnerships are my 'go to' resource to accomplish anything. Want exposure for one of your clients? Media partnerships. Want to get more leads to an event? Affiliate partnerships.  Overseas expansion? International partnerships. And so on.

Local Singapore boy, Chade Meng-Tan (not pictured), has made it to the highest ranks of Google, yet he’s not recognised for his exceptional engineering talent, which he clearly has.

The first time I arrived in Thailand, I realised the importance of a network. Up until that point, I had either lived in the same country or worked for the same company, and so my network had always kind of come with me. It was the network I had taken from school, from university and then from one job to another.

Every book I read on networking talked about how important it was to build rapport: to mirror people or feign an interest in their interests. In short, use whatever techniques you can to be liked by people, then you can do business with them. Yet something wasn’t stacking up.