In our latest podcast, Managing Director Kevin Britten sits down with Ms. Sakina Zafar, Executive President of De Montfort University Cambodia (DMUC), for an in-depth discussion on reshaping higher education in the region. As Cambodia’s first British university, DMUC is setting new standards with its world-class academics, innovative teaching methods, and pathways to global opportunities. Discover how this groundbreaking institution is empowering students, bridging international education gaps, and shaping the future of learning in Cambodia.

Tune in for key insights from this transformative partnership!

Duration: 17 minutes

Join Tim Montero and Kevin Britten, as they discuss Cambodia’s economic performance in 2024 and insights into 2025 on this episode of “Everything else is HR.”

Duration: 19 minutes

Full transcript

TM: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Everything Else is HR. My name is Tim Montero and with me is my Managing Director Kevin Britten. Kevin how are you?

KB: Hi Tim.

TM: Hi how are you?

KB: I’m good first of all, Happy New Year.

TM: Happy New Year to you too. And Advanced Lunar New Year. How is everything for you Kevin?

KB: Lovely starting off really well in 2025 and I’m quite happy with how things are going.

TM: Yeah and the business is going well as well for us.

KB: Yeah. A lot of new projects coming in, picking up.

TM: So is it safe to assume that finally we could say that business is back to normal?

KB: Well, after an usual 2024 with a lot of insecurity in the market I think 2025 is looking a lot better.

TM: Very good, very good. Kevin let’s start off with you could start with the Cambodia economy back last year and then what should we be expecting this year?

KB: Well I can see improvements going on. We can say well okay last year was not a bad year.

There was 8.5 billion US$ in FDI foreign direct investment in Cambodia from September 23 to September 24 and that direct investment was in a range of sectors, although real estate was involved there was also manufacturing and agriculture as big features of it. Yeah we’re talking about things like commodities like rice, cashews, rubber and what we’re seeing is increasingly this is in activities related to adding value, adding value to agriculture products like making tires from the rubber. And this is way better for the country than simply exporting the rubber to be processed elsewhere. And value has got to be the future.

TM: Right yeah and what are the impacts of what you just mentioned yet?

KB: Well, if you want to add value to a product that means your workforce has got to have higher skills.

TM: Right so skills development is becoming crucial.

KB: A really good example would be there are proposed EV electric vehicle assembly plants. The skills needed to by the workforce of an EV assembly plant are much higher than the kind of skills required for agricultural in the past. So we’re looking at assembly plants coming in and the wind farms in Mondolkiri. All of these things require skills development in the country which means vocational training has got to rise to global standards. And so this is having impact on the human resources part of the national economy.

TM: Right and then speaking on EV there’s been a lot of EV vehicles coming in here. And are you saying that those are being assembled and manufactured here?

KB: There’s a plan to start assembling EVs right here. So this is a big step forward for Cambodia. And a lot of it is to do with the way investment has become easier.

Investment procedures are more streamlined than they were in the past. Partly because they’re now online. The Ministry of Commerce single portal has registered 40,000 build businesses in the past four years. So this is an amazing increase and this is a great change for the country.

TM: Negatives? What do you think is a negative impact on this?

KB: Well not about those things. If we think about the country as a whole, okay the Credit Bureau of Cambodia’s most recent report shows that overdue loans have increased. This is showing that there’s some kind of credit bubble in the country which I think gave rise to a lot of insecurity last year. But the national banks’ directives to banks telling them to restructure loans. I think that’s helped.

And don’t forget this is a fast-evolving market. For example, credit card use was very close to zero. Now it’s increasing rapidly. Partly because of digital payments there’s been a rapid move to digital payments which has increased things like credit card use. So the economy generally is modernizing. Yeah, I think most of the non-performing loans that the banks have are related to real estate.

TM: I see. So 2025 Kevin, what should we be expecting for 2025?

KB: Well it’s, well we’re optimistic. Okay so exports, when we think about exports with the incoming Trump administration talking about tariffs, this brings insecurity and all business hates the unknown.

Last year, okay, year on year exports to the US increased nearly 10%, and don’t forget, Cambodia, of all Cambodia’s exports, 38% go to the United States market. Mostly textiles, garment, footwear, travel goods.

So this actually makes Cambodia vulnerable to tariff changes. And well the manufacturers know what this means and of course it comes back to value added again. The way of increasing local value, the amount of value added locally to any given product, well that’s the way out of this situation.

And I think the manufacturing sector knows that. And we’re also seeing shifting production from China. We’re seeing manufacturers moving production into Cambodia.

Something of a negative is the fact that Cambodia’s GDP rising. So we’re facing the loss of most favored nations status. Meaning things like the everything but arms policy, which is exporting into the EU tariff free. That means those kinds of policies, those kinds of statuses will change.

But I think because there’s time, it’s about two, three years away that this will happen, there’s time to change and Cambodia is really, really good at changing.

TM: Other changes that we see coming in 2025?

KB: Well recently Cambodia banned access to I think 16 cryptocurrency exchanges. That might have some impact. But you know things like cryptocurrency and areas like that, these are very fast moving. So I’d look to expect more changes in that area.

TM: Yeah and speaking of Trump, he’s a big supporter of cryptocurrency.

KB: Apparently, but I think the uses cryptocurrency was being made. The uses being made of it here were not what the national bank wanted.

TM: I see, I see. So Kevin talk to me about the niche industries and culture and social insights, the effects of this.

KB: Well, I think about future of AgriTech. You know Cambodia is an agricultural producer moving to using more innovative technologies to transform the agricultural production. And perhaps being used to add secondary processing to agricultural product, which is what we are going down the path of.

And going back to the, well, the garment sector, perhaps we’ve never explored the potential of Cambodia’s garment industry in terms of its impact as a design centre for the global market.

These things have not been looked at.

In terms of culture and society, well, Cambodian business culture, Cambodian work culture, these are always questions of balancing tradition and modernity, the way in which Cambodian traditional values meld, mix, blend with modern business practices. Anybody running a business here sees that. And these are kind of continued to be features of business life in Cambodia. And I think most serious managers accept that and use it to their advantage.

TM: Yeah, Kevin, you yourself, you’re a business man here for many, many years.

KB: Yeah, 18, 20 years.

TM: And in 20 years? Has there been any changes so far throughout, when you started year one year to year 18 or 19?

KB: Sure, we’ve seen massive amounts of professionalisation. We’ve seen massive amounts of change in the way in which Cambodian professionals have become, we could say, more professional. That 20 years ago, everybody complained about job hopping and so forth. Cambodian professionals realise now that job hopping is not the way to that better future. They’re concerned about job security, but more importantly, I think they’re involved,, they’re concerned with personal and professional development. So that has become more of a focus in the HR market.

TM: Cool, Kevin, talk to me about Cambodia’s regional integration.

KB: Oh, this is most important. Cambodia as part of ASEAN as being part of the ASEAN economic community means that there are lots of opportunities within the AEC framework.

Of course, there’s the CAFTA, the China ASEAN free trade area. There’s benefits for Cambodia of participating in CAFTA.

Basically, in terms of business, that means companies are looking at regional value chains. How Cambodian businesses integrate into regional value trains to improve their competitiveness.

And of course, ASEAN is doing lots of things related to reducing tariff barriers, but more importantly, working on the hard stuff, which is non-tariff barriers. So the things which stop trade happening smoothly and easily across borders, besides the improvements to labor skills and training that Cambodia needs to operate at ASEAN standards, whatever standard that particular industry is in.

So we’ve got people addressing those needs.

We’ve also got infrastructure development going on, connecting us more closely to ASEAN.

And of course, going back to non-tariff barriers, removing or reducing things like technical barriers to trade, so product standards. A standard, for example, for a product might be different in Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia. Bringing those standards into harmony means that products can move across borders, products can be assessed through the same procedures, and that always opens up a trade. So this is involved with product standards, sanitary and phytosanitary, that means related to plants and animals, food safety, those kind of standards.

Harmonizing those means that products and other items can move across borders more easily. Relaxing, harmonizing customs procedures, shortening the time it takes for the paperwork for a product across a border.

And then we’re also looking at licensing requirements, a company which is licensed to operate in one country might not be accepted for operation in a neighboring ASEAN country.

So these challenges are what ASEAN member states are working on, to harmonize these standard streamline procedures, basically with the goal of promoting regional cooperation. And that is going to be such clear improvements for which will help Cambodia.

So it’s to do with regional cooperation, the ASEAN economic community and regional comprehensive economic partnership. These are deepening ASEAN’s economic integration.

These are important initiatives and I think the Cambodia government is working hard to improve all of this integration because it means that Cambodia’s products can be exported more easily and more freely to the whole of the region.

And although our focus, like we said, the garment industry has been always exporting to Western markets, there’s a lot of products that Cambodia has and which we’ll certainly have in the future, which we’ll be looking at our closer neighbors, the ASEAN markets.

So looking at strengthening cooperation in the greater Mekong sub-region. There are other regional entities which mean that the overall economy will improve. So harmonizing standards, recognizing each other’s customs procedures to become, make things more efficient, make things more transparent.

And of course, the driving force behind a lot of that is digitalization.

TM: Right, there we go.

KB: Because of course the digital world doesn’t recognize borders very easily. So these things have to be done internationally. Digital trade and e-commerce cross borders easily. Now often the focus is on the digital crime and e-commerce crime. But actually the e-commerce, digital commerce moving across borders is another great way in which ASEAN can harmonize, can grow together.

TM: And yeah, there’s digital infrastructure issues.

KB: Cambodia is constantly investing in digital infrastructure. Broadband has improved massively. We have new data centers because that supports economic growth. And the implementation of regional agreements on these issues is where ASEAN is looking.

So another great thing is of course this actually helps SMEs as much as it helps big companies.

Big companies can afford this kind of large scale infrastructure. But SMEs benefit from investment in digital infrastructure because they can access them immediately, and because they’re fast moving very often, they can immediately take advantage of it.

So yeah, I think we’ve got a lot going on in 2025. And I think we will continue to see more of the kind of changes we saw last year. I think we’ll see more security in the economy, certainly internally security. Of handling the credit issue, the debt issue that we’ve been working with.

And I think what we’re also looking at is, well, obviously we have great political and social security here. And so building on those strengths is what Cambodia, I think is going to spend 2025

TM Right. And this is why they’re having this ASEAN business summit. Actually, we have Cambodia hosting it this year in March 2025. And like what you just mentioned, they’re focused on skills development. That will be the theme for this business summit.

KB: Right. So there is an ASEAN business summit here in March. And skills development is the main theme.

TM: Yeah. And one of the things that I could see is with all these FDI’s that you mentioned coming in and all these digitalizations and everything, we need people to be able to use it properly.

KB: Yeah. So that’s why skills development definitely is a need. And this is why we’re talking about it because we are HR consultants and specialists.

TM: So just for a little bit of commercial break here, Kevin, sorry. So we are Top Recruitment Cambodia. We are Top Recruitment and Consulting, Cambodia.

So if you have any recruitment needs anywhere in the world, I would say just come to us. We have a website you can contact me every time, anytime in LinkedIn, my WhatsApp and Telegram details are listed on our on the website. So if you need anything, HR related business related, we can definitely help you.

Kevin, thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing all these insights regarding what to expect and what we experienced last year. We have a lot to look forward through. Anyways, guys, thank you for your time. See you in the next episode. Thank you and have a great day. Thanks, Kevin.

Today, our Managing Director, Kevin Britten, is IN CONVERSATION WITH Christian Berger, one of our Consultants at Top Consulting Asia. Christian has an unparalleled track record in Cambodia’s security sector, with nearly 25 years of experience. He’s built the nation’s largest security company, co-founded Brinks Cambodia, and provides due diligence for international investors. Learn more about how Christian and Top Consulting Asia can help your business.

Duration: 31 minutes

Full transcript

KB:         Hello and welcome to the latest in our series of podcasts ‘In Conversation With…’ I’m Kevin Britten and today I’m honoured to have with me a pillar of the foreign business community in Cambodia, a man who’s lived and worked in Phnom Penh for 25 years, Mr. Christian Berger. Hi Chris and thanks for joining us today.

CB:         Well thank you for having me. I’m happy to be here.

KB:         Great. By way of introduction Chris is an American and as a young man he served in the US Navy, graduated from Oregon State Police Academy and he’s the holder of two bachelor’s degrees.

For about 10 years Chris was a partner at MPA International in Cambodia. He successfully built the company to being the biggest security company in the country and in 2010 he brokered the sale of the company. In that same 2010 he went on to found United Studies Group which provides risk management services, business intelligence, general business services and USG still operates today. In fact, next month USG will celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Chris is a co-founder of World Bridge Secure Logistics, a cash in transit company in Cambodia and Myanmar which has now been acquired by Brinks Global Services which is a multinational security company and Chris is still involved with assignments in Thailand, Myanmar, China.

USG, coming back to that, Chris’s consulting company provides risk management services and he’s got two core service areas, risk management and investment consulting. He also represents Scafco, grain storage products which is an American company putting major agriculture, well grain which basically here means rice, rice storage products. He’s bringing those into Cambodia.

Again, Chris thanks for joining me today. Always happy to have a Cambodia market expert here on my podcast. So, we’re going to talk about the state of security. Could you tell us about the state of the security industry today in Cambodia?

CB:         Sure, but before I discuss the private security industry today, I need to go back a bit and talk about how it was when I first arrived. I came here from Vietnam to Cambodia in 1999. I took over MPA security company soon after. It was actually officially February 1st, 2000. At the time Cambodia was a country just coming out of war, strife, all kinds of social problems. People had guns. It was a dangerous place and violent crime was very high. Murder, robbery, rape. It was not a pleasant place to be but the private security industry though was just starting to happen. As I continue with my conversation here, it actually started to boom for the next 10 years. I founded MPA with about 150 guards when I started. When I sold the company, it was over 3000 personnel. We were actually one of the biggest service providers in the country.

So going back, when I first started the guards that we had at the time were demobilized soldiers mostly. And they were trained. They wanted to work. They had a strong work ethic. We followed the labour law. They worked mostly eight hours a day but sometimes they got over-time. We never had a problem with recruiting people, and the business really developed. And also, when I started there was only a few private security companies. MPA was the first. Yeah so, the very first private security company in Cambodia.

Before that there was mostly soldiers or police doing this sort of work. My chairman, the vice president of the company based in Thailand and myself, we worked closely with the police to sort of develop the industry and to give them an idea of how to do the private security industry here. And it worked. As time went on, Cambodia’s economy flourished obviously. It’s still booming. And the demographics have changed when I’m talking about human resources.

So now for instance today in the security industry most of the security guards are from villages. They’re from the provinces. Many of them have never been to Phnom Penh before. And they want to work. They want to work a 12-hour shift. Because if they work an eight-hour shift, it’s not enough because they send money back home.

KB:         Okay. So, they’re happy to have over-time every day.

CB:         Yeah, or a 12 hour shift. Now the labour law here is a bit vague about that. It’s supposed to be eight hours. And then of course if they work an extra four that’s supposed to be over-time though. So, the government just announced recently the new minimum wage which is based on the garment sector.

KB:         Yeah. And I believe it was what they say, it’s gone to $204. But of course that’s based on a 48 hour week.

CB:         That’s right. And the security industry follows that. Okay. And the changes today also is that you have NSFF which is the social security. So now they have they have medical they have a retirement program so to speak. Kind of like social security back in the States.

KB:         Yes, there is an NSSF pension as well.

CB:         Yeah. And this is a game changer. What this means now is that people working in the security industry, they don’t want to move. They want a job that provides them their retirement. So, for the future, and they don’t want to move around. So the HR, the recruitment part of the industry is improving though some companies today aren’t really following that. Okay. And one of the other issues in the industry today that’s different than before is compliance. Yes. International companies that come here require a checklist of you know the environmental assessment impact of this or that. You know what I mean?  You know, do you have a business continuity plan and can /we see it and all this stuff?

KB:         So you see Cambodian security guards will moving from non-compliant to more compliant companies.

CB:         Exactly. And that’s the trend we see today. And most likely that will continue. The industry today only has really one international security guard company.

KB:         Right. So the rest are 100% local Cambodian companies.

CB:         Well, not 100% but privately owned by individuals. You know, the partnerships with both foreigners and Cambodian citizens.

KB:         Okay. So partnerships, international partnerships quite are quite usual in your industry.

CB:         Yeah. I mean, I was one of them.

KB:         So that’s quite a lot of changes in the years that you’ve obviously been in the industry in Cambodia. But surely technology has impacted the sector as well, particularly the man-guarding side of the business.

CB:         Right. So there has always been, I guess you can say technology in our man-guarding business. There’s always been CCTV’s and cameras. Even though when I started, they used the VHS and, you know, it wasn’t very sophisticated. One of the things that we also started off with were the guard patrols. We call it a wand. What it is, every 30 minutes or every hour they need to patrol the facility or the perimeter. And they take a little like a wand with them with a chip in it and it blinks and then you can see it on the computer.

KB:         So it’s like an electronic check in.

CB:         Exactly. But that’s all changed now. Because today the trends are getting more sophisticated.

KB:         For instance, like we can talk about AI a little bit and how that might impact the industry and how it’s starting already.

CB:         You know, they have these wires that you can put on the walls, the perimeter of a facility. And that wire is sensitive and it can tell you how much weight is on it or on it or where exactly something is climbing. Is it a cat or is it a human? And then the cameras will automatically focus on that one area along with lights.

KB:         Okay. So the wire is sensitive.

CB:         It’s a access control device that’s being used. One of the latest technologies. Yeah. And I’ll give an example. Let’s say a warehouse, a factory, a facility, which in the past we had maybe two or three guards at let’s say at night on a night shift. Yeah. And that’s a lot of people to have. Today you only need one really if you have the right electronics security systems.

KB:         One guy can do the job of three with this technology.

CB:         Right. Because for instance, the facility itself would have an anti-intrusion system, which consists of motion detector cameras, the sensitivity wire going around the top of the wall. And if let’s say if a cat would jump on the wall and trigger that, the lights would come on, the cameras would notice it and an AI would notice that it’s a cat. Okay. And it can inform the guard or anybody or the management on their on their phone. If it’s not a cat and if it’s a person, it can automatically send a message to the management, the guard and even the watch commander of that private security company, right? Even or the police. This is all done remotely.

KB:         It’s all done remotely by AI. Right. So this has made quite a lot of changes to the sector. More and more technology coming in.

CB:         Yeah. It is in Cambodia. It’s already pouring in from, for instance, China, you have you have products like HK, HIK, Huawei and these other products. There’s a lot of European systems coming in now, Gallagher and others that are quite sophisticated and more expensive. But yeah, a lot of companies are actually investing in these. But you’ll never get rid of the guard, but you’ll just reduce the number, probably.

KB:         Okay. So that’s the main purpose of this technology to improve the level of monitoring

without expanding the head count.

CB:         Exactly.

KB:         Okay. Right. Well, moving along to another part of this sector, most of our listeners probably don’t know the industry term ‘Cash in transit’. Can you talk a bit about that side of the business, where you see ‘Cash in transit’ going and maybe the impact of technological changes like mobile money. Surely this means that more people are paying for things on QR codes, for example, and fewer people are actually using cash.

CB:         Well, as one of the owners of Brinks, Cambodia, I don’t want to admit that. I think cash is king and I like cash. But just to give you a brief introduction on cash in transit and how it began in Cambodia.

Well, it began with me. It was 2004. I was running an MPA. And at the time, there were many payroll heists and some of them ended up in fact, I got a story about that.

KB:         People were doing payrolls in cache?

CB:         Oh, just it was unbelievable. They would go to a bank. They would have a driver and their friends, you know, a cousin with a gun. It wasn’t very professional.

KB:         Hard for a young Cambodian today to imagine being paid in cash. Your salary being, payroll being done in cash.

CB:         Well, very hard. But we were a long way from there. Well, everything we are. Everything was done in cache back then. I got a letter from the director of the National Police at the time, His Excellency, Hok Lundy sent me a letter and said, you know, we think we need this business. And strangely enough, at the time I was thinking about this, I didn’t know much about it. But I, along with my colleagues, and it was a steep learning curve, but we ended up starting the company in 2004 and brought over the first armoured cars from Thailand. We set up the business and we got customers right away. I’m sure, you know. I will say that I remember distinctly getting an inquiry from a garment factory who wanted a quote. And I gave him the quote. I think I can’t remember what it was. Maybe $100 or something. To take his payroll, maybe $300,000 to his factory. And he decided it was too expensive. Sadly, a month later, he was shot dead. Yeah, he was robbed. So he was held up. He was held up. He was probably an inside job. And that’s just the way things were back then. It was more, as I said earlier, there was more violent crime back then. A lot of people had guns. The Cambodia of today is completely different.

But just to get back to a cash in transit and where we are today. I set up a cash in transit company after we sold MPa with my partner, the World Bridge Group. And we built that business and then we sold it to Brinks. Well, it’s a joint venture really. Brinks is the majority shareholder. And today it’s called Brinks Cambodia. The business is flourishing. It’s doing well. We have a lot of banks and financial institutions in Cambodia.

KB:         Sure. Because you’re a logistics company. In a way, you move things around.

CB:         We’re secure logistics.

KB:         Secure logistics. Right. Meaning you service different banks, ATMs, for example.

CB:         Right. We also service gold mines, and jewellery shows and fairs. And Brinks has brought the international standard to that, the Brinks Global Services. And we’re insured globally. And it’s really worked out well. And today we’re building a new facility. And you mentioned technology. Well, today we’re building that new facility where we can service and import ATM machines, cash deposit machines. And for instance, retailers can either leave or buy one of our Brinks boxes. It’s a cash deposit machine that automatically shows it for the cash they put in. It’s automatically shown in their bank account.

KB:         Okay. Although the cash itself doesn’t have to leave the store.

CB:         Exactly. That’s right. Okay.

KB:         So you then presumably come along and empty that box at some point.

CB:         Yes. And handle that cash in transit. All cash. So basically, it’s cash, jewelry, gold. We handle anything of value. We even did a shipment of SIM cards one time. Yeah.

KB:         Anything with value? Art?

CB:         Sure. Okay. We were involved in much of that. So today, Brinks, the name Brinks, is a big one of cash and transit globally. Yes. And I think in Cambodia, of course, it’s now well known. It wasn’t before. Yeah. So I think we really made a difference here.

KB:         Yeah. So far, so good. Right. Great. So this is fascinating. But I’d like to move on to the other side of your work. At USG, you work in risk management. Can you talk about what that means, practically speaking, and what kind of companies use your services?

CB:         Well, okay. So risk management is basically, well, it’s mitigating risk. So what does that mean? Well, companies and individuals that want to invest in, well, say Cambodia, because I’ve also done jobs outside of Cambodia. But if they’re interested in doing a joint venture or just 100% wholly owned or coming into the market, there’s different things that they can do. For instance, my job is basically background checks. I can check on a company, make sure it’s there. I check physically the company, the address, the licensing and everything. And are they who they say they are? I can even investigate their customers. Right. And very importantly, discrete interviews with individuals in that sector or people that know the principal of maybe this particular company.

KB:         Yeah. So this is due diligence?

CB:         This is due diligence. This is this is risk management. It’s a broad, the term risk management is rather broad that there’s many different subdivisions of that. But I focus mostly on the commercial side. Okay. For instance, also some companies that need to be compliant will ask me to do a physical security assessment of a building or a property. That’s another side of it. You’ve probably heard of the private investigator doing, you know, spying on some guys or somebody’s spouse. I don’t do that. I’m not involved in that. Sure. I’m simply providing information on a company or an individual that somebody wants for commercial reasons.

KB:         Right. So what you’re saying is risk management is very often, for you, a part of investment advisory work. What kind of investment projects have you worked on?

CB:         I’ve worked on many. And well, they’re mostly confidential. I don’t want to I don’t want to name names.  But over the years, I’ve worked on several. And well, banks, hotels, resorts, these sort of things. You know, I can talk about one of the banks that was interested in investing in Cambodia and joining a local partner. And I did most of the groundwork on, for instance, just checking that this local partner is who they say they are, you know, what they have. I mean, I don’t go in too far. I don’t get bank statements or this sort of thing. But I can get licenses and other documents.

KB:         Right.

CB:         Discrete interviews, inquiries, just a lot of background checking. This is very important. And the foreign bank did eventually come to Cambodia and enter the market. Okay. And I did the same with a resort. It was in Sihanoukville. And some foreigners, they wanted to invest in a resort with a local partner. And I did the work on that and it turned out successful. They were happy with the partner and everything else.

Other parts of my job and risk management, I’ve been involved in counterfeiting.

KB:         I think you mean anti-counterfeiting.

CB:         Exactly. Right.

KB:         What kind of products have you worked on anti-counterfeiting for?

CB:         Okay. Well, I’ll give you, for instance, the International Federation of Spirit producers hired me to check on two brands in particular, Johnny Walker, whiskey brands, black and red, and also Chivas Regal. And I brought the police into this. The police at the time, it’s a long time ago. The police at the time were very interested in this because they were major consumers of these products. So they were very interested to know if they were counterfeit or not. And yes, we eventually found out that they were being counterfeited in Vietnam and smuggled across the border to Cambodia. And I was a part of that and also set up the training part with the police to help them do their job better. Yeah. Another job I did is, I don’t know if I should name company names, but I’ll go ahead, a pharmaceutical product. Pharmaceutical products. Right. So pharmaceutical counterfeiting is actually a very serious issue. It is. But at the time, and again, this goes several years back. Pfizer came up with their, I guess it was a fairly new product back then, Viagra. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. They were concerned about counterfeiting here in Cambodia. And I think the active ingredient of that product was being used. So the product itself, the counterfeit product was actually working. Oh, okay. But they made the pills the same as Pfizer, actually they counterfeited everything to make it look like Pfizer, to get a better price. Sure. I went to every pharmacy to buy Viagra. I got all the samples and I sent them off to Bangkok for analysis. Right.

KB:         So through analysis, they could tell whether it was the real product or a counterfeit.

CB:         Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, this is just some examples. Today, risk management is still very important, especially for foreign companies that want to enter the market.

KB:         Sure. They should always do their due diligence. Yes. I mean, your activity seems to be mostly investment related. So you have a lot of insight into the investment, to the inbound international investment situation. How do you see that right now? And where do you think that that’s going to go in the next few years?

CB:         Well, investment into Cambodia today, we’re talking about post COVID here is still dominated by China. Chinese investment is the largest now by far. But the problem that we have in Cambodia today is we have basically a real estate collapse, almost sure. Property development today is not a good business to be in. They overbuilt. There’s too many condos and too many offices. Yeah. So the investment in this sector is lacking. But the Chinese still play a major role. And I believe they’re going to increase that role. Other countries, Asian countries in the region, are also big investors Vietnam, Singapore, and Thailand in particular. There’s new players coming in as well, India.

KB:         So if property is one of the darkest spots for investors, what are the bright spots?

CB:         Agriculture and processing. And I’m talking about upstream and downstream. So integrated agricultural projects like a rice mill on a rice farm. Integrated means everything. There are huge opportunities here in Cambodia. Agriculture and processing is definitely a bright spot. I mean, I’ve seen actually I’m a member of the Cambodian Rice Federation because as you mentioned, I’m also involved with SCAFCO and silos. How I got to that business is because of due diligence. And that’s another story. But I don’t want to spread myself then. But agriculture is definitely a bright spot.

Light manufacturing is still good. I’ll give you an example. In China, the diamond polishing business, your Laurelton Diamonds, they shut down in China because of cost and other issues. And they were going to move to Vietnam where they already have a factory. But they were convinced, I think some of the guys that Brinks maybe convinced them to come here to Cambodia. And it turned out to be the best decision they ever made. Today, of course, Tiffany now bought the Laurelton company. And the diamond polishing manufacturing facility here today is their biggest. It’s a modern facility. It employs thousands of people. And it’s a great success story. The reason why I brought that up is because of course, Brinks, we’re the vendor.

KB:         So, so basically, you’re saying the adding value, not just agricultural products, other products like diamonds, for example.

CB:         You see, that’s where the investment opportunities lie right now. Right. Well, the labour here is obviously cheap. The diamonds fly in from Belgium and they’re polished here and then go back. But, you know, there’s other opportunities. You know, a lot of bicycles here are assembled, assembly here. Ford and other companies have come here to assemble their vehicles even.

I think this is where we are today. What I see now, I see opportunities in like a coconut plantation integrated. Cashew nuts is good. The rubber industry, bananas. It’s all, there’s a lot of opportunity here. I would like to see more companies take advantage of it. Obviously, the Chinese are.

KB:         So, as an American, where are the, what’s the landscape for US-based US investment in Cambodia?

CB:         Okay. Well, I’m glad you asked. I’m a member of AMCHAM and, you know, my, my, wife has a, as an import-expert company importing American products. And of course, I’m, I’m providing American services, Brinks and other, and other products here. But, you know, they’re very focused on large American companies. The Fortune of 500. Sure. You never see the small, medium-sized American companies actually coming out internationally and setting up here.

KB:         It’s your major companies, the real investments.

CB:         But I think there’s many opportunities here for these medium-sized enterprises. Because what’s happening now is the supply chain in Asia, China is winding down. And the countries that are benefiting from that are Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines even. Cambodia could easily benefit from that. So. You know, cheap labor, light manufacturing. The Americans should, should definitely look into that. Now, there’s large American agricultural companies here. Some of them, I believe, have invested in cassava up north in the country. But again, there’s so much opportunity for, for agricultural processing. Yeah. I would, I would definitely advise American companies would look into that. And recently, one has, especially in the, for the rice industry.

KB:         Okay. Well, I hope all of you found that interesting and insightful. I’d like to thank Chris for joining me today. I want to add that Chris and I work together through top consulting. So if any of you want to contact Chris, you can use the contact page on our website, which is Top Consulting Asia. That’s: www.top-consulting.asia. And you can contact Chris or myself through that website. If you want to know more about security, due diligence, risk mitigation.

Chris, thanks for sharing your insights with us today.

CB:         Well, again, thank you for having me. It’s always a pleasure for me to discuss the industry and talk about it from, from the very beginning until today. And I’m, you know, I feel honoured to have played a part in this industry and to watch it grow. And yeah, thank you very much.

KB:         You’re welcome. And thanks to all of you for listening today. And well, I look forward to you joining us next time. Thank you.

In October 2024 Top Recruitment Cambodia turns 18!

In this podcast in our series: ‘Everything else is HR’ our MD, Kevin Britten talks to Tim Montero about his background and life story and how the company came to be set up all those years ago.

Duration: 25 minutes

Full transcript

Tim: Hello and welcome back to ‘Everything Else is HR’. Today we have a special anniversary episode. Hi Kevin, how are you?

Kevin: Good afternoon Tim. Yeah, I’m good, thanks.

Tim: So again, congratulations for I believe 19 years? No, 18. 18 years, sorry. 18 years. 18 years in Cambodia. How does it feel to be in year 18, Kevin?

Kevin: Well, 18 years on October the 6th since the company was registered.

I’d been here a couple of years before that. We actually started operating in January, 2007, but we consider October to be our anniversary month.

Tim: So it’s the 18 years in October. 18 years. So it’s basically Top Recruitment debut. Yeah, so it’s good. It’s a big party then.

Kevin: Perhaps we’ll see.

Tim: Anyways today we have a special episode as mentioned. Today we will be asking our Managing Director Kevin Britten.  Kevin, could you share us a little bit about yourself? Maybe we could start from a little bit about your career and how you ended up in recruitment in Cambodia And how tough recruitment started 18 years ago, and then we will top that off with a bit of, uh, trivia. Some questions about Cambodia specific. And cultural questions and then personal and thoughtful working questions at the end so that everybody will enjoy today’s episode. So, Kevin, you can start with a little bit about yourself and how Top Recruitment started 18 years ago.

Kevin: Thanks, Tim. Well, I’ve, I’ve lived here since about 2004, 2005 when I relocated here from Brunei where I’d been living for 17 years. I came over here with a company that was doing electronic fire and security, and I was involved in occupational health and safety. Um, but I’ve spent most of my career in Brunei, working for the Brunei government as an education officer in a variety of roles.

But when I got here in 2000, uh, 2005, and I left that company in 2006, I also opened this company. That was the beginning of something called The Secretary, which was then a serviced office company. The serviced office company quickly changed into, uh, it added the service of recruitment for the clients because they were all inbounds and startups and they were all looking for people. So, my team started looking for people for them – that morphed into a recruitment agency. We left the serviced office and we’ve been doing recruitment and staffing ever since.

But before I came to Brunei, I hadn’t been involved in that at all. I’ve been involved in education, training, occupational health and safety, as I said, in Brunei for 17 years, working for the government, the government of Brunei.  Before I went to Brunei, in my twenties, I’d been in Sudan, Cyprus, and Spain, and before that in France, all as a teacher that was through my twenties.

Tim: Cool. So you were, so you were basically teaching in the government, like under the British government?

Kevin: No, no. I worked for the Brunei government, which employed, and it still does, employs foreign teachers and foreign education officers there. They have a bilingual education system, so some classes are in Malay, some classes are in English. They employ fewer and fewer these days, but when I first went back in, 1989 when I went there were quite a lot of foreign teachers.

Tim: Kevin, the teacher, the English teacher.

Kevin: Oh yeah, I was a teacher for more than 20 years. I got out of it when I was about 40 in the year 2000. I just felt I was at the end of the road for that. And so, I got into something, well, Occupational Health and Safety is close to it, but it’s a bit different.

Tim: So how was the transition to that? Was it an easy transition doing something new, especially here in Cambodia?

Kevin: Yeah, I, well, I, this was in Brunei and I retrained. I trained as an occupational health and safety professional and, it was, it wasn’t that difficult, but it was, it was, it was challenging.

Tim: Overall, the experience in Cambodia, it must have been, was there any culture shock, was there any interesting things that you had to deal with from Brunei transitioning to Cambodia?

Kevin: Well, Brunei and Cambodia are quite, quite different countries in many, many ways, but they’re similar in some ways. I mean, obviously they’re both in ASEAN. Their cultures have some similarities. Brunei is a monarchy, the same as Cambodia, but it’s Islamic and obviously it’s a tiny country. It’s only got a population of around 400, 000 and so it’s, it’s a small country. It’s, it’s got a lot of oil and gas wealth and that makes it quite a different country to, to here. The infrastructure was perhaps better. And the way of life was quite different.

Tim: Maybe if you could point out some things, what was the main difference that you noticed?

Kevin: Well, in some ways, Brunei obviously had been an ex British colony, so it has close links to, to London. And many Bruneians are British educated, so it’s very British in some ways, whereas, of course, here, British influence is fair, but much, much lower because Cambodia had French connections as a French colony.

Tim: Right. And you mentioned from The Secretary to Top Recruitment. How did you start, basically, to recruit? Was LinkedIn very important? Were you using LinkedIn 18 years ago, or was there a medium of recruitment?

Kevin: There were very few LinkedIn professionals on LinkedIn in Cambodia. Most of the LinkedIn users in Cambodia, in fact were foreigners. So no, we couldn’t really use LinkedIn. We actually used personal networks, referrals and advertising and we built up a database of the kind of staff that our clients were looking for, and they were generally looking for accountants, office managers, admin assistants, PAs.

So, we started from there and developed into other functions. As clients from outside the serviced office started to come and ask us to recruit for them. The first client I actually remember quite well. I was approached by someone I knew who was setting up a production of, I think the correct name is novelty dog chews.

It’s those things that look like a bone, but they’re actually made out of raw hide, dried chicken, and they’re baked. Well, a company was setting up here for production of that. I think it’s still in production as well. They supply that mostly to American supermarkets, but in very large numbers. So this friend or business acquaintance approached us and we helped him set up his management team.

Tim: Right now we are, as everybody knows, especially our listeners, Top Recruitment is known for specializing in C level positions. Seniors and all that. How did we end up doing that?

Kevin:  I think it’s just the way we’ve responded to market demand and it’s our skills. We’ve never really specialized in blue collar and we generally have worked on back office positions, although a lot of clients have asked us for sales marketing positions.

That’s a staple function that we do. But I think it’s just the natural progression that we made as an agency over the 18 years.

Tim: Wow. There you go. Thank you, Kevin, for sharing. And I’m sure most of us now. For our listeners, for those who don’t know how Top Recruitment started, we actually started as The Secretary. That’s pretty cool, Kevin. That’s pretty cool. So, okay. So some thought provoking questions, if you’re okay.

Oh, wait, let’s start with Cambodia specific and cultural questions, if you’re ready. Sure. Yeah. So just for our listeners, I’ve never sent this to Kevin. So these questions are very random. So he’s not prepared. So forgive if his answers may not satisfy you. But Kevin, you have a lot of freedom to answer this as much as you can. So let’s start with our first question.

So for our first question, what is your, what’s your favourite hidden gem in Cambodia that you recommend to visitors? Yeah, let’s go for that.

Kevin: Oh, well, when I’ve got foreign visitors in town, or when people are talking to me about planning a trip to Cambodia, I would usually recommend that they, it’s hardly a hidden gem, it’s the second city. I’d recommend they go and visit Battambang.

I really like Battambang I think because it’s so authentic and it’s a fully functioning, the commercial capital of the Northwest. But at the same time, very close to Battambang are lots of quite interesting things to do and to see.

And the area around Battambang is very pretty. It’s got rolling hills, the land is very fertile, so it’s where a lot of fruit is grown. It’s a It’s actually a very, very pleasant and a very untouristy area. And of course, the town centre itself, the city centre along the river is very, very pretty. A lot of the old buildings have been preserved, and it’s, it’s just a pleasant, relaxed place for people to have a quite authentic, I think, an authentic Cambodian experience.

Tim: Yes, if you want to get the authentic Cambodian experience, Battambang is the place to go. Yeah. So I also understand Battambang is also where a lot of the rice is grown.

Kevin: Sure. Because the Northwest is the big centre of rice growing. So you see plenty of rice drying, storage, milling going on in the area around the city and the, the city services pretty much the whole of the Northwest of the country.

Tim: Cool. So if you want to have the authentic Cambodian experience, and you like rice Battambang is the place to go.

All right, second question. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from Cambodian culture that you applied to your business? Which is topical, yeah?

Kevin: I think the clearest lesson of Cambodia is a respect for work life balance, which is often expressed in some foreigners as this frustration that people aren’t doing what they expect or Cambodians aren’t carrying out things the way they want. But I, I always back up and I try to try to say to people that I see it as work life balance having a lot clearer definition here than in many other places.

And the people are unwilling to give up parts of their life in order to work more. So the balance is very, very clear. And I think respecting that, that’s a lesson that I’ve learned in Cambodia.

Tim: Yeah, because a lot of, I mean, I’m a Filipino myself and we always compromise our work life balance. And some other companies as well, international companies, Yeah. They tend to abuse this and I, I myself have learned this as well in Cambodian that, work life balance is very, very important. Like if, if it’s time to work, it’s time to work. If it’s time for family or for myself, yeah, because you could never get them to, they have this kind of discipline.

So, what’s your favourite proverb or saying that inspires you for our third question?

Kevin: You know, I mean, my Khmer isn’t very good and I, I don’t know that many Cambodian proverbs, but I always think about the one that Cambodians use to refer to the natural cycles of life. “When the water comes up, the fish eat the ants, and when the water goes down the ants eat the fish.” I think that’s a proverb reflecting the cyclical nature of life. It’s got deeper meanings. It’s got other meanings. And I think it’s a very typically Cambodian proverb.

Tim: So how does this inspire you basically?

Kevin: It makes you think, it makes you think first of all, of the river and this way in which life in Cambodia is run by the seasons. Right now the river is very, very high. The fish are eating the ants at the moment and another part of the year, it’ll all change. And it’s part of the cyclical nature of life in a country. Where nature and the natural world is very, very close by.

Tim: So basically life goes on, you know, it is what it is, we go as the river flows, if that’s how I understand it. Okay, so another thing, what’s the one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you first started your career and in this case, you were a teacher, right?

Kevin: Well when I started that part of my career in 1992 I hardly knew anything. So basically almost anything that I know now would have been helpful then. I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t have a career goal. So I think now it’s not something I know now, but it’s something I ask myself.  Should I have had a career plan back then? Maybe, but it feels like a very long time ago. 1992 was a long time ago when I started, when I first went from UK after I graduated. I went out to, teach in Sudan.

Tim: For everyone listening, I was born in 1994. So basically, when Kevin started his career, I was not born yet. Okay. If you could write a book about your experience in the recruitment industry, what would the title be?

Kevin: Well, Tim, I’ve written two books.

Tim: Yeah, you did? How can I read your books?

Kevin: I thought it’d be a good project to write a book, a guidebook called “How to Recruit in Cambodia”.  So, I did and it’s never been published and it would have to be adapted quite a lot to update it because I probably did this 10 years ago, but I took myself off and I wrote that.

And of course, during COVID, everybody wrote a book. That is also sitting somewhere in a hard drive. It is a, is a novel which also hasn’t been published, which was actually based on my experience in Sudan in the early 90s, and that is called “Swimming in the Nile”. It’s a bit autobiographical, but again, it’s not very good, so it’s never been published.

Tim: So regarding your experience in the recruiting industry, regarding recruitment, what would the title be?

Kevin: Well, if ever I went back to it, I’d call it How to Recruit in Cambodia, a guidebook, a handbook for people trying to recruit in this country

Tim:  So what’s the biggest challenge you’ve overcome in your career and what did you learn from it?

Kevin: Was it the challenge I brought on myself when in 2000? I changed from being a teacher to being a trainer. From working for the government of Brunei to working the private sector and this change. And what did I learn? Well, the basic lesson is I learned is that change is good. Change is stimulating. Change keeps you young, and, at the age of 40, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with making a change and going back to the beginning. I think the lesson is, you know, change is good and change is a natural part of life and you learn from it and, you become a different person in a different career, doing different things.

Tim: It’s increasing, you know, with ai we are seeing more changes and we are looking at more changes coming quickly in the future with where AI is going.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

Kevin: Oh, my job, variety, variety, doing different things, doing different things every day. And that’s because I’m dealing with different people every day. So, variety, the variety that naturally comes from dealing with all sorts of people and that stops it getting boring Recruitment is about relationships so we have built relationships with different kinds of people throughout different kinds of industries. And it’s, it’s for me, the most rewarding part.

Tim: Awesome. If you weren’t in the recruitment and consulting industry, what would you do?

Kevin: Oh, well, I can’t imagine not working or at least working part time. I think I’d probably try to rewrite that novel, polish the guide to recruitment in Cambodia and maybe keep writing other things, you know, keep writing. I need to go back and polish it and edit it and improve it.

Kevin: I’m not sure if people are interested in a novel about 1990s Sudan. I think the guidebook to recruitment in Cambodia, is probably a more worthwhile project.

Tim: Awesome. Awesome. And lastly, Kevin, if you could give one piece of career advice to every job seeker in Cambodia, what would it be?

Kevin: Well, that’s easy. That’s the advice that I gave my kids when they were talking about choosing a course to study at university and setting off down their path after high school. I said to them, well, choose something you enjoy, because if you enjoy something, you’re probably going to be good at it. And if you’re good at something, you’ll get more satisfaction out of it. Which means you’ll get more enjoyment. So it’s a cycle, you do things you’re good at. And you get more enjoyment and you do more things that you’re good at. So, enjoy what you’re doing by choosing a career in something you enjoy, because that’s going to be something you’re good at. It’s a short but clear cycle, between satisfaction and achievement and more achievement and good things.

Tim: So there you go. There you go to top things off, Kevin. Thank you. Thank you very much. Again, it’s always great to talk to you and it’s great to learn more from you and the company.

Kevin: You’re welcome, Tim.

Tim: And that’s our anniversary episode special today. I hope you guys enjoyed today’s podcast. This is Tim Montero speaking. This is ‘Everything else is HR’. See you on the next one.

In our most recent “In conversation with…” podcasts, Kevin Britten, our Managing Director, talks to Alec Cousins, the owner and MD of Super Plant Foods Ltd. Alec is now opening The Mekong Kitchen in Cambodia with the vision of bringing Khmer cuisine to the global retail market.

Duration: 14 minutes

Full transcript

Kevin: Hi, this is Kevin Britten. Welcome to the latest in our series of podcasts, “Kevin Britten in conversation with…” I’m the Managing Director of Top Recruitment Cambodia. Today I’m in conversation with Mr. Alec Cousins, who is the owner and Managing Director of a company called The Super Plant Kitchen.

Right now he is opening a new company called The Mekong Kitchen. It’s a company which is in the process of setting up and starting up in Cambodia. Although in the past Alec has worked in his business of food, he’s worked in North and South America, in Europe, and now, for his first time in Asia, he is experimenting and exploring the market for Khmer food.

Hi, Alec.

Alec: Hi, Kevin.

Kevin: Hi. Thank you. It’s good to be with you today. Alec, can you tell us a little bit about what you’re actually doing in Cambodia?

Alec: That’s a very good question. Thank you for asking that. So I was here at the at the end of last year. I was in Thailand in fact, and taking a one-month break and I thought I’d come and see my friend who had been living in Phnom Penh and is now in Kampot and I just wanted to explore the country a little bit.

My original plan was to be here for two or three days but I was fascinated with Phnom Penh, loved it, enjoyed being down in Kampot and extended my trip to see some of the sites in the north and headed up to Siem Reap and saw Angkor Wat. My two, three days quite quickly extended to two or three weeks and I’ve been back a few times since, each time for slightly longer. I’ve been really taken by the country and the and the people, and its culture and its gentleness and just what a wonderful place. I’m very happy here.

Kevin: Great. This is a story I’ve heard many times foreigners coming to Cambodia and being captivated by the people and the country, but Alec, your business is food. So do you want to talk to us a little bit about what you do with food?

Alec: So, my passion is food.

I worked many years ago in finance for a few years in the City in London. And I was always dreaming of having a business that created something. Discussing interest rate futures and where the treasury bond is going to be in in 15 years time was not particularly captivating to me.

And so, having always been interested in cooking and particularly French food, I had bought lots of recipe books and I thought it was difficult to make fresh stocks. And so that’s how I started off my life. I just didn’t think that people were necessarily inclined to cook chicken bones for five or six hours, but every recipe seemed to call for a good chicken stock or a veal stock or whatever.

And so I set up a company, it was called Joubert and we started making these stocks and demi glace and gravies and expanded into fresh soup and became, over the course of a few years, the leading supplier in our category in the UK.

Kevin: Okay. But you’re not coming to Cambodia to make soups and stocks, are you?

Alec: I’m not sure. I’m not sure. Maybe. Maybe there’s a market for that here. I no, I’m not. So after living in the UK, I worked in worked in Peru, worked in South America and we began to look at some of the communities who are growing things like potatoes and chilies and to convert those into products.

It sounds very mechanical, doesn’t it, to say convert. But we were transforming their ingredients into delicious, marketed products for North America and Europe. And I’m looking to do much the same here in Cambodia. There’s a, a wealth of ingredients. Very interesting if slightly lost cuisine, right?

I would like to marry the two. I’d like to bring together our experience in creating products and brands and to use ingredients supplied by some of these wonderful communities and to transform those into products that people will love, chefs and home cooks and everybody in between.

Kevin: Okay. So you plan to export food or food ingredients? What’s your plan?

Alec: So, it’s less to export the food ingredient as such, and it is to add as much value as we can here in Cambodia. That’s really what we want to do. We want to take some of these roots and vegetables and herbs and spices and to transform those into long shelf-life bases for people to be able to use them at home.

A little bit like a Thai green curry base, if you will, but we’re doing the equivalent with Khmer. ingredients and Khmer recipes.

Kevin: Okay, but do you plan to adapt Khmer recipes?

Alec: The Khmer taste is pretty sweet. And a friend of mine was telling me that a pizza, a pizzeria that had opened had to start putting more sugar into the pizza base for them to appeal to the to the local market.

And we’re trying to do exactly the opposite. So, we’re trying to take sugar out. That’s the main difference, it seems, and there’s sometimes an aversion to very spicy. We are just trying to adapt, sometimes to the horror of the development chef that we’re working with. We’re trying to introduce a unique aspect to most of the recipes.

Quite selfishly, most of the recipes are what I like. But I think that I know what other people like and that’s always been the way it is.

Kevin: Okay, but you’re successful in the business. But what challenges do you anticipate in sourcing and producing food products in Cambodia?

Alec: I think, the biggest challenge is probably the consistency of ingredient and the consistency of conversion of those ingredients. The challenge I would say is to ensure that we have a nice seasonal supply of all of our core ingredients. That that’s really the challenge locally, I think Kevin.

Kevin: Okay. And what specific Khmer sauces or pastes? What are you taking out into the global market?

Alec: If you think that there’s, the national dish, if you will, it is amok. We’re creating an amok base that will allow people at home to introduce fish or chicken to, and then to create. It’s really a little souffle, something different from the traditional curry. But we have curries too, and we have little meal kits that will include specifically Cambodian ingredients.

Imagine that we have a jungle soup base and to that you will add Kampot pepper, some chili flakes, so you can spice it up or have it relatively mild and add some palm sugar if you do want to make the recipe sweeter.

So we’re doing some pastes, some meal kits, and over time we’d obviously like to expand the offer somewhat.

Kevin: Great. Now I know you’re a very ethical company. How do you plan to go about building fair partnerships with your Cambodian farmers or producers.

Alec: One of the things we have been looking into is to become B Corp registered. It’s a little bit complicated here because there isn’t a local office, but there is representation, and I think that there are a couple of companies in the food sector who are B Corp registered. So that’s one way of doing it, which will provide an international recognition of the standards that we’re working to.

The other is that, we work in very close partnership with our co packers who have been very generous to introduce us to some of their key suppliers. We will go into the community and understand, who’s growing chilies, who’s growing galangal and garlic and other ingredients, and to be sure that they’re working to the right standards not just in terms of pesticide control, but also, the safety of the workers in the field. That children aren’t employed, all of the usual, all of the usual things. We dig really deep into our supply base. We don’t have so many ingredients that, we’re traveling the length and breadth of the country to be sure the key ingredients are ethically sourced.

Kevin: Great. Your venture, your company will contribute to Cambodia’s economy and I guess culinary recognition globally. Is that the big picture goal of what you’re doing?

Alec: I think the big picture goal is to do that. It must make sense for us to be not sourcing Cambodian ingredients and then converting them somewhere else.

It has to make sense for us to be doing all of that here. And there are obviously a commensurate skill sets that the co packers and our partners will learn from our experience. We’re sourcing packaging, of course, locally, and transport and and all the other add on services locally.

In terms of international recognition, I don’t think that Cambodian food is really on the map. There are obviously some chefs who are going out into the international market talking about lost recipes and bringing those somewhat to public recognition. But it’s got a long way to go.

And we have really nice, close relationships with some well-known chefs. And I’d like them to start using some of our ingredients, some of our pastes and bases that would be impossible for them to find or to create on their own.

Kevin: So you see yourself as leading a trend in Southeast Asian cuisine?

Alec: I don’t, I think that’s probably pushing it a little bit, but we’d like to be able to get some of these recipes onto the map and to really celebrate the fantastic ingredients that one can find here. And hopefully encourage more people to come to Cambodia as a food destination, on a food tour.

Kevin: Why not? It’s super interesting. So you see that in the future, you can see that side of Cambodia growing.

Alec: I think so. I think so. There’s no reason why not. And some of the restaurants here are truly wonderful. We saw it in South America, when we were working in Peru. Over a number of years, that became a real food destination. And it was a theme that united the country. We’d love, of course, for that to happen. But those are lofty goals. I’m not sure Kevin, that I’ve that I’ve got that in me, but I would I’d like to see that happen.

Kevin: Of course. It’s goals are all about big picture and big picture is all about the future. Where do you see this venture going in, in, into the future?

Alec: I think that, we won’t just be concentrating on Cambodian food, but what we would like to do is we’d like to have, hence the name Mekong Kitchen, is a broader range of recipes that are all made here in Cambodia.

That’s what we’d like, that’s what we would like to do. And we’d like to expand our international presence. So right now we have some products on the market in the United States and in the EU, in Switzerland too. So we’d like to continue to work, to grow our distribution base and obviously to grow our brand.

Kevin: Great. That’s it. Okay. It’s been great talking with you today, Alec, about this exciting new adventure.

Alec: Wonderful to see you again. Yeah. And to be here, of course.

Kevin: So this is part of what we see as the growing future of positive moves in the Cambodian economy. And it’s always a pleasure to meet inbound investors and startups with exciting ideas, and particularly because this one is taking Cambodia out to the global market which has got to be good for all Cambodians and good for business, good for the nation.

Again, once again, Alec, thank you very much for joining us. And this is Kevin Britten saying, please join us again on our next podcast.

In this episode of our ‘Everything Else is HR’ podcasts, Kevin Britten, our Managing Director, and Tim Montero, our Business Development Manager, discuss the best way to improve the performance of your teams!

Duration: 12 minutes

In this episode of our ‘Everything Else is HR’ podcasts, Kevin Britten, our Managing Director, and Tim Montero, our Business Development Manager, discuss what KPIs are and how they are set.

Duration: 14 minutes

By Takayuki Ikeda & Kevin Britten

Ever wondered how Japanese companies manage their employees? It turns out, their approach to Human Resources Management (HRM) is quite unique! Here’s a breakdown of some key features that set it apart:

Structure and Teamwork

Unlike some other countries, Japanese HR might be spread across different departments instead of being in one central unit. This encourages collaboration between managers and employees, fostering a sense of teamwork. They value experience and respect for elders, so decision-making often involves everyone reaching an agreement.

Finding the Perfect Fit

Instead of relying solely on job postings, Japanese companies often look for new hires through their existing network of employees and recommendations. This allows them to find individuals who not only have the skills for the job but also fit well with the company culture. Long-term potential and how someone gels with the team are just as important as specific job experience. Interviews might be less formal than you’re used to, focusing on getting a broader picture of the person.

Learning and Growth

Training in Japanese companies goes beyond just teaching specific skills. It’s heavily focused on understanding and embracing the company’s culture, fostering a sense of loyalty and belonging. You’ll likely learn a lot on the job from senior colleagues who act as mentors, guiding you in your professional development.

Performance and Feedback

Performance evaluations in Japan might be more indirect and focus on providing constructive feedback to help you improve, rather than solely judging individual achievements. Team performance and working together towards shared goals are often emphasized more than individual results.

Rewards and Recognition

Instead of focusing purely on individual performance and current market rates, salaries in Japan are often based on how long you’ve been with the company, whether you are single or have a family, the location of your residence and your seniority. Benefits packages can be extensive and tailored to the company, encouraging long-term commitment.

Building Strong Relationships

Unions are quite common in big Japanese companies, representing employees’ interests in the workplace. This promotes a sense of partnership between employees and employers. Unlike some other countries where work might be seen as a transactional arrangement, Japanese companies value long-term relationships and prioritize employee well-being.

The Whole Picture

Japanese HR practices are built on a sense of mutual obligation and trust between the company and its staff. This contrasts with some other countries where individual rights and legal compliance take centre stage. Harmony, long-term commitment, and loyalty are highly valued in Japanese society, and these principles are reflected in their approach to managing employees.

Although these characteristics may not apply to all Japanese companies, by understanding these key features, you can gain valuable insight into the unique work environment of Japanese companies. So, if you’re ever curious about working in a Japanese company, this glimpse into their HR practices might be your first step towards a rewarding career path!

How do you tell if a company’s culture is going to be a good fit for you?

When you are thinking about moving to a new employer, one of the big issues is whether the new company’s culture is one that you are going to ‘fit’ into. Company culture has many features and is built by the owners and management – you will have to join this culture so it should be one that you are positive about. Before you start work you should feel that it is a culture that you will do well in.

Here are a few ways to explore a company’s culture when considering a move:

Talk to current and former employees. They can give you genuine impressions of day-to-day life in the company.

In interview, ask questions about core values and priorities. Ask the interviewers to describe the management styles of the company and ways in which collaboration works.

During the recruitment process do you connect with people? Do the people interviewing you seem happy and invested?

Do the company’s work hours expectations and flexibility match your ideal lifestyle?

Does the company practise diversity, equity and inclusion? A culture you genuinely feel a part of is important.

Ask about professional development policies. Is growth and continuous learning emphasized? Are the policies really carried out or only talked about?

Use the company’s social media presence to find out more about their culture. Does brand marketing reflect real culture?

Search for company events listings, particularly CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities. What is the sense of community in the company and how does the company present itself to the broader community?

Look closely at company policies on remote/hybrid work, paid time off and benefits packages.

When you visit the company, you should trust your instincts. What vibe does the company office give you? Does it make you excited about working there long term?

Your goal is to look for real signs that the company will allow you to thrive personally and professionally for years to come. Taking time upfront to consider these things prevents future culture clashes.

What are you missing out on?

Job ads are a useful channel for much recruitment, particularly for blue-collar or beginner positions, but they are only one of many channels that are available. An ad on a jobs board can generate large volumes of applicants, which all need screening. A post on LinkedIn will reach potential candidates in your team’s network, although there are now around 500,000 LinkedIn users in Cambodia posts are not seen by all of them, only by people in the poster’s network.

Relying on job ads as your recruitment strategy can have negative results from overloading your talent acquisition team with meaningless screening to recruiting only from a very narrow pool of candidates.

By engaging an executive search agency you open your recruitment to a much wider pool of potential candidates and take advantage of all the channels at our fingertips. Here are six important things that a professional, third-party recruiter brings:

Passive candidates

Executive search firms have connections to passive candidates, people who are not active job-seekers; these are usually the strongest candidates. Apart from that, even when they are actively looking for new opportunities many Cambodian seniors will not apply to a job ad so even if they see your post they will not be interested.

Third-party evaluation

We assess candidates objectively, focusing on skills, experience and cultural fit. We do not build a search around internal relationships or other subjective factors so the shortlists we present are selected purely on the client’s requirements.

Expertise

An in-house team may have great insight into your company, but do they have specialized knowledge and experience in recruiting top-level executives? A third-party recruiter has broad knowledge of your sector and experience assessing candidates across functions and this is often more valuable than an in-depth knowledge of your organisation.

Confidentiality

Maintaining confidentiality during an in-house search is very difficult. Our clients regularly open confidential searches with us and our team is used to only revealing partial information, particularly at the early stages of a search.

Time-saving

Our clients save time – in fact, we move at the speed the client requires. When a client is urgent, we can prepare a shortlist faster than an ad can be designed, posted and circulated. When a client wants to reconsider during a search we can keep candidates updated and hold their interest. Our team works as service-professionals, ready to adapt to client needs.

Market insight

We regularly provide compensation benchmarks as a free, value-added service to our clients. We don’t sell data so we are able to give clients frank assessments of how their compensation offering measures against current market rates.

In the end, using a professional, third-party recruiter has massive advantages for your organisation at a very low cost. You outsource risk whilst tapping into a range of channels and a huge network.