Written by Philippe12 October 2017

Entrepreneurship course

Avila Space’s Entrepreneurship course!

Avila Spaces and INGAGE partnered up to create this course specially designed for people in insurance companies and other industries to boost their entrepreneurial spirit.

The course aims to directly reply to simple and/or complex questions that Entrepreneurs live on a daily basis independently of success or failure. The entrepreneurial spirit and the constant decisions around financial and economical risk or the possibility of investing in new ventures were some of the essential drivers for building this course.

This course is designed to help students to evaluate the business skills and commitment necessary to successfully operate an entrepreneurial venture and review the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship.

Check out this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEWWL33EFhA.

 

 

 

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Written by Patrice11 October 2017

Our 5 secrets to learn efficiently

We love learning!

However, one of our passion during our spare time is to learn languages. Here, our colleague Marion Gioda, shares her insights taking languages as an example.

So you’ve tried your hand at language learning a couple of times, and each time you’ve come up with great reasons why you just can’t learn:

 

“It’s just not for me”

“I’m just not good at learning languages”

“Language learning is a natural talent and that I just don’t have”

 

Ultimately, you gave up.

You know at heart that if you spoke even a little bit to your business partners or clients in their own language, they would perceive you in a different way.

You also know this skill could help you differentiate yourself from your competition and win clients.

 

DID YOU KNOW?

Chinese TV channels even have programs

where they celebrate foreigners speaking Chinese

such as singing competitions and talk shows.

 

You are a busy professional and if it’s going to be torture, why even try? We get it.

But you know what? We too, are busy professionals, and our team speaks 15 different languages.

 

The secret that rules them all: applying business principles to language learning.

 

We know you are reading this and going “huh???”. Well, let us make our case.

Isn’t it safe to say that the business world has benefited from years of optimization of time and resources?

And, isn’t it also safe to say that the way we learn things – above all languages – doesn’t quite feel like we are making the best of our time and energy?

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you applied the very same principles of a well-run business to language learning?

There is a way to learn any language you want effectively and well!

We are excited to share with you our 5 secrets that translate into simple steps to learn any language you may dream of and have your clients’ jaws drop next time you meet!

Sign up here to discover our 5 secrets.

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Written by Patrice11 October 2017

Helping the training community

This week we are helping a member of the Effective and Fun Training Techniques Group on LinkedIn to tackle an interesting topic.

Below you will find her question, and our answer to her 🙂

“What is the best way to keep people interested? Going from teaching 7th graders to teaching adults has been a difficult transition for me. Something I am really struggling with is shifting the focus of the training session from me talking to whole time to getting the people involved. It has become mostly me talking at them, and them asking questions. But i do not know how to get it to be more of a conversation. Any ideas? Thank you in advance!” (from Maria Morlando, Director of Training and Development at Enjoy Your Party Franchising, LLC., Effective and Fun Training Group, LinkedIn)

“Dear Maria, {…} Introducing interactive tools is key to be able to engage adults. Also I find asking them questions about what they think is much more productive than simply giving them the solution.

As a corporate trainer, I always try to shift my behavior from the “teacher” (who needs to pretend he/she knows it all – which is unfortunately what we do with kids) to the “coach” who is here to mentor them in their learning journey.

Adults – and kids – can learn most things on their own and need a coach to help them stay on track, inspire and challenge them. This also makes it so much more enjoyable and relaxing for the trainer (you) because you feel like you are here for the added-value stuff, not just repeating the same information over and over again.

I have also been experimenting with “group self-learning” lately and it works wonders: people in small groups learn together. Naturally the stronger elements of the group will help the weaker ones!”(from Marion Gioda, COO, Belinguo)

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Written by Philippe1 October 2017

Digitization

Startups

Many of the startups we have seen around the world in the past years digitize most of their processes in order to be lean and effective.

As a young company, INGAGE has made the choice from the very first days to make full use of digitization (virtual teams, video conferencing, digital processes, paperless) while keeping the human factor in the center of our team.

You can read more about this on our blog.

 

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Written by Philippe1 October 2017

Conducting workshops, virtually

Do you lead workshops, train people in companies?

Most large companies nowadays use online cooperation tools. Video conferences are now part of our daily lives. They also have LMSs (e-Learning Management Systems) to train their employees online.

However, many individual trainers and smaller companies still lead workshops in physical meetings rooms, thus being unable to train people across regions. There are many tools for online collaboration, for video conferencing, but the trick is to combine them effectively in order to train people online in an engaging way. You can use Skype or Skype for Business, to talk, see each other and share your screen. You can also use Webex or Zoom, which enables participants to hand over the control of their own computer to a distant participant. The technology is there.

The challenge though comes when there are several people in the meeting room and participants scattered around the world via video conferences. One trick we found useful (for our own team) is to have everybody participate via their own computer with their own webcam. Even the people who are together in a same meeting room in a same location! Thus, there is no effect of a group vs. individuals. Everybody is on the same foot. Everybody can see clearly the other participants, as individuals.

 

 

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Written by Patrice26 September 2017

Train your sales team to welcome Chinese clients

Sales Team training

Increase of Chinese tourists influx. Opportunities and threats for Swiss businesses.

The Chinese finally started to travel more outside of greater China than ever (51.2%)!
Switzerland enjoyed a 30% increase in Chinese visitors number in 2015.

While France, Italy and Spain see their numbers of Chinese visitors drop significantly (primarily because of terror attacks), other newer upcoming touristic destinations for Chinese people, like Norway and Croatia are becoming a fierce competitor for the Helvetic state.

The Chinese tourists will be the biggest spenders by 2025.

A 2016 article from CNBC revealed the results of the study, showing that the Chinese population will be a lucrative group to count amongst your clients, as they will represent about $255billion in 2025, as they slowly (or not so slowly) increase their standards of living, and counting for a staggering 1/8 of all international travels.

How to prepare for the influx of Chinese tourists?

The traditional and still beloved group traveling method will slowly give way to independent traveling plans from smaller groups of Chinese people. This also means less influence from the tour guides and travel organizations on them as to which store they should visit and which brand they should buy.

This more volatile population will then need to be catered for extremely well in order to get their business and loyalty. It will be a question of understanding their culture and also speaking the bit of their language, mostly Mandarin Chinese.

Some Swiss businesses are already in the starting blocks.

In 2016, Swiss businesses, like Confiserie Bachmann and the Ramada Hotels have already started to get ready for this influx of Chinese tourists by doing 2 things simultaneously. The first is hiring a Chinese speaking staff and the second, is organising introduction workshops of the Chinese language and culture for their other staff, mostly focusing on the host/guest relationship and oral communication in shops and hotels (http://belinguo.com/index.php/client-testimonials/hospitality).

If you are also thinking of preparing for this massive business opportunity and challenge, Belinguo is here to support you… at least on the language and culture aspects! For more information visit !

MARION GIODA, COO, BELINGUO

Hungry for more? Here are the interesting facts and figures about Chinese tourist economics:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/profdrwolfganggarlt/2017/02/07/chinese-tourists-look-for-new-destinations-in-2016past-the-mainland-in-2016/#2352930e5b3a

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/30/money-spent-by-chinese-tourist-will-hit-record-high-in-2025-study.html

https://www.eastwestbank.com/ReachFurther/News/Article/Preparing-Your-Business-For-Chinese-Tourist-Season

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Written by Philippe25 September 2017

Scaling up the team

The INGAGE Academy (internal)

The INGAGE Academy contains a series of engaging online courses that detail our products, services, methodology, tools, technology, company and much more.

They help our team members become knowledgeable and confident in what INGAGE, our team, our products do and what they don’t. Thus, you will have everything required to promote and implement our products effectively and efficiently at our clients’ while ensuring top quality service for them.

You can also get in touch with the rest of the team through the forums and chat functionalities.

Last but not least, you will use our own product for this training!

See https://edu.belinguo.com/course/index.php?categoryid=11

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Written by Philippe22 September 2017

Agility and Insurance: antonyms?

Insurance companies and agility

If you have found your way to this blog, it is quite probable that you work or have worked for an insurance or reinsurance company, or maybe a brokerage firm in this industry.

We see more and more projects popping up in the industry where companies claim to implement the “Agile” methodology. According to your experience, is/was this company truly agile?

Join our discussion! (members only)

 

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Written by Patrice25 January 2017

GDPR for Software Developers

Our new online course about GDPR for software developers in financial services is now available!

 

GDPR for Software Developers in Finance

Welcome to this GDPR course, specially designed for Software Development!

My name is Lucas Gros and I’ll be your guide through this training module. In less than one hour, you should become familiar with the new (and still too mysterious for some) General Data Protection Regulation and how it will impact your software development activities.

We’ll be covering GDPR requirements for each step of the SDLC : from Business Requirements until Release.

Let’s get started, shall we?

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