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Bangkok Post
06-07-2025
- Business
- Bangkok Post
Reinvention in the Second Curve era
Let's be honest. The world is moving too fast for anyone to coast. Your skills? They could be outdated next quarter. Your business model? It might already be obsolete. Your identity? It could be the very thing holding you back. Welcome to the Second Curve era, where staying relevant isn't about climbing higher. It's about knowing when to leap sideways. What is the Second Curve? It's that bold decision to evolve before you're forced to. It's the pivot from success that's safe to meaning that's magnetic. It's what separates those who ride waves from those who get wiped out. Coined by Charles Handy, the Second Curve used to be a leadership theory. Now it's a survival strategy. And everyone from Bangkok tech founders to retired Silicon Valley execs is living it right now. Who's Reinventing? A Thai hotelier in his 60s just shut down his flagship property and turned it into a remote work wellness hub for digital nomads. His words? 'The tourists are different now. So I had to be too.' A former Southeast Asia-based fast-moving consumer goods executive left her C-suite post to launch a food sustainability startup that went viral on TikTok. Her audience? Gen Z and global investors. Middle managers at multinationals are flipping roles — becoming micro-influencers, internal coaches or AI-savvy product strategists because no one gets promoted just for keeping things running anymore. This isn't theoretical. It's happening on the streets of Sukhumvit, in the coffee shops of Ho Chi Minh and across boardrooms in Singapore. Reinvention is the new resume. Why Now? AI didn't take your job — your comfort zone did. Post-Covid clarity has people questioning old definitions of success. The over-60 crowd isn't retiring. They're rebooting. The 25–44 group isn't waiting. They're reclaiming. The timeline for transformation? Not 10 years. Not even two. It's now. How to Start Your Second Curve 1. Call your own bluff: If you're bored, stuck, or silently resentful, don't fake it. Face it. That's your signal to evolve. 2. Bet on experiments, not overhauls: Launch a side project. Test a new skill. Say yes to a stretch role. The second curve starts with micro moves, not massive exits. 3. Audit your identity: Are you leading like it's 2015? Selling like it's 2010? Thinking like it's 2000? Reinvention starts with awareness. 4. Join the bold: Surround yourself with people who are building new futures — not defending old ones. Growth is contagious. Thailand's Second Curve Moment Thailand is no exception. With the rise of smart manufacturing, AI-driven services and cross-border collaboration, the old playbooks won't cut it. We're not just shifting industries. We're shifting identities. And the companies and leaders who win in this era will be the ones who choose to reinvent before the world demands it. So here's the truth no one wants to say: You don't have time to wait until you're irrelevant. The second curve is already here. And the brave ones are already on it. Are you? Arinya Talerngsri is Senior Vice President, Local Partner and Managing Director at BTS Thailand (formerly SEAC), part of the BTS Group, a leading global strategy implementation firm. She is passionate about revolutionising education and creating opportunities for Thais and people worldwide. Executives and organisations looking to collaborate or learn more about leadership development, talent development, succession planning and organisational transformation can contact her directly at or visit her LinkedIn profile.
Forbes
20-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Live Both: Mastering The Growth Vs. Value Investing Paradox
Young woman sitting on maze and looking to the distant tree. (3d render) getty When I was in high school, I became fascinated with stock market investing. But after only a few weeks of studying it, one thing became clear: I had to pick a side. On one side were those captivated by growth—the optimists who cheered on rising revenues and loved backing a winning horse. On the other side were the skeptics—penny-pinchers who saw hype as a red flag and preferred scouring neglected corners of the market for hidden value. These were the value investors, searching gutters for overlooked $5 bills. This age-old tension is known as the growth versus value investing paradox. Growth investors pay a premium for companies with accelerating revenues and compelling futures. Value investors, by contrast, seek companies with strong fundamentals that are temporarily out of favor, often trading at discounted price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios. As a teenager, I recognized the merit in both approaches, but I felt pressure to choose. In war, you cannot execute a blitzkrieg and a siege at the same time. Similarly, in tennis, you cannot charge the net and play defensively simultaneously. Or can you? This tension is a classic paradox. A paradox is a situation that appears logically contradictory but, upon closer inspection, may reveal a deeper or more complex truth. As Charles Handy explained in The Age of Paradox , modern life forces us to navigate complexities our ancestors never faced, such as the tension between efficiency and humanity or between individual freedom and collective responsibility. Paradoxes are difficult to manage because our minds are wired for binary choices like fight or flight, yes or no, and buy or sell. Either-or thinking helps with quick decisions and survival. However, paradoxes require a different type of reasoning that embraces both perspectives at once. In investing, this means resisting the urge to pick a side and instead learning to hold the desire for growth and the discipline of value in creative tension. Why Art Helps With Investing Paradoxes Art, more than logic or spreadsheets, helps us make sense of complex truths. Pablo Picasso once said, 'Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.' Paradoxes often live at this deeper level where metaphor can reach but data cannot. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, in Metaphors We Live By , describe metaphor as understanding one thing in terms of another. For example, we think of time as money when we say we are 'spending time' or 'saving time.' Emotions are also described as liquids, such as when someone is 'boiling with anger' or has a 'heart overflowing.' Metaphors make complex truths more understandable and relatable. The more metaphors we use to explore a paradox, the more insight we gain into the deeper truth it represents. To develop meaningful metaphors, start with a familiar concept that is tangible and accessible. Then identify a shared underlying principle between that familiar idea and the more abstract concept you want to understand. This shared principle is the foundation of the metaphor. Using this approach, I have found two metaphors that help reconcile the growth versus value investing paradox: waves and volcanoes. Metaphor 1 For Navigating The Growth Vs. Value Investing Paradox: Waves A crowded day at Pipe with dozens of surfers and photographers all trying to catch the perfect wave. getty I worked as a surf instructor in college and have spent most of my life riding the waves of the ocean. A wave can be big and exhilarating, or small and disappointing. The best waves usually attract large crowds. If you move away from the crowds, you might find an underrated spot, but more often the waves are not as good. My favorite strategy was to paddle just outside the most crowded break. The waves might not have been quite as good, but there was less competition and more opportunity to enjoy the ride. In investing, this translates to looking for companies that show real potential but are not overly hyped. These are not the flashy front-runners, but the reliable backups who are quietly positioned for solid performance. This allows investors to find rising revenue potential at a more reasonable price. Metaphor 2 For Navigating the Growth Vs. Value Investing Paradox: Volcanoes Farmers plant chilies in a rice field on the slopes of Mount Merapi, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, July 9, ... More 2024. getty Volcanoes are one of nature's most paradoxical features. They are among the most destructive forces on earth, yet they also create fertile ground that sustains life. Living near a volcano brings both great risk and great reward. If you plant yourself at the edge of an active eruption, you may gain quickly, but you also risk losing everything. However, if you build near a dormant or stabilized volcano, like in parts of Hawaii, you benefit from rich soil and lower risk. In investing, this is similar to focusing on companies that have moved past their most volatile growth stage but still have fertile ground for long-term performance. They are no longer speculative, but they are not yet overcrowded. These are companies in the sweet spot between high risk and full maturity. Embracing The Tension In Investing Paradox cannot be fully resolved by logic alone. It requires a shift in thinking and a willingness to see through both lenses at once. This is the heart of the investing paradox: holding onto both growth and value as meaningful components of a more nuanced strategy. In an investing world that often demands clear choices, wisdom may lie in learning to ride the second-best waves while planting near a slightly less fertile/active volcano.
