The business portion of our sixth full day on the trip, and second in Singapore, consisted of meetings with management from Manna 360, Krispy Kreme’s Singaporean franchisee, and Luxola, an e-commerce business offering skin and other beauty products in the Southeast Asia region.
The night before may very well have been the most sleep a good portion of the students on the trip had gotten in the past few days, and I think the restfulness of the group was apparent during our morning visit to Krispy Kreme. The group met with Gerry, Cynthia, and staff at the first Krispy Kreme location in Singapore, which opened in October 2013. The first thing I noticed was a painting of what I believe was the first Krispy Kreme store in Greensboro, NC. I thought it was neat to see something from home in Singapore.
What probably struck me the most about the visit was how enthusiastic and passionate for their work everyone at the location was, from Gerry and his marketing team to the store staff. Gerry and Cynthia were both extremely open and engaging on any questions we asked. And I really got the sense that even the store workers really, really enjoyed their job. It was quite different from what one might see at a Krispy Kreme—or any fast-food type place—in America, where the staff might not always be quite so passionate and attentive. We also got to take a tour of the back of the store—the store is one of Krispy Kreme’s “Factory Stores,” which means the store makes Krispy Kreme’s famous original glazed doughnuts in-house.
After wandering around the mall area in which Krispy Kreme was located, the group boarded the bus for lunch in a food court area on the way to Luxola. Singapore has these food-court type places—we’ve been to two now—with many different stations that serve a wide range of Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and even American food.
After lunch, we made the short trip to Luxola’s warehouse and offices in Singapore. Luxola is an e-commerce business devoted to offering a wide range of beauty products. The company offers over 200 of the world’s leading brands in beauty products, and offers extremely fast shipping of its products—sometimes on the same day an order is placed. We met with Alexis, Luxola’s founder, and Ronan. Similar to the morning visit, both Alexis and Ronan were very open and answered any question we threw at them. Something that I’ve certainly noticed from our business visits is how charismatic all of the individuals we’ve met with have been. As a relatively introverted law student, I’ve been in awe at how confident and savvy these individuals have been.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for a little more sightseeing. Everywhere you look in this country, there is awe-inspiring architecture. It’s incredible.
The majority of the students spent their evening at a night safari and the Creatures of the Night show at the Singapore zoo. We were able to see some interesting and strange—and sometimes adorable—animals from the region. During the show, an Elon professor that some of the MBA students knew even made it on stage to hold a giant snake.
The night ended with a group of us having a few drinks overlooking the river and Clarke Quay. Probably the most enriching part of the trip so far, for me at least, is having learned from my colleagues in the MBA program. Law school can sometimes be such a competitive, individualistic endeavor that actively working and collaborating with a team can be challenging. We’ve sometimes been trained to only give our opinion when asked (or when “cold-called”). I’ve learned from the MBA students that the best way to make this trip as rewarding as it should be is to be engaging and to ask questions, both of the individuals with whom we were meeting on our visits, as well as other students, even though that may not be the most comfortable and natural thing to me. As a result, the trip has become much more enriching, and I believe I will be a better law student, and lawyer, in the future because of it.
Written by Mitch Montgomery
