Yew Kam Keong

Dr. Yew Kam Keong (born 1950) or more popularly known as Dr.YKK, is a well respected international speaker, trainer, consultant and best-selling author in the field of creativity. In the past few years, he has served as a resource person on creativity to the Young Presidents Organization, Intel Technology, Texas INSTRUMENTS, ICI, Allianz, Ernst & Young, Petronas, and others. He founded Mindbloom Consulting in 1998 and continues to serve as the company's President and CEO. Recently, he has developed an innovation methodology called Copycat Innovation that taps into the power of the global brain through the use of the internet. Copycat Innovation is a trademark both in Australia and Malaysia.

Background

Dr.Yew Kam Keong, born 1950 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was the youngest in a family with five children. He is married with four children and four grandchildren.

Dr. YKK has is Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in Malaysia, and Ph.D. in Creativity in United Kingdom. He has also attended advanced management courses both in Malaysia and overseas, including an Advanced Diploma in Business Administration from New Zealand Institute of Management. Under the UNIDO Fellowship program, he attended an intensive course on Environmental Management at the Imperial College in London.

Career

Dr. YKK has been officially acknowledged Distinguished Talent on Creativity & Innovation (Immigration Category 124) by the Australian Federal Government. With this distinction, he was able to move to Australia in 2007. A member of Mensa - the oldest global organization of highly intellectual people, Dr. YKK was the only person from all the British Commonwealth countries who was selected to serve on the panel of creativity expert advisers to Lego's global project, “The Next Generation Forum”. He had served as an adviser to the President of the International Federation of Invention Associations (IFIA) based in Geneva, Switzerland and is a member of the Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management (CPTM),a partnership of the government and business leaders based in London, U.K.

Dr.YKK Has over 24 years of working experience with the Malaysian Government, holding diverse roles in science and technology with SIRIM, formerly known as Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia, as the coordinator of the National Science Centre project responsible for its conceptualization, planning, implementation and management with the Ministry of Science, Technology & the Environment (MOSTE) now called MOSTI. He was also specially handpicked to be the Head of Corporate Communications at MIGHT (Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology, a government-private sector partnership) a special unit of the Prime Minister’s Department. In this role, he prepared strategic papers and speeches for the Prime Minister.

He served on the Panel of Judges for the National Inventor’s Award and the National Science Award. He was chairman of the panel of judges for many national invention competitions for students including the BP Challenge, an initiative of Beyond Petroleum and the International Science and Engineering Fair sponsored by Intel. Dr.YKK was a former judge for MBA Innovation Challenge; the largest and most established business innovation competition in the world. For nine years running, the brightest and most creative graduate students from universities all over the world have been matched with leading companies in an experience designed to address our most pressing business and social innovation challenges.

Dr. YKK was also an instructor for the program “Business School for Entrepreneurs” organized by the Excellerated Business Schools of USA. He is a former president of the Malaysian Association of Professional Speakers, a founder member of Malaysian Mensa and the Malaysian Invention and Design Society.

Copycat Innovation

Recently, he developed an innovation methodology. This methodology taps into the power of the global brain through the use of the internet. It is a 7 step approach centered on adapting a proven solution to come out with an innovation.

Dr. Yew Kam Keong has been an avid fan of Peter Drucker, a business guru. Drucker developed the Creative Imitation strategy, which had greatly influenced Dr. YKK's Copycat Innovation methodology. Drucker's term, however was not applied by Dr. Yew Kam Keong, creating a new term out of it. When a new book, Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge was published by Prof. Oded Shenkar, Dr. Yew Kam Keong knew that his concepts were true, and were validated by Prof. Shenkar's factual work. Prof. Shenkar coined the term “Imovation (imitation+innovation)" which basically validates the concept of Copycat Innovation.

According to Dr. YKK, the concept offers the best approach for one's organisation in sustaining and growing its competitiveness and strategic positioning in the marketplace as it has a low risk because you are adapting or refining a proven solution; is low cost as the research and development work has already been done; it requires minimal resources as you don’t need a massive effort and/or resources; and it is a short-route to commercialization.

The 7-step fast-track innovation process for Copycat Innovation delivers measurable results with minimum risk and using the least money, effort and resources by in tapping into the power of the global brain.

Award and Recognitions

Awards

• Recipient of the Sarawak State Government Medal of Excellence in Public Service

Recognitions

• Distinguished Talent on Creativity and Innovation by the Australian Government
• Only person from the British Commonwealth countries who was selected to serve on the panel of creativity expert advisers to Lego's, “The Next Generation Forum”.

Authored Books

These are some of Dr. Yew Kam Keong's authored and published books, which have been translated into numerous languages. Some are published on different platforms such as Kindle versions and eBook versions online:

Note:

Dr. Yew Kam Keong's best-selling book. This has been reprinted 12 times and published in 5 languages.