Mike Orgill has mastered the art of negotiation to overcome regulatory issues in multiple regions in Asia, writes Chris Davis.
As an executive who frequently deals with complex regulatory frameworks involving the highest echelons of government and business organisations, Mike Orgill, general manager of Airbnb in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan takes an upbeat approach to the challenging, and sometimes, unusual regulatory hurdles he encounters.
Having successfully worked with his team to establish Airbnb’s presence across Asia, which in many cases has required delicate negotiations to overcome what Orgill describes as “thorny” regulatory issues, he says that sometimes it can be a case of “embrace the adventure”. “Overcoming regulatory challenges can sometime feel as if you are trying to achieve the impossible, until you achieve it” says Orgill who cites Japan as a good example, where in 2017; the art of negotiation led to a change in a 50-year-old policy to legalise home sharing.
In Hong Kong, however, the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance (HAGAO), still presents a few of the “thorny” issues that Orgill specialises in resolving. For example, while in theory there are no restrictions on obtaining a HAGAO licence, it can take 450 days to process an application. Furthermore, the licence requires hosts to show their paying guests an original receipt or warranty confirming the mattress they are providing is flame resistant. “The current regulations mean that those that want to host travellers in their homes need to start planning quite a long time ahead,” says Orgill, who remains optimistic the policy can be changed. “In the long-run I am sure the issues will be resolved,” he says, adding while governments and legislators tend to work at a different pace than consumers, there are plenty of people in Hong Kong who are keen to move forward. In spite of the regulation obstacles, from a couch to a room, apartment and hotels, there are currently about 12,000 Airbnb listings in Hong Kong who accommodated more than 600,000 travellers over the last year. In the outbound market, about 1.3 million Hong Kong travellers used Airbnb’s hospitality services.
Overcoming challenges and adding value to businesses are career stimulators for Orgill, who began his university education as an engineering student at Stanford University, before deciding part way through the degree programme it was not what he was looking for. Instead, he switched to International Relations and Economics. The change in tertiary focus opened the way for him to join the Stanford in Washington programme — a programme set up to provide students with an opportunity to study in the US capital and gain access to internships. Offered a choice of internships with a high-profile think-tank, a well-known consultancy and the US-ASEAN Business Council in Washington — a trade association that represents about 150 of the largest US companies doing business in Asia — Orgill chose the latter. “My boss explained there wasn’t a structured internship programme as such, but if I got busy and could show that I could add-value, a wealth of opportunities would come my way,” recalls Orgill. Heeding his boss’s advice, Orgill applied himself to finding ways he could add-value and quickly found himself working with some Fortune 500 companies including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Exxon Mobile, Philip Morris and Google. The experience of working with a diverse range of companies helped Orgill realise that his passion was rooted in helping organisations to overcome complex policy and regulatory challenges. “You name the issue, I got exposure to it,” says Orgill adding that some companies were interesting and pretty cool to work for, but others were less so. “Through the process you find the companies that operate with the cultures you like and also discover the type of issues you enjoy working on,” explains Orgill who joined the US-ASEAN Business Council as a fulltime employee and worked closely with Google from 2008 to 2011.
When Google launched its expansion initiatives in Southeast Asia in 2011, Orgill was a natural choice to join the operation to look after the tech-giant’s regional policy and government relations. Based in Singapore, Orgill, was tasked with taking Google into new markets including Pakistan and Vietnam as well as launching new products including Google Maps and YouTube. “It was more like a homecoming than a move to the other side of the world,” says Orgill, referring to his move to Singapore. From the age of seven until his late teens, Orgill lived with his family and attended school in Malaysia, where his dad worked for Exxon Mobile. Spending his formative years in Asia, including a spell as a Mormon missionary working in Sri Lanka, Orgill grew up acutely aware that Asia is not a single homogeneous entity, and a one-size-fits-all business model is almost guaranteed to fail. His years of living in Asia also taught Orgill people skills, including embracing diversity, a competency he puts to good use on a daily basis.
Orgill’s understanding and appreciation of Asian culture and workings of the diverse business environments proved to be an asset when in 2014; Airbnb initiated a search for an executive with the triple-trio abilities of understanding, technology, understanding disruption and understanding Asia to help the company expand its footprint in Asia. Now in his fifth year with Airbnb, Orgill says his work has provided him with a number of notable career highlights, including successfully penetrating the India market and the Chinese market in 2015. “The satisfaction comes from working with governments, stakeholders and communities to see how Airbnb can help generate economic impact to local businesses and hosts,” notes Orgill who stresses that any success can only be achieved as a result of a team effort, a philosophy that underpins his leadership style. “I believe if you hire the best people and motivate them, the results are far better for everyone,” he notes.
With the appetite for travel and different types of travel experiences across Asia growing at a phenomenal rate, Orgill believes the services Airbnb offer resonate with travellers looking for personalisation, authenticity and uniqueness. “There is a drive from people who want to post pictures on social media saying ‘look at me’ enjoying this unique experience,” says Orgill. As an uninitiated Airbnb user until just before he joined the company, these days the father of two young children likes to use his free time to explore Airbnb accommodation experiences with his family. Meanwhile, however, while Orgill is used to working with the highest levels of government to find solutions to complex issues, he has yet to work out a way of explaining to his son why the family lives in a modest apartment instead of the palacious home in Bali booked through Airbnb, the family recently stayed in.
