- connecting our global business network
30 October 2020
The digital native revolutionising the real estate landscape
Carrie Law
Founder & CEO of WOW Impact Group
Master of Business Administration
A talented digital native, Carrie Law has been in awe of the internet and technological space – and the extraordinary opportunities it has brought the world – since it’s infancy. The beginning of her career coincided with the dawn of the digital revolution and as a result Carrie has made a name for herself riding this technological wave.
Spending a career at the helm of expansive media and real estate companies across the globe and at home in Hong Kong, Carrie has always been ahead of the curve at important technological junctures as a business leader, go-to media commentator and public speaker, committed to digital momentum for change and growth.
She chalks her career success up to "just being really hungry to learn something new every day along the digital journey", cutting her teeth in such high-level roles as Managing Director of the Ignite Media Group, Regional Head, REA HK & Macau at the REA Group, the successful ASX-listed company that own and operates realestate.com.au, and CEO and Director at Juwei, where China finds international property.
In a world where digital innovation and transformation is no longer an option, but a must, she’s now breaking out on her own with digital consultancy, WOW Impact Group, specialising in digital solutions to influence the journey and behaviour of consumers and customers, empowering everyone to make more informative and impactful decisions.
“My passion starts with the Internet back in the early 1990s when no one was actually trained in this space,” Carrie says. “The term ‘digital’ is a composition of many keywords evolving over periods.”
“From the world wide web, and now the Internet as we know it, business intelligence, analytics, SEO, SEM, e-marketing, social media, mobile apps, e-commerce, KOL, big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, virtual banking and expos – the list goes on and there’s so much more to come!”
“With digital convergence also comes with many possibilities in other industries – proptech, fintech, edutech, martech, insurtech, healthtech – there’s infinite developments by nature. Everything is possible and that’s why I’m fascinated by the digital world.”
“At WOW Impact Group, we’re leveraging all these aspects of the digital landscape to three main areas of services in real estate; matching Chinese demand to international properties, fundraising for companies with tech and data focus, and driving digital transformation by using tech and data.”
However, with the WOW Impact Group launching earlier this year right before the pandemic, Carrie sees herself again navigating a rapidly changing landscape where her customers are looking to her for digital solutions in a disrupted, evolving world.
Though these are not the ideal conditions to launch a business – it’s something Carrie’s entire career has prepared her for. She says the accelerated digital development has proven to the world how vulnerable we human beings are in a pure physical world, especially during pandemics.
“While many border gates are still closed, and countries are experiencing different stages of lock down, we’re seeing eight times the customer enquiries on how to do things differently and support business continuity,” says Carrie.
“There’s actually been a recorded five times the buyers' demand compared to the same period last year – our customers are more eager and willing to look at new tech approaches on how we could help them capturing these buyers by reimaging social distancing, while keeping business going and growing.”
“Customers are joining us to conduct webinars for potential buyers and planning to meet with consumers via our virtual WOW Expo. Developer and agency sales are nurturing leads by providing more personalized services via instant bulk whatsapp artificial intelligence marketing.”
“On the consumer side we’re seeing double the digital RSVPs on city and real estate projects too.”
It’s no surprise Carrie and her business instincts are thriving in such a time of disruption and upheaval though.
Her whole career has been heavily punctuated by mergers, acquisitions and integrations as early as the 1990s – more recently spearheading two highly successful ASX-listed company mergers (iProperty Group with REA Group) and two private company mergers (Juwai with IQI), both complex, multimillion-dollar deals.
Carrie has become adept at navigating the wide-ranging regions and nationalities of multinational corporations with a people first mentality. It’s a through line she has carried with her the rest of her career as well.
“People and culture are always the centre of changes,” Carrie says. “Uniting all stakeholders from different nationality, culture, line of business and function is the key to a seamless and speedy integration.”
“Always be bold in opening tough conversations and over-communicating vision, mission and goals is always essential to get us to move fast as a company with concerted direction and actions that really matter.”
“There’s no bible of what works or not – but the quality of leadership from fellow stakeholders to take risks and responsibility drives us to conquer challenges together.”
To Carrie this also means having a supportive – and happy – team around you, both professional and personally.
“I believe a happy team can achieve everything.” says Carrie. “Being the chief of many different organisations, I take this very seriously as it influences both myself and our teammates – and how we make countless decisions every day – making sure we’re happy at what we’re doing at work and in life.”
“My happy family life means a lot to me too, our family of four with two young adolescents (my elder daughter, Chloe and younger son, Matthew) and husband, Machi, who has been always very supportive to me as the only breadwinner for a few families.”
“Just be present in the moments! Life is short. When we’re not happy, we’re simply not functioning,”
