Singapore Entrepreneurs

There is one dominant argument that the critics often lament why there is a lack of entrepreneurs in Singapore. That is atychiphobia, or in simple layman language, fear of failure. Instead of being boring by saying what critics love to do, I am going to use a simple economic principle (with the analogy of AIDS epidemic) to demonstrate why more failure is better entrepreneurship, and offer an interesting solution for those people (namely the government) who are desperate to get something kickstart here to think about. [ Read More ]

Sometime back, I was referred by an entrepreneur to answer a question from another entrepreneur whose area of expertise is in traditional businesses. Out of curiosity, he was interested in establishing an online presence for his business in a different way, “What is so special about the internet that my traditional business should be interested?” I am pretty sure that most traditional businessmen don’t like the internet. They are not able to see how the internet translates value to them. I conjured and flashed out a couple of answers off my mind but what turns out to be the most prevailing and consistent argument that I came up with is about how pricing becomes the central key to reshape the business landscape for the internet. [ Read More ]

After Alvin Sim’s take on the naked truth about multi-level marketing (MLM), we received an interesting contribution from Christopher Ng Wai Chung, author of “Growing Your Tree of Prosperity”. We are privileged to have a glimpse from chapter 3 of his upcoming new book, “Harvesting the Fruits of Prosperity” which talks about some of the social ills that will deter you from building your economic wealth. Not surprising, MLM is one of those and Chris will tell you why it is related to the famous German philosopher, Immanuel Kant in a nutshell. [ Read More ]

Recently, an article in Tomorrow cited a Business Week article on the Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs. Using that benchmark, we found no young Singaporean entrepreneurs on that list. Holland Village Voice wrote a follow-up article and asked the million dollar question what is holding back us from venturing out there as entrepreneurs and offered a few reasons. In this article, we examine a couple of other factors and also the question whether being in these kind of honours help entrepreneurs. [ Read More ]

In about a week’s time, the results will be announced for the bid on the Sentosa Integrated Resort (IR). For the past few weeks, the three bidders are on the public relations (PR) offensive to demonstrate that they are the right one to set up shop here. This article looks at the strengths and weaknesses in each bid and also do an autopsy with recent newspaper article to speculate who may be the eventual winners. [ Read More ]

Unlike other governments, the Singapore Government has been a strong advocate of entrepreneurship. From fundraising to assistance to small-medium enterprises, they have done a significant amount in promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship. However, both the risk-adverse culture and the critical mass are barriers for such a culture to occur. These crucial factors made Singapore a better candidate for intrapreneurship rather than entrepreneurship. This article argues why Singapore is better for intrapreneurship rather than entrepreneurship and makes a bold suggestion to the civil service and government-linked companies since they are the major employers for most Singaporeans. [ Read More ]

If you are planning to expand your business into China, what is the route for you to take? Is it a wholly foreign owned enterprise (WFOE) or a representative office (RO)? In a very detailed and long exposition, Kenneth Wong, our resident contributor will take us through the processes and analyse the ramifications of adopting either models in China. [ Read More ]

Simplicity is an important trait in starting and managing a business. In this article, we are honoured to have our guest contributor, Harold Fock, an established entrepreneur and also the owner of Beyond SG blog, to demonstrate how the power and paradox of simplicity can change the speed and nature of business with 5 simple principles. [ Read More ]

Through Singapore Surf, I came across this article Singapore’s Resilient Strategy by the Enterprise Resilience Management Blog by Stephen F. DeAngelis and Bradd C. Hayes. The central theme of the article is that Singapore adopts an resilient strategy to maintain its economic miracle, by importing foreign talent and positioning themselves such that they are relevant with the global scene. In this short commentary, I shall illustrate a few simple arguments that this resilient strategy is a double edged sword to the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. [ Read More ]

Last Sunday, our Prime Minister delivered his rally speech for the workyear of 2006. He discussed our current progress and a possible roadmap on the Singapore economy. While spending the last two days reading, listening and thinking over the main points of the speech, I realized that something that was amiss in his speech. The keywords “entrepreneurship”, “enterprise” and “entrepreneurs” did not appear anywhere at all in the speech. In this commentary, I shall deconstruct the portions regarding the economy from his speech and discuss the implications from the revival of the Singapore Inc to entrepreneurship. [ Read More ]