The adoption of green practices among entrepreneurs could become the new black in 2012. With natural resources dwindling, the quest for more sustainable business practices that generate profits will remain a pressing issue for years to come.

In addition, as more consumers are willing to spend more on green products, the boon to an organization’s profitability can be substantial. As such, companies know that taking the plunge into green business practices is necessary to add to their company’s overall value.

Green Future Solutions, a Singapore-based business that promotes environmental awareness and action, provides consultancy services to help SMEs reduce costs, increase revenue, and become more sustainable.

Its founder and director, Eugene Tay, sees ways for businesses to reduce the environmental impact of their products throughout its life cycle by exploring the demand for green products and services and being proactive to meet this need, which would help them gain a competitive advantage and increase revenue.

“Business owners will be in a better position to build up their reputation and enhance their brand as a sustainable company. The business can then market its environmental practices or the environmental benefits of its products or services,” he said.

Marketing green products and services as sustainable businesses

Green Cleaners, a leading eco friendly cleaning service in Singapore, is one company that is actively marketing itself as a green business. They specialize in providing green cleaning services to offices and bespoke facilities such as kindergartens, hotels, spas, gyms and health studios.

Colin Pudsey, its founder who moved to Singapore from Australia, started the company in early 2009 after his sinuses and asthma became worse due to long office hours. Suspecting the cause might have been the potent and toxic chemicals used to clean his floors, he tried looking around for a less harmful cleaning service, but couldn’t find one.

He expects a boom in the green cleaning business: “This industry trend is fast becoming mainstream and an expected option in certain areas of the cleaning industry.”

“The U.S.’s well-known previous Vice-President, Al Gore, has created a dynasty around the importance of “green” and saving the environment citing starting a green business as one of the top business start-up options to consider.”

Started two and a half years ago, Green Cleaners now sells their own range of green cleaning products. They also have a franchising program to meet increasing demand across Asia.

They are also helping their clients to promote environmental responsibility as a savvy marketing tool through their Green Stamp certification of approval, which Colin says “has proved to be an excellent value added service.”

Government support and incentives

For economies to progress, governments see a need for industries and companies to tap into renewable energy and become sustainable businesses. The Singapore government has schemes and funding to encourage firms to take the leap and adopt green practices.

Vaidehi Shah, projects manager from the Singapore Environment Council, believes government funding and incentives plays an important role in helping companies in various industries go green, and points out that Building and Construction, Manufacturing, Research, and Transport industries stand to gain the most from government incentives.

Some schemes that help businesses include the Water Efficiency Fund (WEF), which encourages companies to manage their water demand more efficiently, and the Energy Efficiency Improvement Assistance Scheme (EASe), a co-funding scheme administered by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to encourage companies in the manufacturing and building sectors to carry out energy appraisals and identify potential areas for energy efficiency improvement.

She says of these eco-shifts: “Businesses are becoming increasingly concerned with greening the whole value chain – beyond the manufacturing process, they’re also becoming mindful of peripheral issues such as transport, packaging, waste management, and even corporate philanthropy.”

Adopting green labels and certifications

Green labels and certifications are becoming more important in the eyes of companies and consumers. With more consumer awareness comes greater impetus within the business environment to seek out certification and external validation for their green efforts, and display eco-labels that distinguish them from other competitors.

One such certification is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), an internationally recognized mark of excellence that provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

Colin of Green Cleaners believes the push for such certifications has resulted in more firms engaging the services of his company: “LEED certification not only covers the design and construction stages of a new building but operations too. This means there are points to be earned for things like the how the building is cleaned!”

Similiarly, the BCA Green Mark Scheme was launched in January 2005 to encourage the construction of environment-friendly buildings in Singapore. This benchmarking scheme incorporates internationally recognized best practices in environmental design and performance that has a positive effect on corporate image, leasing and resale value of buildings.

According to Vaidehi of SEC, her organization has the Singapore Green Labelling Scheme, Eco-Office Certification and Singapore Environmental Achievement Awards, and these are examples of local certification and awards programmes that reward strong business commitment to environmental excellence.

She also feels companies are genuinely encouraging behavioural change amongst their workers, to achieve soft changes in their corporate image:

“Environmental volunteering, allowing flexible work hours and telecommuting to reduce car-use and putting up reminders within the office to conserve water, electricity and paper are just some examples. SEC’s Project Eco Office is cognizant of the importance of this, and places heavy emphasis on green behaviour in their certification criteria.”

Monitor and manage environmental risks and impacts

Environmental monitoring and managing such risks and impacts has its benefits and there is a growing awareness among companies to give back as climate change and environmental disasters impact everyone.

The Body Shop is an ideal example of a company engaging in green practices. A well-known advocate of social and environmental responsibility, they are moving towards a hub-based distribution system, consolidating shipping to make less frequent deliveries and merging different types of orders. This improves efficiency and reduces the amount of air freights needed, lessening the company’s carbon footprint.

Eugene of Green Future believes companies can reduce the use of fuel, materials and chemicals and at the same time increase the efficiency and productivity of their operations by finding ways to reduce consumption and disposal so that businesses save on utilities bills and waste disposal fees.

“There are many opportunities to reduce unnecessary wastage and inefficient practices in the business, and reduce costs.”

Photo: Tanaka Juuyoh

Whether it’s in an interview in the trade magazines, in the college newspaper or on TV, CEOs of successful businesses like to paint a picture that belies the truth.

In some cases, it’s a romantic veneer over how hard they work, or how calculated they go about their management and this exists in part because the public wants an easily-digestible story of how to achieve results, or that it generally makes for a good uplifting reading.

Nobody likes to read a story of a struggle that includes constant repetition, problem-solving, manufacturing defects and late deliveries — it’s just “boring”. Read: Can’t sell newspapers or fill a business school auditorium.

The reality of it is much harsher yet simpler.

Read on for five common myths you’ll come across in interviews from successful CEOs (which you have to take with a generous pinch of salt):

1. Explain it to me like I’m a 3 year old (Spare me the details)

Whether it’s in a movie scene or an actual boardroom, the CEO wants a situation explained to him in simple terms, and looks like he isn’t knowledgeable or interested in the rocket science details of the matter.

Reality: No boss or for that matter, CEO of a large corporation gets to run the show without a clear understanding and comprehensive grasp of the product the company is selling. At the very least, there is a particular expertise that the CEO possesses that is an integral part of the process. Perhaps the boss might not know how to actually execute on biotech manufacturing in a lab but he knows how to sell or market it to the customers. No one “stumbles” into the role of leadership without qualities that make a difference.

It would be a mistake to believe the CEO is just a smiling figure-head for the company.

2. I was lucky to have hired the right people (So I don’t work as hard as I do)

CEOs like to attribute some of their success to the luck of the draw, especially towards the key employees whom they have brought into the team. It paints the picture that the folks you hire would suddenly go over and beyond the call of duty, and outperform in roles that ends up alleviating the boss from micro-managing the day-to-day processes in the firm.

Reality: For most bosses out there, hiring the right people to play the different important roles in the company, from Human Resources, Sales, Marketing to Distribution is one of the most difficult tasks in building a great company. More often that not, the hiring process stalls not because there isn’t a desire to expand, but rather there’s a dearth in available qualified professionals adequate to perform the job well.

No great employees happen or are hired by chance.

3. Have a great product and everything else will fall into place

It is not only CEOs who spout this mantra, but business journals and marketing specialists say it everyday. “Build a great product and the customers will naturally come”, “Product Product Product” are the three key components of a successful company, and “Iterate Until Your Product is Great” are just some of the common phrases you hear in business forums.

Reality: By placing emphasis only on launching a “great” product or focusing only on product development, other key drivers in success are conveniently glossed over. Sure, a product that serves a market need, and does so well, SHOULD attain market acceptance and consumption but that is not a given outcome.

Businesses should not expect customers to come just because of a great product. Having a marketing strategy, developing relationships with reliable and trustworthy counter-parties, planning out scaling and distribution capabilities are just some of the other ingredients one needs in order to be successful, even if your product is not “great”.

A great product is great, but execute like you don’t have one.

4. I am a genius and I have the Midas touch

CEOs like Steve Jobs have been given God-like status for their leading roles as the face of an innovative company, with their vision and genius the key reason for a game-changing product, for a profit/loss turnaround, for whipping a company into the new millennium amidst the changing global landscape. Their words are lapped up like gold, and fans and readers hang on every word they say.

Reality: The CEOs who have not been successful can tell you that a plan without the right execution is just that – an unrealized plan. Steve Jobs deserves the accolades that he gets but much credit also go towards the exceptional folks put in place who worked on aspects including software development, sourcing for manufacturers, etc.

Without execution, a vision is just a dream.

5.You need to fail many times before you succeed

Words often said to encourage those who have not succeeded, or worse, failed previously and continue to do so. CEOs have indeed failed at times along the path to success and proudly show their “battle scars” to the adoring audience, shareholders and business school students.

Reality: It is less important whether you have failed before or how many times you have failed that prepares you for success, but what qualities you possess when the moment of opportunity comes your way. You can continue failing in future endeavours if you never learn the lessons from the previous ones.

Similarly, you can equip yourself with the right tools in place before you embark on a project, so that the current doesn’t become the failure that prepares you for the next one. These tools can range from having the right specialists in the team, market analysis, funding, roll-out strategy.

You don’t need to fail first, in order to know what you need.

Final Thoughts

You might be wondering why the image associated with this article shows a Lego figure of Bruce Wayne as Batman. The reason and analogy is simple: Unlike what hasn’t been portrayed in the movies, Bruce Wayne as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises has an understanding of science and technology which not only allows his company to succeed, but also to clandestinely produce the gadgets that Batman utilizes.

Bruce Wayne as Batman is one of the few “superheroes” who do not have supernatural gifts/talents so all of his fighting capabilities come from physical training, and being prepared beforehand, before any potential “failure”. (Batman’s skills don’t come from him just being angry)

So what I wanted to say in light of this topic is:

While it seems cool, Bruce Wayne doesn’t sleep all day.

This article was first published on Senatus.

Images by DidWee and noppyfoto1

About The Author

Kien M Lee is the founder of SENATUS, an online and offline professional and social network for the Aspiring. It is an exclusive community in which membership is by invitation only.

Photo: Dr Mooryati Soedibyo's private collection

The garage has long been the birthplace of many great companies — Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, to name a few. Even Walt Disney got his start producing his first animated series, “The Alice Comedies” in his uncle’s garage before forming his own studio.

Closer to home, the humble garage also witnessed the birth of PT Mustika Ratu, Indonesia’s famed herbal medicine (or jamu) brand, in the early seventies.

The business caused many to raise their eyebrows, because not only was the person behind it a woman, she was also a direct descendant of the royal Javanese family, one who was actually raised within the walls of a kraton (Javanese palace).

It was unheard of for someone of her status to work, let alone start a business and as Dr BRA. [1] Mooryati Soedibyo readily admits, the reaction from her family was far from encouraging. “Initially, my family did not support my decision to become a business woman as it was against our ancient traditions,” she recalls.

“Only through my own determination and hard work was I able to persevere and overcome this challenge, which actually helped motivate me to become successful on my own.”

Despite not having a background in business, she drew on what she had been taught during her formative years in the palace, and started making jamu, a traditional Indonesian herbal medicine that has a long-standing place in royal Javanese history. She bottled beras kencur, an Indonesian herbal drink, at home with the help of two maids.

Later, she expanded her range of products to include herbal pills, shampoo and cosmetics, and founded her company PT Mustika Ratu proper in 1978.

Today, PT Mustika Ratu is a brand with a domestic and international presence which products can be found in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America as well as several countries in the Southeast Asian region. In addition, Dr Soedibyo’s business empire also includes a spa business, Taman Sari Royal Heritage Spa, which has operations in nine countries including Canada, Japan, Bulgaria, and Malaysia.

Like any entrepreneur, Dr Soedibyo has experienced her fair share of challenges, stiff market competition being just one of them. However rather than compete on price, she has always been adamant about letting the quality and heritage of her company’s products do the talking.

“[Though] there were other products similar to mine that [were] priced five times cheaper, I didn’t compete on price. I have preserved the traditions of indigenous ingredients derived from local experience,” she says, adding that the company works closely with local farmers to ensure that its raw materials are derived from sustainable sources.

Given her background, one would be forgiven for assuming that it has helped given her an edge over the competition. She is quick to point out that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

“When conducting business, the foundation of the company should not be based on the image of the founder’s family background,” she says.

“When running the family business, a good businessman or woman must be able to meet the requirements and criteria of good manufacturing practices, have a basic entrepreneurial competence and attitude, and be innovative, creative and [attuned] to future competition.”

Though she is now in her eighties, Dr Soedibyo shows no signs of slowing down and apart from grooming her daughter Puteri Kuswisnuwardani to succeed her as head of the Mustika Ratu brand, she is also turning her attention to social work.

She now plays an active role in helping draw up initiatives to help women, working closely with the DNIKS (National Institution for Social Welfare), a non-government institution engaged in the empowerment of women and the poor, as vice chairwoman. She also founded the Women Entrepreneurship Academy last year to offer non-degree entrepreneurship courses.

Considered a living legend in her home country, Dr Soedibyo has received numerous awards in honour of her achievements, among them the Best of the Best Entrepreneur award from Ernst & Young in 2003. She was also named one of the top 100 next-era CEOs in Asia by The Japan Times last year.

“Women in Indonesia are still being left behind in various fields of education provided to men,” she observes candidly, adding that apart from the lack of networking opportunities, the roles open to them are mostly limited to domestic functions. As such, the local government needs to step up its efforts to support the progress and advancement of women.

According to Dr Soedibyo, there are laws in place to help them but these statutes must be made a priority. To this end, governments have a role to play not only in creating policies to help minority groups but also in ensuring that they are implemented.

She also stresses the importance of educational initiatives in a variety of formal and informal areas” to support entrepreneurial efforts by women. By expanding their roles, society can only benefit as they work, together with their male counterparts, to “[fight for] the welfare of the nation.”

[1] BRA: Bandara Raden Ayu, an Indonesia honorary title given to Dr Soedibyo to denote her status as the granddaughter of SunanPakubuwono X, king of Surakarta Palace.

Background on VVP

VVP is an early stage investment focused on the IDM space. We got Jeff to clarify his definition of early stage since they sound more like a private equity fund. Jeff described basically to date, all companies they’ve invested in had no profits and up to half had no revenues at time of investment. Jeff emphasized that many of them are now profitable. Jeff described VVP as having three main criteria for investing:

1. Is the space large and growing? Can good profits be made?
2. What’s the startup’s competitive advantage and whether they will become the top three player in their space?
3. The team — the most important of the three criteria. Jeff says that VVP believes people they invest in are partners and it’s important to like your partners so the team make up is very critical for them.

Views on startups in Singapore

Jeff feels that entrepreneurs in Singapore are exposed and more plugged into the West. Making a comparison to Chinese startups, Jeff’s opinion is that Chinese startups have an advantage in that a lot of services are closed to Chinese consumers which has enabled local players in China to compete. This has given Chinese startups a shield and opportunity to nurture from a younger stage.

Singapore startups on the other hand doesn’t have that luxury. Our startups do see and catch on to trends a little more quickly and are able to penetrate due to language strengths. The main disadvantage for Singapore startups is the market size and Jeff strongly encourages entrepreneurs to start with the right mindset and think outside Singapore.

In fact, Jeff’s advise to startups in Singapore can be summed up in two words: Think big. The main challenge for startups in Singapore is the need to think outside Singapore and handle a larger market, which may or may not be China. For the US market for example, you need to have the right team and skillsets to handle the market.

Jeff’s advise is to think beyond the shores of Singapore not just from a market viewpoint, but also in the way you do and carry out things. On the same note, Jeff also advises entrepreneurs to share and split the pie with co-founders and partners who might give you the necessary expertise that you lack. Citing that it’s better to own a small slice of a larger pie then a large slice of a small pie since it will be more easy to succeed.

Advice for startups looking to enter Asian markets

China is a market with one and a half billion people and yet fairly uniform. For startups looking to enter China, Jeff’s advise is to start with a good strategy and make sure you do proper market research. You will also need to find the right partners to work with.

South East Asia as a whole is half a billion strong with probably more Internet users than in the United States. It’s definitely attractive. Markets are young and have lots of growth opportunities. Startups looking to enter Southeast Asia must have the right market entry strategy, on your own or through partners.

Jeff’s advise is to seek out young promising local companies to partner. Entrepreneurs that have tried to enter the market on their own, especially in China, historically have not enjoyed much success. Those who succeed, in Jeff’s opinion, identified the right partners early on.

“Moneyball” the movie was based on the book of the same title written by Michael Lewis published in 2003, and revolves around the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt)

In short, the Oscar-nominated movie is about Beane’s successful attempt in putting together a baseball club on a comparatively small budget by employing computer-generated analysis of player statistics never/rarely looked at or regarded with any significance by baseball scouts, with the assistance of Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill).

For the average moviegoer outside of the United States where baseball does not exist as a staple sport, Moneyball seems like a movie that isn’t worth a trip to the theaters.

However, the lesson that can be drawn from it is important, for Beane’s approach towards identifying amidst strong competition — in his case, the spending power of bigger baseball teams with larger markets — undervalued ingredients (read: players) to form the 2012 season Oakland A’s team which went on a twenty-game record-breaking winning streak as well as made a legitimate run at the championship that year.

Think about how this scenario is analogous to what you face in your business, given your own resource constraint: What you need to do is not to approach solving the same market issue the same way your overwhelming competition is approaching it or rely on conventional thought on how to deal with it.

Dare to be different. Aspire to be groundbreaking.

Here are a few examples:

• If you’re building a social network, don’t build it like Facebook — Don’t create the same platform for friends to connect and share the same things.
• If you’re building a mobile app that allows locational “check-ins”, don’t create it like Foursquare with the same gamification techniques and rewards.
• If you’re selling hamburgers, don’t set up your restaurant to have the same menu or similarly “fast-served” like McDonald’s.
• If you’re looking to publish a magazine, don’t go with print. Use the unbridled reach of the Internet to reach out to more readers than the number of printed materials you can afford.
• If you’re a Venture Capital firm from the States, don’t use the same parameters to evaluate a startup in Asia as you would one borne in Silicon Valley. Don’t make the mistake of seeing the Asian market in totality as you would the North American market or the Eurozone.

Approach the playing field from a position that the incumbents and traditionalists have never executed from before.

Don’t play to the strengths of others and get bogged down by how it “has always” been done.

The ones that succeed are always the non-conformists who see a solution where there appears to be none.

Go out there and disrupt.

Article was first published on SENATUS.

About The Author

Kien M Lee is the founder of SENATUS, an online and offline professional and social network for the Aspiring. It is an exclusive community in which membership is by invitation only.

In fact, females may be better than their male counterparts in certain areas. A Co.Exist article asserts that females are intuitive systems-thinkers, care more about solutions than who gets credit, are experts on collaboration, and are good at seeking balance.

There are certainly many things we can learn from them. To help you along, we’ve distilled a list of useful tips from female entrepreneurs in Singapore and around the region to guide you if you’re embarking on the road less traveled.

1. Understand why you are doing this.

Most ventures don’t succeed on the first try.

The reality is that behind every successful entrepreneur, there was a lot of learning from failed experiences. Understanding the reasons behind your decision to become an entrepreneur will help you to learn better from your mistakes and give you the confidence to keep going.

Carol hails from Taiwan(left) while Maria (right) is from Hong Kong. Photo: Shokay

Social entrepreneur Carol Chyau co-founded a lifestyle brand that promotes sustainable income in rural China called Shokay (Read: Five lessons from an experienced social entrepreneur).

Shokay designs and sells products made from soft yak down sourced by Tibetan herders.

Although Carol and her partner had zero knowledge in the fibre industry, they perservered and drowned themselves with knowledge from books, mentors and Google search results.

It took them patience and sheer grit to become experts in the field, having to tweak their business model several times before hitting the ground running.

What motivated these Harvard graduates to choose this path instead of a comfortable corporate career?

“I’m not doing this because I am more philanthropic than other people out there, nor because I’m particularly altruistic. For me, it’s about a sense of responsibility. I just believe that as lucky as we are to have so much, we should give back even more,” she answered.

Be honest with yourself. If you’re doing it to attract hot chicks like in “The Social Network”, then it’s probably not the best motivation.

2. Don’t be afraid to get out of the building and validate your business idea.

An idea for a product means nothing if your customers don’t really need it.

Testing your business idea quickly by talking to potential clients will give you a clearer idea of customers’ needs.

Elfaine Tan (far left), seen here with her team, is winner of Shell’s LiveWIRE “Most Promising Enterprise Award” in 2009 and has been named one of Her World Magazine’s 50 “Most Inspiring Women Under 40" at 23 years old. Photo: Elfaine Tan

Elfaine Tan, founder of The Sample Store, left her office job a few months after graduation. She had an idea to set up an on-line store that distributes and sells samples and wanted to validate it (read: Age and gender do not define your chance at success).

Determined, she relentlessly cold-called brand marketers at their offices and arranged for meetings. Her idea was spot on. After presenting her idea to her clients, they were convinced to try the platform.

The result? The Sample Store has to date, successfully distributed close to 500,000 branded product samples to an audience of over 78,000 people.

3. When being called stubborn, take it as a compliment.

There is no doubt that you will meet your fair share of nay-sayers on your entrepreneurial journey. How much you want to be affected by their opinions though, is up to you.

Sheryl Tay founded The Baby Specialist to help mothers save cost on baby equipment. Photo: Dr Louis-Sebastian Sonntag

Sheryl Tay of The Baby Specialist, a company that rents hospital-grade baby equipment, was eager to prove them wrong (read: Making every mum’s baby her business).

“It was especially stressful when others gave doubtful comments about whether the business would work. But looking back, I think it was those very comments that fueled me to prove that my idea would work. Always have an open mind and take criticism in your stride,” she advises.

4. Learn to hold contradictory values together.

Being passionate about your work is no doubt a important component to innovation. At the same time, entrepreneurs should also be able to realistically understand the risks and actionable needs involved in their business.

Tan Siok Siok, director of Twittamentary (read: An Entrepreneur’s Journey Into The Real Time Web) and co-founder of online video network Kinetic ONE, aptly describes this process.

Singaporean filmmaker and entrepreneur Tan Siok Siok is the creator of Twittamentary and CEO of Beijing-based Kinetic ONE

“I always find that as an entrepreneur you have to hold contradictory values together. For example, you have to have a big picture and be a visionary and yet concentrate on the short term goals of the start-up. You are impatient because of the time pressure, but yet patient because you know you have to build one thing at a time. What helps me is that I’m passionate about what I do, so it’s not like I’m being forced to do it. I’m focused and narrow things down to specific targets to make sure that I always make it something I can work on,” she says.

5. Don’t quit when things are just getting started.

Sometimes when one door closes, another one opens. We just have to look harder and not let one person dictate what we can or cannot do.

Gillian Tan started her own company with $10,000, a mini video camera and an old Macbook. Photo: Gillian Tan

Gillian Tan, founder of local production company Munkysuperstar Pictures, manages clicknetwork.tv, an online video network that offers hip, fun, and edgy entertainment programming (read: Being a female director has its merits).

She started her company  working out of a room in her mother’s office, equipped with an old Mac she used for editing.

The test pilot that she produced later became popular local reality dating show “Eye For A Guy”.

While the shows gained in popularity, it wasn’t long before an obstacle appeared in her way.

“Back in 2007, we were supposed to produce season 2 of a Channel 5 show called ‘Girls Out Loud’, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to some complaints from the public,” she said.

Faced with this minor setback, Gillian and Girls Out Loud hosts Rosalyn and Wendy decided to pack up their bags and take a short road trip to Malaysia.

Recalling the events that followed, “I shot some videos of Rosalyn and Wendy and that ended up on YouTube. Somehow it caught on and people were writing in telling us to produce more videos. I then decided to put these videos onto a website instead. The road trip videos ended up being the first videos on clicknetwork.tv.”

In just four years, clicknetwork.tv has become a viral hit with audiences and garnered over 23 million video views and counting. Had Gillian felt defeated when Channel 5 told her she could not longer produce her shows, she would never have started clicknetwork.tv.

We hope these tips have been a helpful summary of our Women in Entrepreneurship series thus far. Write in to us if you know any other female entrepreneurs with an interesting story to share.

David Yim, founder of Udders Ice-Cream, arrived in khaki shorts and sneakers.

“I dress like this at work all the time. We have a very relaxed atmosphere,” he told everyone.

He realized some in the audience didn’t know what udders were.

“You know… cow tits,” he quipped, after struggling for a while to find the right word. The audience roared.

That was just one of the highlights at Entrepreneurs Unplugged, a panel discussion organized by Startup@Singapore, an annual business plan competition. The event is part of this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week.

The panel couldn’t be more diverse.

Rounding up the group is Ben Tan of Hauslab D&B, who looked just the right amount of classy and casual in his blazer, Tong Yee of School of Thought, who wears his heart on his sleeve, and Geoffrey Kung of REVERSE Cooperative, an anti-entrepreneur who’s also the oldest of the group.

The panel is moderated by Albert Teo, associate professor of the National University of Singapore Business School.

With the room full of curious, laptop-hugging students, one of the major questions raised was whether a person should jump straight into entrepreneurship right after graduation.

The panelists agreed that there is no right answer.

Yee said, shoulders and arms raised in bewilderment: “It could go either way. It’s like asking someone: ‘Should I marry my first love or wait a few more years?’ How do you answer that?”

Perhaps their experiences could give some insight. Both Yee and David were teachers before they started their businesses.

“Working first has given me a strong perspective. Because I’ve worked in the public sector, I know how to be a better service provider,” said Yee, “so it helps to work first, gain experience.”

Yee’s first social enterprise was School of Thought, a tuition center that teaches GP, Literature and English. School of Thought is part of a grouping called the Thought Collective.

David had a colorful story to share about why he transited from teaching to enterpreneur-ing.

“I realized I couldn’t work under anybody anymore,” he told the audience, “I developed strong beliefs on how people should be treated and how things should be done.”

Once, his school principal had a meeting with the teachers to tell them their top three weaknesses.

“I was told that I’m too playful. The principal expected good teachers to be serious and stern-faced. But I do have high standards for my work, because I have fun while I’m at it.”

That was why he made sure that Udders’ number one brand value is to be cheeky.

“I can be who I want to be, do things the way I think is right,” he said.

Geoffrey too was an employee, until he was retrenched at 55. Unable to secure a job in the IT industry, he studied to get the right qualifications to enter the banking industry instead. But he was already beyond the cut-off age for entering a bank at the startup career level.

“I remember going for the interview without telling them my age, and the receptionist told me, ‘Uncle, you’re at the wrong place.’”

Unable to secure the job, he decided that he could start a company and secure outsourced work from the bank as a sub-contractor.

But he found that he wasn’t really a competitive person. So he decided to start REVERSE cooperative instead, which is an organization that provides elderly with more work and play opportunities.

Ben, on the other hand, knew that he wasn’t going to work for anybody right from the start. He understood early on that he was a creative person with an independent streak.

“When I was younger, I would grab a cookbook, look at the pictures, and I could bake and cook. Floral arrangements came naturally for me. I’d just grab a few flowers and stick them together, and people will say, ‘wow, that’s interesting’.”

He even went on to help out at a friend’s flower shop, gave classes and did arrangements for a hotel. While in the Army, he did extra work as a wedding coordinator, “the whole shebang,” he calls it.

But as traditional Asian parents often do, Ben’s parents told him to give up all these things and find a proper job. He did not cave in.

Today, Hauslab designs homes, corporate offices, hotels, clubs, and restaurants to suit the clients’ tastes. He is even working on creating a 3D walkthrough room to help customers visualize their designs.

After some thought, he had this advice to give: “Work for two or three years in the industry you want to start your business in. Learn the technical language and lingo, but more importantly, get valuable contacts.”

He added that it is important to learn how to submit to authority and be humble. “At 25, I thought I knew everything, but I learnt my lesson later on.”

Photo: From left — Albert Teo, David Yim, Ben Tan, Tong Yee, Geoffrey Kung. Courtesy of Startup@Singapore.

This event is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2011.

SGE is proud to be the Official Online Media partner for GEW 2011.

Many of us have romantic ideas about starting a business. Like other dot-com entrepreneurs, I made beautiful business plans with an ambitious five-year projection.

But one of the first lessons I’ve learnt was that it was not the content of our business plan that mattered, but what customers wanted.

I started my venture thinking that we had a unique business proposition. Perhaps it was original at the point we conceived it. However, we started our plan at the height of the dotcom boom in Singapore in 1999/2000.

We soon found some 30 other new start-ups in the same space as us. Some were well funded with several million to over ten million dollars in investments, while we raised only a few hundred thousand dollars.

Our target customers were schools, and they were offered free solutions by our competitors. With little funding and confronted with the dotcom crash, we decided early in our business that we had to charge customers for our services.

This gave us some revenue. More importantly, I felt it would help us understand what customers really wanted as they had to pay for our products or services. In contrast, most of our competitors wanted to gain ‘eye-balls’ through free services.

We received countless rejections in the first year of our business. Schools were not ready to use e-learning. If they were, there was no shortage of free solutions they could use.

I soon realized the power of the customer. It didn’t matter much what my academic or professional background was, or who funded our company, or who was on our Board of directors Customers wanted value for money. They wanted solutions to fit their needs; and they will vote with their purchasing dollar.

Looking back, I am thankful we did not receive the massive investor funding that other dotcoms did. It forced us to realise early that the customer is king. It forced us to make constant changes to our business model, products and solutions until we had something that customers were willing to pay us for.

We executed perhaps just 10% of our original business plan. We evolved our solutions with constant feedback from customers. In the end, that proved to be what mattered as I look back at those who survived the dotcom era and those who didn’t.

A second lesson I’ve learnt was to seize the moment. Opportunities are there but one must see them and seize quickly when opportunities knock on the door.

In the first three years of our business, we evolved our products to suit what we felt the customers needed. However, business was slow because not many schools saw the need for e-learning, especially when they had their students physically with them most of the time.

The budget allocated for e-learning was rather miserly. We struggled to balance our budget in a poor business environment that affected everyone in our industry. Most of the well-funded Dot-com competitors had burnt out their funding. Many had ceased operations.

Singapore was hit with SARS in March 2003. It was a national health disaster; a most unfortunate event to hit Singapore. Ironically, out of the disaster, I saw a break for the business. It provided the reason for our customers to use e-learning.

The opportunity was not just for our company but also for others in our industry. So we acted fast. We were the first to craft the message of using e-learning in times of emergency school closures. We ramped up the sales and operations department in anticipation of more interest and more business.

Our hunch turned out to be right. A year prior to SARS, MOE had stopped a pilot project to provide a centralized learning management system for all schools.

Technologically advanced Singapore could not afford to have schools caught off guard by SARS without an e-learning solution. Schools were issued a directive to seek suitable solutions from the industry. Funding became available for schools to acquire solutions.

Prior to this, we had spent three years getting our products and services ready for that moment. We saw the opportunity and ramped up our operations. Sales grew by 50% per annum for the next 4 years.

Bill Gates was once asked how he became the richest man on earth. He said, “First, I was in the right place at the right time. Second, I saw the vision. Third and most important, I took action.”

He was situated at a time when desktop computing was becoming a possibility. He was not unique to the situation. There were 4 billion people living on earth at that time. He saw the opportunity that others may have missed, a vision that software will be needed to drive the hardware that will become increasingly popular.

Most important of all, he did not sit on his vision. He acted on it decisively.

Moments will come in your business when opportunities present themselves. Be sharp to spot them and decisive to act on them.

Yee Jenn Jong is the founder of e-learning services provider ASKnLearn Pte Ltd.

ASKnLearn was started in January 2000 as a 4-man start-up to provide online education services for schools. It survived the NASDAQ dotcom crash of April 2000, recession and intense competition to become a profitable and top e-learning provider in Singapore with staff strength of 150 by the time it was sold to a public listed firm in 2007.

Jenn Jong has since started another two companies and is mentoring other start-ups. He shares Steve Jobs’ belief that in life, it is better to stay hungry and to stay foolish. Jenn Jong is currently also a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament in Singapore’s 12th Parliament.

Photo: zzkt

Projects like Bizhub 28 @ Chai Chee, slated to be completed by 2013, will have a pool, barbecue pits, and a gym. The developer hopes to attract foreign firms and yes — new tech businesses.

Another upcoming development, Oxley BizHub, will also add some swag to its design. Beyond bragging rights, such an environment makes workers more productive.

“We believe that injecting a bit of ‘lifestyle’ into our projects encourages people to be more productive at work. It helps to have a lot of greenery and a nice area to work in,” said Oxley Rising CEO Ching Chiat Kwong.

Also, watch out for Asia Square, located in the Central Business District, which will have a 32,000 sq ft gym and a fully sheltered landscape plaza.

Many existing office buildings in Singapore already contain similar facilities. Capital Tower, for instance, has a pool and an indoor golf club on its ground floor.

But while such perks are nice to have, these alone aren’t always enough to retain the best and the brightest, a Google survey found out. When the Internet giant asked its employees what they valued the most at work, their answers were surprising.

What they most wanted was access to “even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.”

Even an attractive salary package didn’t come up on top.

So it turns out that the intangibles, like company culture, matter a whole lot too. Stuffing yourself full with the best gourmet food provided by the company isn’t therapy enough for a horrible, David Brent-ish boss, it turns out. It just makes you fat.

Photo: WoJianWuWei