News Stop: 3 July 2006

Today, we gather different news from the blogosphere and the mainstream media on the recent 5th Singapore Promising Branding Awards, more youth entrepreneurship in play and also company culture.

While the editorial board is busy gearing up for some new developments for the blog, here are some news from the blogosphere and mainstream media which might be of interest to the media.

1. Coen Ching wrote a small piece about business position and the lessons he drawn from the recent 5th Promising Brand Awards, organized by the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) and Lian He Zao Bao. In his article he equate branding with business positioning. Of course, branding is a tool to grow the market share by the company. Branding is a form of marketing that gives the company access to a user base and new clients. Growth strategies are slightly different in that respect. Well, nevertheless, it is citizen journalism at work to report on the event. It will have been great if there are pictures of the occasion taken and more about the winners in the evening.
2. Ken from SimpleBusiness.org, who often drop insightful commentaries to our blog second to Claris (discounting our contributors), talks about the corporate culture of startup companies. He feels that consistency builds the company culture, which I believe is interesting. It seem to coincide with the corporate culture in most good companies in Singapore, for example Singapore Airlines (where consistency is part of their corporate culture). He also views that leadership is an important component of the whole startup setup. I think that a lot of time, Asians must understand that speed is an important quality for a startup. If you are working for the startup, forget about the wait and just get on with some initiative. If you can deliver something with a sense of commitment, quality and responsibility, I feel that you are suitable for a startup.
3. Straits Times, our mainstream media talks about “more youths becoming their own bosses” today. What is redundant from that news clip is the mentioning of that the examination grades of the entrepreneurs are not affected. The main question that we should pose is what kind of challenges and motivation spur these young entrepreneurs to start their own companies. After all, ST can use the statistic in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report published by the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre that has shown that more youth are starting up their own companies, particularly from the tertiary institutions.

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