It was an honest stripped down Howie Lau and Stanley Tan we saw. Mr Lau is the General Manager and Executive Director, Lenovo ASEAN/Korea; while Mr Tan is the Chairman of the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre. Both speakers were engaging, sincere and spoke freely when questions were asked. It was like a two-hour long mass mentoring session (quite a good number in the audience).

The session was split into three sections with moderator Prof Tan of SMU spending 20 mins each with Mr Lau and Mr Tan, and lastly a panel discussion with the two speakers on stage.

20 MINUTES WITH MR HOWIE LAU

When you were in NUS, did you have any idea what you were going to do?

I didn’t think very hard about what I wanted to do, except that I wanted to join a marketing organization. Didn’t matter which industry, as long as it’s marketing.

I wanted to equip myself with the skills to run my own company in 10 years. Slowly got me to where I wanted to be. Till today, not my own boss yet, I am still working for someone else, but one day.

On luck

Luck has a lot to play in what I am today. For example, my first round interviewer at Lenovo had been in the same secondary school as me. I believe that luck is a function of preparation meeting opportunity. You must be prepared enough such that you will be able to harness an opportunity when you chance upon one.

“Luck is a function of preparation meeting opportunity.”

What happens if you have an employee who is a very poor performer?

The hardest thing in a job is to release someone. But if we are in a competitive environment, if a fish can’t swim, and you can’t change the water, you gotta change the fish.

An even more difficult situation is when the company is downsizing. Then it is not about a show of poor performance from the employee, it is about telling them that the job is no longer available.

In all situations, a boss needs to handle it with the right level of dignity and respect. The soon-to-be laid off employee may not like the news, but they’ll appreciate your respect.

Do you constantly switch your leadership styles? Or do you maintain one style?

A mentor once told me that I needed to steer away from being too people-dependent to be more dependent on metrics or KPIs. If not, it would be harder to scale. In a big organization, I will not be able to have the same level of attention with every single person.

One thing I’ll always remember though is to never become the boss I would love to hate.

“Don’t ever become the boss you love to hate.”

On networking: how to build and keep those networks?

There is an art and science to it. Science is when I practise scanning all my namecards and write notes on each person. Perhaps where we met, what we talked about. This helps the next time I meet someone. Most of us like to be remembered one way or another.

“Most of us like to be remembered one way or another.”

20 MINUTES WITH MR STANLEY TAN

On Giving

All giving is good. If you feel like you can only give time and effort, it’s a good thing. You don’t always have to donate. Once you are unwilling to give, it is no longer a gift.

On compassion

I don’t think you can teach compassion, but you can bring out compassion in people. As long as your money can do good, I’m willing to take it from you.

Giving empowers

I think very often we measure what we achieve by what we get. But more important, it’s what other people receive from what we do. Giving empowers as you can feel the effect on those other pple who are blessed by what you did.

How to encourage people to give money?

All of us have two sides, a good side and a dark side. I don’t think giving is something you have to sell to people; people know it’s good. I believe that most of my donors come forward because they will be achieving something they have always wanted to achieve all along. To succeed, you need to be able to align causes and beliefs.

Mission trips abroad

Very often volunteer trips are thought with volunteers in mind but little goes to thinking what the host group gets out of you. You don’t have to go to a poor community to know what poverty is. But if you want to go and serve them, make sure you have a true serving element in there.

[The author would like to add that many 'mission trips' or volun-tours only contain a very small part of actual volunteering. 90% of your itinerary could be spent 'exploring landmarks' aka tourist spots. Please check carefully and make sure you are truly doing something good for the society. Don't help build a school when they don't even have homes.]

What is lacking in young people today?

I think Singaporeans are trained to be great managers. Trained to perform, meet KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). I would encourage pple to be purpose-driven rather that just achievement-driven.

“Giving empowers.”

PANEL DISCUSSION WITH MR HOWIE LAU AND MR STANLEY TAN

Oxymoron? Students forced to do Community Involvement Programme in schools

A student asked if Stanley thought that the CIP scheme in schools was an oxymoron, whereby students need to volunteer for 6 hours to fulfill their curriculum. Stanley believes that in itself, it’s a good opportunity. But the way that we have implemented it does more harm than good. For young kids, it is more important to expose them to volunteerism rather than for them to actually volunteer. It is more important for them to understand the values that the programme espouses. And these lessons will be much more valuable than say getting them to clean drains or toilets or shelf library books.

The problem is that the CIP is usually run by teachers who themselves don’t like the task anyway. So while Stanley is for CIP, he is against how the CIP has been implemented.

Insincere Corporate Social Responsibility programmes in companies?

While arguments against CSR programmes cite anything from insincerity and ‘for marketing hype’, both Mr Tan and Mr Lau agree that no matter the intention behind the CSR programme, if it does enable good to be brought about, that’s all that matters.

What is a distinguishing trait between a leader and a follower?

Again, Mr Lau emphasized the importance of people skills and he believes that a lot of what makes a leader boils down to that. The reason why is that these skills enable the leader to help guide the group along. But one can also be a leader yet be a follower at other times.

What are businesses that really bring about social change?

Instead of answering with types or industries of businesses, Mr Tan replied that he believes that the most effective form of social change is actually economic development. Nothing is more sustainable than the good economy of a nation. And thus, a good businessman is a great problem-solver and is helping society change for the better.

But there will also be pockets that you can’t solve with economic development. While not a global panacea, a good economy with integrity and social consciousness will uplift far more people and provide a good basis for social change.

“The most effective form of social change is actually economic development.”

How does a person find a purpose for oneself?

Mr Tan gave the example of YellowPages. The company has always been taught that their purpose is to print yellow-paged thick phonebook. But they forget that this 3-inch thick wad is actually a search engine whose purpose is to help people search for what they want to find. Being purpose-driven is a question of first understanding your mission.

Being purpose-driven is a question of first understanding your mission.

As part of the international movement Global Entrepreneurship Week, one of the upcoming events for the Singapore chapter will see the NUS Business School’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy and the NUS Business School Alumni Association brings us a forum on social entrepreneurship.

The details are as follows:

Date: November 20, 2008 (Thursday)
Time: 10 am – 12.30 pm
Venue: Hon Sui Sen Auditorium, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore [map]
Fee: Participation is free-of-charge

Guest of Honor: Mr Stanley Tan, Chairman of National Volunteer and Philanthropy Center (NVPC)

We have lined up 4 local social entrepreneurs as the forum speakers. They will share with the forum participants their experience running their respective social enterprises. These 4 speakers are as follows:

(1) Ms Kala Karkal of Dignity Links, a social enterprise which runs a cafe, Barista Express, that employs individuals with psychiatric disabilities;

(2) Mr Lance Ng of GAT (Gift and Take), a social enterprise which works with various marginalized, disadvantaged individuals and communities to produce handcrafted gift items;

(3) Mr Tong Yee of School of Thought (a tuition center that offers tuition at subsidized rates for needy students and that also challenges students to become social activists) and Food for Thought (a restaurant that channels profits to support needy students of School of Thought, as well as various social causes); and

(4) Mr Wilson Ang of ECO (Environmental Challenge Organization) Singapore, a social enterprise which promotes awareness of environmental challenges and conservation, and sustainable development.

The forum will include a question-and-answer session with the 4 speakers. A catered buffet lunch will follow at 12:30 pm.

This forum will be part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) initiative scheduled from November 17 to 23. GEW is a global initiative by Kauffman Foundation and Make Your Mark. Into its second year running, GEW has attracted participants from more than 62 countries. This forum will be an exciting opportunity for individuals to engage in an inspiring and intellectually stimulating session. This forum aims to create greater awareness of the potential of social entrepreneurship in addressing social challenges and problems.

If you are keen to attend this forum, please send an email to Albert Teo at albertteo@nus.edu.sg with the following particulars:

Name:
Contact No:
Email Address:
Organisation/School: