The Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) Conference is an annual event organised by the five EDCs in strategic partnership with SPRING Singapore, aimed at providing information and advice to SMEs in areas like financial and human resources management, branding and overseas expansion. It is also a platform to encourage SMEs to upgrade their core capabilities, leveraging on relevant government assistance programmes.
By the myBusiness techblog team
In an effort to inspire and enable SMEs to remain competitive and grow confidently, the five Enterprise Development Centres (EDCs) comprising EDC@ASME (Association of Small and Medium Enterprises), EDC@SCCCI (Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry), EDC@SICCI (Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry), EDC@SMF (Singapore Manufacturers Federation) and EDC@SMCCI (Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry), jointly organised the fifth EDC Conference, held on 25 March 2013 at MAX Atria @ Singapore EXPO.
The event saw distinguished speakers from home-grown enterprises and leading organisations sharing key business practices as well as offering deeper insights into current market trends to more than 1,000 attendees.
Broadening government support and deepening resources to enable SME growth
The Guest-of-Honour, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Mr Teo Ser Luck, kick started the event by expressing the Government’s intention to help local SMEs expand overseas and penetrate emerging Asian markets through broadening support and deepening resources.
Apart from working closely with banks to make loans easily accessible for SMEs, the Government also offers schemes and grants to ease the challenges of growing SMEs. Mr Teo also unveiled plans to build new SME Centres located at business hubs as well as in the heartlands. These centres will be set up to make it convenient for SMEs to seek assistance, and will be fully functional in April 2013. Mr Teo also encouraged SMEs to come forward for help and emphasised the importance of upgrading themselves in order to succeed.
Improving productivity is the key to establish presence in the local economy
Keynote speaker Mr Sani Hamid, Director of Wealth Management (Economy and Strategy), Financial Alliance Pte Ltd, took the stage next and provided the audience with a different perspective of the Budget 2013.
“We need to look at the budget as a platform for policy extension and execution. The policy trend is pretty clear—since 2010 budgets were focused heavily on productivity capabilities and labour,” said Mr Sani. “This year, the budget is set to help SMEs boost productivity to encourage growth.”
He further explained growth drivers—which comprise of capital, workforce, infrastructure and productivity—and how current economic and land constraints leave SMEs with little options on ways to grow, apart from enhancing output.
The audience also gained valuable insights on what to expect in the coming fiscal year. With the stabilising economy with Asia at the forefront, SMEs can anticipate a stronger consumer demand in the region. He also cautioned on the influx of liquidity into the local economy, which may translate to:
- A stronger currency which may disadvantage import/export businesses
- Higher interest rates, causing higher loan rates
- Higher operating costs
Mr Sani then discussed global and domestic market trends SMEs should look out for. In 2018, it is projected that Asian emerging markets will have a large economic share of the global GDP; thus making it beneficial for SMEs to venture into these economies. Domestic trends are pointing towards a shrinking domestic workforce, a mature but better qualified domestic labour, and an ageing consumer market.
“For any enterprise selling Hello Kitties, it might be time for you to rethink your business!” Mr Sani joked.
Transforming businesses and healthy corporate cultures a formula for success
The EDC Conference also showcased home-grown companies that shared business practices that transformed them into household names.
Steven Yeah, Managing Director of Valuemax Group Pte Ltd, gave a talk entitled “Transforming a traditional business to remain competitive”. Hailing from a traditional industry of money-lending, Mr Yeah shared the challenges of being in a family-owned business, highlighting staff recruitment being a recurring issue. To overcome this, he formalised the hiring process by putting candidates through tests to ascertain candidate suitability.
Mr Yeah also touched on business practices that Valuemax Group employed that led to high revenue and cost reductions, such as:
- Conducting inventory analytics to ensure efficient supply chains and reduced inventory costs
- Experimenting with different advertising methods to see what works, and what doesn’t
- Regularly measuring the results of Valuemax Group
To add value to the enterprise, Valuemax Group leveraged on the SPRING Innovation and Capability Voucher (ICV) and was able to engage external consultants to improve their business operations.
Next, Mr Lim Hock Chee, CEO of Sheng Siong Group Ltd, spoke about the importance of creating a good corporate culture. Since the establishment of Sheng Siong Group, the supermarket chain has evolved from three outlets to 33 island-wide. Mr Lim attributed the success to his belief—that enterprise heads need to have a positive outlook and be proactive in offering employees career opportunities.
“It is vital for a leader to be generous to his employees and invest in their continuous improvement—employees will strive to work harder when they understand that they too can benefit from the growth of the company. It is also important to create conducive working environments, as I believe this will help promote productivity and a sense of belonging,” added Mr Lim.
Utilising technology to further business growth
“Introducing technology as a necessary tool to bring businesses further” was the main thrust of the next speaker’s presentation entitled “Demystifying New Technologies: How businesses can leverage on new technologies to grow their business”.
According to Mr Blake, an ASEAN Collaboration Executive at IBM, big organisations are fast embracing social media as an effective way to reach out to potential customers; social media is also a useful platform to bridge the gap between customers and employees by increasing transparency.
A strong advocator of technology, Mr Blake shared with the audience the importance to leveraging technology such as office automation, cloud technology and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), technologies to reach business goals. This allowed organisations to enjoy cost savings on its operational overheads. He also spoke about the next trend being Big Data, and its limitless potential in providing insight on customers through analysing quantitative data.
Mr Blake then gave a demonstration on building communities of influence—a platform for customers to voice their opinions as a means of deepening customer relationships.
Advocating the benefits of a solid IT infrastructure while tapping on governmental schemes
The end of the first half of the EDC Conference was concluded with a panel discussion that included presentation speakers as panellists and Mr Akbar Kader, Chairman of EDC@SMCCI, as the moderator. During the lively discussion, the audience received tips on how to efficiently manage their business inventory and overcoming problems by conducting analysis with the help of a good IT infrastructure. Several types of available government grants were also discussed, and how Singaporean businesses could benefit from them.
During the second half of the conference, workshops were conducted to help attendees gain more knowledge on capital utilisation and social media to help bring their businesses further. SPRING Singapore, WDA and IRAS also headed a workshop to create more awareness on the available government schemes aimed at improving business productivity and employee training. They also provided answers to attendees on how to best choose and participate in these schemes.