Chief Operating Officer for NTUC Club and
Alignment Director for nEbO, Mr Lim Eng Lee,
Organising committee for YES 2014,
Students,
Good morning.
1. Thank you for inviting me to be your guest of honour at the Youth Entrepreneurship Symposium 2014. It brings me great pleasure to spend this morning in the company of such enthusiastic young people. I am glad that so many students have chosen to spend precious days of your school vacation to learn about entrepreneurship.
Journey of Entrepreneurship
2. Entrepreneurship is crucial for our economy. Start-ups add vibrancy, create jobs and are often contributors to innovation by bringing in new ideas. Some of these ideas result in the creation of new market segments. For instance, Facebook and Whatsapp were pioneers in developing the social networking industry and the cross-platform mobile messaging industry respectively. They are, of course, globally successful today.
3. However, being an entrepreneur is not easy. Entrepreneurs typically have to work long hours, often seven days a week. At the start of their journey, they have to deal with all aspects of their business, and might play the role of chief executive, financial controller, marketing director and product developer all at the same time. It is challenging and the reality is that not all start-ups will survive. Even fewer will become successful. In Singapore, about 50% of all start-ups will cease operations by their fifth year[1]. Achieving success as an entrepreneur requires that you start with a good idea that you believe in, and that you press on despite roadblocks and hurdles along the way.
Strong entrepreneurial support in Singapore
4. Since encountering hurdles on the path to success is inevitable, entrepreneurs will need to be very resourceful. In Singapore, entrepreneurs can look to different sources of support for assistance. For instance, the Action Community for Entrepreneurship, or ACE for short, links entrepreneurs with experienced mentors to guide them, and facilitates networking sessions for them to expand their business opportunities.
5. The Government also provides strong support for start-ups in terms of funding and infrastructure, and will continue to do so. There are a variety of schemes to provide seed funding for innovative start-ups that have a unique value proposition.
6. We have also provided infrastructure to support start-ups. One such example is Block 71 at Ayer Rajah Crescent. It has successfully developed into a close-knit community where entrepreneurs can easily mingle to network, gain contacts and get advice. To further grow this vibrant community, we are building two more blocks – Block 73 and Block 79 in the area, with the whole development to become a start-up hub named JTC LaunchPad @ one-north. Through this, we hope to create an environment with a strong entrepreneurial vibe that will benefit start-ups. At the same time, we hope that the LaunchPad will attract more international entrepreneurs, investors and incubators to set up their bases in Singapore.
Nurturing the entrepreneurial mindset
7. Our support for entrepreneurship has resulted in an increasingly vibrant start-up scene. Entrepreneurial activity has increased, with the number of active start-ups growing 58% from 24,000 to 39,000 in 2012. We also have more start-ups achieving successful exits, with 12 start-ups being acquired in 2013 compared to a solitary exit back in 2006.
8. However, for the start-up scene in Singapore to continue to grow, we need to do more to nurture the entrepreneurial mindset. That is why investing in you, our youths, the future leaders of our economy, is important to us.
9. Some of you may have experienced school programmes, such as the ACE Schools, which is a structured three-year entrepreneurship programme for secondary schools. The curriculum includes hands-on learning experiences for students, through partnership with entrepreneurial companies. For example, Outram Secondary School works closely with Ya Kun International to inspire their students to be entrepreneurs. Executive Chairman of Ya Kun, Adrin Loi, has shared his entrepreneurial journey with students from Outram Secondary School through a dialogue session. Students from the Outram Entrepreneurship Club, which runs their own café on campus, also visited Ya Kun to learn best practices to apply to their café.
10. As part of its Incubator Development Program for tertiary institutions, SPRING Singapore is also supporting tertiary students with innovative business ideas. Students will receive a small project grant to fund and develop their ideas further and to encourage them to launch actual businesses in the future. These efforts will continue, to progressively build up the spirit of entrepreneurship in our younger generation and in society.
11. I am happy to see that nEbO has made significant contributions to foster the entrepreneurial spirit, especially among our students. The Youth Entrepreneurship Symposium has grown and is in its seventh year. nEbO has also inspired students to start their own businesses. One example is Mr Chin Chan Kai, Chairperson of Y.E.S. in 2012, who has set up an online business of creating mobile phone covers with unique graphics and creative design typography. I hope that more of you will be inspired to be entrepreneurs through this event. You will have a chance to sell your ideas at the Quick Pitch Challenge during the symposium.
Applying the entrepreneurial mindset
12. Even if you eventually decide that being an entrepreneur is not for you, I hope that you imbibe the spirit of entrepreneurial thinking. Forbes magazine ran an article earlier this year titled “We Are All Entrepreneurs: It’s A Mindset, Not A Business Model”[2]. The article argues that being entrepreneurial is essentially about thinking and doing something that we have not done before, in order to achieve a desirable goal or outcome. I agree with this. Entrepreneurship is all about thinking innovatively and acting on new ideas. We need not confine the idea of entrepreneurship to that of starting a business. The spirit of entrepreneurship is equally needed and valuable if you are an employee in the private sector, or even if you work in the public sector.
Conclusion
13. In closing, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the young and dedicated organising committee for successfully putting together yet another instalment of this symposium. I hope that all of you – organisers, facilitators and participants – will have a fruitful time over the next three days. Take the opportunity to ask questions, challenge yourself to think out of the box, and actively participate in the activities.
14. In accordance with the theme of this symposium, I hope that you will “take the leap”, and wish you all the best in your pursuing your dreams. Thank you.
[1] Computed by SPRING with data from DOS
[2] “We Are All Entrepreneurs: It’s A Mindset, Not A Business Model.” Donna M. De Carolis, 9 Jan 2014.