Speech by SMS Koh Poh Koon at the Emerging Enterprise Awards 2018

SPEECH BY DR KOH POH KOON, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY, AT THE EMERGING ENTERPRISE AWARDS 2018 ON 21 SEPTEMBER 2018, 7.45PM AT THE RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1             Good evening. It gives me great pleasure to join you tonight for the 11th edition of the Emerging Enterprise Award. I am glad to see how this event has grown over the years, and I would like to commend The Business Times (BT), OCBC Bank, and its supporting partners for organising this event to recognise promising enterprises.

Innovation for Growth

2             The Emerging Enterprise Award recognises excellence in innovation by some of Singapore’s most promising startups and high-growth enterprises. And rightly so – as time and again it has been proven that innovation is a critical ingredient of business success. Just as how Fujifilm overtook industry leader Kodak in the early 2000s by embracing digital disruption and developing new products, we see today how e-commerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba maintain their global lead by relentlessly building new businesses and technologies.

3             Disruptive forces are present in every industry today – in the form of new technologies, tighter operating constraints, and more simply, changes in consumer demand patterns. Most businesses are aware that they must invest some level of resources into exploring new opportunities, markets, and capabilities. However, the more successful enterprises are those which move swiftly to innovate, are willing to face obstacles head-on, and leverage the latest technologies to find the best solutions.

4             Take for example two startups that are among this year’s top 15 finalists – AEvice Health and Endomaster Pte Ltd. Both companies focused on applying new technologies to challenges in the medical sector, which yielded top-class innovations in their respective fields. AEvice Health used artificial intelligence to create a device that helps asthmatic patients monitor and better control their conditions. The device also serves to alert caregivers in the event of an impending asthma attack. Endomaster leveraged robotics to develop a surgical robot that facilitates the removal of cancerous tumours without the need for incisions, thus reducing the need for higher-risk open and keyhole surgeries.

5             Yet, innovation is not restricted to companies in deep technology sectors like engineering, healthcare and biomedical sciences. Thinking about innovation this way is not only limiting – it becomes unnecessarily daunting to business owners in traditional sectors, who may conclude that innovation is “beyond” their focus or reach.

Government Support for Enterprises and Workers

6             Innovation is equally about finding better ways of doing things, such as improving day-to-day business operations. This spirit is exemplified by Gurney Drive (GD) Group, a Penang-style restaurant chain in the Food Services industry. In 2015, the company won the Emerging Enterprise Award for its many investments in innovation, one of which was to develop its own resource planning system to improve accuracy in tracking inventory and costs.

7             GD Group has continued to embark on new projects, including several projects to automate food manufacturing processes in its central kitchen, with the support of the Capability Development Grant from Enterprise Singapore. Today, GD Group’s efforts have reaped significant improvements to its business operations. For instance, it is now capable of manufacturing sauces in-house, which affords it better control over food quality and cost management. A redesign of kitchen workflow processes in 2017 has also enabled the company to save 1,318 man-hours per month, representing a productivity improvement of 75%, and freeing up workers to take on higher value-added tasks. Taken together, these improvements have increased its central kitchen production capacity, allowing GD Group to grow its catering arm in line with revenue persification. I encourage more enterprises to follow in its lead.

8             The Government stands ready to support enterprises in seizing new opportunities, whether through innovation, capability building, or international expansion. Enterprise Singapore offers differentiated programmes that span the various stages of a company’s lifecycle. As such, support is available to startups and emerging enterprises, as well as to mature and more established players, regardless of industry sector. However, the onus remains on companies to first take ownership of their growth by taking steps in the right direction.

9             As we encourage our enterprises to keep up with the times, employees should also be given the opportunity to pick up the knowledge and skills required to contribute meaningfully. This is because an environment which is both pro-business and pro-worker is necessary for Singapore to achieve both economic growth and social progress in a sustainable manner, rather than one at the expense of the other.

10          In this respect, Singapore’s strong tripartite cooperation among the Government, employers, and unions plays a vital role. NTUC can act as a bridge between emerging enterprises and the Government to equip our workers with the right skill sets, even as those enterprises grow and transform.

Collaboration in Singapore’s Business Community

11          I recognise that my audience this evening is likely to be more enlightened about the importance of making the right investments today for future growth, as compared to the average business owner. Events such as the Emerging Enterprise Award remain important in light of differences in the level of awareness across businesses. The Award not only celebrates the hard work and leadership of our most promising businesses, but also profiles their stories to inspire others in their own journeys of entrepreneurship.

12          In this vein, I urge the Award finalists and winners to share your experiences and learnings with the wider business community. This will help to foster a culture of intra-industry collaboration and co-innovation among our businesses, which can unlock new prospects, even for those that are leading the pack. And at the economy level, having strong clusters and inter-linkages will further strengthen Singapore’s competitive edge in the global economy.

13           I am heartened to hear that OCBC, along with Singtel and other companies, has partnered with the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) to provide exclusive benefits to startups and emerging enterprises under the ACE Startups Membership. This is an excellent example of large organisations giving back to the business community and helping smaller enterprises to succeed. I hope to see more organisations doing the same, because such efforts will in the long run nurture a more vibrant corporate ecosystem, with benefits for everyone – companies and workers alike.

Conclusion

14          On this note, I would like to congratulate all finalists and award winners, and wish you all the best in your business endeavours.

15          Thank you.