An Empirical Analysis of the Singapore Entrepreneurship Ecosystem: A Case Study For BRIC Economies to Ponder

Abstract

This paper examines the current status of entrepreneurship take-up rate amongst tertiary students and graduates in the Singapore environment. A study was conducted recently—incorporating a questionnaire survey, one-on-one interviews, secondary research and a stakeholders’ analysis in the entrepreneurship ecosystem . In this paper, the author hypothesizes the disconnection amongst social attitudes, public policies, integration factors and market size amongst others—as roadblocks that might have affected the growth of a world-class knowledge-based enterprise pool. He is also concerned that traditional norms of targeting salaried jobs as careers had caused prevailing situations of unemployment and underemployment amongst tertiary graduates. His strategies proposed include marrying “knowledge practitioners” to an enterprise mechanism as the solution to build financial self-sufficiency and self-esteem.

The author thanks the readers for their attention and welcomes all constructive feedback. He is an active global entrepreneur consultant and educator and could be reached at wealthconsultant@yahoo.com.

1 Definition of Knowledge-Based Entrepreneurship

There are many definitions till date of what knowledge-based means. Many would agree that it is a prefix which means the integration of domain knowledge in the processes of businesses to add justifiable economic value comparing with similar businesses.

To the author, incorporating expert knowledge alone is insufficient to affect sustainable knowledge-based enterprise. Ideally, four more components, i.e. market knowledge, industry knowledge, area knowledge and cultural knowledge should be incorporated into the business model. Hence his definition is:

“Knowledge-based Entrepreneurship is a process of application and customization of a combination of domain, market, industry-specified, area and cultural knowledge to affect economically prudent and sustainable business venture”.

2 Scenario Analysis

Many people reading this paper would be puzzled why the world’s number one ranked country rated by the World Bank—for the ease of doing business is having problems in growing home-grown knowledge-based enterprises.

For almost two decades of globalization and a decade of synthesizing the software and hardware of the enterprise infrastructure through government initiatives and incentives, why is there still a lack of interest in enterprise take-up rate? Could it be because of the lack of capital formation opportunities? Or poorly implemented government policies? Could it be due to poor entrepreneurial execution knowledge? Or could be good jobs are just too easy to come by? Is it because of the minute size of the domestic market or the big government-linked corporations causing an oligopolistic environment which retards knowledge-based entrepreneurship?

According to the United Nations Human Development study of 38 highest human development countries, Singapore has one of the highest income gaps between the rich and the poor—indicated in the GINI Coefficient Index. It was also voted as the top 10 most expensive city in the world to live and do business by the UK Financial Times recently. These and many more questions lie behind the mindsets of those aspirers to embark entrepreneurship here. In sum, our problems are unique and complex.

With growing trends of unemployment, underemployment and volunteered early retirement, the author had decided to embark these issues to examine the root cause and formulate possible solutions for stakeholders in the Singapore entrepreneurship ecosystem to deliberate and decide. These major stakeholders would include: policy-makers, educators, parents, students and private sector participants amongst more than 60 groups being identified.

A simplified but relevant questionnaire was conceptualized. The questionnaire survey was carried out involving 100 students from various universities and polytechnics. The results were collated, analysed and evaluated. This had led to a series of strategy proposals and to be implemented concurrently.

3 Introduction

Singapore is a small country by world standards. It is about 700 km² in geographic size. With a population of about 5 million, majority of local graduates seek employment in the city-state. Rarely would they embark on overseas’ career, though the trend had changed marginally in the last 10 years—as more were forced to take up jobs in regional emerging economies like China, India and the others. Generally, there are resistance in overseas’ postings due to family reasons and working within a comfort zone.

As a global trading hub and a leading financial centre in South-East Asia; Singapore’s competitive edge remains in the area of service. However, due to the impact of globalization and a continuing trend of inflation especially in big ticket items like residential real estate, cars and energy driven largely by an influx of foreign expatriates from the region; a scenario of upwards wage pressure to keep up with inflation, diminishing jobs for locals and the migration of jobs to lower cost jurisdictions became prevalent.

This situation had further depressed the salary scale of most Singaporean graduates. Hence, many caught in this predicament had to either follow the jobs and relocate—usually to emerging economies and leaving their families or to accommodate a situation of underemployment or worse, choose unemployment by choice.

These negative outcomes had also caused many stakeholders’ groups like parents, sponsors and students to rethink and re-evaluate the economic value of investing in tertiary education in Singapore—which could cost an average of US$80,000 per student for a 3-year undergraduate degree where many had finance through educational loans and/or the parents’ life savings.

From the author’s perspective, actions and reform on public policies can help to alleviate the current predicament. In many ways, the situation could also be converted into timely opportunities for individuals and the country to exploit.

4 Research Objectives

The objectives of the research include:

• 1. To identify to “gaps” and “cracks” in the current entrepreneurship ecosystem .

• 2. To discover the level of knowledge on entrepreneurship amongst students from different discipline.

• 3. To identify the knowledge and skill gaps to attain global-centric enterprise competence.

• 4. To examine the attitude of students towards starting a knowledge-based business against finding a salaried job.

• 5. To mitigate the problem of increased underemployment and unemployment amongst the graduate cohort.

• 6. To propose strategies to increase the number of knowledge-based entrepreneurs amongst local graduates.

5 Significance of Study

This study is intended to make significant contributions to the following stakeholders:

• To the students, they will discover the importance of acquiring not just entrepreneurial knowledge and mindsets but also enterprise competencies to work a profitable business from scratch in the midst of a prolonged global economic and political crisis.

• To the policy-makers, it will provide an alternative roadmap to achieve new milestones from an entrepreneurial perspective.

• Policy-makers and politicians would be less pressurized in trying to create “executive-level” jobs in an environment without real demand.

6 Literature Review

Take-up rate in knowledge-based entrepreneurship amongst tertiary graduates were deemed to be low in the Singapore context. Though she has been rated as the number one spot in the world for being the easiest place to do business (IFC 2009) and one of the most active participants amongst nations in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor; there seems to be some disconnections between people and policies from the perspective of entrepreneurship engagement amongst Singaporeans.

According to Tan and Yoo (2006) during a Ministerial Meeting on Entrepreneurship; he demonstrated concerns about the low take-up rate of the Entrepreneurial Talent Development Fund—an initiative to boost entrepreneurship amongst the three state-funded universities and five polytechnics in Singapore. The fund was started in 2004.

In 2006, Singh a Member of Parliament and Head of the action community for entrepreneurship taskforce also expressed reforms needed to streamline the existing capabilities schemes introduced by government agencies such as SPRING (Standards Productivity and Innovation Board) and IE Singapore (International Enterprise in short) and the Minister had taken note.

As it is, entrepreneurship has got a lot to do with mindsets, environment, opportunities, and personal qualities like risking taking, the ability to lead, take initiative and to work effectively in a team amongst others. Personal resilience as Coutu (2003 ) rightfully affirmed as a quality sought in employees.

Bennis and Thomas (2003) suggested that great leaders are people who are confident, loyal and dedicated. They believe that it has something to do with managing adversity. Referencing their views to the local context, many youths or Generation Y—as socially coined; have been a pretty protected breed in a prodigal sense. Dual income parents with domestic helpers in most families might have contributed to the weaknesses in character building.

Arikan (2010) concluded the entrepreneurship is a collective phenomenon and wronged researchers treating the process as an isolated component directed attention to individual entrepreneurs as a primary driver of entrepreneurial transformation to impact economies. He advocated the involvements of government at local level, research and education institutions, financial institutions, workforce in the region and even local socialites as information disseminators. The author believes that more private sector empowerment is necessary versus the current practice of having a statutory board—SPRING (Standard Productivity Innovation Growth Board) Singapore to facilitate the funding programmes. He is also of the opinion that the facilitation of entrepreneurial mindsets and business competencies across the nation should be funded by government programmes but with led by business leaders. On the whole, he agrees with Arikan’s philosophy.

For a service-based economy like Singapore, innovation is the key to maintaining sustainable economic growths. Drucker (1985) had pointed that most innovation were resulted from a conscious and purposeful search for opportunities. He adhered that discipline must be instituted in the work processes. He also emphasized that one needs to only look at simple, focused solutions to real problems when seeking innovation opportunities. In line with Drucker (1985)’s philosophy, the author is of the view that the current teaching of innovation as a subject is not prevalent and equitably spread across tertiary institutions in Singapore.

The issue of which model to adopt is always mind-boggling budding entrepreneurs. Bhide (2000) suggested “bootstrapping ” as the way to go. He advocated that the “big money model” of entrepreneurship with no track record and highly leveraged through venture capital or angels funding had failed in many cases as witnessed in the dot.com era of the early 2000s.

A study conducted by Inc. Magazine on the 500 fastest-growing U.S. start-ups also attested the value of using bootstrapping as a strategy. From a Singapore perspective, the author supports this view and has developed a microenterprise model named the 100K Enterprise Model, incorporating similar principles.

Bhide (2000 ) advocated seven principles to increase the odds of success for start-ups. These include:

• Start operation fast

• Quick break-even

• Select cash generating projects

• Offer high-margin products or services through business-to-consumer model

• Audit growth

• Focus on cash flow

• Build banking relationships

• and do-it-yourself versus hiring.

Matching these principles with the author’s 100K Enterprise Model, there were many similarities. However, the latter has clearly defined standards and criteria like selecting projects with a 20 % or more profit margins, break-even within 9 months and adhering to international financial reporting standards amongst other qualitative measures.

Isenberg (2010) in his article entitled “How to Start an Entrepreneurial Revolution” also advocated that start-ups should not be given easy money. An overcapitalized new venture is likely to burn more cash and expend unwisely. He also stressed that many government had used misguided policies to address entrepreneurship issues. The author is of the view that some of Isenberg’s virtues could be applied in the Singapore context and would investigate further.

Bygrave and Hunt (2004) had identified the average start-up capital required by entrepreneurs in business service and consumer-oriented sector. Their findings in The GEM Report concluded that the “necessity-based” consumer product or service model requires an average start-up capital of about US$25,000 versus the “opportunity-driven” business service model which need a bigger budget of US$76,000. For start-ups with intention to employ 10 person or more after launching for 5 years would need an average of US$113,000 as start-up capital.

Though the above are just ballpark figures to work a business; it gives budding entrepreneurs a good reference regarding the sufficiency of capital usage.

Fenn (2010) observed the practice of extreme collaboration, technology exploitation, game changing, brand building, social capitalism and redefining work culture by Generation Y entrepreneurs. She had also affirmed that less than 5 % of start-ups had actually scaled beyond the US$1 million mark in annual revenue intake. Her work as a journalist was admirable. The author sees the relevance that the model could be franchised to many “knowledge-rich” communities including Singapore and pockets within BRIC nations. He advocates start-up entrepreneurs to take courage and open a wider net—crossing borders to invite global partnerships—in the spirit of building world-class enterprises from the beginning.

In an article entitled, “The Global Entrepreneur”, Isenberg (2008) cited examples of some start-ups had attempted business across borders from day one and not necessarily to follow the past patterns where companies were built in their home turf for years before crossing borders. He also suggested to entrepreneurs to exploit the “Diaspora” networks where people capitalizes on their ethnic origins to penetrate new markets, especially the emerging ones—where the overseas Indians and Chinese had done so.

As the domestic market in Singapore is small, the author is of the view that knowledge-based start-ups must have a global vision from the very start. The business model should be global-centric though mobilization into foreign markets must be meticulously planned and could progress with progressive geographical proximity like within 4 h radius in flight time or serving clientele base from a different time zone, i.e. New York and Europe .

Khanna et al. (2005) in an article entitled “Strategies That Fit Emerging Markets ” cited the challenges in penetrating emerging markets. He observed that the “institutional voids” occurring in many markets including the BRICS (i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China) lacks efficiencies in their intermediaries, regulatory systems and contract-enforcing methods—though at varying degree amongst markets. Though written from the perspectives of multinational corporations, the author sees the relevance of these issues for knowledge-based enterprises going regional.

To conclude, Bhide (2000) affirmed that most promising start-ups in the U.S. environment only contributed to 5–10 % of the total establishments. The others remain as “marginal” microenterprises. He also asserted the public policies cannot promote the formation and evolution of new business to a significant degree. Government initiatives tend to be “lagging” mechanisms. The author agrees with Bhide to a large degree. The below 10 % figure stated could be drawn from well-funded start-ups that were born by established entities like a research arm of a transnational enterprise of a product of Massachusetts Institute of Technology to set an example.

However, he is of the view that public policies at least in the Singapore context could help in many ways to alleviate the “pain” factors of microenterprises and start-ups. According to statistics, more than the simple majority of SMEs reported less than S$1 million in annual revenue collection. This reflects the limitations of a small domestic market as well as weak “brand” marketing amongst most SMEs.

Status, recognition and trust were also being discussed by Bhide (2000). In societies like Singapore, start-up entrepreneurs still hold low self-esteem.

This literature review is not an exhaustive one. It is intended to give readers a gauge of the author’s level of knowledge and passion in the topic, as well as to indicate the scope and depth of research he has endeavoured.

7 Research Methodology and Design

This study basically employs a descriptive method through observations, interviews and questionnaire survey. This is partly to keep resources and costs manageable within reasonable time allocated.

The author designed and conducted the survey and interview personally within the proximity of targeted institutions—including three publicly funded universities, five polytechnics, government-approved private universities within the institutions, as well as public libraries across Singapore.

The survey and interview had included contents in the following areas:

• Perception of entrepreneurship

• Knowledge and exposure in entrepreneurial learning across different disciplines, i.e. engineering, information technology, sciences, business administration, accountancy, arts and social sciences, etc.

• Perception of entrepreneurship as a life skill

• Perception of the social status of entrepreneurs in the singapore context

• Perception of global credentialing of entrepreneurs

• Preferences for entrepreneurial learning contents, pedagogies and assessments

• Motivating factors to start enterprise in the Singapore context

• Knowledge and of government initiatives and level of institutional support, i.e. university’s entrepreneurship club and society and government financial assistance scheme targeting start-ups

• Level of enterprise competence

• Level of interests to engage entrepreneurship before or upon graduation

• Reasons for not taking up

• Respondents’ inputs (open-ended questions), such as under what circumstances and terms will they choose to engage entrepreneurship immediately upon graduation.

• Structured interviews (consisting “What-if” Questions) to confirm the “gaps” and “cracks”.

8 Delimitation of Data

As an academic exercise, it was financially imprudent and difficult for the author to attain bigger sample size of 400–500 student population spread equitably across every faculty of learning and to every tertiary institution in Singapore. However, this has been mitigated by drawing inputs from some practising entrepreneurs and managers about their views of the Singapore’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Despite the aforementioned, not all data could be captured by drawing opinions and feedback from the respondent pool. Areas like securities legislation, capital markets formation with regards to new venture creations and the process of re-engineering in the training and development process for global-centric entrepreneurs are beyond the current level knowledge of amongst tertiary students with little or no enterprise experience. This was where empirical observations, secondary research and the author’s expertise had complemented in narrowing the limitations.

9 Survey Findings, Analysis and Evaluation

The questionnaire survey was conducted in the month of July 2011. Candidates participated include students from the following institutions:

• 1. National University of Singapore (NUS)

• 2. Singapore Management University (SMU)

• 3. Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

• 4. University of Singapore Institute of Management (UNISIM)

• 5. Murdoch University (Australia)/Kaplan Higher Education Singapore

• 6. University of Western Australia

• 7. University of Wollongong (Australia)/PSB Academy Singapore

• 8. University of Newcastle (Australia)/PSB Academy

• 9. University of Buffalo (New York, USA)/SIM Global Education

• 10. Temasek Polytechnic

• 11. Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS)

The questionnaire survey took about 2 weeks to conceptualize, design and test. It took another 4 weeks for data collection from students within the tertiary institutions from the above mentioned and also in public space like the National Library.

10 Survey Findings

The results of the questionnaire survey include:

• More than 80 % of those surveyed are passionate to start and run a successful business.

• 57.6 % had indicated sufficient knowledge and skill to initiate business.

• Only 10 % had indicated that they will not support such initiative.

• Only 53.4 % had indicated that they have to financial means to raise a sum of S$10,000 of risk capital.

• 94 % had voted that entrepreneurial knowledge and skill set is best learned through experienced entrepreneurs versus pure academics.

• 81 % had endorsed the team-based model to improve the odds of start-up support by financiers and sustainability.

• Only 16 % of respondents had some knowledge of government assistance scheme.

• More than 75 % of the respondents were agreeable to higher take-up rate if entrepreneurship is being taught across every faculty of learning.

• 57.8 % had indicated sufficiency of support rendered by their institution with regards to entrepreneurship learning and incubation.

• 70.4 % had supported the initiative the author has proposed for government to provide overseas incubation centres and lodging facilities.

• About 70 % of the respondents have demonstrated high regards in the social status of knowledge-based entrepreneurs.

• More than 69 % had also voted that international credentialing of knowledge-based entrepreneurs would bring standards and best practices up to world-class level.

• More than 60 % had responded that entrepreneurship curriculum is not included in their degree programme.

• Less than 10 % of the students’ cohort achieved “enterprise competence” during their studentship.

• More than 70 % had indicated the lecture method, closed book exams, group projects and case studies as the prevailing pedagogies.

• To assess the travel patterns and area knowledge of respondents, it was discovered that more than 30 % had not travelled during the last 3 years. The most travelled destinations include China, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and India.

• It has also been observed that about 20 % of publicly funded university students had some form of overseas internship opportunities.

• Regarding which government incentives would motivate enterprise creations, more than 50 % of respondents had indicated home-based business rental allowance and intellectual properties protection grants as most important and about 40 % indicated global branding and tax holidays for the first 3 years as prime motivators.

• More than 57 % had indicated interests in starting business upon graduation.

11 Post-Interview Analysis

It is evidenced from the feedback of interviewees, there are interests in creating own business. However, opportunity to learn entrepreneurship knowledge and mastery of basic skill sets are not prevalent across institutions.

Through face-to-face interview, the author had collected the following “qualitative” information:

• 1. Students’ cohort largely engages education to find a salaried job.

• 2. When the job market tightens up, many were ignorant of alternatives and usually take up odd jobs or being employed.

• 3. A large minority changed career type and wasted the time and financial resources invested by parents.

• 4. Most tertiary students have no career goals. They find long-term goal setting hard to achieve.

• 5. Most tertiary students are domesticated in thinking and have poor knowledge of what is happening outside the Singapore sphere.

• 6. There is a lack of “fighting” spirits as most youths were “heavily protected” by parents and an environment where their safety and belonging needs are readily achieved.

• 7. School curriculums were outdated—usually focus on local context, mathematics and sciences but little on “thinking” subjects, such as global economics, global history, geography and politics.

• 8. Most are still been taught to learn by rote.

• 9. The simple majority only network within small social groups.

• 10. More than 80 % do not ask questions in class.

• 11. Most students embarked paper qualifications with mindsets to match minimum market-based salary scale and put applicability of knowledge and skill sets secondary.

• 12. Less than 10 % are readily equipped with global enterprise competencies to engage knowledge-based entrepreneurship.

• 13. The simple majority does not have a role model that they can emulate.

• 14. Many are weak in oral communication and interpersonal skills.

12 Proposal of National Entrepreneur Competency Assessment (NECA) Certification Scheme

Justifying from the results of the survey, one-on-one interview as well as other secondary research, the author proposes a National Entrepreneur Competency Assessment (NECA) Certification to act as our national enterprise standard and a catalyst qualification for entrepreneurial development.

The following include more than 70 knowledge areas that have been identified and they include (though not exhaustive) (Table 2.1):

Table 2.1 NECA competency-based certification units

13 Method of Delivery

The NECA Certification could be delivered by several modes. They include:

• Web-based learning, assessment and testing

• Distance learning (supported by hard copy materials) and e-tutor support

• In-class workshop

• Train the trainers and deliver in schools and tertiary institutions

• Online learning supported by a national call centre administered by a core group of certified business advisors

• On-site assessment centre.

14 Assessment Criteria

• Students must demonstrate competencies by showing sufficient knowledge within each unit of competence identified through presentation, project submission; oral defence and questioning, discussion, prototype demonstration and other method pre-approved by the Assessor.

• The time limit for each assessment would be up to 3 h regardless of online or on-site mode.

• The passing grade is 60 % under a knowledge band system.

• There will be a maximum of three retake permitted to each candidate.

• Candidate would only need to attempt only unit/s below stipulated standards and need not repeat those passed.

• There will be a quarterly review of contents, pedagogies and assessment standards to constantly update and refine the certification process.

15 Linking NECA Certification to a Global Credential

There should be a global competency standard set for knowledge-based entrepreneurs. Creating a credential based on a standard equivalent to the United Kingdom National Vocational Qualification Framework at Level 7 (Masters Degree level) or the ISO 17024 Standards in certifying the competence of individuals—would entice more tertiary graduates to pursue entrepreneurship with pride and confidence. NECA graduates could complete a 10,000 word Capstone Enterprise Project and receive a Certified Practising Entrepreneur (CPEntr) designation. This will help to bring up the societal value of entrepreneurs in the Singapore context.

16 Linking NECA Certification to All Government Financing Schemes

The current practice of funding of start-ups did not include any process to ascertain the enterprise competencies of the lead entrepreneurs and their co-founding teammates. Linking NECA Certification will offer another level of selection to identify and discern the passionate and knowledgeable from the half-hearted.

It would also serve as a risk management instrument for investors and lenders in making risk-calculated decisions. The certification process is thus a value-added component to help more like-minded entrepreneurs in the capital formation.

NECA Certified Entrepreneurs should be rewarded with incentives, i.e. higher funding quantum to all government assisted schemes. If certification is mandated as criteria to apply for government assistance, the quality and quantity of competent entrepreneurs would increase.

17 Linking NECA Certification to the 100K Enterprise Model

This Model has been created by the author to address the learning needs of potential knowledge-based entrepreneurs globally and to complement the NECA Certification Scheme. It is global-centric in its perspectives and will serve microenterprises well to achieve business sustainability and excellence.

The term “100K” was coined to help start-up entrepreneur to target his first major milestone—reaching a US$100,000 net profit. Though it is not a rigid target, it provides a realistic milestone for start-ups to achieve. Several principles were incorporated into this model. They include:

• 1. Team-based model

• 2. Promotes democratic capitalism

• 3. Global product/service positioning

• 4. Scalable potential to reach a revenue of US$1 million per annum

• 5. Be service-oriented

• 6. Emphasis on consultative selling

• 7. Capitalize on intellectual properties

• 8. Exploit web presence

• 9. Must incorporate in a country with high corporate governance standards and least corruption

• 10. Break-even within 9–12 months

• 11. Promote a culture of fun, respectfulness and democratic in its policies and practices

• 12. Adherence to International Financial Reporting Standards

• 13. Operate a business with a minimum gross margin of 40 % or an operating margin of at least 20 %

• 14. Return on invested capital to be more than 30 %

• 15. Quick ratio of more than 2.0

• 16. Employ Bootstrapping Strategies

• 17. Emphasize on just-in-time model

• 18. B2C model preferred

• 19. Initiate a quality programme at the launching stage

• 20. Must be knowledge-intensive

• 21. Capitalize on equity financing from accredited investors through private placements

• 22. Hold more than 60 % of its shareholdings

• 23. Demand owner–employees to engage world-class continuous learning and certification.

Note: This list is not exhaustive and is continuing evolving.

As of this writing, there are no tertiary institutions heard off which promotes quantitative performance measurement of the learning outcomes of students. There is also no accountability from institutions in the transfer of knowledge versus its effectiveness and relevance to industries.

The 100K Enterprise Model is an ideal framework for collegiate entrepreneurs to start real-time businesses. Students should be taught the competencies to start, market and growth real income in college under close supervision of professors. This team-based model (ideally consisting 3 members) would help students to master the real art of enterprise development which theories and exams had not proven its worth. Further reading could be extracted by visiting “100K Enterprise Model” via Google search.

18 Analysis of the Singapore Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

A holistic approach to solving the “entrepreneurial gap” would not be complete without a thorough analysis of the local entrepreneurship ecosystem.

More than 60 stakeholders’ groups were identified. And they include:

• 1. Ministry of Education

• 2. Parents’ Group

• 3. Ministry of Defence: (a) National Servicemen

• 4. Ministry of Home Affairs: (a) Singapore Police Force (b) The Civil Defence Force

• 5. Ministry of Finance

• 6. Prime Minister Office (PMO)

• 7. Policy-making: (a) What should change for the better?

• 8. ACRA

• 9. Standards, Productivity, Innovation and Growths (SPRING) Singapore—A Government statutory board in charge of enterprise development

• 10. EDB (Economic Development Board) Singapore

• 11. International Enterprise (IE) Singapore

• 12. ASME (The Association of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises)

• 13. Singapore International Chamber of Commerce

• 14. Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce

• 15. Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce

• 16. Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce

• 17. APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Countries

• 18. Money Centre Banks

• 19. Sovereign Wealth Funds

  • (a) Government of Singapore Investments Corporation (GIC)

  • (b) Temasek Holdings

• 20. Ministry of Trade and Industry: Ministry in charge of Entrepreneurship

• 21. Ministry of Transport:

  • (a) Land Transport Authority

  • (b) Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)

  • (c) Singapore Bus Transit Services (SBS)

  • (d) Taxis operators

• 22. Ministry of Community, Youths and Sports

• 23. Insurance Companies

• 24. Stock Exchange of Singapore (SGX)

• 25. The CATALIST Market (Sponsor-Supervised Fund Raising Platform of The Singapore Exchange)

• 26. Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPAS)

• 27. The Law Society

• 28. Polytechnics and Institutes of Technical Education

• 29. The National Library

• 30. Jurong Town Corporation (JTC)

• 31. Singapore Science Park/Ascendas Land/Capitaland

• 32. Major Oil Companies (Exxon Mobil, Shell, etc.)

• 33. Singapore Airlines (SIA)

• 34. Budget Air Carriers

• 35. Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS)

• 36. Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS)

• 37. Sports Council of Singapore

• 38. Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDAS)

• 39. Advertising Standards Association of Singapore

• 40. Institute of Public Relations of Singapore

• 41. Universities and Polytechnic Libraries

• 42. Singapore Accreditation Council

• 43. International Organization of Standardization (ISO)

• 44. European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)

• 45. Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (US) Standard

• 46. Singapore Tourism and Convention Bureau

• 47. Telecommunication Authority of Singapore

• 48. Telco companies

• 49. Media Corporation of Singapore

• 50. Ministry of National Development: (a) Housing and Development Board (HDB)

• 51. Town Council in Singapore

• 52. Licencing Authorities in Singapore

• 53. Ministry of Manpower

• 54. National Trade Union Congress (NTUC)

• 55. Ministry of Environment: (a) National Environmental Agency (NEA)

• 56. The Peoples’ Association & the Community Clubs

• 57. Singapore Press Holdings

• 58. Grassroots organizations

• 59. Non-governmental organizations

• 60. Parents–Teachers Associations

• 61. The Academy of Principals

• 62. National Teachers Association/Union

• 63. Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Singapore embassies based overseas

19 Reforming the Education Process

An in-depth examination of its education policies and practices was conducted and some severe “knowledge gaps” were identified. On a positive note, opportunities for process enhancements are also available at each level of the educational chain—ranging from the 179 Primary Schools, 154 Secondary Schools, 18 Pre-Universities, 5 Polytechnics, 3 Institute of Technical Education Colleges through the 3 state-funded universities. The National Servicemen and PMETs (Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians) and Private Post-Secondary Education Sector had also presented opportunities for re-engineering and improvements.

Collectively, it impacts a population of more than 600,000 people.

Solutions proposed include:

• Create an experiential learning curriculum to develop global entrepreneurial mindsets for students from Primary 3 through Primary 6 level impacting 270,000 students. This subject must be graded as a core subject. The objectives include identifying young talents and to discover the strengths of individuals which academic subjects failed to provide.

• Provide a minimum of 3 “Enterprise Coach” in each Primary School.

• Introduce “Enterprise and Innovation ” and “Economics and Globalization” as two core modules in all Secondary Schools—impacting more than 250,000 students.

• Provide a minimum of 5 “Enterprise Coach” in each Secondary School.

• Get Parents to be involved in “Enterprise” Projects.

• Initiate collaboration with overseas’ universities like Babson, IIMs, Cambridge University and Harvard University.

• Set up a “Globetrotter” Fund for all tertiary students.

• Obtain community leaders to support and endorse on a continuous basis.

• Introduce a “Science-based or Arts-based Entrepreneurship” subject (depending on stream) as a core subject in all Pre-Universities—impacting 20,000 students from 17 Junior Colleges and 1 Centralized Institution.

• Provide a minimum of 5 “Enterprise Coach” in each Pre-University.

• Incorporate a regional business opportunities identification trip for Pre-University students funded by Edusave (a joint government–parents scheme) and surpluses from our sovereign funds.

• Introduce a Master of Technopreneurship Certification equivalent to the United Kingdom National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) standards at Level 4 at each Institute of Technical Education (ITE) impacting 14,000 students—with initiative to integrate technical discipline with a 30 % enterprise development curriculum.

• A minimum of 5 “Enterprise Coach” is mandatory in each ITE College.

• Incorporate industry-specific overseas’ internship for all ITE Master of Technopreneurship students.

• Integrate Bachelor degree and Chartered Engineer qualifications in all Polytechnics.

• Review and re-engineer all curriculums and pedagogical approach by incorporating a minimum of 25 % of total contact hours in Global Technopreneurship and Innovation as a Capstone Module in every Polytechnic. This will impact 80,000 students cohort.

• Initiate similar mechanism emulating the ‘Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 on government policies in the transfer of technologies and supporting the research and development of commercially viable institutions’ research projects.

• Revise the university curriculum and pedagogical approach to include a “Just-in-time” contents and experiential-based learning.

• Mandate Global Entrepreneurship as a core module across all faculties of learning to impact a student cohort of 80,000.

• Revise recruitment policy to invite industry practitioners with more than 20 years experience to embark a full-fledged professorship of practice in the respective field.

• Create a one-stop Enterprise Incubation Centre for PMET Sector to learn and network within Community Clubs based in every constituency with the support from SPRING Singapore, ACRA and the Member of Parliament. This initiative will impact more than 200,000 nationwide.

• Mandate all Private Education Providers to introduce Global Entrepreneurship Module for all Level 4 onwards Diploma and Degree courses. This initiative impacts about 80,000 private post-secondary school students.

20 Proposal for Other Stakeholders

• Revise Government Assistance Schemes through drawing public consultation to make existing schemes more user-friendly and favour the masses instead of benefiting a few.

• Revise the Home Office Scheme and expand usage rights, size of owner–employee per unit, infrastructural links to all publicly funded databases.

• Revise Land Transport Policies to encourage entrepreneurial activities, i.e. exemption from Certificate of Entitlement Process and decrease in road taxes amongst others.

• Revise the current Securities laws and initiate a Direct Public Offering Securities emulating the U.S. Small Corporate Offering Registration (SCOR) Regulation D Rule 504 Model to allow for microenterprises (less than 10 employees) to raise up to S$200,000 per annum and to be administered under a Non-for-Profit Charter. This initiative will benefit more than 50,000 new business firms and companies annually registered and incorporated and also the existing 130,000 SMEs.

• Expand Incubation Space from 30 sq ft per workstation through 500 sq ft units across industry zone across the island republic by rejuvenating unused School Buildings and Flatted Factories into “Global Enterprise Hubs”.

• Teach Entrepreneurs to exploit Free Trade Agreements with host countries to facilitate easier market access and co operations.

• Negotiate with FTAs Partners to have greater flexibilities in granting business VISAs to Singapore-based entrepreneurs and residing rights to his family.

• Revise the Policy to allow Singapore-registered entrepreneurs to access all tertiary institutions’ student-domain resources, i.e. libraries, laboratories, workshops and technical support with equitable terms and conditions.

• Soliciting support from Sovereign Wealth Funds, i.e. Temasek Holdings and The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) to invest 1 % of this net profit to build world-class Singapore-based enterprises. A recent financial report indicated a collective net profit of about $12 billion.

• Introduce a Flat Enterprise Tax of 8–10 % for SMEs with less than S$1 million in revenue to keep Singapore competitive and attractive to foreigners to set up enterprises here.

• Cut down public expenditures referencing return-on-assets of immovable assets and productivity metrics, such as per employee contributions.

• Revise Banks’ practices on setting minimum balance amounting to S$10,000 to start a checking account.

21 Implications and Propositions for BRIC Nations

Every BRIC economy is different in its make-up and hence faces different challenges.

Brazil may be overpopulated and have difficulties in controlling birth rates and hyperinflation. Too much concentration in the Saul Paulo and Rio de Janeiro region may hurt the other region’s development and cause income inequality issues. Russia may be experiencing an overly dependence in its natural resource, rampant corruption, shrinking population and other geopolitical issues. India being the most democratic amongst BRIC nations has weak central government, slow in policy consensus, corruption, cultural conflicts and disharmonized business regulations across all states—not discounting frequent unanticipated terrorisms from external and internal sectarian groups. Likewise, China being the most stable in governance and economic growths had also shown cracks in human rights issues, ageing population and income inequalities in many provinces.

Despite these issues prevailing around BRIC nations, there are ample opportunities available that BRIC leaders could exploit and would help to mitigate the existing problems. Introducing strong public policies and building enterprise infrastructures is one solution each BRIC government must collectively agree and act swiftly. The political will to support positive change will be the driving force for sustainable economic growth. This could only be achieved by casting political differences aside and placing people’s interests first.

The Singapore scenario as presented could still be a role model for BRICS economies despite its current weaknesses in its links across the entrepreneurship ecosystem . Policy-makers and all stakeholders in BRIC could still learn from the cues presented in this Paper and customize them to fit their respective context.

As a collective bloc, BRICS nations should seriously contemplate to establish a Common BRIC Microenterprise Model incorporating principles of the 100K Enterprise Model and allowing businesses in each of the member nation to trade and invest freely with a no-frills flat tax basis of say at 10 %- using a common company mechanism. The author advocates a creation of a global microenterprise standard which BRIC nations could benefit.

At this point of writing, costly and complex processes to incorporate a company are still prevalent in all BRICS economies. From an economic standpoint, these practices are not enterprise-friendly and would cause major impediments to entice new foreign direct investments and not help the teething unemployment issues.

A multi-lateral agreement is suggested and must be enacted quickly to promote freer global movement of business activities amongst a collective population of 3 billion people. The multiplier effect from this initiative would lead to a rejuvenation of a new and vibrant economic growth engine which our world needs in exigencies today. The ultimate solution for BRIC economies is to continue to develop clearly defined numbers of world-class knowledge-based entrepreneurs in the interests to achieve more equitable wealth distribution and societal good.