Commentary News | Singapore Business Review

7 ways to kick business failure out of the way

The truth is that you cannot train entrepreneurs. Singaporean educational and governmental institutions have tried but you cannot teach someone the entrepreneurial way of failing a lot.

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Maximising SMS marketing in the social media age

Asia remains the place to be, with the global ad market set to reach US$20 billion by 2015 (according to Gartner), and with Asia set to generate 35 per cent of it. Economic growth remains high in the region, with gains from that growth leading to new levels of affluence percolating away from major cities into small urban centres and in many cases even into rural areas. This, in turn, in creating a larger number of consumers, hungry to get their hands on modern advances as well as goods and services previously unavailable.

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Competitiveness versus creativity

Singapore like the rest of the world has turned its focus to the most anticipated and keenly followed election race, the United States Presidential election due on November 6th.

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Here's how to hunt for ethical employees

Employers in Singapore now view a candidate’s ethical behaviour as a non-negotiable when they recruit. And this desire for ethically sound candidates is apparent across all industries, although it is most obvious in the banking sector.

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Why entrepreneurship and dating are the same

After starting a business twice, and having the dating life cycle of a domestic cockroach, I have come to realize the startling similarities of both endeavors. Entrepreneurship and dating really have the same process and goal, learning and continuously improving all in hopes of finding true love.

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Paternity leave: storm in a tea cup ?

Recently I was at a conference listening to some senior people proudly sharing the work life policies at their companies, and the fantastic press they had received for the same. They were a part of the progressive Singapore firms that had taken the initiative to improve the work life balance for their employees through policies such as telecommuting, maternity leave, sabbaticals, etc.

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The perfect assistant

No one can manage everything by themselves, and even the greatest leaders from Alexander of Macedon to Nelson Mandela have been obliged now and then to call on the services of some kind of personal assistant. I think it’s time we gave them their due.

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Before you switch to a freelance career

You have friends who are freelancers? Envy them? The truth is they envy you sometimes. At least you have a fixed income; they don't. Worst still, they have to chase for their paycheck.

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Complaining customers are great for business

Understanding and knowing your customers is good business sense. And the first step towards developing a better understanding of your customers is to encourage your employees to be receptive to feedback, both the good and the bad.

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Facilitating cross-cultural understanding in a growing creative economy

Singapore’s creative economy is only starting to brew, creating many opportunities for businesses and individuals with a focus in the creative sector.

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Bosses are the problems

If you don’t like the title of this article, read on.

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Crowdsourcing – Social Bane or Boon?

Crowdsourcing is a process of outsourcing tasks to groups of people. It differentiates itself from its better known cousin, Outsourcing by getting the task done through undefined segments of society rather than employees of an organization.

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How to deal with the empowered consumer

The empowered consumer is what marketing in Singapore in 2022 will look like. It has already happened in some industries but this theme will explode in the next ten years.

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Is Singapore ripe enough for self-leadership?

Self-leadership is the practice of intentionally influencing our thinking, feeling, and behaviors to achieve our objectives (Bryant, Kazan 2012). Simply put, self-leadership emerges from self-awareness, which leads to greater self-responsibility and behavioral flexibility, which in turn increases our ability to reach our goals.

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Maximizing Singapore's e-commerce

I came to Singapore because I took one look at the stats on digital knew it was going to be big. In APAC we are third for internet penetration (behind Korea and Japan) and smartphone penetration is around 80% which makes my home country of the UK look practically Stone Age.

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Engaging Singapore to go green

Singapore, which is a small island city-state, is very vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. It is also particularly concerned with the need to use resources efficiently, especially energy and water. Because of this and as part of the global community, Singapore has been doing its part to reduce the overall carbon footprint.

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