At the same time, exponential Singaporean enterprises are better positioned than their competitors in other countries to control their operations and maximize their returns on investments in country-specific subsidiaries, by leveraging the education, skills and global-regional outlook of their Singaporean workforce.
The key IDEAS are experimentation and innovation to continually formulate business strategies and attendant business and operating models, effective implementation of those strategies and models across autonomous subsidiary businesses, and continual monitoring of customer satisfaction as well as business performance in near real-time through social technologies, interfaces and dashboards.
Regulatory Reforms
Regulatory reform is a cross-cutting theme for ASEAN economic integration and regulatory coherence, as well as for individual ASEAN member state’s structural and rule of law reforms. ASEAN countries recognise that the economic agenda must be premised on productivity-driven and inclusive growth, aided by good regulatory practice (GRP).
Regulatory compliance continues to be a major strategic consideration for SME’s scaling regionally, in particular, financial services firms, with an impact on all those who operate within their value chains.
Ensuring an SME’s compliance to regulations and its good governance to ensure participation in global value chains will mean access to markets and capital is an increasingly challenging financial burden. One of the findings in the annual Cost of Compliance survey conducted by Thomson Reuters in 2016 indicated that compliance officers are experiencing regulatory fatigue and overload in the face of ever-changing and growing regulations. About 69% of firms are expecting regulators to publish more information with 26% expecting significantly more. (English & Hammond, 2017)
Continuous monitoring will be the norm, driving the demands for increased risk intelligence, compliance and regulatory technologies and sensing capabilities. Accessing critical insights and advice on managing the aggregate impact of regional and international regulatory policy will also be critical as they look for intelligent ways in which they can efficiently manage and operate their organisations.
Times have changed; have we?
SPRING’s 2015 Annual Report listed enabling enterprise development and strengthening quality and excellence as key priorities for 2016. These are undoubtedly the right things to do but, above and beyond these priorities, more must be done to educate and train SMEs to leverage their cross-cultural heritage and IDEAS from the SCALE framework to win inside and beyond Singapore.
Economic cycles will continue to push enterprises to the edge. Solutions are often known. The key to success is leaders’ acceptance that pursuit of status-quo excellence is not sustainable. Leaders in industry and government must vigilantly monitor their environment and acknowledge when times are changing. Addressing mind-set and belief systems are fundamental keys to doing things right, which is just as important as doing the right things. One must be prepared to forgo the status quo, deploy foresight to survive, and have a relentless will to implement game-changing, “probable-win” strategies. Some SMEs can be the star of the future. Are you ready to survive and scale?
Dr Janson Yap DPST, Chairman, USQ Singapore Alumni Chapter; Regional Managing Director Deloitte SEA, Risk Advisory and Innovation Leader South East Asia
Nelson Nones CPIM , Deloitte SEA Risk Advisory