What crisis? It’s the response that counts - Singapore
Hard times can be mastered and may open new doors: business role models
By SIOW LI SEN
(SINGAPORE) They know how to weather a crisis - and even how to emerge stronger from it.
Winners: (from left) BSG’s Dorothy Seet; Tat Hong’s Roland Ng; CapitaLand director Hsuan Owyang; Dr Tony Tan, SPH chairman; Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports; DHL’s Dan McHugh; SIA’s Chew Choon Seng; and Rotary Engg’s Chia Kim Piow
Amid the nervousness sweeping across businesses globally in the wake of the US sub-prime crisis, it was fitting that the leaders honoured at the Singapore Business Awards last night shared their recipes for success with BT.
The basic ingredients for handling a crisis, it seems, include a healthy sprinkling of cash flow, a big dose of staff training and a dash of decisiveness.
Singapore Airlines’ Chew Choon Seng, who was honoured as the outstanding CEO of 2007, spoke of the need and ability to take hard-nosed decisions in a crisis. Chia Kim Piow, chairman of Enterprise Award winner Rotary Engineering, said training of staff was critical.
And to Roland Ng, chief executive of Tat Hong Holdings and 2007 Businessman of the Year, it is all about watching that cash flow.
‘I think the fundamental thing during crises was keeping our cash flow positive,’ he said.
During a crisis, Tat Hong would amass cash by selling a lot of its assets. With this, it was ready to seize opportunities.
During the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98, Tat Hong - Asia’s biggest crane company - bought a lot of second-hand cranes at very low prices, said Mr Ng. Ten years on, these cranes are worth double their prices. The rentals collected from them have also amounted to more than twice their original purchase prices, he said.
Tat Hong also did not lay off any employees when times were bad and even started a training centre for crane operators. ‘It’s not important whether they stay with the company or not,’ reasoned Mr Ng. ‘But in their minds, Tat Hong always comes first. They tell their employer ‘Tat Hong crane, hire Tat Hong crane’.’
Rotary Engineering’s Mr Chia also met with naysayers when he set up overseas training and test centres in India and China to address the problem of shortage of workers.
‘A lot of my friends asked: ‘Are you sure you can keep them and that nobody will poach them after they are trained?’ My answer to them is that if I do nothing, nothing will happen,’ said Mr Chia.
‘So you have to take the risk and plan. You have to be committed and deliver,’ he said.
Dorothy Seet, chief executive, Beijing Smart Garments (BSG), said it is extremely important to have a corporate culture so that staff share the same values as management. When she took over the helm at BSG, Ms Seet - the winner of the Outstanding Chief (Overseas) award - set up a human resources department in the company, one of the many reforms she launched.
SIA’s Mr Chew said that decisiveness was essential during a crisis situation.
Referring to the Sars outbreak in 2003 which hit the airline and tourism industry hard, he said it ‘dried up underlying business in a very short period of time’.
This called for some some very hard-nosed decisions. ‘It was very difficult because we are talking about jobs, we’re talking about people, we’re talking about retrenchments. But the important thing is to communicate up and down the organisation, and to convince people that plans are workable and will pull the company through,’ he said.
The Business Times and DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, jointly organised the Singapore Business Awards.
Dan McHugh, chief executive of DHL, said the awards aim to promote entrepreneurs as role models and celebrate their success.
‘Through the awards, we aim to create an environment that will encourage and sustain the entrepreneurial spirit, as well as enhance standards of corporate management in Singapore. We want to promote entrepreneurs as role models and celebrate their success. This, we believe, will in turn incentivise innovation and risk taking for other inspiring entrepreneurs,’ he said.
Source : Business Times - 01 April 2008
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