Finding your blue ocean in Lion City

I cannot recall the numerous trips I have made to the “Lion City” – Singapore, but with each visit I am always impressed by the new changes to this “Clean & Green” city.

I was part of the group of 26 members from “Saigon Businessmen Club who participated in the “Finding your Blue Ocean” workshop. On 15 June 2011, first on our agenda was a meeting with the management of Citibank Private Equity. We shared information with regards on how to raise capital through private capital funds investment, a financial channel to help Singapore enterprises expand their production and businesses and to enable them to cope with the change in the business environment.

On the following day, we went to the ‘Wall Street’ of Singapore – Raffles Place to pay a visit to ANZ Bank. We were warmly welcomed by the Singapore and Vietnamese ANZ Bank staff (via tele-conference). Ms Ng Wee Lee, Head of Commercial Banking, Mr. Andrew Curran Head of Private Banking and Mr. Thomas Fitzgerald Head of Network and Cash Management were on hand to present the different services and products of the ANZ Bank – in the areas of fund investment and wealth management.

We move on to our next location to visit the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Mr. Foong Chong Lek, Associate Director of Listings gave an introduction on the fee framework, methods, standards and procedures of how to list a business in the Singapore stock market. To do this we were advised that we would need to have the full support from banks, security companies and the stock exchange.

Next stop was a tour of the Singapore Management University (SMU). I was very impressed with the importance SMU placed on the welfare of their students as they have specially chosen designer’s chairs costing SGD 2,000 each for their classrooms. In their school library, I saw a marble plaque with a quote from Hong Kong billionaire, Mr. Li Ka Shing who is a patron of SMU - : “Knowledge Reshapes Destiny”. I feel that it’s a good philosophy of life, encouraging and promoting learning so that knowledge can be handed down to the next generation.

We had to rush to the Orchard Hotel where we were honored to have the opportunity to meet with the Ambassador of Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Trung Thanh and his staff and representatives of the International Enterprise (IE) Singapore. We conducted open and friendly dialogues between the team members and the Singapore representatives.

On our third day, we had a meeting with representatives from the Singapore Business Community – present were Frasers Centrepoint - residential and commercial developer, Dennis Wee Realty - brokerage and real estate services provider, Thong Siek Food Industry Pte Ltd - food manufacturer and Food and Beverage companies - Food Empire Holdings Ltd and Fish & Co Restaurant. I observed the organizations top management’s leadership style during their discussions. They all radiated humility, sensitivity and showed great determination in their vision as their shared their experiences. They bought to my mind the quotation from Vince Lombardi, a famous American football coach – “Coaches who can outline plays on a blackboard are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their players and motivate” which means that everyone can plan strategic tactics for their team to be a winner but to be a successful coach/leader he has to fully understand the team and inspire them.

The last day of our workshop concluded with a relaxing city tour and shopping at DFS duty-free shops, Ngee Ann City Takashimaya mall…etc. We finally ended up having coffee where we all shared some of our concerns like - the micromanagement style of CEOs in Vietnam. We felt this style of management consumes a lot of time and energy and inhibits productivity and creativity. We also discuss business ideas in our changing society – like Professional Health Care Spa facilities. We felt that expanding into products to include traditional products would add value and increase market share. For example, the founder of Moringa Tea was keen to elevate the brand name by creating a nutritious drink in Vietnam. In the end we all strongly agree that any development or improvement have to take into consideration these two very important factors:- social responsibility and public health, which is one of the main principle and belief of all our members in CLBDNSG. 

NHQ

Team of Communication – New Toyo (Vietnam)