On 20th March 2019, Wednesday night, The Mapletree Challenge: Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum, was held in SIT@Dover's Auditorium. Guest speakers included Mr Shamir Rahim, Founder and CEO of VersaFleet, Mr Zach Wilson, Managing Director of AlfaTech, Ms Nancy Ling, Director and Co-Founder of ECO U Pte Ltd and Mr Eugene Wong, Founder and Managing Director of Sirius Venture Capital (SVC).
Mr Shamir started off with a background on his family business of supply chain logistics that serves Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, where the problem of inefficiency was highlighted as the planning was still done manually. With Mr Shamir’s background on software engineering, he then took the initiative to come out with scripts to automate the planning process, which was reduced from hours to seconds. This not only benefit the staff in terms of work-life balance but also to the company as resources are better managed. This however in my opinion, might be a bane to employees as the company see it as an opportunity to lay off some staffs as it has better allocation of its resources. So, cooperates need to weight the importance and value of innovation with respect to employees' rights.
Another notable insight mentioned by Mr Zach on how cooperates use poor economics model to price sustainability, where they see the on-hand cost is more than conventional means but do not value what sustainability can reap in the long run. This is something I totally agree on as most cooperates focus on short-term goals of gaining maximum profitability, but fail to see the importance of cost-savings can eventually lead to profitability and sustaining the business in the long-run. Which Mr Zach explained why economics in general do not adopt sustainable means, and the need for champion in the cooperate with the finance resources to push forward the importance of sustainability to the company and also the planet in general.
All in all, it has been a great exposure for us students to think about utilising innovation in entrepreneurship. It is well noted that riding the initial wave (being the pioneer) is pivotal to a start-up, as it leeches on to the concept of novelty while being the trendsetter for subsequent companies wanting to ride on the success. While monetary gain is important, sustaining a business is more about finding a balance in that while achieving company values.
*Commented on Dom's, Wei Wen's & Baizurah's posts
Mr Shamir started off with a background on his family business of supply chain logistics that serves Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, where the problem of inefficiency was highlighted as the planning was still done manually. With Mr Shamir’s background on software engineering, he then took the initiative to come out with scripts to automate the planning process, which was reduced from hours to seconds. This not only benefit the staff in terms of work-life balance but also to the company as resources are better managed. This however in my opinion, might be a bane to employees as the company see it as an opportunity to lay off some staffs as it has better allocation of its resources. So, cooperates need to weight the importance and value of innovation with respect to employees' rights.
Another notable insight mentioned by Mr Zach on how cooperates use poor economics model to price sustainability, where they see the on-hand cost is more than conventional means but do not value what sustainability can reap in the long run. This is something I totally agree on as most cooperates focus on short-term goals of gaining maximum profitability, but fail to see the importance of cost-savings can eventually lead to profitability and sustaining the business in the long-run. Which Mr Zach explained why economics in general do not adopt sustainable means, and the need for champion in the cooperate with the finance resources to push forward the importance of sustainability to the company and also the planet in general.
All in all, it has been a great exposure for us students to think about utilising innovation in entrepreneurship. It is well noted that riding the initial wave (being the pioneer) is pivotal to a start-up, as it leeches on to the concept of novelty while being the trendsetter for subsequent companies wanting to ride on the success. While monetary gain is important, sustaining a business is more about finding a balance in that while achieving company values.
*Commented on Dom's, Wei Wen's & Baizurah's posts
Thank you for this detailed and insightful reflection, Yuan Lin. I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteHi Yuan Lin
ReplyDeleteI agree with you this forum was a great exposure for us to think about innovation! I believed that our journey in SIT will be a catalyst for us to start thinking about innovation for Civil Engineering industry and hope to see your innovation idea during the final year in SIT!
Cheers
Wei Wen
I loved reading your posts because it made me want to write like you! I hope to get tips from you in the future.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that being an entrepreneur is never easy. It requires more than 100% of commitment towards your goal instead of riding on the trend.
May the force be with you for the upcoming exams!