Commentary

3 business strategies to survive the tightening credit environment in Singapore

DP Information Group had recently conducted a credit survey on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore and found that SMEs are tightening their credit terms. Their most eye-catching result was captured in the chart below which shows that SMEs are getting paid a full 19 days to cash (DTC) earlier than just two years ago.

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3 business strategies to survive the tightening credit environment in Singapore

Commentary

Future-ready education: Honing the right skills

Singapore is often praised for its high standards of education, so it might be surprising to some that the nation state suffers from a huge knowledge-skills gap. According to the Hays Global Skills Index, despite Singapore having one of the highest education standards in the world, local talent often do not have the skills wanted by employers, leading to both higher rates of vacancies and unemployment.

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The untapped Gold of Saigon: Property investment opportunities for Singapore investors

Amid the uncertainty of Brexit and the slowing real estate sector here in Singapore, emerging markets like Vietnam are a promising investment destination for Singapore’s property investors. The country is also becoming more popular among Singaporeans. In June 2015, Singaporean visitors to Vietnam rose 43.6 percent year-on-year, according to Vietnam’s National Administration of Tourism.

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BreadTalk: Continuous innovation to keep the brand fresh

It was December 2012, and Joyce Koh, Senior Vice President of Brand Development at BreadTalk, was examining the company’s preliminary growth statistics for 2012 with a view to developing its future brand strategy.

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Robots and us: Collaborate or compete?

Recently I was invited to join the DHL Robotics Day 2016 with some outstanding fellow keynote speakers from ABB, DHL, and NTU.

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Pokémon Go – What digital lessons can businesses learn?

Ever since its launch, Pokémon Go has been a major trend for businesses in Singapore – not just its players. From Pokémon-themed promotions and Pokémon lures outside shopping malls, established players such as Resorts World Sentosa, ION Orchard, and CapitaLand have introduced campaigns to increase footfall and drive up customer revenue.

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There's an app for that: How the on-demand economy won over Asia

The on-demand economy—built around cheap and easy services we can use from the convenience of our smartphones—is enjoying fresh success across Asia. One of the best examples to look at is the Didi Chuxing-Uber deal just weeks ago, where the companies branched off from one another to build up their markets in the East and West respectively. Uber sold its shares to Didi and now Didi is valued at US$35 billion while Uber is valued at US$68 billion. If anything, this shows that the on-demand economy is here to stay in Asia.

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Optimising compliance to corporate travel policies

Travel management is a highly specialised business function, and is one of the hardest cost areas to control in a corporation because of its highly fragmented nature; requiring expertise across many sub-categories, geographies and being subjected to the taste and preferences of the business traveler.

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The challenges facing CIOs in Singapore

As businesses progress towards a digital platform and data-gathering era, the role of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) has become increasingly influential. In Hays’ recently published ‘DNA of a CIO Asia’ report which surveyed 307 CIOs across Asia, 50% of the respondents foresee the need for CIOs to improve on the innovation front in the next five years as their visibility grows within organisations.

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Why the Executive Assistant is important to today's businesses

With the rapid advancement of smartphone technology and Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPAs) such as Apple’s Siri, Google Now, and Microsoft’s Cortana, the ability to schedule meetings, check on stock prices, and organise email messages is at the fingertip of any smartphone-wielding executive.

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8 ideas for retail businesses to increase footfall off the Pokémon Go craze

None of these involve placing Lures.

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Why Singapore investors need to watch the silver market

With uncertainties like Brexit and the world’s growing debt load battering financial markets, investors need to own assets with real value… like gold. We’ve mentioned in past articles gold is great portfolio insurance when stock markets collapse. And many Singaporeans love to own gold.

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What Singapore's PMEs need to remain job-relevant in a changing economy

The annual MOM Labour Report is recognised as a key barometer of the health of Singapore's workforce. The comprehensive MOM 2015 report and the recent preliminary seasonal adjustments in Q2 have become the litmus test indicating that Singapore's economy continues to slow and is at an eight-year low in spite of cross-sectoral restructuring and increased government support initiatives.

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Singapore in good stead for digital innovation

Every day you read of companies moving their business online and embarking on some form of change. The use of new technologies has been a driving force behind this transformation. Without a shadow of doubt, 2016 marks the beginning of the ‘digital decade’.

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Rethinking and redesigning candidate assessments in the digital era

Did you know that it costs a company an average of US$20,000 for a single bad hire, according to a study by the Human Capital Institute? The recruitment process is both time-consuming and resource-intensive – not to mention, fraught with potential dangers of hiring the wrong candidate.

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What Singapore banks need to know about protecting privileged accounts

Most people have been following the story on the Bangladesh Central Bank Heist. If you haven’t, here is the scoop and timeline. On May 15, 2015, three bank accounts were opened at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in the Philippines. Each of these accounts would lay dormant until February 4, 2016.

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Game on: How Singapore can score in global sports events management

In the past decade, Singapore has played host to many high-profile events such as the annual Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix, the BNP Paribas Women's Tennis Association Finals Singapore, as well as the World Rugby Sevens series in 2016.

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