Commentary

How many people know about your brand and actually uses your brand? Yes, there are many definitions and gurus out there explaining what is branding all about and how it can help businesses grow. There are many seminars to attend and books to read for any business owner to understand about branding but still, there are many business owners out there who have little clue on how it can actually translate to business success.

Leaders need to be creative and seek inspiration from particularly any source. Even from children.

To raise awareness of sex trafficking in Singapore, a group of us from the BBH Asia Pacific Barn program created a profile on a LinkedIn account based on true stories of victims’ experiences. The profile tells the story of the way many women and children are tricked in to the sex trade every year.

“I am a service-provider.”

However grown up, there is child in us ever alive!

Started in February 2010, Empire Avenue (EA) is fast becoming a popular new tool for brands and social media marketers. For readers who have yet to caught up with this Canadian-based social stock market-like game phenomenon and have absolutely no clue on what it does and how it works. Here's a quick introduction.

Almost everywhere in the world FT means "Financial Times", but in Singapore these days, it means "foreign talent", currently a "sensitive" issue, to the extent that most of the time FT is used in an ironical way. (BTW, I am a foreigner myself, arriving in 1983 to work for NUS till retiring in 2007.)

In the legal industry here in Singapore, employers all around are feeling the effects of a talent scarcity. Whether it is junior lawyers or middle to senior level lawyers, the market is facing a tightening pool of talent. In light of the talent crunch present in the legal industry, how can one capitalise upon this to further his/her career What roles and skills are most in demand today’s market? Read on to find what type of experience will help you take your career to the next level.

According to a recent news article by Channels News Asia, employee loyalty to their company fell to a five-year low in every major region. And about 52 per cent of employees in Singapore intend to leave their current employers within the next five years. Research also found that about one in three plan to do so within two years!

Chances are if you work with an MNC, a local public listed company, an SME or even a non-profit organisation in Singapore, you will be bombarded with financial and accounting jargon whether you like it or not.

“You see, in life, lots of people who know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Know­ing is not enough! You must take action.”­­ Anthony Robbins, motivational speaker

Much today is said about culture. Culture, whether it be national or organizational culture can be defined as ‘shared beliefs or values’ or a ‘common way of looking at things that is shared by people who inhabit the same social environment’.

While there is growing advocacy for the importance of intangibles in every country, organisation, and industry segment - big or small, the recently held IP week in Singapore forces you to think that perhaps a lot more needs to be done to establish the importance of the country as an IP destination of choice where organisations and brands of repute can effectively park and manage their IP, most important of which is the brand.

Two in three jobseekers alter their social media profile when job searching because they believe employers will review their profile when making their hiring decisions. But are employers using this information? If so, should they? According to a survey on our website of 585 Singaporeans, just one in three (33 per cent) are not altering their social media habits when job searching. But 50 per cent said they change their privacy settings when job searching and the remaining 17 per cent untag pictures and edit content. Clearly candidates are becoming more responsible with their social media profile. Perhaps this is because a growing number of hiring managers believe that content on social media sites can give a good insight into a candidate’s character and likely cultural fit with the organisation. For example, a Facebook profile with a public setting, content on video-sharing sites or on forums or blogs may reveal information that could make you see a candidate in a different light. If you want to use such information as part of your assessment process when recruiting, then our advice is to remember it is just another tool to consider, not a be-all and end-all. Taking the time to get to know someone face-to-face, using behavioural-based interviews and conducting a thorough reference of previous employers remain the most successful method of assessing candidates. If you still want to extend your vetting process to include social media, consider that you need to tread very carefully. For example, Facebook has issued a warning that demands for login information could leave organisations open to legal liabilities[i]. Where we do advocate the use of social media is through using professional sites such as LinkedIn to verify past employment or education, and through reading content the candidate has blogged, particularly content relevant to the industry or particular job function they are being considered for. Of course, you can also make social media work for you by incorporating it into your candidate attraction process. For example, many organisations are using Twitter to inform candidates of vacancies as they arise, are using Facebook to post event details or news stories, and are linking the careers page of their website to their relevant social media. Hays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people.

That’s a statement not a question for a reason. It’s true. Singaporean taxi drivers are the world’s worst. I love living in Singapore but the one thing that winds me up no end is taxi drivers lack of ability to do their basic job, take me from point a to point b. First question they always ask when you get in a cab, which way do you want to go. Now they don’t ask this as they do in other countries where they may be asking for the choice of directions that the customer wants to go.

A fruitless limbo between personal and work time, it is not surprising that commuting is regarded as one of the least enjoyable things in life1.