Commentary

All you have to do is look around Singapore to know that brands are powerful. In fact, most Singaporeans are so loyal to certain brands that they stick with them for life. If brand-name products can evoke that kind of loyalty, why can’t people? Well, they can!

“There may be comfort in numbers” © Roger La Salle

Every full-time freelancers in Singapore will hear surprising things said about them at some point of their career. They find it surprising because their working life is not what others perceived it to be. If you have thought about becoming a freelancer, you cannot assume what you know are facts.

The support of arts and culture in Singapore is growing significantly. More companies are giving to the arts, and they are also, in general, giving larger amounts.

Yet again, the dark clouds of recession loom over the global economy. Growth forecasts are being cautiously rolled back and businesses worldwide are holding their collective breath in wary anticipation of another difficult economic period.

There is much doom and gloom about the imperilled state of the world—the GFC, troubles in Europe, a decline in economic growth, jobs at risk. You could be forgiven for thinking the end of the world is just around the corner.

It is heartening to see many companies in Singapore investing substantially in customer insights. But the returns on these investments differ substantially from one company to another. The key reason for this difference lie in the degree of intelligence the customer insights bring to companies. Better ‘quality’ customer insights bring about a higher degree of intelligence and hence offer a greater competitive advantage to companies. For example, insights arising from analyses that focus on customer modeling (allowing for predicting customer behavior) bring about far greater competitive advantage than those using descriptive statistics.

"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living." - Gail Sheehy

You have the power to create the ideal environment for communication, one that creates a positive experience for you and others around you.

It has already been established that mobile internet is the fastest growing and most powerful medium for reaching customers. Singapore is a great example of how mobile has changed the Marketing landscape. You may not be able to reach an average Singaporean at their workplace or even at home, but you can most certainly reach them on their mobile phone.

Most Singapore businesses today recognise that sustainability is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’, but an absolute necessity in paving the way for the future. Many companies also view sustainability as a critical element in driving growth in new markets.

Here are some suggestions on how you can identify potentially difficult situations and better equip yourself when encountering them.

When working in Singapore or other International Partnership the virtual relationship is a necessity.

Cloud applications for the Singapore tech markets have been around for quite some time and with the introduction of smartphones, explosive growth has been taking place. Out from the basket came a whole range of app types for various purposes. Besides the benefits for end-consumers, businesses, especially SMEs are able to tap on this computing platform that includes hardware architecture and a software framework, where the combination allows application software to run. In the long-term, this helps create new business models and multiple avenues of marketing to the masses that was previously unavailable. Cloud applications exploits the use of the web, shared resources, and shared software to allow users ease and flexibility when accessing data and programs that have been vital in connecting people and businesses in particular. The most basic and essential examples of such are web-based e-mail, instant messaging and video services.

Everyone knows that hiring the wrong individual will end up costing your organisation far more than their monthly salary. Here’s how you can ensure that happens by screwing up the selection process with these rookie errors. Thankfully, we also give you tips on how to cover all your bases.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not cursing all my readers. Getting laid off and searching for another job can really suck. Some struggle to find a new one and even when they do, they often make less money than before.