Commentary

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.

Over the past few decades the advancement of scientific technologies has enabled many researchers in the field of science to overcome specific hurdles that previously hindered discoveries in the areas of biopharmaceuticals and pharmaceuticals to medical devices and diagnostics. Personally, as a scientist working within research and development I relish the thought of faster, more reliable and ease of use systems that would make my job more definitive and straight-forward. From my experience at Nanyang Technological University as well as from studying back in Ireland at University College Dublin, I can see the undeniable amount of potential career options available to individuals like myself in Asia, predominately in Singapore.

Over the last 10 years strategy implementation has become accepted as its own field by leaders in Singapore. They now recognize that designing a good strategy is not enough, it must also be executed. They have been spurred on by the fact that nine out of 10 implementations fail to be executed successfully and when they succeed, the payoff is tremendous. With most organizations failing to implement their strategy this means that companies like Singapore Airlines and DBS who are excellent in execution, benefit not only from their own successes but also their competitions’ incompetence.

Prostitution in Singapore is legal, but various prostitution-related activities are not. This includes public solicitation, living on the earnings of a prostitute and maintaining a brothel.

With consumers demanding access to more content than ever before, anywhere and anytime, the mobile broadband market has potential for huge growth.

Alignment of business and IT or rather non-alignment is an aspect mauled to shreds. Some bluntly put it that alignment is non-existent and its two parallel organization. While some credibly believes its matter of right attitude and few frameworks, I haven't come across a proven way to resolve the issue completely.

Half of Singapore workers (49%) are now free from the shackles of their desks reveals the latest survey commissioned by Regus, which canvassed over 16,000 professionals in more than 80 countries. These professionals are free to work from locations other than their company’s main offices for half a week or more helping them reduce the overall time spent commuting and giving them the freedom to choose work locations closer to home. Businesses have increasingly been offering flexible working practices to workers as morale and health benefits become common knowledge, but this research confirms that 69% of employees would also work harder, benefiting the company, if they could reduce their commute. The Regus research asked Singapore professionals how they would use the time gained through cutting their commute. Top activities selected were:

The new realities

To understand the Singapore story, one need only look to the city-state to see why consumers make their brand choices. Singapore is a densely populated, urban nation with a highly educated and affluent workforce. With Singaporeans being notoriously tech-savvy and career driven, this has created an innate desire to be constantly connected. This also translates to a willingness to spend on the latest gadgetry.

What do topless six-packed hunks, videos of scantily-clad women teaching Mandarin and millions of social media mentions mean about changing attitudes to ‘sexual selling’ in Singapore?

If you have taken that first step to start your business, congratulations! You’re in for a treat that will take you to the highs of highs and to the lows of lows.

Over dinner the other night some chaps at the other end of the table were discussing how clever they had been with their Singapore property investments, my end of the table was discussing the latest mall opening so I carried on nodding but turned my attention back to these savvy-investors...