Commentary

Confronting the marketer’s fear in 2012

Surveying the world as a marketer from Singapore and thinking about the prospects for 2012, it’s difficult to be optimistic.

Commentary

Confronting the marketer’s fear in 2012

Surveying the world as a marketer from Singapore and thinking about the prospects for 2012, it’s difficult to be optimistic.

Commentary

How to motivate your employees?

In Singapore, if we flip through any newspapers or attend any business seminar, it is almost certain that we have come across this statement; “Our people are our greatest resource.” In many ways, this is very true. If we think about it, strategies can be replicated, technology can be reverse-engineered and processes copied.

Commentary

Designing a new marketing plan for design firms

Design firms traditionally believe that their design alone could sell, and Singapore’s design firms are no different.

Commentary

What is the secret to sustained development?

The toolbox of improvement techniques available to the modern Singaporean executive has expanded rapidly in the last 25 years.

Commentary

Singapore’s employers adapt to the skills shortage

A new year is usually a catalyst for people to move on to new jobs and 2012 will continue this tradition as candidates assess their options following bonus payouts, according to our latest Hays Quarterly Report, for the January– March quarter.

Commentary

Cutting costs in a downturn: Where to trim?

There is no doubt Singapore business professionals will be tightening their belts in 2012 as the global debt crisis worsens. Given Singapore’s small domestic market, and reliance on foreign imports and exports, we are heavily exposed to the US and European markets.

Commentary

Can SMRT go from social zero to next gen hero?

Social Media has come of age in Singapore.

Commentary

Rethinking Singapore’s social compact

Sharpening Singapore's double-edged competitive edge

Commentary

Your website can generate leads - here’s how

Brand marketers and business owners, especially SMBs, are drowned in the deluge of information on digital marketing. My heart especially goes out to the little guys with littler budgets who subscribe to RSS feeds, read tech titles religiously, always looking for help to unleash the, supposedly unlimited, power of the internet.

Commentary

How to 'mental hug' your employees?

Secrecy has long been a characteristic of business, politics and other aspects of life. Fear of losing an advantage, letting a competitor get ahead or simply not clinging onto one’s precious possessions is a feature of many societies.

Commentary

How to make your company inflation-safe to secure margins

News about Singapore’s inflation, prices and cost increases make the headlines almost every day. The situation is clear: Inflation is here, it does erode profits and companies have to actively deal with it.

Commentary

Here's why you shouldn't stop learning

The increased pace of globalization and technological advance, the changing nature of work and the labour market, and the ageing of population are among the forces propelling the need for continuing upgrading of work and life skills.

Commentary

Why being Second often beats being First

There are many things in life that are trite, but few more than corporate mission statements that start with the goal of being the number 1 player in a category or industry.

Commentary

How can Singapore make the most of its expanding service sector?

As economies develop they generate proportionally more jobs in services than in manufacturing. In the US , for example fewer of 20% of all jobs are in non-services.

Commentary

Marketing is so last Millennium

The traditional top-down business model is completely wrong for the 21st Century, and marketers employing tactics from the last millennium are in danger of following the dinosaurs into extinction…along with their companies.

Commentary

The new face of shopping in Singapore

It was recently reported that December was a good time for shopping in Singapore especially mobile shopping, which saw its busiest shopping period on 19 December 2011.

Commentary

Are you a Singapore deals site addict?

Daily deals are all around us these days with the likes of Groupon.sg, Deal.com.sg, Singsale.com.sg, Streetdeals.sg, Outlet.com.sg and others sprouting all over this island republic. It is almost difficult to not notice them particularly once you sign up to be a member of their mailing list.

Commentary