Architect and Ong & Ong’s new group chief executive officer (CEO) Ashvinkumar Kantilal is certainly one who takes the road less travelled.

In August 2010, after 23 years of service, he left the only firm he had ever worked for after graduation.

His move may have required soul-searching, but his explanation is simple.

He said: “At 49, I felt I needed a pause.”

When the market knew he was leaving his firm, many others approached him.

“But I left without a job as I felt it was not ethical for me to leave a firm while talking to potential employers. I was still president of the Singapore Institute of Architects and a board member of the Board of Architects at the time,” said Mr Ashvin, who is now 55.

After three months, he decided to join Ong and Ong as it group chief operating officer .

He became a member of the leadership team comprising group executive chairman Ong Tze Boon, and the group managing director at the time, Mr Tai Lee Siang.

The firm was already a multi-disciplinary practice at the time, with staff strength of 400 and offices in Malaysia, Vietnam, China and India.

In the last five years, the leadership team grew the firm to nearly 700 employees and 13 offices worldwide.

Ong & Ong was started in 1972 by former Singapore president Ong Teng Cheong and his wife Ong Siew May. Architect Ong Tze Boon is the late couple’s younger son.

Mr Ashvin, a Pingat Bakti Masyarakat recipient, believes that success is “1 per cent inspiration, 99 per cent alignment” – you can have the best of plans, but if there is no alignment where people buy in, then it is pointless.

“For 23 years I honed the skills – whether it is developers, consultants, contractors or subcontractors – you have got to manage expectations. And expectations may not be the same among all the stakeholders.

“Clients have a set of expectations, contractors another. Often it os an opposite set of expectations. Then the consultants – the engineers, quantity surveyors – may have different expectations. So how do you gel the team then, make it work and deliver a project successfully?”

A firm believer that the best people have to run the firm, Mr Ashvin and the executive committee instituted a clear separation between shareholders and executive committee members.

They also institutionalised a maximum five-year period for any executive position “so that there is always rotation”.

He explained that with rotation comes renewal, and new blood comes in.

“So my tenure as group CEO is five years. After five years, if I am still relevant to the practice, they may offer me an advisory role or retire me. I mooted the idea and I am proud that we are into the second 5-year plan.”

An advocate of mentoring, Mr Ashvin worked with his firm to create a platform to harness the best talent within the practice to foster future leaders.

“We call it the High Potential Programme (HiPo) where we have identified future leaders – the second and third generation leaders know who they are. As group CEO, I have already identified the two to three potential candidates to take over my position.

“The mentoring programme becomes a very important pillar of this company because I have seen a lot of examples in other businesses where when senior partners hold on to their positions for too long and it becomes very difficult for aspiring staff to move into positions of seniority. The good ones will eventually leave if not given the opportunities.

“After a while I realised that while money is important, it does not become the most important thing to a lot of people. Because I think people actually yearn for recognition and enjoy job satisfaction.

“You have to empower, and I think that is what I have done over the last five years – empower the younger colleagues to make decisions, to be made responsible, and be held accountable for those decisions.”

When asked about how he strikes a balance with clients’ demands and personal design philosophy, Mr Ashvin said: “I have in the past – and I do not think I will change – turned down projects where I know the client will not realise and appreciate the value of good work. Good work does not necessarily equate to good design.

“There is a distinction there. Good work is making sure that a design satisfies the needs of the client and at the end of the day enriches the life of the people who occupy the building. Whether it is a condo, public institutional building, a school or community club – for that matter an office building where occupants feel nice about going to work, that they work in a great space.”

As cliche as it sounds, you still have people who come in with preconceived ideas about what their building should look like, and they will tell you how to design. And you know at one glance it is not a good fit. Then the question is do you want to put your name to that project.”

Sharing future plans, he says: “When I joined the firm, Boon shared with Lee Siang and myself the vision of making Ong & Ong a public firm so we started restructuring the firm and the outlook of the people, to prepare it for IPO. We manage the firm, more so now than ever, as if it is a public listed company. We run it that way because the day that we think we are ready to go for IPO, you can’t change the mindset of the people overnight so this is all part of the process. Our information is shared in an annual report, all staff get a softcopy, everything is transparent. No firm has done this.”

“Every project we do, we try to do it differently so the feedback we’ve got so far is quite positive. Very seldom do you get end-users of a condo writing commendation emails, and I see that lately in two of my jobs,” stated Mr Ashvin.

He also believes in giving back.

Three years ago, he initiated with his wife the Vilas-Kantilal Bursary, in honour of his late parents, for two deserving architectural students at the National University of Singapore.

He has empowered The Architectural Society, of which Mr Ashvin was president during his undergraduate days, to manage this.

The National University of Singapore alumnus is married to Madam Takako Iino, 56, and they have twin sons Vishal and Vikrant, 25, and a daughter, Jasmine, 22, who are all currently studying overseas.

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SINGAPORE – The number of new cars put on the road last year surged by more than half from 2015, with the top four brands now being Japanese.

Thanks to an expanded certificate of entitlement (COE) quota, there were a total of 87,504 registrations last year, up 52 per cent from 57,589 in 2015, said the Land Transport Authority.

But the lineup of top three brands differed from that in 2015.

Honda took over as Singapore’s favourite car brand from the second half of last year, followed by Toyota, which had ruled the roost in 2015 and 2014.

At No. 3 was Mazda, which displaced Nissan.

Mercedes-Benz, once Singapore’s fourth most popular make, is now No. 5, thus giving Japanese car-makers a sweep of the top four spots.

But unlike in previous years, where Toyota led the runner-up by a big margin, Honda managed only a slim lead last year.

Its total of 19,349 passenger cars (see table) was only 858 units more than second-placed Toyota.

The registration numbers included parallel-import models, which are not sold by authorised distributors.

Mazda, which was No. 5 in 2015, also had only a small gap between it and Nissan.

Elsewhere down the Top 10 were the same brands as in the year before, except that Volkswagen overtook Hyundai in Q4 2016 to move up one place to No. 9.

The Hyundai tally, of course, does not include taxis, which authorised Hyundai distributor Komoco sold 2,742 units of last year.

Outside the Top 10, Audi also advanced one place to No. 11, switching places with Kia, which closed last year in 12th place.

Among authorised distributors, the Toyota Corolla Altis remained Singapore’s top model for the third consecutive year, with a total of 4,923 units registered (see table).

As in 2015, the Mazda3 and Nissan Qashqai were in second and third places respectively.

Also similar to 2015 was that the only luxury models in the Top 10 were two Mercedes-Benz saloons – the compact C-Class and the mid-sized E-Class.

Between the two, the E-Class is usually sold in higher numbers, but a full model change in 2016 affected its availability.

A new entrant to the Top 10 was the Mitsubishi Attrage, with 1,726 units.

The strong demand for this budget mini-sedan last year came from private-hire companies.

Also noteworthy was the return of the Toyota Camry (1,096) to the Top 10.

The mid-sized sedan edged out the Nissan Sylphy compact sedan into 11th place in Q4 2016.

samuelee@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 20, 2017.
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There will be more certificates of entitlement (COEs) for the February to April quota period, with an average of 8,795 certificates available each month, up 8.9 per cent from the current period.

For car buyers, the increase is slightly sharper at 11.6 per cent, with the number of COEs (including for the Open category) available per month going up from 6,973 to 7,781.

The figures released by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) yesterday revealed that the bigger supply comes on the back of more vehicles having been taken off the road in the October to December period.

A total of 27,775 vehicles were deregistered in the last quarter of last year, up from 26,613 scrapped from July to September.

Some market observers expect the bigger supply of car COEs to send premiums south.

Mr Neo Nam Heng, chairman of diversified motor group Prime, said: “The private-hire market is saturated, the current economic outlook is poor, interest rates are rising. All these factors, combined with the bigger COE supply, should soften prices.”

Mr Ron Lim, general manager of Nissan agent Tan Chong Motor, said that “whether COE prices will drop still depends on overall retail demand and also whether private-hire car companies will continue with their aggressive expansion”.

Mr Lim is quite certain though that commercial vehicle premiums will rise.

Firstly, the supply of commercial vehicle COEs will shrink by 10.8 per cent in the next three months.

Secondly, more than 15,000 vans, trucks and buses will see their COEs expiring in the first quarter alone – versus fewer than 1,000 fresh COEs available.

Even if half of the owners decided to renew the COEs of their vehicles, demand would still far outstrip supply.

Industry watchers said that if commercial vehicle premiums spike, buyers will dip into the Open category for certificates.

If that happens, car buyers – who typically dominate the Open category – might not see prices falling much.

The February to April supply is also bigger because there were fewer commercial vehicles registered under the Early Turnover Scheme, as well as taxis added to fleets.

Buyers in these two categories of vehicles do not bid directly for COEs, but the LTA accounts for them in the form of deductions in new COE quotas.

The latest adjustment was 1,960, 34 per cent lower than the 2,959 made in the previous quota.

christan@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on January 20, 2017.
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More than five years in the making, Singapore’s first road-rail viaduct will open on Feb 18.

The Tuas Viaduct stretches 4.8km from Tuas Road to Tuas West Road, with a 2.4km stretch of the upcoming Tuas West MRT extension running 9m above it.

It has been built in anticipation of the heavier traffic that will come with developments in the west of the island – the highlight of which is the Tuas Port.

The viaduct runs 14m above Pioneer Road, which is already often congested with heavy vehicles.

It is currently configured as a dual two-lane road.

But an expanded road shoulder can be converted to a third lane in each direction to support “longer-term developments within the Tuas area”, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA), which announced the viaduct’s opening date yesterday.

Tuas Port is expected to complete the first phase of its construction in 2020 and handle all of Singapore’s port activities from 2027.

Construction on the viaduct began in 2012, with a combined budget of $3.5 billion for both the road viaduct and the rail extension, which includes the Tuas Crescent and Tuas West Road stations.

To handle the additional weight of both the road and rail line, the viaduct sits on 94 columns, each of which can support 13,000 tonnes.

This is more than six times the load of a column for the freestanding part of the Tuas West extension rail viaduct, which can carry 2,100 tonnes.

Mr Andrew Yap, Tuas West extension project director at LTA, said that integrating the road and rail components not just optimises land use along Pioneer Road, but also reduces the building cost. The 7.5km MRT extension is scheduled to open in the second quarter of this year.

To avoid confusing motorists when the viaduct opens next month, new directional signs will be put up.

Marshals will also help direct traffic for the first few days after it opens.

Mr Allan Lim, the chief executive of a biodiesel company in Tuas South, hopes that the viaduct will help alleviate congestion, describing the traffic on Pioneer Road as “bad”, particularly during peak hours.

Added the 43-year-old: “The congestion is caused by heavy commercial vehicles, which don’t always keep to the left lane, and slow down smaller vehicles.”

This article was first published on January 20, 2017.
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Parents in Singapore are fretting over their kids’ online habits and getting bullied online.

But despite these jitters, many parents do not take active steps to ensure their children are protected from the dangers of the Web.

Only a third of parents took such steps last year, according to survey findings released yesterday.

Among the chief concerns of parents here were: children downloading malicious programs or computer viruses, and disclosing too much personal information to strangers online.

They were also concerned that children would be lured into meeting a stranger in the physical world, according to a survey by security technology firm Norton.

About two-thirds of people cited these issues.

The study also found that most parents – 71 per cent – said they allowed their children to access the Internet before age 11.

But just 39 per cent of respondents allowed their kids to access the Web only with parental supervision last year.

This is a slight increase from 2015’s 35 per cent.

The report, which is in its second year, polled more than 400 parents here in September and October last year.

About 1,000 people here above the age of 18 were surveyed.

Only about a third of parents here had preventive measures in place to protect their children online last year – allowing access only to certain websites and allowing Internet access only in household common areas like the living room.

These are similar to 2015’s figures.

But more parents are taking some form of action rather than none at all. In 2015, 32 per cent of parents surveyed said they took no action at all over their children’s online activities.

This improved last year, falling to 11 per cent.

Mr Lawrence Tan, 36, who has two children aged eight and 10, said he limits their Internet exposure to assignments on their school website.

He occasionally allows them to watch YouTube videos and cartoons on his mobile devices.

“I make sure they are fully supervised and I take the opportunity to bond with them,” said Mr Tan, who works in a healthcare firm.

More parents here are also worried that their children will be cyberbullied. Almost half of the parents surveyed – 48 per cent – believe their children are more likely to be bullied online than on a playground, up from 37 per cent in 2015.

While 9 per cent of parents said their child was a victim of cyberbullying last year, down from 15 per cent from 2015, Norton said the issue might be under-reported.

This is because parents may not recognise the signs of cyberbullying, which include appearing nervous when receiving texts or e-mail or deleting their social media accounts.

“A concern for many parents is that cyberbullying doesn’t stop when their child leaves school – as long as your child is connected to a device, a bully can connect to them,” said Mr Gavin Lowth, vice-president for consumer business unit in Asia-Pacific and Japan at Symantec, which owns the Norton brand.

Children may also be on the receiving end of aggressive people online, instead of full-blown cyberbullying, which is also a problem, said Mr Poh Yeang Cherng, principal consultant at cyberwellness consultancy firm Kingmaker Consultancy.

This is due to the ease of accessing the Internet now.

“Kids who play online games, for instance, may experience aggression there. Many games involve both young children and adults so what an adult can handle or deems acceptable could be a shock to children,” he said.

lesterh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 20, 2017.
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