SINGAPORE: It is time for us to rethink how we define “small business”.

In Singapore, small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have become synonymous with family-run hawker stalls, provision shops and cafes – businesses that we’ve celebrated as a source of optimism and part of the social fabric of the country.

However, what defines a successful small business today, particularly one that is an engine of sustainable job growth, is something entirely different from romaticised images of the past.

THE RISE OF THE SMALL BUSINESS

Most of our beliefs about SMEs stems from MIT researcher David Birch’s book The Job Generation Process. Decades ago, the seminal study disproved the once-unassailable notion that large firms were at the heart of the American economy.

From 1969 to 1976, Birch wrote, companies with 100 or fewer employees had created more than 80 per cent of all new employment. This was shocking information at a time when large corporations were king.

The study reverberated across Asia, including Singapore. Industry champions and policymakers woke up to the fact that small businesses compose well over 90 per cent of the economy and were responsible for a huge number of jobs created each year.

But this monolithic view of small business persists today. As technology transforms our economy, why do we still put corner cafes and the software start-ups in the same category? That’s how many mainstream experts still count SMEs in this era of smartphones, cloud computing, and online marketplaces.

Business looks very different in 2018 than it did when Birch wrote his pioneering paper. For one, we’re doing a lot more of it online, in real-time and on smaller screens.

As someone at a company that works with millions of businesses around the world, including many high-growth start-ups, I see two emerging business models that are proving to be engines of explosive growth and have the potential to be game changers.

READ: Core to growth, yet productivity has lost its shine, a commentary

READ: Getting disruption right, a commentary

MARKETPLACES AND ENABLERS

Marketplaces connect individuals – usually buyers and sellers – to each other. Enablers are companies that provide the technology and infrastructure that enable small businesses to scale up their business, or in the case of traditional offline businesses, take their business online.

These two models are creating new jobs using technology, and are enabling traditional businesses to tap into the Internet economy and reach new markets.

Much has been written about ride-sharing companies like Grab, e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and online travel businesses like Airbnb, that match demand with supply.

But outside of these large tech platforms, a host of smaller marketplaces are cropping up in local markets and niche industries. These businesses get-to-market quickly and help their sellers and service providers, many of whom are often traditional organisations and SMEs, solve old problems.

Examples include Chope, a restaurant booking service that also shares special deals and offers with users; Giving.sg, a platform that enables donations to charities from interested donors; and Homage, a marketplace that helps Singaporeans find, hire and pay caregivers for the elderly.

Then, we have the enablers. These upstarts provide technology infrastructure and tools so that traditional SMEs can get going quicker and compete with much larger, entrenched market players.

TradeGecko, for example, provides software that helps e-commerce and wholesale businesses manage their inventory. HReasily offers companies a suite of HR tools from payroll to claim applications and leave management, and Xero makes accounting easier for businesses around the world with their cloud-based accounting software.

READ: Lessons from Amazon’s threat to leave Seattle, a commentary

HOOK ONTO A GAZELLE

In reality, all businesses start small but not all small businesses are the same. Going back to Professor Birch shows us why we should bet on these high-growth SMEs.

In 1994, realising that he had lumped SMEs of all ages and maturities together, he revised his thesis. In isolating the job-creating companies that we know today as start-ups, Birch called them “gazelles” — not because of their small size, but because of their expansionary quality; their sales doubled every four years.

By his estimates, these firms, roughly 4 per cent of all US companies, were responsible for 70 per cent of all jobs. Likewise in Singapore, start-ups defined to be up to 5 years old provided 24,300 jobs last year.

READ: Most successful entrepreneurs are older than we think, a commentary

We need to reframe the conversation about SMEs and make sure we’re deploying the right sorts of support and incentives in our economy to help these gazelles grow, thrive and create jobs.

Already, Singapore has been the home base for unicorns like Garena (now known as Sea), Razer, Lazada and Grab, and the start-up ecosystem was ranked 12th in the world overall and first for talent in the Genome Start-up Ecosystem Report.

Through long-term government programmes such as Block 71 and SMEs Go Digital, Singapore is already ahead of the curve when it comes to creating an environment in which gazelles can thrive.

Redefining what small business means could redefine how new jobs are created and sustained for years to come. I think that’s reason for optimism.

Piruze Sabuncu is the Head of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong at Stripe. 

SINGAPORE: As the sun began to set in Tiong Bahru estate on Tuesday evening (Jul 24), a resident living in an apartment along Seng Poh Lane quickly shut her door and windows and drew the blinds.

For the seven years she’s lived in the estate, the resident – a lady in her 40s – has not been able to enjoy the evening breeze from the comfort of her home.

The reason? Dinner crowds at the famous zi char eatery less than 50 metres from her home.

“I can’t stand the noise. I get home from work to get some rest, and every day people come and go from that shop until (its) late,” said the resident, who declined to reveal her name.

“Now that they’re officially (a commercial unit), it just legitimises the noise they are making,” she added.

The zi char place she was referring to – Por Kee Eating House – will soon have its commercial status in Tiong Bahru secured, after the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced on Tuesday the rezoning of land use for 28 sites in the estate.

The 28 ground-floor units, including Ting Heng Seafood Restaurant and Nimble Knead Massage, were previously classified as “Residential”. After the rezoning, they will be classified as “Residential with Commercial at First Storey”

URA said the move reinforces its commitment to support the vibrant landscape in Tiong Bahru, and was made after a two-year study and feedback from the community.

However, some residents in the area are worried that officially recognising the commercial status of these shops – which have been operating their businesses based on approvals given by agencies over the past decades – will only increase the already large crowds in the estate, particularly after office hours and on the weekends.  

Another resident in the area who declined to be named, told Channel NewsAsia that she communicated her concerns to URA during a focus group session earlier this year, but that there were no followups from the authority.

“I told them that there were some businesses that will actually help residents, but other business will not. I don’t want to be specific but there are some places that aren’t good here,” said the resident, who owns an apparel shop on Yong Siak Street, also in Tiong Bahru.

Meanwhile, a resident at Eng Wat Street, who requested to be known only as Mr Teo, told Channel NewsAsia that some of the businesses that will be granted commercial status tend to draw large crowds on the weekends. He added that some of their customers park at lots reserved for residents.

“I don’t want to name names, but there’s a massage place and a famous café nearby. They’re crowded on weekends, and I’m fine with that, but these people cannot be parking on the reserved lots,” said Mr Teo.  

“The residents lots are in red while the visitor lots are in white … Sometimes I’m forced to wait up to 20 minutes just to park near my home,” he added.

However, Adeline, who works at pop-up shoe shop Another Sole on Eng Hoon Street, told Channel NewsAsia that commercialising spaces in the area is a positive move for residents as they can benefit from the stores located “a stones’ throw” from their homes.

“There are so many good cafes in the area, places to eat. The kind of businesses here are not the ones that encourage smoking and littering,” she said.

According to Adeline, Another Sole has not been classified as a commercial unit by URA because customers are not able to purchase the physical goods from the shop; the pop-up store allows visitors to browse and subsequently purchase their desired items online.

“We don’t sell anything, and we don’t really inconvenient any residents, although we’re operating just below a few houses. We want to continue our work here,” she said.  

SINGAPORE: National Geographic will be releasing a Singapore edition of the magazine – complete with an exclusive interview with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong – to commemorate Singapore’s 53rd National Day.

Titled Singapore – City of Tomorrow, the complimentary magazine will be available at community centres and libraries from Aug 1. Only 250,000 copies of the limited edition magazine will be distributed.

The magazine is part of a campaign called #WhatMakesSG, a partnership between National Geographic and the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI), the pair said in a joint statement on Tuesday (Jul 24).

The campaign is aimed at celebrating “the passion driving Singapore’s progress and how the city-state is taking steps to seize future opportunities,” the statement said.

Mr Lee shared his views on Singapore’s future, and highlighted the importance of teamwork and collaboration in enabling Singapore’s transformation to a city of the future. 

In his exclusive interview with the magazine, Mr Lee shared his views on what he believes makes Singapore different, the country’s future and the importance of teamwork.

“There are any number of cities in Asia which have three or four million people in them; probably dozens, many dozens. Why are we different? It’s because of the way we have been able to make our people work together and to make the system work,” Mr Lee said in the interview.

“It doesn’t mean we’re smarter than other people, I think we work as hard as others but we work together more effectively and so you produce something special,” he added.

In conjunction with the magazine launch on Tuesday was a roving month-long photo exhibition.

The exhibition showcases the five winners of the #WhatMakesSG photography contest in April, where more than 7,000 entries were received, as well as the work of National Geographic photographer Michael Yamashita.

The exhibition, which opened on Tuesday at Suntec City West Atrium, will also travel to Changi Airport Terminal 4, Jurong Regional Library, Central Public Library and Cheng San Public Library.

UNITED NATIONS: US President Donald Trump came into office disparaging the United Nations and appointed politician Nikki Haley as the ambassador to carry out his disruptive agenda, but she has also shown Trump how the world body serves his purposes, specifically on North Korea.

The UN Security Council’s unanimous adoption of tougher sanctions three times last year that put pressure on Pyongyang to enter talks on scrapping its nuclear weapons programme is the example Haley gave Trump in a phone call in June.

In an interview with Reuters, Haley recalled telling Trump: “We would not be in the situation we are with North Korea without the UN because that was the only way to get the international community on the same page.”

The United States and other countries believe the sanctions helped to bring North Korean leader Kim Jong Un around to meeting with Trump at an historic summit in Singapore in June.

Haley said Trump asked her what she thought of the United Nations, then 17 months into her post and after the United States became the first country to quit the UN Human Rights Council. She said she rattled off a litany of complaints.

“Unbelievably bureaucratic, it wastes a lot of money, it has some real biases against Israel, against us at times, it ignores a lot that’s going on that needs attention.”

Haley’s relay of their phone call illustrates how she guides the president who shuns the international forums and pacts the United States has helped build over decades. When Trump took office, he called the UN “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.”

Some diplomats have said they see the former South Carolina governor as the stable face of US foreign policy. When Trump leaves them confused, some say they look to her for interpretation.

“My job is to give clarity to everything the administration’s doing so that no one wonders where we are. I always wanted to make sure there was no gray. That it was black and white,” Haley said in the interview during a trip last month to India, the country from which her parents emigrated to the United States.

Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, described Haley’s job as selling the “administration’s anti-UN positions to the public.”

“That annoys other diplomats,” Gowan added.

RUSSIA TENSIONS

Haley has long taken a tougher public stance on Russia than her boss. In May she described Russian expansionism in Ukraine as “outrageous” and said the US position “will not waver.”

Days later, however, Trump urged the Group of Seven countries to reinstate Russia, booted out for its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Two weeks before Trump’s Jul 16 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Haley told Reuters that “basically what the president is saying is it’s better for us to have communication than not.”

But then the summit turned into a nightmare for the White House when Trump, at the joint news conference, sided with Putin’s denials of Russian interference in the 2016 US election rather than the conclusions of his own intelligence agencies.

A political outcry in Washington drowned out Trump’s message that the two nuclear powers should improve their relations, which are at a post-Cold War low.

Haley has not responded to Reuters’ requests for comment on the summit.

Differences over Russia also caused rare public friction for Haley within the administration when she announced in April that Washington was going to sanction Moscow over its support of Syria’s government. Trump then decided not to go ahead.

“The president has every right to change his mind, every right,” Haley said. Trump never raised the incident with her, she said.

Her UN counterparts describe her as charming and yet very tough. She sees herself as a fighter.

“I don’t see (my role) as pushing an ‘America First’ policy, I see it as defending America because every day I feel like I put body armour on. I just don’t know who I’m fighting that day,” Haley said.

Haley carved out a high-profile role within the Trump administration from the moment she was offered the job, telling the president she would only accept it if she was made a member of the Cabinet and the National Security Council.

“She’s got an eye and ear for where the politics of an issue are,” said a senior Western diplomat, who, like all those consulted at the United Nations, would only speak on condition of anonymity.

Those kinds of instincts have helped put the 46-year-old mother of two on the list of possible Republican presidential candidates. She dismisses the presidential chatter and said it has never come up with Trump, who intends to run again in 2020, “because he knows he doesn’t need to raise it.”

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Mary Milliken and Grant McCool)

SINGAPORE: A rezoning exercise in the Tiong Bahru estate has sealed the commercial approval status for 28 ground floor properties – including Por Kee Eating House and Nimble Knead Massage – which had previously been classified as residential units.

These 28 units had been operating their businesses based on approvals given by agencies over the past decades, and the reclassification in their status as “Residential” to “Residential with Commercial at First Storey” under the Master Plan will serve to support the vibrant landscape in the estate, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Tuesday (Jul 24).

The 28 units are mostly located between Eng Hoon and Eng Watt streets and have over time become an integral part of the estate’s fabric, URA added.

In addition to Por Kee Eating House and Nimble Knead Massage, the units also include Flock Cafe, Singapore Realtors, Cozy Wine, One Olive and Drips Bakery Cafe.

The rezoning exercise will take place over the next month and follows a study conducted over two years on the uses in the estate, which also took into account feedback from residents.

“The community shared that they were supportive of the estate’s vibrant character, and having a good mix of business to serve residential and visitors,” said the URA in a news release. 

“At the same time, they emphasised the need to maintain residential amenity, so that residents can continue to have a good living environment.”

The Tiong Bahru neighbourhood was developed in the 1930s as Singapore’s first housing estate. In recent times, rapid gentrification in the neighbourhood has seen a increased demand for commercial space in the estate.

According to the URA, common complaints from residents included noise created by businesses, indiscriminate littering and safety concerns.

The URA also said that there are about 15 ground floor businesses in the estate that have been operating without approval at premises meant only for residential use.

The URA has posted letters to these business operators, with officers also going on the ground to speak to some of them to address these infringements.

There are currently about 120 authorised businesses located on the first storey of residential buildings, mostly within Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) flats.

More than half of these have already been land zoned as “Residential with Commercial at First Storey”.

SINGAPORE: A refreshed technology roadmap, more spending on research and development (R&D) and a one-stop office to address the needs of infocommunications and media (ICM) companies. 

These were mooted by the Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran at the ministry’s workplan seminar, his first since helming the ministry in May.

Speaking to staff from the ministry on Tuesday (Jul 24), Mr Iswaran said the refreshed technology roadmap will guide R&D investments in emerging digital technologies for the rest of the Research Innovation Enterprise (RIE) 2020 plan, and beyond. 

The ministry is currently engaging companies and agencies on this roadmap, and more details will be shared at the launch later this year, he added.

Mr Iswaran also committed to a longer-term plan to invest in digital technologies R&D.

The minister, who took over the ministry from Mr Yaacob Ibrahim, shared that S$360 million was allocated to the Services and Digital Economy domain under the RIE2020 plan and “promising investments” in initiatives like AI Singapore and cybersecurity have been made. But more needs to be done.

“I fully intend to increase R&D spending on the Services and Digital Economy domain,” the minister said.

“We must be prepared to do more in R&D because digital technologies will only become more pervasive – and companies and countries around us are already investing heavily in this.”

He said MCI is reviewing its plans in this area with the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the outcome will be announced later this year.

In the meantime, Mr Iswaran said training the local workforce in digital skills through the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) programme is ongoing. A total of 39,000 training places have been taken or committed by companies since its launch in 2016. This, he said, can give more Singaporeans the opportunity to participate in the digital economy with good ICT jobs.

These initiatives are part of MCI’s efforts to deepen Singapore’s capabilities to keep pace and retain its competitive edge in today’s digital age, he explained.

ONE-STOP SHOP

Mr Iswaran also highlighted another initiative meant to better address the needs of local ICM companies.

Reiterating the ministry’s aim to build a “vibrant, world-class ICM industry that drives the economy and powers a Smart Nation”, the minister said implementation is key and MCI needs to engage, understand the needs of enterprises and marshal national resources to help them realise their plans.

Currently, there are several agencies involved in this, namely Enterprise Singapore, Economic Development Board (EDB) and Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), but he said more can be done to bring their efforts together.

To better support these ICM companies, these agencies will form a joint office, Mr Iswaran announced. This digital industry office will bring together their programmes in improving market access, developing enterprises, industry and talent as well as account management, the minister added.

“In a way, this joint office will be our own Government start-up for how we’d do industry development,” Mr Iswaran said.

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) KrisFlyer members will be able to use their air miles to pay for petrol, food and other services using KrisPay, a new app launched on Tuesday (Jul 24).

Members of SIA’s loyalty programme can convert their KrisFlyer miles to KrisPay miles via the digital wallet to make partial or full purchases at merchants partnering with the airline, SIA said in a media release.

KrisPay is currently accepted at 18 partner merchants – including Esso, Cedele and Challenger – and more will be progressively added to the platform, SIA added. 

“Members can easily turn their KrisFlyer miles into KrisPay miles using the app’s instant top-up function,” SIA said. “Once transferred, KrisPay miles have a validity of six months.”

Payment via the digital wallet is done by scanning the KrisPay QR code at the merchant and keying in the amount users wish to pay with their KrisPay miles, SIA said. 

“We are excited to be introducing KrisPay, a novel way for our KrisFlyer members to digitally access their miles at their fingertips, at any time,” said SIA CEO Goh Choon Phong. 

“By creating a miles-based digital wallet which integrates the use of miles into their daily lives, KrisFlyer members have yet another way to use miles instantly on everyday transactions.”

Fifteen KrisPay miles is equivalent to S$0.10, according to KPMG Digital Village, who worked with SIA and Microsoft to develop KrisPay.

KrisPay is available for download from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. 

Follow our CNA LIFESTYLE page on Facebook for more trending stories and videos

SINGAPORE: You’ve seen how outlandish Lady Gaga’s fashion sense can get. Now you can get a closer look at an outfit created by one of the music superstar’s go-to fashion designers.

At next month’s Singapore Night Festival (SNF), an exhibition of some unusual garments will include a Maori culture-inspired piece by designers Maria Tsopanaki and Dimitri Mavinis.

The duo are behind the London-based fashion label Erevos Aether, which has done work for the likes of Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Nicki Minaj and Jessie J.

Called Princess Niwareka, the outfit made of “vegan leather” and mirrors will be among eight unusual pieces on display at an exhibit by the World Of Wearable Art, the popular design competition held every year in New Zealand. 

Another work, by Singapore-based designer and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) professor Galina Mihaleva, will also be shown. These will be displayed at the National Design Centre throughout the festival, which runs from Aug 17 to 25.

The fashion showcase is one of the highlights at the 11th edition of the festival, which also includes the annual Night Lights segment featuring 16 light installations around the Bras Basah.Bugis precinct. There will also be 27 performances throughout the area, as well as F&B and crafts options.

There have also been some changes this year – there will be no road closures for Armenian Street this year and instead, the action in that area will move into the alleyway between The Substation and Peranakan Museum.

This edition will also have less of the huge spectacles normally associated with the event, and focus more on something more personal and intimate.

Festival programme director Jervais Choo said: “The idea is for unexpected encounters at different corners of the festival grounds, which we have creatively curated for that element of surprise”.

In the spirit of surprising sartorial choices, here are CNA Lifestyle’s picks of other programmes to look out for – from a more “what are they wearing?” point of view. 

Don’t judge.

SINGAPORE’S HARAJUKU FASHIONISTAS

If you’re a fan of the monthly Harajuku Fashion Walk in Tokyo, keep an eye out for this Singapore event, where you can either dress up or take photos. It’ll be a certified kawaii moment.

Aug 25, 7pm, at SAM at 8Q. More details at https://www.facebook.com/HarajukuFW.SG/

ROBOT SUITS FOR DANCERS

Homegrown company Hope Technik has been making cool mecha-like exoskeletons, including the recent Auberon, the country’s first pneumatic-powered exoskeletons for firefighters. And for the festival, one of their other suits – the Audra – will be worn by local jazz dance troupe EV Dance for a unique collaboration.

The Audra is used to help workers lift heavy loads, so we’re curious as to how agile and flexible dancers will be using these to bust some moves. At the very least, we’re sure they won’t be throwing out their backs.

Aug 23 to 25, 8.30pm and 10pm, Queen Street and LTA Walkway.

PEOPLE IN HORSE COSTUMES

A group of French performers will be galloping into the festival, sort of. Compagnie des Quidams will be roving around in a show called FierS a Cheval – where they’ll be dressed up as horses and strangely dressed sci-fi Venetians. And no, you can’t ride them.

Aug 23 to 25, various timings and spots from National Museum of Singapore to SMU Campus Green.

WRESTLERS IN SPANDEX

Wrestling shows have become quite a regular feature at the festival, and the experimental pro-wrestling group Grapple Max are back – but with a twist. This year, they’ll presenting The Arcade, a wrestling match done like a live-action arcade game. That means our dudes and gals in spandex will be dressed up as characters from the arcade scene of the 1990s. Can anyone say “Hadouken”?

Aug 24 and 25, 8pm and 10.10pm, at the SMU School of Infosystems.

SCARY-LOOKING DRUMMERS IN BLACK

There’s usually always one drumming group every year, and this time around, it’s Spain’s Deabru Beltzak and local group MOTUS, who’ll be performing Su A Feu.

So what’s different with these guys? Well, for one, they look pretty intimidating – they’re all in black, wear Darth Vader-like masks and have some pyrotechnic effects spewing out from somewhere as they bang away on their drums. A bit like a Marvel movie villain who’s got his groove on.

Aug 23 to 25, 7.51pm and 9.26pm, at Cathay Green.

For more information on this year’s Singapore Night Festival, visit http://nightfestival.sg/