Volume 02 Issue 2 | Published on 17 Oct 2016
Urbanisation, Technology and the Growth of Smart Cities
- INNOVATION GOVERNANCE: HOW PROACTIVE IS YOUR BOARD? [PDF | HTML]
All global business and technology trends point in the same direction: there is a need for more proactive and far- sighted management of innovation. Innovation for business reinforcement and growth, and transformation in particular, are, of course, the prime responsibility of top management.
- USING DIGITAL GENOMICS TO CREATE AN INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE [PDF | HTML]
We live on the cusp of a new age in machine intelligence. At no point in history has data processing been so affordable and algorithms, formulated years ago, so readily applicable to day-to-day problems. Today we have the capability to take big leaps in digital intelligence-driven business innovation.
- PROTEAN CAREER STRATEGIES [PDF | HTML]
The increasing career risks associated with global volatility and shifting personal desires, as well as the reduced career rewards that come from specialisation and lower social mobility, threaten an individual’s financial success and happiness. No current career strategy protects the individual from all of these potential negative impacts, or leverages them to benefit the individual.
- URBANISATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE GROWTH OF SMART CITIES [PDF | HTML]
Imagine a city that has enough information about you such that it adapts to you in real time. The city’s billboards change as you walk past, displaying advertisements based on your recent shopping patterns. Restaurants present menus tailored to your taste and health. Streetlights brighten or dim depending on whether you are walking or driving.
- BORDERLESS MARKETS: A BOON OR BANE FOR MARKETERS? [PDF | HTML]
Many prognosticators and pundits have extolled the virtues and concerns of the impending ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The blending of markets and the reduction of trade and entry barriers are being hailed for bringing long-term competitiveness and attracting foreign investment into a fast-growing market of over 600 million consumers.
- REMITTANCES WITHOUT BORDERS [PDF | HTML]
One out of every 28 people lives in a country that they were not born in. As migrants, they are estimated by The World Bank to send home US$636 billion in 2017, with three-quarters remitted to developing countries.1 These remittances form a significant percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of many of these developing countries.
- REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS IN ASIA: MORE THAN A PLACE TO CALL HOME [PDF | HTML]
While some see real estate as an opportunity for making large financial gains, others find the hefty capital outlay, long-term outlook, high transactional costs and market volatility quite a challenge and a lot more complicated than investing in stocks and bonds.
- CHINA’S DIGITAL LANDSCAPE: BREAKING BARRIERS TO INNOVATION [PDF | HTML]
When e-commerce giant Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014, its market capitalisation rocketed to roughly US$219 billion—a sum greater than any record previously set by its American contemporaries, Facebook, eBay and A mazon.
- TRANSFORMING THE TRADITIONAL INDIAN RETAILER [PDF | HTML]
The rise of modern organised retailing and e-commerce has seen India’s traditional retailers, known as ‘kirana’, and other small businesses take a major hit. But while the lack of IT-based systems in current retailer supply chains is impacting their performance, the problem is not insurmountable.
- FROM SMART DRONES TO SMART LEADERSHIP: LESSONS IN INNOVATION [PDF | HTML]
The evolution of the word ‘innovation’ is an interesting one. It has gone from a description of any number of unique selling propositions for dishwashers and door locks to the whole change in mindset necessary for business (and life) in the 21st century.
- ON THE EDGE OF DISRUPTION [PDF | HTML]
Accelerating technological advancement in computerisation, communication and automation will increasingly displace jobs faster than labour markets can adapt. The result is persistent long-term unemployment. And given the inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation, there will be little rationale for policymakers to raise interest rates.
Volume 02 Issue 1 | Published on 14 Sep 2016
Vietnam's Economy
- ASEAN’S ROLE IN ASIA PACIFIC IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT OR JUST A BACK-SEAT DRIVER? [PDF | HTML]
Asia is a diverse continent in terms of political regimes, demographic trends, economic development, and religious and cultural richness. At one end of the spectrum are established regional powers such as Japan, China and India, and at the other end are fledgling democracies and nascent economies like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
- FOREIGN INVESTORS ARE FINDING VIETNAM INCREASINGLY ATTRACTIVE [PDF | HTML]
Following the opening of the Vietnamese economy to foreign direct investment (FDI) in 1986, Vietnam became an exciting, albeit difficult, place to do business in the 1990s. Then came the Asian Economic Crisis in 1997, and investors began pulling out in droves.
- MUDDLING THROUGH OR KNEE DEEP IN THE BIG MUDDY? [PDF | HTML]
Educators have had to answer criticism that business schools have failed to keep their ‘eye on the ball’, that is, the very core, purpose and value of management education. In pursuing academic scientific rigour, critics claim business schools have swung too far down the path of rigour at the expense of relevance.
- RINSE BUT NO NEED TO REPEAT [PDF | HTML]
By October 2007, it had become apparent that competition in the laundry products segment in Vietnam was heating up rapidly. Huyen Bui, the senior brand manager for Comfort at Unilever Vietnam, was contemplating how to stay ahead of long-time rival, Proctor & Gamble (P&G), in terms of market share.
- THINKING BIGGER: PUSHING SINGAPOREAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP TO THE NEXT LEVEL [PDF | HTML]
In 2015, among a sample of 130 countries, Singapore ranked a s the tenth most entrepreneurial, based on an aggregate index accounting for entrepreneurial attitude, ability and aspiration.1 The island state was also noted to be the second most competitive country for business globally, and has retained the number two position worldwide for having the best intellectual property (IP) pr
- THE PAST AND THE HOPEFUL FUTURE OF VIETNAM’S ECONOMY [PDF | HTML]
Vietnam—with its coast line extending over 3,400 kilometres and comprising thousands of islands—has high development potential. The nation enjoys strong national cohesion and social stability. Despite hosting over 50 ethnic groups, religious and ethnic conflict is not of much concern.
- ASEAN: GROWTH IN THE FAST LANE [PDF | HTML]
ASEAN has been enjoying solid growth rates over the last few decades. Since 1980, growth has averaged 5.4 percent, well above the global average of 3.4 percent over the same time period. Growth in ASEAN has also been faster than other emerging regions—Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa—since 1980.
- THE PHILIPPINES GROWTH STORY: GROUND REALITIES OF ASEAN INTEGRATION [PDF | HTML]
The year 2015 is only symbolic for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), as the region has been moving towards economic integration for some time. Tariffs for most manufacturing goods have already fallen to low levels between the member nations. Capital is moving freely across member countries—for example, the Philippines already allows 100 percent foreign equity in local banks.
- ON THE AEC, ECONOMIC MIRACLES AND LEADERSHIP [PDF | HTML]
On the AEC, economic miracles and leadership I was reading the tributes to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew the other day, and came across this comment from Henry Kissinger, an astute strategist and a man of letters who at 91 is continuing to contribute to society through his writing.
Volume 01 Issue 2 | Published on 31 Aug 2016
Leveraging Market-Based Assets
- UNLEASHING ASEAN’S POTENTIAL THROUGH AEC [PDF | HTML]
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has set an ambitious goal to integrate the economies of its ten members by 2015, a move that is aimed at boosting the bloc’s competitiveness and creating development across the region that is more equitable.
- START-UP REPUTATIONS IN ASIAN MARKETS [PDF | HTML]
Many studies have shown that organisational reputation and performance have a strong and positive correlation. When an organisation’s reputation grows, it not only reduces the stakeholders’ uncertainty about its future, but also increases the organisation’s access to stakeholder resources (such as money and influence)—thereby improving its chances for economic success.
- DYNAMIC ADVANTAGE [PDF | HTML]
How do leading firms with global operations extend their success in today’s context of business environments, geo-political uncertainty and demanding customers that threaten to switch loyalty at the swipe of a smart phone screen? Many global firms may have expanded internationally, yet still continue to operate in geographical or functional silos.
- DO ASIAN CONGLOMERATES OFFER ATTRACTIVE RISK-ADJUSTED RETURNS? [PDF | HTML]
Equity markets typically ascribe a discount to the valuation of conglomerates, where the market value of a conglomerate is lower than the sum of the values of the individual businesses, due to lower synergy among component businesses and, in certain cases, a complex organisation structure.
- CLOSING THE TALENT GAP IN INDIA’S IT SECTOR [PDF | HTML]
Infosys, one of India’s largest information technology (IT) consulting firms, developed the Campus Connect programme in response to the growing belief among India’s IT industry majors that fresh graduates being recruited from the country’s engineering colleges were neither readily employable, nor sufficiently industry-ready.
Volume 01 Issue 1 | Published on 29 Jul 2016
Unleashing Creativity
- FROM THE EDITOR [PDF | HTML]
Much has been written about the megatrends in all aspects of management that have taken place over the last decade or so, but rarely, if ever, do they include Asian examples, and certainly not Asia-based solutions. Yet one of the greatest of these major megatrends is the movement in the global economic centre of gravity towards the East.
- MANAGEMENT EDUCATION [PDF | HTML]
Business schools have been among the great success stories in higher education over the last 50 years. At a time when many university systems around the world are struggling financially, there continues to be a steadily growing demand for management education. However, the field is now in a state of flux.
- WEALTH MANAGEMENT IN SINGAPORE [PDF | HTML]
Private wealth continues to grow rapidly across the globe, with 2012 recording new highs in terms of high net worth individuals (HNWIs), defined as those with investible wealth over US$1 million, and who now reach a population of 12 million, with aggregate investable wealth totalling US$46.2 trillion.i
- SOURCING HUB [PDF | HTML]
Active management of upstream sourcing is often said to add great value to a firm’s supply chain. When a firm brings its suppliers and suppliers’ suppliers together, value is created by pooling knowledge: information about demand, process improvements, raw material sourcing, and design complexity reduction is exchanged.
- THE CUSTOMER INSIGHT JOURNEY OF AMAZING GRACE [PDF | HTML]
Mondelēz International is one of the world’s largest snack manufacturers and distributors and makes some of the world’s favourite brands such as Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates, Oreo biscuits and Halls candies. Its current consumer-centric approach to the market originated in 2009 in the Philippines. As I recall, those were tough times; family budgets were stretched thin.
- THE NEW CAPITALISM [PDF | HTML]
To have a conversation, the appropriate language is needed. The language is just starting to emerge in both Asia and the West for one of the most important conversations the world is now having—the discussion about the future of business and capitalism. Thailand’s King Bhumibol refers to the sufficiency economy. Harvard’s Michael Porter speaks of shared value.
- SURVIVING BEYOND A THIRD GENERATION [PDF | HTML]
Family-owned businesses (FOBs) are the backbone of the economic systems in most countries. A 2012 Ernst and Young report disclosed that family businesses make up more than 60 percent of all companies in Europe and the Americas, and account for about 50 percent of total employment. In Asia, the situation is similar.
- AN OREO WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS [PDF | HTML]
In late 2005, Shawn Warren, head of biscuits, Asia Pacific for Kraft, was in desperate need of a quick turnaround strategy. Oreo, after nearly 10 years in the China market was facing the imminent disaster of being completely pulled from the shelves. Local retail channels, along with company headquarters near Chicago, had finally grown impatient of the iconic product’s lacklustre sales.