Opening Address by Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Acting Minister for Manpower at Singapore Innovation & Productivity Conference, 9:40am, 25 October 2013, Grand Copthorne, Waterfront Hotel, Grand Ballroom

1. A very good morning to all of you. Since Mr George Huang talked about Body Mass Index (BMI), I thought that maybe that is a useful point to start off with. Many of us want to lose weight but it is not very easy. Although, there are many tested methods and technological advancements to help us, we only get so far. If the reason to lose weight is compelling enough, we will then think on how best to achieve it. In the same vein, within the whole effort to relook our own business models, there are essentially two parts. The first refers to “the heart” which represents the will and whether the reasons for change are compelling enough for us to break out of our mental models and embrace new ideas to create a culture of innovation and productivity.
2. Most of us talk about how the “heart of things” is important but I am unsure how many of us actually embrace it fully. This brings me to the second part, which refers to how an organisation embraces the different techniques, tactics, procedures, ideas and processes that are available. Do we keep the way of doing things or embrace change? For businesses and certainly for the nation, we are not unfamiliar with change. Singapore as a whole is one clear example of how we embrace adversities, challenges, limits and transform ourselves.
3. For example, water is a physical and geographical resource constraint for Singapore. We want to make sure that we are capable of ensuring our own water security. That pushed us to embrace new technologies. The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is another example of how we have transformed. Realising that we are unable to operate a large military force, we physically build ships that operate with less manpower without compromising their capabilities. Therefore, change is not unusual. This is something that all of us know. And we are in a fairly good position for change. I know that many of you in the business are feeling the crunch due to the tightening of manpower policies. However, it is a “happy problem” in a sense that we are unlike other countries who are grappling with unemployment.
4. Many of these countries need economic growth to generate jobs and opportunities in order to deal with unemployment. Here in Singapore, the fundamentals that anchor us remain strong, and in the foreseeable future it will continue. We are geographically located in an area of high growth. We can see these business opportunities, even though some companies may find it difficult to fulfil them due to manpower constraints. Well, that is the impetus for us to fundamentally relook at the way we do things. If we were to continue with the way we used to do things, the business opportunity will be there but I do not think that we are able to transform.
5. This means that we need to move to a more productivity-led growth as compared to a manpower heavy growth. If we are able to jump to the next curve, I think it allows us to move ourselves up in quite significant areas. This restructuring will continue. What worked for us in the past may not necessarily get us there in the future. It does not mean that the policies in the past were wrong as they brought the economy and your companies to where they are today. So we are in a good position to change. As we deal with the pressures that come in numbers, this is a good chance to transform so that we could move to a much more manpower lean situation. Many of us understand this situation and it is partly also thanks to associations like SMF for organising such events to share best practices and new ideas.
6. Creating a conducive environment for people to innovate is quite critical. We all know that there are many ideas and I am sure that many of the speakers today will be sharing on the different techniques and so on. But one such area is engagement. It is about whether your staff and colleagues are motivated. I believe that people are capable, we are not short of smarts. But are you willing to go the extra mile for your company? That can only come when staff and colleagues are engaged and motivated. Rather than just embracing something and doing it, they are prepared to maximise it and go the extra mile as well.
7. And that is something that I am not sure that we pay as much attention to as we should. We all say that it is important but we may fall short in some areas. This is because some these areas may be hard to quantify. Very few of us are gifted in leadership and management, but it comes with knowledge, awareness, practice and walking the talk on a daily basis even as you embrace changes, ideas and business models. By doing this, we set in place both the “heartware” and the knowledge of how you can do things quite differently.
8. So, innovation can come from all levels within the company, from both leadership and worker levels. Many people have ideas but companies also need to look at how to engage these people and ideas.
   
   Training quality managers who can lead in innovation
9. To do business model innovation, we need top quality management and leadership who are not just focused on optimising the old business model, but have the foresight to invest in new models and the courage to experiment. The world is changing at a very fast rate. It is actually very hard to predict what it is going to be like in five years’ time.
   
   Findings from the World Management Survey¹
10. Just where do we stand in terms of management quality? The National Productivity and Continuing Education Council (NPCEC) supported a run of the World Management Survey in Singapore to shed some light on this. The survey studies the quality of management and has been conducted in many other countries. In Singapore, the survey covered 408 manufacturing companies.
11. I am happy to say that Singapore ranks reasonably well internationally in management quality, coming in 6th among 22 countries. We have done fairly well, similar to the UK and Australia, and are just behind top countries like the US, Japan and Germany. This shows that our fundamentals are there. As in all things, we could still improve and do better. Statistics, data and rankings such as these serve as useful checks for us.
12. The survey results show that we have done quite well in the four management dimensions – people, operations, monitoring and targets management – that were assessed in the study. While we came in among the top 10 countries in each category, there is still room for improvement in areas such as setting holistic targets and challenging ourselves to do better. This culture of embracing change and challenges is what businesses need to reinvent themselves.
13. This needs to start from the top. We need corporate leaders who are able to recognise good ideas, who are bold enough to experiment, and who are determined enough to follow through doggedly and make adjustments along the way.
14. The Government encourages all firms to professionalise their management through training and upgrading schemes. WDA and SMF have been running the WSQ Certified Productivity & Innovation Manager (CPI Manager) and the SME Quality Initiatives to Assist, Nurture and Grow (SME QIANG) programmes. These programmes help companies to build management capabilities and empower managers to implement productivity initiatives in their company. To date, more than 100 companies have benefitted from the programmes, of which 20 companies have demonstrated a strong commitment in the pursuit of continuous productivity improvements and will be honoured today with the WDA-SMF Productivity and Innovation Awards.
    
    Empowering workers to innovate
15. Besides putting in place a culture where workers are encouraged to ask questions and experiment with various ideas to create long-term solutions, training can help workers to hone their skills in creative problem-solving. Companies can choose to tap on our national training programmes or develop their own in-house training capabilities. For example, companies can tap on the Enterprise Training Support Scheme (or ETS) which is jointly developed by MOM and WDA. ETS provides support for companies to develop their human resource capabilities and improve productivity.
    
    Strong support from Trade Associations & Chambers (TACs)
16. Aside from Government support, the role of the Trade Associations & Chambers (TACs) is especially important in paving the way for companies to reinvent themselves and share best practices. My compliments to SMF for their proactive outreach to companies and for constantly delivering thought-leadership through events like this conference.
17. SMF also plays a key role in turning the key ideas and learning points from conferences such as these, into action. SMF does this through the Singapore Innovation and Productivity Institute (SiPi), which provides companies with training, Human Resource support, as well as individual coaching to improve productivity. Over the past year, SiPi has reached out to more than 200 companies in the manufacturing and service industries to share on productivity advisory. The centre has also assisted more than 40 companies in business diagnostics and productivity improvement projects.
    
    Conclusion
18. There are no shortage of ideas and government schemes to push companies ahead with their efforts to innovate and strengthen productivity. As we embrace change and seek to transform, I urge companies to look inwards in terms of both “heartware” (the will) and “hardware” (processes and ideas) to put us in a better place for the future.
19. Thank you and I wish you a successful conference.