DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Singapore Teochew Entrepreneur Award Gala Dinner 2016

MOS Dr Koh Poh Koon, 

Dr George Quek, President of Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan

Dr Kenny Sim, Chairman of the Organising Committee

Dr Derek Goh, Vice President and Local and International Affairs Chairman

Members of Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan 

My colleagues from Parliament 

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

Thank you for inviting me to this dinner.  The inaugural awards for Teochew entrepreneurs is a very good initiative by the community. It is of course well-known that the Teochew community had been a very enterprising group since the early days of our history, going back to our pioneering business and community leaders like Mr Lim Nee Soon.

The awards draw out and celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit that was present from those early days. Today’s business environment is very different, in Singapore and the region. The businesses themselves are involved in many new products and services. But the spirit and culture that leads to success is no different from what it always was.

Old values matter in becoming a truly innovative society

When the awards were launched, Mr George Quek spoke about Teochew business values - courage, perseverance, determination, diligence and innovation.   

Those values are indeed the basis for success for any business, and indeed for each of us as individuals, to lead fulfilling careers and lives.  

Whichever the industry, and whether we are a small or big firm, we have to break with convention and innovate, in order to survive and grow. We have to do something different from the tried and tested. Whether as an entrepreneur or CEO or as employees and colleagues, success depends on doing something different and better than the norm.  

But we must never lose sight of the fact that no success or meaningful achievement is reached without perseverance, hard work, and trying and failing. It may sound old-fashioned, but it is absolutely relevant to any successful future. It is certainly true of new economy industries. The most creative and innovative people - whether in IT or new, technologically-driven activities in manufacturing or finance - are also deeply absorbed and dedicated to what they are doing. They do not succeed merely by having good ideas or an inspiration. Inspiration drives perspiration, and vice-versa. Many fail repeatedly, but keep going until they succeed.  

I raise this issue because many employers give us feedback that something is changing in our new generation, those who are starting work or are early in their careers. People do not stay long on the job, and are impatient to move on. Fewer believe in learning the ropes, taking time to develop skills on the job and working their way up. There is less hunger compared to 20 years ago, and of course compared to 40 or 50 years ago. It is not something we have hard data on - data on this shift in attitudes - but the qualitative feedback is common and widespread. 

It is in some ways a natural result of the tight labour market we had for several years now. There are more jobs available than there are job seekers. It is difficult to get back into a job when you are middle-aged or older - and we must do all we can to help mid-career Singaporeans who have lost their jobs. But for the younger generation, getting a job, and moving jobs, has been much easier in Singapore than in most other countries in Asia, and certainly compared to the West.  

There is no simple way to address this shift of attitudes. The solution is not to create more unemployment so as to get a sense of hunger among the young. We should continue with our efforts, to upgrade firms and industries, create quality jobs, and keep unemployment low.  

But we will not become a truly innovative society, a place where people master skills in every job, if we lose a culture of believing in the value of perseverance, striving for our goals, and learning and improving continuously on the job. Those old values matter. 

We have to do all we can to keep that culture, and find ways of doing it that is relevant to new generations who are growing up in an environment that is very different from the past. 

I will say a few things here that I believe are relevant. But I do not have all the answers. We have to think collectively of how best we can keep a culture that enables us to succeed as a society. 

It starts with children in school, and continues through to their years in tertiary education. We must help them develop a real passion for what they do, give them space and time to get experience in the real world so they can figure out their interests, and develop life skills that will last well beyond their exams. Working hard for exams does not always mean working hard in life. We have to keep evolving our education system to develop skills for life, in a new environment. 

But enterprises and managers also play a role. How many employees have a sense of the career ahead of them, if they dedicate themselves to the job? How many feel that they matter individually, each man and woman, to the enterprise and organisation? Why is employee motivation relatively low in Singapore, from regular surveys? 

We must spend time to develop our people, individually, and give everyone a sense of opportunity if they work hard in their careers, no matter where they start from. We must also develop a a less hierarchical culture – one that empowers every individual, and helps them see how their ideas, their experiments and their efforts to do the job well contribute to the whole enterprise.

In short, we have to focus on the culture within our enterprises and organisations, not just on technologies. Let us do all we can to spread the spirit of innovation in every field, develop and empower our people, and keep a culture that respects and rewards hard work and pride in every job. 

We have to encourage everyone to break with convention by developing new ideas and ways of doing things, but we cannot lose the convention of working hard, persisting when we fail, learning from experience, and moving up, individually and in teams.

There are many companies who are receiving awards today, who in different ways embody the culture we are talking about.  Each of them has had the courage to try new ways of doing business, or developed their own, distinctive products and services. But the individuals behind these businesses have also worked very hard to get to where they are. And they are focused on developing their people. 

(a) Dr Julian Theng started Eagle Eye Centre because he felt there were opportunities to serve consumers in underserved areas in eye-care, using the latest technologies.  One of these areas is presbyopia¹. He has developed a strong team, with passion for what they are doing. I understand that they were one of the first in the world to do clinical trials on presbyopia treatment.

(b) Mark Tan runs Way Fengshui. He is a second generation owner, and wants to change the way people view Fengshui. He has rebranded the company, put in place HR policies to retain good Fengshui masters, and enable them to focus more on their craft, not just sales.  All his Fengshui masters are encouraged and sent for training in areas other than Fengshui – in architecture and interior design for example. And they all contribute to a "Fengshui knowledge bank" by giving the firm the basis of their recommendations, so that the firm is able to ensure consistency of advice over time.

(c) Simon Lee’s business is in a different area, in IT, but it tells the same story of values. He is self-taught. He taught himself info-communication technologies in the late eighties and early nineties before the internet became widespread. He started Thatz International 17 years ago. It is a highly competitive field, but he has build the enterprise up into a credible IT outsourcing and managed services provider. Thatz International now partners with SIM University to offer internships for their ICT undergraduates, to help develop graduates with real world experience. 

There are many more examples from the businesses here tonight, and even businesses which are not represented here. Collectively, you are not only doing well for yourselves, but doing good for our society. 

Let us do all we can to make innovation widespread in our society, to develop and empower our people, and to keep a culture that respects and rewards hard work and pride in every job.    

Congratulations to the winners and have a pleasant evening.

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¹ Presbyopia is a condition associated with aging, in which the eye exhibits a progressively diminished ability to focus on near objects. It first shows up as difficulty seeing in dim light, and focusing on small objects and fine print.