Fri, Jan 29, 2010 - The Business Times - Arthur Sim
DESPITE the global recession, Singapore SMEs have proved to be
resilient.
'Not only did many survive the downturn, a significant number
even managed to grow their businesses by expanding into new
markets,' said Png Cheong Boon, CEO of Spring Singapore.
He also said that some SMEs had reported growth of up to 5 per
cent last year.
Perhaps more important is that job losses had been
contained.
While this can be partly attributed to the Jobs Credit scheme,
Mr Png said that many SMEs are owned by their founders or CEOs who
'cut their own pay to give themselves the moral authority and spent
the year looking for new business.'
Mr Png was speaking at the graduation ceremony of the Spring-SMU
SME Leaders Advanced Management Programme (AMP) yesterday.
The AMP is part of Spring's Business Leaders Initiative which
was launched in 2008 to upgrade management capabilities of local
SMEs' CEOs and senior management. Its 2009 cohort saw 20 graduates
come from the SME sector.
Going forward, Mr Png said SMEs will be more important in terms
of seizing new opportunities, driving innovation and creating
valuable jobs. He added: 'Being more nimble, SMEs can move much
faster to address each of the three areas.'
However, AMP graduate, Anne Joseph, CEO of Rutledge Global Group
of Companies did say that it is 'tough' to get good people to join
SMEs.
Ms Joseph had herself wanted to join an MNC but job prospects 12
years ago when she joined Rutledge, a small player in oil and gas
industry, were limited.
Today, she says working in an SME is 'a good training ground'
and there are more opportunities to work with senior management.
'In an SME, it is easier to get recognised,' she added.
Spring also has the Management Development Scholarship (MDS) for
middle managers and the Executive Development Scholarship (EDS) for
entry level managers.
To date, Spring has trained some 300 CEOs and senior executives
from 200 SMEs as well as awarded some 115 MDS and EDS
scholarships.
SMEs looking to plug specific capabilities gaps in their
management ranks can also tap on the experience of more than 90
business advisors as part of the Business Advisors programme,
created by Spring, SMU and NUS.