The founder of three companies including MyWeb Inc.com, a Malaysia-based Internet services company, says poverty drove him to succeed in business.
It also helped him become something of a role model in the city-state, where the government is trying to encourage people to be more enterprising. Foreign manufacturers who helped fuel the island's early development can now look to China or India for cheap, skilled labor, so the government wants more people like Toe to start companies and keep Singapore an expanding Asian business hub.
"Hunger drives success,'' said Toe, who runs Intelligent Corp. Holdings, which specializes in franchising, distribution and consulting for Chinese companies. "The government should somehow inject more hunger into people.''
That's a topic Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founder and first prime minister, will probably touch on in a speech later today on the entrepreneurial spirit. His son, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, heads the Economic Review Committee, a group looking at ways to keep the economy growing. Last year, Singapore entered its worst recession in 37 years after its economy grew at an average annual 8 percent in the 1990s.
The December unemployment rate reached 4.7 percent, a 15- year high that may breed the hunger Toe describes, and which may bring about a less complacent, risk-averse business culture
"Singapore can't depend on foreign companies. It needs to create its own talent base,'' said Seah Liang Chiang, founder of a local technology company, Digital Scanning Corp., and president of the Singapore Young Entrepreneurs' Organization. Failure Seah lost S$100,000 ($55,000) in a previous technology company, and was a finalist for last year's Phoenix Award, given by the government to a business person who has failed and come back to succeed
"My investment banker told me I was brave to admit publicly that I had failed'' Seah said. ``In our culture, failure is still seen as a big negative.'' Seah, like Toe, said he didn't use any government incentives to start his businesses. Singapore's laws once reinforced this by making it impossible to secure loans after going bankrupt.
Realizing this was a deterrent to accepting risk, the government eased bankruptcy laws 18 months ago so that failed entrepreneurs can have their debts erased under some circumstances. In addition, the country's Economic Development Board has shifted focus from luring multinationals to also offering financial incentives for residents starting their own companies. Incentives alone, however, may not be the answer.
"The present mind-set has got to change -- we cannot be waiting for subsidies and loans from the government,'' said Ron Sim, 42-year-old son of a taxi driver, who in 1980 founded Osim International Ltd., a leisure and lifestyle chain known for electric massage chairs. Osim has 303 stores in Asia, the Middle East, South Africa and the U.S. and listed on the Singapore Exchange in July 2000.
Entrepreneurs
Although the government dominates the economy with stakes in 20 of the largest companies, including Singapore Airlines and DBS Group Holdings Ltd., more Singaporeans are at least beginning to consider striking out on their own.
Adam Khoo, for example, who earns S$1,000 an hour speaking about his experiences as an entrepreneur, said he's never been so busy. He's booked for three speeches a week, versus one a week a year ago. The 27-year-old graduated from university in 1998, and is already an author and manager of five businesses, including Adcom Pvt., an advertising firm. Graduates Khoo and Seah return monthly to National University of Singapore to lecture on entrepreneurship.
Nanyang Technological University opened a ``Technopreneurship Center'' last month to help students develop commercially viable technologies. And Singapore Management University sponsors an international business plan competition for students with $60,000 in prize money. `Courage' Entrepreneurs question, however, whether Singapore's approach of financial incentives, new government agencies -- the Productivity and Standards Board was recently renamed SPRING Singapore to create a new image -- and public speeches is enough to generate the hunger for success that Singapore needs.
Matthew, who declined to give his last name because he works for a government company, was one of about 900 people who paid to attend a three-hour entrepreneurship seminar. He said he won't be starting a company anytime soon because he hasn't yet ``worked up the courage'' to leave his job. |
