30 October 2003

SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE ERNST & YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDS BANQUET AT THE RITZ-CARLTON MILLENIA ON 30 OCTOBER 2003 AT 7.15 PM

I feel glad and privileged to be here this evening. Let me first express my congratulations to all the eight finalists. We also honour your families and friends for supporting you and helping you take flight and reach for your dreams.

2 We are now in a new phase of development as a society. How we compete to make a living and how we grow our economy will have to change.

3 Some of our strengths and advantages remain relevant, and will help us compete. An efficient, world class transport and infocomms infrastructure, and transparent and incorrupt government are still important advantages. But other cities in Asia are catching up, replicating what we do and in some areas doing it better. They may not do it with the same efficiency and transparency, but our premium is narrowing. They also have strengths that we do not have, including size. Shanghai, once it is connected by high-speed train to Hangzhou and Nanjing an hour away, and to Suzhou, will be a mega-city of over 20 million people before long.

4 We need new strengths. We have to recognise that the values and attributes that were shaped over 3 decades of successful growth in a highly institutionalised economy will not be enough. Our biggest challenge is to avoid being trapped by past success. That is the way many other successful cities have faded away in history.

5 Some of our values, such as the preference of most well educated Singaporeans to choose the safe route, were perfectly understandable while the safe route provided good rewards. Everyone got carried along, as long as they acquired skills, worked hard, and did an honest job. But the risk-reward picture has changed. High rewards will depend not just on high skills, but a willingness to take risk and do something different from the tried and tested.

6 We are injecting entrepreneurship and innovation into the Singapore DNA. It is not a one or two year project, or a way to get out of the current downcycle in the economy. It will take some time to create an entrepreneurial culture. Fortunately, the institutionalised economy still has a lot of mileage. The MNCs and banks are still keen to put high quality investments into Singapore, often shifting major operations from other advanced locations to Singapore. The economy is not broken, although we are going through a very difficult period. But to get the depth and diversity that we need as an economy 15 years from now, we have to push every way to support enterprise and create a culture supportive of risk - a culture that sees heroes in those who break convention, and that cheers on those who fail and try again.

7 We cannot expect to throw up large numbers of entrepreneurs. There are not many entrepreneurs in any society. Even in the US, reckoned to be among the most entrepreneurial societies, no more than about 10% of individuals are involved in owning businesses.

8 There is no easy formula to produce entrepreneurs either. We cannot create programmes to produce busloads of entrepreneurs from our schools. No one can tell who the real entrepreneurs will be. But we want to provide an environment that nurtures something of the entrepreneurial spirit in everyone, starting from young. Eager to take the initiative, unafraid of trying something new, and never tiring of working to achieve our dreams. We want our young to learn early to question assumptions, to experiment and to accept the false starts and dead ends that often come with doing so.

9 As much as we need entrepreneurs, we also need employees who are willing and able to drive a business. As Sim Wong Hoo put it to me, what we need most now are 'business owners' or intrapreneurs within an organisation, and 'business drivers'. The 'business owners' or intrapreneurs are those who are willing to step up to take big responsibilities and accountability for the profit and loss of a business unit. Not just rely on collective responsibility within the organisation, so that no one can be held responsible when things go wrong. We also need more 'business drivers', people who can drive a project from its start to completion. They have to be passionate about the project, champion it and fight to get things done to ensure it succeeds. The Americans call them 'closers', a term from baseball. We need more closers in our organisations.

10 To succeed in creating an entrepreneurial and innovative social culture, we will have to be a less perfectionist society. In the years when we were catching up with the leaders, there was a premium on efficiency, reliability and predictability. We had to do what others had done, but more efficiently, faster and better. We are no longer now in catching up mode. To push beyond the boundaries, or push the envelope, we have to encourage Singaporeans to experiment. As a nation, we have to do the same, and occasionally, open-eyed, take a chance. We have to accept the unpredictability and risk of mistakes that come with pushing at the frontiers.

11 Let me once again congratulate all the finalists. While one of you be recognised as the Entrepreneur of the Year, I commend all of you for your vision, passion and determination. You are the role models for our young.