Honouring Top Entrepreneurs

FF Fashion

Wed, Oct 22, 2008
The Straits Times

By Narendra Aggarwal


AS THE first award to promote entrepreneurship in Singapore, the Entrepreneur of the Year Award (EYA), organised by the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (Asme) and the Rotary Club of Singapore, has in its 20 years of existence helped to discover hidden diamonds in the local business community.

At the 20th anniversary of the EYA award, the ceremony tonight at The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore is being celebrated as a big event, says Mr Kurt Wee, vice-president of awards and projects, Asme, and the co-chairman of the award organising committee.

As in previous years, Asme received about 50 nominations for the EYA this year. After the initial screening, the list of contenders for the coveted award was narrowed down to 17 top entrepreneurs, who were then subjected to a detailed screening and interviews for the selection of the overall winner. Besides the EYA winner, there are four sub-category awards: EYA for Enterprise, EYA for eCommerce, EYA for Innovation and EYA for Social Contribution.

The winner and sub-category award winners will be announced tonight at the award gala dinner.

The candidates undergo a rigorous and stringent judging process, which involves interviews, site visits and careful evaluation before they are selected by a distinguished panel of judges, says Asme. The award criteria is finetuned every year to keep it relevant to the changing business environment.

'This year's candidates have better financial performance than prior years' candidates,' says Mr Wee.

'The submissions that were received this year were of exceptional quality, and many of them surpassed our expectations. They had to go through a very stringent judging process, and the committee had a difficult time selecting those whom they felt best met the criteria of the award.'

Asme's 5,000 active members had been enjoying good growth for 18 months till the end of the first quarter of the year.

They recorded 50 per cent to 100 per cent growth, enjoying the fruits of the economic recovery before the current slowdown started, he adds.

An interesting development this year is that five of the 17 finalists are under 50 years of age.

Among them is Mr Charles Wong, 34, managing director of home-grown shoemaker Charles & Keith International, which has a chain of over 130 stores in 20 countries and is growing rapidly. His company's sales will top $100 million this year.

As Singapore's oldest award for entrepreneurship, the EYA is an established and prestigious business accolade.

The award is conferred on local entrepreneurs who have demonstrated excellence and drive in their field of business, while making social contribution a significant part of their business philosophy.

'This year's top entrepreneurs are all-rounders who prize being their own bosses. Through good and bad times, they have remained resilient, and even stayed true to the entrepreneurs' call to give back to society,' says Mr Wee.

He notes that the average profitability of this year's candidates is much higher than before, as a result of good economic growth. Many more home-grown entrepreneurial companies are not only going regional and spreading their wings in Asia but also finding markets in the Middle East and Europe.