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| Singapore "Wanna Create an Entrepreneurial Culture?" Back to homepage |
| Last revised: 19 August, 2002 |
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| Second, encourage Singaporeans to start their entrepreneurial career through franchising. Have more franchise fairs, list franchises in a web-accessible database and try lower the entry risks for potential franchisors (e.g. low interest loan scheme to pay for franchise fees, or a one for one matching scheme to pay for franchise and start-up fees, like our current angel investing programme). Encourage GLCs who own master franchises to farm them out, and not be too kiasu about the upfront franchise fees. Run training/information programmes that enable a potential franchisee to identify which franchises have a high chance of succeeding, and which are just fronts for master franchise owners to make a fast buck (read bubble tea). 4. Encourage risk-sharing by land and building owners (especially the GLCs) A disproportionate proportion of the cost of doing business in Singapore is high rental costs (even in current depressed markets, commercial landlords including GLCs are still holding out for high rents). High rents means greater operational risk, and our poor franchisee above and other entrepreneurial companies are likely to struggle to cover their operational costs.Why not encourage the kind of leases that encourage risk sharing between landlord and tenant, common in the States? For example, why not tie rental to the sales revenue of a particular retail tenant. Instead of charging a Ya-Kun Kaya Toast franchisee a rent of $10,000 a month, why not have a cap and collar approach - charge minimum rental of $5,000, then 2% of retails sales up to a maximum of $15,000 a month? This substantially reduces the operational risk for the tenant, and aligns both the interests of the landlord and the tenant to ensure that the tenant's business is successful. Landlord will do all they can to encourage foot traffic, and their success or otherwise in doing so will reflect immediately in their monthly rental takings.No reason why this should not apply to other non-retail businesses, but alignment of interests between landlord and tenant will be harder to achieve. 5. Reform of education system I must admit that although I did my secondary education in Singapore, I have not experienced the Singapore education system.However, it is telling that many parents I speak to are scared of the Singapore education system, which is perceived to be ruthless and unforgiving.So much so that Singaporean parents are considering sending their children to alternative education systems (trying to find a lubang to get into international schools); non Singaporeans asked to work in Singapore are deterred from coming here because they fear their kids cannot cope in Singaporean schools. It speaks volumes when a whole movie can be written on the unforgiving nature of Singapore schools. Let us first acknowledge something. This is a good problem to have. Other South-East Asian countries (and many of the developed ones) are still at the stage of figuring out how to provide a good basic education (underpaid teachers, no talent in the profession, teachers supplementing poor wages by selling Amway products). Singapore instead is thinking of how to tweak its solid education system so it produces more well-rounded individuals, and where academic failure does not necessarily mean the end of the world. A very, very unique, highest order first world problem. Suggestions: A.. Get rid of streaming at the primary school level. Begin streaming at the secondary school stage only. This is to explicitly recognise that primary school is very much in the realm of the period of discovery, Get the kids to enjoy knowledge for knowledge's sake at this stage. So long as the kids get a good grounding in the 3Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) that prepares them well for secondary school, our basic job is done. But if we can get them excited about the world around them, and because of that they thirst for knowledge, this is a great goal to work for. Streaming gets in the way of this as the focus is more on exams than on knowledge. B. Even where streaming is introduced, e,g, Secondary 1, only certain subjects should be streamed, e.g. English, Mathematics, Sciences. Kids should be able to be in Stream 1 for English yet Stream 2 for Mathematics, and mingle with other students for other subjects. This get rids of elitism and encourages mingling of students of different abilities in the same class, notwithstanding that they are streamed for others. C. The secondary school curriculum should emphasis learning more than exams. This means that we should base end-of-year results less on exams than on class projects. Sure, continue the class tests to measure abilities, but also place equal if not more emphasis on projects, where knowledge from different disciplines is applied. We can always shift gear to the GCSE exam mode two years before actual date of the exam. In these class projects, one can introduce an entrepreneurial bias e.g. new products/services that will improve our lives, innovative ways to raise funds for charity, to nurture and encourage creativity D. Consider replacing A-Levels with the International Baccalaureate (IB) system. It is well recognised that IB is a more holistic form education which includes a good emphasis of application of learning (e.g. in assessed projects) as opposed to just learning itself. Continued - final part. |