Orient Issue 58

Orient

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE - SINGAPORE

ISSUE 58

SPECIAL FEATURES

16

SINGAPORE BUDGET 2016 — A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

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IN FOCUS: JESSICA TAN, MICROSOFT SINGAPORE

Building Networks Connecting Business Creating Opportunities WWW.BRITCHAM.ORG.SG

ISSUE 58 / JUN 16

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Contents

11

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

13

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE SPECIAL FEATURES

16

Singapore Budget 2016 — a Business Perspective

19

In Focus: Jessica Tan, Microsoft Singapore

FEATURES 26

A Plain English Talent Agenda for your Transition

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4 Leadership Traits that are Essential in 2016

35

Is Your Organisation Digital Ready?

39

Think Happy: the Link Between Happiness, Purchase Intent and Habit Formation

42

The Improbable Air-Con: Why Singapore Should Care About Antarctica

46

Tax Doesn’t Have to be Taxing: 2015/16 Tax Returns for UK Expats

UK TRADE & INVESTMENT 50

Britain’s Choice: Economic Security with the EU, or a Leap into the Dark

AT THE CHAMBER 54

Britain in Southeast Asia News

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Business Group News

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Business Services News

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BritCham New Members

62

Sterling News

65

Corporate News

68

Members’ Offers

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BritCham Annual General Meeting 2016

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Events

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British Chamber of Commerce, Singapore, Sponsors GOLD AND DIVERSITY SPONSOR

GOLD SPONSOR

SILVER AND BREAKFAST CLUB SPONSOR

SILVER SPONSORS

BRONZE SPONSORS

BRITCHAM BOARD: PRESIDENT: Bicky Bhangu: Rolls-Royce Singapore VICE-PRESIDENTS: Damian Adams: Simmons & Simmons Sian Brown: Barclays Bank PLC SECRETARY: Cecilia Handel: Tanglin Trust School Ltd TREASURER: Veronica McCann BOARD MEMBERS: Richard Warburton: Arcadis Annabel Moore: Diageo Singapore Pte Ltd Haslam Preeston: Jardine Cycle & Carriage Limited David Pugh: The Fry Group Mark Chowdhry: Baxters International Andrew Vine: The Insight Bureau Andrew Pickup: Microsoft Singapore Chris Reed: Black Marketing — Enabling LinkedIn For You Robert Williams: British Airways Ian Williams: HSBC Ronald Totton: BT Singapore Terence Yuen: BP Singapore COMMITTEES: Business Group: Richard Warburton Events: Sian Brown External Affairs: Bicky Bhangu Membership: Damian Adams

Editor: Lucy Haydon lucy@britcham.org.sg

Orient is a quarterly magazine published by the British Chamber of Commerce, Singapore.

Co-Editor: Clara Tan

© All rights reserved.

39 Robinson Road #11-03 Robinson Point Singapore 068911 Tel: +65 6222-3552 Fax: +65 6222-3556 Email: info@britcham.org.sg www.britcham.org.sg

The views and opinions expressed or implied in Orient are those of the authors or contributors and do not reflect those of the British Chamber of Commerce, its officers or editorial staff. No reproduction of articles without the prior permission of the Chamber. Unsolicited transparencies and articles are sent at owner’s risk

BUSINESS GROUP CHAIRPERSONS: Diversity: Stephen Trevis Energy & Utilities: Mark Gainsborough Entrepreneur & Small Business: Jonathan O‘Byrne Financial Services: Ashley Jones (Chairperson), Sunil Iyer (Co-Chair) InfoComm Technology: Andrew Pickup (Chairperson), Leadership in Asia: Mike Hughes Marketing & Creative: Chris Reed Professional Services: Mark Chowdhry Property & Construction: Marcus Eckersley Scottish Business Group: Neil Mclnnes Sustainability & Responsibility: Rosie Danyluk Women in Business: Dora Lui Young British Chamber: Zoë Marmot MANAGEMENT TEAM Executive Director: Brigitte Holtschneider Membership & Communications Manager: Lucy Haydon Membership Manager: Katie Hudson Membership Administrator: Siti Hadijah Marketing & Communications Executive: Clara Tan Senior Events Manager: Alexandra Packman Events Manager: Nicola Jackson Finance Manager: Pauline Yeo Business Services Manager: Carole McCarthy Business Services Advisor: Nico Putri Safari Office Administration Executive: Anna C Garciso

and the Chamber accepts no liability for loss or damage. Copy is not for sale and images belong to their respective owners. They are for illustrative purposes only, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Contact: Simon Cholmeley, simonc@novusasia.com

Subedited, designed and printed by:

Creative Services: Kwan Gek Lian, gek@novusasia.com Pearlyn Kwan, pearlyn@novusasia.com

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www.novusasia.com

Design: Erika Wong, erikawong@novusasia.com Khairunnisa, khai@novusasia.com Subeditors: Chin Wei Lien, weilien@novusasia.com

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President’s Message

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Dear Members, With the leadership of Hugo Walkinshaw, the Chamber has made great progress in strengthening the ties between UK and Singapore businesses. We have emerged as a strong and credible voice for British businesses in Singapore, and we are ready to help UK and Singapore business embrace the opportunities presented ahead.

A theme that is covered in greater detail in this issue of ORIENT is Women in Business. Diversity in business is a topic that deserves continued attention. I am pleased that this year we have greater diversity within the Chamber’s Board, including Sian Brown as Vice President, and that over half of the executive committee are female. I hope that we set an example for our Members to consider the collection of skills and experiences of a diverse workgroup and the benefits it can bring to the business.

Bicky Bhangu

President, British Chamber of Commerce, Singapore

Indeed, the challenges of our Members have evolved, as with the dynamic business environment we operate in. Today, many UK businesses are firmly placed in Singapore and are using what they’ve built here as the cornerstone of their expansion strategy into ASEAN. Whether a start-up or an established business in Singapore, we continue to be an enabler of business for our Members by identifying local opportunities and strengthening our cross border Chamber relationships, to help our Members fulfill their ambitions in Singapore and the region. Hence, with the full support of the Board and the Chamber, I am optimistic about our future, and the importance and the relevance to the UK industry of our continued activity in Singapore and beyond.

Our support of the Overseas Business Network Initiative (OBNi) will continue.

This programme brings to light the strong alignment of goals the Chamber shares with the British High Commissioner in Singapore and UKTI. These shared ambitions will enhance and strengthen our relationship which will continue to be critical. Meanwhile, we will continue to connect into the Singapore Government on common agendas, and be the voice for British businesses here.

So, we can count on an active rest of the year ahead.

Our flagship events including the Annual Business Awards and BritCham Ball are both confirmed for 2016. Please look at the Events section on our website for further details — I look forward to seeing you at one of the many events you’ll find there.

Best Regards,

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Executive Director’s Message

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Dear Members, 2016 is well under way and I am writing this message just after the AGM that took place on May 5, hosted by Chamber Patron British High Commissioner Scott Wightman.

Scott highlighted the Chamber’s important role in supporting British companies doing business in Singapore and the region. Of particular note was the Chamber’s business services team led by Carole McCarthy who are now delivering most of the SME support in the market. Services include business match making, mission hosting, sector reports, webinars and event organisation. Please feel free to reach out to Carole for more detailed information.

Board member Bicky Bhangu delivered the President’s report as outgoing Chamber President Hugo Walkinshaw could unfortunately not join, as he had to undergo an operation. All present wished him well and a speedy recovery.

Bicky’s report shared developments and achievements in delivering member value, strengthening the executive team’s capacities and capabilities, increasing the Chamber profile and building business services. The detailed report can be downloaded from your member home page at the Chamber website.

Brigitte Holtschneider

Executive Director, British Chamber of Commerce, Singapore

On April 19 a new Chamber board was elected and took office on May 6. Bicky Bhangu is the new Chamber President, supported by Damian Adams and Sian Brown as Vice Presidents; please refer to page 72 for a detailed overview of the full board.

I look forward to working with Bicky and his board and would like to take this opportunity to thank Hugo for his guidance and support over the last three years!

One of the major Chamber initiatives in the coming months is the 17th Annual Business Awards! A dedicated working team led by board member Haslam Preeston took on the task to refresh the categories for continued business relevance and to further simply the entry process. So please look out for details of the Awards which will hit your inboxes at the end of May! I am delighted to confirm that Chamber member Grant Thornton has signed as title sponsor for the Awards and we have secured Chamber member Edelman’s support for PR and media outreach. Many thanks to both!

On a personal note I would like to welcome our new team members Lucy Haydon, Membership and Communications Manager, Siti Hadijah, Membership Administrator, Nicola Jackson, Events Manager and Nico Putri Safari, Business Services Advisor. Lucy leads the membership and communication team, with Katie, Clara and Siti reporting to her. With Lucy and Siti on board we have significantly strengthened resources to support our members.

I would like to thank Business Services Advisor Jared Sim, who left the Chamber to pursue his career at EDB, Business Services Advisor UK Tina, who will continue her studies overseas, Events Manager Deborah Harrison, who followed her husband to Dubai and Communications Manager Vipanchi who, after four years with the Chamber, decided to move on to other challenges. Good luck and best wishes to all!

I look forward to seeing you before we break for the summer holidays!

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/britishchamber-of-commerce-singapore Twitter @britchamsg

Best wishes,

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Sterling Members

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Special Feature

Singapore Budget 2016

A Business Perspective

By Yoke Ping Boey Budget 2016 spells out the direction the Singapore government is steering in, to transform industries and the economy to be more global and innovative. Companies should, likewise, make changes.

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nternationalisation. Innovation.

Partnership. Productivity growth.

These are the keywords arising from Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat’s Budget 2016 presentation on 24 March and Singapore companies would do well to incorporate these into their strategic plans moving forward.

There is help for companies and industries to ride out current global economic uncertainties; such as an increase in corporate income tax rebate from 30% to 50%, although the absolute cap of S$20,000 remains unchanged which would benefit smaller firms more.

Nonetheless, Mr Heng’s budget clearly focuses on the future; transforming industries and the economy through greater innovation, internationalisation, and productivity growth.

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SME opportunities

The focus of these transformation efforts are SMEs which make up 99% of companies, employ 70% of the workforce and contribute 50% of GDP. The Industry Transformation Programme unveiled during the budget will see S$4.5 billion spent over five years; largely aimed at helping SMEs scale up. These include: • A grant to support the scaling up of automation projects. Funding can be up to 50% of project cost, with a maximum grant of S$1 million. The Minister expects the Automation Support Package to extend S$400 million of grants over three years.

• An SME Working Capital Loan will be introduced by SPRING for an initial period of three years. This will provide loans of up to S$300,000 for local SMEs, in which the government will co-share 50% of the default risk with participating financial institutions. The loan can be used for daily operations or for automation, and upgrading of factories and equipment.

Conditions for eligibility are: - The company must be registered in Singapore; - It must have at least 30% local shareholding; and - The company’s annual sales must not be more than S$100 million or the company’s group employment size must not be more than 200.

• In addition to the usual capital allowances, an investment allowance of 100% of the cost of automation equipment, net of grants, • The SME Mezzanine Growth Fund, will be available for up to S$10 million launched two years ago to help smaller approved capital expenditure per project.

SMEs with annual revenues of up to S$50 million, will be expanded to help more companies: The fund size will be increased

by S$50 million to S$150 million.

To help companies, and especially SMEs, navigate the plethora of incentives and grants, the government will create a Business Grants portal to be launched in 4Q 2016.

This “enterprise-centric” portal will be organised along business needs such as capability building, training and international expansion, removing the need for applicants to figure out on their own which schemes are applicable to them.

Budget 2016 does not only provide carrots for SMEs, there are a couple of sticks too, so SMEs are well advised to grow in the new directions set forth. The Productivity and Innovation Credit Scheme, or PIC, will end by

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Special Feature: Singapore Budget 2016 — a Business Perspective

31 December 2017 as scheduled. Also, the PIC cash payout will be reduced from 60% to 40% in respect of qualifying expenditure incurred on or after 1 August 2016. This would result in a reduction in cash of up to S$20,000.

the current double tax deduction scheme will be extended to 31 March 2020. This is for expenditure incurred on trips and missions overseas for investment study and business development, as well as participation in overseas, and approved local, trade fairs.

Improve, grow and internationalise

Tax allowance for mergers and acquisitions will be increased from S$20 million to S$40 million of the deal value. At the rate of 25%, this allows for up to S$10 million to be claimed over five years. The available stamp duty relief will also be granted for up to S$40 million of consideration paid for qualifying M&A deals per financial year. These apply for M&A deals made over four years from 1 April 2016.

One area for improving productivity is the use of robotics and the government is incentivising businesses to the tune of S$450 million over three years. The National Robotics Programme is a multi-agency initiative to promote robotic technologies across industries. “We will now scale up our efforts, and work with solutions providers to offer packaged solutions to SMEs at a reasonable cost,” Mr Heng said.

Growth is also being encouraged for all companies, big and small. To encourage companies to extend their efforts overseas,

Gains from disposal of equity investments in the 5 years ending 31 May 2017 are exempt from income tax, provided certain conditions are met. Essentially, the divesting company should hold at least 20% in the company

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whose shares are to be disposed of for a period of at least 24 months prior to the disposal. This provision will be extended to 31 May 2022.

Giving back to society

To support social objectives set out by the government, the Minister has proposed incentives for companies to increase their corporate social responsibility. Under a pilot scheme for partnership between businesses and Institutions of a Public Character, businesses will be able to claim 150% additional tax deduction for wages and incidental expenses in respect of employees who either volunteer and provide services, or are seconded, to IPCs. Subject to the receiving IPC’s agreement, the yearly caps that apply to qualifying expenditure will be S$250,000 per business and S$50,000 per IPC. The pilot scheme will run from 1 July 2016 to 31 December 2018.

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In Focus

In Focus: Jessica Tan

A firm believer in technology as an enabler, Jessica Tan, Managing Director of Microsoft Singapore, shares her views on the Smart Nation vision, digital disruption and what keeps her motivated.

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In Focus: Jessica Tan

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hare with us briefly the Smart Nation vision and its purpose.

We need to look at Smart Nation in the landscape of what is happening around us. What is happening is the Fourth Industrial Revolution, otherwise known as the Digital Transformation.

That is being powered by a few things.

One is the speed and pace of technology and where it has come to in today’s world.

Yes, technology happened in the Third Revolution, but things are getting faster and more sophisticated.

An example is the Internet of Things (IoT).

Data and information are being made available and collected in various fashions.

In many ways the data is collected in a massive and pervasive way and at the same time devices are getting cheaper, faster and smaller.

Smart Nation is about leveraging technology, but let’s not forget that the intent is because of its people. We want to ensure that at a people level, the quality of activity becomes more meaningful, easier, efficient and, more importantly, effective.

On the business front, it also gives us the ability to tap into new opportunities as well as address some constraints we are facing as a country. So what becomes most important in Smart Nation if you look at both infrastructure and the application of it, is the ability to tap into data for insights, intelligence and, most importantly, for action.

The opportunity that comes from that becomes one of the new ways of doing things or new businesses. From a cost or sustainability standpoint, we hope to be able to do more with fewer people, given our manpower constraints.

Ultimately, it’s not just about Smart Nation for the sake of it. It’s to ensure that we can be more effective. In Singapore’s case, it’s also a question of how we differentiate ourselves in terms of being a hub where people will decide to either innovate, create new ideas or put their business beds in Singapore and use us as a base.

So that’s the landscape for that.

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What role is Microsoft playing to enable the Smart Nation Programme becoming a reality?

As we accelerate our efforts to become the world’s first Smart Nation, one thing that we need to keep in mind is that our people should always remain at the core of everything that we do.

At Microsoft, we are aligned with our country’s leadership in taking a peoplefirst approach to harnessing the power of technology and innovation, to build a people-centred Smart Nation that can drive real impact for a better Singapore, and bring about sustainable economic growth, social cohesion and better living over time.

For technology to realise its promise in helping people overcome critical societal

In Focus: Jessica Tan

challenges, innovation needs to be effective in enabling organisations and individuals to realise their full potential.

One area that we are very involved in is helping to accelerate the development and innovation in the IT industry, and we do this by strengthening competencies of local entrepreneurs and developers, as well as encouraging entrepreneurism through partnerships.

Our Microsoft BizSpark programme supports local startups by providing them with access to cloud technology and services, business and technical support and market visibility to help them grow their businesses.

While the technical infrastructure is being laid speedily across the island, it is also

of utmost importance to ensure that the future generation is equipped with the right skills to capture the opportunities in our future. Apart from providing solutions to our customers, a big part of Smart Nation is about equipping today’s youths with the skills of the future, in order to foster a new generation of young innovators with the ability to create and build new solutions using technology.

Some of our initiatives include the Code for Change programme, which aims to equip students and learners with computational thinking skills, increase STEM knowledge and skillsets. There is also the Microsoft Imagine Cup, which is a student technology competition that provides opportunities for student technologists, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs from all academic

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backgrounds to collaborate, develop technology applications, create business plans and gain a keen understanding of what they need to bring their concept to market.

These programmes support the nation’s push towards laying the talent foundation, in order to accelerate the move towards becoming a Smart Nation.

The reason why we focus so much on skills and enablement is because the opportunities are there but unless you provide that hook or visibility to that opportunity, that connection doesn’t happen.

My biggest worry about Smart Nation and Digital Transformation is the Digital Divide.

If we don’t have those skills, people will miss out on opportunities.

Technology today can be seen as a disruptor as well as an enabler. What are your views on the impact of disruption by the tech industry in the future?

As the rate of innovation and change gets quicker and quicker, it is imperative that our people keep learning and upgrading our skills, as well as our mindsets, in order to keep up with the rate of change to capture the opportunities in our future.

I see technology as more of an enabler than a disruptor. Through my years in the technology industry and at Microsoft, I have seen how technology has enabled people to do and achieve things that weren’t possible for them before.

For example, through our partnership with SPD, a disability organisation, I’ve had the

opportunity to see how technology is able to help people with disabilities lead more fulfilling lives.

An inspiring example is that of Michael Quek, an electrician who loved salsa dancing until he suffered a devastating stroke and lost everything that was familiar to him, including his job. However, through the use of assistive technology like sticky keys and training from SPD, he has since found a job designing posters and backdrops at an event company, and now leads a fulfilling life.

I’ve also seen how technology can be leveraged effectively to create solutions that can solve society’s problems. In last year’s LTA Transport and You(th) Hackathon, we saw how a group of polytechnic students created an app that can assist wheelchair

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bound people to navigate their way independently through our Singapore streets by providing wheelchair-friendly routes through their new application.

Examples like this reinforce my conviction that technology is an enabler, and can be used in powerful ways to help people do more and achieve more, if we can harness its potential the right way.

What tech trends will shape Singapore for the next 50 years?

Fifty years seems like a pretty long time.

It’s tough to predict what will shape Singapore in the next 10–20 years even, especially with the rate of technological advancement getting quicker and quicker in this day and age.

For the coming years, we foresee that the shift to the cloud will continue to shape the industry. The shift to the cloud opens up a whole new world of possibilities where we can use the power of data analytics and machine learning available on cloud platforms to make sense of the huge amount of data and yield actionable insights to help us identify opportunities to improve our businesses.

By learning from data and building software that automatically learns from data, we can leverage this capability to design applications that have new functions and flexibility, paving the way for the development of more advanced, intelligent computer systems.

As we transit into an era of networked intelligence, cybersecurity will be of critical importance. This will not just be the responsibility of the authorities — businesses and individuals will have to take ownership for their own online safety to counter potential threats, information and data losses that can have widespread repercussions.

The Smart Nation project aims to rely on a lot of data. This raises the question of privacy. What are your views?

Privacy is a critical consideration on the journey towards a Smart Nation. People don’t use technology that they don’t trust, and data privacy is an important consideration in building that trust.

In Focus: Jessica Tan

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If you want to accelerate, it’s important to know how to collaborate. To survive and thrive in today’s world, you’ve got to recognise you cannot do it alone.

How data is being handled is also important. In 2015, we set up a Cybercrime Satellite Centre in Singapore, as an extension of the Microsoft Cybercrime Centre in Redmond, USA, to serve as a regional hub for Microsoft to undertake cybercrime and cybersecurity initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. We do this through public-private partnerships and cross-industry collaborations.

With these measures in place, we are helping to build greater trust in technology, paving the way for the building of information infrastructure that inspires confidence with businesses and individuals.

As a leader, how do you inspire your colleagues to keep up the innovation momentum?

From a leadership standpoint, I continue to strive, provide clarity of goals — both near and long-term — simplicity and help our people understand where we are going as a company, so that we can provide the right direction as they balance their work.

I will not say we achieve it all the time.

But we ask how do we get there better?

It is complex and I will say that it is tough because the industry is moving so fast.

The challenge is also developing people and helping them grow with the business.

I feel that our people are willing to strive if we show them how to get there as well.

On the other end, how do you stay driven and inspired in the everchanging, competitive environment, considering you play the roles of a mother, a Member of Parliament and a business leader?

I enjoy what I do. Enjoyment must come with a sense of purpose. Once you have that clarity for yourself, that fuels you in terms of energy.

The fuel I have been running on is the co-support and partnership with others.

People fuel me. You have to know what you are good at, have your own value and bring it to the equation. It’s an ecosystem.

I’m good at bringing things together but I enjoy working with others, be it experts, interns or campus hires because of the different perspectives they bring to the table. The point I make is, it’s a partnership. It’s what you bring in as well.

Some days you give, some days you take, but the equation is there.

The world is additive and you don’t lose anything. When you work together, it’s a joint success.

Lastly, what words of advice do you have for tech entrepreneurs?

I would not have said this five years ago, but you need to be comfortable with technology, keep up with it and be open to learning.

Secondly, if you want to accelerate, it’s important to know how to collaborate.

To survive and thrive in today’s world, you’ve got to recognise you cannot do it alone. You can do the same things the same way but you’ll only get faster but not better at it. You must allow yourself to ask what’s the best way to hit there and allow yourself to break boundaries, but not rules.

Lastly, your values and principles are important. In a world where there are possibilities with technology, I would say that technology can do great things, but if used wrongly can bring great harm.

Be genuine when you collaborate. And do not forget to acknowledge those people who have made you successful.

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Feature

A Plain English Talent Agenda for your Transition

By Ajit Kambil As a transitioning executive, setting a talent agenda is a top priority, but framing it in a way that will allow the human resources function to help translate your ideas into reality is no easy task.

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ransitions are a good time to frame and initiate a talent agenda, and can signal visible commitment to your staff, your peers, and the board that you want to develop talent and establish an organisation that can effectively execute your priorities. Nearly every executive who goes through our transition labs chooses a talent agenda among the top five priorities.

While human resources should be vital to helping you with your talent, our transition lab participants often report this function as weak in their company. The purpose of this essay is to help transitioning executives frame their talent agenda in “plain English” and make a clear ask of the human resources function.

In previous essays we explored how to assess and develop talent at the individual and team levels. This essay lays out lessons learned from our transition labs on a more comprehensive talent agenda most incoming business leaders have to execute. I generally find there are five pillars that can be part of their talent agenda. These are: 1. Getting the right people in the right seats 2. Building high-performing teams 3. Developing talent into a stable and sustainable organization 4. Modernising and transforming the organisation 5. Nurturing and growing the next generation of leaders

Getting the Right People in the Right Seats

One of the first tasks of incoming leaders is to ensure that the right people are in the right seats, as the wrong staff can cost incoming leaders both significant time and credibility if not addressed in the first six months to a year. This can require support from HR in four distinctive areas: 1. Access to prior staff performance reviews.

This can include access to prior goal statements and performance reviews or 360-degree assessments of individuals and how they perform and relate to other teams.

Many incoming executives note that internally available information often does not

deliver sufficient useful insight into individual performance and capabilities. To address this information deficit, incoming executives often have to assign tasks and observe performance over three to six months and assess if they have the right people in the right seats.

2. Improving performance management.

If previous reviews do not provide strong insight, one of the talent agenda imperatives will be to improve the performance management processes in place. While there is an ongoing debate in organisations on the design of performance review systems (see HBR and The Economist1) the key is to have one in place that documents the details of commitments made and results delivered by staff. It should also ideally document areas where staff need to improve in skills, behaviors, and delivery of projects. Without such information, the incoming executive is often delayed in evaluating and documenting poor performance, and it becomes difficult to build the case to exit unproductive members.

Moreover, the company may become vulnerable to lawsuits.

3. Exiting poor performers and recruiting upgraded talent.

In helping with this executive agenda, HR can provide supportive processes for counseling or exiting poor performers.

Even more importantly, HR can support the framing of job descriptions and make available the right recruiters within or outside the company to source critical talent.

4. Support for flexible compensation models.

New senior executives (for example, CFOs or CIOs) often require specialised skills and talent on their team. For example, it could be a critical tax director, FP&A director, or cyber-security specialist. Yet, existing compensation models, especially those tied to the number of reports managed may be ineffective in attracting specialised talent.

As a senior executive, it’s important to determine what compensation models are vital to hiring critical talent — and equally important to have an HR department willing to flex the models to your needs. This may require the use of outside experts to do a compensation study for specialists to justify their recruitment.

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Feature: a Plain English Talent Agenda for your Transition

Building High Performance Teams

Incoming executives sometimes inherit disengaged or dysfunctional leadership teams, which they will have to rebuild. HR support can be helpful in four key areas: 1. Diagnosing employee engagement and team capabilities.

The starting point to improve a team is to diagnose its current state and performance. As engaged employees generally deliver higher levels of personal performance than unengaged employees, at a minimum, it is important to measure the level of employee engagement.

Many organisations run annual employee engagement surveys. Beyond engagement, a more granular assessment of team capabilities and behaviours can be useful. In a previous essay we covered a modified GRPI model as a means of assessing the team.2 Ideally the HR organization will provide useful tools to incoming executives to assess team capabilities and engagement.

2. Overcoming silos and creating “teams of teams.”

Many teams may have individuals or subgroups that demonstrate silo behaviours not contributing to overall team and organisation success. If so, as a new leader, it may be necessary to undertake teambuilding events that require leadership team members and their staff to engage across siloes, and establish communication processes across the team. Tactics such as rotating and embedding staff in new roles across silos will likely require HR support.

3. Overcoming cultural dysfunctions in the team.

Sometimes the impediment to team performance is cultural. For example, when prior leaders have been too controlling, staff members are sometimes unwilling to take ownership of decisions, and resort to “delegating up.” Reempowering them requires diagnosing the prevailing beliefs that lead to “delegating up” and then changing the prevailing context and beliefs to encourage staff to take ownership. Effective HR support should help with culture change, including the need to sometimes recruit talent who manifest desirable beliefs and behaviours.

4. Executing clear communication strategies.

Transitioning leaders should frame a clear strategy and cadence for communicating to their team and organization. Sometimes a chief of staff or an internal communications resource may be available to help with town halls and communications. Often, the HR business partner may be the main de facto resource available to support communications. As you consider how to use HR, the communication skills of the HR support person assigned to you may be a critical capability to leverage.

Building a higher performance team and organisation can require changes along multiple dimensions — from improving engagement to establishing collective team goals and creating a communications strategy that creates transparency and aligns the organisation to a common mission.

Strong HR support can be vital to this.

Developing Talent into a Stable and Sustainable Organisation When I work with CFO transition labs, the CEO and the audit committee of the board often tell me that they want to see a strong finance organisation with a deep bench, one that is stable and sustainable if key people depart. I find most CxOs want to build a stable and sustainable organisation that has low turnover and is able to manage effectively through the departure of key talent. There are generally four components where HR can play a critical role to develop talent: 1. Sourcing and delivery of training programs.

HR can play a critical role in sourcing and delivering training programs to develop key staff and ensure a strong pipeline of talent in your organisation.

Training can vary from more generalised project management, communications,

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an overall “progression plan,” one that takes high-potential talent and grows their capabilities and responsibilities in a way that is most likely to retain them within the company. Even if this means exporting your talent to other parts of your company outside your organisation — having a strong bench across the company creates future opportunities to fill gaps more easily in the future. Progression planning is one of the most valuable ways in which HR can help executives, yet too often, little or no attention is paid to constructing meaningful career development opportunities for key individuals.

Lower turnover should simply mean a more stable and sustainable organisation.

Transitions are a great time to reset the talent agenda and visibly invest in development programs that signal real commitment to growing people and improving the organization. This can be energising and motivating to your staff.

Modernising or Transforming the Organisation A fourth leg of the talent agenda is to modernise or transform the organisation to meet changing business needs, service models, and workforce demographics. Here again, an effective HR department can greatly assist an incoming executive in six key areas: and leadership skills to more specialised functional training that may be provided by in-house experts or third parties. In addition to traditional models of learning it is important to also have experiential learning to develop staff. This may include rotation programs across functional areas and business units, so that staff build skills across their organisation and bring broader skills to their jobs. Rotation programs also enhance connectivity across teams.

3. Succession planning for critical staff.

All organisations have some level of turnover as people retire and other staff leave for better opportunities. The key is to ensure a strong pipeline, ready now and ready later, to be able to meet succession needs for planned retirements and departure of critical staff. As an incoming executive, it is important to gauge the level of HR support for succession planning and any risks to the functioning of your organisation if key talent leaves.

2. Sourcing and providing coaches.

Often, an incoming executive finds a staff member with the desired functional skills has a communication or behavioral issue that impedes success. This can require coaching or other guiding conversations to remedy. Knowing which coaches have effectively done this for the company is helpful in assessing their capacity to support this likely need in the future.

4. Progression planning beyond succession planning.

I often say a succession plan is most useful when the “horse has left the barn.” It is more important to keep the best horses and talent on your team. Our research on finance talent shows a top reason for departure is the lack of progression or opportunities for progression. So challenge your direct reports and HR to develop

1. Elevate or add critical missing capabilities.

Incoming CxOs may have to redraw the lines of the organization reporting to them and elevate roles growing in importance. For example, CFOs may find no separate financial planning and analysis capability in the organisation and may need to create one that directly reports to them. Similarly, they may have to elevate other capabilities, such as tax, in the organisation. Having a forward-looking HR organisation that can benchmark and outline comparative organizational models might be an ideal, but having one would make an executive’s transition much easier.

2. Leverage offshore and extended enterprise capabilities to improve service delivery.

Today, many companies increasingly outsource work to other companies and even individuals. While outsourcing and offshoring can reduce costs, they also bring new risks.

These include the loss of critical knowledge,

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disjointed career and development paths for on-shore versus off-shore employees, and the challenges of managing workflow through widely different organisations. HR can play a critical role in facilitating these new organisation models as well as, more critically, manage career development and other risks that arise from these models.

3. Creating more inclusive and diverse organisations.

As many global executives understand, a diverse workforce is often a source of competitive advantage. To attain competitive diversity, though, requires programs that are effective at increasing inclusion and engagement of diverse employees. HR can play a vital role in tailoring these programs to the needs of your organisation.

Feature: A Plain English Talent Agenda for your Transition

4. Attracting and managing a multi-generational workforce.

Whether we are talking about Generation X, Generation Y, Baby Boomers, or the soon-toretire veteran employees, each brings different experiences and attitudes to the workforce.

And at a time when critical skill sets are increasingly difficult to secure and retain, incoming leaders should have a clear view of how to attract, develop, and retain people of diverse ages and ask what HR can do to help manage multiple generations effectively.

5. Managing a global workforce.

Today workforces are becoming increasingly global. Should you implement standardised skill requirements and training worldwide or adapt for different regions — North America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa? In

addition, how do you identify critical players on a global basis and how will HR help you fill those roles if someone resigns tomorrow?

6. Leveraging technology and creating policies to support new models of work.

New information technologies enable new models of work, including those that allow staff members to work remotely from home or other work settings. HR can play a critical role in helping design and enable remote work in organisations as well as other policies that help incoming managers cost-effectively recruit and retain the talent they want.

Ideally HR will play a key role in helping you formulate and execute change management strategies as you transform your organisation along the six dimensions discussed above.

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Nurture The Next Generation of Leaders

The fifth pillar of a talent agenda is to nurture and develop the next generation of leaders who can look ahead, set an agenda, and help the organisation navigate from the present to a better future.

Generally, HR can help in four areas of leadership development: 1. Setting expectations of leadership.

HR can play a key role in clarifying the expectations for leaders in your organizations. What are the important traits, values, and behaviours they must demonstrate? This may include traits like perseverance to get things done, mastery of specific expertise, values such as integrity, and behaviours such as developing staff.

having to respond to the consequences of their individual choices. When we examined the career journeys of multiple women CFOs, we found experiential learning particularly salient in advancing their careers.3 What was important was having “a great boss” and a sponsor who put the individual through a learning-bydoing experience versus just a mentor.

Every executive needs to decide who they are going to sponsor and for what during their career. HR should be able to help.

4. Improving leadership expertise.

The leadership expertise required of an executive can vary with context. While the talent agenda outlined in this essay is fairly generalisable — it is particularly salient for transitioning executives. For example, the tools to diagnose a team may be less important after you have a well-functioning team in place. A strong HR organization will be able to identify executive programs, coaches, and training resources that help leaders get the expertise they need when they need it.

2. Exposing executives to different leadership models.

One of the ways of developing leaders is to expose them to different models and contexts for leadership. Often, leaders learn from exposure to both positive and negative role models of leadership, which help them choose what they want to do and not do. Indeed, the case study method in business schools exemplifies the opportunity to role play and learn through exposure to different contexts and leadership styles.

Partnering With HR

3. Sponsoring opportunities for leadership experience.

Beyond exposure, experiential learning is very powerful. It enables executives to develop their own tacit knowledge and expertise in context — it shifts from theory and exposure to learning by action and

As a starting point, reach out and try to establish an early and close partnership with the CHRO seeking support, and have them assign a highly talented staff member as an HR business partner to assist you. Make the HR partner a member of your leadership team with clear asks

Given the importance of talent issues to most incoming executives, it is imperative to frame an effective partnership with HR. Yet only about a quarter of the executives who go through my transition labs feel they have an effective HR business partner.

Schumpeter column, “The measure of a man: Reports of the death of performance management are exaggerated,” Economist, February 20, 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/21693151-employers-are-modifying-not-abolishing-them-performance-reviews-not-dead-yet.

2 Ajit Kambil, Executive transitions: Drivers of team performance, Deloitte University Press, October 7, 2015, http://dupress.com/articles/executive-transitions-team-performance/?coll=15069.

3 Ajit Kambil, “Developing the next generation of leaders,” Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 31 issue 2, pp. 43–45, 2010.

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About the Author: Dr. Ajit Kambil is the global research director for the CFO program and the creator of Deloitte’s Executive Transition Labs.

Copyright © 2016 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

across all five pillars of the talent agenda.

The CHRO and HR may have a totally different model of the talent agenda, so it is important to clarify your asks of them and quickly determine where HR does not have capabilities to support your agenda.

You might have to rely on your own team to execute a significant part of your talent agenda. For example, as a CFO you may have to use your own direct reports to create the training and rotation programs to develop staff or undertake a task-force project on how technology and mobility may permit work-from-home strategies.

If, as an incoming CxO, you find HR unable to substantively support your talent agenda, it’s likely many of your peers are grappling with the same challenges.

To compete on talent, you may need to collectively support upgrading HR capabilities in the company.

The takeaway: Nearly all incoming executives have to engage and execute a talent agenda.

Based on our transition labs we have identified five pillars of a talent agenda for transitioning executives: getting the right people in the right seats; improving teams; developing talent for a stable organisation; modernising the organisation; and nurturing leadership. All of these pillars are vital to most executives who want to build an organisation capable of executing their vision, and provide an opportunity to partner with HR for execution. The first three pillars may be more urgent during the transition but starting early across all five pillars can position an executive to demonstrate true leadership — by leaving a legacy of creating a great organisation.

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4 Leadership Traits that are Essential in 2016

By Mark Stuart

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ith the first quarter of 2016 over and an unclear economic picture ahead of us, the need for strong leadership has never been greater. Therefore, it is vital for companies to assess what they can do to better lead their times and develop the next line of leaders.

In this article, I focus on four key trends that are essential for the workplace in 2016.

More Feedback, Less Bureaucracy

There have been huge shifts in corporate thinking over the past 18 months regarding performance reviews and appraisals.

Microsoft, Dell, GE and Adobe are just some of the companies that are ditching the traditional performance review in favour of more consistent feedback throughout the year. The key here is to remove the timeconsuming bureaucracy that normally comes with these programmes, then making it an easier, more transparent process for all parties. For me, managers should be meeting with their employees on a regular basis — at least fortnightly or monthly — so that every quarter can focus on giving feedback and discussing career development with each of your direct reports. Take simple notes, share them with the employee, agree on action points and listen to any concerns.

Adaptability

Whether it is new technology or systemic shocks, workplaces have to adapt at lightening speeds in order to keep up with the competition. There is simply no time to pine for the past, where you could take three to six months to react to market moves or change direction. Technology is allowing these previously cumbersome initiatives to be completed in record time, and companies that are slow to react will lose out — and by ‘lose out’, I mean fail. This requires all employees and leaders to learn how to adapt and upgrade their skills as this does not come naturally to everyone. Most employees dislike change and disruption because it upsets the status quo that we tend to seek at work. Changes also force you to learn new things and become a novice again after spending so long to master your current role. However, it is a skill that can be taught and reinforced through action, so invest time and money to ensure your company is not left behind.

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Speed of Execution

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Similar to above, leaders need to ensure that their teams can execute faster. This does not mean working longer hours.

Instead, it is about working smarter. Review your technology, your processes, your team and their skill sets. By all means, hire more people but make sure they are smart (ideally smarter than you) and add value to the team. If you hire the same type of people you always have, you are going to get the same results. Speed is everything nowadays, but you cannot compromise quality. People are used to getting things — information, goods, gratification — in

Feature: 4 Leadership Traits that are Essential in 2016

an instant, and this is no different with the good or services you offer.

Open Authentic Communication

Office politics often gets in the way of open communication, yet it’s one of the most important qualities that leaders need to display. By open, I mean sharing with their employees their concerns, feedback, positive reinforcement, praise, company developments or updates on key projects.

Be curious, ask questions, and enforce a transparent culture. Some companies take it even further by sharing people’s salaries, but personally, that’s taking it too far.

About the Author: Mark Stuart is the Managing Director of Anagram Group. He is a Leadership Trainer and Executive Coach, and works with multi-national companies and high-performing start-ups delivering leadership and management development, executive coaching, and financial training.

He is also a Group Representative of BritCham’s Entrepreneur & Small Business Group.

There’s always some stuff that shouldn’t be shared, but eliminate any “us vs them” scenarios, and you’ll see trust and engagement on the rise. This is crucial if you have a high proportion of Millennials working for you.

The remainder of 2016 remains uncertain across many industries. What is common, is the need for leaders to adapt and be versatile to changing demand and trends.

Adopting a static leadership model no longer works; survival of the fittest will be for those who are able to stay agile and adapt to the changing environment.

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Is Your Organisation Digital Ready?

Following last month’s article on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Andrew Pickup writes about the opportunities and challenges that Digital Transformation presents.

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D

uring this year’s World Economic Forum in January, the Fourth Industrial Revolution was a theme that stood out above all others — allow me to elaborate.

Today, a fusion of technological advances that continue to blur the lines between our physical, digital and biological worlds means that we are now standing on the precipice of a new industrial revolution that will fundamentally — and dramatically — change the way we live, work, play, learn and communicate. This change will be massive in both its impact and opportunity — and larger than any of the three industrial revolutions that preceded it.

• The first Industrial Revolution began in 1784 and introduced steam power to mechanise processes, moving the world from handmade goods to machine-based production.

• The second Industrial Revolution came in 1870 and utilised electricity, which rapidly expanded global industrial output by enabling assembly-line mass production.

• The third Industrial Revolution started in 1969, with the advent of electronics and Information technology, has automated business processes across just about every industry.

Coined by Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, the fourth Industrial Revolution is characterised by the fusion of the physical, digital and biological worlds that is dramatically disrupting traditional industries, business models, systems and governance.

This revolution is gathering pace through a host of emerging technologies that are growing in both maturity and broad-scale adoption. These include the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Biotechnology, Machine Learning, Nanotechnology and 3D printing (to name just a few).

The disruptive nature of these technologies, coupled with their rapidly fallings costs, is causing concern in the boardroom. A 2015 KMPG survey of over 1,200 global chief

Feature: Is Your Organisation Digital Ready?

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executives from many of the world’s largest companies revealed: • 74% fear new entrants disrupting their existing business model (highest of all CEO concerns) • 72% are concerned about keeping current with new technologies (second highest CEO concern) It is clear that Digital Transformation is the No.1 business challenge facing many companies today, regardless of their size, industry or geography. So how should you think about approaching the opportunities and challenges that Digital Transformation present? What framework and mindset should you adopt?

At first, it may be tempting to look at these new technologies and consider how they can be ‘bolted on’ to your existing business processes to generate incremental value.

That is certainly one approach, but it is not typically successful and will not stand up to the competitive scrutiny of a new entrant that is wholeheartedly embracing the new technologies from scratch. A better approach is to step back, focus on the desired business outcome and how these new technologies can be deployed to deliver a fundamentally different experience.

Although Digital Transformation opportunities vary by industry, in general, there are four common, cross-industry themes:

• Engage Your Customers: How can your organisation embrace digital technologies to create unique, compelling and differentiated customer experiences? For example, you can predict customer demand based on data intelligence and predictive modelling.

• Empower Your Employees: How can digital technologies transform the talents, skills and productivity of your people? For example, today it is often serendipitous at work when you discover someone else is producing something you need, or you find someone who has the solution to a problem that stumps you. Digital technologies increase corporate productivity by enabling greater information and people-related discovery across an organisation.

• Optimise Your Operations: How can your organisation adopt digital technologies to transform your operating models? For example, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things use millions of data points from processes and sensors to recognise patterns and improve operational efficiency.

• Transform Your Products: How can you transform the products your company offers through data intelligence?

Companies everywhere are increasingly becoming data companies. From farming to finance, from New York City to New Delhi, businesses are using data to create new and more relevant products and services.

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The dimensions described above are not new, but what has changed is the volume of data available and the role that ‘Systems of Intelligence’ — or digital feedback loops — now play, providing better insight from data and converting that into intelligent action.

About the Author: Andrew Pickup is Senior Director, Communications at Microsoft, responsible for managing the image & reputation of the company in Asia, building new

Feature: Is Your Organisation Digital Ready?

The next decade will deliver massive, transformational change and huge opportunities for those that embrace these news trends and technologies.

The future is bright, and it is time for all of us to get ready for the fourth Industrial Revolution!

communications capabilities and leading a highly-committed team of communications professionals across the region. He is currently a BritCham board member and also chairs the ICT Committee.

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Think Happy:

the Link Between Happiness, Purchase Intent and Habit Formation Why does happiness matter for brands and how does it impact future purchase intent?

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hink about the last time you recommended a product to a friend — how did you describe it? Did you say it was great? Amazing? Brilliant?

Chances are you would not have bothered recommending it if it was only satisfactory because what would that say about you?

Across the business world, consumer insight focuses on measuring satisfaction, net promoter scores and purchase intent. The problem is that these are rational questions that give us rational — and therefore flawed — answers; they are based on the ways businesses talk and think, not people.

It is largely accepted that while loyal consumers are typically satisfied, satisfaction does not necessarily translate to loyalty. In addition, much of what we often think of as loyalty may not be loyalty at all. Psychology tells us that, as people, our decisions are shaped by our emotions, the context we are making the decision in and our habits, not by

Feature: Think Happy: the Link Between Happiness, Purchase Intent and Habit Formation

a rational analysis of the costs and benefits of every decision we make.

Habits are decisions that we have consciously made at some point in the past, but which we now do not think of at all. They have become automatic responses to cues or shortcuts to previous decisions. Think about the coffee (or kopi) you buy on your way to the office every morning — do you really buy at the same coffee shop out of loyalty, or is it just an automatic response to passing the coffee shop on the way to work, and thus an ingrained part of your routine?

Despite all the talk within businesses about getting closer to consumers and understanding their emotions and experiences, we have forgotten that consumers are humans too.

We need to hold up a mirror to their language, their behaviour and how they really feel.

To empathise, we need to understand that, as humans, we are motivated by happiness.

There have been many attempts throughout history to explain human motivation. Since ancient times, philosophers such as Aristotle and Epicurus have argued that people seek a happy and tranquil life without pain — that is, to maximise happiness. The most recent incarnation of this has been influenced by a new branch of thinking called ‘Positive Psychology’ pioneered by Martin Seligman.

Colloquially known as the ‘Happiness Theory’, it proposes that the way we choose our life course is to maximise our feelings of happiness and well being. The thinking has attracted the attention of governments around the globe. The United Kingdom, for example, has even made the measurement of happiness a core national statistic.

The theory tells us that happiness clearly matters at an individual and societal level, but could it also work at a brand and consumer level? To find out, we partnered with Manchester University Business School and carried out research with 500 consumers

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over a four-week period as they bought and used a wide range of regular branded consumer products and services in their dayto-day lives.

We monitored happiness when people bought and used products/services (both new brands and those they had purchased before) and then examined their intention to buy those brands again at an exit survey.

The findings showed that happiness does matter: brands that make people happy at the point of usage — rather than at the point of purchase — are more likely to be anticipated by consumers to be bought

About the Author: Karen heads up Join the Dots’ Singapore office and has overall responsibility for overseeing client relationships and research / consultancy projects, sales and business development and

again, and this applies to both new brand purchases and those they had purchased before.

So happiness matters when it comes to future purchase intent. Happiness also matters when it comes to habit formation or loyalty. Social Scientist BJ Fogg from Stanford University proposes that to drive habit formation quickly, individuals need to experience a positive emotion when they are undertaking the behaviour they want to become a habit. The positive emotion is a mental hook that tells the brain that this is an experience worth repeating. To quote Fogg directly: emotions create habits.

managing the Singapore team. She has specialised in consumer psychology, consumer journeys and decision making for a number of years and has a particular interest in the application of behavioural sciences, creative thinking and design.

In summary, happiness matters. It matters to us as people, and it matters to businesses because if brands can make consumers happy at the time they are being experienced, they are more likely to be re-purchased and — more importantly — become habitual purchases. And that being the case, consumer insight should ditch outdated models of consumer loyalty and rational measures of satisfaction. Instead, it should focus on understanding habits and the real context of consumer decision making and start measuring what really matters: consumer happiness.

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The Improbable Air-Con: Why Singapore Should Care About Antarctica Antarctica may be oceans away from the Lion City, but Singapore plays an important role in protecting its rapidly melting shorelines

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Credits: The 2041 Foundation - Sandra Marichal

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month ago, I found myself harnessed to a rope held by an expedition crew member that was, at the time, wearing five layers of clothes to protect himself from the -15°C winds. I, on the other hand, was wearing my two-part bikini, ready to jump into the -2°C waters off the Antarctic Peninsula.

I could spend a thousand lines to explain why I did it and why the other 130 fellow explorers did it too, or what is behind the psychology of an explorer. However, I am more interested in telling you why I went to Antarctica in the first place, what happened

to me when I jumped and why you should definitively make the jump as well.

It all started in December 2015 with COP21.

The successful international outcome gave me hope and made me realise that I, too, had a responsibility to do something. It got me thinking about the ways that I could get involved to help Singapore achieve its commitment of reducing its carbon intensity by 36% by 2030 from its 2005 levels.

I could have joined an organisation that fights the haze or help raise awareness about food waste or clean beaches.

However, something bothered me even more about Singapore’s environmental impact: its air conditioning.

It was the first thing that struck me when I landed on the Little Red Dot a few years ago: the unnecessarily cold indoor temperatures, the freezing air in shopping malls and the feeling of slow cryogenisation inside the cinema.

At the time, I wondered why it was so cold everywhere I went. Were we fighting a potential infection outbreak? Were we supporting the sweater industry? Were we

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And what an impact! Last month, in March 2016, the average land and ocean temperature was the highest in records, which was 1.22°C hotter than the average month since 1880 according to the NOAA. The previous record was set last year with an increase of only 0.32°C. March 2016 also marked the 11th consecutive hottest month ever recorded. So, not only are we too hot in Singapore, the overuse of air conditioners is making the world hotter! And that has an impact on the place that is supposed to keep us cool: Antarctica.

trying to make the population feel like they had a bit of winter?

I started by asking shop owners, workers and the cinema managers I was initially complaining to. They were cold too.

I followed through and asked people, 741 to be exact. I asked them a simple question: Are you too cold sometimes because of the air conditioning? More than 96% responded ‘Yes’.

If everyone is so cold, why are we keeping the air-con temperature so low?

Air conditioners in Singapore are a major contributor to global warming. They represent nearly 40% of our buildings’ total energy consumption, which is adding to the amount of fossil fuels being burnt out to produce that energy in the first place!

And despite Singapore’s relatively small size, its impact in terms of carbon emission is massive: the nation ranks 27th amongst the 137 countries the OECD looked at in terms of CO2 emissions per capita back in 2011.

Our individual environmental impact here in Singapore is far worse than a person living in China, Hong Kong or Malaysia.

Source: ‘Are you Cold’ survey conducted by #up2degrees - http://goo.gl/forms/U30fcEnseK

We do need to stop the melt before it is too late, and the way to do so is to hold the unavoidable increase in the global temperature to well below 2°C. That is why I founded #up2degrees (hyperlink: www.up2degrees.com) — a local movement

Credits: The 2041 Foundation - Sandra Marichal

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Credits: The 2041 Foundation - Sandra Marichal

Made up of 14 million km2 of ice, or 20,000 times the size of Singapore, Antarctica is the air conditioning of the world. It is also the coldest, windiest and driest place on the planet, providing roughly 90% of our ice and 70% of our fresh water.

Its surrounding waters in the Southern Ocean play a major role in fighting climate change by locking away carbon emissions from the atmosphere and absorbing about 40% of all human-made CO2 taken up by the world’s oceans. Its ice sheets can reach up to 4 miles in thickness in some parts of the continent, and if Antarctica were to melt completely, it would increase sea levels by 60 metres, submerging most of Singapore.

The issue is that Antarctica is already melting faster than expected, thus threatening the city-state’s existence.

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A block of glacier ice dating approx. 10,000 years Credits: The 2041 Foundation - Sandra Marichal

to raise awareness about climate change in Singapore. The aim is to get people to set the temperature of their air conditioning up by 2°C. With the hope of spreading that message and get Singaporeans to do their part, I decided to go to Antarctica to see climate change for myself and show them what global warming looks like.

Selected amongst 6,000 global applicants, I joined polar explorer Robert Swan, first man in history to walk to both the North and South Pole, on the International Antarctic Expedition organised by the 2041 Foundation in March 2016. 2041 is the year when the Antarctic treaty protecting the most southern continent is set to expire, opening Antarctica up to the possibility of exploitation,

Feature: The Improbable Air-Con: Why Singapore Should Care About Antarctica

Credits: The 2041 Foundation - Sandra Marichal

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environmental ruin, and even war. The mission of the Foundation is to inform, engage and inspire the next generation of leaders to take responsibility, be sustainable, and know that now is the time for action in policy development, sustainable business generation and future technologies.

In order to go, I raised almost US$20,000, welcomed Bawah Private Island as my main sponsor, received additional support from Ben & Jerry’s and Flamingo Research, as well as contributions from friends, family and the general public.

The first sight of icebergs left a lasting impression on me, which was quickly overshadowed by the knowledge that I was setting foot on the southernmost continent on Earth.

I immediately realised: this place wants me dead. I saw what extreme conditions look like and what danger they pose for the survival of the human race. I felt the harshness of the cold, the lack of oxygen, the anxiety of complete isolation combined with the impossibility of rescue. There, I fell on the ice. I hurt my knee, my hip, my elbow — and they still hurt. I got so sick I was unable to eat anything solid for 10 days. I purged myself from the polluted air, from the processed food, from the concrete madness. I followed nature’s time; I had no watch, just the sun and the light to guide my days. I breathed fresh, pure air. I drank water that was so clean it had no taste at all. I walked where no one ever did and I had this bizarre desire to wipe away the footsteps I left behind and leave the place as virgin and wild as I found it.

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Credits: The 2041 Foundation - Sandra Marichal

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Credits: Josselin Cordou

I realised how strong and resilient the planet truly is and how insignificant we are. It became clear: we do not need to save the planet.

Instead, we need to save us from ourselves.

But I also saw a beauty that only the last wilderness on Earth could offer us.

Animals that had never seen humans before — most were curious and not afraid of us — why should they? We did not hurt them nor hunt them. And that is how our relations to animals should be.

Each encounter was more magical than the previous one. Perhaps because I had learnt to fully appreciate it, to be in the moment, to build that sense of respect for something that was simply bigger than all of us.

Antarctica is a weird place — it feels like another planet, where time ran at a slower pace. It is inviting us to sit, watch and listen. Carefully. It teaches a deep sense of openness, of observation, of scale. Perhaps most striking, it triggers a sense of the present and peace.

About the Author: Sandra Marichal is a Polar Explorer, Climate Ambassador and Strategy Consultant.

You can follow her campaign @up2degrees on Facebook or Instagram.

Sandra will be sharing her tales from her expedition at a YBC Mentor Series on 13 July 2016.

Join us to learn about her campaign and be inspired to play your part in climate change.

To register, please visit http://www.britcham.org.sg/events/upcoming-events/2550

It is so immense and infinite, yet so sacred and vivid at the same time. It is so strong yet fragile.

Some people are still sceptical about climate change, but I have seen it with my own eyes. It is happening every day and Antarctica is suffering from it. In fact, our planet as a whole is suffering from it.

Join the #up2degrees movement, turn the temperature of your air conditioning up by 2°C so the planet does not have to do it for us!

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Tax Doesn’t Have to be Taxing:2015/16 Tax Returns for UK Expats

By Martin Rimmer

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he fifth of April saw the end of another tax year in the UK. This fact may have gone unnoticed by many expats, whose attention may have been focused on matters closer to ‘home’.

In recent months HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in the UK has been working hard populating their database with the names of all individuals required to complete a tax return for the year ended 5 April 2016 (2015/16). They will shortly be sending out their first reminder letters to all those individuals currently registered under self-assessment.

It is important to remember that under the self-assessment regime, it is the individual’s responsibility to inform HMRC of their obligation to complete a tax return. Failure to do so may be an oversight, be due to confusion over the complicated tax framework in the UK or be simple avoidance. Whatever the reason, the time to act is now.

Expats who didn’t need to file tax returns previously, should check whether that is still the case today. Being on the front foot with such matters always provides the best outcome, especially when it comes to paying taxes.

Here are some common pitfalls to watch out for when starting your tax returns as an expat: • On-line returns: Surprisingly the new on-line tax return system does not allow you to identify as a non-resident.

Expats should make sure they are claiming non-residency.

• Defining residency: The amount of time you can spend in the UK each year while maintaining nonresident status can vary from 15 days to 182 days per year, depending on circumstances.

• Working in the UK: If you return to the UK for business the type of activity you are undertaking can affect residency — training may not be considered work, managing a cross-border team might qualify. Some companies notify HMRC as a matter of policy and it’s worth knowing whether that is the case with you.

• Tax on rental properties: Expats that rent out their UK property often aren’t aware that rental accounts need to be prepared on the ‘accruals’ basis, rather than just by adding up income and

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subtracting expenses incurring in the tax year itself.

• Incorrectly filled out pages: Residence Pages, Personal Allowance not adequately claimed and dividend income — which can often be tax free — remain taxed.

We often see expats who are worried because they’ve ignored their tax affairs, sometimes for years. Commonly

Feature: Tax Doesn’t Have to be Taxing: 2015/16 Tax Returns for UK expats

the same mistakes are made on tax returns from year to year. Chronic mistakes in your filings can have expensive consequences, such as missed opportunities in tax planning or it can be a red flag to HMRC that your returns are not fully compliant.

If this rings true to you, then the main thing is not to bury your head in the sand. These things can be dealt with and it is not as painful as you might imagine.

About the Author: Martin is a Senior Tax Manager at The Fry Group and is a specialist in residence, domicile, inheritance tax planning and tax-efficient wealth structuring and protection. Based in Singapore, Martin joined The Fry Group in 1999 and now

has responsibility for Private Clients throughout South East Asia, providing bespoke UK tax planning and compliance solutions, opinions and technical briefings. Martin is ATT qualified and holds a BSc Hons in German with Economics and International Business.

It’s not too late to put your tax affairs right, but it will take some work, ideally with professional help.

Whatever your past experience of UK tax returns, it is worth reviewing your tax status regularly and reviewing your tax returns with an adviser can be a good way to consider your tax planning in general. This can provide piece of mind when considering a return to the UK in the future.

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Advertorial

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reparing students for life beyond Stamford American International School, at a college or university in the U.S. or worldwide, starts from the earliest point. Stamford American graduating student, Jen Kit Ker, Class of 2016, has gained early acceptance into Northwestern Univerity, 1 of only 106 international students.

The best of American and International Baccalaureate Curriculums Right from the start, Stamford American students have access to the best of both worlds — the challenging American Education Reaches Out (AERO) standards combined with the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program. Students graduate with either the International Baccalaureate Diploma or American High School Diploma with Advanced Placement credits, or both, offering unparalleled choice and competitive advantage in university placements.

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with the U.S. Department of State’s EducationUSA. An Advising Center that provides the most authoritative resources, up-to-date information and counseling on any of the 4,500 accredited colleges and universities in the U.S. To find out more about Stamford American, visit www.sais.edu.sg or call +65 6653 7907

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UK Trade & Investment

Britain’s Choice: Economic Security with the EU, or a Leap into the Dark

By David Cameron

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magine a world where a British airline wasn’t allowed to fly between Rome and Paris; where British farmers were slapped with a tariff if they wanted to export more beef to Europe; and where great British telecoms companies and car manufacturers faced new barriers when trying to sell their goods and services to customers in Europe.

This is the world we could wake up in if we leave Europe — with the massive knock-on effect on jobs, prices and living standards in our country. Because the longer this referendum campaign goes on, the clearer it becomes: those campaigning to leave Europe are inviting the British people to make an extraordinary choice — to be the first major economy in history to deliberately choose a second-rate, more restrictive trading relationship for its biggest market. They want to rip up our membership of the single market — a market that Britain practically invented — in the hope of renegotiating a new arrangement.

We are duty bound to take this proposition very seriously. So let us properly examine the consequences for our economy. What would a new tailored arrangement, of the sort Canada or Switzerland have with Europe, mean for us?

If we take the Canada free trade deal as a guide, we know it would be damaging for agriculture and manufacturing. Our beef and pork exports would face tariffs, and our car manufacturers forced to comply with rules imposing additional costs based on where they buy their components. And of course, there is British steel. We are doing everything we can to help British steel in these difficult times, but the idea that leaving Europe is the answer is a dangerous fallacy: more than half of our steel exports go to Europe. As Stephen Kinnock, the local MP has said, the last thing his constituents in Port Talbot need is to be cut off from Europe.

Leaving the single market would also hit our service industries hard — and this is where our economy faces the biggest risk.

Today, British brainpower and ingenuity are in demand. We’re the country that designs the building, advises on the deal, arranges

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the finance, insures the business, draws up the contracts, produces the film, creates the advertising campaign, sells the product and audits the accounts. All these are service industries.

The figures speak for themselves. Our service industries are growing at a rate of nearly 3% a year on average. They account for almost 80% of our economy. And they amount for 40% of all British exports — with Europe being by far our biggest exporting market. Indeed, an extraordinary 116,000 small businesses export services to the EU. And new analysis shows that 2 million jobs are either directly or indirectly linked to these exports.

Each of these jobs represent someone with a pay packet; someone providing for themselves and their families. As politicians, we have a duty to tell them what we think the future holds. I can tell each of them, with certainty, that if we stay in Europe their

UK Trade & Investment: Britain’s Choice: Economic Security with the EU, or a Leap into the Dark

employer will keep the current guaranteed rights to offer services anywhere in the EU. Those advocating leave can do no such thing. No real-world alternative to EU membership would come close to what we have now. Even the most ambitious trade deal on services the EU has ever struck — with Canada — falls radically short of single market access.

The latest draft of the Canada deal runs to over 1,500 pages — 800 of which are reservations and barriers. A huge proportion of the deal is about restricting business opportunities, not opening them up.

We could see new barriers for British business in every key services sector.

Here are just 3 examples.

One: aviation. Currently, UK airlines are free to operate routes both between and within other EU member states. But under their deal, Canadian airlines are only allowed to

operate routes in Europe if they start or end at a Canadian airport. If this rule was applied to British airlines, they would have to scrap hundreds of routes.

Two: broadcasting. Under EU rules, once a broadcaster is licensed in 1 member state, it can broadcast in all. If we replicated Canada’s deal, companies would have to choose between seeking separate licences in all EU states they want to broadcast in, or moving out of the UK altogether.

And of course, there’s our biggest service industry of all: financial services. Half of all international financial firms base their European headquarters in the UK. From their 1 office in the UK, EU membership allows them to do business in all 27 other EU states. If we left, this right would be lost and thousands of firms could be forced to move staff or entire offices out of the UK and into the EU, meaning fewer jobs and less tax revenue for the UK.

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People might say, “so what? Surely Britain will get a better deal than Canada or Switzerland? The EU needs Britain more than we need the EU.” That misunderstands the negotiation dynamics that would be at play. The EU buys £21 billion more of services from us — 1 country — than we buy from the 27 countries in the EU. In fact, of everything we sell abroad, 44% goes to the EU, but of everything the EU exports, less than 8% comes to the UK. How can those negotiating dynamics be good for the UK?

Governments in the EU would come under tremendous pressure from their domestic firms to discriminate against the UK. And who is to say they wouldn’t take the opportunity? After all, why wouldn’t the Spanish protect their largest telecoms provider? Why wouldn’t the Germans try to give a leg-up to their insurance companies? Why wouldn’t the French adopt protectionist measures to penalise British banks?

When you look at the consequences of leaving this market, you have to

About the Author: David Cameron Prime Minister of the United Kingdom This article was first published in The Telegraph on 4 April 2016.

ask: why on earth would we do this to ourselves? I believe it would be needless and reckless — an act of economic and political self-harm.

In June, we can choose Britain’s future.

We can choose to shape our world, not to be shaped by others. We can choose to stay in the biggest single market on Earth.

We can choose economic security, not an unnecessary leap in the dark. We can choose to be stronger, safer and better-off — and that’s what I hope the British people will do when the moment comes.

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Britain in Southeast Asia News

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BiSEA News The British Business Centre (BBC) is the main BCCT facility located within the BCCT office in the heart of Bangkok — close to the British Embassy and Ploenchit BTS Skytrain station. It is a 110 sq.m multi-purpose space with the latest communications technology.

The BBC is a suitable location for hosting private functions, meetings, networking events, product displays, seminars, presentations and training, receptions and press conferences.

Catering can be provided to suit event needs, ranging from snacks to buffet-style meals.

The BCCT is offering oversea companies to take advantage on the BBC facilities.

For more details and rental rates please contact jintana@bccthai.com

2016 began with a significant achievement for the BritCham Philippines — the awarding of accreditation from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). UK companies that are keen to expand to the Philippines can expect high-quality business support services on a par with international standards.

We organised high-profile events, giving members access to information relevant to their business such as the Election Forecast Discussion featuring a distinguished panel from the academe, government and private sectors. We also had a successful golf tournament last March joined by more than a hundred golfers. As the Philippine elections draws near, an economic briefing focusing on the impact of the elections on foreign investments is set this April.

We are currently assisting five British companies that are keen to do business in the Philippine market. For referrals or business enquiry, email uksme@britcham.org.ph or call +63 2556 5232.

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As mid 2016 encroaches, the BMCC looks back on a tapestry of successful events. BMCC’s Premier Luncheon with Tan Sri Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria on the TPPA proved beneficial in alleviating concerns and reaffirming benefits of the approved TPP Agreement. We’ve assisted the British High Commission in launching its Great Year of Education campaign in Malaysia and will continue to support it all year long. BMCC’s OBNI hosted a trade delegation from Northern Ireland with astoundingly positive feedback. Come June-July, we’ll be sending Malaysian delegates to the 3-week International Festival of Business 2016 in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

For more information, visit www.bmcc.org.my

The Chamber held its Annual General Meeting on the 10th May. Information on the elected Executive Committee (Board) for 2016-17 is available on the website www.britchamcambodia.org. Upcoming local and regional events are also available on the website.

The Chamber and UKTI Cambodia have commissioned two market studies on opportunities for UK companies in the following sectors: agriculture and agro-processing, and FMCG and luxury goods. Scheduled for completion in June, we will also be publishing an Exporting Guide. The Chamber will further be organising a Trade Mission to Cambodia on opportunities in the construction and related sectors. Please contact director@britchamcambodia.org for more information and planned regional activities around these sectors.

The British Chamber of Commerce Myanmar has recently been awarded full Accreditation by the British Chambers in the UK (BCC), providing global recognition that the Chamber meets a high set of standards in Operations and Services set by the BCC. It is a remarkable achievement since the Chamber’s establishment in July 2014.

The Chamber continues to develop and strengthen its presence in Myanmar, with the membership network now comprising 190 member companies.

The Chamber has now launched a suite of practical business services to assist UK businesses in exploring and establishing themselves in Myanmar. Services on offer are; partner identification and business matching, arrangement of market visits, and organising bespoke events to showcase potential products or services.

Please contact chloe@britishchambermyanmar.com for more information on using these services.

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At the Chamber: Business Group News

Financial Services Chairperson: Ashley Jones — The Fry Group

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public declarations that it will not attempt to stifle this growth and innovation with over burdensome regulation. We will be watching with great interest to see how this balancing act is maintained.

Take the banking industry, for instance.

While some parts of the industry may be experiencing shrinkage, the rise of Financial Technology, or ‘fintech’, has created growth opportunities and new technology solutions for financial products. The Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator, has responded with

At the time of writing, the result of the Brexit referendum back in the United Kingdom on 23 June remains unknown, and with it the implications for the financial services sector. If Brexit were to happen, there would likely be a shortterm dislocation in the markets and a two-year initial period of uncertainty as the boundaries of the UK’s relationship with Europe and other countries were decided. Financial services firms are part of a complex web of domestic and

he global outlook remains tilted to the downside, not to mention the fact that Singapore’s economy advanced only minimally in the first quarter of 2016 — albeit slightly above market expectations of 1.7% growth.

However, in the financial services sector, not all is doom and gloom.

European policies, which means that they cannot be dismantled or amended overnight.

Change continues apace in the sector, and the financial services group itself has also seen changes to its membership this year. This reflects new entrants to the local market, as well as changes in the representation across financial services sectors. As a group, in addition to our Brexit focused event on 14 June, we are planning some great networking opportunities. So look out for details and please join us at one of our events.

Written by Rebecca Thorpe: Head of Bovill Asia FS Regulatory Consultancy

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Information & Communications Technology Chairperson: Andrew Pickup — Microsoft Asia

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he BritCham ICT Group continues to evolve and grow, reflecting the increasingly pervasive role of technology today at home, work, business, education and government.

Since our last Orient update, the Committee has executed four ICT briefings for BritCham members on a broad range of topics.

These include: • Using technology to Enhance the Customer Experience that a company delivers to its customers and create a point of sustainable competitive advantage. This breakfast briefing was the best attended and best-rated event we have run to date!

• Technology, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly was, as the name suggests, an open, honest, highly interactive, warts-and-all discussion on the benefits and pitfalls of adopting technology for small businesses and start-ups.

• Women in Tech addressed one of the most persistent and pressing challenges facing the technology sector: the lack of female representation in the IT industry, especially at the senior levels. A panel of senior leaders, which consisted of men and women from local technology companies, provided insights into the issue, as well as proposed potential solutions.

On the topic of increased diversity in the often male-dominated IT industry, the BritCham ICT Committee was delighted to welcome our newest member, Stacy Low, who is a Business Development Manager for global payments provider WorldPay. Stacy’s addition to the ICT Committee increases our female

representation from 0% 12 months ago to 33% today.

Looking ahead, one clear area of focus for the technology sector is Digital Transformation. The digital revolution taking place today is driving massive disruption for businesses of all types,

shapes and sizes. Business leaders fear being made irrelevant by new entrants, processes and business models. Indeed, a recent PwC survey revealed that 86% of Global CEOs believe that ‘Digital’ is their No. 1 challenge today. Expect more from the committee in this area moving forward!

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At the Chamber: Business Group News

Marketing & Creative Chairperson: Chris Reed — Black Marketing

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he marketing industry in Singapore is alive and well, with some brands doing some great new things.

British brands thrive with localised and often globalised approaches. I love it when international brands adapt to local markets and actually put some thought into how they create a marketing plan which both expats and locals in mind.

My favourite marketing stunt of the moment is by Irish brand Guinness, which created a special Singapore-themed bottle. Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, a limited edition series, features artwork by local illustrator Ben Qwek on its bottles and cans. The designs feature various notable Singapore cultural icons, such as the Keong Saik Building, Marina Bay Sands, HDB blocks and local food kueh tutu shaped into a red-tongued dog — an importer’s stamp of quality that has been on the bottle for the last 150 years, as well as a nickname for the brew in Singapore.

This is very unusual for a brand whose heritage is very Irish. I think that they have adapted the design in a very Singaporean way, without losing their brand values and tradition. I would be interested to know whether they are doing this in other markets and how well the Singaporean-themed bottle is going down with their customer base here. Have they noticed any difference? Will it bring in new customers?

Scottish celebrity star Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant, Bread Street Kitchen (BSK) at Marina Bay Sands (MBS), has come up with some cool and interesting marketing stunts as well. As a keen cyclist and triathlete, Ramsay always cycles when he comes to Singapore. When he launched BST, he noticed the number of cyclists that went past his restaurant on the way to and from Marina Barrage, Gardens by the

Bay or East Coast Park. He said at the time that he needed to do something for them, and he did.

Last time he was here, he linked up with a CEO cycle network to create awareness for what BSK was doing. This even involved opening at 5.30am to serve breakfast. It created a great series of content articles/ photos for Marina Bay Sands’ social media.

Since then, BSK has launched a cyclingfocused breakfast at 7am, with smoked salmon/asparagus and egg, some great protein and a detox smoothie after a ride.

Unfortunately, this is too late for my 6am daily cycle past BSK on my way to work every morning, but it is still a great marketing initiative and a nice touch.

On the other hand, British café brand Costa Coffee is always copying British promotions, which I find odd. Why do they not create localised promotions instead? When I walk past their café, they are always talking about spring/autumn promotions, which makes no sense in season-less Singapore. When they talk about having a drink to ‘warm you up’ because it is cold in the UK, it makes no sense in a country that has been hitting 36°C lately and never dips below 24°C, with humidity suitable for a tropical island.

No one needs warming up here!

British rock bands Bring Me the Horizon (BMTH) and Nothing But Thieves (NBT) will be coming to our sunny shores later in the year. Aimed squarely at the rock market, most of their marketing is content-focused through social media. Word of mouth is also key. Both are amazing bands live with BMTH being the more seasoned hard rockers and NBT being the cooler, trendier band. Both are worth seeing if you want something livelier and harder (for BMTH at least) than your average rock-and-pop artist you get in Singapore.

Content marketing is thriving in Singapore and there are some great new agencies either setting up or being invested in.

My former co-chair of the Marketing and Creative Committee, Andrea Edwards, has left Novus Asia and set up on her own. She tried this many years ago before Content Marketing was interesting and cool and was ahead of her time. Now is the time for content marketing, and I think Andrea has her timing just right.

Just to make the point, Singapore Press Holdings has invested $7 million in content marketing agency New Media for a stake of around 30%. Evidently, content marketing is alive and well in Singapore.

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Business Services News

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BritCham hosts UK, AHDB Meat & Scottish Pavilion Exhibitors in Singapore This April, in coordination with the Food & Drink Exporters Association/PS8, Scottish Development International and Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, UK Trade & Investment and BritCham hosted the UK, AHDB Meat and Scottish Pavilion Exhibitors of FHA2016 in Singapore. The FHA2016 exhibition was held from 12 to 15 April 2016 at the Singapore Expo.

The Business Services team organised a market briefing for the delegates the morning before the show opened presenting them with an overview on doing business in Singapore, the city-state’s food and retail landscape, regulations and culture.

The team also organised an evening reception for the delegates at Eden Hall on Wednesday, 13 April, hosted

by H.E. Scott Wightman, British High Commissioner to Singapore. Tasting stations were set up for delegates to exhibit their products — these included English cheese, oat cakes, chutney, Scottish craft beer and craft cider, English sparkling wine, soft drinks and oil. Guests were also treated to canapes made with Scottish smoked salmon, British beef and lamb and pork sausages, all kindly supplied by the FHA2016 exhibitors.

The reception enjoyed a massive turnout, with 120 delegates and guests, and provided an opportunity for delegates to meet the Food Industry Business Community in Singapore, along with members of the Chamber and UKTI in their relevant sectors. Overall, the night was an overwhelming success and the team received excellent feedback from the delegates and organisers.

Event Sponsor:

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At the Chamber

BritCham New Members Corporate Chappuis Halder & Co. Pte Ltd Mark Buchan DBS Jean-Philippe Lionnet WorldPay Stacy Low M&G Investments (S) Pte Ltd Raphael Jaggy

MCI Group Asia Pacific Pte Ltd Shawn Runacres Micro Focus Stephen McNulty PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) TBK Clarence Heng Hydrogen Group Pte Ltd Adam Paul Solomons PizzaExpress Singapore PTE. Limited Robert Stubbing

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Corporate SME Otonomos BCC Pte. Ltd Jan-Arie Bijloos Rockwills Corporate Services Pte Ltd Jaclyn Choon Roco Communications Pte Ltd Ross Tobias Collett Napoleon Pte Ltd Jean-Christophe Cadoret Adiante Leadership Pte Ltd Carolyn Lints Keelson Group Pte Ltd Adam Webster

Sovereign Management Services Pte Ltd Andrew Gordon Galway RE Global Hospitality Pte Ltd Rashi Talwar Terrific Mentors Int’l Pte Ltd John Richard Bittleston New Voice Communications Pte Ltd Sarah Schubert Eiger Consultancy Pte Ltd Edune Learning Network Pte Ltd Khalid Muhmood

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At the Chamber: Sterling News Standard Chartered Bank announces the opening of the eXellerator — new innovation lab will accelerate the Bank’s digital transformation The eXellerator builds upon Standard Chartered’s established technology outpost in the Silicon Valley, SC Studios, and is the first of such a dedicated and strategic space for the Bank in Asia.

The eXellerator in Singapore will work closely with the business units within the Bank and explore the use of emerging technologies and data science for sustainable business solutions.

The lab is located at the heart of Singapore’s dynamic financial district in the Bank’s main office building at Marina Bay Financial Centre.

Standard Chartered’s Group Chief Information Officer, Dr Michael Gorriz, said: “The rise of FinTech has created greater opportunities for banks to enhance customer experience, reduce costs, mitigate risks and put power into the hands of their customers through innovative deployment of technology. The eXellerator will expedite the implementation of digital solutions to deliver more value to our clients with improved service offerings and new business models for a new generation.”

EY opens four new Centers of Excellence in Singapore to help companies accelerate business performance and digital transformation Professional services organisation EY today launched four Centers of Excellence to provide innovative services in digital business transformation strategy, cyber security, analytics and manufacturing to companies in the Asia-Pacific region. This was announced at the EY forum entitled “Mega trends for 2016 and beyond: analytics, cyber security and productivity,” which was held at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore today.

The four centers ­— the Asia-Pacific Advisory Center; Asia-Pacific Center of Excellence for Analytics; Asia-Pacific Center of Excellence for Cyber Security; and Asia-Pacific Center of Excellence for Manufacturing — represent EY’s commitment to a multi-million dollar, multi-year investment in Singapore.

Rolls-Royce joined celebrations to mark Singapore Airlines becoming the latest airline to operate the Airbus A350 XWB, powered by the world’s most efficient large aero engine, the Trent XWB. A formal aircraft handover ceremony took place at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France. The aircraft then flew on to Singapore.

The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB is the only engine that powers the A350 XWB and more than 1,500 engines have already been sold to 42 customers. It has already delivered the best-ever entry into service for a large engine since it entered commercial service in January 2015.

The A350 XWB delivers a 25 per cent fuel burn improvement compared to previous generation aircraft. The Trent XWB is also one of the quietest engines that RollsRoyce has ever produced for the wide-body market.

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St. James’s Place wins prestigious award for the second year running We are delighted to announce that at an awards ceremony held at Guildhall, London, St. James’s Place won the prestigious ‘City of London Wealth Management Company of the Year’ award for the second year running.

These awards are highly sought after as they are voted for by clients and members of the public based on the quality of advice and service they have received.

HSBC Private Bank has today announced the appointment of Sandeep Sharma as Head of Global Private Banking, South East Asia.

In this new role, Mr. Sharma will be responsible for driving and executing HSBC’s strategy for private banking across South East Asia. Based in Singapore, he will report to HSBC Singapore’s Chief Executive Officer, Guy Harvey-Samuel and Regional Head of Global Private Banking, Asia-Pacific, Bernard Rennell.

On the appointment, Mr. Harvey-Samuel said: “As the hub for financial flows in South East Asia, Singapore is a priority market for HSBC. With Sandeep’s track record, I am very confident that we are able to further grow our private banking business. I am also personally delighted that we are able to develop local Singapore talent within HSBC.”

British High Commission Singapore and the British Council celebrates ‘Shakespeare Lives’ Day at library@esplanade Shakespeare Lives is a global programme of events and activities celebrating the world’s most popular playwright’s work on the 400th anniversary of his death in 2016. In Singapore, the ‘Shakespeare Lives’ programme consists of a host of events, including theatre performances, film screenings, exhibitions, lectures, panel discussions and educational resources for English language learners.

An array of actors and theatre personalities including thespians Adrian Pang, Debra Teng, director Natalie Hennedige, SRT’s Gaurav Artistic Director Gaurav Kripalani, Executive Director Charlotte Nors joined the British High Commission Singapore and the British Council and the Guest of Honour for the event, Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, to celebrate ‘Shakespeare Lives’ Day at the library@esplanade.

His Excellency Scott Wightman, High Commissioner to Singapore and Roland Davies, Country Director for the British Council, thanked partners at the event for their support of celebrating Shakespeare’s legacy in Singapore.

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At the Chamber: Sterling News Deloitte Southeast Asia announced that Philip Yuen, currently Deloitte Singapore Chief Executive Officer (CEO), will succeed Chaly Mah as Deloitte Southeast Asia’s next CEO. Philip will assume the new role on 1 June 2016. He succeeds Chaly, who will retire from Deloitte Southeast Asia at the end of Deloitte’s fiscal year on 31 May 2016.

Deloitte Southeast Asia comprises 270 partners and over 7,300 professionals in 25 office locations.

“I am honoured to have been selected by my partners as Deloitte Southeast Asia’s next CEO. It is a privilege to be part of an organisation that delivers high quality services and innovative solutions to our clients, develops the most talented professionals into leaders and does its part to make an impact in the communities in which we operate,” said Philip. “Chaly is a visionary leader and has built a strong firm in the region. These are big shoes to fill and I am deeply humbled to succeed him. I am excited to be given this privilege to lead the firm into this next chapter and we will continue to make significant investments to develop our talent and our services to serve our clients with distinction and raise the bar for the profession.”

City Developments Limited (CDL) has achieved a record net profit after tax and noncontrolling interests (PATMI) of S$410.5 million for Q4 2015, up 6.6% over its previous record of S$384.9 million for Q4 2014, despite challenging market conditions.

The increase was fuelled by gains accounted from monetising CDL’s three prime office assets, 7 & 9 Tampines Grande, Manulife Centre and Central Mall (Office Tower), valued at S$1.1 billion via CDL’s second Profit Participation Securities investment platform (PPS 2) in December 2015, and a maiden S$12 million contribution from CDL’s UK property development platform from the sale of Emerald House in Croydon, marking milestones in CDL’s diversification strategy. The progressive sale and profit recognition from presold projects in Singapore also had a higher contribution in Q4 2015 versus Q4 2014.

As part of celebrations for its 125th anniversary in Singapore, Shell joined hands with Mediacorp’s Radio Gives Back to provide families in need with financial assistance, successfully exceeding its target donation sum of $300,000. The total amount of $401,495 was raised with the support of motorists in Singapore as Shell donated $1.25 for every purchase of Shell fuels from 4th to 17th April 2016, along with additional donations of $5.00 for every 125 Shell Escape Points contributed by customers in support of this cause.

In collaboration with Mediacorp’s Radio Gives Back, the total amount in donations will be used to provide financial support for families in need to help with their children’s education, utility and medical bills and daily necessities. This initiative is part of Shell’s long-standing commitment to serving the local community.

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At the Chamber: Corporate News

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Progress-U opened an office in Kuala Lumpur in January and has launched an open enrollment leadership development programme for senior finance executives called “The CFO Leadership Journey”.

In Singapore, Progress-U announced a new programme with Singapore Management University called Leadership Coaching. It is targeted at mid- to senior level executives who want to develop their coaching skills as part of their leadership toolkit.

For HR senior executives, Progress-U introduced the 2016 HR Roundtable Series — events focused on certain key development areas. Participants benefit from learning from peers and developing a strong network.

IMarEST welcomes its first female president Jane Smallman CSci CMarSci FIMarEST was appointed 114th President of IMarEST in the Institute’s 127-year history.

David Loosley — Chief Executive, commented, "I am delighted to welcome Jane.

She will be an inspirational figure not just for women in, or embarking on, a marine profession, but also for men. I firmly believe that it is vital for both genders to see capable women in positions of leadership. We need to highlight to the overall consciousness of our industry, an unquestionably male-dominated one, that gender has no bearing on aptitude or skill."

Presenting a new level of service excellence in air travel, Garuda Indonesia, the national airline of Indonesia, seamlessly connects more than 75 destinations worldwide. With close to 600 daily flights with average fleet age of less than five years old, Garuda Indonesia achieved Skytrax’s 5-star rating, ranked as the 8th best airline in the world , “The World’s Best Cabin Crew”, “The World’s Best Economy Class”. Garuda Indonesia is one of the 20 members of SkyTeam Alliance, providing extensive global network access in 177 countries. Starting 31 March 2016, Garuda Indonesia flies one-way nonstop from Singapore to London Heathrow 5 times weekly.

KPMG in Singapore has launched the KPMG Digital Village, a symbiotic ecosystem matching, fostering and forging innovation ventures between companies and start-ups.

Using a challenge-focused approach, the Digital Village helps to bring innovative ideas to life from scouting, mentoring through to helping start-ups develop solutions for business integration.

To drive the innovation agenda for businesses, it provides innovative solutions to corporate clients out of KPMG’s innovation network, venture capitalists (VCs) and research institutions, and includes links with institutes of higher learning and available government resources to complete the ecosystem.

Its creation is in response to calls by industry leaders for an innovation ecosystem that not only incubates and accelerates new ideas, but also commercialises them.

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At the Chamber: Corporate News As Singapore’s largest bank and a leading bank in Asia, DBS is further upping the ante in the innovation space with the official launch of “DBS digibank”, a breakthrough mobile app designed to make banking simpler, smarter and faster for its customers.

The new “DBS digibank” app delivers a groundbreaking “mobile-first” experience and builds on the bank’s continuous efforts to innovate on its digital offerings to enhance the customer experience.

For the first time in Asia, customers are able to view their account balances with a simple swipe on their mobile devices or Apple Watch. This function, called the “Peek Balance”, does not require any pre-login and customers can choose to “peek” at any of their DBS/POSB deposit or credit card accounts.

President Tony Tan Keng Yam officially launched the 16th President’s Challenge today at Microsoft’s We Tech Care 2016 event with strong support from the technology community.

Aligned with Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more, We Tech Care 2016 goes beyond regular fund-raising to rally the local startup community, non-profit organisations, Microsoft partners and employees to collectively showcase the power of technology in creating a smarter and more inclusive Singapore. In addition to the over 200 volunteers from startups, non-profits and partner organisations, as well as Microsoft, the event saw close to 600 beneficiaries and members of the public participating in We Tech Care 2016.

Crown World Mobility Singapore hosted a Roundtable discussion on 2016 mobility trends in December last year. Lisa Johnson, Global Practice Leader of World Mobility Consulting Services, shared insight on the global trends for 2016, including the rise of permanent transfers, flexible options for assignees and data analytics for mobility programs. The roundtable attracted HR and mobility experts to discuss regional trends in Asia and explore how expanded parent eligibility, split-families and lowtouch regional moves impact employers. The roundtable was very well received by the attending clients.

Expat Insurance are pleased to announce that with effect from 1 April, 2016 they now has colleagues across the globe which will help realize their vision for the business and their clients. Expat Insurance and MSH INTERNATIONAL have joined forces to accelerate the growth of the business which is based in Singapore in The Riverwalk on Upper Circular Road.

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Salt Singapore was awarded Gold for Best Use of Bloggers at Marketing Magazine’s third annual PR Awards held on 23 March 2016 at the Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore. salt won for its entry Cupid Games, working in partnership with Unilever’s Closeup.

Over 80 brands and more than 50 agencies from across the region made it to the short list as finalists and the champions for 2016 were chosen by a jury made of senior communications professionals from across the region and a wide range of industries.

Did you know that a single click can destroy a perfect organisation?

With all the new and fully innovative products and/or solutions to protect your business from a cyber-attack, the best and most pertinent resolution remains to increase the awareness.

In order to make the cyber-security awareness program a true success story and help the companies achieve this cultural change, EVA GROUP has launched recently a dedicated program for Cyber-Security Awareness.

Our training catalogue is elaborated to answer to all organisational levels, including the management.

EVA GROUP will be happy to share the catalogue at any time.

LAMC Productions is proud to announce critically acclaimed UK based rock band Nothing But Thieves are set to perform in Singapore on Thursday, 18 August 2016, 8pm at *SCAPE, The Ground Theatre as the second act in LAMC Productions’ Rising Star Series!

Nothing But Thieves have been making waves as the support act for rock titans Muse on the UK leg of their 2016 ‘Drones’ World Tour, and have sold out their own headline shows across the UK and Europe along with Los Angeles and New York City on their recent US tour.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) has emerged as Singapore’s top institution in research for the second consecutive year.

In the 2016 Nature Index, NTU is ranked No. 1 in Singapore among universities as well as among research institutions. Globally, NTU is ranked 32nd among universities and 37th among the global research institutions.

The Nature Index is published by the Nature Publishing Group, one of the world’s top scientific research publishers. The index is based on the number of high-quality science papers published in 68 highly reputable science journals between 1 January and 31 December 2015, ordered by weighted fractional count.

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At the Chamber: Members’ Offers To find out more about our members’ offers, visit our website under Membership -> Members Offers.

Avis

Enjoy up to 10% off your next car rental with Avis worldwide!

Black Marketing - Enabling LinkedIn For You

Free One Hour Consultation on How You Can Use LinkedIn To Achieve Your Business Goals

British Airways

10% off airfare for British Airways

British Council

Tailored English Language solutions without leaving your office

British Standards Institution

10% discount on ISO certification, training services and purchase of standards

Bupa/Expat Insurance

10% off Medical Insurance Plan

City Serviced Offices

10% discount on facilities and services

CMC Partnership

Discount on Change Management training & certification

Courts

5% off electrical & 10% off furniture

Cultural Training Asia

15% discount to BritCham Members for the 1.5 hour Lunch and Learn training session on 'Effective Virtual Meetings'

Emirates

Enjoy up to 10% off Emirates fares

EVA Group

5% discount on training

Harry's

15% discount at Harry’s

IMarEST

10% off e-learning products

IOM Singapore

NEBOSH International General Certificate (IGC) course on 20% off

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Mega Adventure

20% Off Team Building Programs

MSIG

15% off MSIG’s Prestige Healthcare

MSIG

Make every trip a secure one with TravelEasy Insurance

Open Forum Enterprise

10% off Cyber Terrorism & Cyber Attack Workshop

Progress U

5% off International Corporate Coaching Program

Quayside Isle

Up to 15% off F&B

Raffles Singapore

Discounts off Food & Beverage, Restaurant Bookings & Event Meetings

Regus

Enjoy Complimentary Membership at Regus Business Lounges

SandBank

Enjoy 10% off* total bill

Shangri-La Hotel Singapore

Special Rate for BritCham Members

Singapore Management University

5% discount on SMU Executive Development Programme

Sonru

10% off Annual Subscription for Corporate Members

Survival Chic

Special Spring Pop-Up Offer from Survival Chic (SC)

Survival Chic

Special Membership Offer for BritCham Members

The Bank Bar

Enjoy 15% off* total bill at The Bank Bar + Bistro

The British Club

Once-in-a-lifetime Membership Offer from The British Club

Voxtree

Get your business communications just right…any time

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At the Chamber: Annual Event

BritCham Annual General Meeting 2016

The Chamber held its 62nd AGM at Eden Hall, the British High’s Commissioner’s residence, as per tradition, on May 5 2016.

Over 120 members and their guests attended and were given a summary report of the Chamber’s development in 2015.

In his opening message, Chamber Patron HE Scott Wightman highlighted the close partnership between the Chamber and the British High Commission/UKTI. In particular, Scott mentioned the Chamber’s business services team who continue to deliver and provide support to UK SMEs looking to succeed in Singapore.

In the absence of outgoing President Hugo Walkinshaw, board member Bicky Bhangu presented the President’s Report. The Chamber continues to grow from strength

to strength, delivering quality events and supporting and connecting British businesses in Singapore.

For members who were unable to attend the AGM, here is a summary of how the Chamber performed last year:

Following that, Treasurer Veronica McCann gave an overview of the Chamber’s financial accounts in 2015. Despite the challenging constraints last year, largely due to the SG50 celebrations, the Chamber managed to make an increase in revenue. Overall, the Chamber is in a good financial state, with a healthy cash balance at the end of 2015.

Chamber Performance Summary 2015

A new board was elected to serve the forthcoming year 2016/2017. Three new board members who served as Chairpersons in their respective business groups were elected onto the new board — Andrew Pickup, Chris Reed and Mark Chowdhry. The full list of board members can be found on pages 72-73.

Delivering Member Value • Development of terms of reference for business groups led by board member Richard Warburton to ensure consistency • Relaunched the marketing and creative business group in October • Embraced digital solutions — launch of online payment and member home section on the website • Streamlined ORIENT and focused on knowledge bank • Focused on frequent and diverse member interaction and engagement — Rugby World Cup dinner, back to work

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networking, F1, Business Awards, sterling member cocktails • Held our first open house in November Improving Chamber Profile • Launch of diversity booklet featuring case studies from our member companies, on how D&I can improve businesses and create an inclusive work environment within organisations • Hosting of VIPs such as PM David Cameron, BiSEA colleagues and diplomats such as Lord Green, UKTI Business Ambassador Dame Julia King, Chief Executive of UKTI Dominic Jermy and more • Continue to foster links with the Ministry of Manpower hosting senior officials in a briefing on Fair Consideration Framework

Strengthening Organisational Capabilities • Strengthening organisation with increased focus on membership and events • Welcoming of new sponsors − Silver sponsor: Jardine Cycle & Carriage − YBC Mentor Series sponsor: EY − Single event sponsors: Cundall, Emirates, Grant Thornton, Magrath Global, Scottish Development Limited Developing Business Services • Development of Business Services team – new manager and two associates to deliver on new services • Establishing sector knowledge that benefits members • Significant increase in chargeable projects, including hosting trade

missions, event management • Close collaboration with British High Commission and UKTI Focus 2016: Delivering membership value • Drive collaboration and build closer links between the business group committees • Strengthen executive team withupskilling resources to increase member value and support continuous growth plans • Continue to build a vibrant events calendar focusing on key themes that are driven by the business group committees • Refreshing the Annual Business Awards The presentation, full set of accounts and minutes of the meeting are available in the member home section of the website: www.britcham.org.sg/membership/ members-home

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At the Chamber

BritCham Board Members 2016/2017

Bicky Bhangu Director for Singapore Rolls-Royce Singapore Pte Ltd

PRESIDENT

Damian Adams Partner Simmons & Simmons

Sian Brown Director, Chief Controls Office Barclays Bank PLC

VICE PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENT

Cecilia Handel Director of Development Tanglin Trust School

Veronica McCann

SECRETARY

TREASURER

Richard Warburton Head of Performance Excellence, Asia Arcadis

Annabel Moore General Counsel, Asia Pacific Diageo Singapore Pte Ltd

Haslam Preeston Regional Managing Director Jardine Cycle & Carriage Limited

David Pugh Director The Fry Group

Mark Chowdhry Managing Partner Baxters International

Andrew Vine Managing Director The Insight Bureau Pte Ltd

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Andrew Pickup Senior Director, Communications, Microsoft Asia

Chris Reed Global CEO and Founder Black Marketing - Enabling LinkedIn For You

Robert Williams Head of Asia Pacific Sales British Airways

Ian Williams Chief Risk Officer HSBC

Ronald Totton CEO, BT South East Asia BT Singapore

Terence Yuen Regional Head of Tax, Asia Pacific BP Singapore

Christopher Pook Regional Director for UK Trade and Investment and the FCO Prosperity Network in South East Asia British High Commission

EX-OFFICIO Roland Davies Director British Council

EX-OFFICIO

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BritCham Rugby 7s Networking Evening 14 April 2016

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At this casual networking event held at the Tower Club, former rugby players Ollie Phillips, Stirling Mortlock and moderator Justin Sampson shared their experience and knowledge of the sport of rugby. More than 150 members and guests of the Chamber were enthralled as the three bantered about the upcoming rubgy 7s.

Moderator: Justin Sampson

At the Chamber: Special Event

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Speaker: Stirling Mortlock

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Speaker: Ollie Phillips

Title Sponsor:

Supporting Sponsor:

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At the Chamber: Special Event

BritCham Energy Debate 2016: Energy Challenges in a Changing World 14 March 2016 In addressing the key challenges faced by the Energy industry, the Chamber organised a panel discussion to look at the challenges of energy provision, security of supply and sustainability.

To lead the debate, we welcomed two internationally renowned speakers: • Lord Oxburgh — a distinguished scientist, a leading commentator on energy policy and the environment, an advisor on research and environmental issues to the Government of Singapore and a former Chairman of Shell Transport and Trading.

• Christoph Frei — Secretary General of the World Energy Council. Dr. Frei was formerly Senior Director, Energy Industries & Policy at the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Philip Andrews-Speed — Principal Fellow, Energy Studies Institute at National University of Singapore moderated this insightful debate which covered four key areas in the Energy sector — Technology, Business Models, Finance and Policy levers.

The event ended on a high note following an engaging Q&A session which saw many questions and comments from the floor.

SUMMARY Christoph opened the debate by stating the industry’s focus twenty years ago — the oil price. Highlighting some of the key transition areas affecting the sector, he commented on the unprecedented challenges presented by complexity and speed. He discussed the inclusion of Energy on the G20’s agenda and acknowledged that we are now living in a COP21 world which will see a shift in the sector’s focus towards innovation.

Market design and transition will be one of the most difficult areas to get right. The sector’s resilience during transition is crucial when

there is a requirement for new to-be-built infrastructure and the need for maintaining aging assets and extension of life persists. Usage of water also poses significant challenge in this sector. These issues do not garner as much attention compared to a cyber security attacks.

TECHNOLOGY Lord Oxburgh observed that there is a linear correlation between energy use and population growth. This may not seem a strange phenomenon. However technology has advanced in the sector incredibly in ways that could only be thought about just a few decades ago. Two examples are the impact of the shale boom and fracking with horizontal drilling; and the rapid R&D combined with low cost manufacturing of solar panels. There have been technologies that have so far failed to deliver; Carbon Capture and storage is still deemed too expensive.

Dr Frei commented that biofuels, like hydrogen, had suffered from being overhyped and cautioned that when linked to a local agenda there are places where alternative fuels can compete so we should look at orders of magnitude before writing off a technology.

Biogas could for instance fuel one third of the UK’s gas demand but it has simply not been done because there is a glut of gas.

Other technologies such as tidal and ocean thermal suffers from engineering challenges

matching the huge dynamics of flowing water.

Something that will work 80 percent of the time can be wiped out in an instant. Methane hydrates cannot be harvested currently without huge risks to the biodiversity of the ocean and there is the possibility to destabilise the deposits, potentially releasing huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere.

Storage is an area currently front of mind.

It is not clear that we are on the steps of a breakthrough and again there are many types of storage suitable for varying circumstances and location.

Small Modular Nuclear is an area that has potential if it can pass the test of public perception. The days of large central nuclear power stations are largely behind us.

BUSINESS MODELS Smart Grids and Smart Meters have developed over time since they were launched but we are still waiting for a breakthrough moment when a company can bring leverage through access to the customer and master data in a way that has transformed the sector. We have not seen the emergence of an Uber for electricity markets with presence in branding, data and analytics and delivery to end users.

Dr Frei stated that in a prosumer world, where a customer is both a producer and consumer

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of energy, energy companies need to be closer to their customers. He cited an example of a telco in a developing country that recognised that its ability to grow depended on access by its customers to charging stations.

The telco established these and saw revenue gains. We are seeing leasing models emerge for instance in lighting or in the future for home refrigeration.

An essential for distributed generation and prosumers is a backbone for continuity.

Questions remain over who pays, and at what tariff, and how this redefines the role of the utility company. Fossil fuels will have a role in backup. Lord Oxburgh cited the UK National Grid’s table of notice times for fuels to respond to increased demand with nuclear being measured in days, hydro storage in seconds and fossil fuels being in between. Gas is the fastest fossil fuel to bring additional generation on-stream to meet surges in demand. A development in the North Sea’s oil fields has been gas turbines built on rigs that plug into the existing offshore wind infrastructure; the on-shoring plant sees a constant stream of power from the field. There are more applications for fossil plus renewables particular in off-grid and distributed generation.

On the finance side the hot button of crowdfunding has been successfully applied in the area of innovation but not yet seen in

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Moderator: Dr. Philip Andrews-Speed — Principal Fellow, Energy Studies Institute at National University of Singapore

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Speaker: Christoph Frei — Secretary General of the World Energy Council

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Speaker: Lord Oxburgh

larger scale energy financing. On the larger scale, development banks have a role in energy choices and their shareholders — governments — can steer their agendas.

GOVERNMENT POLICY In developing markets we are seeing an increase in energy demand. Countries in Africa, and India and China, have an opportunity to leapfrog the West in a technology bound that will avoid mistakes of the developed nations.

Energy efficiency is largely an untapped resource affected by economics and policy rather than technology. Yes there are future gains from efficient IT processing but much of the gains to be made by efficiency are waiting for full costs of energy to be factored into pricing and policy enablement via, taxes, subsidies and regulations from government.

An example is production pumps on oil wells.

These could be much more efficient and lead to increased oil production. However there is a balance of price, reliability, efficiency and how much oil the world needs right now.

In short energy efficiency is not about technology. It’s about policy, leadership and incentives and pricing energy at true cost.

Developing technology is another play required from the government, for instance ensuring that Carbon Capture and Storage and other technologies can be developed and are

Title Sponsor:

affordable through carbon pricing mechanisms.

In South East Asia there is unique geography which will require tailored solutions and associated infrastructure. Small scale LNG, break bulk terminals, and shale technology to tap coal bed methane are all possibilities for this region.

ASEAN has an opportunity for example with the opening of the US gas market to global pricing to provide energy to many more of its people.

This is vital, with over 100 million not yet able to access regular supplies of electricity or clean cooking fuels.

There is a responsibility on the industrial revolution benefiting countries to support the rest of the world as they too build their economies. One area is to deploy technology to the developing world at affordable rates whilst ensuring protection of patents and reward for innovation. Transferring technology is likely to be an outcome to meet COP21 commitments.

TAKEAWAYS In summary there are limitations and unpredictability of technology. Business models need to evolve and financing is uncertain to provide adequate access to energy. Education on energy dilemmas is needed if full costing and removal of subsidies is to be achieved.

Overall the energy world can be aligned to the acronym VUCA — Volatile, Uncertain Complex and Ambiguous.

Supporting Sponsor:

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At the Chamber: Country Briefing

Indonesia Country Briefing 4 Mar 2016 The briefing started with an update on the investment performance and climate in Indonesia by Ricky Kusmayadi from BKPM. The priority sectors for investment in Indonesia are mainly in manufacturing, infrastructure, agriculture, maritime, tourism, SEZs & Industrial Parks.

The presentation continued with the findings from the Business Confidence Index 2015 — a BritCham Indonesia managed survey of British & European investors and exporters doing business in Indonesia by Chris Wren, the Executive Director of BritCham Indonesia.

Within Indonesia, building interpersonal relationships are paramount to the success of business deals and Chris and Ricky closed with a word of advice to British businesses to have a physical commitment in order to see fruit from their businesses.

Ricky Kusmayadi — Director, The Indonesian Investment Promotion Centre (IIPC) Singapore /BKPM

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Chris Wren — Executive Director, BritCham Indonesia

Sponsored by:

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At the Chamber: Country Briefing

Vietnam — The Darling of ASEAN 17 Mar 2016 Vietnam has a growing market and is forecasted to be one of the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world. A GDP growth forecast of 5.6%, abundant land and a young population of 5 million who are under 25 are some of the strengths of the Vietnam economy. The opportunities for UK companies in the Vietnam market are plenty and they include energy, education, consumer goods, healthcare, manufacturing and transport infrastructure.

In this briefing, Ken Atkinson provided an economic overview of Vietnam which included: • An insight into Vietnam’s economic performance in 2015 • The key drivers of Vietnam’s economic performance and macro economy • Sector opportunities which are currently of interest to investors

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Ken Atkinson — Executive Chairman, Grant Thornton Vietnam and British Business Group Vietnam

Sponsored by:

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Lunch with British actress Jane Seymour OBE 29 April 2016 We are delighted to welcome the British actress Jane Seymour to our first Leaders in Business Lunch of the year.

In this event, Jane was joined on stage by moderator and award-winning director and television writer Bob Tomson. In conjunction with the annual theme of the BritCham Women in Business’s Committee “Men Making Equality Real”, Jane answered questions on how she maintained her extensive acting career in a largely male-dominated industry and areas of parity which needs to be addressed in the acting industry.

As a leader in the acting industry, Jane spoke about her career journey, the mentors who have helped shape her path, how she decided upon her next role or challenge, and the highs and lows during the course of her career.

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Speaker: Jane Seymour — Award winning British Actress Moderator: Bob Tomson — Director and Television Writer

At the Chamber: Leaders in Business Lunch

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Title Sponsor:

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At the Chamber: Open House

BritCham Open House 24 Mar 2016 The Chamber organised its second BritCham Open House on the 24th March.

The Open House was specially organised for members and guests to learn more about the benefits of the BritCham membership through conversations with the Chamber's board members, business group heads and the management team.

Members and guests networked and mingled with one another over drinks and canapĂŠs which were kindly sponsored by the British Club.

Sponsored by:

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At the Chamber: Breakfast Club

Scenarios for a Good Life — An Energy Perspective 1 Mar 2016

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How can we address the two moral imperatives of our age — enabling development and safeguarding the environment? In this event, David Hone, the Climate Change Advisor of Shell shared about Shell's Scenario Planning and how it can be used to navigate these challenges in an uncertain and volatile world.

David Hone — Climate Change Advisor, Shell

Infrastructure in the UK 17 Feb 2016 Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon was part of the delegation participating in the Singapore Airshow Aviation Leadership Summit, as well as meetings with Singapore and regional counterparts, which were held in conjunction with the Singapore Airshow 2016.

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During his visit to Singapore, he delivered a talk to BritCham members and guests in the form of a Breakfast Club on infrastructure in the UK. Lord Ahmad gave a breakdown of the investment strategy.

The session ended with an engaging Q&A session with members.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister for Transport

The BritCham Breakfast Club is proudly sponsored by:

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At the Chamber: Breakfast Club

Marketing Lessons — Clients v.s Agencies 15 Mar 2016

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In this session, two leading marketers in Singapore, Rod Strother (StarHub/ Lenovo) and Andrea Edwards (Novus Asia/Microsoft) shared their unique experiences of working for large multinationals in Singapore and some of the most innovative marketing agencies.

Rod Strother — VP Digital Transformation, StarHub & Andrea Edwards - Head of Content Marketing & Training

The audience learnt: • How to work with large multinationals and agencies in Singapore • How to overcome the challenges resulting from the transition • Insights to working effectively in a multinational • What the different cultures are between the agencies and multinationals

How 4 Billion-Dollar Brands used Digital to Transform their Marketing 19 Apr 2016 In this session, our members and guests heard from Damien Cummings, one of the most influential marketing professionals in Singapore on marketing transformation and digital strategy. Damien shared about Standard Chartered's customer-centric content marketing strategy, its process and framework. He closed the session with a case study on the Philips Asia Digital Command Centre, which he worked on prior to working for Standard Chartered Bank.

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Damien Cummings — Global Head of Digital Marketing, Standard Chartered Bank

The BritCham Breakfast Club is proudly sponsored by:

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Developing Political Savvy 20 Apr 2016 All organisations are inherently political.

However, many people would rather not engage in politics at work as it often has negative connotations.

In this event, Jean Balfour introduced the importance of being politically savvy and its importance in enhancing both workplace performance and career prospects.

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Jean Balfour — Director, Bailey Balfour

Diversity Sponsor:

Women in Tech: Addressing the Gender Gap 26 April 2016 In this interactive session, a panel of leaders from the IT industry shared their stories, insights, and experiences and offered practical and pragmatic solutions to encourage greater female inclusion in the technology organisation.

From left to right Dr Tanvi Gautam - Programme Director, Women and Leadership Programme, SMU Rebecca Craig - Head of Consulting, LinkedIn Asia Pacific Michelle Simmons - General Manager, Microsoft South-East Asia New Markets Anneliese Olson - Vice President and General Manager of PC & Tablets, HP Asia-Pacific & Japan

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The BritCham Breakfast Club is proudly sponsored by:

Angelo Roxas - Chief Operating Officer, APAC Technology and Operations Technology, Barclays Capital

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At the Chamber: Evening Presenatation

Men Making Equality Real 8 Mar 2016 On the 8th March, the British Chamber of Commerce Women in Business Group held an International Women’s Day celebration focusing on “Men Making Equality Real”. The event was sponsored and hosted by Barclays and moderated by the professional BBC journalist and broadcaster Ali Moore, an audience of 120 from across industries came together to show support for Gender Equality. The focus of the event was to shine a light on what actions can be taken, especially by men, in order to achieve gender equality in business — and with 40% of the audience being male the event looked set to hit the mark intended. The panel consisted of male diversity champions from the consulting and Oil and Gas industries, a male stay at home dad, and a female diplomat.

The discussion kicked off by acknowledging that in Singapore cultural and societal issues play a strong part in gender role definitions, however, there should be more done to achieve gender equality. The facts show the correlation between more women in senior management — the more productive the performance of the company. Panellists shared their stories on what they were doing to move the dial — for example introducing flexibility into employees’ contracts to retain talent whilst on parental leave, or advertising jobs as “part time or full time — to be discussed on application”. Some great points were made such as “Men having flexibility gives more flexibility to females” and examples of where Corporates are laying out diversity targets as part of their performance plans to drive gender equality. It was noted some sectors such as shipping (captains) , air travel (pilots) are successfully targeting and filling roles traditionally held by men with females. All noted further work needs to be done to support “returns” i.e. those who have taken time out on maternity or paternity.

The discussion turned to the topic on behaviours and unconscious bias, and how language can influence bias, especially in hiring. Men should also be aware of unconscious bias in their homes and how they ensure that there is a level playing field at home with their daughters, ensuring that they have the same opportunities as would their sons — such as playing in the ice hockey team. There was mention of the “boys club” with reference to hiring and promotion and how that needs to change. Authenticity was highlighted as key to leadership, with panellists stressing that women should not try to act like men as it’s important to value and leverage differing styles and perspectives to realise the benefits of diversity. People agreed cultural issues and deep rooted family beliefs have a significant influence on behaviours, and even the Deputy High Commissioner’s stay at home husband is still seen as ‘the boss’ by her children, however there was some optimism about the generational changes in perceptions of equity and non-gender-specific expectations around workplace flexibility associated with the Millennial generation.

to ensure we treat the same behaviour traits equitably when shown by males and females in teams (for example a style or behaviour being associated with ‘leadership’ in one gender may be viewed as ‘aggressive’ in another). The discussion turned to a close with the panellists and presenters pledging action from committing to understand more about the issue, addressing specific barriers or issues they are experiencing with regard to accelerating parity for women in the work place, and to further building the support of men in championing the women’s agenda.

The buzz in the room for the post event networking was infectious with many of the participants wanting to discuss the topic more and make connections with other across industries to leverage best practice and diverse approaches.

Some challenging questions were posed to the panel from the audience, including how

Visit Pledge for Parity and He for She to sound your voice, and commit to action.

Overall the discussion was very lively, honest and engaging, and left the panellists and the audience with plenty of food for thought on actioning change.

Have you committed to playing a role in accelerating gender parity?

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From left to right Moderator: Ali Moore – Journalist and Broadcaster Speakers: Alexander Nicolaus – Executive Search Leader, Accenture Daniel Bell – Recruitment Consultant and Primary Family Carer Jonathan Wright – Asia-Pacific Advisory Centre Lead & a Diversity Champion, EY Terry Yuen – Regional Head of Tax for Asia Pacific and Head of Country, BP

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Diversity Sponsor:

Alexandra E. McKenzie – Deputy High Commissioner and Political Counsellor, British High Commission Singapore

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At the Chamber: Evening Presenatation

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Technology and SMEs — the Good, the Bad and the Ugly 22 Mar 2016 In this interactive panel discussion, three local SMEs owners shared their own technology journey — “warts and all” — and offered highly practical, pragmatic advice on how to successfully use technology to move the audience's business to the next level.

Speakers: Simon IIsley — CEO and Founder, Codesteam Nathalie Benzing — COO, TradeGecko Peter Jackson — CEO, Lockton Companies Singapore Moderator: Chris Reed — Founder and CEO, Black Marketing

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Title Sponsor:

Venue sponsor:

Predicting Brexit, the Next US President, and How Markets Will be Affected 27 April 2016 Stephan Shakespeare — Founder and CEO, YouGov

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Stanford Professor Doug Rivers — Chief Scientist, YouGov

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In this evening session, members and guests gained insights on the two most important political contests to affect the future of commerce. The speakers provided the audience a deeper view of voters that also helped them understand the changing market conditions that will shape our economic future.

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An Evening With H.E. Scott Wightman — What I Have Learned About Leadership 25 Feb 2016 The YBC Mentor Series brings young professionals and top leaders together to network, be inspired and gain insights into achieving career success in a small and informal setting.

In this first YBC Mentor Series of the year, Scott shared his lessons in leadership in his various roles and postings in the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the last 30 years. The event ended with a time of networking among members and guests. We thank the High Commissioner for his time and valuable insights.

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H.E. Scott Wightman — British High Commissioner to Singapore

At the Chamber: YBC Mentor Series

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