ScandAsia Singapore - January 2017

JAN 2017

Fredrik Härén’s Inspirational speech:

‘I feel like Swedish tonight’

BUSINESS

PEOPLE

COMMUNITY

CELEBRATIONS

Universum’s employer branding

Peter Arnoldi of Executives’ Global Network

Changes at Swedish Church

Finland 100 years in 2017

STATE OF THE HEART

LEARNING FOR THE NEXT

GENERATION

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Denmark holds ‘Elderly friendly societies by design’ forum Text by Johannes Kjems + Embassy of Denmark, Singapore Photos: Retouched Photography

17 JAN 20

Past Events

Härén’s : Fredriktional speech Inspira

ke ‘I feel li h tonight’ Swedis UNITY COMM ESS BUSIN

m’s Universu r branding employe

PEOPLE

oldi of Peter Arn s’ Global Executivek Networ

at Changes Church Swedish

S ATION CELEBR year s 100 Finland in 2017

Your FREE ScandAsia Magazine in Singapore

O

n 15 November the Embassy of Denmark in Singapore arranged the event on Elderly friendly societies by Design - a Singapore-Denmark dialogue forum, intended to exchange views on how to design elderly friendly societies.

A panel of distinguished speakers from agencies including Singapore’s Housing and Development Board and People’s Association, as well as the Danish Municipalities of Aalborg and FaaborgMidtfyn, shared their perspectives on the trends and challenges of smart design, active ageing, and initiatives on ageing in place.

CEO & Founder of Eskild Hansen Design Studio in Denmark, Eskild Hansen, went on stage to talk about new technology and product designs aimed at helping elders. He showcased an interesting new collaboration project with Silicon Valley - an intelligent hospital bed with advanced sensory technology that can improve the care and dignity of those hospitalised.

Deputy Director of Singapore’s Housing and Development Board, Lee-Loy Kwee Wah, spoke about some of the new initiatives they are taking to make public homes friendlier to elders. This includes handlebars all over the apartment, switch operated clothing racks and beautiful recreational outside areas.

Progressive initiatives by the ‘Nursing Home of the Future’ in Denmark were amongst the key eldercare innovations presented. Eldercare solutions are co-created by public and private stakeholders in Denmark that involves the elderly in the consultative process. This is an important aspect of the Danish healthcare model where concepts and solutions are tried and tested by the elderly themselves. Aside the Nursing Home of the Future project in Aalborg development of assistive technologies in Living Laboratories found in many Danish municipalities were other examples.

The world is undergoing a demographical shift towards lower birth rates and longer life spans.

In Denmark, one out of every four persons will be aged above 65 by 2040. Singapore, on the other hand, will reach this threshold by 2030.

Both societies have already begun to rethink active ageing by investing in social innovation and technologies that enable the elderly to stay independent in their own homes and maintain a good quality of life.

Facilities and services in the cities are being redesigned to cater to the demographic shift, with the focus moving from looking at ageing as a nursing concept, to empowering elderly citizens to live dignified lives in inclusive societies.

These platforms have allowed Denmark to achieve significant healthcare savings and greater efficiency in the deployment of healthcare professionals.They also serve as effective test beds for caregiver training, providing valuable insights for the screening of technologies and offering new ways of initiating dialogues with elderly citizens.

“Singapore is a small, open and advanced economy like Denmark. We face many similar challenges, so it makes sense for us to partner and share solutions, like creating inclusive and liveable cities for all ages. Through this dialogue, we aim to contribute to the conversations on active ageing in Singapore, explore opportunities for collaboration, and hopefully co-create outcomes that could benefit societies,” said H.E. Dorte Bech Vizard, Danish Ambassador to Singapore.

“Ageing is a challenge for many cities around the world. Although Singapore is early in her journey to prepare for an ageing population, we have a shor t runway. I am confident that the discussions and sharing will spur innovation and spark ideas for us to help a growing population around the world to age well and age happily” said Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Heng Chee How.

ScandAsia is the only magazine that covers all the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish residents in Singapore.

We also publish a ScandAsia magazine in China, Thailand, and the rest of South East Asia.

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January 2016

ScandAsia Community 5 6 7

Singapore’s Nobel dinner Swedish Church changes Finland kicks off Suomi Finland 100

3 Singapore-Denmark dialogue forum

Elderly friendly societies by Design

8 Fredrik Härén ‘Inspirational Speaker’

5

ScandAsia Business 17 Singapore Airlines

New route to Stockholm in 2017

18 Bibliotek online store Scandinavian interior design on the web in Singapore

11 Mr. Joakim Ström

6

Universum’s employer branding in SEA

7 14 Mr. Peter Arnoldi

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4 ScandAsia.Singapore • January 2017

Community

Singapore’s Nobel Prize dinner

O

nce again, Embassy of Sweden, Singapore hosted the annual Nobel Prize dinner, held at the residence in early Deceber

2016.

People from the academics including researchers and professors were invited at this special event to highlight and celebrate the Nobel laureates and the impor tant discoveries and achievements that have been awarded. Each laureate was introduced by someone from the academia to explain each Nobel Prize 2016.

The official Nobel Prize Award Ceremony takes place in Stockholm on the 10th of December.

The tradition is that King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden is handing over all the Prizes except from the Peace Prize which is handed over in Oslo.The Nobel Prize Laureates usually give lectures about their findings and achievements in connection with the Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies.

Source: Embassy of Sweden, Singapore

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January 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 5

Community

Swedish Church to reduce their work in Singapore

by Maria Jønsson

T

he Swedish Church in Singapore will be reducing their presence in the country from the beginning of 2017. For the past two years, the Swedish and the Norwegian Churches Abroad have had a co-operation in Singapore.

But now, the Church of Sweden Abroad have seen that they have to look through the forms for the co-operation between them and the Norwegian Church Abroad. According to Klas Hansson, head of the foreign operations in Sweden, there has been some structural problems that they would like to solve before sending staff to Singapore again.

“We have for some time seen that the forms of our collaboration in Singapore with Sjømannskirken has not given us enough good conditions to reach and be there for the Swedes who live there,” Klas Hansson writes in a letter explaining the decision.

“I hope that we can come to a common understanding regarding the cooperation in the beginning of 2017,” Klas Hansson says, explaining that the transition is handled by the head offices in Uppsala and Bergen.

Angelica Lundberg, the Swedish priest in Singapore, will finish her service in early 2017 where she will return to Sweden with new tasks in the Swedish Church waiting for her. After Angelica, the Swedish Church Abroad will not recruit an immediate successor. This means that there will not be any Swedish priest in Singapore when entering the new year.

“The Swedish work [in Singapore] will of course be reduced during the period when Swedish staff is lacking. But the confirmation

class will continue with Swedish staff during spring,” Klas Hansson says, explaining that they have had reactions from a lot of Swedes in Singapore pointing out the importance of the Swedish work.

Jaan’s chef winner of Otto Weibel & Norwegian Salmon Young Chefs Competition 2016

2

8-year-old Chef Neo Poh Boon from Jaan has emerged the winner of the 6th Otto Weibel & Norwegian Salmon Young Chefs Competition, which saw 15 young chefs from Singapore’s top restaurants pitting their culinary skills in an intense three-hour cook-off on19 November.

Wowing the judges with his impressive spread of Norwegian Seafood dishes, Chef Poh Boon won a one-week internship tour to Norway, where he will get the chance to not only work directly under one of Norway’s celebrated 6 ScandAsia.Singapore • January 2017

Michelin-starred chefs, but also to get up close to Norwegian aquaculture practices with visits to breath-taking Fjords to witness salmon farming in the cold, clear waters of Norway.

Chef Poh Boon’s creations exemplified the culinary versatility of fresh Norwegian seafood and complemented the seafood with a creative play on ingredients.

The contestants, all below the age of 32, hail from reputable leading restaurants across Singapore.

“Congratulations to Chef Poh Boon, who has

certainly demonstrated not only great skill, but also a remarkable understanding of presenting fresh Norwegian produce in his winning dishes, and we look forward to broadening his culinary horizons with the exciting activities we have lined up for the trip to Norway,” said Mr Jon Erik Steenslid, Regional Director of Southeast Asia, Norwegian Seafood Council, one of the judges present at the competition.

“My deepest appreciation to all the finalists for their hard work, as well as their employers for recognising the importance of allowing their young talents to step up and participate in this competition,” he added.

The competition was stablished by the Norwegian Seafood Council in the name of Chef Otto Weibel to honour his tireless work in mentoring young culinary talents.

Source: Norwegian Seafood Council

Community

Finns kick off 100 years of independence celebrations Photos courtesy of Marica Salokangas.

O

n Friday 18 November the Suomi Finland 100 Singapore (SF100SG) programme kicked off at the residence of the Finnish Ambassador Paula Parviainen, with other Nordic ambassadors in attendance.

Also media and company representatives, event organisers and several friends of Finland joined to hear about SF100SG, while sampling a truly Finnish food experience brought to the tropics by culinary ambassadors Helena SaineLaitinen and Marita Joutjärvi.

The SF100/Suomi Finland 100 Singapore is the campaign to mark Finland’s 100 years as an independent nation. Around the world to events will be held by Finnish Embassies, Finns living abroad, Finnish companies and local partners.

The aim of SF100SG is to strengthen the ties between Singapore and Finland in business, investments, education, travel and culture.

Ambassador Paula Parviainen presented the key themes around which the SF100SG programme has been designed: healthcare and wellbeing, education, innovation and design, relevant themes both to Singaporean and Finnish people.

Recognizing the impact of an ageing population, the importance of technology and digitization to Singaporean’s everyday lives, and the investment opportunities in Singapore’s startup culture, SF100 aims to embrace these issues and reinforce the synergies between the two countries.

“We’re excited to be following in Singapore’s footsteps after the tremendous SG50 celebrations last year. 2017 will see Finland celebrate a century of independence and continuous democracy and the programme in Singapore aims to strengthen ties between Singaporeans and Finns in business, investments, travel and culture,” said the Ambassador of Finland, Singapore HE Paula Parviainen.

“It will be a year when “Arctic meets Tropic” in many ways. We see many similarities between our two countries, most notably our population sizes, rapidly ageing population, excellence in education and design embedded in everything - both Helsinki and Singapore are recognised UNESCO cities of design - and hope SF100 will provide a successful platform for collaboration around our core themes and calendar of events.”

SF100SG has over thirty events planned for 2017.

Highlights include: 15th - 20th January, Global Young Scientist Summit GYSS March Inclusive Service Design for Health SF100 organizes a collection of design activities and workshops for design professionals and industry representatives in conjunction with the Singapore Design week.

25th - 27th April Ageing Asia & Ageing Week SF100 joins Ageing Asia, an annual event to promote active ageing and wellbeing of the seniors.

September SLUSH Singapore and Women in Tech

SF100 cooperates with SLUSH to bring the Finland born, Europe’s biggest star t up event SLUSH to Singapore for a second year in a row.

Women in Tech inspires more women to be tech founders and entrepreneurs and encourages more girls to the STEMs. September Education summit Insights into the 21st century skills required by children of today and how to remain relevant for jobs of tomorrow – a Finnish perspective.

12 - 15th October Finnish Film Festival at Projector

December 6th, 2017 Grand celebration of Independence brings together all friends of Finland in Singapore.

The programme is available on the dedicated website www.sf100.sg Corporate partners play a major role in making next year’s story a successful one.

“Abloy is looking to increase its brand and solutions offering awareness in Singapore and South East Asia. SF100 Singapore provides us the means to be visible through continuous flow of events during the 2017”, says Abloy Asia General Manager Pauli Jormanainen.

November- December Thematic Finland Fridays Organized at “Huone”, a Finnish event rooms-only hotel concept at Clarke Quay.

January 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 7

Business

Inspirational speaker Fredrik Härén: ‘I feel like Swedish tonight’ Almost in its entirety Mr Fredrik Härén’s fabulous speech as ’Inspirational speaker’ at the Sweden-Southeast Asia Business Summit 2016 is here shared with ScandAsia’s readers. The SwedishSingapore resident and author of nine books, including ‘The Idea Book’, spoke at the gala dinner, on the need for innovation and why Sweden is so good at it, and about communality between creativity in Sweden and in Singapore.

8 ScandAsia.Singapore • January 2017

F

redrik Härén began by going back to when the mass emigration to the United States took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries during which about 1.3 million left Sweden...

“However, hundreds of thousands of people who didn’t want any change whatsoever the stayed home.

‘Even if I’m starving to death, I’m going stay right here,’ they said.

How on earth can a country based on people who don’t want change a hundred years late be one of the most innovative countries in the world?

This is a mystery. But people ask me this question I tell them: ‘Don’t be fooled by the average Swede!’

The average is someone who doesn’t like change, who likes rules and everything to be the same.

It is not the average Swede who is creative; it’s the outliers!

A few people who can leave their country where everyone wants to be the same and can still say: ‘I’m going to be different.’ If you can be creative in a country where everyone wants everything to be the same then you become super strong - and creative.

But that’s not the true story; the true story is I actually truly believe that Swedes are creative.

But this is a Swedish Southeast Summit, so I thought if you’re going to talk about Swedish creativity, we have to look at what are the similarities between us, the Swedes and Southeast Asia. Maybe there are some similarities in creativity?

The problem is that when we talk about Southeast Asia, when we talk about creativity we tend to talk about it not being here.

Many have been talking today about how Southeast Asia has a reputation of being and uncreative part of the world, but how that might be wrong by looking at it in the wrong way. The problem for the people here in Southeast Asia is that they themselves tend to look at it that way; they tend to believe themselves that they are not creative.

In Sweden, if you ask them if they think they are creative, they will answer: “Yes, we think we are.”

You go to America - every American think they are creative. In most Southeast Asian countries less than fifty per cent will raise their hands and think they are creative. It’s a problem in this part of the world. And nowhere is it a bigger problem than in Singapore - because Singapore is the country with the lowest level of creative confidence. Just 20 per cent of Singaporeans will raise their hands and say that they are creative. 20 per cent. That makes them second worst country in the world.

In Singapore they respond: ‘Yes, we’re number two.’ Singapore is obsessed with being number one, it doesn’t matter if it’s from the bottom!

In a way, just like in Sweden, Singapore is a country that is stuck on rules, and stuck on doing things the right way. That is why Swedes feel comfortable when they come to Singapore. We like rules and we like to follow things in a way.

In an apartment building where they had a playground they had a sign that sat there for eight years and no one said something. The sign said, on the playground: ‘No running or playing allowed’!

Welcome to Singapore.

Why living in Singapore? My kids are born in Singapore, and I raised my kids in Singapore because I think Singapore is the best country to live if you want to be a creative person!

They say to me: ‘You only say that to get PR.’ But I truly believe that it is, because Singapore is a creative place!

Singapore is actually number six on the same list that we were number two on [Global Innovation Index 2016]; so there are statistics.

They are highly intelligent, highly creative people. And the most creative part of Singapore is the way that the Government of Singapore is run. People say: ‘That does not count, show me the company.’

I think it does count; as we heard over and over again is that the governments here are saying: “We are going to play a role in making this part of the world creative, by being flexible and change our legislations to what needs to be done. And this is what Singapore does; it makes it extremely easy to run a company here.

If that is not creative, I don’t know what is! And Singapore is creative.

So, I will tell you why I live in Singapore and why I think it’s the best place to live. Because Singapore is mixed, especially in this world we’re living in now where things are becoming more less about being

global, and more about nationalistic: Brexit, Donald Trump…

Singapore is a mix of all different countries, and all different religions. 40 per cent people living here are foreigners, 50 per cent of people who work here are foreigners. And it works brilliantly.

Of course there are small tensions between people as everywhere, but it works. And what makes Singapore so fascinating is that they have Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, Muslim, Singaporean culture and you combine all of that into Singapore.

But they also have the western culture; they have the British heritage. Of course they have the American, and if you combine that, they tend to feast on different parts of that the world.

They take other things and learn and combine those things.

In a way that is very difficult to find somewhere else.

N.Y is the capital of the world? It is not; it’s a global city inside America. London is a global city inside the U.K But Singapore is a global city inside what? Singapore! It’s just a global city - that’s it! And that’s what makes it so fascinating and that’s what connects us back to Sweden.

Here is the connection: What does it mean to be creative like Sweden? I thought a lot about it and then suddenly two years ago I was invited give a speech for the national team of cooking in Sweden.

Have you heard of the Culinary Olympics, where nations compete on which country has the best chefs in the world? And the Swedes do know this, but a non-Swede may not know it: Sweden, again, tend to win.We tend to be number one, two, three, or ten - always in the top!

How is this possible? As a Swede, have you ever asked yourself; how on earth is this possible!?

We are a country of ten million.We are competing with India, population of 1 billion, and China 1.3 billion… more importantly: we are not famous for any food at all! For the non-Swedes here: when is the last time you said to your loved one: ‘Honey, I feel like Swedish tonight.’ No: ‘I feel like Thai tonight, Japanese, Italian...’ But you will never say: ‘I feel like Swedish tonight.’ That won’t happen.

Here’s for the Swedes: this is going to be the most depressing part of this evening; I’m going to ask the non-Swedes here: if I say ‘Swedish food’ – what gets into your head? What did you think about? Exactly, Swedish meatballs! If Ikea is here, don’t be insulted; but we are famous for one thing; cheap meatballs in a furniture store!

‘How can a nation of ten million people famous for cheap meatballs in a furniture store beat food giants like Italy?’ I asked them. ‘Tell me, how is it possible?’ They said: ‘All the French chefs think that French cuisine is fantastic. Everyone knows it, French cuisine is the best in the world.’ So from the French chefs we learn everything we can about French cooking. But in Italy none really likes French food. ‘It’s just snobby. But everything likes Italian.

So the Italian food must be the best in the world.’

But the Japanese say: ‘Yes, everyone likes Italian, everyone also likes Japanese food and the quality of Japanese food is just better than Italian food; it’s just much more… expertise! It takes seven years to become a sushi master chef. It takes two days to learn how to cook pasta.’ So the Japanese knows that Japanese food is the best in the world.

But the Swedish chefs know that the Swedish food is not the best in the world, so they leave

I tell them: ‘Don’t be fooled by the average Swede!’ The average is someone who doesn’t like change, who likes rules and everything to be the same.

January 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 9

Business

Singapore is a country that is stuck on rules, and stuck on doing things the right way. That is why Swedes feel comfortable when they come to Singapore. We like rules and we like to follow things in a way

Sweden. And, as they told me: We go to France and we work in a three star Michelin restaurant for six months and we learn everything we can about French cuisine. Then we go to Italy and work in a five star hotel and learn everything we can about cooking pasta. Then we go to Japan, and we work for seven months, not seven years, and learn as much as we can about making Sushi, an then we go back to Sweden and learn everything we can about meatballs. And then… we go to the food Olympics, and we do herring sashimi with lingonberry pasta.

And we win!’

That is communality between creativity in Sweden and in Singapore; this ability to go around the world and look for the best ideas. There are those famous Swedish companies that were started a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago.

How could we have these innovative companies?

Well, the founder of Ericsson, he went to America and saw the telephone. And he went back to Sweden and he started Ericsson and hired all those Swedes who didn’t want to invent anything but just a stable job!

Volvo went to America, saw the car, went back to Sweden and started a car company. Alfred Nobel left Sweden when he was nine years old, and travelled around the world. Alfred Nobel, the most creative Swede that we’ve had, not because he lived in Sweden, not because he was born in Sweden, but because he left Sweden!

And Sweden is perfect with this; you cannot fill up with ideas from the rest of the world unless you realise that someone, somewhere else might 10 ScandAsia.Singapore • January 2017

have something to teach you. And the bigger the egos are, there more blind they are to the fact that great ideas might be somewhere else. That is the communality between Singapore and Sweden, we don’t have those egos; we will happily learn from someone else.

If you tell the American: ‘I think you are unAmerican’, they will be personally insulted. If you are telling a Chinese: ‘I don’t think you are Chinese.

They don’t understand what you are saying. If you say to a French:‘You are un-French’, they will hit you in the face. But if you say to a Swede: ‘I think you are un-Swedish.’You know what we say? ‘Thank you very much!’ It’s a complement!

[There is a] difference between looking at the world from your country and thinking: ‘What we do here is the best,’ or thinking: ‘I’m going to take the best ideas I can from anywhere in the world and I’m going to implement those ideas.’

I’m going to end with a word, it’s not a Swedish world, though we have a similar word in Swedish.

It is an Icelandic word, and my favourite word of all the words that I know. Because the cool thing with Icelandic language is that it is the same language that the Vikings spoke. If you speak Icelandic, you can go back and read a thousand years old book.

Heimskur.

A thousand years ago if you were an Icelandic Viking you were supposed to build a ship, rent some men and sail south, sail down to Scotland, to Norway, Germany,Turkey etc, - and you should steal.

As much as you could; cows, weapons and gold… whatever you could. But most importantly: you

should steal ideas. How do they make weapons in Turkey, how do they farm in Denmark? You would go around the world and pick up the best ideas that you coul and you bring them back to your farm. If you didn’t do that, you were a heimskur.

Heimskur means: moron, stupid person. I think we might have the same in Swedish: ‘hämmad’. If you just stay hemma you become hämmad. And the opposite of that is a person who is open to ideas regardless of where we happen to be in the world right now, and this is not an Asia century, this is the global century, where people are inventing things everywhere, from the digital payments in the Philippines to mobile advertising in Indonesia, to new global standards for internet in India - all over the world people are innovating. And the people who have the possibility to look at ideas anywhere in the world and pick up those ideas, those will be the winners. Those who don’t do that they will be heimskurs and Swedes are the best in the west to do this and Singapore is the best in the east to do that. So let’s join together and talk between our two countries and pick up ideas from each other – that’s the purpose of this conference.”

Business

Companies are beginning to wake up and realise that it is extremely difficult to attract, recruit, and retain talent

Southeast Asia

is in need of employer branding!

By Joakim Persson

B

anks, for instance, have an increasing need to hire talent with IT skills (the type of talent who does not traditionally view them as an attractive employer). And most companies need to find ways to attract different target groups such as millennials and Generation Z, in addition to speaking to the particular needs of various nationalities/cultures. Then employer branding comes into play.

The Swedish company Universum have become world-leading experts in the field of employer branding, knowing everything there is to understand about talent and their preferences in terms of where they want to work, why, and how they choose their ideal employers.

Universum is seeing strong growth in the demand for their services across APAC including

Southeast Asia.That is why Universum decided to heavily invest in region and appoint Joakim Ström as the CEO of APAC. Joakim has clocked up a total of 13 years in Singapore during three different time periods, where he has spent the last five years with Universum. After his Masters studies, Joakim started a management consultancy business and was then headhunted by Universum to work directly with their CEO before being sent to run the Asian region.

“Our CEO decided to decentralise the organization five years ago to secure a more local and agile approach in terms of market penetration. We decided to move many of the core functions from the head quarter to the local offices including Singapore and Shanghai. We have since then grown our business by almost

800 per cent in Asia where Southeast Asia is the main growth contributor. It is really happening here now; companies are beginning to wake up and realise that it is extremely difficult to attract, recruit, and retain talent. The talent market is nowadays very competitive and we are one of the few companies that can help organizations adapt their communication and make them understand what they must do,” says Joakim.

Universum was star ted 28 years ago in Stockholm, Sweden and has since then grown into a global business, covering over 60 markets with physical presence in twenty.

“We started conducting a syndicated student sur vey in Sweden, then Scandinavia, Europe, US and finally Asia. Universum opened its first office in Shanghai almost 15 years ago when many European and American clients wanted to January 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 11

Busniess

The more mature companies see employer branding as a more holistic initiative and an opportunity to impact their long-term business success

12 ScandAsia.Singapore • January 2017

understand the preferences of Chinese talent,” Joakim relates.

Universum is considered to be the pioneer within employer branding and there are not many established players in this field. “So we have a first mover advantage and companies who want to build a solid employer brand will first and foremost come to us.” Joakim says.

Universum has formed strategic partnerships with over 2000 universities across the world which enables them to gather respondents for their surveys. In turn universities get to understand best practices when interacting with employers, offering career advice for their students, and getting access to detailed data on how their students perceive top employers and what they are looking for in their future careers.

From these large university student surveys, companies can get an indication of their popularity and the perception of them as employers as well as benchmarking against the competition. Today, Universum possess the largest perception-related data-set in the world on career-seekers.

“The student surveys are still part of our backbone and an important component. However, our portfolio has quickly evolved and we are now also providing companies with employer branding related consultancy and activation services. Our fastest growing revenue stream comes from the latter, where we help companies to execute their

employer branding strategies in the most effective channels,” Joakim explains.

Universum’s approach to strategic employer br anding include: 1) How a company’s organizational purpose and objectives impact their talent needs. For instance the digitalisation of businesses is pushing the need to recruit new type of talent, such as programmers, developers, etc. 2) Talent and market insights:What are the key talent career drivers and how do those align with the perceptions of your organization and talent competitors? 3) Employee insight: What are your current engagement drivers and key potential strengths and differentiators as an employer? 4) Generating an employer value proposition with USP:s that are attractive, credible, true, distinct and sustainable 5) Formulate a data-led and targeted communication strategy 6) Activate your employer brand with the ambition to engage with the right talent for your organization 7) Measure the impact of your activities and make sure all your KPIs are reached.

Apar t from running annual syndicated surveys, Universum is also conducting a lot of customised quantitate and qualitative research that includes insights on existing employees (through employee interviews, focus groups etc.)

“What’s quite important and something that many companies tend to forget is: if one focuses too much on short-term recruitment needs one

Joakim believes that it pays off to focus on aspects of employer branding that appeal to Millennials and have a targeted approach

goes out and focus on being attractive only for those on the outside and might forget what’s the truth/reality on the inside. We think that in order to build a strong employer brand one must look at it both internally and externally.”

Many companies view this type of branding as recruitment marketing towards young talent, as in when a company needs to recruit x number of new employees and wants a recruitment driven campaign linked to that.

“But the more mature companies see employer branding as a more holistic initiative and an opportunity to impact their long-term business success. Even if they are not planning to expand its workforce, they still want to make sure they are an attractive employer and secure a healthy talent pipeline for future needs.”

“Also, many companies have a very traditional way of recruiting and tend to only look at numbers (i.e. try to get as many applications as possible).

Today it does not work like that; it is not about quantity anymore. It is all about getting the right talent who wants to join an organization for the right reasons – it is better to get two CVs that are spot-on than to get 2000 unsuitable CVs.” “But many companies are desperate and try to be everything for everyone. One tries to talk only about what one is good at and don’t dare to bring up the negatives – and get applications accordingly. But eventually you have to spend a

lot of time in filtering out the right talent and you will probably see a negative effect on engagement levels ones the new employee realises all the flaws on the inside.”

“According to us, if you work strategically with your employer brand, you do that filtration right away. If you cannot offer exactly what talent wants such as work-life balance, you should then focus your communication around what you CAN offer and turn to those interested in that,” concludes Joakim.

As mentioned, Univer sum also assists comprehensively when it comes to the activation stage; to push out the right message, based on talent insights, to the right target group, and via the right channels.

“It is really important that the message feels authentic, and speaks to the receiver also in terms of culture. The receiver must be able to recognise herself/himself. Universum use a lot of content marketing when crafting messages for their clients, where they primarily use authentic stories from employees aligned to the company’s value proposition.”

“One size does not fit all, not even within Southeast Asia: Malaysia is different compared to Vietnam and Thailand etc., and many companies forget that; thinking they can use one and the same strategy for all target groups within Asia.

That won’t work!”

An example of a target group is the Millennials (and Generation Z next in line). Universum has followed this generation for a long time and is constantly trying to help organizations to understand what Millennials want in their career. Joakim believes that it pays off to focus on aspects of employer branding that appeal to Millennials and have a targeted approach in terms of attracting, recruiting and retaining them.

To help ‘understanding this misunderstood generation’ Universum, together with INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute and the HEAD Foundation, in 2014 launched the first global survey of how millennial attitudes and actions vary across the globe.

“We even arrange workshops with employers and their Millennials to make them understand each other and address potential misperceptions.”

“McKinsey started to talk about the war for talent a decade ago.We at Universum believe that the war is over and that talent won. It is therefore crucial for companies to move away from a ‘weknow-it-all’ attitude and adopt an insight-driven talent centric approach when it comes to talent acquisition.”

January 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 13

Business

Executives’ Global Network for personal development via knowledge sharing

By Joakim Persson

D

anish-founded Executives’ Global Network (EGN) is an independent and unique knowledge-sharing Peer Group Network currently expanding to more countries in Southeast Asia to widen its reach further.

It’s lonely at the top. Most employees have others in the workplace that they can turn to for advice, feedback and / or companionship.

Leaders, on the other hand, have fewer people to turn to when things get tough and those who sit above them in the corporate or organizational food chain (such as the chairman of the board) are also not the ones to whom they want to display weakness or vulnerability.

Where and when do you actually get the luxury and valuable oppor tunity to both get coaching and being challenged by peers with no other interest than giving you qualified advice?

Where can you get hands-on insights across fields, industries and borders which you can immediately implement?

Those of you still looking for such a setting going way beyond what the traditional chamber of commerce networking model usually offers and as an alternative to hiring consultants – should pay attention!

Peter Arnoldi, the Chief Executive Officer of EGN South East Asia, guides us to what this network is all about.

Well-matched senior leaders Launched in 1992 in Denmark and present in Asia since 2008, Executives Global Network is one of the largest global professional networks with 14,000 Directors and Executives from over 7,000 companies in more than 700 confidential network groups. Their groups are made up of 14 ScandAsia.Singapore • January 2017

25-30 business peers who confidentially inspire, develop and qualify the decisions and actions implemented in par ticipant companies. The groups bring well matched senior leaders to network, share knowledge and discuss topical issues affecting their function in the region today.

Between group meetings, members are invited to workshops and after work hours’ events and have access to EGN online tools, where members can get access to immediate help, assistance or support from peers and experts from all over the world. EGN’s member website is the largest knowledge base for executives, managers and specialists.

Introducing himself Peter has a professional background that includes Asia. With university degrees in marketing and management he has more than 10 years of international leadership experience from leading companies like CocaCola, Carlsberg etc. and has managed staff and done business in over 20 countries.

“I started my career in Carlsberg here in Asia, for one of their breweries in Vietnam, appointed in 2006 for three years as Deputy General Director. Later I was headhunted to EGN and went back to Denmark for one year in 2011 and worked with business development and headed EGN for Europe. Then I took the responsibility for Norway, U.K and Holland as a GM for the sales operations. Subsequently I was appointed as Regional CEO to develop EGN Asia. In a longterm perspective I think their idea was to use my Asian experience,” says the Dane.

As for the origins of EGN as such this actually dates back to the pre-Internet era in 1992, when a CFO in a medium-sized Danish company found himself in a situation with a shortage of peers whom he could ask for advice.

“Our founder Jørgen Galsgaard, the CFO was also appointed to be responsible for the IT department. He didn’t know anything about IT at that time and started writing 100 letters to other CFOs in Denmark, describing his situation and the issues he had with regards to IT, wondering if someone was able to help him,” explains Peter.

He then got answers back from other CFOs who said they were or had been in the same situation and what measures they had taken.

That prompted him and his wife Jeanette to star t a professional network for financial and accounting officers in the Danish business community.

“In the first year it operated like that; knowledge sharing via letter correspondence.”

Then, seeing the demand, they star ted another a network for IT and gradually in the late 1990s also for logistics, purchasing, sales & marketing and management development.

“In 2004 our 50-per-cent shareholder Jens Erik Karlskov Jensen joined, and they together took the company into the next level, starting networks for senior executives and board members. Networks were also established for executive talent and young managers.”

And since the first network was launched outside Denmark in 2007 it has grown into what EGN is today; with network groups in 14 countries, with Vietnam added recently and Thailand in the works for 2017.

And not only that, business executives throughout the world can through the network contact, share knowledge and draw on the expertise of one another – whenever a need

occurs (actively selling is not allowed but buying is).

“In addition to being par t of the global networ k, EGN arranges different kind of activities, ensuring that members are networking and across groups. The information and social events that are open to all members and guests.

These activities allow for many oppor tunities to develop business relationships and share knowledge.”

Safe environment Coming back to the initial questions EGN is the answer to those needs, where members get placed in a group exactly matching her or his own level and can grow with the network as their career grows.

“We make sure that all members are at the same level, sharing similar responsibilities.

At the same time we look into what kind of industries the members are from and don’t allow competitors next to each other in our groups.

So we are creating this safe environment for our members to be able to be open and vulnerable in front of other members.”

“It’s peer-to-peer advisory in a board where you sit together with the same people over many times and years, so you get to know and trust those people.This is one part of the benefits that you belong to a small, confidential forum with the likeminded.“ “This safe environment is something that our members value. And all new members are circulated to the others members of a network group, who can also veto.”

Our founder Jørgen Galsgaard, the CFO was also appointed to be responsible for the IT department. He didn’t know anything about IT at that time and started writing 100 letters to other CFOs in Denmark, describing his situation and the issues he had with regards to IT, wondering if someone was able to help him

January 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 15

Business

Tried-and-tested solutions

In 2004 our 50-per-cent shareholder Jens Erik Karlskov Jensen joined, and they together took the company into the next level, starting networks for senior executives and board members. Networks were also established for executive talent and young manager

16 ScandAsia.Singapore • January 2017

Each group meets bi-monthly individually, scheduled 12 months ahead, to discuss relevant topics and member case studies. Headed by a chair the meetings are based on specific issues and member cases.

The focus is entirely on giving members space to develop personally and as an executive.

The meetings take place during the day, because EGN regards networking as part of an executive’s professional activity. This enables everyone to keep up to date within her or his specialist field.

They bounce ideas off one another and gain inspiration. They are being challenged, while obtaining independent, well-qualified advice. And, crucially, the network is a shortcut to tried-andtested solutions.

“You can actually use your network as your consultants, so getting free advice from other CEOs or MDs of the functional group you are within. Of course, also many times avoiding the less successful things others have already done.”

“Here you are in a group where the only interest of other members is to help you, while if you share knowledge with your colleagues, especially when you are in a larger organisation, there is also some kind of political agenda and so on. If you share with friends and family they know you and many times also have some kind of agenda,” Peter emphasises.

“The main reason why members are joining our groups is basically to look into two things: They want to get help to the daily challenges and projects they are running; you can raise a question inside your group or the entire network, and get help to solve those things. And inside a group they are getting a lot of inspiration and

can learn what is going on in other industries.

Many times you can bring this knowledge back to the company, and propose to look into certain things.”

EGN has also initiated network groups for young executives and Peter says that such a group is in the pipeline for Singapore.

Diverse groups Some five per cent of the members are usually also between jobs, and they can upload their CVs and have access to a career blog. And while the company usually pays one’s membership it can be maintained during the first year of unemployment for free.

“We’re offering this because when you are losing a job is probably the best time for being in a network like this when you are searching for a new career.”

“Members’ nationalities in Singapore consists in round 50 – 60 per cent American, Australian and Europeans and the remaining, with the remaining being a mixture of Singaporean, Malay, Thai, some Chinese and so on. We are also trying to diverse the group as much as possible.”

On the question to what extent Asians are enticed by this kind of intimate network Peter replies that they many times do not join events and are not used to something like this.

“But when we get the first 2-3 members it opens up. Like now in Vietnam they need to somehow try this and then they also begin to appreciate it; if they can see the benefit of saving time, if they can see that they are getting inspiration and can learn how other industries and other CEOs are doing their task, that it is another form of learning.”

Business

Singapore Airlines launches route to Stockholm in 2017

J

ust in time for Christmas Singapore Airlines has handed the Scandinavians a nice gift: come May 2017 the airline will open its new route to Stockholm via Moscow, adding its second Scandinavian city to the network.

Subject to regulatory approvals, flights to Stockholm will be launched on 30 May 2017 and will be operated with Airbus A350-900 aircraft - the latest addition to the SIA fleet. The new flights will complement SIA’s existing flights to Copenhagen in Denmark, boosting connectivity between Southeast Asia and Northern Europe.

From 30 May, its Moscow route frequency will increase to five per week and the flights will continue on to Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport.

There also a second news connecting to Scandinavian in this announcement: Star Alliance par tner Scandinavian Airlines will codeshare on the new services. Subject to approval from competition authorities, the new services will also be included in a joint venture agreement between the two airlines that took effect in 2013 covering flights between Scandinavia and Singapore.

“We have been evaluating ser vices to Stockholm for several years and are pleased that we can now introduce services to the Swedish capital using the newest aircraft in our fleet, the Airbus A350-900. It is encouraging that our partnership with Scandinavian Airlines is going from strength to strength,” said SIA’s CEO, Mr Goh Choon Phong.

“This is another example of how together with partners we can jointly offer more travel options for our customers, bringing Southeast Asia and Scandinavia closer in addition to meeting increasing demand for travel between Southwest Pacific and Nor thern Europe. With the new services to Stockholm complementing existing flights to Copenhagen, customers will soon have the choice of two convenient gateways to explore the increasingly popular Nordic countries.”

“We look forward to develop our collaboration further with Singapore Airlines and thereby be able to offer our customers a new route to Singapore from Stockholm, and also

from there onwards into Asia, Australia and New Zealand,” said Scandinavian Airlines CEO, Mr Rickard Gustafson.

Customers will be able to enjoy SIA’s latestgeneration cabin products on the new A350-900 aircraft. This includes all-new Business, Premium Economy and Economy class seats, as well as the award-winning KrisWorld in-flight entertainment system. The aircraft are fitted with 253 seats, including 42 in Business Class, 24 in Premium Economy Class and 187 in Economy Class.

Tickets for the new Stockholm flights will be made available for sale progressively through the various distribution channels.

January 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 17

Business

Design web shop brings Scandinavian brands to Southeast Asian market

By Joakim Persson

S

ingaporean Alvin Tan has launched a design web shop that offers shipping of home accessories, furnishings and furniture items to customers in Southeast Asia, including a selection of Scandinavian brands. Applicata, Architectmade, danskina, Kvadrat, Menu, Normann Copenhagen, and Pappelina are Scandinavian brands in the selection.

The focus is set on selling a range of thoughtfully curated and well-designed items from regional and international brands, including home décor accessories, tableware, textiles, lighting and lifestyle objects (furniture limited to smaller items such as chairs for now).

The Bibliotek Design Store also has a name with a Scandinavian touch; ‘Bibliotek’, meaning Library in English.

“Just like people going to the library to find a particular book, we want anyone looking for a particular brand of home accessories or furniture to visit our web store,” said owner Alvin Tan, who left behind a career as a government officer to realise his dream project. “And even more so we wanted a term that reflects accessibility in terms of how a library allows you to access information.

Giving accessibility can be on two fronts; to let the visitor understand what brands are available and secondly to understand the inspiration behind those.”

So, this web store also allows customers to understand the story behind the products.

“We believe that for each item the designer behind it is really important. The consumer can get insider details to understand how an item is being designed, what’s the thinking behind it. Because only through that we believe the consumer will be able to fully appreciate it,” says owner Alvin.

He is not really into mass market selling and really wants to introduce things to consumers in this region. Many international brands are introduced for the consumers in the region for the first time and others are for the first time available online.

“Some of the brands are already here but not widely distributed. These are the brands we would like to take on and promote in a bigger way as well.”

Bibliotek Design Store is intended to reflect elegant simplicity, quiet excellence and fine craftsmanship while aspiring to be a space and platform to introduce high quality, curated home accessories, furnishings and furniture from around the world.

Making everyday living better through good design is the vision, where intelligent functionality and considered design is of fundamental importance.

Also, this design store business’ philosophy of sustainability, fine craftsmanship, and considered design motivates them to continuously search for such products and those that can become future design icons.

Bibliotek.co aims to introduce such a

18 ScandAsia.Singapore • January 2017

handpicked selection of products to a new generation of savvy and conscious consumers.

Taking Applicata and Architectmade as examples, Alvin describes these Danish brands as renowned for their fine craftsmanship “We are looking more for homeware accessories that could fit in to local homes here.

And we think that these two fits the brand’s story as well. We push quite a few but it’s a mixture of finding the right time and filling the gap that we identified, combined with my personal interest.”

It was when Alvin was furnishing and decorating his own house that he found that many items could not be bought in Singapore and that shipping would be very costly. So he set out to bring those brands to the local market.

The reason for staking on online instead of a physical store the Singaporean explains as follows: “In this region web shops is a relatively new form.

And we recognised that there was a scarcity in any online store providing a good range of homeware

and furniture for customers. Also, with the web store we want to transfer the cost savings we get and pass on to our consumers, so our prices are transparent and competitive as well.”

Alvin describes that in the last five years consumer behaviour has really changed in Singapore, with online shopping now being commonplace. And bricks and mor tar are opening their online stores, he adds.

“We don’t have a showroom but we are looking into the option of having that going forward as well; pop-up store definitely!”

In the pipeline is also to offer a visualizer, enabling customers, through digital technology, to take an item and imagine it in their own respective homes. Virtual and Augmented Reality are the tools for this.

“We are looking to bridge the gap between online and the physical space; giving the customer the total experience when they go shopping for a certain item.”

ScandAsia means Business!

A

re you aware of our steadfast business section in ScandAsia? You may have noticed our strengthened focus - in print and online - on innovations, business solutions, joint ventures, star t-ups, trade etc. This is now further enhanced as Business pages in the magazines and with the dedicated ‘Business in Asia’ channel, along with adding business categories, online!

The digital economy and the start-up scene, with business disruption coming with it, are having significant impact on all business sectors and trade, creating the economies of the future. As part of this, and in parallel, Southeast Asia’s economies are continuing to grow and taking significant steps forward and towards becoming developed countries.

Investors and entrepreneurs from the Nordics are increasingly participating in this, setting up businesses here and targeting the region with their products and services.

The type of businesses the Nordics are involved in now span across the board, much thanks to their innovative spirit and the very strong Scandinavian start-up scene. Also, the Nordic countries are shifting focus from developing projects to commercial support in connection to the Southeast Asian countries they have been active within.

The developments and trends that define and shape the business climate are covered by ScandAsia. We award coverage to all stakeholders; introducing new start-ups and business concepts and portraying how larger corporations are adapting their businesses and preparing for the future, and also how the innovations, solutions and know-how from the Nordic countries can find markets and gain market shares in Asia.

With this brief introduction we want to put the spotlight on the increasing importance of B2B and B2C for ScandAsia!

Build awareness around your brand and product (s) through storytelling and engagement!

And did you know: • That ScandAsia is the only dedicated media reaching out and communicating all things of relevancy in connection to the Nordic countries - SEA/China?

• That ScandAsia can assist your business in various ways by communicating news and events as well as other commercial messages (sharing news and events, republish PR, advertorial, email blast, print and e-magazine marketing, e-marketing…)?

• That you can publish your own content marketing on ScandAsia.com?

• That you can have your complimentar y personal and company profile as one of our members on ScandAsia.com (with high-ranking result on Google) and that our web traffic is close to 100,000 readers monthly!

• That you can get extra print copies of the magazine edition featuring your business for an affordable price?

For further information on opportunities and pricing contact: Sales representative Singapore, Mr Frank Leong, frank@scandasia.com, ph. +65 9866 5165; Managing editor/representative Mr Joakim Persson, joakim@scandmedia.com, ph. +66 897616701