Singapore Entrepreneurs Network & Startup Organization

I think a different kind of education (other than academic) would be important. Most important is practical marketing skills as all business are actually all about marketing.

I do look as education as an important tool to help you in starting your business. It is especially so if one has a business diploma, degree or what have you. It trains your mind to analyse data, read reports and gather/filter the right information, which would eventually lead to making a more informed decision. But then again of course, it works as a double edged sword, stifling your imagination and steers you into the rat race. Lastly, I think that the number of A's does not equate to one's ability to do business, nor the number of F's.

In reply to this question, I have another question.

"How far can YOU bring you?"

In some of the replies above, some argues that academic education is important and having a diploma allows one person to analyse date, read reports, etc.

My view? Not necessary. I don't disagree with academic education but i don't neccesary think that academic education might help you with what you want to do. Diplomas and Degrees are to me a sub-standard of society. A diploma or degree is given based on another person's judgement of how you did according to their standards.

I know many successful entrepreneurs without  a diploma or degree. If you really think you need a degree to then consider running a business, you are then wasting your time and you will end up running your business like 90% of small business owners. Forever running the business by yourself with you working in it. Longer hours, lesser pay.

Now this is only in relation to academic education.

Back to the core question. How far can education bring you?

How far do you want to go?

Education does not bring you anywhere if you do not want to go anywhere. Education is a tool for you to get somewhere, just like a plane can get you from Singapore to USA. But if you do not want to go to USA, the plane is practically useless no matter how good others say it is.

SO HOW FAR DO YOU WANT TO GO?

i knew a vice principal who used to start a biz but in the end his business went burst and now he a vice principal.
that one of my friend who is currently studying in that school went into their class that '' in order to start a biz u need good qualification" but finally what my friend understood was if your biz went burst u can still find a stable job with the qualification we obtain.

One of the big reasons I left Singapore and pursue my own business in North America was because of the one big stupid reason that almost everyone thinks that one SHOULD have a degree or at least armed with a diploma or degree to be competitive.

I might sound like an asshole but to me, that is utter bullshit to me. As much as I think that staying in Singapore has it opportunities, I can't stand the fact that a lot of people that I talked to thinks that way. I love Singapore as a place to live in and not to work in.

In terms of arming ourselves with degrees, is it really that important that we have AT LEAST a degree?

If Donald Trump were to start studying for degrees to be competitive in the market, he would not be where he is today.

I believe too many people are chasing paychecks after paychecks. When one job does not offer guarantees, they go for the next better JOB.

I have a friend who took a law degree to be a lawyer and ended up being an entertainer and is very happy today owning his own business. Although he never became a lawyer, he never did go back to school to get another degree.

I have another friend who have 3 degrees who is working part time in a restaurant as a server.

I am not saying that a degree is useless but being in specific of entrepreneurship and financial success only, successful and rich business owners gain their experience through mistakes that they made and they employ university graduates to do the job for them...employees seek to further education to secure employment and NOT DO MISTAKES. That's the reason why Bill Gates is a university dropout and remains the richest of the world.

Also, given the fact that the world's largest competition in labour is now India and China where university graduates are willing to work for half or even one third the price of what university graduates in Singapore are being paid. And with the advancement of Internet and Technology, how many Singaporean graduates can keep up with this competition?

Those sweeping the streets are now probably better off than university graduates trying to look for a job.

In the past, you compete with other Singaporeans and some expats.

Now you have to compete with the 2 most heavily populated nations in the world. And in the next 5 - 10 years, the competition will be stronger as China boosts up its educational system. FYI, India produces about 1 million graduates a year from universities.

So just in the point of being successful, its time Singaporeans stop running to degrees to seek comfort and start getting some REAL EDUCATION of reality.

One can argue that they are comfortable with their jobs right now but can you guarantee that you will have your job forever. If you lose the ability to work, WHO WILL FEED YOU?

I choose to depend on my own business because i know that even if I fail in my business, I will have no problem starting it up again. If my business fails, I would have made enough mistakes to start the second one.

Donald Trump did not become a billionaire for no reasons. He made enough mistakes to only come back stronger and not stepping down to look for A JOB, like a vice principal...

That is all.

Have fun!

Yes, I agree with ncknight. A degree will help to ioncrease the awareness and train the mind to analyse & think more critically. However, on-the-ground experience and exposure is the most important. That's life's education. In both career and in business, regurgitating theories doesn't help when situation change and the flow is dynamic. Flexible thinking, controlling the situation and grabbing the opportunities call for qualities that theoretical training can't offer. Here's an article that illustrates the point:


Business Times - 28 Jun 2006

Boss of Hong Leong group hints at changes

By CONRAD RAJ

(SINGAPORE) The Hong Leong group, made up of companies with over US$20 billion in global assets and trading on 11 of the world's stock markets, may be in for some changes soon.

Group head Kwek Leng Beng told The Business Times: 'We have grown so big that perhaps we are no longer as nimble as we used to be and as a result have lost some great opportunities.'

He also pointed out in the recent interview that the group's rapid expansion had sometimes led to a lack of proper communication and coordination which again resulted in lost opportunities. 'Perhaps our managers, especially from the different businesses, should be talking more with each other.'

Billionaire Mr Kwek, one of the richest men in Singapore - indeed in Asia, declined to go into details about the shake-up, saying that he did not want to breach rules on corporate disclosure as his group includes public companies as well as private ones.

The group employs more than 30,000 staff worldwide, and has an annual turnover of over US$4 billion. Group assets include controlling stakes in one of Singapore's largest property companies, City Developments, the island's largest finance company, Hong Leong Finance, London-listed Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, and Hong Leong Asia.

Hong Leong Asia is a diversified company whose businesses include granite quarrying on Indonesia's Karimun island, plastic containers and packaging in China, and China's second largest plant for the making of refrigerators and airconditioners. It also produces diesel engines through China Yuchai which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Mr Kwek said that some of the deals lost by the group could have brought in millions of dollars. 'Some of my managers involve themselves in too much detail and are afraid to make mistakes,' he said.

'One guy, a scholar with an impressive list of paper qualifications, used to hand me reports of at least 10 pages on anything I wanted. In turn he demanded reports of at least 20 pages from his subordinates.

'So he had piles of reports on his table and when I asked him if he has time to read all these reports, he replied that he did not. He was so bogged down reading reports that he had no time to deal with the real business. He did not last long.

'There are a few more like this. All afraid to make mistakes and take risks when business is all about having a broad vision and taking risks,' Mr Kwek said, adding that he will be undertaking a review of his businesses in the near future.

The billionaire was not only critical of some of his managers but even some of his directors (although he did not want to specify whether these were directors of his privately held companies or the publicly quoted ones).

At the same time this shows that although Mr Kwek is head of the group and the Kwek family that controls it, decisions are not made solely by him and need some consensus.

In the contest for the proposed Business & Financial Centre in Marina South, Hong Leong group lost out to a bid of just over $1 billion from a Keppel Land consortium which includes Hong Kong Land and a unit of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa.

'We lost out because some of our directors could not envision the potential of the site and how it would benefit from the integrated resort,' Mr Kwek said soon after Las Vegas Sands, with whom he has close ties, won the bid for the resort and the right to build Singapore's first casino.

According to Keppel sources, Mr Kwek later tried buying over the site from the winning bidders.

Mr Kwek would only say that he had been prepared to bid more but other board members were not in agreement.

However, the Sands bid was also one project which showed quick and lean action on the part of the group. Mr Kwek quickly assembled a small group of executives who travelled widely to consult and advise Sands on all aspects of the project and its public projection. So grateful was Sands for Hong Leong's input in its success that it invited the group to participate in some way in the project.

As another example of how a quick decision reaped rich rewards, he pointed to the purchase of the Copthorne group of hotels from Irish airline Aer Lingus in October 1995 for 219 million, equivalent to S$475 million at the then exchange rate.

Copthorne then had 23 properties - three in New York and 20 in Europe - and Mr Kwek was in London when he heard of the proposed sale. 'Aer Lingus was asking for almost 300 million but I knew they needed cash badly. So I initially offered 200 million and told its chief executive that if he wanted to see the colour of my money he could talk to my bankers.'

Within a month the whole deal was signed and sealed - and soon after a couple of hotel chains offered Mr Kwek 300 million to part with the chain.

Instead, he decided to float the chain the following year, raking in nearly 175 million for CDL Hotels and capitalising the chain at some 402 million.

Today the chain, renamed Millennium & Copthorne (M&C), owns or manages more than 100 hotels worldwide, from Alaska in the north to New Zealand in the south.

'There were a few more deals which if it had been left to me alone could have resulted in millions of dollars in profits but you know I have to observe good corporate governance and abide by the decisions of the board,' Mr Kwek said.

Despite the need for fresh blood to inject fresh ideas into the group, Hong Leong is no lame duck. The group was founded in 1941 by Mr Kwek's late father, Kwek Hong Png. It is still one of Singapore's most successful family-run corporations, having some of the most sought after blue chips on the Singapore Exchange, such as City Developments and Hong Leong Finance.

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.