The SME CEO Forum 2011 “Collaboration for Growth” is an annual event for growth enterprises across the education, healthcare, biomedical, logistics, retail and food services industries. Organized by SPRING Singapore, it focuses on developing cross-sectoral partnerships through keynote speeches, roundtable discussions, and business matching.
Minister of State for Trade and Industry Mr Lee Yi Shyan spoke on how collaborative innovation creates new business models that create market access, gain new technologies, and improve productivity.
“Companies need to make investments to develop collaborative capabilities with partners. With the right mindset, collaborative innovation can become a transformative business strategy,” he said.
One showcase of a successful collaboration was the partnership between McDonald’s and HAVI Logistics, which delivered their presentation jointly.
“We use an open book policy to all our transactions to solve problems together, whether it’s about our cost prices or performance metrics,” Managing Director of McDonald’s Singapore Ms Judy Harman described their relationship.
“We’ve developed the culture of focusing on the long-term relationship with McDonald’s, rather than look for short-term gain. At the end of the day, it’s always about doing the right thing,” agreed Senior Vice President of HAVI Logistics Mr. Bo Grabowski.
Eden Strategy Institute’s Partner Mr. Calvin Chu Yee Ming was Chief Moderator for the event.
“Successful partnerships are a proven way to accelerate business performance, and today we’ve seen the dawn of several innovative cross-sector alliances. These range from new test kits from the biomedical space being used for rapid food testing, to new value-added services such as green logistics for the retail industry. We look forward to seeing these innovations go to market in the near future,” he said.
For more information, please visit SPRING Singapore