SiPi Think Tank Dialogue 2013 – “Innovation and Productivity for Singapore”

23rd January 2013 -- SMF Singapore Innovation and Productivity Institute (SiPi), a Centre of Excellence under the banner of Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) recently organised a Think Tank Dialogue Session on 23rd January, 2013.

Mr. Valerio Nannini, Chairman of the SiPi Board of Advisors, Dr. Michael Teng, Assistant Secretary-General of SMF, and Miss Shirley Pek, SiPi representative shared with 42 members of the Singapore business community on current market ideologies and practices – namely in the areas of innovation and productivity.

 

Chairman of the SiPi Board of Advisors, Mr. Valerio Nannini, delivering his welcome speech.

“Productivity brings us to where we are; innovation brings us to where we want to be”, said Mr. Nannini. An avid Formula One supporter, he further likened Singapore’s local innovation culture to a race-car, whereby all main components have to work together to achieve the desired results.

Recognising the need to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in Singapore, Mr. Nannini also pointed out four key strategies to drive business innovation thinking: leading through objectives and goals, championing continuous improvement, building business partnership and facilitating learning.

 

The Think Tank Dialogue Session attracted a total of 42 participants from various companies across different sectors. 

Participants were also given key insights into the current status of local SMES via a findings report conducted by Frost & Sullivan--detailing the state of inertia many local companies experience today in the key areas of people, processes & systems, product, market and policies--before being segregated into discussion groups. During the sharing session, leaders of the breakout sessions presented their findings and experiences, which not only served to identify the problems in the marketplace today, but also led to meaningful discussion on proposed recommendations. 

 

The break-out discussion session saw SiPi representatives and participants engage in fruitful and meaningful discussion.

“The dialogue session witnessed active participation and vigorous discussion. I am excited to see these ideas come-to-life. It is also of utmost importance to us that the participants (and their respective companies) receive the assistance they require. We would like very much to be able to contribute back to them in this way,” enthused Mr. Nannini.

As part of the dialogue session, a voting session was held at the close of the event to award the group that had the best presentation -- with the “Market” group taking away top honours.

 

Members of the "Market" Group were all smiles at being awarded the group with the best presentation.