18 January 2011
Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) financial daily, The Business Times, and OCBC Bank today launched the annual Emerging Enterprise Awards (EE2011).
In its fourth year, EE2011 is Singapore's only annual entrepreneurial award that reaches out to businesses with sales turnover of less than $10 million per annum. It is supported by SPRING Singapore, NUS Extension and Acorn Marketing and Research. SingTel is the presenting sponsor for the Best Innovation Award and RSM Chio Lim is the official auditor for EE2011.
Up to three deserving SMEs stand a chance to receive S$390,000 each in prizes comprising an interest-free loan, professional services, training programmes and support in capability development. Two companies will also be honoured with The SingTel Best Innovation Award for harnessing innovation to build an original and sustainable business model. Each winner will receive $30,000 worth of business infocomm technology solutions provided by SingTel.
According to market estimates, there are around 168,000 SMEs in Singapore and they make up 99 per cent of the enterprise population in Singapore. Of these, around 5 per cent (based on the manufacturing and services sector) have an annual turnover of $10 million and above. The remaining 94 per cent are mainly small or start-up businesses which would require additional resources and support from many quarters, including financing, business advice and technology.
The comprehensive prize package, which focuses on capability building, aims to provide this group of SMEs with the critical resources to further build on their capabilities to scale new heights.
Following a review by the judging panel and feedback from participants over the last 3 years, EE2011 has introduced 3 major changes to the application process and judging criteria.
The first change is that applicants will now be required to answer six questions that assess and evaluate the different facets of their business operations, as opposed to a 1,500-word business plan.
Secondly, the application process can also be done online via the EE2011 website (www.asiaone.com/ee2011), in addition to the hardcopy forms. Thirdly, the judging panel will conduct on-site visits to the top 25 applicant companies in April 2011 to interview the management and gain a better understanding of their business operations.
Based on these on-site visits, 15 companies will be short-listed to make a 30-minute presentation to the judging panel in June. The EE2011 Awards presentation ceremony will be held in end June to announce the winners, comprising of up to three winners and two Best Innovation Award winners.