As 2022 draws to a close, we take stock on yet another momentous year which has seen the world returned back to some form of normalcy. With the lifting of travel restrictions and the rise of hybrid working, some industries saw a rebound in business, while others have to evolve with the times and update their business model.
Throughout the year, The Peak Singapore team has interviewed many prolific business leaders in industries that run the gamut, from finance, space technology, design to hospitality. They shared their drive and ambition to make an impact in their industries and a meaningful difference to the wider society, and how they are future-proofing their business.
To cap off 2022, The Peak Singapore looks back at the top 10 thought leadership stories that our readers have enjoyed the most this year.
Related: Harmin Kaur wants to pave the way for women in business
The co-founders of HEPMIL Media Group, which runs the popular SGAG site, share on how they turned a Facebook page into a social content juggernaut. Today, the duo runs a digital media group, which also has a presence in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, plus a creator network and e-sports arm.
A 150-strong team serves clients such as Disney, Google, Starbucks, and Unilever, and their channels reach a combined figure of nearly 40 million. Besides Facebook memes, there are also Instagram videos, YouTube reality series, and TikTok clips.
On growing the best and brightest content creators in Southeast-Asia, SGAG’s co-founder Karl Mak says: “We are always surprised by the variety of content being put out. The creativity is boundless and that’s why we’re going long into the creative economy. It is super exciting.”
Read the full story here.
This financial services honcho is on a mission to democratise the investment landscape with digital securities exchange ADDX. The ethos of equipping individuals with the knowledge and ability to take control of their personal finances has driven Choo’s career trajectory.
Whether it is conversations with her children on financial literacy or spearheading the growth of ADDX, which makes investments more accessible through blockchain and smart contract technology, Choo wants to make the concept of investment more.
The finance veteran also takes a diversified approach to investment, having seen the impact of financial crises on her family. “I am willing to take a longer term view and understand that one’s immediate reaction may not necessarily be the best reaction. You should not let emotion or panic drive your decision-making,“ she says. “My personal thinking is if you do not watch your portfolio every day, you have to trust that your portfolio is diversified and leave it there to grow.”
Read the full story here.
The next-generation business leader and daughter of glass artist Florence Ng has made her mother’s dream and company her own. She helms Synergraphic, a homegrown glass and design studio, advancing both the medium and the business to creative new levels.
From an art glass studio founded in 1986, hand-making decorative objects for living spaces, Synergraphic has expanded to meet a growing demand for the incorporation of artistic glass into interior design and for placemaking.
All the while innovating and adopting new technologies and imagining new ways of synergising art into glass, one thing has remained constant for the family-run glass design studio: creating works of beauty, ranging from art installations, sculptures, features, and objet d’art.
Read the full story here.
The founder and CEO of Ion Mobility wants to reduce urban pollution with his fleet of faster, smarter and cleaner machines. Ion Mobility, which Chan started in late 2019, is a tech-driven company that aims to create affordable, desirable and sustainable mobility solutions.
One of its key products is the Ion Mobius electric motorcycle is a battery-powered two-wheeler that was designed, manufactured and assembled in Singapore over 18 months.
The powertrain, battery, and vehicle control systems are state-of-the-art. In addition to its 12.5kW power and 50Nm torque, it can reach a top speed of up to 110km/h and 50km/h in under 4 seconds. Charging takes three hours via a household outlet.
In establishing Ion Mobility as an innovative automotive company with full-stack capabilities, from design to engineering to after-sales, Chan hopes to place Singapore—a country with no prior automotive talent or electric vehicle industry—on the global tech map.
Read the full story here.
Singapore design studio Mighty Jaxx is known for its limited-edition collectibles. Still, founder and CEO Jackson Aw has a bigger ambition: building a future-proof company.
He founded Mighty Jaxx in 2012 with a $20,000 loan from his parents to make his own collectible toys. Today, the company is one of the largest and most influential producers of collectibles and lifestyle products, offering coveted drops that rabid fans grab in a flash. Some of these collectibles are made in collaboration with top urban artists like Jason Freeney and Takeshi Murakami and are highly sought after on the secondary market.
Aw reveals that he has a bigger vision for Mighty Jaxx that would make it more than just a collectibles company. “We’ve been doubling down on creating a future culture company over the last three years. By enabling collectors to access digital and experiential content through their blockchain-authenticated phygital collectibles, this will bridge the physical-digital gap.”
Read the full story here.
The CEO of Singapore Space & Technology Limited, a leading space organisation, explains why space is the new frontier for big ideas and how she is ensuring Asia is part of the faction.
Tan believes that space holds the answer to many existential issues we face on Earth, including global warming and living sustainably. The use of satellites to monitor climate change, the creation of impossible meat, and indoor urban farming are only a few examples of space technology that could have a tremendous positive impact on Earth.
Tan is also inspiring the next generation of space enthusiasts with SSTL’s Space Faculty. It provides space-related educational resources, teaching programmes and learning materials to anyone interested in space, from youths to professionals already in the industry.
Read the full story here.
With his handcrafted Superman, Captain America and Batman collectibles costing in the thousands, Ben Ang, the CEO and co-founder of homegrown design company XM Studios has demonstrated that comic figurines are certainly not child’s play.
XM Studios is famous around the world for its handcrafted figurines based on movie and comic icons. It all began when the 48-year-old decided to enter the licensing industry. After two years of courting the big boys, Disney finally called back with a Marvel licensing deal in 2013. And the rest is history.
Ang shares how he turns his love for pop culture into a multi-million dollar business. He says: “The interaction between the collector and the collection is very important. We bring joy and laughter to our customers, and we are selling a piece of their childhood. This has kept me creative for 26 years.”
Read the full story here.
In conjunction with International Women’s Day in March, our March 2022 cover story featured Bee Kheng Tay, the first female President for the ASEAN region at Cisco, a multinational technology giant.
Tay is a vocal proponent of a flexible, inclusive approach to the workplace through the use of technology. According to the tech veteran, who has more than two decades of experience across the Asia-Pacific and in Japan with multinational firms such as HP and IBM before joining Cisco in 2016, the key to implementing this is ensuring that technology supports this mode of work.
“When you have a hybrid work environment, you have to lay the foundation for connectivity and communication well, and our technology fits perfectly into that. We have collaboration tools that can be better than face-to-face interactions, as well as security suites that allow employees to connect securely to systems and applications they need to access.”
A self-professed dynamo, Tay is passionate about encouraging and empowering more women to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Share shares about the unique challenges faced by women in tech and how she juggled the demanding challenges of establishing her tech career and raising a family.
Read the story here.
With travel back in full force in a post-pandemic world, Loh Lik Peng, founder of homegrown hospitality group Unlisted Collection looks back on how he has mastered the art of pivoting. The accidental hotelier and restauranteur talks about building a hipster hotel out of a former brothel and navigating it through the SARS outbreak in 2003, and running a global empire of more than 20 restaurants and five hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Loh also talks about how hotels are and will always remain his first love and his secret to managing many businesses across the globe, various chairmanships and making time for this young family.
He does not believe in micromanaging despite having more than 1,000 staff all over the world. “I give my managers a lot of autonomy and I reward them based on the profits they generate. That is my management style. Also, digital banking has transformed my life!”
Read the story here.
Frank Phuan, the CEO of Sunseap, a Singapore-based solar energy company shares his bright and bold plans to disrupt Asia’s energy sector. Over the past year, Sunseap, which was acquired by global renewable energy producer EDP Renewables at $1.1 billion, has been charging ahead with his plans to green the region — one solar panel at a time.
They include building a green energy network across the region, from developing solar energy systems to transporting energy from a floating solar farm. Besides generating energy, Phuan wants to do greater good by creating green jobs and expanding the reach of renewable energy to less developed parts of the region.
Impacting lives one family at a time isn’t enough for him. He aims to “disrupt the disruptors and bring clean energy into the region”.
Read the full story here.
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