The Singapore Apex Business Summit helps companies navigate the end of business as we know it

Yesterday morning, the second edition of the Singapore Apex Business Summit began at the Sands Expo and Convention Center. This summit will take place over three days, with the overall theme of: “End of Business as Usual: Shaping the Future of Business.” 

The summit is hosted by Singapore Business Federation (SBF), a business chamber in Singapore that represents over 29,000 companies; and MP Singapore, an agency specialising in a range of services, including event management. We give an overview of yesterday’s event, and today’s highlights.

Summit overview

Their goal with the theme, “End of Business as Usual: Shaping the Future of Business” is to place an emphasis on how businesses of the present must change either practices on account of external uncertainties — especially uncertainties associated with technological changes and climatic issues. Addressing these issues are pertinent for businesses, whether that is by incorporating new technology into their workforce, or beginning the transition into net-zero operations. 

Therefore, attendees can sit in for a range of panels, fireside chats, and breakout discussions to hear directly from industry professionals. The first two days of the summit will end with a dinner, where participants can network or participate in additional panel discussions.

Signature highlights of the event include the first day’s Future Economy Conference (FEC), which is held in conjunction with the Company for Good (COG) Conference; the second day’s Singapore Regional Business Forum; and the third and final day of the summit’s Future of Trade Forum. 

The first two conferences are held in conjunction and co-hosted by SBF and the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Center. Such a partnership aims to reflect the capability that businesses have to have a positive impact on society, while also performing well economically and being prepared for the future.

Spotlight on day one

Each day of the conference also has a specific sub-theme, with the first day’s being “Smart Technology and the Future of Work.” 

Over 1,000 business leaders and senior government officials were in attendance yesterday. The opening speech was delivered by the Guest of Honour, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Heng Sweet Keat. 

Fitting with the day’s theme, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasised the importance of technology.

He said: “With business-as-usual coming to an end, digital transformation and smart technologies will offer us novel ways to unlock new economic opportunities. Today’s conferences will address the urgent need for businesses to not only embrace digital innovations, but to also do so by integrating sustainability practices and corporate purpose in their business strategy and operations.”

“To execute on the key twin pillars of digitalisation and sustainability, it is important for businesses to attract, train, and retain talents to drive enterprise digitalisation and sustainability efforts.”

Learning from example

To help companies better understand how to embrace digital innovation and integrate sustainability practices, SBF launched the Future-Ready Businesses Spotlights. 

These function like a tour, where those in the business community can visit and thus learn from organisations who are utilising innovative methods to prepare themselves for the future and implement sustainability practices. 

During the summit, participants will visit organisations such as the Mastercard Experience Center and the Port of Singapore Authority Innovation Center. SBF has partnered with multiple other businesses for subsequent spotlights, which are scheduled to happen over the next few months. 

The Chairman of Singapore Business Federation, Mr Lim Ming Yan said: “Spotlight visits are designed to offer businesses unique learning opportunities to pioneering organisations that are adopting innovative strategies and cutting-edge solutions to future-proof their operations. We hope these interactions will ignite their innovation journey, empowering them to explore solutions that align with their business needs.”

Encouraging collaboration

SBF also launched a new initiative at the Singapore Apex Business Summit, the Community Marketplace.

The Community Marketplace aims to bring together business leaders and social impact enablers. This way, participants were able to engage in dialogue with social impact enablers and their corporate partners to learn more about corporate philanthropy, encouraging DEI initiatives within their workforce, and about community development initiatives.

Individuals could also participate in one-to-one consultations to better understand how to begin or grow their own social impact journey.

Second day highlight

The theme of collaboration between social impact enablers and businesses continues into the second day, with the launch of the Sustainable Philanthropy Framework by the National Council of Social Service (NCSS). The Sustainable Philanthropy Framework was created to help businesses align their brand and social impact goals. 

This framework focuses on the S component of recently popular environmental, social, and governance (ESG) discussions and hopes to aid companies in having a genuine impact on complex social issues. 

To do so, the NCSS has also developed an interactive playbook to help companies start their corporate social responsibility initiatives. It also hopes that this framework will foster cross-sector partnerships between corporate and social service agencies, such that each party is able to play to their strengths when tackling complex social issues. 

NCSS demonstrated the benefit of collaboration when creating the framework — it partnered with a number of organisations, including the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Center, the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise, and the Ministry of Social and Family Development. NCSS also engaged over a hundred businesses in designing and validating the framework to ensure that its metrics are useful in addressing business needs.

Doing well while doing good

The repeated tagline of the framework is that companies can do well and do good — referencing how companies are still able to meet their economic metrics and grow, while having a positive impact on the world around them. 

According to the NCSS, the more than 40 businesses who participated in the early adopters programme claim that the framework helped them better structure their philanthropic efforts. 

“Businesses often ask how they can practise corporate social responsibility in a more systematic manner, and make a bigger impact,” said Ms Tan Li San, Chief Executive Officer of NCSS.

“The Sustainable Philanthropy Framework helps them direct their giving and volunteering, and make inclusive business decisions in ways that can create stronger social outcomes. By aligning their philanthropic efforts with corporate purpose, businesses can Do Good and Do Well at the same time.”

Tomorrow’s events

The emphasis on collaboration appears in line with today’s sub-theme: “Transforming Regional Collaborations towards a Sustainable Future.”

Today’s event will conclude with a networking dinner. 

It appears that the three days of the summit roughly each address environmental, social, and governance issues, as the sub-theme for the final day is “Global Trade in Transition.” The first day looked at the ways that companies can reach their sustainability goals with technology, while the second looked at the ways that businesses can attain their economic goals but also implement corporate social responsibility initiatives that bring about change. 

Also, centre to both topics is how companies can learn from social impact enablers, government agencies, and each other to do so.

The panels for tomorrow centre largely on the way that trade is affected by each country’s policies and politics, seemingly exploring the G aspect of ESG conversations.

Those who are interested in attending can find out more details here.