Scaling greater heights

THIS WEEK'S TOPIC: How has your company or organisation tackled challenges with passion, and made possible the impossible?

Olivier Legrand Managing Director, APAC LinkedIn

IF your employees are onboard with your company's raison d'etre, you've won half the battle.

There's no doubt that our purpose-driven employees are our best brand ambassadors and a key reason why more than 500 million professionals are engaging on LinkedIn today. At the core, we all share the same conviction and passion - to support every member of the global workforce so that they can get better at what they do, and get closer to opportunity. This doesn't happen by chance. It's in our culture to foster openness and transparency such as hosting regular employee All Hands led by our CEO Jeff Weiner and other leaders. We invest in making sure that everything starts with our employees, and making sure they understand, and are the first to know about things that are important to our company and what we do for our members and clients.

Martin Hayes President Bosch, Southeast Asia

BOSCH has been making the impossible possible since 1886. Our inventions of the anti-lock braking system in 1978 and Electronic Stability Program in 1995 have paved the way for automated driving. Today, we develop steering systems for self-driving cars and supply driver assistance systems, with the vision that by 2020, cars should be fully automated, driving on highways, and parking by themselves. Our associates are empowered to participate in projects that they are passionate about. It is through fostering an innovation culture and encouraging risk-taking that we keep the passion alive when addressing challenges. Likewise, we are committed to help Singapore move forward as a Smart Nation with connected solutions for urban mobility, industry, home, and buildings.

Johan de Villiers Managing Director ABB Pte Ltd

ENTHUSIASM and passion are two of the most valuable ingredients one can have in a team. As a leader, I invest a significant amount of my time to ensure that we have a work environment and a culture where every employee comes to work with his or her "soul" - that is with all of their passion, creativity and pride. I believe it is impossible to delight customers and solve complex and difficult challenges without these qualities. We've seen some recent successes in unleashing these powerful ingredients in our data center and food and beverage business, both of which are relatively recent growth markets for us. By adopting a more agile, open approach, believing in the possibilities, leading across and around internal boundaries and uniting behind a common and compelling future, our teams have found a passion and determination to apply their skills and knowledge in these new markets and delivered strong growth.

Every day, digitalisation is creating and cornering new markets, disrupting and transforming business, and creating new ways to win, and lose. That's why it's never been more important for leaders to inspire employees to bring their passion, hunger, creative and critical thinking in to the heart of our organisations to take charge of our digital future.

Girish Ramachandran President, Asia-Pacific Tata Consultancy Services

PASSION is about a never-say-die attitude, a drive to overcome challenges and make the impossible possible. At TCS, we believe that igniting this culture company-wide begins with enabling employees. Our employees have the freedom, mentorship and learning opportunities to craft their own professional future. Outside of work, whether it is fitness, blogging or a desire to help others through charity work, we enable like-minded communities of people to pursue their personal aspirations, goals, philosophy and purpose in life. We run corporate initiatives like Fit4life and Purpose4life to get people moving. We support the Singapore Marathon and dozens of races worldwide because we believe that passion is the art of the possible.

Lim Soon Hock Managing Director PLAN-B ICAG Pte Ltd

BUSINESSES do not fail. People do.

Passion ensures that people do not fail. If you execute well, you do not need the most amazing or best product or service. You would be better than one who has this but executes poorly. It must start with the CEO. He must exude passion. He must believe in the business and have an indefatigable "can-do" attitude. Passion can be contagious. The CEO and management will need to engage and communicate more with all employees constantly, to create the "rah, rah", through celebrating success and triumphs over problems and challenges. Most importantly, there will be passion when every employee sees "ownership" of the business, through recognition and empowerment.

When there is passion, the impossible becomes the possible. That was how my A-team and I built a billion dollar business for Compaq in Asia Pacific in the 90s. "

Victor Mills Chief Executive Singapore International Chamber of Commerce

JUST as with all achievements, you need to start with a passion to perform. You need to care about the outcome and your part in achieving it. You also need to realise that you can't achieve success on your own. We all need that all-important enabler: optimal teamwork. A great team maximises individual strengths and minimises individual weaknesses. I am very fortunate that I have a great team that regularly achieves the impossible. They do that by careful planning, respectful co-ordination with internal and external parties (optimal teamwork) and meticulous execution. This allows us to serve our members and community.

Hubert Larenaudie President APAC Unity Technologies

WITH Unity Technologies, we make the impossible possible every day, with imagination being the only limit. We provide anyone with the tools and support to develop successful games and applications, be it 2D, 3D, or even in augmented/ virtual reality across all industries. Build a rocket and send it to space? Kerbal Space Program. Inspire whole nations to get off the couch and hunt for virtual monsters? Pokemon Go. The Unity engine has even found a home in non-gaming industries like the architecture, engineering, and the creative space. From the likes of REALIS3D where designers can build any environment, to Tilt Brush where artists create 3D artworks in VR, the possibilities are endless.

With 70 per cent of all VR/AR content today being built on our engine, our frequently updated features - across graphics, performance, efficiency and platforms - encourage innovation and allow artists, designers, and developers of all types (be it coders, designers, or modellers) to collaborate and more importantly, succeed together.

Melanie Lim Managing Director Builders Hub

BUILDERS Hub tackled challenges strategically. Like in the olden days, the Emperor did not just give commands but go to the war with his warriors. Fight with them, do not tell them how to fight. Lead by example. A positive mindset conquers all.

David Leong Managing Director PeopleWorldwide Consulting Pte Ltd

EVERY business and business founder will have a story to tell. I formed more than 15 companies since graduation from NUS in 1994, morphing from one form to the next and sometime dealing with a few businesses at the same time. But in each form, I am always filled with the same strong curiosity on how to take the business to a fresh trajectory, how to break the mold of the traditional business to succeed. Sometimes, I would succeed - like my manpower, corporate advisory and technology businesses. But most times I would be bleeding red ink. Most times, I persevere to push the limits.

From zero to one, from scarcity to growth, and from one growth shoot to the next new shoot takes imagination, guts and lot of risk-taking appetite. A habit to accept failure will lessen the impact of pain. Only those who have have been in the deep, unknown sea know that pain. The impossible does not become possible by sheer passion. Passion alone cannot ignite the fire for furious growth. It must be built on doing simple things well and doing difficult things simply.

Seah Kian Peng CEO NTUC FairPrice

PASSION fuelled by perseverance and commitment is an intangible value that drives success. At NTUC FairPrice, besides being passionate about providing quality and value to our customers, we are also committed to uplifting and strengthening the community through our energies, time and resources to make lives better. With grit and determination - values inspired by our founding pioneers - we have evolved from a single store to a multi-format retailer, serving more than half a million shoppers daily.

The same passion continues to guide us in our management philosophy today - tackling challenges head-on and addressing crisis with courage and conviction. Our desire to improve and serve customers better has led us to introduce innovative service efficiencies such as the recent unmanned and cashless store, self-checkout and automated payment systems. We also empower the less fortunate in our society to lead dignified lives through our philanthropy and community engagement initiatives, as well as provide equal employment opportunities. In all that we do, our aspiration will always be to serve as a Retailer with a Heart.

Henry Tan Managing Director Nexia TS

WE STARTED in 1993 with nothing, except the passion to help SMEs. Our practice now has more than 280 professionals with four offices and is also associated with the world's top 10 accounting and advisory groups. I remember in the beginning, it was difficult to get clients and I supplemented my income through lecturing and teaching. But because of my passion, I had no regrets then, nor any concern that I might not be able to make it. My advice to young people: stick to your passion, go for it with grit and determination, uphold integrity always, and never give up.

Olive Tai Co-founder and Managing Director beautiful.me & Synagie.com

IT SEEMED like the worst idea when I co-founded my startup in an industry that struggled to break even but I persisted with sheer force of determination. After two decades of working for the world's largest retail chains and FMCG companies, I wanted to be my own boss and create something out of nothing. I gave up my corporate role, took five of my best staff with me and told them: "We are going to make a difference in the industry."

We deep dived into existing marketplace models, cut out wastage and surrogates, and created a lean business model that enabled hundreds of FMCG brands and SME businesses sell their products online. I want my brand and business partners to succeed. By unifying them in a fragmented industry, I am able to make e-commerce profitable for them. This is my passion.

Ronald Lee Managing Director PrimeStaff

ONE of our core values at PrimeStaff is passion. Every organisation may say this but for us, passion is truly at the heart of our business. We are in the business of people; securing new job opportunities for candidates and helping companies with their human resource issues including finding and recruiting the right talent for their businesses, while providing good career opportunities for our own staff.

We could not successfully achieve this mission without passion running through the vein of our company. On the flipside, however, finding the right staff who are as passionate and with the right values is a challenge in itself. This challenge is not unique to us, as most employers in Singapore face it too.

We have managed to do this by first having the right culture in place; one that is performance-driven, yet with heart. We view both our clients and staff as partners and we always strive to create win-win relationships, and I believe this is what sets up apart and has enabled us to attract the right talent onboard, and for our clients.

Benjamin Low Vice-President, APAC Milestone Systems

BY KEEPING staff engaged, bought-in to the company and therefore passionate, Milestone has created an open environment where we have been able to make the impossible possible. Our management model promotes inclusiveness and collectiveness, and this has allowed Milestone's employees to develop concepts without the burden of layers of management slowing things down. Co-creation is a concept we strongly believe in. Together with our partners, the power of co-creation allows us to challenge the status quo and collaborate for greater success to push the boundaries of the video industry, allowing us to see endless integration of various technologies, from video to data analytics, benefiting the industry and creating technology that enhances people's lives.

A workforce which is encouraged to exchange ideas knows they are part of something bigger, and this in turn feeds passion. Combine this with collaboration within the right ecosystem and the impossible starts to become possible.

Rathakrishnan Govind CEO, LSBF Global London School of Business and Finance

LONDON School of Business and Finance (LSBF) is a private education institution operating in a highly regulated Singapore PEI sector. There are immense regulatory and business challenges, but we are primarily an avenue for students needing a second chance. The passion for education is what keeps PEIs operating. LSBF not only excels at it but also managed to bring good quality institutions to provide better learning outcome to students. An example is the partnership with Xiamen University in establishing the first "Belt and Road" Multi-cultural Study Centre in Singapore. I'm proud that LSBF is the first education provider to clinch this status. Without passion, this would not be possible!

Rakesh Kumar CEO HUMAN-Film

MILLENNIALS, local talent, digital content and storytelling are the new buzzwords. We at HUMAN-Film have merged these buzzwords to create the first locally driven platform for connecting millennial local born filmmaking talent with the world's best brands. Our idea is to create opportunities for local homegrown talent to showcase their creativity in new media like AR/ VR/ film tech mechanisms to create local branded effective content. We are confident that such local storytelling from the local talent will upscale the digital content game in Singapore. The local filmmakers in Singapore are a creative and passion-driven community and they need more opportunities to showcase their brilliance in ideation and local storytelling.

John Bittleston Founder & Chair Terrific Mentors International Pte Ltd

MENTORS are not magicians much as they would sometimes like to be. Our mentors have a passion to encourage, guide and even occasionally nudge our clients to have better fulfilled lives. In a VUCA world, more people than ever are disturbed by the pace of change, by the seeming abandoning of basic standards of behaviour and by the inevitable disruption this creates. Leading our clients step by step towards a practical, sensible, doable plan, the chaos can be quietened and the journey made enjoyable. Those who find their tree on the other side of the field are happy bunnies.

Vipin Kalra Chief Executive Officer BankBazaar International

BANKBAZAAR was born out of a passion to transform the way consumers access financial products. Even in the digital age, transacting with banks has often been associated with snaking lines, tedious paperwork and long waits. To address these pain points, BankBazaar built an online marketplace for financial products that offers instant access and paperless solutions. Through technology innovation and a laser-focus on customer experience, we are steadily redefining the banking experience, a feat that may have seemed impossible to many who view banking as a traditional, slow-to-change industry.

With Singapore as our international headquarters, we are determined to make it a "smarter" place when it comes to accessing financial services and take that experience to markets across the world.

T Chandroo Chairman/CEO Modern Montessori International (MMI) Group

PASSION is the conduit to creativity and hard work. At MMI, we foster passion by recognising it. We make it a priority to encourage employees who exhibit an exuberance for their work. By doing so, they feel validated and become active participants in the company's growth.

Though passion is often sought after for personal development, it can also be cultivated in an organisation to make the work they do meaningful. We believe that passion has the power to lead, inspire and promote a collaborative work environment for the longevity of a company.

Dolly Goh, JP Chief Executive Officer Singapore National Co-operative Federation

CO-OPERATIVES are sustainable businesses with a social mission. Passion lies at the heart of what we do, overcoming barriers. When the Singapore National Co-operative Federation celebrated the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives (IYC) in 2012, our efforts, supported by the passion of over 20,000 co-op members, led the global co-operative movement to declare Singapore's IYC celebration as among the best in the world.

That year, SNCF produced a set of legal tender stamps and published a series of children's storybooks, promoting co-op values for a better society. These books are now available in all Singapore's libraries and pre-schools. Our co-operative spirit has made Singapore proud.

Paul Henaghan President, South Asia and Korea Dell EMC

LAST year saw the historic merger of two technology giants - Dell and EMC - to create the world's largest privately-controlled technology company, Dell Technologies. Many asked if the model would work and if innovation would continue at pace. Bringing together two companies can be challenging; we were integrating seven different companies/brands, systems, processes, etc.

We couldn't become one entity with a simple flick of a switch - it required a concerted effort to unify and transform from every one of our employees - all 138,000. Our relentless passion for serving customers and entrepreneurial spirit has steered the company towards a smooth integration. Leveraging our varied experiences and skill sets has allowed us to deliver an all-encompassing solution set and lead our customer's Digital Transformation.

Peter Ho Chief Executive Officer HOPE Technik

IN a global economy where competition is stiff, HOPE Technik has grown from a small Singapore startup to a multi-faceted engineering business delivering a myriad of products ranging from firefighting vehicles to industrial robots that run 24/7 in various factories. Our success would not have been possible without the support of our team, made up of excellent like-minded individuals with an innate passion for the work they do.

Handling every challenge with passion is important as this means that we are invested in what we do and are committed to delivering the best solution. To spur our team to create some of the most cutting-edge technology for our clients worldwide, we believe it is necessary to empower each teammate with the best assets for them to utilise in their work.

Mark Cameron Regional Director, Scania South Malaysia and Singapore Country Manager, Scania Singapore

AS Singapore seeks to be an enabler for many facets of business and life, we can search for ways to make something work, rather than highlight reasons why something will not work.

The push towards being a Smart Nation has opened the doors for Scania to participate in the trial for an autonomous truck platooning system, which could be a world's first. The strong eco-agenda has also enabled Scania to market its sustainable transport solutions that will lower emissions and improve the air quality for our city. "Passion Made Possible" is about opportunities to realise our potential. Why focus on the "impossible" when we can focus on the "possible"?

Vikram Mengi Co-Founder & CEO Latize

BEFORE embarking on our entrepreneurial journey, my co-founder and I asked each other a simple yet profound question: what are we doing this for? It quickly became clear that we both wanted to build a brand which embodies the pride, passion and hard work of our employees, business partners, customers and investors. We left stable careers and devoted our blood and sweat into building a solution that helps address pain points faced by many organisations - the struggle to make sense of the troves of data they had at hand, and to use it to make business decisions.

Our customers' satisfaction - in Singapore and Australia - vindicates our decision to follow our passion to strike out on our own, and has bled out to the rest of our organisation as we've built a great team of like-minded and passionate people; with a many a story of walking away from big money to be a part of Dream-Latize!

Mark Micallef Vice-President, Asia Pacific & Japan Cloudera

CLOUDERA'S goal is to help organisations solve their toughest problems through data analytics.

We worked on a solution called Spotlight with Thorn, a non-profit organisation supporting victims of child exploitation, to accelerate victim identification and help disrupt platforms that facilitate abusive behaviour and to deter predators. We are also working with Nasa to make the first manned mission to Mars a reality by using data analytics to ensure the safe delivery and return of the brave astronauts. We really mean it when we say that data can make what is impossible today, possible tomorrow.

Magesvaran Suranjan President P&G Asia Pacific

AT P&G, we make the impossible possible by focusing on Innovation. For over 180 years, innovation has been our lifeblood, enabling us to improve lives in meaningful ways through our brands. P&G Innovation is Powered by P&G People - our competitive advantage! We make the impossible possible by attracting and developing the best talents. For us in P&G APAC, talent development goes beyond building world-class capabilities; it's about driving a culture of 3D: Depth in understanding the needs of our consumer and customers; Being Deliberate, which is about being decisive and action-oriented; and Daring - which is about passion for winning!

Goh Swee Chen Chairman Shell Companies in Singapore

SINGAPORE faces one of its toughest challenges: furthering economic progress while fulfilling its commitments under the Paris agreement on climate change. Shell supports the government's national energy transition to reduce its carbon footprint and build a sustainable city. Such an energy transition will require greater collaboration, a diverse range of energy sources and more efficient delivery systems. In Singapore, we aim to be a "living lab" of innovations in collaboration with the government and its people, to test bed and ultimately commercialise cleaner energy solutions. Shell also connects companies, academia and passionate individuals to bring bright energy ideas to life, as seen during our Make the Future Singapore festival, and innovation competitions like Shell Eco-marathon Asia and Shell Ideas360.

Kelvin Lim Chief Executive Officer Hong Leong Assurance Singapore

AS A company leader, I believe passion is made possible by breaking down attitude barriers towards constant invention and reinvention. Two years ago, I joined a company entrenched in traditional insurance-selling practices. I felt this was not sustainable in the digital age and I was not wrong. I rallied my staff to embrace enterprising attitudes towards technology and services. Collectively, we were determined to develop insurance products with-a-service, coupled by mobile and desktop applications to benefit our customers. With these differentiations from traditional insurers, we pivoted from a legacy setup to an insurtech in just two years. We beat all odds and took the risk of telling our consumers they can buy our products via social media and website with the click of a few buttons, and the first to launch 24/7 customer service through chatbots. We are also the first in the market with products that are attached with home concierge for homeowners, medical network for domestic helpers and door-to-door service for mobile phone owners.

Ivy Lai Country Manager Philips Singapore

AT Philips, we're passionate about empowering people to take better care of their own health. We constantly innovate and develop new solutions to tackle some of the biggest health challenges facing our society today. Motivated by the fact that we have the potential to make a real difference to the world around us, our ambition is to improve the lives of three billion people a year by 2025. Philips Singapore's innovative culture is a reflection of the country's enterprising and persevering spirit that positions us well to achieve our goal of standing out on the international stage.

Thomas Holenia President Henkel Singapore

AT Henkel, one of our priorities is to increase the agility of our organisation and our people, so that we can constantly innovate and adapt fast in a changing and volatile environment. To build energised and empowered teams, we are fostering an entrepreneurial culture by enlarging employees' decision-making power and encouraging an openness to change and adaptability. This is reinforced by open feedback not only between the supervisor and team members, but also between colleagues across different departments. In line with this, diversity and inclusion is promoted strongly, and this has sparked innovation and new ways of problem-solving.

Hari V Krishnan CEO PropertyGuru Group

WHEN you combine passion with patience, the probability of success greatly increases. It is the leadership's job to create a sense of purpose, and then hire people with passion that can be channelled for business success. Passion for the business purpose, and in pursuit of goals, is critical to success. At PropertyGuru, our mission is to help people make confident property decisions through relevant content, actionable insights and world-class service. Our gurus are inspired with the knowledge that we help millions of people find their homes every week. It's our leadership team's job (and finally my job) to ensure we deliver this message consistently and with authenticity.

My experience has taught me that discipline in planning & execution, within a purpose driven culture when balanced by patience gives your team the best chance of success in Asia.

Lee Siang Chief Executive Officer Dyslexia Association of Singapore

PASSION is a strong trait valued by the Dyslexia Association of Singapore. Without passion, it will be difficult for our staff to help people with dyslexia, as it is not an easy journey. We also draw inspiration from the dyslexic community - many of them driven by passion to achieve success despite their learning difference. Besides passion, we see determination as another key factor in tackling challenges. According to a research by Julie Logan of the John Cass Business School, a good percentage of entrepreneurs in the UK and the US are dyslexic. The repeated failure they experienced from young could have given them the grit required in the entrepreneurial route.

Tan Mui Huat President and Chief Executive Officer, Asia International SOS

FROM everyday occurrences, like petty crime, road accidents and falling ill to terrorist attacks and natural disasters, we are at the frontline helping our clients and their mobile employees. Everyone in the company sees themselves as being in the job of saving and protecting lives. One of the most common descriptions of the company is that it is entrepreneurial. We created this industry, so whatever the challenge, the spirit has always been to "say yes" and then find a way. There are many instances where our employees have tackled challenges with passion and made the impossible possible. When 9/11 happened, US aviation systems were shut down and many companies struggled to locate their staff. As a priority, to meet this need, we launched TravelTracker three months later, providing our clients with travel itinerary information at the push of the button. When Sars first broke out in 2003, we designed the first Portable Medical Isolation Unit for transporting Sars patients, in just 10 ten days. When the tsunami hit Asia in 2004, we were one of the first organisations to deploy our people on the ground and help evacuate many of the injured.

As the world becomes increasingly connected, we are pioneering digital initiatives like telehealth solutions and mobile apps to help our clients stay abreast of medical and security risks, ensuring our clients access to advisory from the remotest part of the world.

Vinson Chua Co-Founder and VP Sales and Marketing Lumani Pte Ltd

LUMANI is passionate about looking for small, effective changes to benefit the environment. Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. It's real, and it's happening now. When it comes to saving the environment, people tend to think of grand measures - electric cars, bio-fuels and water recycling. While these are important, through smart energy use in buildings, we can accumulate pockets of savings all year around, and have a long-term impact on the environment. This approach means being environmentally friendly, every single day. To inspire change and build environmental consciousness, we are taking part in the upcoming MCE Asia during Singapore Green Building Week. Our smart solutions present exciting ways to optimise energy use and drive the sustainability agenda forward. We hope to similarly inspire Singaporeans to be more environmentally friendly, in order to secure the country's energy future and tackle climate change.

Sandeep Girotra Senior Vice-President, Asia Pacific and Japan Nokia

WE are experiencing a colossal shift in the way we communicate with one another today. Connectivity, sensors, devices and analytics are creating incredible outcomes for both individuals and industries - from transportation and manufacturing to healthcare or public services. You can only imagine the massive opportunities for everyone, but also the enormous challenges that lie ahead of us. In Asia, rapid urbanisation, a difficult economic environment and increasing pressures to be more efficient through new technologies are threatening a potentially bright digital future. But our passion for innovation helps us constantly rise to the challenge of digital transformation and reimagine the future of Asia. At Nokia, we continue to use our innovation leadership in 5G infrastructure and emerging applications to focus on driving digital transformation, building next-generation networks and creating technology to connect the world.

Jean-Michel Dumont Chairman Ruder Finn Asia

THE saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link holds much truth in today's corporate world. Staff retention and development are key boardroom concerns and core to financial success. Today, talent motivation goes beyond monthly payslips. Creating the right culture, one which inspires all and creates a tight community, is crucial. Career development programmes, customised training modules and fast-track mentoring programmes focusing on high-potential employees are also key. With millennials becoming increasingly mobile, staff exchanges, building and strengthening teamwork and culture across offices are needed. Beyond helping our clients' internal communication, we have applied many of these elements to ourselves and are recognised as the "Best Asia-Pacific (communications) Network to work for" last week in a regional survey. So it must be working!

Steve O'Neil CEO REC Group

AT REC, we're in a close relationship with solar energy, and are unafraid to go over the top to express our passion. To further our "sunny commitment", we constantly look into various ways to unleash the full potential of solar as a source of renewable energy including technology upgrades and investing in research and development. Fuelled by passion, we have reaped results since and pushed boundaries for innovative and creative solar solutions for our clients. The Singapore brand is one that's built upon the diversity of its people as well as the dynamism of businesses here, and we're proud to be part of the ecosystem to reimagine and reshape perspectives to create value.

Shahzad Nasim Executive Chairman Meinhardt Group

MEINHARDT is one of the most respected engineering companies in the world and the largest independent engineering consultancy in Asia. Over the last 60 years, we have engineered icons around the world including the Dubai Mall, Gardens by the Bay, Aladdin City (Dubai), Nairobi Towers (tallest building in Africa), Signature Towers (unusual shaped skyscraper in Dubai designed by Zaha Hadid - see attached photo), and the Marina Bay Financial Centre amongst others. Our 4,500 staff believe in challenging the status quo and making the impossible possible. That is why our clients keep coming back to us (more than 50 per cent of them are repeat customers) especially when they have a very challenging engineering project on hand.

Peter Mackenzie Managing Director Harley-Davidson, Asia Emerging Markets and China

AT Harley-Davidson, we're passionate about helping people fulfil their dreams of personal freedom. Our new global brand platform, All for Freedom, Freedom for All is a rallying cry to our current customers and an open invitation to everyone who rides or wants to ride to come join us. To make our brand more accessible, we're expanding our dealer network and innovating for the next generation of riders by introducing new, adrenaline-fuelled motorcycles such as Street Rod™. We're also extending our reach beyond current customers via programmes such as Passport to Freedom that incentivise riders to obtain their large-engine motorcycle license.

Helen Ng Chief Executive Officer General Storage Company Pte Ltd

WHEN we launched the It Feels Like Home corporate social responsibility initiative with Exclusively Mongrels last Christmas, we wanted to humanise the self-storage industry by featuring Singapore Specials Posing with our staff at different storage facilities. Some of our staff were understandably nervous and we also had difficulties getting the dogs to pose for the photos, but our passion for and commitment to the project gave us the patience and strength to overcome the challenges. Hundreds of dog lovers and self-storage users liked and shared the photo stories on Facebook. We managed get people to see the industry in a different light and raise awareness of the plight of street dogs.

Kevin Chow Chief Executive Officer Thales Singapore

THANKS to our passionate team, we won a significant contract with a major airline, gaining a foothold over their long-standing incumbent supplier. By collaboration and co-innovation with the customer, we had the opportunity to understand their ambitions, prototype and test new concepts with them, right here in Singapore. The close proximity and direct engagement encouraged both sides to be deeply vested in the process, and enabled our teams to design and deliver an extraordinary, next-generation solution. Aside from just delivering the product, our 650-strong local footprint provides quick operational support, enabling the partnership to flourish for the future. We are sure our passionate team here will continue making new things possible for our customers.

Karl Hamann Chief Executive Officer QBE Insurance (Singapore) Pte Ltd

COINCIDENTALLY, QBE's corporate tagline is "Made Possible" and, like Singapore's government, we are motivated by working with businesses and individuals so they can succeed. By helping people manage risks and overcome challenges, we deliver peace of mind and reduce their exposure to things that might otherwise prevent them from achieving their goals. Our passion is to help our customers avert worst-case scenarios so they in turn can focus on their own passions, which ultimately benefits both the economy and the community. What comes after that are the stories that make Singapore what it is.

Lee Kwok Cheong Chief Executive Officer Singapore Institute of Management Holdings

ONE of the most impactful ways to help passion take flight is through the deliberate creation of opportunities. Singapore is a land of opportunities that encourages the indomitable drive to always push the boundaries. One such opportunity, the opportunity for a good education and for continual learning, has and will continue to be a catalyst for individuals and enterprises to succeed. Singapore is an important gateway to personal and economic aspirations for many passionate youths across Asia and the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) is proud to play an important role in this. Today we have become an exciting destination for a growing Asian population interested to better themselves and to learn about how the world works - right here in Singapore.

Martin Mackay President and General Manager for Asia Pacific & Japan CA Technologies

ELIMINATING the barriers between ideas and business outcomes is our mission and what drives us as a company. Our software enables our customers to do this on a daily basis, and we reflect it in our DNA - the structured definition of our culture - by being creative, agile and resilient. We have an internal programme, CA Accelerator, that is all about encouraging innovation, stoking passion and making possible the impossible. It functions like a lean startup, where our innovators receive support and funding to get new products into the market through experimentation, problem-solving, while keeping the customers involved at every stage. We know great ideas only matter when they become real products and services that are relevant.

We are helping companies differentiate themselves through the customer experiences they offer in this digital world. We do this by putting software at the heart of their business - because they understand that in the application economy, customer relationships are defined through software.

Edwin Khew Teck Fook President The Institution of Engineers, Singapore

AT IES, passion truly makes our work possible. All members of our Council and committees are volunteers. They choose to serve out of pure zeal to advance engineering for the benefit of engineers and humankind.

One of our biggest challenges at IES is in getting our young, to take on engineering as a course of study and a career especially when future Singapore needs engineers to meet the needs of our Smart Nation initiative and to support advancements in Industry 4.0 in the manufacturing sector. To quote our PM "to do such Smart Nation projects, big or small, we need engineers, programmers, data analysts, technicians. We have got to continue to push such projects. The world is changing. Unless we change with it, we will fall behind".

Sonya Madeira Founder Rice Communications

I STARTED Rice in 2009 as a team of one, to help international businesses engage and influence their stakeholders in Asia. From the beginning, our clients saw in us expertise and experience, but above all, they saw passion - to be flexible when others follow norms, to create solutions when no template exists. That has meant entering an uncharted market like Myanmar to help clients break through, and starting our very own satellite in China. The fact that just eight years on, we are a team of 30 who speak at least 12 different languages across the region, has proven that from this little red dot, passion does indeed go a long way.

Derrick Chang CEO PSB Academy

IN 1964, as the Productivity and Standards Board, we were one of Singapore's earliest productivity champions. 51 years on, with industry changes stemming from rapid digitisation, we needed to chart a new direction for PSB Academy, to take the institution into the future, and make the idea of productivity relevant again for our workers and fresh school-leavers alike. Because the 21st century workforce needs a smarter brand of education to prepare them for a disrupted age, we have rededicated ourselves to this mission as The Future Academy, with programmes that focus on developing a workforce who are ready to make a contribution to Singapore's Industry Transformation Maps, and fuel our Smart Nation ambitions. Our passion for this mission has strengthened our resolve to foster strong collaboration with key partners from academia, industry and the community. This unity in ambition from staff and lecturers alike, helped launch a S$15 million modern City Campus in the heart of Singapore, unveil new skills-based programmes, and evolve our digital learning platforms to keep our legacy in producing industry and future-ready graduates very much alive in this New Economy.

Jayaprakash Jagateesan Chief Executive Officer RHT Holdings Pte Ltd

THANKS to the passion, determination and commitment of our people, RHT Holdings continues to make a difference day after day for our clients. At the heart of the RHT spirit is how we maintain transparent communication for speedy problem solving and how our culture of openness encourages our staff to think deeply and innovate constantly. In today's fast-moving global environment, information moves at lightning speed and easily overloads our senses. The key challenge for most businesses is to make sense of the information that is available and leverage that insight in order to make good decisions and achieve a breakthrough in thinking. We at RHT sought to turn that challenge into an opportunity by combining both technology and human capital, thus transforming raw pieces of information into knowledge. This will be key to enhancing our service experience and to achieving satisfactory business outcomes for our clients.

Zaheer K Merchant Regional Director (Singapore & Europe) QI Group of Companies

OUR company believes in tackling challenges by embracing the struggles associated with them, as we believe that a passion-driven approach almost always requires sacrifices which can be remarkably rewarding and revitalising when a seemingly impossible task - be it due to meeting deadlines or finding alternatives to a dead end - is completed. We find that this process works best by introducing shake ups abruptly and from time to time by, for example, nudging employees outside their comfort zones and throw them into entirely "square peg in round hole" approaches to work to let them have a whole new experience and to rekindle their passion in the work place. Once they realise that there is much to be appreciated, having rediscovered new ways to improvise and reimagine their daily scope of work, a new sense of purpose is injected. It keeps what may otherwise be mundane work or environment fresh and challenging.

Christophe Duchatellier CEO, Asia Pacific The Adecco Group

AT the Adecco Group, we believe that work is a basic need and a basic right. It is our goal to provide more work opportunities for more people. This is a motivating and challenging goal given that the world of work is fast changing driven by complex and interconnected conditions of economy, technology, demographics, sociology and regulation. And this change is very well manifested in Singapore's ongoing transformation into a knowledge-based economy. In this environment, passion, which is one of the Adecco core values, helps us to go about achieving our goal. We are passionate about people: our colleagues, associates and clients. And we combine this passion with a spirit of entrepreneurship to find people work, give them experience and the opportunity to build their futures.

Wong Heng Chew Country President Fujitsu Singapore

THE pace of change in this industry is tremendous and every employee has to rise to the challenge of creating new value amid changes in the management environment, technology, society and the marketplace. With the constant pursuit of innovation as part of Fujitsu's DNA, we build on our strengths, heritage, and experience to look at trends, move with them, and evolve. As we provide IT infrastructure solutions to underpin our modern world, we set our sights far to grow our expertise and find a competitive edge in high-growth areas such as IoT and robotics. Through the constant pursuit of new possibilities enabled by IT, we are committed to challenge boundaries as advancements in IT continue to turn people's dreams into reality.