Lessons learnt from the pandemic stand companies in good stead

““We are facing a labour crunch and high costs year-on-year due to inflation and geopolitical issues in the region. Still, on top of a local customer base, our international network of forwarding agents and offices allows us to tap onto overseas enquiries and opportunities. Together with our value-added services, we can diversify the freight services and extend them to warehousing and logistics end-to-end solutions for our clients.””

Altron Shipping chief executive officer, Leo Teng Hong

““Amid the expected global downturn, the Singapore housing market continues to see prices climb. The public and private sector will continue to invest in housing and infrastructure as demand from locals, the expatriate community and business entities remains strong ... We will continue to navigate issues such as the current manpower crunch, supply chain disruption, inflation, rising cost of materials and the ongoing war in Europe, with no end in sight.””

Asia Piling managing director, Ang Boon Hai

““During the pandemic, AsiaEdge faced the double whammy of client organisations hit by low oil prices, together with the inability to conduct face-to-face training courses due to border closures and social-distancing measures. To strengthen our resilience, AsiaEdge focused on a number of new initiatives, including adopting virtual reality training and creating high-demand training courses in topics such as energy transition, carbon-capture technologies, hydrogen and related new energy sources.””

AsiaEdge co-founder and director, Easwaran P Kanason

““Transformation is key for businesses to stay afloat. Constantly looking into solutions that will reduce business risk, while investing in opportunities that can provide great potential upside, will help increase the chances of survival in the upcoming waves. At AWHL, we constantly march forward with new transformations – with one being our bold venture into the luxury market, a private members’ watch club called 33 Club.“”

A Wellness Holdings (AWHL) Group chief executive officer, Arich Tan

““Post-pandemic, we face both a sudden drop in Covid-related job roles as well as an economy on the brink of recession, resulting in a tightened labour market on most fronts. Our team has expanded our services in the human resource (HR) space and built an entirely new division within the span of a year. I’m proud to say we now offer the full suite of HR services, from recruitment and payroll to manpower outsource and work pass advisory.””

Business Edge founder, J J Koh

““During the pandemic, healthcare really became front and centre as the inadequacies globally were laid bare. Post-pandemic, the experience INEX gained from our pivot into Covid-19 testing has led us to further expand into other infectious disease testing services at our iGene Laboratory, and the team has developed skills in delivering new laboratory platforms and work flows that will continue to be utilised post pandemic.””

INEX Innovate chief executive officer, Kane Black

““Rising inflation, Covid-battered economies as well as the Russia-Ukraine war cast further uncertainties to the challenges faced by NW Corporation. With rising freight rates and high oil prices, trade financing remains one of the hurdles to overcome. However, with challenges in the oil and gas market, new markets in non-oil products such as agriculture and minerals open up. This ties in well again with the company’s diversification into other commodities.””

NW Corporation chief executive officer, Borg Ang

““With the rising expectations of most Good Class Bungalow (GCB) sellers, some of whom have adjusted their price upwards, it will be a challenge to bridge the price gap between the expectations of both the seller and the buyer ... there will be fewer GCB transactions for three to six months before we see an increase in transactions due to pent-up demand.””

RealStar Premier Property chief executive officer, William Wong

““With the current inflation rates and the increasing mortgage rates in Singapore, we expect to see a shift in demand and supply behaviour for the real estate market. It is, therefore, important for us to focus on identifying new opportunities that will happen within the various segments and upskill our salespeople to embrace these changes so we can future-proof our business and ensure it remains sustainable.””

Singapore Realtors Inc chief executive officer, Tony Koe

““This pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital technologies. It gave rise to new concepts in “remote work” and “remote customer”, which in turn, became the new norm as we move forward. As a cybersecurity provider continually monitoring new threats, we are shaping ourselves to enable our customers to build better business resilience throughout their entire cybersecurity life cycle as they transform their business models and technological adoption.””

Tindo chief executive officer, Terence Siau

““As educators – whether it is before, during, or after the pandemic – we constantly remind ourselves to stay true to the original mission of providing quality Chinese language education to our students irrespective of the circumstances, which is especially significant as we enter our 15th year of operations. In the coming year, we will continue to explore opportunities to expand our local footprint by bringing our pedagogy to more students in new locations.””

Wang Learning Centre founder, Wang Jie