


JUDGING PANEL

Lawrence Leow
Crescendas Group
Lawrence Leow is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Crescendas Group, a diversified and dynamic group of businesses spanning property, hospitality, manufacturing, distribution and technology, with more than 1,600 employees working in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka, Maldives and United States.
Lawrence has been active in both social and business community work. He is presently the Patron of Yew Tee Citizens’ Consultative Committee and a board director of Ren Ci Hospital. He also serves as Honorary Treasurer of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and chaired the SBF-led Small and Medium Enterprises Committee (SMEC) from 2012 to 2018. He is now Advisor to the SMEC and represents Singapore on the APEC Business Advisory Council, besides chairing the East Asia Business Council. He is also a Panel Member of Enterprise Singapore LEAD Evaluation Panel (LEP) and sits on the SIAS Management Committee serving as the
Honorary Secretary.
Lawrence was formerly a Nominated Member of the Parliament of Singapore. He was President of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises from 2002 to 2011. Lawrence was also a board member of the Central Provident Fund Board, SPRING Singapore and the National Arts Council. In addition, he was previously a member of the Pro-Enterprise Panel for the Ministry of Trade and Industry and a member of the Customs Advisory Council for the Singapore Customs.
For his public service and community work, he was awarded a Public Service Medal (PBM) in 2015 and the People’s Association Grand Award for Community Service in 2017. Lawrence’s business achievements were also recognised when he won the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Diversified Industries) in 2016.
Lennon Tan
Adera Global
Mr Lennon Tan started his career as an engineer in the Petrochemical industry before spending 10 years with American multinational, 3M. His last role before leaving 3M was managing and developing business for 3M, covering 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific.
In 2001, he decided to pursue his dream of being an entrepreneur.
After taking over a smart card manufacturing business in China, he tapped on technology and innovation to transform the manufacturing outfit into the top 10 global smart card producers in the world, before transforming the company to the leading Fintech and BPO solutions provider it is today.
Today, Adera Global has evolved and transformed its capabilities to lead in fields of Artificial Intelligence, automation, digitalization, secured data handling, data analytics and smart technologies. Headquartered in Singapore, the company is a diversified group of companies holding assets of more than USD $250 million, employing over 2000 employees, including 200 R&D engineers over 20 offices worldwide.
In 2017, Lennon was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Financial Technology Enablement) from global professional services firm Ernst & Young. Lennon is the President of the Teochew Entrepreneurs Club and also serves as Adviser to Women Entrepreneur Club.


Claire Chiang
Ms Claire Chiang is co-founder of Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts and pioneered the Group’s retail business. As Chairperson for China Business Development she focuses on acquiring new management contracts, and as an Advisor on Human Capital Development guides strategic issues in organisational and human capital capability. She also chairs Banyan Tree Global Foundation, the Group’s sustainability arm.
Ms Chiang is currently the Chairperson for Singapore Book Council. She was appointed Director of Wildlife Reserves Singapore Conservation Fund, Mandai Park Holdings and Denmark-based ISS A/S in 2015. She was appointed as a Director of Singapore Art Museum in 2016 and was also recently appointed a Member of the Singapore Biennale 2019 Steering Committee.
A Justice of the Peace since 2008, her many affiliations also include, Member of the National Arts Council, Chairperson of the Shirin Fozdar Programme at Singapore Management University, Deputy Registrar of Marriages cum Licensed Solemnizer, Honorary Council Member of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) and advisor to Help Every Lone Parent (HELP).
For her advocacy in social issues, Ms Chiang has won national and international awards, including the Public Service Star BBM in 2014 for her contribution to implementing work-life integration. In April 2016, she received NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Science’s Distinguished Arts and Social Sciences Alumni Award and was also awarded Friend of the Arts by the National Arts Council in 2017.
She was the winner of the Supernova Category at the inaugural Women Entrepreneur Award (WEA) 2017 and was, in March 2018, inducted to the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame (SWHF) established by Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO).

DR LIM WEE KIAK
Member of Parliament
CEO
EAGLE EYE CENTRE

TIN PEI LING
Member of Parliament
CEO
Director, Corp Dev,
GRAB
Board Member,
BUSINESS CHINA

CHEW MOK LEE
Assistant Chief Executive
ICM & DIGITALISATION,
ENTERPRISE SERVICES & NEW INDUSTRIES
ENTERPRISE SINGAPORE

TAN WEE BENG
Deputy Chief Executive (Operations)
SKILLSFUTURE SINGAPORE

HOWIE LAU
Managing Partner, Corp Dev & Partnerships, NCS

LAWRENCE LEOW
Chairman & CEO
CRESCENDAS GROUP
JUDGING CRITERIA
- Entrepreneurial Journey
- Financial Performance
- Strategic Direction
- Innovation & Disruption
- Market Growth
- Business Viability & Sustainability
- Business Model Scalability
- Corporate Social Responsibility
Please use the questions below as a guide to write the Award Submission Proposal. It is not compulsory to input all questions and you are free to bring in other pointers not mentioned here that support the sections. Please complete all sections in Award Submission Proposal.
Entrepreneurial Journey
(Max Word Count: 1000 words)
1.1 What ignited the spark for you to start the business/ businesses?
1.2 What were some challenges that you faced during your entrepreneurial journey? How did you overcome these difficulties?
1.3 What were some of the biggest breakthroughs and achievements which you had faced as an entrepreneur?
1.4 What was a key important lesson which you had learnt in being an entrepreneur?
Section 2
Financial Performance
(Max Word Count: 1000 words)
2.1 What was the company’s revenue and profit growth in the last 3 financial years?
2.2 How is the company projected to perform in the next 3 years? What are the factors/ reasons that will contribute to this performance?
2.3 How is the company raising capital?
Section 3
Strategic Direction
(Max Word Count: 1000 words)
3.1 What is the vision and mission of the company?
3.2 What are some key corporate goals set?
3.3 What have you done to lead the company to achieve the vision and mission? Eg. talent building and retention, operational excellence, resource utilisation, intellectual property multiplication, branding, customer service, innovation, R&D or technology are non-mutually exclusive examples of business activities you could highlight.
3.4 What are the key values that have impacted you as an entrepreneur? How have you infused these values into the Company?
Section 4
Innovation & Disruption
(Max Word Count: 1000 words)
4.1 How are you as a leader inspiring change in the company?
4.2 How are you encouraging an innovative culture?
4.3 How much are you spending on Research & Development of Innovative activities eg. Rollout of new products and services, business concepts, etc.?
4.4 Please name at least one innovative project in your company that has resulted in growth/ improvement to processes? Cite measureable outcomes.
4.5 How has the company been encouraging disruptive values/ actions amongst its staff that has changed the business’s course of direction?
Section 5
Market Growth
(Max Word Count: 1000 words)
5.1 Please explain how your products and services are positioned in the market(s) that your Company is serving? If there is a Blue Ocean strategy, please mention.
5.2 What are the strategies and plans to expand the market share of the company?
5.3 Please cite target audience/ markets of intended or new markets expansion and corresponding penetration strategies
5.4 Please cite new product innovations or technologies adopted that has helped to achieve market penetration, if any
Section 6
Business Viability & Sustainability
(Max Word Count: 500 words)
6.1 How is the company ensuring that the business model is kept dynamic and resilient in the face of changing economic and market environments, competition, customers’ preferences and country regulations?
6.2 What are the strategies, plans and budget spend to expand, improve and adapt the business model?
6.3 How is the company ensuring good liquidity management practices? Please explain how existing debt obligations, cash flow projections and adequacy of cash flows can meet these obligations in the next three years.
6.4 How adequate is the financial support from financial institutions and/ shareholders funds for re-financing and other liquidity requirements?
Section 7
Business Model Scalability
(Max Word Count: 500 words)
7.1 What are the current capabilities that will allow you to scale your business model? What are the areas of improvement needed before you can scale your business model?
7.2 Please identify and cite opportunities of the current business model to scale up your current sales and customer base. You can elaborate in these areas:
- Internal Scalability – leverage on external resources, digitization & automation, finding right people and partners to scale, eliciting feedback, etc.
- External Scalability – finding high growth market (s), new customer and channel acquisition, assessing market constraints, etc.
7.3 Please rate how scalable is your business model – low, medium, high. Please provide supporting reasons for your answer.
Section 8
Corporate Social Responsibility
(Max Word Count: 500 words)
8.1 What are some key social responsibility or community initiatives you have started and are carrying out in the Company?
8.2 How have these social responsibility or community initiatives within the Company helped to improve culture, care, cohesiveness or values transference?
(All categories to answer, except Stellar)