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Hearing from Diana Gan, EMBA’19Dec – Founder of Elementary Capital

What were your key takeaways after graduating from INSEAD in relation to having a positive social impact on the community? Creating positive impact starts from realising how our relationship with other people and the planet are shaped. Understanding impact lays the foundation for which we exist, and it can be a competitive advantage for businesses.

What do you believe are the critical elements for a business to act as a force for good? Nurturing people and getting the organisation mindset ready. If we provide people with the knowledge and the tools to create impact, the leadership sets a clear direction and empowers individual agency to drive the movement, collective transformation can happen.

What are some specific actions employees should do to enable a positive social impact on our community? Respect and care for others, take pride in doing the right thing, have no fear in calling out influences and behaviour that are toxic to the environment and toxic to other people.

What are some examples in your profession/ company where you’ve experienced BAFG first-hand? Educational offering that is democratising access to quality education, protecting the teaching profession and solving mental health issues. Climate tech companies that are driving decarbonisation. Waste management companies that are reducing plastic and other environmental pollution.

What key BAFG principles would you like businesses in Singapore to embrace? Act as a beacon for creating and sustaining impact. Share best practices with the world. Encourage international exchanges to leverage on latest R&D.

What were the main reasons for accepting an invitation to be an IAA Singapore BAFG judge? There are many like-minded people who care about leading impactful lives. This is a lifelong pursuit underscored by a sense of urgency; if we keep driving the impact agenda collectively, together we can go further and…faster…

What motivated you to be an advocate for businesses to act as a force for good? The destructive forces of over-consumption and neglect for the environment are untenable. We also need to take a hard look at people-to-people connection. I hope I can create some positive examples upon which my children can continue to build.

Catch-up with 2022 Judges – Interview series

Post #1 – Li Lian Liew GEMBA’13 – Director, Corporate Planning at Tan Tock Seng Hospital & Central Health

Meeting our 2023 Judges – Interview series

Post #1 – Diana Gan – Founder of Elementary Capital

Hearing from Li Lian Liew GEMBA’13 – Director, Corporate Planning at Tan Tock Seng Hospital & Central Health

How did you determine which businesses demonstrated a strong commitment to being a force for good? Essentially I used frameworks to judge. The ESG notion of People, Planet and Profit was an easy trio to remember so I looked for companies that not just tick the boxes but balance them. At the interview stage, I asked more probing questions about their business model because if these frameworks are not built into their ethos, then it probably will not be a sustainable force for good. 

How do you balance the need to recognize businesses that are making a positive impact with the reality that many businesses must prioritize profitability in order to survive? Most people think of the environment, but I also focused on the communities in which they exist, and whether their governance structure could withstand threats from externalities. I used DEI frameworks as well because it generates significantly better business decisions, so I know that those companies are also in good hands and perhaps more bankable. Like all VCs say, it’s the team that matters.

Meet the judges interview series

Series #1 – Li Lian Liew GEMBA’13 – Director, Corporate Planning at Tan Tock Seng Hospital & Central Health

In the years following World War II, Georges Doriot came up with the idea that the world needed a new kind of educational institution—one that united people, embraced diversity, and leveraged business to rebuild nations and promote peace. He envisioned an institution that could make a meaningful contribution to society.

That institution, of course, was INSEAD. In the decades since its founding in 1957, our school has never wavered from that vision. Our belief in using business as a force for good has come to define who we are, what we stand for, and how we conduct ourselves in the world.

INSEAD Alumni Association Singapore is pleased to launch “Business as a Force for Good” Award (BAFG Award) 2023.

Objectives

The Award recognizes Singapore companies and individuals who have demonstrated thought-leadership with respect to “Business as a Force for Good”, have a vision, mission statement and strategy clearly demonstrating their commitment, have developed best practices and have achieved remarkable economical results and/or meaningful societal impact.

Eligibility and Award Categories

All Singapore based companies* will be considered for the following award categories:

• BAFG Award 2023 for social enterprise in Singapore
• BAFG Award 2023 for start-ups in Singapore (established under 3 years)
• BAFG Award 2023 for SMEs in Singapore (revenue under S$100m or less than 200 workers)
• BAFG Award 2023 for corporates in Singapore (revenue more than S$100m or more than 200 workers)
• BAFG Award 2023 for incubator/accelarator/VC 

*Operating as a Singapore legal entity and registered with ACRA https://www.acra.gov.sg/

A jury made up of alumni leaders from various industries will identify the award winner. Selections will be based on the positive impact the organization has had on society through its programme or its core business activities.

Awards

The winners will be announced at the IAA Singapore AGM on Mar 2023.

Application or nomination

Please complete this link with the name of your company or a company you would like to nominate. We will need the name of a representative (yourself or another person-in-charge from the company nominated) whom the selection committee will contact for further details.

We will shortlist the Top 3 finalists from each category and they will have to submit a document (Powerpoint / PDF) with no more than 10 slides / pages including the introduction of your company and any other supplementary information.

The top 3 finalists from each category will then present to a panel of judges between 14 to 18 Feb 2023. They will have 15 mins to present and another 15 mins for Q&A.

Application and Nominations must be received no later than 5 PM Singapore time, 3 Feb 2023.

Conclusion

The “Business as a Force for Good” Award is a wonderful opportunity to recognize best practices, to give visibility to deserving companies and to promote INSEAD’s mission. We are very much looking forward to hearing from you soon.

For more information, contact Tan Eng Hwa at [email protected] or Jaz Chua [email protected] 

Gold Sponsors:

Diversity and Performance

Past Winners

2022 

• Corporate Winner – ENGIE Factory Asia Pacific & ENGIE South East Asia, Thomas Baudlot and Edwin Cheang
• SME Winner – RightShip, Gurpreet Singh MBA’14D
• Startup Winner – INSEACT, Michael Badeski MBA’19J and Tim Van Vliet MBA’19J,
• Social Enterprise Winner – B1G1, Masami Sato

2021

• Kacific Broadband Satellite, Christian Patouraux MBA’03D,CEO

2020

• Right People Renewable Energy, Robin Pho EMEBA’17Jan, Founder
  

2019

• ECOSOFTT, Marcus Lim (TIEMBA’13Jan) and Stanley Samuel (TIEMBA’13Jan), Founders

Where are they now? Catching up with past winners

• Right People Renewable Energy
• ECOSOFTT – MoneyFM
• ECOSOFTT – Study International

This year’s Global INSEAD Day (GID) is special and long-awaited as we return to celebrate it on campus. To make it even more memorable, we will bring the INSEAD community together through a series of engaging activities and thought-provoking sessions.

And, that’s not all…there’s a raffle to be won!

The theme, “Our View From Here” centres around Career, Culture, and Community. We will showcase intellectually stimulating sessions and a masterclass by an INSEAD Faculty. Networking opportunities and social activities will be part of the event. The celebrations will go on into the evening with refreshing drinks followed by a delicious dinner.

Check out the Agenda here and fill out the GID registration form where you will indicate the sessions you wish to attend during the day.  If you are a member of IAA SG and attend in person tomorrow, your name will be entered into a raffle for a 2-day / 2-night stay at the exclusive Alila Hotels and Resorts in Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia, sponsored by 1982 Ventures, a leading seed fintech fund focused on Southeast Asia, founded by Herston Powers, GEMBA ’18 and Scott Krivokopich, INSEAD EEP.

We are honoured to announce that ENGIE Factory Asia Pacific & ENGIE South East Asia have been named Corporate winners in the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good Awards!

These awards honour Singapore-based companies who have:

• Demonstrated thought-leadership with respect to “Business as a Force for Good (BAFG)”
• Created a vision, mission statement and strategy clearly demonstrating their BAFG commitment
• Developed corporate social responsibility best practices
• Achieved remarkable economical results and meaningful societal impact to the BAFG initiatives including but not limited to Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Sustainability.

“We congratulate ENGIE Factory and ENGIE South East Asia for winning the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good (Corporate category) Award,” said IAA BAFG lead Tan Eng Hwa TIEMBA’16. “The award reflects their commitment to engage in responsible business practises that serves society’s needs in a sustainable way.” 

ENGIE South East Asia helps customers decarbonize by reducing their energy consumption through affordable green energy solutions. They offer innovative energy solutions that enhance energy performance for businesses and communities. The company acts throughout the value chain and offers solutions to enable an affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy transition for their clients. 

“Accelerating Southeast Asia’s energy transition towards carbon neutrality is ENGIE’s core focus and winning the Business as a Force for Good award is a recognition of the commitment from all our teams in the region to build a carbon free future. By integrating proven and innovative solutions, we are helping sectors such as Industry, Real-Estate and Data Centers, commit to a fast paced transformation journey to net zero,” said Thomas Baudlot, CEO Energy Solutions APAC and Country Head South East Asia.

To accelerate their decarbonisation efforts, the company has a dedicated corporate venture arm called ENGIE Factory (formed since 2018) which focuses on building new climate-tech startup solutions. ENGIE Factory works with founders to deliver investment-grade venture opportunities. They build their ventures by combining the best of both worlds: the entrepreneurial skillset and the established corporate assets. This results in commercialised climate-tech solutions that are customer-focused, affordable, and market-ready.

“As a corporate venture builder, ENGIE Factory takes a strategic approach to building and investing in new founders and ventures to accelerate the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. The promise of a financial return alone is not enough for us to invest in a startup. We balance the requirement for financial gain with strategic benefit for the wider ENGIE group and, most importantly, the benefit for the planet and society by targeting 100Mt of carbon abatement per venture, ” said Edwin Cheang, COO, ENGIE Factory.

ENGIE Factory plans to scale their Venture Build Program across Asia Pacific and the Middle East where they work with their founders to iterate, prototype and test ideas and together, build a startup fit for international growth. Founders will have access to ENGIE’s domain expertise, and ENGIE business units, as well as their client network across 70 countries. Their founders who successfully complete the program will also receive seed funding while retaining majority equity and the freedom to set the business direction and see their venture vision come to life. 

For more information, go to

• ENGIE Factory www.apac.engiefactory.com
• ENGIE South East Asia www.engie-sea.com

We are honoured to announce that RightShip has been named SME winner in the INSEAD Alumni Association (IAA) Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good Awards! 

These awards honour Singapore-based companies who have:

• Demonstrated thought-leadership with respect to “Business as a Force for Good (BAFG)”
• Created a vision, mission statement and strategy clearly demonstrating their BAFG commitment
• Developed corporate social responsibility best practices
• Achieved remarkable economical results and meaningful societal impact to the BAFG initiatives including but not limited to Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Sustainability.

 “We congratulate RightShip for winning the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good (SME category) Award,” said IAA BAFG lead Tan Eng Hwa TIEMBA’16. “ RightShip’s award reflects their commitment to engaging in responsible business practises that serves society’s needs in a sustainable way.” 

Judges were impressed by RightShip’s focus on human life, usage of digital solutions to target seafarers’ safety, and use of emission insights helping ports understand their environmental footprint and bringing transparency to the shipping industry. 

To drive ‘zero harm’ in the maritime industry, RightShip takes a holistic view of safety, sustainability and crew welfare. Enabled by technology, data and insights are fed back to stakeholders, enabling rational and transparent decision making which in turn contribute towards safer ships and cleaner seas. By taking on the toughest challenges for the shipping industry, RightShip has a positive impact on human life and our planet in general.

Gurpreet Singh MBA’14D, the Chief Commercial Officer shared, “We are honoured to be named the winner and look forward to contributing more and doing Business as a Force for Good.”

About RightShip

RightShip is an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) provider for members in the maritime ecosystem. They believe in using the power of data and analytics to provide transparency to their customers and partners. 

RightShip does this with the intent of helping customers achieve global safety and sustainability standards. At the core of RightShip’s offering is their vision: A maritime industry that causes zero harm. As a purpose-driven organization, they aspire towards that vision via three strategic pillars: safety, environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Ninety percent of international trade moves via our seas and oceans, and as such, the maritime industry as a key driver is important to many of us. It touches our lives in a variety of ways, whether it is from the reliance on food imports in a small market like Singapore, or from the kind of fuels that are transported between energy consumers and producers. 

With these numerous touchpoints, shipping is commonly seen as a barometer of the global economy. 

The very backbone of shipping is the 1.8m seafarers operating on 74,000 vessels globally, 24/7, who keep our economy running by navigating the seven seas and bringing various goods to our doorstep. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the role of seafarers came into the spotlight on the back of a humanitarian crisis where, due to international lockdowns, many of them were away from their families for extended periods of time. What used to be a three-month period at sea extended itself for some into a year, and in some cases up to two years. 

RightShip’s core impact in relation to BAFG

One of RightShip’s newest initiatives, the Crew Welfare Assessment, provides a barometer on the living and working conditions of seafarers onboard. In exercising care for our seafarers, there are positive knock-on effects such as reducing risks of incidents and accidents on the vessels they support. 

The maritime ecosystem is a complex one, with multiple parties including shipowners, charterers, ports and financiers. In progressing towards our zero-harm future, RightShip recognizes that no one party can achieve this alone. As such, they engage in active collaborations with partners in several ways: promoting joint product development or raising awareness and advocacy at an industry level. 

Through their solutions, in 2021, RightShip performed thousands of physical vessel inspections and vetted over 13,000 unique ships.

Ultimately, RightShip aims to work together synchronizing the improvement of conditions for our people, the planet and society. They do this via data and technology that overlays multiple parties, which are especially crucial in our complex maritime ecosystem.

We’re honoured to announce that INSEACT has been named start-up winner in the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good Awards! These awards honour Singapore-based companies who have:

• Demonstrated thought-leadership with respect to “Business as a Force for Good (BAFG)”
• Created a vision, mission statement and strategy clearly demonstrating their BAFG commitment
• Developed corporate social responsibility best practices
• Achieved remarkable economical results and meaningful societal impact to the BAFG initiatives including but not limited to Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Sustainability.

 “We congratulate INSEACT for winning the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good (Social Enterprise category) Award,” said IAA BAFG lead Tan Eng Hwa TIEMBA’16. “INSEACT’s award reflects their commitment to engaging in responsible business practises that serve society’s needs in a sustainable way.”  

 Michael Badeski MBA’19J, INSEACT Co-Founder & COO and Tim Van Vliet MBA’19J, INSEACT Co-Founder & CEO of INSEACT added, “We are honoured to be named the winner and we look forward to doing Business as a Force for Good”.

About INSEACT

INSEACT was founded as an INSEAD 19J student project to sustainably bridge the protein-population gap. Last January, the company had no employees and only partially secured seed funding. Today, they have 8 Singapore-based employees producing insect protein from the most advanced insect pilot facility in the country. Their first commercial-scale facility is scheduled to be built in Malaysia later in the year. After winning the 37th INSEAD Venture Competition and Coromandel Social Impact Awards, co-founders Tim Van Vliet MBA’19 J and Michael Badeski MBA’19 J raised US$1.3mn of seed funding. The company will raise a Series A later in the year.

INSEACT’s core impact in relation to BAFG 

Today it takes 2kg of wild-caught fish from the ocean to produce 1kg of farmed fish. INSEACT solves this by producing protein from insects called the Black Soldier Fly (BSF). INSEACT produces the BSF by feeding them with agri-waste from the palm oil industry which is currently thrown into landfill where it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

BSFs grow extremely quickly with low energy and water input, and the protein they produce is a high-performing feed ingredient for farmed fish and shrimp, which replaces a product made of wild fish called fish meal. By upcycling the waste as feed, not only is it closing the loop in the circular economy, but all of the methane emissions from the palm waste in landfill are averted because the emissions source is eliminated when the insects eat it.

We are honoured to announce that B1G1 has been named social enterprise winner in the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good Awards! These awards honour Singapore-based companies who have:

• Demonstrated thought-leadership with respect to “Business as a Force for Good (BAFG)”
• Created a vision, mission statement and strategy clearly demonstrating their BAFG commitment
• Developed corporate social responsibility best practices
• Achieved remarkable economical results and meaningful societal impact to the BAFG initiatives including but not limited to Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Sustainability.

 “We congratulate B1G1 for winning the IAA Singapore 2022 Business as a Force for Good (Social Enterprise category) Award,” said IAA BAFG lead Tan Eng Hwa TIEMBA’16. “B1G1’s award reflects their commitment to engaging in responsible business practises that serve society’s needs in a sustainable way.” 

“B1G1 is entrepreneurial, Singapore-grown and impact-driven. It is also connecting businesses with social and community projects to create a multiplier effect. Truly deserving to win this award,” said IAA 2022 BAFG judge Virginia Brumby MBA’09J. 

Masami Sato, the Founder and CEO of B1G1 shared, “We are honoured to be named the winner of this award and hope that we will be able to inspire many more businesses to grow and scale the social impact of this collective work”.

About B1G1

B1G1 (b1g1.com) is a social-impact initiative founded and headquartered in Singapore. As a Social Enterprise and a certified B Corp, B1G1 helps businesses around the world integrate effective giving directly into their everyday business activities. It does this through an innovative giving platform that allows businesses to effortlessly create positive impacts regularly as well as measure and track their progress.

Nearly 3,000 businesses in 43 countries today participate in the initiative and they have created over 275 million giving impacts in all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The impacts B1G1 creates are enabled by a unique SaaS model where business members subscribe to the portal joining the community of like-minded businesses to manage their social impact activities, driving more support to high-impact projects that align with the Sustainable Development Goals. Their subscription fees cover the operation and development and allow B1G1 to ensure that fully 100% of the members’ contribution is forwarded to their chosen projects.

B1G1’s core impact in relation to BAFG:

With more than 400 vetted impact-based projects, businesses can choose to create impacts they want to see in the world – such as planting trees in the world or giving different opportunities to people in the world such as providing education to disadvantaged children, giving income-generating opportunities to low-income families, bringing life-saving resources to people in need and much more. And those small acts of kindness have accumulated to nearly 300 million impacts. 

B1G1 originally started with a simple idea, “What if every business activity can create a positive impact in the world?”

Today, B1G1 is ready to scale and make this idea a reality by empowering businesses of all types and sizes as well as by bringing in more projects from all parts of the world so that businesses in our world can come together to create a truly sustainable world.

Notice is hereby given that electronic voting will be conducted for 2022 AGM from 24th February to 16th March 2022- 9:30 am.  

AGM will be conducted as an in-person event.
When: Wednesday 16th March 2022, 8:00 – 10:30 am
Where: Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel

INFORMATION

Please find the 2021 Annual Report inclusive of the proposed 2021 AGM minutes (pages 28-31), EGM minutes (pages 32-33) and Financial Reports (pages 25-27) relating to The INSEAD Club of Singapore (INSEAD Alumni Association Singapore).

Don’t hesitate to contact our President, Jaz Athenia Chua TIEMBA’16Jan; Vice President Abdullah (Apo) Ozkececi MCCC’19Dec-S; Treasurer Amy Xu MBA’14J  or Secretary  Vibhor Gupta EMBA’21Jan if you have questions by 15th March 2022.

ELECTRONIC VOTING

Members will receive an email from Secretary, INSEAD Alumni Association Singapore ([email protected]) on 24th February 2022 with the subject: INSEAD Alumni Association Singapore AGM 2022 – Voting. Do check your SPAM folder if you have not received this email. Voting ends on 16th March 2022 at 9:30 am. 

To provide clarification on any matters related to the AGM a Zoom call will be scheduled on Wednesday 9th March 2022 at 7:00 – 7:45 pm for members. To register for this session click here.

We require your participation to vote on 5 motions:

1. Vote on the proposed 2021 AGM minutes (pages 28-31)
2. Vote on the proposed 2021 EGM minutes (pages 32-33)
3. Vote on the 2021 Financial Reports (pages 25-27) of the 2021 Annual Report
4. Vote to select one of the three proposed legal structures for IAA SG
5. Vote to elect the following:

Re-Election for a second term for the following Board member/Office bearers:

• Treasurer : Amy Xu MBA’14J

• Board Member (Professor Series and Company Visits): Tan Eng Hwa TIEMBA’16 Jan

THANK YOU

Introducing Julian Artope MBA’17J, owner and founder of Zenyum – producer of invisible braces and other high quality, affordable dental products across the region. 

Name of your company and year it was established: Zenyum, 2018

Key takeaways after graduating from INSEAD: Many people come to INSEAD for a radical career change or at least upgrade. The school is amazing at distilling the why behind this desire which is much more important than the how. I also underestimated the strength of the INSEAD network: People from all paths in life helped to get Zenyum off the ground and there seemingly is an INSEADer everywhere.

What motivated you to establish this business? I wanted to build a large consumer company with products I can be proud of. Invisible Braces are superior from a consumer’s perspective in all aspects to their traditional counterpart. Why go for metal and wire brackets when you can have something which is invisible, removable, saves you time and money and is less painful? I loved having a strong first product which was technologically advanced and making a real impact in people’s life that could be followed up with a range of Smile Cosmetics, like our ZenyumSonic power brush.

What are the most fun and most difficult things about your business? We are changing an industry which is very competitive, which makes Zenyum an intense and fast ride. At the same time, we are sitting on a very deep category and have the chance to build a large, resilient business that dominates our category in Asia for decades. Zenyum got very lucky attracting the top of the crop in terms of Venture Capital, raising over $60M from Sequoia and LCatterton within three years. The optionality this brings is very exciting, but it also comes with a responsibility for outsized returns.

Any advice for alumni starting or thinking of starting, their own business? Make sure that your total addressable market is there. Your chances of survival when building a start-up are anyways low enough, so try to even the odds by getting your timing and macro-economic tailwinds right. 

Interesting / fun fact about yourself: I like aquascaping (basically artsy fish tanks) and lighthouses.

Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you first started out? No. Looking at the past too much makes you feel regret / nostalgia, looking at the future too much brings anxiety. The interesting parts of life are happening in the here & now.

How are you preparing for recovery after the pandemic? I don’t like using COVID as an excuse to change our approach dramatically. The best managers consistently beat the market. Due to the pandemic, two of our biggest competitors had to shut down their operations and brought us into the leading position in our play in SEA.

Book you are reading and another book you would recommend? Currently reading ‘Frank Slootman: Amp it Up’ and would always recommend ‘The Hard Thing about Hard Things’ by Ben Horrowitz

What is your leadership style? There can’t be one single style, it depends on the task-relevant maturity of the team and company around you. In the early days, I had to apply myself to every process and decision and probably would have been seen as a micro-manager. If I would display that right now, some of our best people would leave – they want to be given the deserved freedom to operate how they like. In start-ups you get to know what style to switch to depending on the context and stage of the company.

What keeps you up at night? Our OKRs. I wish I could tell you “I sleep like a baby.” but the truth is that our mission to make Asia Smile More has become one of the focal points of my life. The good news is that I love every second of it, even at midnight!