FOCUS Magazine - The Innovation Issue

FOCUS

The Magazine of the French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore

Innovating and Collaborating in a Brave New World Embracing AI and the Next Evolution Deep Tech and Open Innovation Collaboration

Issue 67

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www.fccsingapore.com

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CONTENTS

Issue 67

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Short News

03 Edito 04 Short News 08 Patron Member Spotlight: Danone 32 Entrepreneur Spotlight: Chab Events

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Cover Story innovation

11 France and Singapore Deepen Ties and Cooporation in Innovation 14 Innovating and Collaborating in a Brave New World 15 Singapore: Mission Innovation 18 AI in Research and Due Dilligence 19 Embracing AI and the Next Evolution 20 How AI and Machine Learning can be used for Marketing 21 Driving Innovation through PublicPrivate Partnership 22 2018 ASEAN ICT Awards 24 The Rise of Immersive Experiences 26 How Advertising is Innovating 28 Deep Tech and Open Innovation Collaboration 29 Encouraging Innovation at the Workplace 30 How to Put Innovation into Action 31 Innovation in Supply Chain: Reinventing Logistics

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Chamber News

33 Business Support 37 HR Services 38 French Chamber Events 59 New Members 62 Lifestyle News 64 Privilege Card

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French Chamber Patron members

French Chamber Singapore Focus is published by the French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. The views and opinions expressed in its columns do not necessarily reflect those of the Chamber’s members and management.

Director of Publication Carine Lespayandel Production Editor Joe Han Lim Sub-Editor Hélène Sayaphommy Design & Layout Jeremy Soh Advertising Joe Han Lim Colour Separation & Printing Times Printers Cover Image Freepik

Issue 67 4,000 copies MCI (P) 070/07/2018

French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore 541 Orchard Road #09-01 Liat Towers Singapore 238881 Tel: +65 6933 1350 Fax: +65 6933 1398 www.fccsingapore.com info@fccsingapore.com

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The French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore would like to thank its Patron Members for their continuous support.

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EDITO

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s we enter the last part of the France-Singapore Year of Innovation, the first assessment is undeniably positive: with more than 40 events, several high-level political visits including that of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in France and numerous agreements signed bringing our

two ecosystems closer, the year 2018 has placed innovation at the heart of our bilateral relations. The innovation ecosystems of France and Singapore benefited from increased visibility, both in the media and during the numerous events that punctuated these first nine months, while the continuum between research, enterprise and start-ups was strengthened.

After a successful launch in January 2018 in the presence of Minister Frédérique Vidal and a delegation of presidents and directors of research institutes and higher education institutions, numerous exhibitions in fields such as aeronautics, smart cities, healthcare, the Internet of Thing and the maritime industry highlighted French innovation and know-how in Singapore.

H.E. Marc Abensour

Ambassador of France to Singapore

In France also, the Year of Innovation enabled Singapore to showcase its strengths: the Minister for Communications and Information, Mr S. Iswaran, led for the first time a Singaporean delegation of around fifteen startups to the Viva Technology event in Paris.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s visit to France, Guest of Honour at the French National Day Parade, was an opportunity to reiterate at the highest level our shared commitment to free trade and multilateralism and to adopt with the President of the French Republic an ambitious roadmap on digital innovation, Internet governance and cyber security. The choice of Paris to launch a Singapore Global Innovation Alliance program, a first in Europe, also demonstrates the attractiveness of the French ecosystem and will facilitate the development of Singaporean companies and startups in France as well as in Europe. Finally, this visit made it possible to seal major agreements between our major research institutes and universities in fields such as the Circular Economy, artificial intelligence and smart cities.

The Year of Innovation continues: in September, the Women’s Forum Singapore and SWITCH (Singapore Week of Innovation & TeCHnology) festival with the visit of the Secretary of State for Digital Mr Mounir Mahjoubi, then the Fintech festival in October and finally Les Rencontres Economiques in November. In addition, the Embassy remains ready to support companies, particularly in their innovation-related activities while the French Tech Community continues to foster the integration of the startup ecosystems from both nations.

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SHORT NEWS

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French Companies in Singapore

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Issue 67

NTU collaborates with Nexeya to develop commercial nanosatellites Nexeya, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and Censin have joined forces to develop and market small nanosatellites for the region.

French companies in singapore

Airbus and Singapore to co-develop digital services for military aircraft Airbus and Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) have agreed details of the first initiative under their recently announced digital technology collaboration – the development of 3D-printing of spare parts to be initially trialled on Singapore’s new fleet of A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (A330MRTT) aircraft.

“It is absolutely clear that digitalisation represents the future of military aircraft services and we are now at a point where we can begin to explore the most promising techniques on operational fleets. We greatly appreciate the innovative approach of DSTA in going on this journey with us.” said Head of Military Aircraft Services at Airbus Defence and Space, Stephan Miegel.

The partnership aims to introduce new concepts in the nanosatellite segments, and the key objective is to build a small and reliable system that is cost effective to have the earth observation capability throughout day and night. The radar technology shall enable the view of the ground surface even at low lights or cloudy sky conditions, with further application usage when analysing and re-processing the SAR images.

Nexeya shall be providing the expertise on the bus system whereby the application has high demand on power and thermal management. Collaborative developments expected with NTU will take advantage of the technological advances. F

“Following this first agreement on 3D-printing, we have further agreed to collaborate on data analytics for predictive maintenance.” F

Bolloré Logistics and L’Oréal awarded by Singapore Business Review For its innovative trucking solution, L’Oréal and Bolloré Logistics Singapore have been awarded the International Award for Logistics at Singapore Business Review’s SBR International Business Awards.

The innovative system consists of 18 collapsible racks tailored-made for the company’s needs: specific dimensions that can fit both Euro and US pallets and 100% made of steel to ensure the maximum solidity. The solution also saves up to 30% of CO2 emissions – a significant improvement on the road to greener transportation.

“From conceptualisation to practical innovation and implementation, overcoming operational challenges including space and turnaround time, cross-border deliveries are now much more sustainably efficient,” L’Oréal said in a statement. F

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French Companies in Singapore

CMA CGM’s Ze Box and PSA unboXed sign MOU CMA CGM’s Ze Box and PSA unboXed signed a MOU to drive digitalisation and innovation in the shipping and supply chain ecosystem. Ze Box is CMA CGM’s corporate venture capital arm that invests in start-ups with innovations, while PSA unboXed is PSA International’s external innovation and corporate venture capital arm.

Under the MOU, both companies will collaborate through their corporate innovation programmes to address industry problems, leveraging on industry knowledge and experience in shipping and supply chain management.

The two companies will also support each other’s mentorship programmes, and Ze Box will also set up a satellite office within PSA unboXed premises in Singapore. F

ENGIE launches service that uses machine learning for data centre management Using advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms, ENGIE’s Avril Digital Outcome-focused Services (Avril Digital) will allow experts to detect anomalies, identify performance shortfalls and predict operational threats before more damage can be caused.

The initiative will also better equip data centre operators to manage energy efficiency, and meet compliance requirements such as Singapore’s BCA-IMDA Green Mark for Data Centres scheme.

“Singapore continues to be Asia Pacific’s top location for data centre operations,” said Pierre Cheyron, CEO, ENGIE Services Asia Pacific.

“This represents a tremendous opportunity for data centres here to step up and play their part in helping the environment.” F

Total, Pavilion Energy agreement advances LNG bunkering prospects in Singapore Total and Pavilion Energy, through their subsidiaries Total Marine Fuels Global Solutions and Pavilion Gas, have signed Heads of Agreement (HoA) to jointly develop a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunker supply chain in the port of Singapore.

The agreement consists a long-term time charter of a new generation LNG bunker vessel to be commissioned by Pavilion Gas by 2020, and also an LNG supply arrangement between the two companies enabling Total to deliver LNG bunker to its customers.

© Total

“The agreement signed with Pavilion Energy marks a new step in our commitment to provide our customers with fuels that are more environmentally friendly, particularly in Singapore which is the leading bunkering hub in the world.” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of Total. F

© Total

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Decathlon to open 4th and biggest store in Kallang in collaboration with Sport Singapore Riding on a tie-up with national sports agency Sport Singapore (SportSG), sporting goods retailer Decathlon is set to open its biggest store here yet, at Stadium Boulevard in Kallang, expected to open its doors in January next year.

Called the Decathlon Singapore Lab, the store is the first of its kind in Asia, pioneering the use of technology like virtual simulations and augmented reality, and will be about 5,000 sq m in size.

As part of the agreement with SportSG to promote participation in sport, the store will also feature sports events and clinics for customers in its free-to-play areas and an Active Health Lab. F

CNRS’ first overseas subsidiary: CNRS@CREATE, Singapore The CNRS will be setting up CNRS@CREATE, its first overseas subsidiary, in Singapore.

Its objective will be to manage FrancoSingaporean research activities as part of the Singaporean ecosystem.

An agreement to establish CNRS@CREATE was formalised on 13 July 2018 by Karin Ong, Deputy Chief of mission at Singaporean Embassy in France, and Antoine Petit, CEO of the CNRS, in the presence of French Minister of Higher education, Research and Innovation Frédérique Vidal and Singaporean Minister of Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing. F

Sodexo wins new partnerships with Yale-NUS College and INSEAD Sodexo has been selected as the food services partner of Yale-NUS College as well as INSEAD’s Asia campus after a competitive pitch against both local and overseas vendors. Services will begin in July 2018 and August 2018 respectively.

Executive dining and event catering are key deliverables for INSEAD, where Sodexo will serve 500 students, 100 executive participants and 350 faculty and staff each day on its Asia campus. At Yale-NUS, central to Sodexo’s offerings are sustainability measures driven by innovative technology and ethical practices, tailored to meet the needs and aspirations of a new generation of students who care about healthy eating, how food is sourced and environmental sustainability. F

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The French Chamber in Singapore awarded the CCI France International Prix Innovation 2018 The French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore has been awarded the 2018 Innovation Award by CCI France International for its Mentoring Programme developed in partnership with the French Trade Advisors and Business France.

Awarded during the annual CCI France International seminar of French Chamber Directors in Rome, the Mentoring Programme provides an opportunity for French entrepreneurs and SME subsidiary representatives in Singapore to exchange on business issues, with high-profile business people who volunteer to provide feedback and advice for up to 12 months.

If you are a French entrepreneur with a minimum of one year of activity, or a representatvie of a subsidiary of a French SME seeking to develop activites in Singapore and South East Asia, apply online to join this free programme! Find out more about the Mentoring Programme on www.fccsingapore.com. F

SHORT NEWS

French Companies in Singapore

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Patron Member Spotlight

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Danone

Issue 67

On Innovation , food, sustainability & health In our interview with a Patron Member, Pascal de Petrini, Chairman at Danone, shares with us about his career, the company’s strategy and its

patron member spotlight

latest activities in Asia Pacific.

Do share with us about your career at Danone.

It is as an industrial engineer that I joined Danone Dairy in 1984, but it’s within the Biscuit Division that I started my real leadership adventure: as a Supply Chain Director of LU France in 1995 and as a General Manager of the Biscuit Branch in China 3 years later. This was the starting point of my 20-year long journey in Asia, from General Manager ERP THEMIS in 2002 to General Manager of Aqua Indonesia 2 years later, followed by Regional Vice-President Waters Asia-Pacific.

In 2008, I was appointed Regional Vice-President Early Life Nutrition Asia Pacific in addition to my Waters responsibilities.

I later joined Fraser & Neave in 2011 as CEO Food & Beverage, prior to become, within Fonterra, Managing Director Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa in 2013.

I joined Danone back in 2015 on different executive roles, leading the Strategic Resources Cycle globally, from our Singapore Headquarters.

I currently hold the first Chairman Asia position at Danone, based in Singapore.

How is the health, food and nutrition sector changing?

How are consumer expectations in Singapore and the region evolving?

A food revolution is underway and people all over the world are rethinking how they eat, drink and socialise over food experiences. People care about where their food comes from, how it was grown, how it arrived on their plates and how it impacts their health and the health of the planet. It’s even more true in Asia, where brands have lost a great deal of their consumers’ trust, following a few food safety scandals in the recent years. And whenever children’s health is involved, parents get even more cautious, demanding and anxious.

On top of that, the region is facing some critical public health challenges such as malnutrition and obesity, and Singapore is no exception. It’s interesting to see how this small island has been leading the way ahead of its imposing neighbours, not only in its consumer trends, but also in the standards the government sets to improve public health. The “Healthier Choice” icon we now see where we shop and where we eat is only one of the many examples.

Data will also play a crucial role in solving the public health equation. As a smart nation, Singapore has already understood this, and has heavily invested in the digitalisation of healthcare. Digitalisation to collect valuable and transparent data about local health trends, but also to provide for tailored solutions, as governments and companies alike realise more and more that there is no such thing as one size fits all.

Could you tell us about Danone’s strategy in Asia, specifically in Singapore?

At Danone, we believe that each time we eat and drink, we can vote for the world we want. We work every day to be a catalyst of this food revolution and our point of view is clear: food is not just a commodity and our mission is to bring health through food to as many people as possible. That’s why Danone has a healthier portfolio by choice, and constantly works on improving its economic, social and environmental impact. Last year we unveiled our new logo and tagline, one that truly reflects what we put at the heart of everything we do: OnePlanet.OneHealth.

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Patron Member Spotlight

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In Asia like anywhere else, we want to be perceived as the ones making a difference, driving the change. The World was in shock when it found out what Indonesian deep waters really look like.

Fhe French Chamber in Singapore knows that better than anyone: last May during our annual Beach Clean-Up we collected together more than 2 tonnes of trash on Tana Merah Beach alone! That’s after we collected 2.6 tonnes 8 months earlier in September last year, on the same beach…

And we all agree that plastic in all its forms made up for the biggest part of this trash.

People are over the awakening stage already, and I am amazed to see that as a consequence, there has been spontaneous movements all over the world to reduce plastic usage including bags and straws, followed by concrete government actions in a few countries!

Another proof that the revolution is coming from the consumers, a revolution that we want to be part of. As the leading water producer in Indonesia with our Aqua brand, we couldn’t stay oblivious to this terrible situation, so we decided to act responsibly. Just a few months ago we launched the Aqua Plastic Pledge, a very ambitious program aimed at tackling the Plastic waste crisis in Indonesia at the 2025 horizon, through 3 commitments: recovering more plastic than we use from the Indonesian environment (in equivalent volume), accelerating awareness and recycling education, and making all our plastic packaging 100% recyclable, while increasing the proportion of recycled plastic in our bottles to 50%.

As this issue focuses on innovation, could you share with us the latest initiatives on research and innovation undertaken Danone by in Singapore?

You may know that we recently rebranded our Singapore-based Research & Innovation Center, now called NUTRICIA RESEARCH Precision Nutrition D-LAB. The digital lab will be a hub of innovation, using first-class digital technology and combining data science and machine learning to help generate insights on early life nutrition. These insights enable researchers to discover new biological mechanisms, predict the risks of certain

Danone

diseases and eventually drive tailored nutritional solutions for the long-term health of individuals.

In addition, we are also able to provide for strong product innovations using the latest research: we have recently launched SYNEO for example, the new milk formula addition to the Aptamil family. Addressing the rising concern of allergy in children, it offers a unique patented blend of preand probiotics that has shown to have allergy benefits.

Besides research and products, we also innovate in the way we reach out to our customers, constantly expanding our footprint to cater to all types of purchasing behavior. Last year we announced a strategic regional partnership for South East Asia with Lazada, with the objective to create a superior online shopping experience to the ever-growing number of online consumers across the region.

We’re also the very first FMCG company to partner with FairPrice to develop a mobile application. This Aptamil loyalty app called AptaAdvantage will allow us once again to enhance the consumer experience through improved convenience and instant redeem of consumer product trials and discounts.

Our global innovations were displayed during the recent Consumer Goods Forum that took place in Singapore last June, and where I represented Danone alongside Emmanuel Faber, our global CEO and Chairman. We had the chance to showcase our unique savoir-faire and positioning, and it was extremely well received and acclaimed by the retail industry.

What is your personal motto?

Helen Keller once said: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”. It’s such a simple yet powerful statement. I truly believe that great leaders never do it alone, it’s a team work. It takes many to enrich a project and to bring it to life, and it’s wise to acknowledge it and to build on it. Absolutely nothing stops you from being very ambitious once you understand that.

Set yourself objectives, even if they seem un-achievable to you, and then get help from others to reach them. You may feel that you don’t have the full expertise but that’s fine, someone else may have, and

you can build on each other’s strengths and knowledge to succeed. I use this on a personal level too. I realised I limit myself so much when I do it on my own, so I reach out to family, friends and immediately the possibilities become endless.

Danone is highly active at the French Chamber, as a strong French supporter of the Chamber, how would you describe its role for French companies in Singapore?

It all goes back to this Helen Keller’s statement, there is only so much you can do when you are alone. This is where the French Chamber’s value lies: giving you access to endless possibilities…

Together our voice weighs more, so we can influence more: influence authorities, regulations, the Singaporean business community etc. The Chamber also allows us to connect among ourselves and learn from each other: we have so much to learn from start-ups and SMEs who tend to be more agile, flexible and of course innovative. These are qualities that we sometimes lack in larger organisations.

And we have so much to offer them too!

Singapore is such a vibrant business place and there are so many opportunities for business partnerships and alliances out there. We need the French Chamber more than ever to help access these opportunities and connect with the Singapore ecosystem. We try to give a lot but we get so much more in return, so you can count on us to keep supporting you because we need you! F

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Innovation

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Innovation

FRANCE AND SINGAPORE DEEPEN TIES AND COOPERATION IN INNOVATION Ambassador of Singapore to France H.E. Zainal Mantaha shares more about the bilateral innovation initiatives in this Year of Innovation, in particular the activities that have taken place in France thus far.

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nnovation is a critical enabler of economic and social transformation to better lives and societies. France has long-established strengths in research and development, and President Emmanuel Macron has declared his vision to turn France into a “start-up nation” and placed innovation at the heart of his reforms. On its part, Singapore has made great progress over the years in strengthening its research, innovation and enterprise value chain, in collaboration with educational institutions, enterprises and other actors.

Both countries understand the strategic advantages of strong, mutually-beneficial partnerships and alliances in developing their respective innovation ecosystems.

It is in this context that Singapore and France declared 2018 as the Year of Innovation (YOI) to deepen innovation partnerships, and allow both countries to harness complementarities and synergies arising from our different experiences, find areas of convergence and take advantage of one another’s innovation capacities. The YOI will also enable us to profile and structure our growing innovation partnerships under a coherent framework, creating a platform for innovation actors to interact, exchange ideas, spot untapped opportunities and launch new initiatives together.

In France, the YOI kicked off with a bang, auspiciously coinciding with Chinese New Year in February 2018.

Organised by the Singapore Embassy in Paris, in collaboration with our colleagues from the Economic Development Board (EDB), the event resembled more a start-up launch event than a typical diplomatic reception. First, it was held in a venue located in the heart of Sentier, the place to be in Paris if you are a tech and tech-related enterprise. Second, we incorporated a lively interactive information seminar, featuring a presentation by EDB on Singapore as a partner for French innovation providers, as well as a panel of French start-ups sharing their experience with the Singapore innovation ecosystem.

Third, guests were engaged to contribute to the conversations about FrenchSingapore collaborations in the priority YOI sectors on a “wall of ideas”.

The YOI launch event attracted a strong turnout of close to 200 representatives in the French innovation ecosystem, and allowed us to spread the YOI message to a large and diverse audience in the French tech scene, ranging from the grandes entreprises to the SMEs and start-ups. Senator Jacky Deromedi and Secretary-General for Investments Mr Guillaume Boudy, who oversees the French government’s “Investment for the Future” programme, were among those who honoured us with their attendance.

And what would be a Singapore Chinese New Year event without the lo-hei ceremony - the communal tossing of raw fish salad to enlist the spirits of fortune and prosperity to ensure the success of our joint ventures!

YOI Launch Event in February 2018 – lo hei

Another major highlight in our YOI calendar in France was Singapore’s inaugural participation in the 2018 Viva Technology Forum in Paris in May 2018. Minister for Communications and Information and Minister in-chargeof Trade Relations Mr S Iswaran led a delegation comprising officials of the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Enterprise Singapore, as well as senior executives of the Action Community for Enterprise and SGInnovate, and 15 Singapore start-ups to raise the profile of the Singapore start-up ecosystem in one of the most important technology and innovation event in Europe. Minister Iswaran delivered a keynote address at the Singapore Conference titled “Collaboration for Innovation” and participated in an interactive dialogue with French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation Frédérique Vidal to promote Singapore as a gateway for French companies to expand into ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific. In his intervention, Minister Iswaran explained how French companies and start-ups could take advantage of Singapore’s strong innovation and start-up ecosystem and its extensive linkages with the region, to help them gain useful market insights and locate partners that could help them access regional markets more effectively.

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Singapore Minister Iswaran with French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation Frédérique Vidal on the sidelines of VivaTech in May 2018 We were pleased that President Macron even cited Singapore as one of the partners with a thriving innovation ecosystem, with which France was keen to work in his address at VivaTech. French non-profit organisation Hello Tomorrow also inked an MOU with Enterprise Singapore during the visit to develop deep tech start-ups, focusing on accelerating technology transfer into real-world applications.

Not long after Singapore’s milestone VivaTech participation, we capitalised on the official visit of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to France to attend the French National Day celebrations on 14 July as President Macron’s Guest-of-Honour to inject even more momentum in efforts to attain the objectives of YOI. Both President Macron and PM Lee reaffirmed the strong economic and innovation cooperation between the two countries. Notably, there are close to 2000 French companies in Singapore with extensive Regional HQ, innovation and manufacturing activities for the Asia region, including Airbus, Thales, and Sanofi. French start-ups like Kpler, Metron Lab and Actility have also established regional headquarters in Singapore. The EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, when ratified, will give further impetus to this momentum and further enable European and French companies to tap on Singapore’s positioning to access innovation, growth, and business opportunities in the broader Southeast Asian region. In addition, both leaders issued the France-Singapore Roadmap for Deepening Cooperation in Digital Innovation, Internet Governance and Cybersecurity to reaffirm our mutual commitment to intensify dialogue at the bilateral, regional and interregional levels on issues concerning the development of the digital economy. The

release of this roadmap is a manifestation of both countries’ interest in engaging each other in new emerging areas such as cybersecurity and digital governance.

In conjunction with the Prime Minister’s visit, Minister for Trade & Industry Chan Chun Sing and Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Mr Mounir Mahjoubi, witnessed the signing of two agreements with ESSEC and Creative Valley to launch the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) Programme in Paris. The GIA programme will help Singapore start-ups kick-start their activities in target markets. The GIA has been established in San Francisco, Jakarta, Bangkok and Beijing. GIA Paris is the first in Europe. Its launch speaks of our confidence in the strengths of the French start-up ecosystem and France’s potential as a gateway for Singapore start-ups to scale up at the international level, either on their own or in collaboration with French enterprises or start-ups. GIA Paris will also facilitate the entry of French start-ups in Singapore and the region beyond. To complement the GIA, Singapore also welcomed the establishment a French start-up hub

under Version 2 of the French Tech Hub programme, as well as the Impact accelerator programme, in Singapore, which would help French start-ups launch and scale in Singapore and Southeast Asia, leveraging Singapore’s strong regional networks. Together, GIA Paris, as well as the French Tech Hub and the Impact acceleration programme in Singapore, will help to forge even closer two-way links in innovation and start-ups between the two countries.

I am pleased with the progress we have made over the last eight months.

Activities held under the aegis of the YOI both in Singapore and France have added much impetus and visibility to our bilateral innovation cooperation. There remains much to do in the latter half of YOI. Most imminently, we look forward to the visit of Secretary of State for Digital Affairs Mounir Mahjoubi to Singapore in September for the Singapore Week of Innovation & TeCHnology (SWITCH) 2018, a leading “plug and play” platform in Asia that showcases the best ideas, technology and innovation from around the world – very similar to the positioning of VivaTech in France and Europe. It will provide opportunities for more partnerships and tie-ups between innovation actors of the two countries.

Perhaps, more importantly, as we approach the close of the FranceSingapore Year of Innovation, we would also need to think ahead and discuss how to sustain and build on the good momentum generated by YOI. We look forward to discussing various ideas and modalities with our partners to concretise the YOI legacy. F

Singapore PM Lee’s Official Visit to France in July 2018

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Innovation

Tip

of the Iceberg Tech is certainly one of the key areas of collaboration. Could you tell us about some of the collaborations in tech?

Julien Condamines, Entrepreneur in Residence at the French Embassy in Singapore, shares with us about this Year of Innovation with a zoom on tech, and the events to come in this final lap.

You have been recruited to work for the 2018 France-Singapore Year of Innovation. What do you think of this year thus far?

It’s been an amazing ride! I must admit that I didn’t anticipate it would have such an impact on deepening already excellent relationships between France and Singapore. But beyond the high profile events and the fuss – the visible part of the iceberg – discussions have been running in the background on longterm projects and collaborations that will impact our nations for decades. This was made possible by the focus given by the Year of Innovation to institutional and corporate leaders from both sides, enabling important visits from delegations in France and Singapore, allowing a deeper study of the stakes and prioritising each other’s agendas and the incredible support of local enablers such as the French Chamber in Singapore and the Embassies.

First I think it’s important to define what tech means. In our case, there are at least 2 important sides of it: business and research (that eventually work together to make wonders). And the Year of Innovation has had a tremendous impact on both. On the start-up side, La French Tech, which represents the tech entrepreneurs, the business side of it, has known a terrific growth in Singapore. In particular, awareness has grown on the Singaporean side, after we collaborated with many of the institutions interested in the matter: EDB, IMDA, MTI, Entreprise Singapore, ACE, SGInnovate, leading to a better valorisation of the French entrepreneurs in Singapore, and giving birth to projects like the investor’s syndicate. Singapore has also launched its own version of La French Tech, so to speak, choosing France as one of their Global Innovation Alliances.

This makes Paris an official landing pad for Singaporean entrepreneurs and students, and builds a tangible bridge for French entrepreneurs to expand their business in South East Asia.

On the research side, a lot happened too.

After the seminar on innovation policies organised during the VivaTech week, new collaborations were formalised between universities and research institutions from both countries, as well as co-funding agreements. BPI and EDB/Entreprise Singapore in particular have decided to co-finance innovation projects focusing on developing innovative products and applications in technological and application areas such as Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Technology and Medical Technology.

Any interesting events in the final lap of the Year of Innovation to highlight?

Definitely! SWITCH is indeed around the corner, and with it the French Tech Tour led by Business France, bringing 8 scaleups looking into setting foot in South East Asia. Our Ministry of State for Digital, Mounir Mahjoubi, will also be present on the 18th, meeting with a vertiginous number of interlocutors leading digital in Singapore and visiting the conferences.

And La French Tech Singapore will be an official partner of the Deep Tech Summit organised by SGInnovate, featuring a few French Speakers like Dr Cyrille Schwob, the CTO of Airbus Asia and Pierre Robinet, the Founder of Live with AI. Last, InVivo Quest, along with So France and Agorize and L’Oreal both organise start-up contests, one in food tech and the other one on beauty & cosmetics.

Dense programme! F

“After SWITCH, Thales will organise an event on aerospace and defense.

The FinTech festival will feature its lot of French disruptors and les Rencontres Economiques will close this year on very strong notes.

And we’re waiting eagerly for some announcements that, hopefully, will make for another article.”

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Innovation

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Innovating and Collaborating in a Brave New World Carine Lespayandel, Executive Director of the French Chamber in Singapore, shares about recent initiatives on innovation.

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e are in the midst of an accelerated time in innovation, as technological breakthroughs propel problem solving, driven by big data, new systems and tools, and creative and bold ideas.

In the heart of the French-Singapore ecosystem, in this 2018 Year of Innovation, the French Chamber in Singapore has been proactively offering meaningful opportunities for businesses and actors to connect and exchange, across activities in various sectors from healthcare (pages 42-43) to information and communication technologies (page 22). The exchanges have been most interesting and inspiring, as industry players, research experts, governmental stakeholders and institutional partners come together to share on collaborating for innovation.

Beyond events organised by the French Chamber, it has also been partnering Singapore and French actors to gear up and stay abreast of trends together. The French Chamber is supporting through various means the nascent French Tech chapter in Singapore, and another example is partnering up with the Women’s Forum Singapore to promote innovative womenled ventures. Under the theme “Bridging worlds for inclusive innovation”, it is the pioneering event to foster women’s leadership for social progress and economic impact in Singapore and in the region. We are also partnering with the Greater Paris Investment Agency on “Grand Paris Makers and Singapore’s leading urban innovators”, which explores urban planning for the new generation of global cities.

At the same time, the French Chamber lends its expertise to French and European actors, companies and innovation clusters based out of Singapore, captivated by the palpable potential of innovation in Singapore. For companies and delegations seeking to study business opportunities in Singapore, we have led study trips and business missions to share about Singapore, and most recently we hosted the SmartCityTech partnership of Smart City cluster organisations from six different European countries.

We are pleased to have received, this June, the CCI France International Prix Innovation 2018 for our Mentoring Programme developed in partnership with the French Trade Advisors and Business France (page 7). An initiative that brings together the business community and various stakeholders to support

entrepreneurs and business developers, it is another great example of unlocking results through collaboration. Many other initiatives take such a collaborative approach, from the Business Accelerator Lab to the newly launched “Meet the CEO” series, an initiative designed to facilitate business-matching between entrepreneurs and SMEs, and MNCs (page 53). F

“The year is not over and many projects lie ahead, from a first regional Start-Up Award to take place in December and many more exciting events and I encourage you to plug in to go further by leveraging on our collective strength!”

The French Chamber with the SmartCityTech partnership of Smart City cluster organisations from 6 different European countries.

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SINGAPORE: MISSION INNOVATION Singapore has been evolving towards an innovation-driven economy, continuously renewing its capabilities in innovation across the ecosystem. Dr Raj. Thampuran, Managing Director of A*STAR shares with us more about the agency’s efforts, the journey thus far and the strategies going forward.

Can you describe innovation in Singapore today? How has Singapore’s R&D journey been evolving?

Singapore’s innovation system is built upon an open and diverse talent strategy, the establishment of key infrastructure, and sustained and stable funding. We have implemented policies that feature and encourage innovation. Undergirding these is the philosophy of open innovation—particularly through publicprivate partnerships that are facilitated in flexible and varied ways.

Our outcome- and impact-focused approach towards R&D and innovation, is very different from countries with a longer history of research such as France, Germany, or the UK. Where we once had to rely on labour-intensive industries to drive our economy, Singapore has leveraged R&D and innovation to shift the economy towards a knowledge-based and innovation-driven economy.

As a nation, we recognised early on that research and innovation was critical to Singapore’s economic development and that it was important for us to develop a long-term strategy to support present and future economic strategies.

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It began with early R&D capabilities under the Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research (SISIR) in 1969. This was followed by the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) in 1990 and the launch of our first National Technology Plan in 1991—a modest government commitment of S$2 billion over five years to promote R&D investments. NSTB was reorganised and renamed the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in 2002. This strong commitment by the Singapore Government has been sustained over these years, with the latest Research, Innovation & Enterprise 2020 (RIE2020) plan committing S$19 billion from 2016 to 2020 to address national challenges and seize economic opportunities.

Today, innovation and research is undertaken by A*STAR’s research entities, as well as in Singapore’s researchintensive universities, academic medical centres and hospitals, and by corporate labs across the country. The results of patient investment in a wide spectrum of research capabilities are starting to show. Singapore is ranked among the top 10 locations for innovation centres worldwide , with companies like Dyson, Expedia, Mondelez and Panasonic setting up R&D innovation centres here in recent years. Over the years, we have witnessed a steady rise in value-added jobs, and seen business invest more in R&D. Last year, A*STAR achieved an increase of over 50 per cent in R&D spending by companies through projects with our research institutes, from $220 million to $340 million. More significantly, R&D spending by local enterprises outpaced this increase, growing by around two thirds from $61 million to $102 million.

http://www.asiaone.com/business/capgemini-opens-singapore-innovation-centre

This has been possible through a consistent focus on mission-oriented excellent research, a diverse community of research performers and talent, and investment in critical infrastructure.

The challenges beyond RIE2020 are to meet the demands of companies and industries as they react and respond to fast-paced changes in technology and other global forces.

Longterm investments in excellent and differentiated research are necessary to build capabilities for the future. These enable us to better respond to market opportunities when they arise, and derive greater value from our research and innovation efforts.

One of the biggest industry disruptors has been the shift to Industry 4.0, especially in manufacturing – an important sector for Singapore. How is A*STAR helping the industry stay at the forefront of advanced manufacturing technologies?

Key strategies to position Singapore for the Future Economy Public-private partnerships in R&D and co-innovation as an instrument for industry growth are pivotal to our success. Our approach towards such partnerships is flexible and responsive, encompassing progressive policies on the use of intellectual property, access to talent and expertise such as our flagship T-Up scheme, and different modalities of technology transfer. Through these efforts and initiatives, we aim to deliver outcomes that create value for our industry partners and for Singapore’s economy. This approach has worked well with both MNCs and local enterprises.

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Singapore anchors strategic MNC partners through collaboration and open innovation, to transfer knowledge and create good jobs locally.

• For example, platforms such as A*STAR’s Aerospace Research Consortium bring major aerospace MNCs, LLEs and SMEs together, to collaborate in pre-competitive research and develop key solutions that will benefit the aerospace industry. French companies Airbus and Safran have been long-standing members of the consortium.

• To zoom in on the food and nutrition industry which is a burgeoning area in Singapore, global companies in the food, nutrition and ingredients industry, such as Nestle, Ferrero, Mane and Lesaffre, have established research and innovation centres in Singapore over the last few years. Roquette set up its Asia Pacific Headquarters and Innovation Centre in Singapore last October, and is working with A*STAR’s Clinical Nutrition Research Centre to look at how different Asian populations react to certain dietary ingredients.

Our partnerships with international companies are vital in strengthening capabilities across the ecosystem, and in driving the development of innovative technologies and products to capture new growth opportunities.

A*STAR also engages with local enterprises and help them move up the value-chain to capture greater value from both local and overseas markets through the use of research and technology.

Transforming Singapore’s Future of Manufacturing One area where this is receiving a lot of traction is in manufacturing, a particularly dynamic area of change and a key pillar of the Singapore economy, making up about 20 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In the manufacturing sector, the enabling technologies behind “Industry 4.0”, such as the Internet of Things and cloud computing, are reshaping the manufacturing landscape and disrupting global value chains. A*STAR has been driving Industry 4.0 adoption

A*STAR’s Model Factory Initiative provides a “live” production environment to experience and experiment with Industry 4.0 technologies like Augmented Reality to co-develop innovative solutions

and catalysing impactful collaborations through our strategic Future of Manufacturing (FoM) initiative that was launched in 2017 in close consultation with MTI, EDB and ESG, under the RIE2020 framework. The efforts of this initiative culminated in the development of a capabilities roadmap needed to achieve the assets and competencies required in an advanced manufacturing operation.

As Singapore embarks on this fourth industrial revolution, what sets A*STAR’s FoM work apart is that we bring ideas, people, and companies together across the entire innovation value chain from MNCs to SMEs, to collaborate for the of benefit Singapore’s future economy.

The Government is committed to supporting local companies in continually upgrading their technological capabilities.

Through the public-private partnership platforms of Tech Access, and Model Factory, A*STAR aims to drive technology

innovation, knowledge adoption across the industry.

transfer, and manufacturing

In the near- to medium-term, the Tech Access initiative provides local enterprises with access to A*STAR’s advanced manufacturing equipment and facilities, as well as training and technical advice. This allows companies to equip themselves with the skills and experience needed to operate these tools, before acquiring the equipment needed to scale up and capture new business opportunities.

Through the Model Factory initiative, A*STAR provides a ‘live’ production environment allowing companies to experience and experiment with Industry 4.0 technologies and codevelop innovative solutions for greater productivity and efficiency. In the longterm the Model Factory initiative will help industry test-bed, develop and deploy

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products to meet consumer demand for trend-based, unique products such as mobile devices, autonomous vehicles, or smart home devices. They need flexible and cost-efficient high-mix low-volume manufacturing capabilities that AMF is designed to provide, which the traditional fabrication plants currently lack.

How do you know if you are succeeding in innovation?

At A*STAR, we look at success in terms of outcomes, and what value our collaborations and interactions bring to industry and society. Success has several facets—it could be enabling a high-value sector rise up the value add ladder; creating new activities in existing sectors that result in growth or expansion of markets; improving productivity or product and service innovation for local enterprises; or growing new industries.

advanced cutting-edge technologies in the manufacturing sector, sustaining Singapore’s competitiveness in manufacturing and technology innovation.

Catalysing a Vibrant Local Start-Up Ecosystem in Singapore A*STAR also contributes to a vibrant start-up ecosystem in Singapore. We work with our start-ups and spinoffs to help them secure follow-on funding through the creation of new products and businesses using A*STAR technology; providing mentorship and networking with industry; and linking them to venture capital partners through our investment network.

To facilitate commercialisation and licensing of our research, A*STAR adopts a differentiated licensing approach that takes into account the nature of the collaboration and the needs of our industry partners. By exercising flexibility in our licensing approach when it comes

to IP ownership, use and access rights, we optimise the use of licensing to help companies access our technologies to gain a competitive edge and bring innovative products and services to market.

A*STAR’s latest spin-off, the Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF) is a commercial micro foundry capable of high-mix lowvolume manufacturing specializing in in silicon based semiconductor components. The company is presently valued at around US$300 million (S$413 million). One of its core technologies is silicon photonics components which is a result of A*STAR’s long standing investments in this area since the early 2000s. It is a technology platform that is the state-of-the-art in future computing systems, solid state LIDAR and advanced data centres.

Manufacturers are concurrently being pushed to innovate rapidly and tailor their

We are already seeing the fruits of our labour—local enterprises are stepping up their investments in innovation and technology and working with A*STAR on more R&D projects. Just last year, the number of industry projects that we worked on with the private sector jumped 20% to 2,100, with one in three projects with local enterprises. We have also seen an increase of local enterprises taking up our technology licences.

Another area of growth is Singapore’s start-up sector, notably the local biotech ecosystem. From 2010 to 2017, at least 60 local drug-development and related biotechs have been incorporated, tripling the 19 of the preceding decade (2000-2009). One-third of these biotechs were A*STAR spin-offs, and more than half of them have some form of IP, codevelopment project, or joint lab with A*STAR. These are indications that Singapore is on the right trajectory. Singapore’s R&D efforts have led it to be the top-ranked country in South East Asia and Oceania for five consecutive years in the Global Innovation Index. Through sustained investments and focus on open innovation and mission-oriented R&D, this will see Singapore in good stead for even greater innovation outcomes. F

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Better, Faster, Stronger:

AI in Research and Due Dilligence Can AI perform due diligence, risk-profiling, investmentfocused research and the like? Raphaël Bouzy, CEO of Datarama shares how AI technology has evolved in these domains in its activities in Singapore and the region.

How has AI technology evolved for you in risk-profiling and due diligence? What are some new risk factors that you are able to account for in your systems?

We leverage technology to help process the vast amounts of structured and unstructured data we encounter in our research. It has allowed us to sift through high volumes of data and information fast, and translate the information into useful analytics and business insights for our clients.

Our webcrawlers and data protocols not only trawl major proprietary databases, news sites, and business directories, but we actively seek out alternative sources of data such as ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks Database, the Panama Papers, blogs with strong predictive track records on political and economic matters, and even databases containing information on religious, club, and grassroot affiliations.

Other traditional or “pen-and-paper” risk consultancies claim to provide analysis on content gleaned from these sources as well but our value proposition is that we are cheaper, better, faster, and more comprehensive - as our functions and protocols are tech-enabled and therefore automated to significant degrees.

For instance, we have a technologyenhanced tool for measuring a company’s reputation, by conducting a comprehensive multi-lingual web scrape against media sources available in the public domain. This allows us to be fair and objective in our approach of ranking companies, mitigating the risk of human subjectivity when analysing sentiment on a company, and without having to manually read all the news available on a company in order to get a sense of its reputation.

What are the risks & challenges in introducing AI into this domain of activity?

One of the biggest challenges we continue to face is that technology is not presently at a state where it can independently perform complex tasks without substantial human intervention. Some analytical tasks still requires human researchers to plug the gaps, whether it is understanding the bias in social media postings, performing entity resolution, filtering out fake news, or situating issues in the appropriate cultural and political contexts.

There is also much work yet to do in terms of machine learning and natural language processing when it comes to analysing large amounts of data in less dominant or rare languages such as Burmese or, to take more extreme examples - SriLankan and Nigerian dialects. This is a challenge facing all tech companies that need to analyse and vet content in numerous languages, including giants like Facebook and Google. The key challenges that Facebook faces today, in terms of identifying hateful or controversial content in countries such as Myanmar or Sri Lanka, stems from the fact that there are just not enough people working to enable AI to identify such content in local and rarer languages. We share this challenge since part of the raison d’être of Datarama is to scan for ‘red flags’ or serious issues of concern for clients, as quickly as possible, across a plethora of jurisdictions.

Working with hard-to-find information also means that a lot of the data that we deal with are not available online, or are not in a data format that can be easily processed without manual input. Use of technology will only be as effective as the access we have to data that these tools can process.

We also have to always keep up with changes in technology so we are kept aware of what innovations and new ideas can help make our processes better. To keep our edge, we have to think out of the box and apply technology that is not typically used in this field, or seek out alternative data sources and adapt these to risk consulting. These include watch lists maintained by small, local-level NGOs that are not commonly accessed as well as data sources that keep track of political risk events as they happen, which is not something typically featured in a static risk consulting report. This means having to always be creative and looking at alternative data sets or technology in new and novel ways. F

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Embracing AI and the next evolution Laurence Liew, Director of Industry Innovation, AI Singapore shares with us more about the governmentwide partnership seeking to anchor deep capabilities in artificial intelligence and its various projects.

Do introduce us to AI Singapore. Why the strong interest in AI here in Singapore?

AI Singapore (AISG) is a national programme launched by the National Research Foundation (NRF) to catalyse, synergise and boost Singapore’s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to power our future, digital economy.

Our 3 key strategic thrusts are: AI Research, AI Technology and AI Innovation.

In AI Research, we focus on inventing next generation AI techniques and algorithms as well as conduct high impact research and tackle important AI technical challenges.

In AI Technology, AISG will support multi-disciplinary research teams to tackle AI grand challenges in Health, Urban Solutions and Finance which will have significant social and economic impacts on Singapore and the world. The goal is to promote bold ideas and apply innovative AI technologies and approaches to solve these challenges.

AI Innovation focus on accelerating the use and adoption of AI by industry through the 100 Experiments (100E) Programme. AISG will match the industry to the top AI minds in Singapore to solve their AI problem.

AISG has 3 other programmes: AI Apprenticeship Programme, AI for Everyone and AI for Industy. Read more about this online.

Could you share with us some interesting ongoing projects and possible areas of collaboration?

We have 3 ongoing projects: 1. AI Speech Lab • Challenge: Call centre staff multi-tasking during multiple ongoing emergency calls • Proposed Solution: Automatic Speech Recognition technologies can automate tasks and enable emergency staff to focus on directing actions to save lives 2. KroniKare • Challenge: Current wound monitoring practice is invasive, manual, timeconsuming and inconsistent • Proposed Solution: An AI-driven mobile and web platform which captures normal and thermal images to analyse and report chronic wound conditions 3. Surbana Jurong • Challenge: Change reactive lift monitoring system to proactive model which predicts breakdowns • Proposed Solution: AI models consume streaming telemetry data to identify potential issues and inform maintenance personnel before they occur F

robots in hospitality SOPHIE AND XAVIER THE MAGNIFIQUE DROID BUTLERS OF SOFITEL SINGAPORE CITY CENTRE The emergence of robots and hi-tech innovation in hospitality is slowly becoming a trend in the industry. In the last few years, ‘hospitality robots’ are slowly making their way into hotels, restaurants as well as other service related industries. They are now more than just gadgets of novelty but rather reliable resources that extend consistent customer-centric services that are both fun and entertaining for guests”, says Wouter de Graaf, the hotel’s General Manager. The feedback and reactions from guests who had the experience of being engaged by Sophie and Xavier are very promising and positive indeed, he added. F

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How AI and machine learning can be used for marketing From AI to machine learning, data-driven solutions are bringing brands new ways to engage consumers.

Alban Villani, General Manager of Criteo SEA, HK & TW shares more about the innovations in marketing.

Do you find retail and ecommerce brands catching up to today’s changing consumer paradigm?

Consumers want the best of both worlds – they want to browse and buy easily wherever they shop. As such, more brands are offering a mix of online and offline shopping experiences to cater to the rise of the omnichannel customer.

A current challenge for retailers is that it is no longer just about having multiple channels, but ensuring consistency and connectedness across all touchpoints are now essential for brands. Criteo’s Q1 2018 Global Commerce Review report for Southeast Asia showed that retailers that combine their online and offline data can apply more than four times as much sales data to optimise their marketing efforts.

What this means is that data analytics is now key for brands. Established brands have an advantage as they have the resources to tap on a large pool of customer data. They are able to understand a shopper’s habits by organising and applying data at scale, hence publishing targeted and relevant ads.

Smaller brands and retailers can do the same too. Leading commerce players like Zalora, Lazada, Sendo and Nykaa, are already turning to commerce marketing technology to compete on an equal footing with global commerce giants.

“The Commerce Data Opportunity: How Collaboration Levels the Retail Playing Field”, which saw that 41 percent of retailers were concerned about not having access to information about their own customers and products.

What role does AI and machine learning play in this?

However, this concern can be addressed with collaboration. When brands value the importance of collaborating and pooling data assets, they can help meet customer needs and drive value for their businesses.

Brands could look at leveraging datadriven solutions to better understand how they can continually engage an evergrowing customer base. AI and machine learning can help brands from both ends of a spectrum - from communicating with their customers to analysing customer insights to improve future experiences.

A good use of AI came from Spotify’s billboard ad campaign, where they used their customers’ music streaming preferences to highlight trends such as “Dear person who played ‘Sorry’ 42 times on Valentine’s Day, what did you do?”. The campaign gave consumer data life and also taught Spotify about their customers.

“Moreover, AI and machine learning can help brands navigate complex data collection and storage processes, especially with the recently established policies on privacy like GDPR.” Given that AI adoption has it benefits in commerce marketing, we saw it timely to launch the Criteo AI Lab. By combining Criteo’s established engineering expertise in machine learning with R&D in deep learning models, we want to push the limits in deep learning and AI. What is one thing marketers need to do in 2018?

Big market players might limit access to consumer data which are essential for smaller players. This was seen in Criteo’s study with Forbes Insights,

Being built on the open internet, we strive to break down walled gardens and make data sharing more accessible for all. With these data on hand, brands can identify shopper behaviourial trends, strategise in their best interest, and drive engagement and sales. Data collaboration is also important in helping to level the playing field against the giants.

However, brands must be conscious and committed in ensuring that customer privacy is held with utmost importance.

Businesses should therefore only consider data collaboratives that work with non-directly identifying information, or pseudonymous data as stated under the GDPR. This offers more warranties to shoppers in terms of confidentiality.

As consumers continue to evolve, the retail landscape cannot stop either. Brands need to stay up to date with the times to know how to navigate the complexities of engaging shoppers. F

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Driving innovation through public-private partnership François-Xavier Lannuzel, Chief Representative of IRT SystemX singapore, shares with us more about The research and technology institute’s projects in Singapore, and the ways public-private partnerships is driving innovation.

Do tell us about the research centre SystemX@Singapore SystemX is a French research and technology Institute, based in France near Paris. It is dedicated to build research and development projects for the industry, in the field of digitalisation.

It addresses the following markets: • Industry 4.0 • Autonomous transport • Smart Cities • Cybersecurity Its underlying competences encompass big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, IoT, or systems engineering.

A typical SystemX project gathers companies from MNCs to start-ups, as well as academics resources.

Companies contribute financially, and the French state matches these contributions. SystemX hence builds a core research team, and invites inkind contributions from partners to join.

Altogether, about 300 people work in SystemX projects in France.

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SystemX has opened an office in Singapore in 2017 in order to internationalise its strategy. In Singapore, the idea is to create new partnerships with companies and academics. Singapore, aspiring “Smart Nation”, is the perfect place to develop R&D projects in digitalisation with the best players in the world.

Singapore has indeed a very attractive strategy for research and innovation in the South East Asia region. It has become an innovation hub for companies willing to expand in Asia.

SystemX’s strategy in Singapore is to run a large panel of projects, be it a joint PhD with academics, or a research partnership with industry supported by the local government, or a bigger consortium to address the country’s issues. We want to stay agile and innovative in the way we cooperate.

How are public-private partnerships driving research and innovation differently?

The European Union has created a new way to cooperate in research and technology thanks to the European Framework Programme for Research. It has enabled thousands of collaborative projects to deliver successful results in the last 30 years and taught companies and academics to join forces in upstream innovation. This is clearly an efficient way to partner and share skills, to the benefit of business outcomes.

©Gil Lefauconnier/IRT SystemX

It also enables public decision makers to be part of the discussion, and not only assessing whitepapers.

We want to bring this collaborative spirit to Singapore and Asia-Pacific, and become a talent integrator.

Any interesting ongoing projects that you can share with us about?

In Singapore, SystemX is starting its development with a flagship project, dedicated to autonomous transport, namely the CETRAN project. SystemX is teaming up with the local Nanyang Technology University, ranked among the best in the world, as well as other foreign entities. The objectives are to build a centre for the certification of the autonomous vehicles.

A real circuit is already in use to run car or bus experiments, and provide simulation modelling with data. SystemX will be in charge of the digital modelling and simulation of the safety and digital security of the vehicle, following up a similar project in France.

In addition, SystemX is currently building partnerships in cybersecurity, blockchain, or IoT topics, and hopefully many others to come. F

CETRAN: Centre of Excellence for Testing & Research of AVs. http://erian.ntu.edu.sg/Programmes/IRP/FMSs/Pages/Centre-of-Excellence-for-Testing-Research-of-AVs-NTU-CETRAN.aspx https://www.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=2&id=10ceddae-472a-4920-8d4c-e73babfcecb0

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INNOVATIVE TECH SOLUTIONS AT THE 2018 ASEAN ICT AWARDS Leveraging the many talented professionals & disruptive businesses bought by NXTAsia and BroadcastAsia (page 35) to Singapore, the French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, Business France and French Tech Singapore are pleased to have organised the first regional business competition of its kind, the ASEAN ICT Awards 2018, held in the beautiful setting of the Arts House at the Old Parliament.

The competition gathered start-ups and SMEs with a high potential of impact in the region, in a high-profile event gathering 200 C-Levels, investors and influencers with expertise in information & communications technologies, government affairs, banking and finance. Following a selection led by an uncompromising jury, the top 12 applicants were shortlisted to pitch.

The awards ceremony was then followed by a networking cocktail which saw lively exchange among the participants over cheese and wine.

We would like to thank our Gold sponsors JCDecaux and Société Générale and Silver sponsor Orange Business Services for their great support, and also to the Ambassador of France to Singapore, H.E. Marc Abensour for delivering the opening remarks of the evening. A special note of thanks also to Merci Marcel for the support in-kind.

J O I N T LY O R G A N I S E D BY

Congratulations to the winners

“Game changer”: DOTSCREEN “New geeks on the block”: Ubudu “Most positive impact”: H3 Dynamics Holdings “Making the world a better place”: We Are Caring Public Award: Virtual Room: Virtual Reality Singapore Go l d

si lv er

The Bank where Innovation Matters

As one of Europe’s largest and oldest banks operating in 66 countries, Societe Generale is committed to accelerate innovation and digital transformation in order to better serve our clients and improve our operating efficiency as well as our overall security in this ever-changing banking environment.

Societe Generale’s Innovation Strategy remains guided by three key objectives: • Promoting innovation by favoring business lines autonomy in the bank and bring about cultural change by encouraging experimentation. We also want to strengthen interaction and cooperation with startups in various forms • Investing in innovation through new operating models, transforming our information systems. We also want to leverage on big data, open innovation and more open, flexible infrastructure.

• Reinforcing innovation through developing state of the art expertise in data management, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

Learn more about Societe Generale’s commitment to innovation www.societegenerale.com/en/about-us/innovation-tech. F

WE ARE THE BANK WHERE INNOVATION MATTERS

SOCIETE GENERALE NURTURES AND ACCELERATES INNOVATION TO BETTER SERVE ITS CLIENTS. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, PARTNERSHIPS WITH FINTECHS AND INTERNAL STARTUP PROGRAMME. SOCIETEGENERALE.COM

Societe Generale is a french Société Anonyme (limited company) with share capital of €1,009,897,173.75, whose registered head ofce is located at 29 boulevard Haussmann – 75009 Paris (France), registered with the Paris trade and companies registry under number 552 120 222 – © Yann Stofer

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The Rise of Immersive Experiences Virtual reality is altering how we interact with content, reshaping experiences in both B2B and B2C markets. Hadrien Duzan, General Manager APAC of Manzalab, and Rebecca Assice, Owner and director, Virtual Room Asia pacific share with us about their VR technologies, their development journeys, the rates of adoption in Singapore, and what lies in the future.

manzalab Do tell us about the VR technology you are working with.

Manzalab develops solutions for 3 main different medias : • Virtual Reality (VR): Users are completely immersed in a new virtual environment thanks to a VR headset.

• Augmented Reality (AR): Users still see their surrounding environment but with an additional layer of digital information enhancing it.

• Micro-learning mobile application: employees have access to short attractive training courses, whenever they have time, offering them precious time flexibility.

Those recent technologies offer new possibilities versus traditional methods: • An efficient approach to learning as you are learning by experiencing situations.

• You can exercice on extreme scenarios without any risk of hurting employees or damaging expensive equipments.

• You can now dzesign and pre-visualise objects or sites / before even creating prototypes.

• Presenting these training as structured game-like scenarios makes them very appealing, especially for younger generations like millenials.

Our software solutions are exclusively for professional use and not for entertainment. We focus on 4 verticals: corporate training, marketing product, VR meeting solutions and design support.

We believe Manzalab has strong added value in virtual reality thanks to our indepth approach of learning mechnanisms.

Indeed, we collaborate with neuroscientist to create efficient training immersive experiences so as to enhance their learning impact.

On top of our expert tech team, we work in depth on storytelling thanks to scriptewriters also collaborating on movie and game scenarios.

Manzalab has developed a unique collaborative multi-user system for people to meet up in a Virtual environment, creating a new virtual social experience.

How has the development journey been and what do you make of rate of adoption in singapore?

Manzalab opened its office in Singapore last November. Since then, the development is really promising. We started by supporting our European historical clients here in the region, and quickly started collaborating with MNCs present in Singapore.

Asian populations are very technophile and eager for innovation. Professional demand in the region is catching up quickly and will soon overtake the European and US markets. Fierce competition on hardware also stimulates the markets by bringing affordable and more user friendly devices.

Sustained efforts remain however required to explain to the public the wide scope of possibilities behind this new technology. Beside specialists, in most people’s minds these technologies are for entertainment only. Our target is to increase awareness on the actual possible benefits in the industry and on staff training and development. These can be applied to as diverse sectors as aeronautics, manufacturing, retail or even the medical sector (surgeon training, patients using VR to reduce pain..).

What lies in the future for Manzalab?

The company has a few exciting projects in the pipeline for the coming months.

We recently raised funds to finalise and launch different off-the-shelf products to accelerate our growth.

After focusing mainly on companies based in Singapore so far, we are now looking to develop in Asia, very likely with the support of partners.

In Europe, Manzalab is involved in different research & development programmes in collaboration with public and private actors. We are exploring this possibility here with actors based locally: large local universities, research institutes and corporates.

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Virtual room Do tell us about the VR technology you are working with.

Virtual Room is one of the world’s first collaborative or multi-player VR experiences that provides a full 45-minute immersive adventure where you can move around your own dedicated game space. The Virtual Room experience is possible thanks to advancements in VR hardware as well as the game software developed in-house.

From the hardware side, we use the HTC Vive – launched onto the market in 2016, this was the first consumer VR headset that provided players with free range movement. Players wear the headset in their own dedicated 3m x 3m room where they move around, bend down, pick up objects, throw objects etc. It’s this range of full motion which enables players to truly feel immersed in the virtual world – as whatever actions they are doing in the real world are replicated in the virtual world.

On the software side, there are many readily available VR experiences today.

However, they usually lack two things: • Multiplayer capability – most are single player or maximum two player experiences • A full-length experience – most are short experiences lasting 5-10 minutes, whereas Virtual Room’s software is a 45-minute adventure When developing the Virtual Room software, our team played all the existing multiplayer VR experiences and found

their graphics were quite poor quality and often caused nausea and dizziness. The team at Virtual Room decided to create a far more superior product, with stunning visuals of places like ancient Egypt and the moon – where you really feel like you are physically in those locations and not in a computer game.

The software also allows sophisticated collaboration between players i.e. they can pass objects to each other, work together to solve challenges and fully communicate as they would in the real world.

How has the development journey been and what do you make of rate of adoption in Singapore?

We launched Virtual Room in Singapore last October and one of our biggest challenges was that awareness of VR as an experience was virtually non-existent. Our experience also targets the mass market – i.e. friends, families (ages 10+) and corporate team building. It’s not actually designed for gamers (although they do still enjoy it). But it was very difficult to effectively convince the mass market to try VR which is seen as very high tech and the domain of hardcore gamers.

Traditional advertising was not very effective as people didn’t know what the experience was about. it’s very difficult to explain such an immersive experience via a few static images in an ad. Word of mouth is by far our most effective marketing tool – so it was critical for us to get people through the door and ensure they reviewed us on places like TripAdvisor and Google. Business slowly

gained traction, but it wasn’t until we had a few competitors launch in Singapore that we really got a lot more popular. There are now three of us offering a multi-player VR experience in Singapore – so the market has developed quite quickly given we were the only ones to exist last October. All three businesses are getting more and more popular – even though we are still at the bottom end of the adoption curve, it’s quickly gaining momentum. Of course, once people get a taste for high quality VR they are very eager to come back and try all the options out there.

What lies in the future for Virtual Room?

We launched the business with only a single adventure (Time Travel Chapter 1) and this was a big limitation for us as there was no reason for our customers to return (although a surprising number did since they loved it so much and/or wanted to show it to other friends). Just last month we launched Time Travel Chapter 2 – which has received phenomenal feedback and meant a lot of our original customers are now returning.

Our future plans are therefore twofold: 1. Developing more adventures, while ensuring we are at the forefront of high quality, collaborative VR experiences 2. Expanding our footprint to become one of the leading providers of VR entertainment globally – the Asian based business has locations in Sydney and Singapore currently and will expand around the Asia Pacific region as fast as we can. F

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COVER STORY

FOCUS MAGAZINE

Innovation

Issue 67

How Advertising is Innovating Isaline Duminil, Marketing Director of JCDecaux Singapore, shares with us how the innovations of the company pushing boundaries of traditional advertising in Singapore.

To achieve this, we leverage our proprietary system, SmartContent™, to deliver dynamic advertising content at the right place at the right time to the right audience. Using live feeds of weather, time also in addition to flight information, traffic data, social media feeds or any customised feeds one can think of, we can personalise the content and message on the screen.

Most recently, JCDecaux Singapore launched its first live social feed digital campaign in May for The Absolut Company, inviting travellers at Changi Airport to participate in a “Global Selfie” and share their travel experiences with the Absolut brand.

Could you tell us about some of the innovative technologies that JCDecaux has developed to push the boundaries of traditional advertising?

With challenges from the online digital world, pushing the boundaries of traditional media is part of our daily work.

One of the constant challenges of the dynamic advertising landscape we are in is to deliver engagement and interaction with audiences to meet various clients’ KPIs. Creating meaningful and valuable audience interactions and experiences are what make us thrive.

We have also deployed solutions that help brands create on-the-spot interactions and drive consumers to store immediately to support in-store or retail activations.

Our WeChat Shake Beacon solutions tap on the pervasiveness of mobile phone usage as well as outdoor advertising to direct customers to the point of purchase.

Advertising copy on digital screens encourage passengers to use the WeChat ‘shake’ function on their mobile devices that will present them with a coupon to redeem a free sample at the nearby dutyfree store while discovering more about the product.

Our team is constantly liaising with start-ups to develop our innovative solutions portfolio. We are currently working on a new interactive solution for our digital assets at bus shelters along Orchard Road.

By inviting consumers’ interactions with brands, our suite of creative solutions facilitates meaningful engagement beyond the traditional mode of outdoor advertising which typically serves to only deliver brand messages.

Could you tell us about what JCDecaux offered the winner of the “Make the World A Better Place Award” of the ICT Awards?

Innovation is at the core of our business where we constantly seek novel opportunities for brands to engage with key audiences. For innovation to thrive where our businesses are, both large corporations and start-ups need to play our part to give room for great ideas to grow.

The bus shelter network is the latest addition to our existing portfolio, and now allows us to offer advertisers an unparalleled reach to audiences on the move. To support efforts for start-ups to scale up by generating awareness through outdoor advertising, we have awarded “We Are Caring” media space on the shelter lights in our bus shelter network.

We would like to congratulate “We Are Caring” for winning this award with their model of an agency to hire domestic helpers, ensuring fair job opportunities to helpers and good service to families in Singapore. F

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COVER STORY

FOCUS MAGAZINE

Innovation

Issue 67

Deep Tech and Open Innovation Collaboration Launched at Viva Tech, the convention in Paris dedicated to technological innovation and start-ups, the Singapore outpost of Hello Tomorrow seeks to support development of deep tech-based innovations in Singapore and the region. Ernest Xue, Head of Hello Tomorrow Singapore shares with us more.

Do introduce Tomorrow

us

to

Hello

Hello Tomorrow is a global non-profit on a mission to accelerate deep-tech research and entrepreneurship to solve the world’s toughest challenges, and to bring world-changing innovation to commercial scale. We bring together a community of actors who believe that science and advanced technology can contribute to shaping a better tomorrow.

What are the first steps in this Singapore & Southeast Asian chapter?

Our immediate goal is to identify the most promising deep-tech start-ups and research-backed Proof-of-concepts (PoC) coming out from the universities, research institutions and innovation ecosystems of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. To achieve this, the team has been actively building a team of Curators – individuals who sit deep within the innovation ecosystems of their respective countries and are able to identify and influence science-entrepreneurs from the ground up. Alongside, we have been building as well as forming ecosystem partnerships with relevant government agencies and the most significant research/innovation institutions in the region, to ensure support and awareness from the top-down.

Strong, committed corporate stakeholders are crucial to the development of deep technologies and their route to market.

Without access to business expertise, talent and facilities, deep-tech start-ups often fail to reach market in a meaningful manner. We have been actively building corporate partnerships with stakeholders who are genuinely interested in deep-tech innovation and its ability to ensure they are able to best deliver value to their customers. The pace of change in technology has been accelerating rapidly and it is a challenge staying ahead of the curve. As a non-profit, Hello Tomorrow is able to act as a strong yet neutral knowledge and sourcing platform to deliver value to all participants within our ecosystem.

We welcome all interested persons to speak with us! Happy to have a coffee and chat.

Are there distinctly different local needs and challenges in deep-tech innovation here when compared to say, “global” ones?

Our region of coverage, which includes Southeast Asia (SEA) and Hong Kong (HK) sees a whole range of needs and maturity levels concerning technology development and adoption. We are firm believers that the innovations emerging from each country tend to reflect the different realities and challenges faced by the innovators behind them. As such, innovations in deep-tech emerging from our region, which can by and large be considered as part of the developing world, are starkly different from those emerging from France, for example, where our global headquarters sit.

Outside of the more developed countries within our regional coverage, the lack of on-the-ground structural support for research can be an impediment to the emergence of deep-tech innovation. The needs however, are not any less acute. Quality of life issues such as healthcare, sanitation, access to food, energy and logistics are key concerns within most of SEA. Drones for vaccine delivery to rural populations, small-holder farmer enablement, next-generation power storage and distribution capabilities are all innovations that require intensive research and engineering efforts. We are fortunate to have ambitious scientists and engineers from start-ups such as Yonah (drones) and Grainsense (handheld protein measurement for crops) working on these solutions.

Deep-tech needs from more developed countries tend to be driven by advancements from large industry and deep-tech needs in less developed countries tend to be driven by the need to improve living standards. F

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COVER STORY

Issue 67

Innovation

Encouraging Innovation at the Workplace Laure-Emmanuelle Carra, Manager Operational Excellence at Weave Consulting, shares with us more about cultivating an innovative team and management practices in lean roadmaps.

O

peration excellence programmes, such as lean management are often narrowed down to a mere process improvement, but we tend to forget that processes are run by people.

Much evidence shows that achieving sustainable performance comes with motivating teams, therefore it is important to involve management from the very beginning.

Transforming our behaviors is easier said than done: how to start?

Firstly, we need to examine how the company runs its working methods and managerial culture. This assessment is done by: • Interviewing employees and managers to hear their feedback about managerial culture, • Observing on-the-job situations to observe how the teams work. It complements the interviews as it gives us a real picture of the organisation.

Such situations can be: 1. Regular meetings 2. A Day In the Life Of (DILO) where we follow a manager for a few hours

Challenges commonly found include:

A. Experimenting

• Management style that can disempower and even infantilise teams • Inefficient or inadequate decisions making process • Teams working in a non-collaborative fashion, focused on local optimisation without a holistic vision • Defensive culture where people protect themselves instead of collectively solving problems

First, we organise working groups involving around 10 managers to identify new practices. They play a key role as human nature tends to lead us back to our old habits. It is only by reenacting these new practices that we learn to change our behaviours. Part of the solution may require participants to define one precise task for the next week and monitor the outcomes. (e.g.: next week, I will give a feedback to my collaborator when she presents her project).

We then share the outcomes in a participatory workshop: this way the teams can provide comment, rather than a one-sided presentation.

Before implementing anything, we narrow down the topics, rather than working on everything. For instance, voting collectively or conducting a cost-benefit comparison can help prioritise the topics to launch.

How do we implement the change?

To translate new practices into daily habits, communication or training campaigns are not enough and need to be complemented with other approaches.

B. Reenacting We design activity kits to help our customers drive the sessions themselves.

This approach is suitable when the large organisation requires us to rely on managers to animate simple and fun scenarios. Moreover, it boosts their leadership and make them role model of the transformation.

C. Measuring What can’t be measured can’t be improved. For this reason, implementing Key Behaviors Indicators is key to track the progress of the management practices. F

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COVER STORY

FOCUS MAGAZINE

Innovation

Issue 67

How to Put Innovation into Action

I

To understand how

n 1911, the notable Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter said that innovation is the industrial exploitation of inventions, their development and economic scope. Still valuable today, this definition clearly shows that while the invention is necessary in the innovation process, it is not the innovation. Firstly, to become innovation, the invention must be put into action, where it must be more than an idea, model or prototype and exploited in an industrial method. Even industrial production is insufficient - the invention must be part of a larger plan where it is implemented and disseminated. Last but certainly not the least, the invention’s value must be significant enough and monetised as economic success to be deemed as innovation. This success cannot be measured by a company’s turnover, but rather, by generated profit, the key to economic survival.

innovation is put into action, one has to analyse both its definition and its evolution from the birth of an idea to its implementation.

Xavier Pavie, Professor and Academic Director at ESSEC Business School Asia Pacific, shares with us more.

p r o d u ct l if e c y c l e c r o s s i n g t h e c h a s m

Consequentially, it is crucial to distinguish three phases in the life of a product or service. The first phase, upstream, concerns its elaboration. The second and third phases, both downstream, are when the product launches on the market, attracts buyers, generates sales; then the pivotal moment when the number of consumers drastically increases so as to compensate the investments made. The juncture from the second and third phase is characteristically called “Moore’s chasm” , which is an essential step in any innovation process. Before this gap, the product or service is only what we call a “candidate for innovation” as it does not contribute to a company’s economic 1 2

survival in any way. When the new offer crosses the chasm due to new clients generating more profits than investments, the “candidate for innovation” then rightly becomes an innovation.

Consequently, innovation is clearly uncertain as no one can predict when any product or service will cross the chasm.

While the organisation will do its utmost to communicate, implement, and market its offer, clients are the determining factor turning an invention into an innovation.

With this uncertainty in mind, any innovation must first be seen as a failure.

This unknown, uncertain gap makes it

rd s ga La g

M Lat aj e or ity

M Ear aj ly or ity

Ad Ea op rly te rs

In

no va to rs

The Chasm

necessary for the company to focus on the upstream phase and development of ideas. The more inventions an organisation produces, the more chances there are that one will evolve into an innovation. In other words, if an organisation only has one idea or invention, the risk of failure is certain.

To conclude, we can see that innovation and action cannot be separated. The role of innovators then, is to put into action the whole innovation process: crossing the chasm, overcoming obstacles and competition to drive success. F

Joseph Schumpeter, Theory of Economic Development, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1911 Geoffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers, Harper Business; Revised edition August 2006

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COVER STORY

Issue 67

Innovation

Innovation in supply chain: reinventing logistics

Pierre Poignant, executive president of Lazada, shares with us more about innovation in the supply chain and keeping up with rapid-changing market demands in south east asia.

Many of us are familiar with product innovations like the smartphone or electric car.

But what does innovation in supply chain look like?

The eCommerce market in South East Asia (SEA) is estimated to grow 40% year on year, for the next five to seven years, to reach $100 billion. However, the logistics environment in a diverse and fast-growing SEA market is riddled with many challenges. We have set up Lazada eLogistics (LeL) to address these challenges, delight sellers and buyers around SEA and win them over to eCommerce.

LeL’s major innovation resides in our unique network and operating model – an ecosystem of logistics partners stitched together with state-of-the-art technology and modular infrastructure.

We are championing an approach based on trust-based collaboration and shared technology, as no singular entity will be able to keep pace with the rapid growth of logistics in this region.

Other innovation highlights include: • SEA’s first picking robots in Malaysia • Green electric delivery fleet across the region • 72-hour cross-border delivery solution for main metros in SEA • The Digital Free Trade Zone in Malaysia • The first fully automated sortation centre network in five markets.

Any lessons that you can share with us from your innovation journey?

SEA is a very dynamic market. There are always new competitors entering the market, new partners or capabilities becoming available, and regulations are constantly changing. As a result innovation has to be an ongoing process. We cannot be satisfied with our past successes. LeL needs to be reinventing logistics always!

Lazada operates in many countries across the Southeast Asia zone. Is there a different strategy or approach in each country?

When presenting SEA to someone new to the region, I always mention a few striking anecdotes: across our six countries we have all the major religions of the world, the distance from North West (Aceh) to the South East (Papua) of Indonesia is greater than the distance from Seattle to Miami, and that Philippines is the country with the most typhoons in the world.

These anecdotes illustrate the vast diversity in the region, and our strategy has to be different in each country. What we have in common across the LeL teams in the region is our mission to always be reinventing logistics.

Being South east Asia’s number one online shopping and selling destination, how do you intend to stay at the top?

We are working hard so that Lazada, with the backing of Alibaba, is and will continue to be the number one eCommerce platform in SEA.

“To stay on top we need to consistently offer a distinctive shopping experience for customers and selling experience for our merchants, and this is where logistics can play a major role.”

Through our innovative logistics solutions, we are able to provide better service, better cost and ensure capacity in a severely constrained yet high-growth environment. Our merchants have access to the cheapest rates in the market at the best service level, enabling them to create a better shopping experience for their customers. F

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Entrepreneur Spotlight

FOCUS MAGAZINE

Chab Events

Issue 67

Scaling New Heights: An Entrepreneur Spotlight Guillaume Chabrieres, Founder of Chab Events shares with us about his entrepreneur journey in Singapore, the challenges, and what drives him forward.

Entrepreneur spotlight

What was the most exciting challenge to overcome? What is it that motivates and drives you?

How did you become an entrepreneur in Singapore?

Can you tell us a bit about your business?

I started out in the media industry in Singapore in 2011, after a while I saw an opportunity to launch a company of my own, a new journey.

Back then the Singapore government was already helping entrepreneurs to start their dreams. I seized the opportunity, took the leap of faith and one night in July 2013 together with 3 friends, created Chab Events.

Chab Events is a turnkey corporate event management, experiential marketing and video production company based in Singapore, Paris, Bali and Siem Reap. We work across a large range of industries including healthcare, insurance, banking, luxury and food & beverage.

Personally, I feel the most difficult challenge to overcome is in creating your ‘guanxi’ (network in Chinese) in Singapore. Networking is largely based on trust, and so it is the French community to whom I owe the greatest gratitude. The French community has been a fantastic booster towards our ever-growing success.

As for the most exciting, there is no specific event or victory that I can say triumphs over another. The most exciting element for me, is that I have gone from a laptop and a sofa at home to having office branches in four different countries, to having a company that is doubling in size each year and now with 22 staff in Singapore alone.

My biggest motivation is looking at where we started and where we are now. It makes me feel very positive about how far we have come and also, where we could be five years from now. The term ‘parcours’ sums up the motions of Chab Events. We are consistently climbing, jumping and overcoming obstacles to reach new heights, hire fresh talents and win new contracts! It is most definitely a rollercoaster of excitement and challenges, but I believe it is more about the human adventure rather than the financial one. Furthermore, the quality of work is consistently increasing – no two days are the same! When we look at yesterday and of being scared of projects worth 10,000 dollars. It is now a whole different level of pressure to produce the projects that are worth 1 million dollars! Nonetheless, it’s all part of the Chab Events story!

the French Chamber? Why? Around the same time as I launched Chab Events, I participated in the launch of the French Chamber’s “So Chic magazine” at the French Residence.

This is how I met Carine Lespayandel, Sandrine Perrault, Anne-Sophie Foster and Pascal Lambert.

The “Business Accelerator Lab”, free for those who are members of the French Chamber, allowed me to face a panel of C-level executives across industries at the Chamber. It allowed me to understand the challenges faced and the short and mid-term strategies.

It was kind of like an advisory session. This added great value to my relationship with the Chamber. I also had the absolute privilege to work with my two mentors, Olivier Grometto and Serge Genetet, from whom I have learnt so much. Overall, the French Chamber of Commerce has been a great boost for my agency and the involvement I have with them will never go unnoticed.

One of our shelves in the office is dedicated to the directories of the Chamber, however there is still space for the directories to come! In other words the French Chamber will always have a place within Chab Events. F

How did you get involved with Read the full Entrepreneur Spotlight on focus.fccsingapore.com and find out more about the French Chamber’s Platform for Startups & Entrepreneurs!

FOCUS MAGAZINE

Business Support

Issue 67

Newly Set-up Companies

Newly Set-Up Companies Over the last few months, various French companies have benefited from the French Chamber’s Business Support services for their setup process in Singapore. Here, they introduce their products and services:

We then further extended our services to include application and software translation and video subtitling and voice-overs in all languages.

Opening offices in Singapore was a logical next step in our development, allowing us to offer a range of helpful services for foreign companies wanting to establish operations in Asia, and to serve local businesses seeking to expand to Europe or North America.

Our clients are in the cosmetics, tourism and recreation, aeronautics and space, automobile, construction and civil engineering, agri-food, medical and pharmaceutical, and finance sectors. F Contact: Jean-Philippe CAT, Director Email: jp@asiatis.com.sg Website: asiatis.com.sg

French For You offers personalised language training to corporate organisations and adults who want to quickly become operational and speak French with confidence. We foster exchange and creativity in a friendly atmosphere. F Contact: Vérane DE PERETTI, Education Development Trainer Email: verane@frenchforyou.sg Website: frenchforyou.sg

support

Musica Ficta offers a variety of private and group classes in music and the arts, whether it is you or your child who is interested in learning piano or painting, guitar or drawing, we have the right programme.

We also offer workshops around music and art to help your team strengthen listening and cohesion within your company.

That’s the Musica Ficta philosophy that we want to offer: tailor-made lessons, workshops made for your company and original events and performances. F Contact: Dominique LECOCQ and Vincent CATEIGNE Email: admin@musicaficta.net Website: musicaficta.net

ZORBA is a multicultural strategy and creative & brand content group that today spans both Europe and Asia with hubs in Paris, Shanghai and recently Singapore.

A full-service agency integrating all production and postproduction resources and tools, ZORBA aimed from the beginning to tailor-made strategy and content for brand stories and users’ connection, engagement and experiences.

For many years, ZORBA became the partner for brand content and entertainment of numerous groups, including FMCG, Cosmetics & Beauty, Retail, Hospitality, Eyewear, Automotive, and in 2013 stretched its array to include scientists to its creatives crucible with ZORBA LifeSciences. From strategic planning, creation to production, ZORBA LifeSciences designs all related to Science, Technologies and Innovations brand content with one lead motto: “Making Complex Messages Simple and Accessible”. F Contact: Sandra HASSLER, General Manager ZORBA Asia / Global Head ZORBA LifeSciences Website: zorba-asia.com & zorba-lifesciences.com

newly set-up companies

Founded in Paris in 2000, Asiatis is a translation agency specialising in Asian languages. Its client base grew quickly to include major international groups and large French companies operating in Asia looking for a reliable partner for the translation of their websites, sales brochures, technical manuals and contracts, and for interpreting assignments. These companies wanted to deal with one provider only for their translation work and encouraged us to extend our services to all languages.

business

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Business Support

Business Centre

FOCUS MAGAZINE Issue 67

Business Centre of the French Chamber Singapore: Business Development Accelerated To provide business development support to the companies it hosts, workshops and meetings on business development in Asia are organised at the Business Centre, on questions and subjects that interest our hosted companies. We call on experts and professionals in our network so that companies can access information, knowledge and advice, and accelerate their business development in the region.

Here are some of the meetings that have taken place.

Atelier N°8 “BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA”: DOING BUSINESS IN MYANMAR At this workshop in video conference with the French Chamber in Myanmar, our counterparts in Rangoon shared with us about the Myanmar market across different sectors and also how the business environment has evolved since 2011. F

Atelier N°9 “BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA”: THE SECRETS TO AN ELEVATOR PITCH To better understand the ins and outs of an elevator pitch, a dedicated workshop was organised during lunch hour, conducted by Clémence Blondel of Creative Leadership in Asia, to introduce the fundamentals to constructing a good elevator pitch and practice the techniques. F

CAFÉ GOURMAND AT THE BUSINESS CENTRE Every first Friday of the month, we meet for a convivial exchange over a gourmet coffee and share a breakfast, bread, croissants, cakes. F

New Companies at the Business Centre

The Business Centre of the French Chamber in Singapore welcomes two innovative companies in September: RTSYS Underwater acoustics and drones

VISIOGLOBE Indoor wayfinding solution

FOCUS MAGAZINE Issue 67

Business Support

Trade Shows

Innovative solutions at the French Pavilion at BroadcastAsia and NXTAsia 2018 in Singapore The French Chamber in Singapore organised the French Pavilions at BroadcastAsia and NXTAsia, two focused tradeshows at ConnecTechAsia, Asia’s mega technology event that represents the convergence of technologies and industries.

Held from 26 – 28 June 2018 across 2 venues – Suntec Singapore and Marina Bay Sands, the event welcomed close to 40,000 attendees from around the world.

The active involvement of the 21 French companies under our Pavilions this year demonstrates the innovating abilities of French technology companies as well as the importance and influence of these two international tradeshows in the region.

Throughout the three days, exhibitors had the great opportunity of discovering new contacts, establishing connections, obtaining information and identifying business opportunities.

Also organised on the sidelines of the two tradeshows were the 2018 ASEAN ICT Awards, co-organised by the French Chamber, Business France, French Tech Singapore and in conjunction with the 2018 France-Singapore Year of Innovation, which also saw exhibitor companies as finalists in competition for five Awards. F

Participating Exhibitors

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Business Support

Company Pool Manager

FOCUS MAGAZINE Issue 67

Company Pool Manager, French sales booster for Singapore

In France, companies are often struggling with export development. Noticeably for Asia, appropriate human resources and specific budget are needed to face distance, language, cultural differences.

In Singapore, the market is mature and competition is high. Overseas companies often need a local presence to succeed.

Based on results from 30 companies and partners interviews, the French Chamber in Singapore is launching Company Pool Manager services. The aim is to dedicate Singaporean sectoral experts from our team to developing French company sales in Singapore on a part-time basis in short- to middle-term renewable contracts.

Our company pool managers are in charge of companies Business Development for strategic as well as for operational purposes like promotion, prospection, follow-up…

Adapted to the Singapore market, this solution lowers the risks taken by the companies and improves the performance of commercial actions undertaken: • it assures local presence on the ground by a sustained follow-up, particularly important in very competitive markets like Singapore • it needs a low financial and no legal commitments from the company • these people have a detailed knowledge of the market and the actors, speak local languages (English, Mandarin, Hokkien) and are able to anticipate and solve intercultural gaps Furthermore, our company pool managers are going to take care of up to 4 companies, reducing drastically the cost compared to a unique Commercial Director and his expenditures on-site or back and forth trips between France and Singapore.

Some French Chambers in Asia have already developed these services and the companies using it have concrete results in a high price performance rate: • it confirms potential business in these distant countries with business interest • based on volumes identified during the commercial development, this service was a good tool to validate a set-up project in Asia Please have a look at our website and/or contact us for a personalised action. F

FOCUS MAGAZINE

HR SERVICES

Issue 67

Jobseeker Workshops

Ateliers de Formation pour Jobseekers 2018

Prochaines sessions en octobre et novembre 2018 Durée : entre 3h et 4h pour chaque atelier

RESUME

CV

Networking

15 octobre

(2 sessions)

23 octobre + 20 novembre

Faire Les Bons Choix Professionnels (2 sessions) 4 octobre + 11 octobre

LinkedIn 18 octobre / 13 novembre

Elevator Pitch

15 novembre / 27 novembre

Réussir Son Entretien d’Embauche 24 octobre / 8 novembre

Où Meeting Room, Chambre de Commerce 541 Orchard Road, #09-01 Liat Towers, S238881 Inscription en ligne fccsingapore.com/hr/workshops-jobseekers

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French Chamber Events

CSR Day

FOCUS MAGAZINE Issue 67

2018 French Chamber CSR day: let’s clean the beach, together!

Continuing the clean-up effort started by our business community in 2017, the French Chamber in Singapore and its members gathered again on 21 May 2018, early on Monday morning, to once again contribute to local environment protection efforts.

400 people

from 40 companies

~2.1 tonnes (2,100kg) of marine trash collected at the beach

FOCUS MAGAZINE Issue 67

French Chamber

CSR Day

Why a coastal clean-up?

In Singapore, our coastlines host a vast amount of biodiversity. Marine trash present in these areas can impact our wildlife adversely and devalue the natural beauty of the landscape. Volunteers in Singapore, like other concerned individuals around the world, conduct coastal clean-ups to remove this trash, raise awareness about the impact of marine trash, and motivate us to adopt sustainable practices in our daily urban lives.

Where is Tanah Merah Beach 7?

Tanah Merah Beach 7 is a state land located in the east of Singapore. This area is closed to the public and permission is needed for each access. Trash come exclusively from sea with the tides.

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CSR Day

Issue 67

Why record data?

Throughout the year several actions are done to clean up the trash reaching Singapore coasts.

Cleaning is not the only target of those actions, we aim to create awareness, record data and perform analysis from year to year.

The French Chamber in Singapore partnered with International Coastal Cleanup Singapore and after the clean-up, we handed over data of the marine trash collected, and they analyse trends and work towards protecting the environment better.

1. Clean up trash & collect data

3. Publish results

4. Reduce our impact

2. Organise and analyse data

21st may - Tanah merah ferry terminal beach cleanup: top 10 items found Straws/stirrers Beverage bottles (plastic) Plastic bags and grocery bags Cigarette butts Cups & plates (plastic) Foam pieces (styrofoam) Plastic pieces Food wrappers (candy, chips, etc) Take out containers (plastic & foam) Beverage bottles (glass) 0

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A great CSR Day 2018 with the French Chamber busines community!

We would like to make a special note of thanks to Danone, Decathlon and St John First Aid for the beach master and Wise Team support, and certainly to all 400 participants for their enthusiasm and great contribution as responsible corporate citizens! F

French Chamber

CSR Day

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French Chamber EVENTS

FOCUS MAGAZINE

Smart Health Symposium

Issue 67

symposium The Innovative and Digital Healthcare Leap Building on the launch of the Smart Health platform, an initiative by the French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, the Smart Health Symposium, themed “The Innovative and Digital Healthcare Leap“, brought together a great range of actors in the healthcare and healthcare services space – industry players, research experts, stakeholders, partners, Singapore governmental agencies – to discuss together the latest trends, innovations, and collaboration opportunities in healthcare in the Singapore context.

Organised in conjunction with the France-Singapore Innovation Year, we were pleased to count among us over 200 participants across the healthcare value chain, to deliver the healthcare system of tomorrow.

Following welcome remarks from Philippe Guibert, CoPresident of the French Chamber Healthcare committee and H.E. Marc Abensour, Ambassador of France to Singapore, the Symposium kicked off with a plenary session with key experts.

Speakers included: • Martin Hirsch, CEO of the Greater Paris University Hospitals (AP-HP), who shared on trends and developments in the world of hospitals, • Danny Soon, Senior Director, Biomedical Research, A*STAR, who shared on the various activities of Singapore’s activities in scientific discovery and technological innovation, from medtech to drug development and biomanufacturing, and • Julien de Salaberry, CEO & Co-Founder of Galen Growth Asia, who shared on healthtech and the health start-up ecosystem in Singapore and Asia Pacific.

Our speakers then convened for a panel discussion moderated

by Kevyn Yong, Dean, ESSEC Asia-Pacific, with a plenty of great questions fielded from the audience.

With start-ups being key in this transformation journey, French and Singaporean start-ups and innovators were invited to present and showcase innovative healthcare solutions that they have been working on.

• Neeraj Kothari, CTO, Cogniant, • Emmanuel Prado, CEO, Health2i, • Sumbul Nasim, Regional Clinical Research Manager, Obviohealth, • Grégoire Rastoul, CEO, UEX, and • Seng Ian Hao and Seng Ing Le, Founders of QaneMate Following a short networking break, participants broke off into 4 clusters, in each a dedicated programme targeting one of four axes and aspects of healthcare, • Healthcare Accessibility & Affordability, • Preventive Care, • Value-Based Care & Innovation, and • Silver Economy & Seamless Care Discover more about Smart Health on www.smart-health.sg F

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Smart Health Symposium

Discover the new videos of the 4 Smart Health Clusters on www.smart-health.sg!

Healthcare Accessibility & Affordability

Preventive Care

Value-Based Care & Innovation

Silver Economy & Seamless Care

Main Sponsors

Supporting Sponsors

In association with

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M&A Landscape in India

French

Visit of Singapore’s Fort Knox: Le Freeport

events

Set at Changi airport, Le Freeport is a highly secured complex for precious metals and valuable items in Singapore, with operations conducted with the support of Singapore Customs, Singapore Police, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, and Singapore Economic Development Board.

Members had the opportunity to visit the complex and a vault of bars of gold-silver-platinum and testing activities and gain insights on how the gold market works. F

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M&As have become an essential part of the Indian economy and daily headlines. Based on macroeconomic indicators, India is on a growth trajectory, with the M&A trend likely to continue growing. This meeting explored what drives the deal flow, and looked at sectors and issues when doing deals in India. F SPEAKERS • Bimal Modi, Partner, Head M&A Transaction Services, Deloitte India • Ludovic Sichère, APAC Business Development, Marketing & Strategy Director, Imerys Carbonates Asia

Banking, Finance & Fintech

Committee events

SPEAKER • Christophe Numa, Managing Director, Bunker Gold & Silver Singapore Banking, Finance & Fintech

Alternative Data, Finding an Edge in Big Data Companies compete for the best data scientists to extract analytics from very similar datasets built for specific industries and purposes. This meeting explored alternative data, or how to find an edge with big data by identifying data that seemingly does not have anything to do with your activity and integrating it into the analytical flow. F SPEAKER • Raphael Bouzy, Co-founder and CEO, Datarama Banking, Finance & Fintech

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Committee Events

Blockchain Technology: Myths and Diversity

Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Trend in Europe Members had the opportunity to get insights on Initial Coin Offering (ICO), from the ICO trends in Europe (blockchain, market size, transaction volumes, Europe token sales) where our speakers shared on the different scopes in structuring MoneyTrack’s ICO, from R&D to marketing, fundraising, and legal aspects. F

Blockchain is not a homogeneous technology, but rather a family of technologies, – more accurately called DLT “Distributed Ledger technologies” – with similar properties, which yield common benefits. This workshop reviewed essential properties, key design choices of the two famous initial implementations Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as their current limitations in a session codesigned with participants. F SPEAKER • Dan Duong, Digital Innovation and Technology Consultant Banking, Finance & Fintech Tech & Innovation

SPEAKERS • Philippe Rodriguez, Founder, Avolta Partners • Christophe Doré, CEO of Moneytrack.io Banking, Finance & Fintech Tech & Innovation

The (R)evolution of Shared Services: What’s Next?

With improvements in technology and strategic decision management, the traditional shared service centre model is evolving from a standalone functional transaction model to a strategic value model. Our speakers shared more about this (r)evolution, its key business imperatives, the opportunities & challenges in planning the shared services transformation journey. F SPEAKERS • Ian Brown, Head of Region, Solvay Asia Pacific Shared Services • Juvanus Tjandra, Partner, Management Consulting, KPMG Singapore • Varthini Larue, CFO South East Asia Pacific, Air Liquide MODERATOR • Ludovic Sichère, APAC Business Development, Marketing & Strategy Director, Imerys Carbonates Banking, Finance & Fintech

CFO Club Afterwork Networking The CFO Club brings together CFOs to share among peers experience, challenges, issues, and best practices in the region. The latest exclusive afterwork networking was held at Ginett Restaurant & Wine Bar. F Banking, Finance & Fintech

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A journey in IoT Being surrounded by a very active IoT ecosystem has allowed us to witness some trends, successes and failures of IoT projects. Our speaker shared more on the different steps to a successful IoT Journey, insights on data value, business case, prototyping, security and launch. F SPEAKER • Guillaume Simenel, Head of Presales APAC, SIGFOX Tech & Innovation

Visit of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Customer Engagement Centre Members visited the HPE Customer Engagement Centre APAC, one of five globally that offers immersive Edge Experience Zones to demonstrate practical IoT use cases for industries such as oil & gas, manufacturing, engineering, healthcare, retail, smart cities etc., and also a proof of concept environment to test the newest IoT technologies. F SPEAKERS • Prasad Kale, APAC manufacturing solution lead Hybrid IT practice, HPE Singapore • Christophe Maisonnave, Data Center Facilities Consulting, APAC Lead Hybrid IT practice, HP Singapore Research & Development

Smart Cities

Tech & Innovation

Innovating in a Service-Driven Economy: How Business Models are Evolving?

Services have become a key sector today precisely because the very notion of service has significantly evolved over the last 15 years, as well as its economic understanding as a business model.

This meeting looked at how business models are evolving in this service-driven economy. F

CIO Lunch on Friday 13 April 2018

SPEAKER • Xavier Pavie, Teaching Associate Professor, ESSEC Business School

The French Chamber’s Tech & Innovation committee has launched a series of exclusive events dedicated to CIOs of MNCs to enable exchange among CIO peers and counterparts in Singapore. F

Tech & Innovation

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Outlook on Smart City at Iskandar Malaysia This event, jointly organised with the French Chamber in Malaysia included a visit to Forest City and Medini, Forest City is a mega development and a joint venture project between China and Malaysia and shall become the standard demonstration zone of “One Belt One Road” in Southeast Asia. It is strategically located adjacent to Singapore, approximately 5km from the Second Link and 40 minutes to Singapore CBD. F Energy & Infrastructure

Smart Cities

Building the Smart Cities Ecosystem: ICT infrastructure, Cloud, Data Analytics, Artificial intelligence, Blockchain A smart, connected, agile city makes extensive use of IT and digital technologies to address urban issues and create the premise for continuous innovations. Our speaker shared with us experience in the use of smart city technologies such as IoT, analytics, AI, system integration, ICT infrastructure and cloud. F SPEAKER • Mirela Juravle, Head of IoT and Smart Cities, APAC, Orange Business Services Smart Cities

Visit of Singapore ETH Centre (SEC) and Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) Established as a joint initiative between ETH Zurich and Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF), the Singapore-ETH Centre on NRF’s CREATE campus frames two research programmes: the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) and the Future Resilient Systems (FRS). This visit gave members a presentation of the centre, its research programmes, and a discussion on emerging issues and practices in smart cities and sustainable urban planning. F SPEAKERS • Jonathan Denis-Jacob, Research Manager and Urban Planner, ETH Zurich • Fabien Clavier, Project Coordinator and Urban Planner, ETH Zurich • Constant Van Aerschot, Expert in Public Policy, ETH Zurich • Thibault Pilsudski, Researcher and Urban Planner, ETH Zurich Smart Cities

Joint ICT Networking Evening with AmCham and BritCham The French Chamber partnered with the American Chamber and the British Chamber in Singapore to organise an interchamber networking evening for technology professionals. French Chamber Members had the opportunity to enjoy free flow drinks and canapes while connecting with fellow technology professionals in Singapore. F Tech & Innovation

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A Conversation with Frédéric Barnaud, Group CEO of Pavilion Energy

Visit of the French amphibious assault ship “Dixmude”

At this exceptional Breakfast Talk, Frédéric Barnaud, Group CEO of Pavilion Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek, provided his perspectives on liquefied natural gas (LNG) developments across the globe and in the region, and shared his views about natural gas developments in the Singapore market. He also shared with members what’s next in the dynamic landscape of the LNG industry, and his outlook on how the industry as a whole will continue to grow and adapt. F

With the arrival of Jeanne d’Arc group in Singapore, the French Maritime Cluster committee has organised a visit of the French amphibious assault ship Dixmude.

SPEAKER • Frédéric Barnaud, Group CEO of Pavilion Energy

A big thanks to Attaché Défense and its cabinet for the organisation and to Dixmude’s crew for its warm welcome. F

MODERATOR • Philippe Wind, Director, Energy at Actis Capital Partners

French Maritime Cluster

Energy & Infrastructure

Under the command of Captain Porcher, Captain of the Dixmude, the Jeanne d’Arc 2018 mission allows future marine officers to confront the real maritime world and to achieve their formation with a long trip, going far away with a crew.

French Maritime Cluster

Building a successful Cybersecurity business - Top predictions and future impacts Overview of the Franco-Singaporean relationship regarding defence equipment For this committee meeting, Colonel Patrick Lefort, Military Attaché in Singapore, provided us with an overview of the defence technological cooperation between France and Singapore and the export support for the French arms industry. F SPEAKER • Patrick Lefort, Attaché d’armement à Singapour

Airbus’ external Cyber Security business have compiled their top technology predictions for 2018, based on trends identified at their Security Operations Centres in France, UK and Germany during 2017. Our speaker shared with us top predictions and future impacts, great insights on building a successful cybersecurity business. F SPEAKER • Markus Braendle, Head of Airbus Cyber Security Aeronautics, Space, Defence & Security

Aeronautics, Space, Defence & Security French Maritime Cluster

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A Conversation with Mr Png Cheong Boon, CEO of Enterprise Singapore In a conversation introduced by Mr Pascal Lambert, President of the French Chamber Singapore and moderated by Mr Kevin Chow, CEO & Country Director Thales Solutions, members had the opportunity to exchange with the CEO of Enterprise Singapore, Mr Png Cheong Boon, the newly-launched government agency that brings together IE Singapore and SPRING Singapore. F SPEAKER • Png Cheong Boon, CEO of Enterprise Singapore Asia

French Chamber Annual General Meeting 2018 The French Chamber Annual General Meeting took place on 8 June 2018 at Société Générale with Mr Pascal Lambert, President of the French Chamber, presiding over the meeting with Mrs Carine Lespayandel, Executive Director.

Visit of Essilor Center for Innovation & Technologies Asia At this site visit, Essilor welcomed French Chamber members at the heart of Essilor innovation to visit its Center for Innovation & Technologies Asia, with presentations and demonstrations to give an insight as to what goes on in its Innovation Lab, Wearer Evaluation Center, Prototyping Platform. F SPEAKERS • Alexandra Roos, Head of Center for Innovation & Technologies Asia, Essilor • Rakesh Suryanarayan, Consumer Innovation Roadmap Director, Essilor • Céline Carimalo, Consumer Experience Senior Manager, Essilor • Richard Liu, Techno & Processes Senior Manager, Essilor Healthcare & Smart Health

Research & Development

Mr Lambert addressed the assembly for approval of the 2017/2018 Annual Report to introduce the meeting. 2017/2018 has been an excellent year for the Chamber with more members, more activities and services thanks to the work and active contribution of the team, the board members and the member companies. F

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Loyalty: Disrupt or Be Disrupted. What do you think?

Within a fast moving, fragmented and now digital native Asian ecosystem, at this Breakfast Talk, we had an interactive discussion on what drives loyalty across the customer journey, hearing from players in sectors from hospitality to fintech and CRM, who shared their acquisition and retention strategies, not only for customers, but employees as well. F SPEAKERS • Henrik Berglind, Vice President, Loyalty – Asia Pacific, AccorHotels • Johann Suchon, Managing Director China, HK, Singapore and Global Rewards, Edenred • Alexander Tran, Head of Marketing Technology & Operations, GRAB

Why customers & influencers are better marketers than your CMO?

Digital Marketing & Communication

F&B and Hospitality

Luxury & Premium Retail

Word of mouth from a trusted party has been the most efficient form of marketing since the age of time. This Breakfast Talk provided an opportunity for marketing professionals to discuss how to scale the formidable marketing power of customers and the online influencers they trust. F SPEAKERS • Laurent Verrier, Founder & CEO, One9ninety & Narratrs • Alexia Sichere and Maelle Pochat, Founders, Try and Review • Antoine Gross, VP of Sales APAC, Synthesio Digital Marketing & Communication F&B and Hospitality Luxury & Premium Retail

Productivity Shifts and Trends for the Retail Industry in Asia The retail industry is undergoing a paramount shift over the past years, leading to new approaches to improving productivity, whether through processes, platforms or tools. This meeting provided members with an overview of recent trends and how retail companies in Asia can address them. F SPEAKER • Noe Saglio, Co-Founder of Powata Digital Marketing & Communication Tech & Innovation

Luxury Committee – Exclusive Networking Lunch The French Chamber Luxury & Premium Retail Committee exchanged over an intimate and casual lunch at Il Cielo Restaurant at Grand Hyatt Singapore. F Luxury & Premium Retail

Luxury & Premium Retail

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Why customer experience is at the core of a successful retail strategy?

A talk with Google A great evening with Google where speakers shared with French Chamber members their views on the mobile world in Asia Pacific and why Southeast Asia is such a critical region for the rest of the global digital ecosystem, and also how the company manages to consistently remain at the top of the innovation chain. F SPEAKERS • Aurélien Pichon, Director, Strategy and Operations - APAC, Google • Ghislain Le Chatelier, Regional Director - SEA, Google • Thomas Bossy, Financial Analyst - APAC SME, Google • Alexis Hennequin, Financial Analyst -YouTube, Google • Florence Lecaille, APAC Sales Strategy & Operations, Google • Nicolas Dussart, Product Strategy and Sales Operations Lead, Google

“The customer is always right” goes back the familiar adage coined back in 1909… and still holds true today. Today’s retail journey must be designed to inspire consumers to make their own experience out of each moment and touchpoint. This session saw our speakers using their background in store design, retail experience and digital transformation to share insights on how brands can develop winning retail strategies with customer experience at its core. F SPEAKERS • Jeanne Mouterde, Co-founder and General Manager, ielo design • Chloé Cortinovis, Co-founder and Managing Director, Bienvenue Digital Marketing & Communication Luxury & Premium Retail

Tech & Innovation

Digital Marketing & Communication Tech & Innovation

Leverage technology to truly address omni-channel e-Commerce, Digital store, Marketplaces, Social Networks, Click & collect… Offering a consistent customer experience across channel is on top of everybody’s agenda but how? Our speaker shared an overview to digital architecture (e-com, PIM, DAM, OMS, Customer Data Platform), and how companies / IT and Business can address goals together. F SPEAKER • Yvon Le Renard, Managing Partner, Clever-Age Asia Digital Marketing & Communication Tech & Innovation

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Business Accelerator Lab Every month, the French Chamber’s Business Accelerator Lab meets an entrepreneur seeking to present his or her business and get advice, recommendations and relevant contacts from successful entrepreneurs and professionals. The Lab is copresided by Olivier Grometto and Laetitia de Seroux.

These past months saw sessions with PTGEM (June), CHAB EVENTS (May) and BEYOND DESIGN (April) , and since the launch of the programme, the Lab has guided 30 entrepreneurs, many of which from the tech industry or provide an online solution, consulting companies, retail agencies or catering services. F Start-ups & Entrepreneurs

Business Accelerator Lab

If you are a French entrepreneur whose company was created in Singapore and has seen a minimum of one year of activity, we encourage you to make use of this opportunity of free recommendation on your business model and development from advisors (successful entrepreneurs, and valuable experts.

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Mentoring Programme A co-initiative with Business France and the French Trade Advisors, the French Chamber’s Mentoring Programme provides an opportunity for French entrepreneurs and SME subsidiary representatives to exchange on business issues in 1-to-1, with high-profile business people and executives from MNCs who volunteer to provide feedback and advice for up to 12 months. F Start-ups & Entrepreneurs

Mentoring Programme

If you are a French entrepreneur with a minimum of one year of activity, or a representative of a subsidiary of a French SME seeking to develop activities in Singapore and South East Asia, apply online to join this free programme.

Women Entrepreneurs Round Table The French Chamber, together with Ms Valérie Marin, MD, Distribution Asiatique, and Co-President of the Start-Ups & Entrepreneurs committee, organises regular sessions for women entrepreneurs who wish to present their business and the challenges they face to get feedback and insights from other entrepreneurs.

This accountability structure helps each woman entrepreneur keep focused and on track. F Business Women

Start-ups & Entrepreneurs

Founders of small business: Get the tips for a successful negotiation and agreement with your co-founders and investors!

This meeting organised with SMEs and start-ups, founders and GMs in mind aimed at providing an overview of the full process dedicated to set-up and funding, covering how to manage negotiation, from valuation and investment agreement and shareholders’ agreement. F SPEAKER • Renee Kaddouch, PhD, Attorney at Law (Paris Bar), Foreign lawyer (Singapore), Managing Director of Genesis Avocats Singapore Legal & Tax

Start-ups & Entrepreneurs

Women Entrepreneurs

If you are a woman entrepreneur member of the French Chamber, join our upcoming luncheons, masterclass sessions, and other dedicated committee events.

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Meet the CEO The latest sessions of Meet the CEO had been held with Julien Esch, Managing Director of Dragages Singapore (Bouygues Construction), and Pierre Cheyron, CEO APAC of ENGIE Services Asia Pacific. F Start-ups & Entrepreneurs

CEO Tech Club – 20 avril 2018.

The latest meetings of the CEO Tech Club presented opportunities to exchange with Jeremi Joslin, Founder of Collabspot, who shared on the subject of ICO, as well as Pascal Bornet, Associate Partner at McKinsey, Leader Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation, introduced by Bernard Golstein. F Start-ups & Entrepreneurs Tech & Innovation

Meet the CEO

CEO Tech Club

This exclusive club brings together French CEOs from the Tech Industry, providing a platform for exchange among peers on pertinent topics and talks with international CEOs.

Meet the CEO is a new monthly initiative of the French Chamber in Singapore dedicated to business matching. It seeks to provide opportunities for start-ups, entrepreneurs and SMEs to connect with MNCS through 1-to-1 meetings.

Entrepreneurs’ and New Members’ Drinks Start-ups and entrepreneurs represent 25% of our business community. This informal networking session was a great opportunity for entrepreneurs and new members to meet peers and exchange experiences, tips, best practices and contacts in a great convivial ambiance.

During our session in April, we also welcomed four French Chambers of our regional network, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, who presented an opportunity for members to find out more on business opportunities in the respective countries. F Start-ups & Entrepreneurs

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Boost your sales and improve your inventory and services levels with forecasting best practices This meeting dived into demand planning and forecasting best practices through examples – when to use statistical calculations and/or collaborative forecasting; what the key steps are to perform, and how to improve forecasting processes to unlock more sales, reduce inventory costs, and increase service levels. F SPEAKER • Nicolas Nesme, SCO Manager Asia, VISEO

How to win through more effective distribution in emerging markets

Sourcing & Supply Chain

Luxury & Premium Retail

During this meeting, our speaker reviewed the challenges of managing a network of distributors and discuss about how to manage efficiently and effectively trade partners, from sales process to logistics process, in order to achieve greater performance for mutual benefits. F SPEAKER • John Talbot, Co-founder and CEO at Logistics Consulting Asia Sourcing & Supply Chain

Outsourcing services via an RFP Outsourcing services, and in particular via a RFP process, is a process to choose a partner for the long run. Our speaker shared a defined methodology to ensure a win-win situation including added-value perspectives, as well as on-time delivery during the transition and transformation period. F SPEAKER • Gregory Franc, Senior IT Consultant, EVA Group Sourcing & Supply Chain

Tech & Innovation

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Global Economy 2.0: A complex, multilevel supply chain (r)evolution

Legal Counsel Club – Exclusive Networking Event

The World Economy is undergoing its most significant shift since decades as microeconomic and macroeconomic models are being disrupted by a cluster of momentous change. Our speaker shared more about how the complex, multi-level supply chain is changing and being disrupted. F

Dedicated to Heads of Legal of MNCs, the Legal Counsel Club of the French Chamber’s Legal & Tax committee enables peers to share experience, challenges, issues, and best practices in the region. The latest exclusive afterwork networking was held at Ginett Restaurant & Wine Bar. F

SPEAKER • Luca Silipo, Vice President, Chief Economist for Geodis

Legal & Tax

Asia

Sourcing & Supply Chain

WIPO ADR Mechanisms for IP, IT and Technology Disputes

Site Visit: The Centre of Innovation for Supply Chain Management (COI-SCM)

Our speaker shared how contracting parties may choose alternative dispute resolution (ADR). WIPO’s ADR procedures may be tailored to the specific needs of the transaction, industry or technology concerned, to solve/settle issues in an efficient and confidential manner that preserves the parties’ commercial interests. F

A great site visit to the Centre of Innovation for Supply Chain Managament (COI-SCM), where members had the opportunity to better understand IoT technology development projects, cloud-based logistics solutions that COI-SCM has be working on, and also visit the Supply Chain Lab. F

SPEAKER • Olivier Marquais, Representative, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center’s office in Singapore, Legal Officer, IP Disputes Management Section, WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center Legal & Tax

SPEAKER • Denis Quek, Director, Centre of Innovation for Supply Chain Management, Republic Polytechnic Research & Development Sourcing & Supply Chain

Tech & Innovation

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Value the diversity of talents in the workplace The success of any business is built on the performance of its people. In this workshop, members had the opportunity to get a short practice session on the Insights Discovery model, discover its principals, and gain insight on how to apply them in the workplace. F SPEAKER • Amine Delage, Founder, L&P – Learning and Performing Human Resources

Exclusive Drink for HR Directors Following the relaunch of the HR Club, the French Chamber’s HR committee invited participants to exchange and discuss a road map for the Club for the coming months. The meeting also encouraged participants to share best practices in their organisations that could be implementable in one another’s. F Human Resources

The Appreciative Inquiry – A powerful tool in Change Management Appreciative Inquiry is a method of developing organisations and teams, which began in the late 80s in the US, seeking resources, successes, positive experiences in everyone, in the company and its environment. During this session, our speakers experimented with members the “Discovery” phase, and giving an introduction to the “Dream” phase (the creative part). F SPEAKERS • Valerie Lallement (alias MADAME), Founder/ Artist, Madame Fine Art Studio • Emmanuelle Le Strat, Managing Director, Madame Fine Art Studio Human Resources

Dress for Success At this interactive session at Picotin Express East Coast, members of the Business Women Network picked up useful tips and suggestions from an experienced multiple awardwinning fashion stylist and personal shopper on how to choose sartorial ensembles and dress up sophisticatedly for work. F SPEAKER • Luke Elijah, a multiple award-winning fashion designer, stylist, writer and photographer Business Women

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Networking Luncheons Each month, the French Chamber organises a business luncheon at a different restaurant, aenabling informal discussion to exchange opinions and develop new contacts over a great meal. The latest luncheons took place at Café Gavroche, Wine Connection, Capital Square, and Origin Restaurant, Shangri-La Hotel.

Discover more French So Chic, www.sochic.sg. F

dining

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Singapore

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on

Experience Sharing and Networking with Wine Connection On the occasion of Wine Connection’s 20th anniversary, our speaker shared with members a look at how the adventure started, the main challenges they faced, and how they managed their expansion and development in South East Asia, which was then followed by a great networking around cheese, cold cuts, and of course, wine. F SPEAKER • Caroline Simon, Managing Director of Wine Connection F&B and Hospitality

Speed Networking for Professionals in F&B, Retail and Marketing A great speed networking was organised to enable professionals in F&B, Retail and Marketing to interact and pick up a maximum of business cards in a series of structured 5-minute one-on-one meetings, to meet partners, providers, customers. Special thanks to Monte Carlo Boys for kindly hosting this event. F Digital Marketing & Communication F&B and Hospitality

Luxury & Premium Retail

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Pétanque Tournament 2018

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French Chamber Pétanque Tournament 2018 Pétanque, which attracts both young and old, is a game where metallic balls must be thrown as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet, and the French Chamber in Singapore was glad to organise again the French Chamber Pétanque Tournament!

Players enjoyed a few glasses of Ricard and snacks all day long, a BBQ, along with Fat Bastard rosé wines sponsored

by Wine Connection, allowed our players a well-deserved lunch break. And of course, there was lots of Evian, Badoit and Sirops Teisseire to stay hydrated!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank again our main sponsors for their support, AGS Four Winds and Bolloré Logistics, for making this annual event a huge success, and a warm word of thanks also to our in-kind sponsors for the prizes offered to our winners! F

EVENT KINDLY SPONSORED BY

Winners of the Main Tournament 1. Galacticos 2. Talesboules 3. A Fond

Winners of the Plate Tournament 1. Les Golfeurs 2 2. Chai Chee Boyz 3. Les Bouledingues

DRINK SPONSORS

Coker Brand Design Pear Tree Farm, Doddinghurst Road, Doddinghurst, Brentwood, Essex CM15 0RZ Tel: +44 (0) 1277 824121 Web: www.cokerbranddesign.com

GIFT SPONSORS

Teisseire Client Teis Metallic CMYK Logo Master Large Job Title TES1276 Job No. NA Size Artwork Scale 100% 1 Proof No. 28.11.14 Date Illustrator CS6 Generated

Prints 4 colours

CMYK

NOTES: • Logo overprints onto white slug • 0 32 70 0 elements print directly onto base metal to create metallic gold colour

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MEMBERSHIP

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New Members|

New members CORPORATE MEMBERS AME ASIE PTE LTD

Contact: Ms. Constance LAPARRA, Director Asia Website: a-m-e.eu Sector: Custom Products

ATEQ PTE LTD

Contact: Mr. Jacques MOUCHET, President Website: ateq.com Sector: Hardware in Aero and Land Transport

BEAM

KYC CONSULTING ASIA

Contact: Mrs. Catherine EPINAT, Senior Manager Website: kyc-consulting.fr/en Sector: Management Consulting/ Bank

L’ANGELUS

Contact: Mr. Pinaki RATH, Managing Director Website: langelus.sg Sector: F&B

SOCATRA

Contact: Mr. Frédéric LE MOULLEC, Director Website: beam-machines.com Sector: 3D Printing

Contact: Mr. Alexis TURMEL, Manager Website: socatra.com Sector: Maritime

CLEVER AGE

Contact: Mr. Christian ANSEAUME, CEO Website: swimtofly.com Sector: Wellbeing

Contact: Mr. Yvon LE RENARD, Managing Director Website: clever-age.com Sector: Digital Agency

DGA GROUP

Contact: Mr. Anand ANTHONY, Director Website: dga-group.com Sector: Consultancy

SWIMTOFLY

TMW ASIA

Contact: Mr. Thierry SATGE, CEO Website: uk.tmw-technologies.com Sector: Equipment for waste

VELDHOEN COMPANY

Contact: Mrs. Iolanda MEEHAN, Managing Partner Asia Website: veldhoencompany.com/en Sector: Management consulting

Associate MEMBERS ALLIED MOVING SINGAPORE

Contact: Ms. Mel SYERS, Regional Marketing Manager, Consumer - Asia & Middle East Website: alliedpickfords.com Sector: Relocation

ASCENDER HCM ASIA PTE LTD

Contact: Ms. Inna WAHLBERG, General Manager Website: ascenderhcm.com Sector: Payroll Platform

B-DNA PTE. LTD

HEY TRAVELISTA LIMITED

Contact: Mr. Tony LOW, Founder, CEO, Chairman Website: heytravelista.com Sector: Tech travel platform

OFFICE NOTARIAL PRADOBORELY, DECORPS-SERRI & ASSOCIES

Contact: Mr. Laurent SERRI, Notaire Website: decorps-serri.fr Sector: Law

QANEMATE PTE LTD

Contact: Mr. Adrien REYMONDET, Managing Director Website: b-dna.asia Sector: Architecture

Contact: Mr. Ian Hao SENG, CEO Website: qanemate.com Sector: Healthcare

CDPQ

Contact: Mr. François VESSIERE, President Website: topsconsult.com/fr Sector: Training

Contact: Mr. Cyril CABANES, Vice President, Head Of Infrastructure Investments Asia Pacific Website: cdpq.com Sector: Investment

TOPS Consult

WEAVE SAS

Contact: Mr. Nicolas THUILLIEZ, Partner Website: weave.eu Sector: Consulting, IT

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Entrepreneur MEMBERS 3EIGHTY PARTNERS

KEENBAGS

Contact: Mr. Jean-Yves BROUSSY, Founder Sector: Consulting and Coaching

Contact: Mrs. Carinne ABOU-HUGUET, Managing Director Website: keenbags-collection.com Sector: Retail/Fashion

AKAR DE NISSIM

LEPETITJOURNAL.COM

Contact: Mr. Christian DUHAIN, CEO Website: akardenissim.com Sector: Interior Design

Contact: Mrs. Laurence HURET, Director Website: lepetitjournal.com/singapour Sector: Media

B-TIN

Contact: Mrs. Magali CROESE, Principal Consultant Website: b-tin.com Sector: HR/CSR

LIFESAVER SG

Contact: Mrs. Nathalie CAGNAT, Associative Director Website: lifesaver.com.sg Sector: Relocation

CCVM CONSULTING

Contact: Mr. Cedric CHAUDRON, Sole Proprietor Sector: Sport & Leisure

TVDH SINGAPORE PTE LTD

Contact: Mr. Jérôme SANONER Sector: Sales & Marketing

COMINGWORKS

ONTHELIST PTE LTD

Mr. Jean Pascal DUVET, CEO Website: comingworks.com Sector: AI

EPICURIO

Contact: Mr. Clement HOCHART, CoFounder & CEO Website: epicurio.co Sector: Wine/Digital

FEWSTONES

Contact: Ms. Sophie NORMAND, Managing Director Website: fewstones.com Sector: Electronics/IT

Contact: Ms. Delphine LEFAY, CoFounder Website: onthelist.sg Sector: Retail

RELOTALENT

Contact: Mr. Sebastien DESCHAMPS, CEO Website: relotalent.com Sector: Relocation

SHAFT Ph Consulting Pte Ltd

JOLT DIGITAL

Contact: Mr. Sebastien LEPEZ, Founder & CEO Website: jolt-digital.com Sector: Digital consultancy

Contact: Mr. Philippe ROUSSET, Managing Director Website: shaftph.com Sector: Consultant

SIMPLE START

Contact: Mrs. Elsa ROUSSEAU MOURAD Website: simplestartbyelsa.com Sector: Healthcare/Well-being

INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS FORRESTER RESEARCH

Contact: Mr. Pierre-Olivier DREVILLON, Senior Account Executive Website: forrester.com Sector: Digital

PAVILION ENERGY

Contact: Mr. Frederic BARNAUD, Group CEO Website: pavilionenergy.com.sg Sector: Maritime

We support the development of

entrepreneurS

One-year mentoring programme with executives from large MNCs

Introduction with key contacts from our network of 700 companies

Session with the Accelerator Lab to validate your business model and growth

Gateway to South East Asia expansion through our network of French Chambers

Women entrepreneur round tables for best practices exchanges

Business Opportunity Platform to identify partners, co-founders and business angels

Targeted meetings for insightful information from industry experts

Targeted workshops and trainings by professional trainers

Experience sharing by successful entrepreneurs

Dedicated networking drinks

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LIFESTYLE NEWS

FOCUS MAGAZINE

As seen on sochic.sg

Issue 67

portraits

Behind-the-Scenes with French Designers, Chefs, in Singapore

An interview with French fashion designer-mum Juliette Capillaire

An interview with French bag designer Carinne Abou-Huguet

If you are looking to dress effortless chic, classy but casual, look no further, Juliette Capillaire has a great suggestion: a jumpsuit. In this interview, French fashion designer-mum Juliette shares with So Chic about her fashion inspirations, the pieces in her ready-to-wear collection, Capsule Collection by Juliette, and a few tips on how to wear a good jumpsuit. F

French owner and designer of KeenBags, Carinne Abou-Huguet shares with So Chic about her entrepreneurial venture in Singapore and a few fashion and styling tips. F

An interview with French Chef Hervé Frerard, new Chef of Ginett ”The best way to learn about a country?

Go to the local market.” So Chic sat down with new Chef of Ginett, Hervé Frerard who shared about his culinary journey and the adventure to come at the chic, contemporary restaurant and wine bar in Singapore. F

Discover these interviews and more on So Chic on www.sochic.sg. F

FOCUS MAGAZINE

LIFESTYLE NEWS

Issue 67

As seen on sochic.sg

experiences

So Chic Experiences: Live a unique French experience in Singapore So Chic launches So Chic experiences, to bring a touch of France right here to Singapore, for all who are in search of experience and inspiration that is French, from gastronomy to art de vivre, fashion, beauty and luxury. An immersion in the French cultural ecosystem, So Chic experiences will allow participants to attend masterclasses and take part in new experiences offered by brands, partners. Each month, a new world of activity to explore, go behind-the-scenes with a French chef, French designer, French atelier.

Find out more about So Chic experiences on www.sochic.sg. F

So Chic x Maison Kayser Mmhm! There is nothing quite like the smell of a freshly baked French baguette! At French bakery Maison Kayser at Raffles Place, an exclusive experience for 17 participants, the first So Chic experience was a delicious success, a great Saturday afternoon – Bastille Day, no less! – mixing flour, kneading dough, exploring classic French baking and pastry craft. F

So Chic x Diptyque On Wednesday evening of the end of a warm August, an intimate So Chic experience with luxury French interior brand diptyque at its flagship, an exclusive 10 participants immersing in the light, warmth, and the aromas in the art of living with candles of home scenting. F

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MEMBERSHIP

FOCUS MAGAZINE

Privilege Card

SERVICES

Issue 67

Privilege Card CCI FRANCE INTERNATIONAL

PRIVILEGE CARD 2018

RETAIL & LEISURE

French Chamber Singapore About the Card Privilege Card 2018 - Artwork.indd 1

21/12/2017 3:02:42 PM

The Privilege Card is personal and is exclusively reserved to members of the network of the French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. It gives access to many benefits in Singapore and in France, with more than 50 participating member brands.

WINE & DINE

TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY

At your Fingertips Download the French Chamber app on your iPhone or Android phone and gain access to up-to-date information on all your member privileges, including new deals added along the year.

Education Terms & C­­­­­onditions apply.

Visit www.fccsingapore.com for more details.

Family Clinic 45 Rochester Park Singapore 139249

Complete Healthcare International

Night Clinic

NEW OPENING HOURS Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 08:30am - 9pm Wednesday and Friday, 08:30am - 7:30pm Saturday, 08:30am - 12:30pm We remain closed on Sundays and Public holidays.