Strategising for Sustainable Chamber of Commerce
Singapore International Chamber of Commerce (SICC) is the country’s longest serving, independent, voluntary business association. The Chamber collaborated with SMU-X in a project to create differentiated solutions for the Chamber to become more useful, more impactful and, therefore, more sustainable.
Senior Lecturer of Strategic Management, Dr. Patrick Tan, and 42 students from Lee Kong Chian School of Business in a Business Capstone course worked on this real challenge from August to November 2020. In that academic term, students conducted market analyses and a brand audit so as to generate ideas to differentiate the Chamber from others as well as to enhance its value proposition for various target segments (large corporates, SMEs, start-ups and individuals).
Students presented their recommendations to the entire Board of the Chamber during the mid-term and final project presentations. These were well-received by the Board whose members gave useful feedback to the students for them to refine their solutions. The Chamber found the collaboration useful and is in the process of implementing a number of the recommendations.
“This was a very well structured and useful experience. The Board benefitted from interacting with the students and Dr. Patrick Tan and it is fair to say everyone was constructively challenged. The quality of the students’ work really impressed as did many of their recommendations some of which we are implementing. I like to think it was a win-win for everyone.”
- Victor Mills, Chief Executive, SICC