What can we do today?

In life. its never about how much you have before you can give.

But instead its how much you want to give from how much you have.

And to step up. rather than wait to be called out. 

Question to ask everyday: What can I do today?

Interesting social ideas

DeafTawk (Pakistan) Ali Shabbar; Abdul Qadeer; Wami

DeafTawk is a digital marketplace for the deaf community to connect with certified sign language interpreters. In Pakistan and South Asia, 9 million and 125 million are deaf and cite communication as their biggest barrier. DeafTawk bridges this gap by providing quality sign language interpretation services through video calling solution.

HATCH (Singapore) Victor Zhu; Jean Chew; Sharon Li

Hatch empowers youth from all pathways for the future they deserve. Youth outside of traditional education pathways often lack the qualifications and skills to pursue careers of their choice. Through stakeholder engagement, Hatch harnesses knowledge, network, and technology to empower the next generation of youth and businesses

Praxium (Singapore) Louis Puah; Xiu Min Lim

Praxium creates experiential projects, centred on careers that align with the interests of youths aged 14 to 18, with the support of industry professionals who serve as mentors and coaches. Each project culminates in a tangible product or event that gives students something valuable for their portfolios. They hope to build a community of empowered youths, confident in their ability to direct their lives, and create positive change in society.

Gap Year Guide (Singapore) Kelyn Tan Po Yin

Gap Year Guide aims to offer advice, motivation and useful tools to tertiary students intending to take a year off before pursuing a university education. Through its online portal, it aims to guide youth on how to manage and make full use of their time, energy and money, and to discover their passions.

Native (Malaysia) Daniel Yong Liang Teoh

Native is redefining what it means to be a “native” person by creating opportunities for anyone to proudly share their inherent skills and stories. They work together with their local partners to bring guests on unique community-based experiences across Malaysia. Native uses these experiences as both a platform for cultural exchanges and an avenue to build genuine relationships between different groups of people.

Nyampah Corporation (Indonesia) Abu Muslim Aljauhari; M. Syahrowardi; Ridho Awalludin Bimantara

Nyampah Corporation tackles the issue of food waste through their Black Soldier Fly (BSF) waste-conversion business. They assist restaurant and hotel owners in planning implementable BSF facilities and kickstarting their waste conversion initiatives. Their business partners also have the option to sell their processed waste back to Nyampah Corporation to generate additional income.

Parched Foodworks (India) Shreya Shukla; Vatsal Shukla; Abhinav Jaiswal

Parched Foodworks seeks to address the problem of food wastage in the fruit and vegetable supply chain in India by setting up dehydration centres at a village level run by farmers. The fruits and vegetables are semi-dried using hybrid solar dehydrators before being transported to the nearest processing centre for further processing.

Musimpanen (Indonesia) Erdi Pratama; Ardiansyah; Qonitah Basalamah

Musimpanen Indonesia collects neglected agricultural produce and transforms them into everyday products, thus contributing to environmental sustainability. So far, they have two projects where they convert corn and citronella into snacks and toiletries respectively.

Treedots Enterprise (Singapore) Lau Jia Cai; Jong Kai Jie Tylor; Nicholas Lim Jia Xuan

Treedots Enterprise sells left-out but still-edible food products from wholesalers to food and beverage companies at a discounted price. Treedots aims to reduce food wastage globally and discourage the disposal of perfectly edible food

Ubuntu Micro Irrigation (India)Ajay Etikala

Ubuntu Micro Irrigation seeks to alleviate farmers from the poverty cycle by providing them with affordable low-cost micro-irrigation systems for agriculture. By using their affordable irrigation method, farmers can reduce water usage and still allow their crops to thrive.

The Kisan Union (India, Singapore) Ho Jing En; Kannan Venkataramanujam; Nikhil Mukkawar

People living in rural India have travel miles to access eGovernment services and basic healthcare. To bridge that gap, The Kisan Union’s Kisan kiosks, located across rural areas in India, provides access to government policies, information and health services.

Kama Batik (Indonesia) Novi Anathasya Purba; Ajeng Hilarysa Pramesti; Dyah Rasyida

Kama Batik collects waste from batik companies and upcycles them into products such as necklaces, bracelets, bags, and hair accessories. In the process, they provide periodic training sessions to unemployed women for them to gain employment.

local Alike (Thailand) Suratchana Pakavaleetorn; Somsak Boonkam; Patomporn Pongnin

Local Alike seeks to alleviate poverty in rural communities and promote sustainable rural development. Their community-based tourism booking platform trains locals to be hosts, and matches them with travellers who are supportive of their development work.

Singapore way forward? May its people unite and propel forward.

First, Singapore needs to take an even more integrated and coordinated approach to economic transformation, he said.

He noted that the Republic's economy has multiple stakeholders, and tripartism - the Government, businesses and the labour movement working together - has been a tremendous source of strength in the system.

But there is room for greater collaboration, he said, citing the Netherlands and its "triple helix" model of innovation where government, businesses and academia work together to build knowledge, test prototypes and scale innovation.

"Singapore can build on our tripartite partnership to be a test-bed that create deeper linkages with an expanded set of stakeholders - including our education and research institutions, our community groups, and interested partners from around the world," said Mr Heng. This can create good jobs for Singaporeans and new opportunities for entrepreneurs, he added.

Second, Singapore must redouble its efforts to develop everyone to his fullest potential, so that its people can take on new opportunities and flourish in their chosen pursuits, said Mr Heng, who is also Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies and Finance Minister.

"We need a holistic approach for this that spans the lifetime of individuals, from birth to pre-school to schools, all the way to lifelong learning as part of SkillsFuture," he said, noting that workers are embracing upskilling, with about half a million people taking part in SkillsFuture programmes in 2019.

The country has to explore new possibilities for developing its people fully, Mr Heng emphasised, highlighting that the National Research Foundation is supporting research programmes that address the broader goal of enhancing human potential through measures during pregnancy and childhood, including nutrition, parenting and learning.

Third, Singapore must strengthen its path-finding capacity to find new bright spots amid economic disruption, Mr Heng said, pointing to the Emerging Stronger Taskforce that was set up four months ago to identify and seize new opportunities in emerging trends.

"The ideas being explored are promising. They range from environmental sustainability to smart commerce, supply chain digitalisation and the use of robotics. These can create new growth markets for our businesses and good jobs for Singaporeans," he added.

In addition, Singapore will invest in incubating and accelerating start-ups, and supporting established companies to expand their research and development to build competitive strengths, Mr Heng said.

"Such a vibrant innovation ecosystem will build up our path-finding capabilities."

Fourth, the Republic must find new ways to be a vital node with rich and deep interconnections with the rest of the world, Mr Heng said, noting that being open is its strength and opportunity given its position as a small city-state. 

Education

What I truly believe in and support

that all re or upskilling can only be effective if there is an open platform to use those learning and also to have a mind of always learning more improve processes. Otherwise knowledge will stay as knowledge and become redundant as time to come. 

Havard Business Review 

The Increasing Importance of Mapping Skills-Based Learning to Job Opportunities

determined what skills are, and will be, in demand, and then built programs to train students of any age to meet that demand

 train existing employees and build their talent pipeline

evaluates its services, and builds new support systems to help students move from classroom to career

Career Coaching and Employer Connections. Under this model, every student at Ivy Tech will have a profile, built in Education Cloud, that serves as a centralized source of information that evolves with the individual. Each semester students will meet with a career coach who helps them build and refine their resume. This will help students find and apply for an internship, and, eventually, a full-time job. These profiles will create robust data on the student journey, enabling Ivy Tech to analyze progress while at school, and help determine outcomes after graduation.

this approach can activate previously acquired academic knowledge by providing a practical skill set.

Reskilling goes beyond learning the latest technology. It’s about building both the skills and agility to find a new job, and to continue evolving skills development alongside changes in the job market

 After students graduate, they can continue to use the platform to up level their skills, or learn new ones as needed.

Big Data Visualisation: Qliksense basics

Big Data

4Vs

Volume : scale of data

Velocity: Analysis of streaming data

Variety: Different forms of data

Veracity : Uncertainty of Data

 Contributing factors for successful visualization

- VIPSs- who are the stakeholders

- Purpose of the visualization

- Type of visualization use

- Ease to understand : relevant and for them to use it and make important decisions 

- Relevancy of the data:  to get informed and to support their decision

Tableau Public

Power BI - Microsoft

Qlik 

Question to ask:

Who is the target audience

What do you want to derive from it

What is the audience gonna use the data for

Colors are also important

*Use corporate colors*

Business in the pandemic

 We must be constantly assessing the needs of the business as priorities change on a weekly basis. We must be constantly aligning the needs of the business with the goals and objectives of the people function. And we must act quickly, efficiently and with agility to deploy those strategies to the organization. The right roadmap is one that is active, one that is fluid and one that is immediately responsive to the organization as it traverses the changing world we live in today.

Doing things is easy. Doing the right things is hard. Doing the right things requires strategy, deployment excellence and continuous improvement. The sooner we stop focusing on doing more with less and instead focus on doing the right things in a more agile way, the better equipped we will be to position ourselves for both short- and long-term success—and, ultimately, to achieve the outcomes the business is looking for.

18 NEW BIG INCUBATEES OF MAY 2020 SMU BIG

 I have always been in love with startups or social startups because its always people who have found a problem and have thought through how they want to solve the issues.  Makes one reflect and also have a diverse perspective on what the issues are and are they really pain points for people or just a numb point. Or some just meant to be an idea.

The issue about the pitch is I haven't seen how the idea and actual product come together so I have no idea how effective it can be.

The coolest one seems to be 

Unistop Tech Commerce

Unistop Tech provides an automation vending store system that is based on robotic technology and information technology to help the retail industry save rental and manpower cost In view with current Covid situation, our store with no human contact, cashless payment will help keep people safe and convenient for daily needs.

And the rest that makes possible sense

Version22 Information Technology

Version22 helps companies get started with their digital transformation journey by automating repetitive, mundane and inefficient business processes through software. Currently, V22 is focusing on the F&B sector by creating tools such as a centralised cafe management system, to assist managers by reducing day-to-day administrative complexities.

Feige Fintech

Feige is a digital identity and credit line marketplace for gig workers and freelancers.

Database loan broker platform that bridges the gap by creating holistic profiles of freelancers and their credibiliy

Problem: Banks do not know the financials of them and hence they are unable to get loans

Atsell eCommerce

Atsell is an e-Commerce enabler that helps merchants and brands supercharge their online sales with a team of 30 across 2 cities in the region. 

End goal - supercharge online sales - help merchants navigate the online world

Problem 1: traditional merchants having prob selling online (difficulty of creating and design an account, make listing compliant, online sales logistics etc ) - owners can just focus on what product to sell

Problem 2: sales cannot covert chats to online sales 

 Captive InteractivePlatform

Captive Live+ is an E-commerce (EC) live streaming integrated service platform focused on bringing interactive, engaging, informative and entertaining shopper experience to attract high traffic, increase exposure, amplify consumer engagement and increase sales conversions for brands on EC platforms. By crafting sales promotion strategies and effective content planning, together with inventory management, product curation and content production, Live+ offers a holistic one-stop live streaming service hub.

End goal: Live streaming is the way of life for e-commerce

Curate content, Train Host to engage , and get viewers to know more about the product

Paladium Technologies Data & Analytics

Paladium attempts to harness the power of consumer big data to increase relevant conversions for businesses while providing critical demographic and competitor information for B2C companies to help them better focus their efforts to enter the Singapore market or stay relevant in it.

Marketing Tech Platform - using machine learning to match merchant products and promotions to relevant new consumers base on historical. 

Vita Platform

Vita is a platform that allows a retrenched worker to objectively prove their resume claims through ex-employer feedback. It is designed to help great workers shine and seen for their actual work contributions, and performance, throughout their career.

Introduction to Inclusive Hiring

 Predictable Barriers to hiring people with disability

Attitude is caught not taught

Not to be overprotected. Explore opportunities.

[Growing up with expectation that we would be part of the world, instead of a different separate world]

My father made us mow the lawn. And I said I was blind. And he said well, then you just got to take off your shoes and feel the grass. 

[They really included me]

[They just tried their best to integrate me the best way they could]

They figured out ways we could play ball, telling me when to duck. And when it came to baseball, they would grab me to run the bases. 

When you are disabled person, the world is not built for you

And so you have to be very strategic. Very innovative. You have to figure out ways to do things

I think its fair to say no matter how high the ladder we go, we still have to deal with people's reactions every single day - good or bad 

Understanding the barriers to Employment

During job fairs -  Over reliance on Paper Application forms, In accessible websites -where it does not work with screen readers for the blind, 

Human Resources Random Articles - and its jargons

1.

?? 

Considering an activity that visualises how people work using digital tools.

an AI-powered workstyle transformation service as the infrastructure platform supporting new ways of working, classifying and visualising work content and workload

By visualising the contents of work using AI, it will become possible to grasp the current situation quantitatively and objectively, and to solve problems that emerge over the course of implementing remote working schemes throughout the group

creating a virtual workplace in which all employees can feel healthy and energetic, while providing opportunities for employees to realise their own growth and maximise their personal potential.

??

Above Jargon. Still don't get it. Do you?

2.

We are living in a world of technology

Question then is what do we need. Not what we want.

This new era of HR and the workplace require organisations rethink, reimagine and transform their navigation strategies to spur post recovery and cope with the new norms.

HR topics

• Leadership
• Technology
• Communication
• Employee Experience
• Recruitment
• Wellbeing
• Learning & Development
• Diversity & Inclusion

products / services - What do we need?

• Applicant Tracking System
• Artificial Intelligence
• Assessment
• Benefits Administration
• Career Management and Outplacement
• Compensation
• Consulting and Implementation Services
• Education & Training
• Employee and Manager Self Service
• Employee Benefit
• Employee Experience
• Engagement and recognition
• Enterprise Healthcare Management
• HRMS
• Job Board or Search Engine
• Learning Management System
• Legal
• Machine Learning
• Mobility and Relocation
• Office Space
• Onboarding
• Outsourcing
• Payroll
• People Analytics
• Performance Management
• Recruitment
• Screening
• Staffing
• Succession Planning
• Surveys
• Talent Management
• Time and Attendance
• Vendor Management
• Video Interviewing
• Wellness
• Workforce Planning & Analytics

3.

HR in 2020 - alongside Covid-19

Turning to the current state of HR, he said, the challenge of being an HR leader right now is two-fold: One, you must be a compassionate representative of people who are dealing with new ways of thinking about benefits and managers. At the same time, he added, you know you are probably going to lay people off, a problem that likely is only going to get worse.

HR today isn’t set up to have a lot of questions thrown at it all at once. It is set up to manage a specific type and level of inquiry

In order to meet that challenge, you need to do things like install technology that answers those questions for you

Is it me? Or?? I hate chatbot trying hard to answer my questions but in actual fact not answering my question. Making me feel more frustrated then ever. The best chatbot to me is a max of 3 times asking me to rephrase my question and after that giving me an OPTION to talk to someone. Not to KEEP asking me to rephrase my question INCESSANTLY.

But I do agree it does help specially for questions associated with company policies. Things that are fix.

 Socrates uses artificial intelligence to pull together relevant information and applications, starting with policy and compliance documents, while creating a “single core” knowledge base, out of which come consistent answers on myriad employee questions.