The Straits Times Interactive - Print Friendly Pages
SEPT 22, 2004
Qian Hu sets the mark for SMEs with award win

Home-grown oriental fish company makes history by being first SME to win Spring's Singapore Quality Award

By Suryani Omar

SQA2004

WINNING Singapore's top business excellence accolade, dished out by Spring Singapore, is no longer an impossible dream for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

And to prove it: Qian Hu, a home-grown ornamental fish company, last night made a big splash by bagging that honour, the Singapore Quality Award (SQA).

This is the first time an SME has won the award.

The SQA is given to companies that come up shining in a rigorous assessment done by Spring, the former Productivity and Standards Board.

Firms have to score well under seven criteria which include:

  • The quality of the top management's leadership;

  • The organisation's planning procedures; and

  • The effective use of data to drive the business.

    Since it was introduced 10 years ago, an elite group of 19 companies have won the SQA.

    There were two other winners this year: the National Library Board and the Central Provident Fund Board.

    Qian Hu's commitment to research and development was among the key factors that helped it win the award.

    In 1997, it developed the first automated system for the packing of ornamental fish with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority with some funding from the Economic Development Board's Innovation Development Scheme.

    And Qian Hu is now involved in a new research programme with local research institute, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, to do DNA bar-coding of the arowana fish.

    'We hope to be able to differentiate between the two sexes of the fish. This will make pairing much easier,' said Qian Hu's deputy managing director, Mr Andy Yap. He is the younger brother of Mr Kenny Yap, Qian Hu's managing director.

    Qian Hu is pouring in $600,000 to fund the project, on top of providing some of its precious arowanas for study. The project was started early this year and is expected to be completed in three years.

    At the SQA awards ceremony yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Mr Lim Boon Heng, who was the guest of honour, praised Qian Hu's achievement.

    He said that the SQA framework is relevant for SMEs but acknowledged that they have 'specific challenges that are different from those encountered by the larger enterprises'.

    Spring, he added, is working to simplify the assessment tools and tailor them to meet the specific needs of SMEs.

    For the first time, the ceremonies for the SQA and the People's Excellence Award were combined. Merging the ceremony for the two 'underlined the importance of people to business excellence', Mr Lim said.

    Conrad Centennial and the National University Hospital walked away with the People's Excellence Award, which was started by Spring and focuses on a firm's success to develop its staff for higher productivity and business success.

    Copyright @ 2004 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.