Sukha House was built upon Mr Henq's passion to do good rather than as a business set up purely for profit, and he admits that he has had to pick up business skills in the process. The SME Management Action for Results (SMART) Initiative has been an instrumental part of that learning curve. The SMART Initiative is based on the globally-benchmarked Business Excellence framework. It provides SMEs with consultancy advice and funding support to develop their management systems and processes.

Under the Initiative, SMEs like Sukha House can develop a road map to build their business capabilities in key business areas. SMART allowed Sukha House to analyse and plan for business growth, improve leadership capabilities and its supply and quality control systems, enhance its branding and initiate effective training programmes. As a result, it now has a robust road map for growth with improved systems and processes in place. One positive result has been the awarding of the Singapore Prestige Brand Award to Sukha House, i n recognition of its branding efforts.

Moving forward, Sukha House is planning to secure HACCP certification in 2010 and intends to apply for the Ministry of Manpower's WOW! Fund to ensure employee work -life balance. ISO certification is also on the cards. The SME is also planning to increase its distribution channels, by supplying to larger supermarket chains and overseas markets through strategic partnership. As Sukha House continues on its journey, guided by its SMART road map, its growth will have a correspondingly positive impact on the community and, of course, the increasing numbers of consumers in Singapore seeking healthier food choices and a healthier lifestyle.

(Extracted from SPRING Annual Report 2008)

Dropping into the Enterprise Development Centre@SMa (EDC@SMa) is like visiting a friendly neighbourhood community club for Beno Seow, the Business Development Manager of Dynaglass Reinforced Plastic Pte Ltd. She is on first-name terms with the EDC@SMa staff and she attends talks and activities hosted by the centre.

Established in 1971, Dynaglass Reinforced Plastic Pte Ltd is a local manufacturer for fibre reinforced composite products. Its products are used in the marine, building, process and aerospace industries and are sold both locally and internationally.

For Dynaglass, working with EDC@SMa has been nothing but beneficial. One example was the firm’s struggle to hire foreign workers last year.

From past experience, Dynaglass found Bangladeshis and Indians to be best at
adapting to the manufacturing environment of the industry. In 2007, however, the
company floundered amidst red tape when it tried to hire Bangladeshi and Indian workers.

When the process dragged on for over three months, the company automatically turned to a trusted friend—the EDC@SMa. “No meetings. We simply included EDC@SMa and SPRING on all our email correspondence,” explained Ms Seow.

She added, “EDC@SMa knew that our reasons for wanting to hire Bangladeshi and Indian workers were bona fide. I do not know how they did it, but we got our workers!”