SMU has emerged champions for the second consecutive year at the CDL-Compact Singapore Young CSR Leaders Award 2015, a case competition in its fifth installment which aims to promote thought leadership among our future leaders and foster greater awareness of embracing CSR principles in a company’s daily operations. It also provides youths with a platform to execute CSR principles in a real-life business setting.
The three participating teams from SMU – Team Impact Advisory, Team Praks and Recreation, and Team Sprouts faced stiff competition this year. The 2015 Award had attracted 95 teams from various local educational institutions, up from 50 teams in 2014.
For the first time, this year’s competition also featured large and/or listed corporations to give students the opportunity to learn from the challenges of implementing CSR within large and complex operations.
After meeting with the 10 participating companies in February this year, teams submitted CSR proposals for their companies of choice in April, thereafter 10 teams were shortlisted for the final found where they gained a prized opportunity for a short attachment with their choice company and received mentorship from a CSR consultant to refine their final proposals, before the final presentation in July.
The victorious Team Impact Advisory, comprising third year SMU business undergraduates Hafiz Kasman, Chermain Ang, Roy Chng, and fourth year information systems undergraduate Benjamin Liu, impressed the judges with their comprehensive and refreshing CSR ideas.
[Photo (R-L): Hafiz, Chermain and Roy, with Ms Junice Yeo, their case mentor and Director of Southeast Asia at Corporate Citizenship.]
Their winning proposal for info-communications company, StarHub, was in line with the company’s persona and guiding principle – ‘HAPPY’ (Happiness, Agility, Passionate, Proactive, You). Themed ‘Bringing HAPPY Back’, their pitch leverages CSR to increase employee engagement and create a strong employee value proposition.
They recommended three employee-focused strategies to engage StarHub’s entire ecosystem of stakeholders: (i) re-channel donations towards strategic investments in StarHub and its beneficiaries by leveraging StarHub’s advertising platforms, (ii) catalyse Singapore’s social technopreneurship scene and encourage innovation through social venture competitions and the StarHub Ambassadors for Social Technopreneurship programme, and (iii) synergise technology and health to nurture a healthier StarHub workforce and society.
Ms Esther An, City Developments Limited’s (CDL) Chief Sustainability Officer, was heartened to witness a record number of 95 participating teams this year, and was pleased with Team Impact Advisory’s performance. “The winning team from SMU demonstrated a sound understanding of CSR, combining innovative and practical suggestions that have the potential to be implemented by their case company to achieve a balanced triple bottom line,” she said. “A firm advocate of youth engagement, CDL hopes that the case competition will continue to foster deeper interest in sustainable business practices and contribute to the development of future CSR leaders,” she added.
On the team’s win, which was announced at the annual International CSR Summit last week, Hafiz shared, "What initially started off as ‘just a case competition’ became much more than we expected or have ever experienced. There is certainly much more thought and rigour required in crafting a wholesome CSR strategy than meets the eyes. We are thankful for this experience, and will continue to be active advocates for social good.”
“SMU’s compulsory community service certainly develops in us the fundamental empathy and understanding – I personally went to India for my overseas community service and found it to be a great experience. Beyond that, I feel that we can also promote corporate social responsibility, and diversity and inclusion as tangible career options with solid prospects so that some of us SMU students may directly bring our fervent passion into the workforce,” he added.
[Photo: SMU's Team Impact Advisory taking interviews from the press after being announced the winner of the competition.]
In winning the grand prize, Hafiz and his teammates walked away with a cash prize of $5,000, and were also invited to present their winning proposal and ideas at the lunch session of the CSR Summit, which was attended by leaders in the public, corporate and VWO sectors.
[Featured photo: Team Impact Advisory with Mr Kwek Leng Joo, Deputy Chairman, CDL (3rd from left) and Ms Grace Fu, Minister, Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Environment and Water Resources and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs (2nd from right). Photo courtesy of CDL.]
