Enterprise 50 Awards 2022 now open for nominations

SINGAPORE - Nominations are open again to recognise homegrown firms that have been able to reinvent themselves and chart new paths of growth while balancing their environmental responsibilities.

A total of 50 companies will receive the Enterprise 50 (E50) Awards this year.

Nominations for the award opened on Monday (April 4) and will close on June 30 at 5pm.

The 28th iteration of the E50 Awards is co-organised by The Business Times and KPMG in Singapore, and sponsored by OCBC Bank.

Enterprise Singapore, the Singapore Business Federation and the Singapore Exchange are supporting the awards.

A total of 86 business leaders from more than 76 local enterprises attended the virtual launch of the awards on Monday.

Speaking at the launch, Mr Wong Wei Kong, editor of The Business Times, said: "As Singapore companies put the pandemic behind them, the focus will be back on growth."

"Yet it is also clear that it cannot be business as usual, or even growing as before. Companies will face the challenge of growing sustainably, being held more accountable for the impact they make," he added.

Mr Jonathan Ho, partner and head of private enterprise at KPMG in Singapore and co-chairman for the E50 Awards, said the next decade will be a time of intense competition worldwide.

Economies will open up post-pandemic, and more companies will strive to leverage environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects as a lever for growth.

"At the ecosystem level, industry players should play a part to level up the expertise and standards of these companies through competitive platforms like the E50 Awards," said Mr Ho.

He added that E50 Awards platform provides opportunities for feedback and benchmarking of capabilities at a national level.

Guest speaker Mr Marcus Neo, the chief executive officer of Omni-Plus System (OPS), shared his business expansion journey towards its initial public offering (IPO) debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange last year.

The company, which was founded in 2002, designs and sells raw polymer materials to manufacturers for use in their end products.

"The Covid-19 pandemic brought about an onslaught of destruction... it was indeed fortuitous that we had already embarked on our digitalisation journey prior to the pandemic and our infrastructure was up and ready for remote working," said Mr Neo.

OPS received an E50 Award in the special recognition category for Enterprise Transformation in 2020.

The E50 Awards was launched in 1995 to identify, support, recognise and reward the most outstanding local companies across all sectors.

Applicants are evaluated and ranked using both quantitative and qualitative criteria.

Quantitative factors include financial performance indicators such as operating profit before tax, turnover and profit growth.

Qualitative criteria include management and marketing strategies such as the applicants' business model, management ideals and innovation.

Also considered are internationalisation, knowledge initiatives, market branding, and presence, risk management and ESG practices.

Applicants can complete the nomination form via the Enterprise 50 website.

They should submit their financial statements for financial years 2021, 2020 and 2019, as well as a business case write-up in a presentation deck.

Those looking for more information about the awards can be go to this website.