Thought Leadership

Education is a fundamental right that should be accessible to everyone, no matter their circumstances. In order to navigate a world that is in flux, it is important to foster skills beyond traditional domain knowledge. SMU President Professor Lily Kong spoke about the education and skills we most need in an age of transformation during the panel discussion, Skills and Education in the Race for Humanity, at the 2022 Women’s Forum Global Meeting.

In a post-pandemic world, rocked by geopolitical crises, the future of cities has never been more uncertain. Whatever they should look like in the future, leaders should always place humans and their needs at the forefront of city development, said Professor Lily Kong, SMU President and Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Social Sciences.

There is no silver bullet for propelling global development, resilience and advancement. Still, a circular economy plays a critical role in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss — all while tackling social needs as we journey together towards a green recovery.

It has been six years since 196 countries signed the Paris Agreement to mitigate the effects of man-made climate change, and two since Greta Thunberg delivered her powerful speech at the UN Climate Change Action Summit.

It has been over three years since the #MeToo movement first gathered steam and threw a spotlight on gender inequality in the workplace. The rise of the pandemic, however, has impacted the momentum of the movement: This year, a report of Women in Work by PwC revealed that women’s job losses during Covid-19 outpaced that of men’s, and women also experienced a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work during the global crisis.

As any avid Facebook user might be aware, vlogger Nas Daily has recently been accused of being disrespectful of Filipino culture. He was alleged to have scammed a revered Filipino tattooist into conducting an online course featured on his website, and of being impudent during interactions with another Filipino social entrepreneur.

Going global is often part of a burgeoning business’ roadmap for scaling up. But while international expansion into new markets can deliver exponential returns, it could also unleash a plethora of complex new challenges – a scenario that is all the more heightened in the cutthroat realm of real estate.

From online marketplace behemoths like Amazon, Taobao, Shopee and Lazada, to digitally native, direct-to-consumer brands, e-commerce is a thriving, rapidly burgeoning sector. The exponential growth of online retail has been further fuelled by the pandemic: According to findings from the IBM US Retail Index, Covid-19 has accelerated the move from physical stores to online platforms by about five years.

Covid-19 has touched multiple aspects of daily living and interactions. How can design research, design thinking, and user design help us navigate the many unprecedented challenges we’re faced with in this new normal? Co-organised by the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre and the SMU Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, The Singapore Creator Awards 2021 webinar — Decoding User Designs in the New Normal, explored these issues, and more, earlier this year.

Influencer marketing has been a leading marketing method of choice for consumer brands in recent years. But has the strategy reached its peak?