Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 07

November 29th, 2007

Went for the Singapore gala dinner for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award dinner last night. Nice event. Very expensive. Heard each table cost $2.5k! At least the food and the service was good!

Anyway, there’s something funny about the awards and its selection. This is not meant to belittle the efforts of the winners. But I find that many of the winners were 2nd/3rd generation entrepreneurs. They just took over dad’s company. Or they were not even native Singaporeans.

Anyone with a discerning eye would have noticed this. Luckily, at least the ultimate Singapore winner was a true-blue Singaporean. Otherwise, we’ll just be sending “Foreign Talent” to another contest. Just like our sporting teams.

I think E&Y should consider having separate categories. Let the guys who are 2nd/3rd generation with family money fight in one category, the guys who are rags-to-riches and on their own fight in one and also split the categories by Citizenship.

At least this will be a fairer competition. Otherwise, don’t mind me saying this but the perception will be that the competition is one that rewards the established inner-circle which truly defeats the whole idea of an entrepreneur award.