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Asian women shoppers don't rely on
their men
Singaporean women
do not need to depend on their men to pay for their shopping. A survey
conducted by Synovate - a market researcher - found that nearly
three-quarters of Singaporean respondents confirmed that they can afford to
pay for what they want without asking for money from their partners or
husbands.
Synovate's survey aimed to reveal retail attitudes
and spending habits of women around the region. Over 2,000 women in
Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China, from the ages of 15 to 64 across
all income levels were polled.
The report found that across the Asian region,
women from Hong Kong were the most financially independent - with 81 per
cent of respondents paying for their own purchases, followed by the mainland
Chinese at 75 per cent.
With financial independence comes equality, and
the majority of women in Singapore also felt that they were on equal footing
with their partners or husbands. More than half of the respondents in
Singapore - 60 per cent - acknowledged that they have an equal say in the
purchase of big-ticket items such as property and cars. Women from Hong Kong
and China, again, led the way with a bigger proportion.
The independent attitudes of Singaporean women
spilled over to their shopping habits. More than half said that when it
comes to shopping, they preferred to shop alone to avoid being pressured by
friends, partners and relatives.
In terms of amount spent, Singaporean women
frittered away an average of $180 each month on shopping for non-essential
items or 10 per cent of their monthly income.
'But what really stood out was the fact that
Singaporean women are practical when it comes to spending as they set aside
a larger portion of their income for housing and utility bills,' said
Miranda Cheung, managing director of Synovate Singapore.
Singaporean women also sought quality when
shopping for goods and services. Over three-quarters (76 per cent) said that
they would pay extra for quality. 'The quality factor was confirmed again as
we asked each respondent what would make them loyal to a retailer apart from
lower prices, and the majority of respondents said better product quality
and services - something which Singaporean retailers should take note of,'
said Ms Cheung.
And social responsibility is big business, with
Singaporean women embracing environmentally friendly products. The survey
found that two-thirds of Singaporean respondents said that they would be
willing to pay more to buy a product which is environmentally friendly.
'Singaporean women have definitely adopted a
socially responsible attitude when it comes to the environment and this has
become evident in their purchase decisions,' said Ms Cheung. 'In essence,
retailers that promote and practise green policies have a definite
advantage.' - 2008 August 9 BUSINESS
TIMES
Shrewd head for business
But the heart of the managing director
of Victory Petroleum Trading is with family and home
Even after 20-plus years in the marine
fuel industry, Magdalene Tan, managing director of Victory Petroleum
Trading, would rather have been a full-time homemaker and mother to her
four children. The 56-year-old readily admits she is very much a homebody.
For a businesswoman, she hardly socialises, dislikes playing golf and
prefers gardening and tidying drawers to chairing meetings or talking up a
sales deal.
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| Female in a
male-dominated sector: Madam Tan does not find it particularly
disadvantageous being a woman in the marine fuel business although
she admits her empathy can make her more gullible |
'All the time, my heart is in the
home,' she says. 'That's why I don't entertain much. I still think the
place for a woman is the home. I don't like socialising. I'd rather spend
time at home and pull out a drawer and pack it.'
Although not particularly enthusiastic,
she obliged when duty called. After Victory Petroleum was set up by her
husband Jimmy Chan in 1986, she was asked to step in when the company was
short of staff.
She was the ideal candidate - and not
only because she is family. Having helped out at her father's tugboat
leasing business when she was younger, she understood the challenges faced
by small vessel operators. Many of these craft are deployed on the
southern, northern and western outskirts of the main island for various
projects. To refuel, their only option was to travel back to shore berths,
which were becoming increasingly congested.
'This convinced me of the value and
viability of floating fuel kiosks, so I set my mind to capitalise on the
opportunity to improve the business,' says Madam Tan.
Home-office
She started helping with administrative
matters such as processing chits and coordinating vessels, while her
husband was out chasing sales. Being a mother of a young brood then, it
was often a struggle to balance caring for the children and working.
Eventually, she decided to work from home. 'Interestingly, my suppliers
found my home-office environment very relaxing and they frequently made my
place the last stop for the day on their dealer-visiting rounds,' she
says.
She does not find it particularly
disadvantageous being a woman in the marine fuel business, even though it
is male-dominated. However, she admits her empathy can make her more
gullible.
'I had a customer who couldn't pay on
time,' she recalls. 'When I asked her the reason, she told me that her
father-in-law was stricken with cancer and she had to start paying medical
bills. So I gave her time to pay off. After her father-in-law died, she
herself was stricken with cancer. So this whole sum of credit was just
sitting there. I just did not have the heart to get payment from them.'
When that customer died, her husband
promised to sell his house to make the overdue payment. But the payment
never came after a prolonged extension of credit. It was only later that
Madam Tan found out the customer's firm was actually doing pretty well.
'Some people are bad paymasters,' she
laments. 'They have the money but just refuse to pay you. But for people
in real situations, we still help out. Because if they grow, we grow too.'
Madam Tan may be soft-hearted, but she
certainly does not lack persistence. In the early days, Victory
Petroleum's barges frequently received summons for anchoring at
non-designated spots, so paying fines became part and parcel of the
business.
Such expenses dented the finances of
the company, which was operating on thin margins. So Madam Tan sought to
persuade the authorities to set up permanent buoys for floating kiosks, so
her company could bid for them and become a sanctioned floating kiosk
operator.
She reckons she probably spoke to
almost everyone at the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).
Finally, in 2001, MPA drew up permanent anchoring sites for floating fuel
kiosks. Victory Petroleum won the open tender - and subsequent ones too.
In another instance, Madam Tan
convinced the authorities to make an exception to a rule requiring all
vessels to have a master on board. She argued that since Victory
Petroleum's floating kiosks are stationary, they do not need a master to
steer them. It took a while before officials saw her point and excluded
floating kiosks from the rule.
As her husband moved on to other
businesses, Madam Tan took over the running of Victory Petroleum. She led
the company in several acquisitions of barges, picking up bargain buys
when big vessel operators upgraded their bunker barges to steel tankers.
'It was imperative that we kept our
costs low, so the acquisition of the wooden barges turned out to be one of
the best strategic moves we made,' she says. 'At that time, we were also
extending a few months' credit to our customers to stay competitive. It
was a heavy financial burden for us. Luckily the price of gas oil then was
about 25 cents a litre (compared with the current price of 90 cents).'
Expansion
Today, Victory Petroleum owns 11
barges. Of these, six are mobile barges serving vessels that require at
least 20,000 litres per trip. The rest are floating kiosks situated near
Marina South, Pulau Ubin, West Coast, Tuas and the Eastern Petroleum B
region of Singapore waters.
The group also distributes to all four
marinas here, including Raffles Marina and ONE° 15, through mobile
barges. Customers are primarily ferry owners, mega yachts and launch
operators (small boats) that need quick refuelling without docking. By
refuelling on the water, they save on docking charges and relieve wharfs
of berthing space.
Under Madam Tan's charge, Victory
Petroleum's turnover has grown from under a million dollars in the 1980s
to $70 million today. While floating kiosks remain its core business, the
company also delivers small consignments of fuel to outlying islands in
support of land reclamation projects such as Jurong Island, and engages in
ship bunkering and oil trading.
Still, much can be done to grow the
business further. One possibility is overseas expansion. Indonesian
vessels plying the Singapore-Batam and Singapore-Bintan routes are a
potential market. But before taking advantage of it, Victory Petroleum
needs to upgrade its vessels and raise its profile. There are also
thoughts about selling emergency supplies like snacks, drinks or spare
parts from its floating kiosks, and repositioning its brand.
If some of the expansion ideas go
ahead, they are likely to be carried out by the next generation. Second
daughter Caron and son-in-law Goh Ngee Boon are already learning the
ropes. Madam Tan says that when the time comes, she will be glad to take a
back seat.
Looking back, she says with some
satisfaction that running Victory Petroleum has given her the chance to
support the growth of Singapore's marine industry. 'We don't make a lot of
money because we need to pay for the buoys, pay the manning people,
pollution insurance and all that,' she explains. 'It's a very marginal
profit we are making. It's the satisfaction of serving the harbour craft
industry around Singapore that is rewarding.' - 2010
March 9
BUSINESS TIMES
Look Who's Bringing Home More Bacon
The American family has something new going for it: The
femmes who finance. One in three wives now outearns her husband.
A mere month into his relationship with Betsy Morgan, Chad
Gifford found himself sitting nervously in her parents' dining room in
Suffield, Conn., where the clan had gathered for Easter lunch. "So tell
me, Chad," Betsy's banker father began, lowering the boom before the
roast was served. "How much does an archaeologist earn?"
Gee, Mr. Morgan, not much. Today, 10 years later, Betsy,
34, and Chad, 36, are a happily married Manhattan couple. Betsy is a CBS
executive who makes fat cash. Chad is an archaeologist who jaunts all over
the world for digs that barely pay. She buys Prada shoes. He still owns
clothes from high school. She burns water. He learned how to wash lettuce
from a family friend -- Julia Child. "We joke that I should make Chad a
nonprofit," says Betsy.
The American family has something new going for it: the femmes who finance.
After only three decades as members of the mainstream workforce, one in
three wives now outearns her husband, up from one in five in 1980. Women
with MBAs are doing even better: Nearly 60% have direct deposits bigger than
their grooms'.
POWER-SHARING. Look for the ranks of the Ms. Breadwinners to rise even more,
with 20% more women than men graduating from college and more women swelling
the managerial ranks every year. Francine M. Deutsch, a psychology professor
who studies gender roles and parenting at Mount Holyoke College in South
Hadley, Mass., believes the trend will help erode the mommy tax -- the heavy
penalties women pay for having children -- and help ease female poverty in
old age.
The shift puts a twist on the term "purse strings." Researchers
say the phenomenon is helping restructure marriage by creating mergers of
complementary strengths, in which power is shared and spouses act as
flexible allies who easily switch back and forth between roles. In essence,
the family now has co-CEOs. "I expected to find these women lording it
over their husbands," says Barbara Stanny, author of Secrets of Six-Figure
Women. Stanny studied 150 women earning $100,000 or more. Nearly 70%
earned more than their partners. But even though they raked in more
cash--and often managed the family finances--Stanny found that most wanted
interdependent relationships. "They all talked about how crucial their
husbands were to success," says Stanny.
How well a couple fares depends on how successfully they share childrearing
and what their pact was upon marriage. Resentment can flare if the
breadwinner role was unexpectedly foisted on the wife by a layoff or sudden
failure, says Breadwinner Wives and the Men They Marry author Randi
Minetor.
FROM AUDI TO SATURN. One PR executive financed her husband's new restaurant
and ended up pleading her case in bankruptcy court with $960,000 of debt
attached to her name. She lost the 2,200-square-foot house with the pool and
her Audi A6. "I thought supporting his dream would get me to my dream
-- to be a stay-at-home mom," she says. Instead, she wound up a
Saturn-driving single parent living in a condo with no credit.
Some husbands balk, threatened by their wives' new power. One recent Penn
State University study found that men tend to become gloomier and more prone
to headaches when their wives begin earning more.
Still, the positives can be considerable if men have strong self-images,
feel no need to compete with their wives, and don't have in-laws shaming
them for their role. Men with breadwinner wives are often relieved to share
the onus, especially given the enormous resources required to raise a family
in an era of slippery job security. The role swap allows men to spend more
time with their children and pursue passions that a megacareer would
prohibit.
Indeed, the more economic power the wife has, the more men help out at home.
Minetor found that 51% of men with breadwinner wives are the major
housekeepers. Finally, more career women are getting the one thing they say
they need most: a wife. - by Michelle Conlin
Business
Week 28 Jan 2003
At the opening of The Sweet Smell of Success last
month, a successful New York guy I know took me aside for a lecture that was
anything but sweet.
He said he had wanted to ask me out on a date when
he was between marriages, but nixed the idea because my job made me too
intimidating.
Men, he told me, prefer women who seem malleable
and overawed. He said I would never find a mate, because if there's one
thing men fear, it's a woman who uses her critical faculties. Will she be
critical of absolutely everything?
Now comes Time magazine with an equally
distressing commentary. The cover story offers the scariest statistics for
women since Newsweek declared in 1986 that a 40-year-old woman was more
likely to be killed by a terrorist than tie the knot.
Time chronicles the new baby bust -- women who
focus too much on their careers suddenly realizing they've squandered their
fertility.
Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist, conducted a
survey and found that 55% of 35-year-old career women are childless. Between
a third and half of 40-year-old professional women are childless. The number
of childless women age 40 to 44 has doubled in the past 20 years. And among
corporate executives who earn $100,000 or more, she says, 49% of the women
did not have children, compared with only 10% of the men.
Hewlett, the author of Creating a Life:
Professional Women and the Quest for Children, observes, yet again, that men
have an unfair advantage.
"Nowadays," she says, "the rule of
thumb seems to be that the more successful the woman, the less likely it is
she will find a husband or bear a child. For men, the reverse is true."
On a 60 Minutes report on the book Sunday, Lesley
Stahl talked to two young women who go to Harvard Business School. They
agreed that while they are the perfect age to start families, it was not so
easy to find the right mates.
Men, apparently, learn early to protect their
eggshell egos from high-achieving women.
The girls said they hid the fact that they go to
Harvard from guys they meet, because it's the kiss of death. "The
H-bomb," they call it.
"As soon as you say Harvard Business School
... that's the end of the conversation," Ani Vartanian said. "As
soon as the guys say, 'Oh, I go to Harvard Business School,' all the girls
start falling into them."
So the moral of the story is, the more women
accomplish, the more they have to sacrifice?
The problem here is not only that women are
procrastinating too long; it is that men veer away from
"challenging" women because they have an atavistic desire to be
the superior force in a relationship.
In the immortal words of Cher: Snap out of it,
guys.
Male logic on dating down is bollixed up: Women
who seem in awe of you in the beginning won't stay in awe once they get to
know you. Women who don't have demanding jobs are not less demanding in
relationships; indeed, they may be more demanding. They're saving up all
that competitive energy and critical faculty to lavish on you when you get
home.
If men would only give up their silly desire for
world dominance, the world would be a much finer place.
Look at the Taliban. Look at the Vatican. Now,
look at the bonobo.
Bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees, live in the
equatorial rain forests of Congo and have an extraordinarily happy
existence.
And why? Because in bonobo society, the females
are dominant. Just light dominance, so that it is more like a co-dominance
or equality between the sexes.
"They are less obsessed with power and status
than their chimpanzee cousins, and more consumed with Eros," The Times'
Natalie Angier has written. "Bonobos use sex to appease, to bond, to
make up after a fight, to ease tensions, to cement alliances ... Humans
generally wait until after a nice meal to make love; bonobos do it
beforehand."
The males were happy to give up a little dominance
once they realized the deal they were being offered: all those aggressive
female primates, after a busy day of dominating their jungle, were primed
for sex, not for the withholding of it.
There's no battle of the sexes in bonoboland. And
there's no baby bust. - By Maureen Dowd
New York Times
Many of the
business trail blazers in Asia have been able to rise to the top but they
have a clear sense of filial duties and obligation to the family too.
That's one of the characteristics that make Asian women so outstanding.
We think. -
太太
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Dorothy
Seet, only the second woman to clinch a Singapore Business Awards
award in its 23-year history, is a trailblazer in every sense of the
word. Leaving her two young daughters and husband in Singapore, she
went to Beijing in 1994 to help bolster the family business. Ms Seet
is hardly the first mother to work abroad but it is still no common
phenomenon. Her daughters are now grown up and Ms Seet has built
Beijing Smart Garments (BSG) into one of the top textile producers
in China, no mean feat considering the tens of thousands of such
factories in the country. Penetrating
markets overseas requires not just smarts and hard work but grit,
perseverance and foresight. There
are no short cuts. Luck helps too. |
Businesswoman overcomes odds in China
Though Dorothy Seet caught the eye of
the media at the Singapore Business Awards press conference yesterday -
she left her young daughters in her husband's charge while she works
overseas - reporters were just as curious to hear from her about the
problems exporters in China are facing. 'A lot of small exporters have
closed down,' said Ms Seet.
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| Supportive family:
Ms Seet poses for a picture with her proud husband Michael Ng and
daughters Vivien and Charlyn at the Singapore Business Awards press
conference. She is only the second woman to clinch a trophy in the
23-year history of the awards |
She said a triple whammy - the yuan
appreciation against the US dollar, the lower tax export rebate and higher
labour cost - has made it very hard to operate in China, particularly for
textile exporters.
'When the US dollar depreciates against
the yuan, it is very hard to survive as margins are very slim,' said Ms
Seet, chief executive of Beijing Smart Garments.
The US dollar has depreciated about 8
per cent against the yuan from a year ago.
In addition, Beijing has reduced the
13 per cent rebate tax for exporters to 9 per cent and is looking to
further slash it as part of measures to shrink the US trade deficit with
China, she said.
Then there is the Labour Law Reform
which imposes a minimum wage for workers plus other regulations which
has increased wage costs at least 12-15 per cent, said Ms Seet.
The tough measures are hard
especially on contract manufacturers, she said. 'We have to value add,
like offer designs,' said Ms Seet who is also the chairman of the
Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China.
For Beijing Smart Garments, it has
also switched to selling in euros to its customers in Europe and in
Australian dollars to its clients Down Under. On the impact on
Singaporean-owned factories operating in China, Ms Seet said they may
not be affected as badly as the local exporters. 'Singapore companies
are more law abiding, they'll be better cushioned because they have
already been complying with regulations,' said Ms Seet, the 2007 winner
of the Outstanding Chief Executive (Overseas) award.
Ms Seet is only the second woman to
clinch a trophy in the 23-year history of the Singapore Business Awards.
Olivia Lum of Hyflux won the Businessperson of the Year award in 2005.
Working in Beijing since 1995, Ms
Seet said it was a very difficult decision then as her two daughters
were young - aged five and 14.
In addition, she knew no one and was
not familiar with the culture. 'China was not what it is now and it was
very foreign to me, especially when Chinese was not a language I was
fluent in. I had no friends, nor colleagues whom I knew well. The main
consideration was for the family business to survive,' said Ms Seet.
Her proud husband Michael Ng and
daughters Vivien and Charlyn were at yesterday's Singapore Business
Awards press conference.
'Honestly I never realised she was
that capable,' said Mr Ng. He said the decision to send his wife to
Beijing in 1994 was because of her experience in running the family's
retail outlets in Singapore, China Silk House, which subsequently closed
down.
Ms Seet is now looking forward to
list Beijing Smart Garments in Singapore in two to three years' time.
The company is a joint venture
between Ms Seet's family and the Shunyi Municipal Government.
It has more than 2,800 staff
producing some 1.5 million suits a year and exporting to more than 15
countries. It also operates about 100 retail outlets in China. Last
year, Beijing Smart Garments posted sales of 400 million yuan (S$78.7
million) and profits of 17 million yuan.
- 2008 April 1 BUSINESS
TIMES
Sewing up the family
business
Dorothy Seet, the Outstanding
Chief/Senior Executive (Overseas) for 2007, is only the second woman to
clinch a trophy in the 23-year history of the Singapore Business Awards.
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| Ms Seet: With
a staff strength of 3,000, BSG currently produces about 1.2
million suits a year for brands such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein
and Burberry |
Ms Seet, general manager of Beijing
Smart Garments (BSG), is used to blazing trails. When she left home 14
years ago for Beijing to help in the family business, it was her husband
and their two young daughters who stayed in Singapore. Although
Singaporean mothers do work overseas, they are a small minority.
Initially, Ms Seet was in Beijing to
start a women's line for BSG, a joint venture with the Shunyi county
government which had been set up in 1985 by her in-laws.
So well did the smaller unit perform
that when the parent company ran into problems a few years later, she
was promoted to its general manager.
'When I took over in 1999, the
company was facing one of its worst years,' says Ms Seet.
BSG had a net loss of 10 million yuan
(S$1.97 million), an unstable staff situation, and debtors were chasing
for payment, recounts Ms Seet.
'At that point in time, BSG also had
non-core business investments in food outlets, advertising, etc. These
businesses were also facing financial losses. There was a tremendous
effort undertaken to streamline the operations, do away with all
non-core businesses and gradually bring the company back to financial
health,' she says.
BSG began its climb back into the
black and in 2004 reported a profit of 10 million yuan on a turnover of
280 million yuan. By 2007, profits had risen to 17 million yuan and
turnover was 400 million yuan.
While the going had been tough, it
hadn't been without rewards.
In 2006, BSG was honoured with the
'China Well-Known Trademark' as well as the 'Beijing Famous Brand'
awards.
'This is recognition of the company's
achievement in the garment industry. There are no more than 200 clothing
companies nationwide that are given this recognition as there are
stringent conditions required to qualify,' notes Ms Seet. It came with a
prize of 3.5 million yuan, tax free.
With a staff strength of 3,000, BSG
currently produces about 1.2 million suits a year for brands such as
Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Burberry. Its biggest export market is
Japan followed by Europe and the US. In 2005, it churned out 800,000
suits.
BSG has also gone into retailing.
Domestic sales used to make up about 30 per cent of the total; this has
since grown to 40 per cent. BSG is targeting 50 per cent in domestic
sales, tapping China's growing middle class.
It now has 88 shops across China and
expects to add another 17 this year selling under two brands - Roma and
Smart. Of these, about 10 per cent are franchised outlets.
Ms Seet says the company is working
on developing its franchise programme and aims to have 50 franchised
outlets in the next 18 months. Sales for the domestic market are about
150 million yuan.
As the business grows BSG had
explored setting up production in Vietnam but decided that conditions
would not suit its stringent quality control.
Instead, it turned to outsourcing
with 'cooperative factories'. Under this model BSG is responsible for
technical support as well as the management system of the production
plant but does not fund the capital investment for the factories.
Ms Seet is poised to take BSG to the
next stage, seeking a public listing in Singapore within the next two
years.
'The company is growing at a steady
pace and the domestic market has great potential for further growth,'
she says.
What has been the hardest part of the
last 14 years?
Being away from her daughters, she
says. 'I must admit I did miss their growing up years and sometimes
still have regrets. I am fortunate that the two girls grew up well and
that helped my decision to continue to work in China,' Ms Seet says.
'In the beginning, it was extremely
difficult for me emotionally as both girls were young. We would hold
each other and cry our hearts out every time we had to part,' she adds.
Her daughters are now grown - Vivien
is 28 and Charlyn, 20. Vivien got married last year and Charlyn is now
in Melbourne University doing her final year in media.
Everyone has to strike a balance and
make sacrifices at some point in life, Ms Seet says. She has had to
balance her life travelling between home in Singapore and work in China
as well as other business trips.
'If I had not taken the decision to
continue with the business and protect the 'family' investment, BSG may
not be around anymore,' she says.
- 2008 April 1 BUSINESS
TIMES
A few of the strong women we
admire in today's world:
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