The Innovative Woman Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards

Addressed by Tan Sri Lim at “The Innovative Woman Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards” organised by NAWEM
30 September 2004

Firstly I first thank NAWEM for the opportunity to work together in this important mission designed to encourage greater emphasis on innovation as the way forward.

As is often said, in today′s globalised economy, how quickly we innovate and how intelligently we use innovations will decide how efficiently we compete and how quickly we are able to close the gap with the more advanced nations.

NAWEM′s move to recognize women entrepreneurs as innovators who are contributing to our economy and national development is more than timely, many deem it as a step that is necessary.

Those of us who are married must know how innovative and creative women can be. Often they make us do things we have never imagined doing, and wear clothes we have never considered wearing.

But seriously, in the creative industries at least half of the people involved are women. And they play key roles in managing and ensuring that work gets done, things get produced, and money gets collected.

Without women, most of the companies running businesses that run on creativity and innovative thinking will either run themselves to the ground or run straight into the red.

As we know it, the world′s most successful countries are also the most innovative. The world′s most successful companies are also the world′s most creative, most innovative.

The world′s most successful CEO are no exception – they stand at the forefront of the innovation process, and they drive it from the front themselves.

It is always obvious in the way they create and promote their products or services; in the way they design their work environment; in the way they build their corporate culture, their brand personality or their public image. They are always smart, always looking sharp. Always precise. Always consistent. Always in contention. Because they leave nothing to chance. Nothing is left to luck no matter what Lilian Too says. Everything is carefully thought through, carefully planned, designed and engineered.

These companies have a continuous culture of innovation and all of them would have placed innovation at the heart of their business thinking and strategization.

To them, product or service innovation is an indispensable strategy in the enhancement of quality and value perceived or real, brand identity and personality.

I am sure the individuals who will be recognized as this year′s recipients of Innovative Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards are those who have built a name for themselves as innovative thinkers, and who have built their business success and reputation on the platform of innovation.

As President of the Malaysia Design & Innovation Centre, it′s my job to encourage the constant and effective use of creativity and innovation in all that we do in business development, in market development, and in self-development.

I am very pleased to be working hand in hand in partnership with NAWEM and I look forward to a long and successful partnership.

It has nothing to do with the fact that any wife is a hardcore, hard-driving NAWEM member. It is NAWEM′s dedication to encouraging and building innovation and innovative entrepreneurship that I find heartening and motivating.

I take this opportunity to congratulate in advance recipients of this year′s Innovative Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

This is a truly meaningful award.

It is testimony to your able leadership and innovative entrepreneurship. What you do, everything that you do, will help strengthen Malaysia′s competitiveness as we move to compete in an increasingly competitive, globalised environment. In simple language, it means we will be competing with the best in the world.