In 2008, the Tote Board commissioned the Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s Asian Business Case Centre (ABCC) to undertake a Case Study Research project to develop case studies on the social service and non-profit sectors in Singapore. The project was embarked upon with a view to enrich our knowledge bank with case studies that are relevant to the local context. It was envisaged that these case studies would contribute to the development of professionalism and capacity building in these sectors.
The collaboration has since brought to bear several case studies, e.g. “Anatomy of a Crisis” and “Leadership and Change”, which were built upon experiences from the National Kidney Foundation of Singapore. Other NPOs upon which case studies were built included the HCA Hospice Care Services, Singapore Children’s Society, Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Society for the Physically Disabled.
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HCA Hospice Care Services (A): Balancing Growth and Sustainability
By Wee Beng Geok and Ivy Buche
HCA was the largest home-based hospice care provider in Singapore. As the general population grew older, demand for hospice home care services was expected to grow over and above its operating capacity. At the beginning of 2010, HCA’s leaders were at a crossroad as the charity faced several resource constraints to growth. The challenge was i) to raise sufficient financial resources needed to expand capacity, ii) to build a pool of competent palliative professionals, especially doctors and nurses, and iii) ready managerial talent if operations were scaled up significantly.
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HCA Hospice Care Services (B): The Design of the Home Hospice Work
By Wee Beng Geok and Ivy Buche
HCA’s multidisciplinary team, comprising of doctors, nurses, social workers, counsellors and volunteers, provided home-based hospice care to needy patients with terminal illnesses. The case focuses on the design of hospice home care services provided by HCA, in particular, the work performed by two groups of professionals (doctors and nurses) in the delivery of palliative care. The key competencies required of such workers and job-specific context of home hospice care are also discussed.
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Singapore Children’s Society: Delivering a Brand Promise
By Wee Beng Geok and Yvonne Chong
A nonprofit’s decision to embark on a corporate communications exercise evolved into a broader branding exercise and internal organizational change process for the Singapore Children’s Society, which was running more than 50 programmes for various beneficiaries. Success in branding also meant that the charity would have to confront new perceptions and perspectives from its multiple stakeholders regarding the effectiveness and impact of their programmes.
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National Kidney Foundation of Singapore (A): Anatomy of a Crisis
By Wee Beng Geok & Yvonne Chong
In 2005, the NKF was by many measures the most well-known and well-endowed charity in Singapore. This case explores the initiatives taken by its CEO to build the NKF brand and reach from 1992 to 2005. It examines the impact of NKF’s innovative fund-raising model and strategies on the organisation and its external environment, pre-crisis relationships and post-crisis responses, and actions taken by key stakeholders in managing the leadership crisis.
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National Kidney Foundation of Singapore (B): Leadership and Change
By Wee Beng Geok & Ivy Buche
This case is about the pre-crisis and post-crisis leadership at the NKF and examines the issues of change management as its leaders take action amidst an increasingly complex and changing external environment. It also explores the challenges confronting the post-crisis leadership in managing change inside the organisation after the exit of a charismatic leader as well as the actions taken to meet the change expectations of external stakeholders.
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Singapore Chinese Orchestra (A): Building A Sustainable 21st Century Arts Enterprise
By Wee Beng Geok & Yvonne Chong
Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) was one of three flagship arts companies under the government's Renaissance City Plan to develop a dynamic global city for the arts. To achieve its mission to be a world renowned orchestra and longer-term goal of building a sustainable arts enterprise, SCO's executive team initiated a strategic planning process and set about implementing its plans which included: programming that reflected the orchestra's core artistic values, audience development, talent acquisition and development, and corporate partnerships.
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Singapore Chinese Orchestra (B): Developing Corporate Partnerships
By Yang Mei Ling
In 2010, SCO set about to explore ways to persuade potential corporate partners to use the orchestra as a marketing or branding partner to reach their customers and target audience, or to boost their reputation in the community. Key challenges included identifying the appropriate target corporate partners, assessing and enhancing SCO's appeal to them, as well as asking hard-nosed questions about what value SCO could bring to the table for pragmatic business decision makers in an increasingly competitive sponsorship landscape.
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Society for the Physically Disabled : Managing Mission and Vision in a Non-Profit Organisation (Adaptation in Dynamic Environments)
By Wee Beng Geok & Ivy Buche
The case is about the impact of the external environment on the operations of a non-profit organisation –Society for the Physically Disabled. The sustainability of its social enterprise operations in such a context is also examined. It describes how the charity managed the continuous adaptation in the implementation of programmes to meet the changing needs of beneficiaries and other stakeholders. A Disability Employment Network launched at a national level would require the charity to further fine-tune the founders' mission of providing employment to people with physical disabilities in Singapore.
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AWWA (A): Reorganising a Voluntary Welfare Organisation –Asian Women’s Welfare Association of Singapore
By Wee Beng Geok, Ivy Buche and He Tingshan
The new Code of Governance for Charities and Institutions of Public Character (IPCs) in Singapore, stipulated new rules and best practices with regard to board members’ duties and responsibilities, fundraising, use of donations, maintenance and auditing of records, reporting and disclosure requirements as well as strategic planning and management controls. In response, AWWA embarked on an organisational restructuring initiative. With the implementation of the ‘One AWWA’ initiative, AWWA moved away from its origins as essentially a member/volunteer-driven organisation to one jointly managed by volunteers, salaried professionals and staff, but with a clear separation between the governance and executive roles. The challenge for AWWA’s leadership was to manage this transition in the best ways possible.
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AWWA (B): Strategies for implementing change - Asian Women's Welfare Association of Singapore
By Wee Beng Geok and Yang Lishan
AWWA’s Governing Board vision for the organisational transformation initiative was to implement a strategic policy over a period of five years for the charity that would cut across all its programmes and evolve as the basic rationale for plans and actions undertaken by AWWA members, employees and volunteers. With this in mind, AWWA’s corporate management team led by the CEO, set about revamping the organisation’s systems and processes, to realign these with the fundamental goals behind the ‘ONE AWWA’ initiative. Major mindset changes among AWWA members, volunteers and employees would be required to achieve this organisational transformation.
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The Charities Accounting Standard: Implications for Singapore Charities
By Chan-Ng Ai Lin, Wee Beng Geok and Ivy Buche
With the issuance of the Singapore Charities Accounting Standard (CAS) on 24 June 2011, charities in Singapore that were already complying with the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (FRS), were presented with a choice –should they continue to comply with FRS or switch to CAS? On the other hand, charities that were complying with the Recommended Accounting Practice 6 (RAP 6) (Revised 2006), which would be withdrawn, had to adopt a new accounting standard. Would it be FRS or CAS?
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To-date, the project is into its second phase, where more case studies are in the pipeline. For more details of the case studies completed, please click here.
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