Singapore, 30 May, 2000 -- McKinsey & Company, an international consultancy firm, announces the launch of
the first SEAsian @ccelerator in Singapore.
It is a dedicated e-business building facility offering comprehensive
services - from strategy and business modeling through to the launch phase and regional or global roll-out.
Businesses located in the @ccelerator will benefit from access to McKinsey's proprietary business building model,
a pool of 500 global e-business specialists, and a network of pre-screen service providers and technology vendors.
"The @ccelerator approach is substantially different from the traditional incubator approach. Given the rapid pace of change, building successful e-business requires teams to concurrently strategize, implement, assess, and adapt their operations. An expert advisor is needed in this process, and the @ccelerator has been specifically designed to transfer this knowledge to e-businesses in Asia.,"
- Brad Gambill
Principal and co-leader
@McKinsey Asia
In addition, e-businesses seeking to expand globally can tap into McKinsey's global relationships with leading
companies and institutions around the world.
With experience culled from more than 400 e-business engagements worldwide and specialist knowledge in over 100
industries, McKinsey & Co. has been providing e-business counsel and implementation support through its specialist
e-business practice, @McKinsey.
Asian companies working with the Singapore @ccelerator will have the opportunity to learn from the experiences
gained by @McKinsey in the US and Europe. The Singapore @ccelerator will also provide support to McKinsey's four
other Southeast Asian offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
To date more than ten @ccelerators in Europe and the US have been set up since 1999, with a total of 20 expected
by the year's end. As the Asian Internet economy develops and matures, additional @ccelerators will be set-up
throughout the region.
"The @ccelerator approach is substantially different from the traditional incubator approach," said Brad
Gambill, principal and co-leader of @McKinsey Asia. "Given the rapid pace of change, building successful
e-business requires teams to concurrently strategize, implement, assess, and adapt their operations. An expert
advisor is needed in this process, and the @ccelerator has been specifically designed to transfer this knowledge
to e-businesses in Asia."
Intangible Assets in the the New Economy
The consultancy feels that despite the hype, the New Economy has made fundamental changes in the way business
is done. No longer are tangible assets considered essential to success; rather, intangible assets such as brand
equity, knowledge and talent are poised to become the key drivers of business success.
This shift in business fundamentals has allowed forward-thinking managers to leverage their company's intangible
assets in order to build new businesses, sometimes entering completely new industries and sectors.
Companies that aggressively capitalize on the New Economy are likely to establish positions that would be difficult
to displace; laggards will be quickly left behind. A "winner takes all" environment is evolving where
each specialized sector will be dominated by a few key players.
According to Ken Gibson, Principal of McKinsey & Co., companies that have invested heavily in their traditional
businesses are desperately jockeying for key positions in the industry investing even more to 'e-nable' their business.
To help these companies meet the challenge, McKinsey has engineered a formula offering their established global networks of e-businesses, venture capitalist funds, and expertise among others for a price.
McKinsey developed the @ccelerator to facilitate a company's evolution into a sustainable e-business, leveraging
on the expertise and experience of McKinsey consultants. The @ccelerator is an integral part of @McKinsey's three
part service line to help companies become regional and global shapers in the New Economy.
@McKinsey's secret formula
Landscaping: which focuses on developing new e-business ideas that leverage current global e-business
trends, and conducts an opportunity scan of a company's New Economy assets that can form the basis of a successful
e-business.
Incubation: where @McKinsey helps clients to fine tune business ideas or models and develop solid
business plans and management teams, ensuring that subsequent business-building efforts are as fast and successful
as possible.
Acceleration: which utilizes the @ccelerator to facilitate companies with quality ideas and clear
business plans to develop a fully functioning e-business. When these e-businesses are physically relocated to
their dedicated @ccelerator facility, @McKinsey can complete the acceleration phase to produce a fully functioning
business in as little as six to nine months.
"With increasing technopreneurial activities, Singapore is well positioned to be a key technology hub for
the region. McKinsey's choice of Singapore as the first location for its @ccelerator facility, demonstrates this
well. We are extremely pleased that the private sector is playing a proactive role in spearheading such initiatives,
which give a boost to the technopreneurship initiative." said Mr. Chong Lit Cheong, Managing Director, National
Science & Technology Board.
The Singapore @ccelerator is presently located in Ann Siang Road. The current site has a capacity for four business
building teams and has already begun helping several companies in Southeast Asia build successful e-businesses.
About McKinsey
McKinsey & Company is an international management-consulting firm that serves leading corporations and organizations
in most industrialized nations and many emerging markets. With approximately 6,000 consultants deployed from 81
offices in 43 countries, McKinsey advises companies on strategic, operational, organizational and technological
issues.
While currently serving four of the world's six largest companies measured by market capitalization as
well as the largest companies in virtually all industries, McKinsey is also helping promising start-ups to rapidly
launch and grow their operations. McKinsey will also undertake more than 1000 e-commerce engagements this year
- a threefold increase over 1999.