Yahoo! They are hiring again

by Esther Fung

Updated 08:47 AM Jun 10, 2009

Mr Ken Mandel, vice president and managing director of Yahoo! Southeast Asia. Photo Courtesy of Yahoo! Southeast Asia

UPBEAT about its prospects in South-east Asia including Singapore, American search engine firm Yahoo! is now hiring more staff here - a turnaround from the layoffs carried out last year.

"What we're doing now is hiring specific people for specific areas. Every company goes through a downsizing phase especially when the world economy is imploding," Mr Ken Mandel, vice-president and managing director of Yahoo South-east Asia, said on the sidelines of the ad:tech fair for digital marketers yesterday.

The firm is now looking to hire people in Singapore with competencies in performance marketing and business development.

Yahoo's website lists at least 23 available positions in the region, with over half of the openings in Singapore.

Media reports last year said that Yahoo's South-east Asia headquarters, based here, employs about 150 staff.

Mr Mandel declined to provide any employment figures and would only say that the company axed less than six per cent of its workforce in South-east Asia last year.

"We wanted to make sure our organisation was poised for growth because it was a matter of time before the economy sorted itself out, and we'd be back on the fast track of growth," Mr Mandel, who took on his current role in January last year, told Today.

Last year was about plugging gaps, but, the focus this year is to accelerate growth, he added.

In Singapore, Yahoo is targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), especially "smaller players who just want to reach someone very specific," said Mr Mandel.

SME owners, after buying keywords related to their specific businesses, will have leads generated by the search engine.

Yahoo, which has 50 million unique users a month in South-east Asia out of a total of 100 million Internet users, sees potential growth in the online advertising space.

"Right now, we're looking at one or two per cent of total advertising spend in Singapore," said Mr Mandel. Through education, he hopes that online advertising spend would make up at least 10 per cent.

From TODAY, Business – Wednesday, 10-Jun-2009; see the source article here.

CEO 101

What is the impact of the economic situation on your pro-family HR policies?

Miss Wee Hee Ling, Managing Director, CTC Holidays

“Accredited as a pro-family business, CTC Holidays has established various family-focused HR policies. However, the current economic climate and lower sales revenue have forced CTC Holidays to implement a range of cost-cutting measures. We are sending staff for Spur and TMIS training programmes during this period, as we hope to ensure continuous learning and retraining of staff. With our collective efforts, we strive to avoid retrenchments during this current economic depression. CTC Holidays is committed to making sure that every staff member is comfortable in accepting the new policies, and that they are not facing any financial issues with their families.”

From TODAY, Succeed – Monday, 08-Jun-2009

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New site to test the waters

Properties, properties, in the midst of the worldwide recession, how I wish, how I wish, I have the means to buy new possession…

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THE first sale site at the proposed Kallang Riverside waterfront lifestyle precinct was made available yesterday — after a scheduled six-month delay.

The 0.74-ha land parcel along the Kallang River with a permissible gross floor area of nearly 20,917 sq m — is envisaged to be a waterfront hotel development catering to business travellers and tourists. It can house hotel rooms and shops like retail and food outlets.

The parcel was scheduled to be available on the Reserve List last December, but as more time was needed to finalise the planning and development conditions of the Kallang River, the URA deferred the release.

The site will show how well the sector is doing, said Cushman and Wakefield managing director Donald Han. "(This) is going to be a litmus test particularly for developers to ascertain whether this is the right timing in view that generally the market has seen some positive news ..." he said.

Based on the plot ratio, the site is expected to be of a "manageable size" that can house 300 to 380 rooms. Price would also range between $150 to "maybe at most" $190 per square foot per plot ratio, he said.

"Mainly on the basis that this is going to be a first mover for a developer to develop a fairly new area ... I think a discount factor for the market would probably be expected."

Under the system, a site would be released for sale only if it receives a bid with a minimum price that is acceptable to the government. 938LIVE

From TODAYonline.com; see the source article here.

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CEO 101

How do you approach the issue of employees’ external appointments and activities?

Mr Dennis Choo, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Premiere Global Services

Employees are one of the biggest assets a company can have — therefore, it is vital that they feel a sense of appreciation from the organisation. I strongly believe that it all boils down to flexibility and understanding from both parties. Employees who align and engage themselves with a company’s vision, mission and values will often give more of themselves to achieve specific goals. For the relationship to continue to evolve, it is important that staff feel that their employers afford similar flexibility should they periodically need to take time out of their working day to attend external appointments or activities.

From TODAYOnline.com, Business – Monday, 25-May-2009; see the source article here.

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