[Author’s Note: While this article offers a convenient template for companies to use for their EDG applications, the true spirit of providing this free online is to encourage more companies to explore and take up the grant support. I also hope this article can provide ideas for companies on how they can enhance their capabilities.]
In this article, I am sharing one of my most ambitious and most satisfying project submissions I have done. This project put together several initiatives into one single document. This project also attained the highest dollar value in grant support I had ever achieved.
A little background into this project. As the 'Chief Strategist' in this retail company, it was my role to support the CEO to drive the business to win in the market. To win, it was essential that the organization had the right capabilities. We mapped what areas we had to beef up. Finally, we decided to embark that a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and the development of our people's capabilities were key priorities. However, all these would require huge investment which was always a challenge for an SME. We consulted our then Spring Singapore (the previous name of Enterprise Singapore) account manager. We identified the key projects that we can undertake and supportable by government grants. This is one aspect I give kudos to the government agencies in constantly supporting SMEs to improve themselves and saving money.
In the document provided in the later sections, there may be several names that are not in use anymore. For example, we used to have the 'I-Class' and 'People Developer' certifications. These were awarded by Spring Singapore for achieving business excellence in the areas of innovation and people development respectively. I read that these awards will be discontinued in Oct 2020. You can read more about them here.
For non-disclosure and in respect of company confidentiality, I will be masking some words and images. Let us begin!
The Cover Page
This is the cover page of the document. It basically provides what this document is about such as which grant was this for and the name of the project. I should have included the date of submission as well. The Capability Development Scheme (CDS) was the preceding name for the Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) that we have today. You can read more about the EDG here.
Page 1 & 2 - The Content Pages
In Pages 1 and 2, you can see the summary of the various sections in this document. As you can see from the content page, this was a massive project with several sub-projects! In this article, I will only provide the 'Introduction' and 'Impact of Project' sections. For the individual projects, you can always refer to my other project proposal templates here. The content pages are straight forward and can be easily generated automatically by Microsoft Word.
Page 3 - Executive Summary & Background of Company
In this section, I provided an executive summary of this proposal. First I would start off with the background of the company. I usually shared a little about the history and how the company aimed to position itself as a leader in the industry. To be a leader, you have to have the right capabilities. The type of capabilities to be achieved are explained briefly in this page.
Page 4 & 5 - Impetus and Business Model
This section talked about the impetus of this project. I typically use a known business model to frame the driving force behind this project. This allows the reader to see the big picture, and appreciate the key thinking that goes into the project.
Page 6 & 7 - Describing the Projects Implementation
In this section, we zoomed right into the projects that we intend to implement that would raise our capabilities. I always like to use diagrams as much as possible to explain a topic. In this case, the diagram would show
The various projects that we want to implement,
How they come about together, and
What it intends to achieve.
I am a visual person. I always believe diagrams can bring about a bigger impact than a bunch of words. It also allows the reader to have an easier time trying to understand what I am trying to say.
Page 8,9 & 10 - Description of the Various Components of the Project
The subsequent pages provided a brief description of each project that we wanted to implement to bring about the desired capabilities, as shown in the content page. For the purpose of keeping this article short, I will not be providing them here. Usually, they would consist of the deliverables for each project, proposed vendor, project implementation timeline, project team members, etc. You can find examples here.
Page 11 & 12 - Summary of Cost
The cost summary of this project is included in this section. I first provided a total summary of each individual initiative of this project, followed by the cost breakdown for each initiative. The cost breakdown was extracted from the vendors' proposal documents.
I will now move to the 'Impact of Project' section.
Page 48, 49 & 50 - Quantitative & Qualitative Impacts of the Project
In the last part of the document, I described the positive impacts that the project could bring to the company. It was divided into two parts. The first part was the quantitative impacts which were the benefits that could be measured. Do note that as worker outcome is a key requirement of the EDG, it is imperative that some measurable benefits to the workers are provided here. Depending on the scope of the project, you may need to provide the financial projections of the company. You may work with your finance department on this. The second part was the qualitative impacts. These were the intangible benefits that the project could bring to the company.
Page 51 - Contributions to the Industry
In the larger scheme of things, Enterprise Singapore hopes all our industries can grow with their support and assistance. Hence this last paragraph provided what this project could help to inspire and contribute to the sector that the company was in.
Concluding Note
I hope this article provides some ideas on how to craft your project proposal for your EDG submission. I also hope you can get some ideas on how to grow the capabilities of your company. Without building the required capabilities, it will be an uphill task to achieve your desired goal for your company.
If you are an SME, and if there is any area you may want some help, or an opinion, or just simply a chat, do drop me a message!
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