I am giving notice on various public platforms of my resignation as a Director of Social Creatives Ltd with effect from 1st January 2009. While I will not be able to provide detailed information on my decision, I am providing a summary of my rationale behind the decision.
I cannot represent a company which operates in a manner that is inconsistent with what I would stand for in my definition of a Social Enterprise. My definition is in line with what is defined in the “Social Enterprise” Wikipedia entry: “A commonly-cited rule of thumb is that their income is derived from the business trading rather than from subsidy or donations.”
I was invited to be a Director in the fledging company on the pretext that I would contribute to the company in a tangible manner on the areas of entrepreneurship. I ended up being assigned the role of a “treasurer” in my absence, and was tasked with non-value adding responsibilities of reading out monthly financial reports and signing cheques with amounts larger than S$10,000. Effectively, my duties were customary.
The continued additions of Board Members without clear operational roles appeared to me to be a name-and-rank-pulling exercise. Instead of a meaningful nurture of a strong operational team consistent with the growth priorities for a sustainable social enterprise, the company focused on building and utilising a visual array of expert profiles for marketing purposes. I feel great concern that nothing was mentioned about the rollout of actual, non-grant-linked business activities.
The management postulates instead of creates, focuses on fund-raising over profit-making, and is led by an individual who has been meticulously aware of hiding his true age from myself during the period of my involvement, giving me the impression that he may have more to hide particularly and unfortunately confirmed with the deliberate action of incorporation of Social Creatives Ltd under his name when he, with the knowledge of the duties and obligations expected of a director as listed in the Company Act of Singapore, is aware that he is not of the legal age to act in the capacity of a director.
