Leadership Report: Hyflux's Internal Environment and Resources

This report examines the internal environment of Hyflux, a Singapore-based water treatment company, and its founder, Olivia Lum. It identifies and describes five key influences on the organization's internal environment: organizational mission, organizational policies, inter-business/inter-departmental relations, unions, and organizational resources, providing specific examples for each. The report then applies Barney's VRIO framework (Value, Rarity, Imitability, and Organization) to evaluate Hyflux's resources, highlighting the company's competitive advantages in terms of its skilled employees, unique competencies, and financial resources. The analysis emphasizes how Hyflux's resources contribute to its ability to provide sustainable solutions and maintain a competitive edge in the market, particularly in the water treatment sector. The report references several academic sources to support its analysis.

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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Q. Identify and describe any five influences on the internal environment of an
organization. Each influence should have at least 2 valid descriptors.
1. Organizational Mission – In the context of Hyflux, the mission statement states
about providing effective and cost-effective sustainable solutions which would help to
transform the lives of the society and meet the requirements of the clients through innovative
and technological advancement (hyflux.com). The mission is very much relevant to the task
performed by Hyflux, like sustaining themselves as the top desalination plant providers
globally (Lim 2005).
2. Organizational Policies – In this context, the policy of Hyflux is to remain committed to
optimisation of its resources and providing sustainable development of the society where they
are serving. They are unique in their operations of working, providing innovative and
environmental solutions to the areas where they are serving their services. Employees enjoy
an ethical work culture which is followed by the organization policies of Hyflux. Proper work
culture motivates the employees to provide sustainability towards their work.
3. Inter-business/Inter-departmental relations – The strong and energetic
employees in all the departments of Hyflux have taken extra responsibilities on their
shoulders during the challenging reorganization period faced by Hyflux. For example, the HR
department maintains a cordial relationship with the Research department, in order to assess
the number of employees required to carry on the business operations smoothly, without
affecting the sustainability of Hyflux. Relationships between the departments help Hyflux to
maintain the sustainability in market places.
4. Unions – In Hyflux, the union identifies the problems and laggings and presents
them in front of the management to solve them. This helps to maintain and sustain a proper
flow in the business operations of this organization.
5. Organizational Resources - The resources of Hyflux includes assets like water
treatment plants and its equipment and its processes, competencies, knowledge or skill of
scientists, research and development team and others. All this helps to enjoy the competitive
advantage of Hyflux over others by providing water treatment facilities, known as
desalination and water recycling, thus providing drinking water to the society. The strength of
Hyflux is its people of all the departments, along with their abilities and skills (Wong 2006).

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Q. With specific consideration of Hyflux/Olivia Lum, list and describe Barney’s (1997)
framework with which Hyflux/Olivia Lum’s resources can be evaluated.
Hyflux Limited was founded by Ms. Olivia Lum, who is the Group CEO, President
and managing Director of the organization. On the other hand, J.B. Barney developed a
model which is used to analyse the internal resources of an organization, and named it VRIO
model. The linkage between these two are described as follows:
Value - The skills and knowledge of the employees, the leadership style of Olivia
Lum and assets like water treatment plants and equipment and financial resources, which
stands at S$42,896,000 at the end of 2013 financial year
(http://investors.hyflux.com/newsroom/20140220_173432_600_5945E626B410F72448257C
850033CFE1.1.pdf 2013), has helped Hyflux to provide more resources to gain competitive
advantage against its rivals in the market place. The value of this organization is unique and
are committed to reduce the impacts on the environment where Hyflux are operating their
business, along with establishment of water treatment plants with difficulties, with the aim to
satisfy the clients and normal people of society, mainly the children by providing them safe
water to drink.
Rarity – In the context of Hyflux, they have the competencies which are rare and not
followed by other companies in the market place. The endowment funds, bursaries and
scholarships are provided by them to the children of the communities in Asia provided a long
lasting effect. They have made Singspring Desalination Plant and Tuaspring Integrated water
and Power Projects in Singapore; both are among the top in that period in Singapore as well
as in Asia, and they are the only organization in that area to do so (MacDonald 2011).
Imitability – Hyflux enjoy the competitive advantage by possessing the different
resources like assets like water treatment plants and its equipment and its processes, the
competency and corporate governance of their CEO and skills and knowledge of the
employees present in the organization, along with the financial resources mentioned above.
They cannot be copied by the rivals present in the market place. They believe that corporate
governance is non-negotiable, which along with appropriate degree of transparency and
accountability to maximize the long-term value.
Organization – It can be said that Hyflux gives importance of maintaining a healthy
risk management as well as internal control to protect the interest if the shareholders and the
asset of the organization, to enjoy the competitive edge over others by assembling and

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coordinating all the internal resources effectively and providing water treatment facilities to
the society it serves (Jugdev, Mathur and Fung 2007).

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References
http://investors.hyflux.com/newsroom/
20140220_173432_600_5945E626B410F72448257C850033CFE1.1.pdf. (2013).
Jugdev, K., 2005. The VRIO Framework of Competitive Advantage: Preliminary Research
Implications for Organizational Innovations as Drawn from a Project Management Study.
Jugdev, K., Mathur, G. and Fung, T.S., 2007. Project management assets and their
relationship with the project management capability of the firm. International Journal of
Project Management, 25(6), pp.560-568.
Lim, G.S., 2005. It'S So Clear: Hyflux And The Success Story Of A Singapore Female
Entrepreneur. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 13(02), pp.171-192.
MacDonald, I., 2011. Remote sensing and sea-truth measurements of methane flux to the
atmosphere (HYFLUX project). Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
Wong, S.Y., 2006. The Business and Sustainability of Water Supply in Singapore: The Case
of Hyflux. In Enterprising Worlds (pp. 145-163). Springer, Dordrecht.