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cater to their customers' needs. They have the ability to organize a meeting of ten or a convention of 10,000 people.

The facilities available at Suntec Singapore include:

* Car parking. Suntec City has the largest carpark in Singapore with 3,200 parking lots spread over two basements. Music and landscaping is also present in the carpark to provide the Suntec City user maximum comfort from the very beginning to the end. In addition, there are trained traffic wardens in the car park to direct cars to empty parking lots.

* Convention hall. This is the largest column-free meeting area in Asia capable of accommodating 12,000 delegates in its 12,000m^sup 2^ column free space.

* Exhibition hall. Its 12,000m^sup 2^ floor space can be subdivided into three smaller areas if required.

* Ballroom. The 2,150 m^sup 2^ ballroom is a multi-purpose, sub-dividable space that is able to accommodate 1,800 people theatre style featuring pre-function areas.

* Meeting rooms. There are 31 meeting rooms, ranging from 76 to 253m^sup 2^, having the capacity to fit in 10-400 people. All these rooms are equipped with state-of-the-art technology to cater to clients' needs. There is also a special VIP meeting room for up to 26 delegates, in the Executive Suite, which has its own lounge and bar area.

* Theatre. The theatre spans over two levels and has a 596 seating capacity.

* Concourse. A multi-purpose space on level 3 with 930 m^sup 2^ of space, the concourse can cater for up to 600 persons in banquet-style.

* Lobby. Another multi-purpose space at the entrance to Suntec Singapore, the lobby is mainly used for exhibitions and public displays.

* Gallery. The gallery is 3,700m^sup 2^ of versatile space located that can cater for 1,000 delegates in a banquet-style setting or 3,000 delegates in a theatre-style setting.

To complement the above facilities, Suntec Singapore also provides services such as food and beverage and it also has the largest banquet kitchen in Singapore, providing on-site and off-site catering facilities for all events. The Digital Congress Network system provides infra-red simultaneous interpretation for up to 14 languages. The employment of this infra-red light instead of radio waves better ensures that sound signals do not leak into adjoining halls. In addition, the portable seating system allows flexible configuration and allows for easy set-up and retrieval. In

addition, Suntec Singapore has also formed an alliance with its neighbours. This creates a self-contained and totally integrated destination. The alliance includes hotel partners offering attractive rates for convention delegates, shopping malls in the vicinity, and the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay.

Challenges for Suntec Singapore international exhibition and convention centre

The convention and exhibition industry which includes meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) is worth about a billion dollars a year and provides 15,000 jobs in Singapore (International Enterprise Singapore Press Release, 2001). While Singapore has performed well as a MICE destination, the industry is getting increasingly competitive. Table I shows that there are several countries which have shown a growth greater than 50 per cent in the last ten years since 1993. Table II shows the top ten international meeting cities in 2004.

Further, Malaysia's Putra World Trade Centre has been playing a more active role to promote the country as a convention and exhibition destination since it came under a new management in 1993. The authorities are also working on improving the air access of destinations like Penang, Sabah and Sarawak from their key overseas markets. Equipped with strong economic performance, good infrastructure, affordable hotel rates, support from the federal government, state governments and airlines, the future of Malaysia's convention industry remains bright. Thailand's newly completed International Trade and Exhibition Centre is also a worthy competitor to note as the country enjoyed a 69 per cent growth in its convention industry from 1993 to 2002. On the local front, The Singapore Expo, located five minutes' drive from the airport and served by the Expo MRT Station is one of the most recent and largest exhibition centres in the region. Since first opening its doors on 4 March 1999, Singapore Expo has hosted more than 218 theme shows and received over 5.7 million visitors. It has 60,000m^sup 2^ (645,000 square feet) of indoor, column-free exhibition space, another 25,000 m^sup 2^ (270,000 square feet) of outdoor exhibition space and 19 conference halls and meeting rooms. Furthermore, the centre is technologically advanced and equipped with - the latest state-of-the-art presentation, interpretation, sound and lighting systems, and connectivity. Designed by world-renowned and award-winning architect, Cox Richardson Rayner, the 25 hectare Singapore Expo was built at a cost of over $220 million.

Is technology the source of Suntec City's competitive advantage?

According to Day and Wensley (1988), competitive advantage can be defined as superior skills or resources that a business deploys to set up barriers that make imitation difficult. The provision of superior customer value or the achievement of lower relative costs result in better performance such as increased market share and/or profitability. The concept of competitive advantage is central to business strategising because the very purpose of strategy is about seeking new edges in a market while slowing the erosion of present advantages. In general, there are two broad sources of competitive advantage:

(1) superior skills; and (2) superior resources.

However, superior skills and resources are not automatically converted into positional advantages nor is there a certain performance payoff from superior cost or differentiated position. Both conversions are mediated jointly by strategic choices including objectives and entry timing and the quality of tactics and implementation.

Superior skills arise from the ability to perform individual functions more effectively than other firms. For example, superior engineering or technical skills may lead to greater precision or reliability in the finished product. Other skills may be those that are derived from the systems and organisation structure that enables a firm to adapt more responsively and faster to changes in market requirements. As a FSP and landlord, Suntec City's finished product in this case is space that meets the need of its users. To understand the needs of users requires first and foremost, reliable intelligence generation, effective intelligence dissemination and swift responsiveness. This equates to the business concept of being market oriented. In Suntec's case, an open style of management and regular dialogues with its tenants and other users serves to collect the important information about user needs. A flat organisation structure ensures that the information gathered is disseminated effectively down the supply chain. The FSP concept provides the cornerstone for Suntec to become a market oriented business organisation. The initiatives under the FSP programme are designed to help tenants run their businesses more efficiently and effectively. For example, Suntec looks into the needs of smaller start-up companies by providing incubators and related administrative services and thus lowering the capital cost of these businesses one of their primary concerns. By doing so, tenants are satisfied and this translates into high occupancy rates.

Superior resources are more tangible requirements for advantage that enable a firm to exercise its capabilities. They may reside in the scale of the manufacturing facility, the location, the breadth of sales force and distribution coverage, the availability of automated assembly lines, or the family brand name. When Suntec first opened its doors, its location was considered its Achilles' heel. Several factors were important in turning its location into a superior resource. First, it is the use of technology to condense time and space. For example, the broadband access allows efficient internet communication among tenants. Today, the connectivity provided by information technology has become a source of differentiation for Suntec whose mission is to be Asia's Silicon Valley. Second, Suntec \its own locational advantage by forming an alliance with its neighbours. There is synergy in the alliance as the neighbouring uses (e.g. hotel, entertainment) complement Suntec City. In addition, there is also the benefit of agglomeration economies by forming an alliance with the neighbouring competing uses. Together, it creates a self-contained and totally integrated destination.

Central to the concept of competitive advantage is the setting up of barriers that make imitation difficult. To this end, if we look at Suntec's differentiated position through the use of technology, it is a barrier that is relatively easy to imitate if the financial means are available to its competitors. This is likely so since the other players in the market are also big players with strong financial backing such as Singapore Expo and Malaysia's Putra World Trade Centre. The positional advantage of Suntec in providing superior customer value, instead, lies in Suntec's holistic approach to business management. First, the strong management support given by Suntec's top management to create a vibrant and modern development that is in tune with Singapore's progress as a nation is a key driver for its Suntec's positional advantage. Second, it is the strategic choices made by Suntec's management in adopting a market oriented approach through the FSP programme and maintaining a good long-term relationship with its stakeholders through alliances. And finally, Suntec's commitment in meeting the needs of its users through the implementation of the FSP initiative is the closing link to Suntec's competitive advantage.

In summary, while financial limitations can raise the barrier for imitation of hardware such as technology and thus provide some degree of competitive advantage, it is the whole package of software such as management support and commitment, business management talent and skills that are more difficult to replicate and thus provide a more sustainable competitive advantage.

Facilities and Suntec Singapore's competitive position

The five-force model developed by Porter determines industry profitability through the understanding of a subject company's competitive position in relation to five forces, namely, suppliers potential new entrants, competitors, buyers and threat of substitute products or services. The model allows the illustration of how forces within an industry can either function to help firms sustain high profits, or how the same forces can provide imposing barriers to profitability.

The following discussion examines the impact of each force on Suntec Singapore's competitive position and how facilities and its related services can enhance its competitive position. Potential entrants

The seriousness of the threat of entry depends on the barriers present. Essentially the sources of barrier include cost advantages, product differentiation and capital requirements. In the convention centre business, the most effective barrier lies in product differentiation. And in the case of facilities, the location of Suntec Singapore can be utilised to market it as the gateway to Asia. Singapore has the advantage of being in a geographically strategic position. In addition, the security, the effective transportation network, state-of-the-art facilities and proximity to neighbouring Malaysia and Thailand for extended holiday is a whole locational advantage that diminishes the threat of potential entry. In a study by Dube and Renaghan (1999) on the lodging industry's best practices, the authors noted that a hotel's location is a structural quality that is tremendous source of sustainable competitive advantage. Convenient location remains the primary hotel attribute driving purchase decision. Suppliers

Suppliers can exert bargaining power on participants in an industry by raising prices and reducing the quality of purchased goods and services. Powerful suppliers can thereby squeeze profitability out of an industry unable to recover cost increases in its own prices. A supplier is powerful if it is dominated by a few companies, the product is unique and if the industry is not an important customer of the supplier group.

Suntec Singapore depends to a large extent on outsourced service providers to meet the needs of their clients. To ensure a ready supply of services, Suntec Singapore recruits worldwide for these services and talents. In addition, because Suntec Singapore is a big client and offers a big

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