Open Sesame launches profiling tool for the food industry

The Al-ladin team, from left: Peter Lewis (business development, Open Sesame); 

Kwan Lui (At-Sunrice founder); innovation analysts Professor Pan Shan Ling and Associate Professor Pee L G; 

and Martin Bader (manager, Open Sesame).

Open Sesame, the enterprise arm of Singapore-based culinary school At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy, has launched Al-ladin, an innovative profiling tool specifically for the food industry. Al-ladin is based on a Food Innovation Maturity Model that has been jointly developed for Open Sesame by Professor Pan Shan Ling from the University of New South Wales and Dr Pee L G, associate professor at the Nanyang Technological University. This tool is aligned with Singapore’s effort to help local companies hone innovations in the food service and food manufacturing sectors. 

According to Open Sesame, Al-ladin measures the level of innovation capability of a company through a four-step process. This process begins with an in-depth interview with an innovation research associate which leads to an innovation report highlighting the key aspects of innovation using data analytics and a roadmap for areas of improvement. Open Sesame's innovation analysts then provide two follow-up sessions to interpret the report and co-develop an action plan.

Kwan Lui, founder of At-Sunrice, started Open Sesame as a food innovation division focused on critical food challenges such as sustainability with zero waste, national self-sufficiency and as an accelerator for food-focused entrepreneurship.

She said: “We design ourselves to be the raising agent for talented food entrepreneurs, business ideas and career opportunities. This is where ideas collide, collaborations thrive and combinations flourish."

The profiling tool was initially used by 11 participating companies in Singapore. Jurong Frog Farm was one of the participants surveyed by the researchers engaged with Open Sesame to review their innovation capability. 

Chelsea Wan, founder and owner of the three-decade old family business, said: 

"In the 13 years since succeeding my father in the business, I have tried to innovate as much as possible but it took a profiling tool like Al-ladin, coupled with the expertise from Open Sesame to provide a roadmap of how we can move forward with new products and services."

Companies that signed up for Al-ladin will receive a tailor-made innovation roadmap for their company. An attractive grant from Enterprise Singapore (ESG) is also available to all eligible local SMEs.