BY BRITTANY KHOO

IN what comes close to irony, the top winner of the Fastest Growing 50 just did not have that end in mind.

'Fast growth has never been our corporation's mission,' says SIM chief executive officer Lee Kwok Cheong. 'All this time, we see our work as having a primarily social mission, with the goals of being a quality education provider.'

Indeed, that statement sums up the objectives of SIM Pte Ltd - more commonly known as SIM Global Education - which is the largest private education organisation in Singapore in terms of student population and campus size, offering overseas degree programmes through partnerships with established international universities. Over the last three years, SIM Pte Ltd recorded a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 820.8 per cent.

SIM Pte Ltd, SIM University (UniSIM) and SIM Professional Development make up the SIM Group, which is registered as a not-for-profit membership society.

'We are like the enterprise part of the SIM Group,' explains Mr Lee of SIM Global Education, which is run like a commercial outfit with a social role. This may sound confusing at first but is actually quite simple to understand, as the entity receives no public subsidies and is therefore driven to be cost-efficient.

'And yet, we are different from other corporates and firms,' says Mr Lee. 'There are no returns to shareholders that you speak of; rather, we are driven by our delivery of high-quality education programmes to generate surplus, which in turn goes to funding SIM programmes in the long run.'

Where it comes to operations, Mr Lee says that what matters is taking the 'best practices' from within both the private sector and education sector and applying them to SIM's quest for education. He believes this has led to SIM Global Education's efficiency and efficacy to generate surplus, with many milestones achieved in recent years - such as being the first private educational organisation to have a lifestyle campus, scholarship and study abroad programme - realising Mr Lee's belief that private students deserve as much a quality and holistic education as students from public universities.

In terms of growth, SIM Global Education has covered much ground in recent years. Mr Lee reckons that the main reason for SIM's stellar performance in the area is the organisation's ability to cater to the unmet demand for further education.

'Since we have some elements of a corporate entity, I would say that we are more market-driven than a typical university,' says Mr Lee. 'We are sensitive to developments in the Singapore economy as well as throughout the region, and tailor our offerings carefully to appeal to the demand for higher education. At the same time, we do not compromise on the quality of the courses we offer.'

SIM Global Education offers joint degrees from institutions in the US, the UK, Australia and Switzerland.

On top of this, SIM looks carefully to differentiate its students in the future, grooming them to possess not only the qualifications of a graduate but also the desirable traits that employers look for. This means giving the current enrolment of about 18,000 students opportunities to grow in both leadership capabilities and life skills.

'This also means we have to carefully plan our resources and funds to invest in facilities that would serve these ends,' says Mr Lee.

It certainly seems like SIM has been doing right, positioning itself as a strong player in education while achieving growth that is all the more admirable for a social enterprise.

'Ultimately, I hope that our win will be an inspiration to other academic institutions and charity organisations,' says Mr Lee.

This article was first published in The Business Times.