At many listed companies, compliance only defines what they report, not if anything has improved. For this reason, Lyn Sia Rosmarin starts with the theory of change when helping businesses measure and strengthen their social impact while turning those findings into infrastructure other social enterprises can use. “That is usually the uncomfortable checkpoint,” says the founder and CEO of non-profit platform Pandan Initiative.
Her first step is determining whether a company’s vision and mission align with its operations. They often don’t, she adds. “A company might say it exists to uphold older people’s dignity and organise an annual hamper drive. Both of those things are fine, but they are not the same thing.”
Founded in 2025, Pandan Initiative specialises in impact measurement, impact programming, and platform building. The first covers measurement and evaluation, typically using Social Return on Investment, alongside survey design, data collection and reporting.
The second involves helping companies develop and sustain community programmes rather than switching causes every year without building on what has been done already.
The third turns lessons from each engagement into tools other social enterprises can use, making impact measurement less dependent on hiring a specialist. As Rosmarin puts it, she can only advise so many organisations directly, but the patterns beneath that work can reach many more.
Although the company charges for measurement work, its non-profit structure means those funds are channelled back into its broader operations.
Additionally, Rosmarin also pushes back on the idea that social impact is an expensive luxury for SMEs, which account for 99 percent of Singapore’s enterprises. Many owners, she points out, make contributions in in less visible ways such as sponsoring causes, hiring people others might overlook, or giving staff flexibility to care for elderly parents.
In her view, what’s often missing isn’t spending, but capturing the results of those efforts. Compared to what most businesses already provide, measurement is a tiny expense.
The case becomes more compelling when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. As SMEs cannot usually win a bidding war on salary, they must compete on something else.
“Purpose sounds soft until you price a departure. When a skilled employee leaves a firm of 20 people, you lose their billing, the time training the replacement, and often the clients who were loyal to that person rather than to the company.”
Lyn Sia Rosmarin on the true price of employee turnover
In today’s discerning generation of young employees, many of whom want to work for companies that stand for something they can validate, Rosmarin believes articulating impact can give SMEs an advantage. According to her, the largest social footprint is not the CSR budget, but the purchase order. Who you buy from across the region and on what terms matters far more than a volunteer day ever will.
Her advice for corporate leaders who want to embed purpose into their strategy but don’t know where to begin? They must ask themselves: if they close tomorrow, who will miss them, and what exactly will they lose?
This question is more insightful than a mission statement because it forces a company to assess how its presence impacts the world beyond its own doors. “If the honest answer is that customers will find a competitor by Friday, that is useful too. It tells you where the work is located,” Rosmarin says.
“Most leaders discover something in that answer they have never considered before. A member of staff who stayed through a hard year because of the treatment they received. A small supplier who could plan their own year because you always paid on time. That is where purpose lives. The job is to notice it before inventing anything new.”
Photography Mun Kong
Art direction Annalisa Espino Lim
Grooming Sarah Tan using Charlotte Tilbury and Goldwell
Photography assistant Artemii Chumak
