Moving With The Generations Leaving his high-flying consultancy job, Chen Tien Yue joined Royal Selangor, the company founded by his great-grandfather. He tells us that family businesses need to keep up with the times. "For any company that has been in business for over 100 years, the challenges are all the same — whether you are family-owned or publicly listed. Many companies die out because they are going out of fashion or lacking market relevance. Heritage is important, but some family businesses are too consumed by tradition. You must be able to adapt to market conditions and what the customer wants. For example, we introduced lifestyle products and – more recently – a line of wearable pewter. That’s something that my great-grandfather, Yong Koon, would never have imagined. It is also very dangerous when decisions are made solely by a patriarch, especially in a constantly changing market environment. A company should be run by the best person for the job and not just because you are part of the family. Our management team consists of a mix of family and non-family managers. It ensures the right level of experience for decision-making."

Media Kaleidoscope Keeping track of your extensive DVD or CD collection just got easier with the digital home theatre system by Kaleidescape. Store 450 movies or 1500 albums on a machine no thicker than a stack of three DVD cases. You can connect multiple players over a network to access your extensive media library from various locations in your home. To add new material on the server’s hard-disc drive, just slot in the disc and let the player do its work. The intuitive software will automatically download information from the Kaleidescape server, including the cover art and album reviews. Music and movies are then displayed with their covers in a colourful kaleidoscope according to similar genres, artistes or titles. Costing $28,000 for the most basic system, rest assured that your prized databank of entertainment will be safe as all data is backed up continuously on the system’s proprietary data management system. In the event that one of the hard-discs fails, the system will automatically alert the Kaleidescape and a service technician will be dispatched to fix the problem. But you must still own a physical copy of a DVD or CD to avoid copyright violations. So, don’t go throwing out your discs just yet.

Harvesting Desire The Tiffany Blue Book collection is making its first stop outside of the United States at Singapore in an exhibition rightly dubbed Simply Spectacular. First published in 1845, this annual tome in the signature robin’s egg colour compiles a rare and dizzying array of jewels inspired by original creations from some of the brand’s most prolific designers. There’s Jean Schlumberger’s lavish cocktail rings adorned with diamond leaves and vibrant pink and green tourmalines. Several masterpieces inspired by one of its celebrated designers, the late Louis Comfort Tiffany, are also included — a dragonfly blue enamel brooch with bejewelled wings that appear to take flight and a majestic peacock flaunting a 14.63-carat black opal and a plumage of sapphires and green tourmalines.