The X-MEN

Today, we went to visit Ikhlas, a social enterprise in Singapore. Ikhlas provides employment to X-convicts, endearingly calling them the X-MEN, helping them to rebuild their lives when they get out of prison. Ikhlas is a catering company that pays market-rate and cooks fresh food, supplying to childcares, elderly homes and juvenile centers. Understanding the social stigma held against X-convicts, the business model shifted from front end to back-end processes where the staff progress from cleaning to cooking and eventually to driving. For them, “driving is like getting an MBA,” says the founder.

Alfie, a Singaporean businessman, who understood life on the other side of the tracks, launched Ikhlas in 2004. Alfie shared with us that Ikhlas was borne out of desire to help his friends who couldn’t get a job after prison, and all too often returned to the “ship dock” where old environments all too often led to old habits and to reoffending.

Alfie shared with us his own story of how he emerged from his humble background, saying he got lucky “all because of football”. His love for listening to football games on BBC helped him learn English, his choice of tie for his interview and his witty personality landed him a job at a prestigious bank where he picked “colorful” markets to make investments such as Indonesia, India, Philippines, and where one fine day, he flipped a coin, made a bet on a Telecom company investment on the 2nd day of Chinese new year when no one else was working…all this helped Alfie land on the right side of the road. We note that he didn’t just land on the right side of the right, he has become a savvy business tycoon; but one who understands his roots, and might be more willing than most, to give others a second, third, fourth chance at life to achieve their potential.

As Alfie considered how to build job opportunities for the X-MEN, he went into food processing, an industry he refers to as “not rocket science,” but “bare, naked, and empty, and like any business must evolve.”

Stemming from the organization’s overriding belief that "every individual deserves a chance", the team shared with us the defining moment, which is when the X-MEN receive their first paycheck. “You can see with their faces that they are so happy that there are still places for them left in society.”

As a social change maker, Alfie asked us all to remember to challenge our own assumptions because what “you think will work or be good for people most likely is wrong.” One size fits all doesn’t work. His first assumption as he built Ikhlas was that the X-MEN would guard the job with their lives, but realized that there are so many distraction factors at play, and he had to revise the model to provide not just jobs, but training and guidance.