Singapore, a model for Judgement
An interesting, though slightly overoptimistic post on Singapore from Harvard’s blog. Enjoy!
The Next Big Thing – Tom Davenport
Source: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/davenport/2009/08/singapore_a_model_of_judgment.html
Singapore: A Model of Judgment for the United States?
3:01 PM Friday August 21, 2009
Tags:Global business, Politics
We often talk about judgment with regard to individuals, but
organizations and countries can have good and bad judgment as well. I
was recently in Singapore for a SAS customer event. Every time I
visit, it has struck me as a country with good judgment. Singapore
just celebrated its forth-fourth birthday as an independent country,
and it deserves to congratulate itself (although it rarely engages in
self-congratulation — another aspect of good judgment). In fact, I’d
argue that in many ways Singapore is a great example for the United
States. Why? Here are a few reasons:
1. Singapore is a hardworking, disciplined country. It decides what it
needs to do, and then does it. Every year for National Day, for
example, the government publishes a list of challenges it needs to
overcome. This year’s list included such bracing issues as “How to
maintain high economic growth and improve living standard?” and “How
to stamp out new diseases and keep health-care costs down?” There is
also the lighter, but sociologically problematic challenge of “How to
get younger Singaporeans to marry and have children?” The list of
challenges is enormously appealing in its clarity and directness.
2. Singapore is obsessed with education — not just for children, but
throughout life. Another of its declared challenges is, “How to design
job-training programmes and wage supplement schemes for low-income
older workers?” The country tops the ranks of educational achievement
regularly. While it was once justifiably criticized for emphasizing
rote learning, it has introduced programs that encourage creativity.
3. Singapore is a highly capitalist society, but its government plays
a strong guiding role. Some of the country’s smartest citizens go into
government. The government creates industrial policy and actively
facilitates growth and capability-building in those areas. It did a
masterful job emphasizing IT and building up that industry, and now
it’s actively pushing biotech and services. For example, in services
the government wanted to build on organizations with great service
like Singapore Airlines and Raffles Hotel. So it encouraged Singapore
Management University (a private university that was established by
the government) to start an Institute for Service Excellence, and
stimulated the development of a Singapore Customer Satisfaction Index
that would be applied to all service industries.
4. Like the US, Singapore is a highly diverse society, with lots of
citizens with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Arab backgrounds. Yet they
all seem to get along pretty well, and the country’s culture is
greatly enriched by the diversity. Public housing is ethnically and
religiously integrated. Other countries could probably use a version
of its “Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act,” which prohibits
religious rabble-rousing.
5. Singapore invests heavily in infrastructure — housing, roads, IT,
airport (only one, but Changi is a very impressive facility). 83% of
its citizens live in public housing, but it’s clean and
well-maintained. The country is rolling out a new high-bandwidth fiber
optic network. Buses and subways are clean and run on time.
6. Singapore’s economy is doing pretty well. It does anticipate a
decline in GDP of about 5% this year, but there are signs of a strong
recovery. Its stock market is booming. Its banks didn’t go crazy with
subprime lending or bizarre derivatives. One economist told me that
the Asian financial crisis of 1997 was worse than the current
recession for Singapore.
Okay, it’s not a Utopian society. The government is a bit
authoritarian for my tastes, but not as much as in the Lee Kuan Yew
(its first prime minister from 1959 to 1990) days. The prohibitions
against spitting and selling chewing gum are a little much — though I
really like the clean streets. Yes, you may be caned if you misbehave,
but it might be better than locking up the world’s highest proportion
of citizens in jails. I feel that Singapore destroyed much of its
interesting architecture in the headlong rush to modernize. And it
seems to me that too many of its citizens are obsessed with luxury
brands and conspicuous consumption. These are relatively minor
concerns, however, compared to the country’s strengths. And many of
the seemingly autocratic regulations might be justified by the ethnic
diversity and high population density of the country.
Singapore is tiny compared to the United States (and most other
countries, for that matter), but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a
model. Barack Obama keeps saying that we need to buckle down and work
hard to build an economy based on real production, not hollow
financial chicanery. We need a little more social order, and a little
less individualism. Singapore has already pulled off both objectives,
and continues to provide a good example of good judgment for the
United States and the rest of the world.
And what an unexpected experience! They treated me on beer – lots of beer – and questioned me about everything; from who I am and what I do here, to my travel experiences and my impressions of their society. All in drunken-interview style, with the occasional hick-ups, the accidental pouring of beer over each other, uncontrolled laughter and convincing jibberish and mumbling conversations! I got to learn a lot too about local life and the people that live in my neighborhood! They were quite a diverse inter-generational bunch; 2 youngsters from Vietnam (25-35) and 3 Singaporean Tamil/Chinese (Thomas, Mike and Lian) between 40 and 70.