A Reprise of “Singapore’s Resilient Strategy”

Through Singapore Surf, I came across this article Singapore’s Resilient Strategy by the Enterprise Resilience Management Blog by Stephen F. DeAngelis and Bradd C. Hayes. The central theme of the article is that Singapore adopts an resilient strategy to maintain its economic miracle, by importing foreign talent and positioning themselves such that they are relevant with the global scene. In this short commentary, I shall illustrate a few simple arguments that this resilient strategy is a double edged sword to the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

To begin my commentary, let me first take out excerpts from the original article that will be of interest to the reader:

Being connected is a good thing for an actor because it means that casting directors haven’t stereotyped you into playing just certain kinds of roles — the broader your portfolio the more likely that you’re going to make a good living acting rather than waiting tables. Being able to act in a number of roles means that character actors are generally better connected than leading men. Connectivity is also a good thing when talking about the global economy. The Rod Steiger of Southeast Asia is Singapore. That nation has worked hard to achieve that position. Singapore understands that the more roles you are involved in the better your chances are of staying on top; therefore, it plays an important role in finance, electronics, trade, and (increasingly) biotechnology…..

In other words, Singapore isn’t lamenting that the world is changing and it might be losing jobs that might be going elsewhere; rather, it is actively trying to change its position in the future it sees emerging…..

Not only are companies being attracted to Singapore, world-class scientists are also making the move…..

The article pointed out that Singapore has been able to attract other luminaries as well by offering them generous salaries, great facilities, and full government support. The article notes that Singapore is taking a long view on its investment, but, even so, its efforts are apparently paying short-term dividends….

No one can doubt that Singapore’s economic miracle has become permanent. Its resilient strategy is positioning Singapore for an emerging future rather than trying to get the country to cling only to those sectors that made it successful in the past, like electronics and finance. It jump started its strategy by importing world-class scientists, building world-class facilities, and ensuring that its standards are as high as any around the globe. It’s a great lesson in resiliency.

In simplicity, the writer of the article pointed out why Singapore has created its own economic miracle, adopting the resilient strategy to change with the times. A long time ago, an Italian academic friend of mine spent a few years to work for two research institutes in Singapore. During one of the scientific meetings in the UK, we had a discussion about the biotech drive in Singapore. He made a comment that resonated with my thoughts at that time, which goes along the lines — I shall paraphrase it here –, “Singapore has a government who is obsessed with change. As long as it serves its economic agenda, it is willing to change its strategic direction and move towards new areas. Compare to European countries, they are fast and nimble while the European Union spend years trying to make changes and cannot get it done.” Here is a way to make it sound contradictory: Singapore’s is consistent in transforming and reinventing itself to suit the trends and movement of the global economy. Of course, the authors are also not aware that it is the Singapore government and not the Singaporeans who have decided upon this strategy.

To be fair, the authors have clearly identified Singapore’s strategy to survive in the global marketplace. After all, the Singapore resilient strategy is simple and the implementation can be summarized into three steps: (i) pick a new area of interest such as biomedical sciences, (ii) throw billions to hire world class foreign talent and build the infrastructure and (iii) pray hard that these world class foreign talent will take up citizenship or create technologies that will attract MNCs to its economy. Singapore Inc is like any big company like Google and Microsoft and for its growth, it just needs to acquire and conquer.

Of course, there is a price to be paid for this kind of strategy. That price came at the expense of having the small and medium enterprises that can hold the economy in times of recession. The weakness of the strategy is that in times of economic recession, Singaporeans cannot fend for themselves and subject to retraining and low wages. If we have a stable ecosystem comprising of small and medium entreprises, there will not be problems for the workers in that down cycle. The second problem is the free market argument backfires on the local populace towards the opening doors to foreign talent. The hiring of foreign talent is becoming a flashpoint between the government and its people because Singaporeans are constantly losing job opportunities to foreigners. Actually, opening doors to foreign talent helps to spur Singaporeans in facing competition and not being too inward-looking, but the problem is with the selling. The Singapore government has not found the correct sales pitch to make its people understand this rationale. Of course, as my colleague, KTM from Singapore Angle put it aptly in his article “On Foreign Talent, Immigration and Jobs”, having a Singapore middle-management with a win-lose mentality makes the problem worse.

It remains a challenge for the Singapore government to integrate this “resilient strategy” with the entrepreneurial strand that it is trying to cultivate in the Singapore populace [1]. Ultimately, if you are too successful, why bother to change? This is the dilemma in adopting such a strategy. Is the strategy successful? Yes, on the short term, but no doubt, the economy will always face this up and down economic cycles [2].

Related Articles:
[1] Finding the Golden Path: Can Singapore become a Silicon Valley, Innovation, World Scientific, August 2006, Vol6(3):62-63.
[2] Thoughts on PM’s Rally Speech 2006: Resurgence of Singapore Inc., SG Entrepreneurs.

Comments