Category Archives: Singapore

Healthcare to Live For!

Sometimes its the unexpected events that reveal the most about a system.

Beth has been a stellar traveling partner, especially considering the hectic schedule and many early morning flights. Unfortunately this caught up with her in Singapore. Since Eisenhower Fellowships provided us with travel insurance, we were able to get some quick instructions.

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We left our hotel at 9:20 am and took a 10 minute ride to Raffles Hospital. We went through the marble lobby and upstairs to the glassed-in executive services room which had 20 or so people waiting comfortably in chairs. One of the attendants knew us by name and was expecting us.

A few minutes later, Beth was seen by a doctor. She emerged shortly thereafter and was escorted by the doctor to the pharmaceutical desk and had her prescription fulfilled. Total cash charges for the diagnosis of the sinus infection and 3 sets of meds was SG$125 (US$100). We jumped back in the cab and were back in our room by 10:20 am!

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I can’t imagine how many well-designed systems were put in place to make this happen – from great transportation, to scheduling doctors properly, to stocking pharmaceuticals and training incredibly friendly and efficient staff. The whole process was actually PLEASANT. It was stunning and something for which the rest of us should all aspire.

Best of all, Beth recovered quickly and was able to enjoy our following trip to Thailand!

Innovation Beyond Borders

The last thing I expected in Singapore was to debate the American presidential election. Yet Philip Yeo pressed me for my views. His table was filled with laminated articles and print outs abut what is happening across the world. With his secretary repeatedly running in print-outs for our building discussion and a humming ipad sending me references in real time, I realized that Phillip is a dedicated student of the world and an innovation tour de force.
A program of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, SPRING is an acronym for it’s Standards, Productivity and Innovation for Growth. With this program Phillip has become a powerful mover for Singapore’s entrepreneurial community and given it a global context. Part of his efforts have been to take Singapore’s innovation efforts beyond its borders. Philip explained that with a local workforce of 419,000 people, the local manufacturing economy currently generated SGD273 bn (US$220 bn) in 2011, but by expanding their base internationally, Singapore can have a much bigger impact.

Singapore’s companies leads many overseas efforts, but one of the most compelling is their acquisition of property abroad to set up manufacturing parks to help create jobs for the host countries. Naturally their projects are distributed throughout the ASEAN region, (Vietnam and Indonesia), China and India. But their reach is much broader as well, with projects all over the world, including a massive airplane maintenance facility in the USA.On the floor of one of his conference rooms is a stack of topographic photos and development plans. He showed me that in some cases, he’s even filling land in to achieve enough land for these projects. Given their massive scale, they become mixed-use facilities as well, bringing housing, banks, restaurants, and shopping all integrated together.

I asked about the mechanics of running something of this scale. Typically the ventures are floated on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to raise the starting capital. The local players get involved and normally take a majority ownership share with Singapore’s companies retaining a minority share. Then key tenants are recruited if not already targeted. In terms of operations, Singapore’s companies populates the majority of the decision making team. He says that normally the vast majority of the labor force is from the host country.

In many places they go, others were not able to invest. Corruption was many times the biggest barrier. As a condition of Singapore’s companies involvement, he insists that their projects be free and clear of these issues. I know there was much more to this then he led on. Of course I had to ask Phillip when he was going to do a project in North Carolina. He quickly responded, “Actually the USA is a good place to start manufacturing right now but we won’t invest there because when we do, the lawyers will come.” Without capped settlements for worker safety claims, Phillip says the risk is just too high.

Given the prowess Phillip demonstrated on our discussion of American politics, I realized I was not prepared to argue the point. However I was inspired to see how big ideas can transform a small country. Efforts like SPRING and Design Singapore show how the perceived weakness of the nation’s small size has been turned around into the strengths of being nimble and focused, thereby enabling Singapore to become a global design and innovation leader. Lots to learn here!

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Tracking Innovation and Entrepreneurship

 

As an attendee of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference in dazzling Singapore, I was fortunate to hear many academic papers on the many factors surrounding these two very big words. Papers were presented from all over the world: from Fiji to Iran to the UK. Topics ranged from Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to reasons for collaboration. One German researcher sat next to me and asked what I was presenting. I said “nothing.” He responded “Oh I see! You are here to criticize! Yes that’s easy.” Point taken. I’ll present next time.

In particular I was drawn to a few presentations, and here are my *personal* take-aways:

1. The keynote presentation given by Dr. Farid Shirazi, PhD of the Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management at Ryerson University in Toronto. He made a compelling presentation that despite common belief, the Information Technology Economy is creating a bigger environmental strain, not a smaller one.

2. The One Village One Product (OVOP) Approach was studied by Dr. Dana Santoso Saroso from the University of Mercu Buana, Indonesia. His case involved studying how a whole village could sell different value-added products from focusing on growing strawberrie. The increased profitability was impressive. He pointed to the way a village could rally behind the vision given by village mayors to instigate real change in SME development. Absent of the mayor’s dedication, change did not happen.

3. Dr. Nerisa Paladan of Ateneo de Naga University, Philippines presented “Leadership and Entrepreneurial Success of Bicolano Entrepreneurs.” By studying the most successful businesses, she demonstrated that successful leaders who were involved in community organizing and volunteering were able to develop the “transformational leadership style” which became a critical factor for SME success.

4. Prof. Jan van Den Ende of Erasmus University, Netherlands presented “To Ask, to Collaborate or to Propose? Contrasting Views on Customer Involvement in Functional and Experiential Innovation.” His team studied almost 700 design firms and how they interacted with the consumer market. He showed the different paths to commercial success of a new product. He focused on three specific approaches: being passively customer-driven (surveys), actively customer-driven (live interaction) or proactively customer-driven. In the latter he described this process as focusing on th latent needs of the customer, not their stated needs. He drove this home with the widely-attributed quote of Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” Specifically he attributed this proactive approach as a design-driven approach. From there he studied when each one has its best success rate. Ultimately it appears the customer-driven aproach was well-suited to funcational improvements, an the design-driven approach was better suited to more radical innovation than function.

5. The most charismatic award went to Prof. Alamuri Suryanarayana of Osmania University in India who passionately presented on “The Power of Collaboration in Innovation Management.” He talked about the next wave of globalization 4.0 is to no longer think about outsourcing white collar jobs, but to collaborate with an international talent base. His most salient and compelling argument for collaboration was that it was the fastest path for innovation and that “leaders who do not innovate quickly lose their innovative people.”

Of course my comments should be taken in context of the actual published work. I was able to follow up with a few of these folks already and hope to build on this eye-opening experience of applying measurable rigor to the loosey-goosey terms of innovation and entrepreneurship.

By this photo it looks like I take this topic pretty seriously!

 

 

Design Singapore

The Eisenhower Network has proven itself again and again. Earlier this year I met 2012 EIsenhower Fellow Mean Luck Kwek, an incredibly smart and gracious leader in Singapore. He is currently the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. When he heard I was coming he promptly put me in touch with a host of interesting Singaporeans, including Jeffrey Ho Kiat, Executive Director of Design Singapore.

Jeffrey was energetic, forthcoming and gave Beth and I a great introduction to Singapore’s efforts supporting design:
1. Design Capability Development: Developing capability for a globally competitive design cluster
2. Design for Competitiveness: Enabling enterprises to leverage good design for economic growth, quality of life, and the environment
3. Design Innovation: Driving innovation and design IP creation to stay ahead of the curve
4. National Design Centre: Offering a one-stop integrated design hub for designers and businesses.

He also made me realize that the grass is always greener in design. While he mentioned Singapore being a bit behind other countries on certain design initiatives, I couldn’t help but admire the singular power of focus that his office at Design Singapore held and what they could achieve so quickly once empowered.

Jeffrey mentioned that design in Singapore represents a SGD 3.6 billion (US$2.9 bn) industry and that their goal is to grow it to 6+ bn (US$4.8 bn) in the next few years. Here is why this blew me away:
1. The government of Singapore actually tracks the economic impact of design (see detailed comment below).
2. Jeffrey says its “very easy” to get these numbers and track progress.
3. Design Singapore is a governmental institution charged with encouraging local creative talent to prosper.
4. Design Singapore is under MICA, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts.
5. Fine Art is under a completely different ministry.

Here are some of the initiatives Design Singapore has underway:
1. $70k grant to help fund local design consultancies through the Design for Business Innovation Grant.
2. They help match clients to design firms, and sometimes share costs.
3. Up to 400% tax rebate for those that hire design consultants from the Productivity & Innovation Credit for Design. That’s not a typo. If you invest $1 in local design you are eligible for $4 off of your taxes.
4. Singaporean designers are promoted through an Overseas Promotion Partnership Programme.
5. They also offer scholarships relating to design.
6. Recognizing Singaporean design excellence through the President’s Design Award.

The most interesting goal to me was Jeffrey’s vision to convert their OEM factories (Original Equipment Manufacturers for other brands) into ODM factories (Original Design Manufacturer for their own brands). This is certainly not the easiest way to go. There is a lot more consistent work out there for contract factories than for dedicated brands, but Design Singapore sees this as a strategic opportunity to grow the importance of design in Singapaore. In fact this is part of an overall mission to create OSM (Original Strategic Manufacturers that can usher in the future wave of Singapore’s business.

With the door open to talking about new design and manufacturing initiatives, I shared with Jeffrey our new on-demand manufacturing effort called LYF Shoes. He immediately understood the concept, how it would affect manufacturing, and was quitre supportive. He then passed on some great people to talk with about our intentions. Then he turned to me and asked “how do you learn to think like you?” That’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer! But it made me realize that during this fellowship that in good conversations, there is a constant exchange where both parties can learn from each other.

Overall I was really impressed that Singapore has in place a design vision with real teeth and a strategic thinker at the helm. I look forward to see their success unfold.

 

On Indonesian & Singaporean TV

MNC Business is a news channel broadcast in Indonesia and Singapore, similar to the USA’a MSNBC. As a result of Eka Soerbakti’s prodding, I was invited to speak with host Elmo Hakim for a one hour segment on innovation and the creative economy. Although the questions emailed ahead of time were a bit dry, I appreciated Elmo’s ability to roll with the discussion and take it into some interesting areas. I was given some time to talk about our emerging theory on Inventive Culture. I was then allowed to reframe Innovation as something that requires a benefit to all strata of society, not just certain players. Finally I was able to give some exposure to those who had helped and inspired me along the trip, including Eka, Laretna Adishakti of Center for Heritage Conservation, Svida Alisjahbana at Femina Group and Singgih Kartono of Magno Radio. Once the interview ended, Elmo turned to me with a big smile and said, “this was interesting and so much more fun than reading the numbers!…which I have to do next.”

As an added bonus I was asked to demonstrate our Teastick on air!

I should be able to post the show once we navigate the legal mumbo jumbo…