Singapore: Becoming Asia's Hub for Talent

December 17, 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

The Singapore Government’s intent is to become the hub for talent in Asia. This means it wants to attract the brightest and best people to work there. This may sound like a lofty aim but it is backed up with long-term planning and clear policies.

by Octavius Black (12-04-110

In the ballroom of the Raffles Hotel, Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Lim Hng Kiang (left), finishes his speech to commemorate the signing of a trade agreement between his country and the UK.

There is healthy applause. The mood is upbeat after his sunny version of what the glorious relationship between our two countries could grow into. Vince Cable takes to the stage to respond.

“When I studied economics at Cambridge in the 1960s”, he begins, and so marks the contrast between one nation looking steadfastly forward with masterful strategic intent and steely determination, and the other, all too often, revelling in nostalgia.

There is an old saying: “It matters not where a man is standing but which way he is facing.” Singapore may have a population smaller than London but after a packed week of 33 meetings, I am left in no doubt both which way it is facing and quite how serious it is about getting there.

The Singapore government’s intent is to become the hub for talent in Asia. This means it wants to attract the brightest and best people to work there. This may sound like a lofty aim but it is backed up with long-term planning and clear policies.

An executive from BP tells me that when he secured his work permit, he was delicately told that while it was officially to work for his esteemed employer, they would happily extend it for five years if he chose to stay and work for anyone else. A senior vice- president at Deutsche Bank was, I’m told, called up by a caring civil servant when, after a tour of duty, he decided to return West. The bureaucrat reminded him exactly how much tax he had paid, thanked him for his contribution and explained that if the banker did decide to stay on a little longer, they would greatly reduce any future tax take.

These may sound like cunning tactics. Indeed, they are. But they are part of a much grander strategy.

I went to visit Chee Wei Kwan(right), who heads up the Human Capital Leadership Institute (HCLI). The HCLI is seed funded by the government to provide intellectual leadership on how to build leadership and manage talent (meaning employees) in Asia. It conducts pan-Asian research on what makes people tick (at work) as well as programmes that bring in worldwide leaders from business, government and academia.

Perhaps most impressive of all is its fledgling alternative to the Harvard Business Review, HQ Asia. The topics range from a Confucian view on talent development to how Asian leaders can make more impact in Western head offices. The first edition went to 4,000 people; the second edition to a cool 11,000 (they had to do a reprint).

I’m even more surprised when I visit Zee Yoong Kang(left), CEO of the learning hub at NTUC, the Singaporean equivalent of the TUC. He tells me the days of collective bargaining are over. Instead, the unions’ focus is to work with the government to build skills that make Singaporeans even more employable; the more they do this the more powerful their lobbying of government and so the more funds they receive. At the moment, the focus is on building the management skills of people in organisations with fewer than 300 employees. The government has lots of money to invest in this area, he assures me.

It’s not just small businesses. Unilever is investing €40m in a vast new corporate university in Singapore. All their leadership development from across the world will be done in just two locations: London and Singapore. The ratio between the two is 40:60. Get the drift? Unilever does. With 3,000 chemistry grads a year in the UK (1,000 of whom are from overseas and so likely to return home) and more than 30,000 a year in China, it’s clear to them where the next generation of soap powder is likely to be invented. They have set up a research and development Centre in China which means, in a few years, the Singapore campus is going to grow even more.

My week in Singapore tells me four things: first, when a government shows clear, long-term strategic intent it can be formidable. The unions are hand in glove with an unequivocally capitalist government and civil servants neatly put their politicians’ policy into delightfully practical action.

Second, that a government that chooses the attraction of top talent as one of its core planks for growth gives a clear message to businesses that don’t.

Third, the nexus of smart people is moving East. This is partly because Asians who go to university in the West are returning home and partly because more smart Westerners are heading East (there are over 30,000 Brits in Singapore). Mainly though, it will be from the colossal investment in learning that Asians are making for themselves.

And my last lesson. My business, Mind Gym, needs to open there fast. This shouldn’t be difficult: as the civil servant told us only half joking, “if it takes you more than two hours to set up your company here, you’re doing something wrong”.

Octavius Black is CEO of Mind Gym. http://www.themindgym.com

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