Do Singaporeans have what it takes to be global business leaders today? (Part 1)

The debate covered a lot of ground, and both teams had prepared in depth, and presented in very structured arguments, supported by solid, data-based examples. Interestingly, when the audience of 280 was polled to answer the debate notion before and after the debate, there was little difference %-wise (55% had leaned towards the proposition). This tells me that the rigor of the debate did give us the opportunity to explore our ideas and question our assumptions a bit deeper, while there are views, perhaps some deep-seated ones around identity, that continue to persist as we progress.

In summary, I picked up 3 broad perspectives from the debate.

Firstly, the ingredients for Singaporeans to be global leaders are there. More so in today's interconnected environment, the world needs leaders that take a global perspective, are critical thinkers and that communicate well. Many Singaporean names evidence this - the late Lee Kuan Yew, Kishore Mahbubani, Tharman Shanmugaratnam are examples of eminent luminaries that have put us on the world stage, while there are a number of CEOs in global Fortune 500 companies that have progressed well. Also, Singaporeans have shown innovative thinking - statistics from PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) show that we have continued excel, and again this is further examplified by the strong Singaporean leaders that continue to make waves in public and private sectors.

Secondly, there are questions about the Singapore environment that we need to investigate. Be it the risk-adverse approach and society that we grow up in or the hard logic-driven nature and preparedness provided by the current local education system, there is a question if the next generation of business leaders would continue to have the hunger and drive to put themselves in global leadership positions. To extend the argument, it was posited that Singaporeans have the quality but there is a communication opportunity for us: we are sometimes too humble about ourselves. In the global setting, working across cultures requires a good balance: of both humility/willingness to listen, and at the same time a sense of openness to collaborate. And here, being open about both our strengths and opportunity areas builds trust and lays the foundation for stronger teamwork.

Lastly, we concluded that there are many many ordinary Singaporeans doing extraordinary things. We have to admit that we, as Singaporeans, might carry a self bias or self-critical lens that takes a harsher-than-ordinary approach, which colours the objective reality. We also have to evaluate how we view success in leadership, for instance, it might be too one dimensional if we only pick on immediately obvious or specific profitable/growing instances and miss out on the long term big picture. Hence, there is also an opportunity for us to examine what the perspective of what success looks like - and both for us, and for our coming generations, which is a calling more so for emerging leaders.

A key takeaway was that such conversations and critical debates need to keep happening. Networks like the SGLN community and the close-knitted fellowship that I continue to cherish in, are great opportunities to have those dialogues; and I look forward to more engagements too.

As Newton said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." As such, I look forward to learning and sharing more with all of you, also in my follow-up write up on this topic.