COMMENT: Where are Singapore's rebels?
As Singapore sets up yet another committee to pick the next economic winner, the question to really ask is whether the country has the daring to identify and nurture rebels who can make the difference in the crazy new world.
The digital economy is the next big thing but how Singapore taps into this will depend very much on whether its people can muscle into areas that are already being crowded.
Of the five key areas identified for the committee headed by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, one stands out: corporate capabilities and innovation. This is an area that Singapore will have a hard time
fixing because the government has spoiled many a business with its friendly policies.
Safe and stable environment? Sure, the government will enact laws to guarantee that. Free flow of cheap foreign labour? No problem, the floodgates will be lifted. No pesky unions to stifle growth? Done, the unions will come under the ambit of a minister who will make sure negotiations are done with long-term prosperity as the goal. And so Singapore became a haven for businesses. In the process, the culture of innovation was pushed to the back seat.
With technology coming into the front seat, innovation will become the driver of the economy. And innovation is no more finding a unique business niche. It is about finding something that will disrupt a whole industry and make it disappear from the face of the earth.
Look at the way typewriters, telephones, traditional cameras, post offices and desktops have been pushed by the wayside by that marvel that fits neatly into our pockets.
And look at the way an upstart called Uber is causing major headaches for taxi companies. Or how the internet is humbling the once cocky and unbeatable newspaper business.
The man who coined the term disruptive technology, Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, thinks large corporations are the biggest hurdle to innovation. They dismiss such innovations “because it does not reinforce company goals, only to be blindsided as the technology matures, gains a larger audience and market share and threatens the status quo.”
In the Singapore context, disruptive innovation hardly exists as challenging the status quo in nearly every sphere of life is not the done thing.
Without that rebellious streak in our society, how can innovation be motivated and cultivated?
This becomes even more important as the economy is being squeezed on all fronts. Productivity is dismal, cheap foreign labour is dwindling because of political pressures, manufacturing jobs are being sucked away by the vacuum cleaner called China and new growth centres providing cheaper business destinations are springing up.
Add to this Singapore getting a little late in the game in recognising and implementing policies for an ageing population and you can see why analysts and industry captains are saying the country is facing a long and tough road ahead.
Disruptive technology may not be home-grown but it will invade Singapore and put pressure on jobs. Economist Manu Bhaskaran told Yahoo: “What does this mean for employment and incomes and is Skills Future sufficient to tackle that?”
Singapore can fix issues like this because it has a government which has the power, will and money to zero in on the problems. But nurturing a disruptive innovation spirit, a key ingredient for the new economy,
is harder to do as it calls for a mindset change in ideology.
In a country that can count on only one business rebel – I am talking of the MP3 king and Creative Technology boss Sim Wong Hoo – that is going to be a Herculean task. For encouraging business rebels will also mean tolerating rebels in areas like politics.
For that culture to take root, we will need a political leadership to convince every one, including itself, to tolerate dissent in the workplace, home school and government.
P N Balji is a veteran Singaporean journalist who is the former chief editor of TODAY newspaper, and a media consultant. The views expressed are his own.
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