Moulin Rouge dancers from France pose in front of the Merlion statue in
Singapore yesterday. They celebrated Singapore’s Golden Jubilee. PHOTO |
AFP
By CANUTE WASWA
In Summary
Last week was the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s independence.
Fifty years ago, Singapore was a poor little market in a
dark corner of Asia. Today, Singapore’s market is neither poor nor
little—the country sports the world’s seventh largest GDP per capita and
more than one in six households have $1 million in cash savings.
In the past decade alone, the number of
Singaporeans running their own business has doubled, giving the
city-state the world’s second most entrepreneurs-per-capita, behind only
the US.
With no resources and limited land, Singapore has
an efficient public service, a competitive economy and high per capita
income. There must be something we can learn from that. I will pick two
lessons that we can apply in our own lives.
The first lesson is “It doesn’t go wrong, it starts wrong.”
Since human resource was their only competitive
advantage, education was central to laying a strong foundation for the
nation. The process and focus on teacher training and strong school
leadership was one of the key factors in Singapore’s success.
Singapore developed a comprehensive system for
selecting, compensating, training and developing teachers and principals
to ensure the delivery of high-quality education that in turn would
lead to high-quality student outcomes.
Teaching is a greatly honoured profession, in part
because the standards for selection are high. Prospective teachers are
selected from the top one-third of each cohort by panels that include
current principals.
Strong academic ability and non-academic qualities
are essential considerations during the recruitment, such that only
candidates who possess the character, aptitude and abilities to teach
and develop students are recruited.
To keep pace with change and be able to constantly
improve their practice, teachers are entitled to 100 hours of
professional development per year, mostly at no cost to the teacher.
Ask any architect and they will tell you the most
important aspect of design is not the structure but the foundation. To
design a business that endures, you’ll have to build it on a solid
foundation.
Foundations aren’t as glamorous as the stunning
design of the architecture itself, but they are critical to supporting
not only the weight of the building, but essential to withstand the
constant movement of the earth and the erosion of the soil around it.
The foundation you create will determine the stability and
sustainability of your enterprise.
The second lesson is what I choose to call “The law
of critical few over the trivial majority.” One man with the right idea
should be the majority. For Singapore, that man was Lee Kuan Yew.
Lee Kuan Yew became Singapore’s first elected prime
minister in 1959 at the age of 35 and was re-elected time and time
again. He remained in power for over 40 years until he stepped down from
his position in 1990.
To this day, he still remains as one of Singapore’s
most influential politicians and currently serves as Minister Mentor to
Singapore’s current Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, his own son.
Leaders are truly transformational when they increase awareness
of what is right and important. Leaders should help to elevate
followers’ needs for achievement and self-actualisation, when they
foster in followers high moral maturity.
For you to lead change in your business, you must be skilled
at marshalling the intellectual and emotional equity of their people.
You must work hard to gain their trust and commitment. And the most
potent way to get everyone on the same wavelength is to set an example.
Mr Waswa is a management and HR specialist and managing director of Outdoors Africa.
E-mail: waswa@outdoors
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