Working harder no longer is enough
Saw this from Legal Janitor and it provoked a lot of personal reflection. Agree with KTM that Mdm Hoe's gripe is more about younger Singaporeans' attitudes towards work. It's not as clear to me from the letter if she had fully understood the shift brought about by the intensified globalisation and the change in the nature of business today as you've talked about. But certainly, she has captured the essence on what Singaporeans in general ought to worry about these days -- how to keep up with the competition when others from China and India are willing to work harder and by golly, they are hungry and smart as hell too!
What's even more worrying is many of Singapore's smartest people don't have all the answers as to how to deal with the increased competition from China and India. I agree that China and India don't have what it takes now to lead this new economy of ideas and attention. So yes, Singaporeans can take relief for a while that we are re-tooling ourselves to target these emerging areas (and hopefully, be successful soon enough). But think about it: today, the Chinese and the Indians are clamouring to churn our "stuff" cheaper, faster and better. You can be sure that they are not sitting still and letting the Americans take the cultural lead in the "softer" areas like movies, music, art etc. Already, the Indians have got their Bollywood industry which produces more movies in any given year than Hollywood in USA. The Chinese are not going to just stop at being the best factories of the world. You can bet that they are now already strategising on their move up the value-chain, perhaps in providing better service for their products, in being end-to-end supply chain solutions etc.
So the personal question I always ask myself: where does that leave the poor Singaporean who is now no longer regarded as cheap like before but may not be able to outsmart the schrewd Chinese and scaringly intelligent and smooth-talking Indians? I studied all the hardcore stuff in school - IT, Engineering. Now I'm thinking maybe I should have done something "softer"... like law, journalism, marketing. Increasingly, engineers come cheaper elsewhere whereas at least, in fields where i would say the outcomes are less measurable, I may have stood a better chance to outlast counterparts from China and India, perhaps long enough before they also start catching up in these areas with this coming decade.
Sigh.... it ain't easy...
posted by Endorphin Junkie @ 2:04 am
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