This week I’m in Singapore, a five hour flight southwest from Shanghai and positioned in the center of Southeast Asia. I won’t be here next month, but on August 9 Singapore celebrates 45 years as a nation. I’ll spare you the history lesson of how this tiny island-city of 5 million became an independent state from Malaysia. I’m much more interested in some of the lessons to be learned about leadership in this tropical city.
Singapore was my adopted home from 1990-1995. My wife is from here, so going back definitely has a feeling of familiarity. Singapore is the product of many peoples’ efforts, a collective resolve to make a go of things amid difficult circumstances. The individual figure of Lee Kuan Yew casts a long shadow in Singapore, and even twenty years after stepping down as Prime Minister this Minister Mentor’s advice and views still count.
In the late 1960′s, most people in the world didn’t see Singapore as a viable independent state. With very limited land area, no natural resources, multi-ethnic divisions and little sense of national identity, there was little to suggest viability was possible. However, today Singapore has the highest per capita GDP of any nation in Asia besides Japan.
What has made Singapore work as a nation and as a modern success story? The leadership early on took a pragmatic approach to their situation instead of a dogmatic or ideological approach, which would have been understandable in the days of the Cold War. The immediate needs of the population were housing and jobs. Singapore focused on a vigorous public housing program, the promotion of education, and the wooing of foreign investment to fund job growth.
Second, a strategic plan of development was framed and then followed closely. Singapore’s only natural advantage was its strategic location in the Straits of Melaka. Free port status was maintained and facilities were developed to encourage trade growth and functioning as an entrepot. Singapore also set out to become a major regional financial center. Part of the strategic decision was to invest in universal education and to promote English as the dominant medium of economic development. These decisions were not as “smart” or clear cut at the time when they were made. They were also not without critics and detractors. These decisions have certainly turned out to be the right ones in retrospect.
Singapore has its problems and challenges even today. A large population of recent immigrants, calls for social and political liberalization, and the difficulties of keeping a strategic focus in a world filled with larger competitors has taxed Singapore. The lessons that smart leaders can learn from its example are still clear: start with what you have instead of bemoaning what you don’t, take a pragmatic approach, think strategically, and act with singleness of purpose toward your goals. These are the disciplines that smart leaders practice and hone until they become second nature.
