The Problem with a Singing Fat Lady

 

Let’s not Forget She Was Once a Business Icon

Singapore has suddenly tightening Covid-19 restrictions. It went from limiting gatherings from eight to five and then to two within the space of two weeks. Restaurants and other food outlets have been prohibited from taking in “dine-in” customers and before long, most of us expect to be confined to our homes. The answer is simple, after seeming to get the situation under control, Covid-19 cases are now on the rise.

This situation has reminded me of a conversation I had with a client, who once said, “Whatever you do, please do not put up for ‘Entrepreneur of the Year,’ it’s a cursed award and I don’t want to go bankrupt.” He had a point. Award winners at one point had a way of crashing not soon after winning. 

I think of this conversation because it seems that team running the nation’s covid response has been a little like the winner’s of “entrepreneur of the year.” Everything seemed to be going fine until the glory of winning came.

It’s as simple as this. Singapore entered its initial “Circuit Breaker” in April 2020, not soon after the international press was lauding the government for setting the “gold standard” in managing the pandemic. Everyone was talking about how Singapore was doing brilliant job without going into a lockdown. Unfortunately, while the government seemed to have planned everything nicely for the population at large, it forgot that it had allowed the construction industry to house its workers in conditions that were ripe for breading the virus.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the second tightening has come not soon after the international community hailed Singapore as the best place to live in during the pandemic. Unfortunately, the government was a little too keen in starting travel baubles with all sorts of places and letting people rush back to the office.

Perhaps our Covid Managers need the same lessons from the “Entrepreneurs of the Year.” While I don’t want to cast any aspersions as to why businesses failed, it seems that winning the award was like a means unto itself. Somehow, once they award was given, the focus was on the award rather than the business itself.

Could the same be true of the way we’re managing Covid. Has it just been about being lauded by the global press rather than trying to see things through? We need to remember that Covid-19 is a long term struggle that has human cost and managing the disease is more important that whatever accolades we could ever get.