Joseph
Schooling, the young man who won our first ever gold medal at the Olympics in
Rio de Janeiro in 2016 has failed to defend his Olympic crown. Mr. Schooling finished
last in the 100-meter butterfly heats and did not even qualify for the finals. Mr.
Schooling has received a few nasty comments online but he’s also received words
of encouragement from everybody from our president downwards.
While it may
seem a little mean-spirited to talk about Mr. Schoolings failure, it’s worth
analysing. Mr. Schooling’s life story provides plenty of guidelines for anyone in
Singapore has aspirations beyond working in the conventional or government
mandated paths. One of the better comments on Mr. Schooling’s recent ventures is
the commentary written by the former sports correspondent for the Today
Newspaper, Mr. Ian De Cotta. His commentary can be found at:
Copyright Today
and AFP.
What makes Mr.
De Cotta’s commentary particularly interesting is that he mentions that he
highlight’s the role of leaving Singapore in Mr. Schooling’s success and the
role of returning to Singapore in his subsequent decline.
There is a
funny parallel in Mr. Schooling’s story with the few who have made their name
beyond Singapore’s shores. Writer Kevin Kwan (of Crazy Rich Asians Fame) and pianist
Melvyn Tan, found space to develop their talents outside of Singapore. Both
Singapore-born men are no longer Singaporean and thanks to our national service
laws, neither is likely to ever set foot in Singapore. Both men continue to
find success in their respective fields.
A more
interesting and prominent example is Mr. Sim Woo Hong, founder and CEO of
Creative Technologies, which was the sexy home-grown innovative technology
company long before the government decided that Singapore needed to produce hot
innovative technology companies. Like Mr. Schooling, Mr. Sim had to leave
Singapore in order to get his technology off the ground. Like Mr. Schooling,
Mr. Sim seems to have vanished off the radar upon coming back.
You can argue
that we shouldn’t begrudge Mr. Schooling or Mr. Sim anything. In one moment, they’ve
done more for the nation than many of us have in a lifetime. So, what, if Mr.
Schooling never sets foot in a pool again, he’s won an Olympic Gold (which
involved beating the world’s greatest swimmer ever), which only of few in the
world can claim to have done (I’m happy I survive my nightly walks). Sure,
Creative Zen has gone the way of Sony’s Betamax videos, but how many of us can
claim to have invented and brought an “industry-disrupting” product to market?
Both Mr.
Schooling and Mr. Sim succeeded in spite of Singapore. Hence, the glory of
their success if for them to share with us as they see fit and the pain of
their failures are theirs to learn from.
However, for
the people who are now desperate to design eco-system to find the next sports
champion and the next ground breaking start-up, the question remains, what is it
about the Singapore system that brings world class people down. Singapore is a major
financial centre, so there’s plenty of money floating around. We have “world-class”
universities producing lots of clever people. So, it can’t be a lack of brain
power. So, why is it that our “world-class” products have thus far been one hit
wonders? In many cases, the taste of glory should be a spring board into better
things but that hasn’t been the case for Mr. Schooling or Mr. Sim.
In his
commentary, Mr. De Cotta alludes to the fact that Mr. Schooling stopped facing
competition once he came back to Singapore. This is probably a major factor in
the Singapore system. There’s plenty of competition climbing to the top but
once you reach a certain level, you are effectively spared the need to compete
or to be on your toes ever again.
How many world
class companies has Singapore produced? There is only SIA, which is in an
industry where being protected in the home market is pointless (I never knew
domestic flights existed until I left Singapore) and since SIA has to compete
is everyone else’s market as an outsider, it has to do things like evolve and
innovate in order to stay competitive. Every other big home-grown company does
not need to compete to survive. The banks, for example don’t need to fear
competition from FinTech, because the regulators have made it such that FinTech
can only exist to serve the banks.
In any other
eco-system, everybody tries to challenge the champion. The champion needs to be
on his or her toes all the time. Look at Apple, which had to compete with the
PC makers, then the music industry and then the telco giants. Sure, Apple as a
stock market capitalization larger than the GDP of all but the top six largest
economies in the world, but it still faces intense competition. In the last two
decades, Apple has given us the iPod, iMac, iPad, iPhone and iWatch. What has
Creative Technologies brought to the world since Zen?
Hopefully, Mr.
Schooling makes a comeback after the disappointment of the Tokyo Games.
However, the powers that be need to ask how was it such that a talent had to
leave Singapore to find success and then withered once he returned to the
Singapore system? I believe that Mr. De Cotta got it right when he argued that the
system needs to allow hungry competitors to constantly snap at the heels of the
proverbial top dog. The question remains is whether the powers that be might
actually choose to allow a situation that leads to constant innovation and dynamism
even if it makes those at the top of their respective fields a little less
comfortable.
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